In this episode, we have Stuart Snyder who, on his business cards, describes himself as an unemployed lazy bum. He states that this title gives him the freedom to do what he wants to do.
Stuart grew up in Cupertino California, a place we now know and refer to as Silicon Valley, where he went to school with what he describes as a "long-haired hippy dude" called Steve Jobs.
Growing up in a dysfunctional family, Stuart wandered out into the world by himself at the young age of 19 and a few years later, eventually moved to Adelaide, Australia after finding love. Stuart started as an Accountant, working for KPMG, then moving to a world-leading defence company called Amrad, where he recognised the quality of individuals in his team and went out with them to create Your Amigo, a global internet marketing powerhouse.
Stuart describes the journey as creating his own business a really tough experience. Many challenges and attributes a great deal of his ability to grind through the tough times was the resilience he built at a young age. Stuart believes that each individual is on earth for their particular purpose and believes that the greatest learning experiences come from life's toughest times.
Now a wealth of life and business experience, Stuart focused on giving back, where he invests in Australian technology startups, provides his time mentoring promising founders and is an influential voice in South Australia's startup scene in particular.
In today's podcast, Stuart shares such an interesting story, filled with all the ups and downs of his entrepreneurship journey and the lessons learnt along the way.
Where to find Stuart Snyder
Join the conversation on Synergy IQ LinkedIn, Facebook and Instagram (@synergyiq) and please support other leaders by liking, subscribing and sharing this podcast.
Access SynergyIQ Website to get to know more about us.
Say hello to our host Daniel on LinkedIn.
In this episode, we have Stuart Snyder who, on his business cards, describes himself as an unemployed lazy bum. He states that this title gives him the freedom to do what he wants to do.
Stuart grew up in Cupertino California, a place we now know and refer to as Silicon Valley, where he went to school with what he describes as a "long-haired hippy dude" called Steve Jobs.
Growing up in a dysfunctional family, Stuart wandered out into the world by himself at the young age of 19 and a few years later, eventually moved to Adelaide, Australia after finding love. Stuart started as an Accountant, working for KPMG, then moving to a world-leading defence company called Amrad, where he recognised the quality of individuals in his team and went out with them to create Your Amigo, a global internet marketing powerhouse.
Stuart describes the journey as creating his own business a really tough experience. Many challenges and attributes a great deal of his ability to grind through the tough times was the resilience he built at a young age. Stuart believes that each individual is on earth for their particular purpose and believes that the greatest learning experiences come from life's toughest times.
Now a wealth of life and business experience, Stuart focused on giving back, where he invests in Australian technology startups, provides his time mentoring promising founders and is an influential voice in South Australia's startup scene in particular.
In today's podcast, Stuart shares such an interesting story, filled with all the ups and downs of his entrepreneurship journey and the lessons learnt along the way.
Where to find Stuart Snyder
Join the conversation on Synergy IQ LinkedIn, Facebook and Instagram (@synergyiq) and please support other leaders by liking, subscribing and sharing this podcast.
Access SynergyIQ Website to get to know more about us.
Say hello to our host Daniel on LinkedIn.
Welcome to creating synergy where we explore what it takes to transform. We are powered by Synergy IQ. Our mission is to help leaders create world class businesses where people are safe, valued, inspired and fulfilled. We can only do this with our amazing community. So thank you for listening.
Daniel Franco:Hi there synergises and welcome back to another episode of The creating synergy podcast. Today we have a man who on his business card describes himself as an unemployed lazy bum. He states that ultimately this title gives him the freedom to do what he wants to do. It's the ultimate goal for any entrepreneur, his name is chose nada. The truth is, the title of the unemployed lazy bum is a tongue in cheek name is warranted due to the many years of sacrifice and hard work that Stuart's placed in entrepreneurship. Were in 1999, he co founded the company your amigo, which turned out to be a global internet marketing powerhouse, which he and a team started in Adelaide, your amigo started life as a search engine and morphed into an automated optimization service. So basically finding web pages that Google couldn't find and turned into an international company that provides artificial intelligence organic search and marketing services in the USA, the UK, Europe and Asia Pacific with offices in California, New York, Illinois, Florida, Europe and the Asia Pacific just to name a few. Funnily enough, Australia was not a user of this product, which saw you may go winning in sa export many si exporter of the Year award. Stewart grew up in the apple Walker's of Cupertino, California, a place we know now as Silicon Valley, where he went to school with what he describes as a long haired hippie dude called Steve Jobs. Stewart's recollection of Stephen the many conversations that he had with him was he definitely didn't believe would amount to the existence that he did have. Basically due to his experimental nature. Stewart has a belief that each individual is on earth for their purpose, and believes that the greatest learning experiences come from the toughest times in life. Sure, grew up in a dysfunctional family and wandered out into the world by himself at a young age of 19 years. And a few years later, he eventually moved to Australia, Adelaide after finding love. He started out as an accountant working for KPMG and then he moved into a world leading defense company called m rad, which to recognize the quality of individuals in his team. And from this team they went on to start and create your amigo. He describes the journey of creating his own businesses a really tough experience with many challenges. And he attributes the great deal of his ability to grind through the tough times through the resilience that he was able to build through a young age. Now with a wealth of life and business experience, Stewart focuses on giving back when he invests in Australian technology startups, and he provides mentoring for promising founders and is an influential voice in the South Australian startup scene in particular. This chat with Stuart is such an interesting story filled with all the ups and downs of entrepreneurship and all the lessons that he learned along the way. It's a must listen for all. I hope you enjoy cheese. Welcome back to The creating CDG podcast. My name is Daniel Franco. And today we have the one and only Stuart Snyder. Welcome to the show, Stuart. Thank you, Daniel. Glad to be here. It's Yeah, really great to have someone of your caliber within the set of the walls of South Australia. So thank you again for all the work that you do. For those that who don't know, Stuart is deeply involved in the entrepreneurial and startup space in South Australia having created his own his own business called your amigo which, which which took off. Can you tell us a little bit about your journey? Sure. How you're you came to where you are from your younger days, from America to Australia.
Stuart Snyder:Okay, so a bit of a story. But I grew up in what's now Silicon Valley when it was still apricot orchards and people don't understand it. But it was not always Silicon Valley. It was an agriculture region.
Daniel Franco:So you were born
Stuart Snyder:in no i. My parents moved there when I was 13. In 1969. Their house in Cupertino, California was built on a former apricot orchard and I wound up going to high school with this hippie guy named Steve Jobs and now In high school thought he would amount to much. So you never know is a bit different, a bit weird. But I saw the whole area change when in 1982 Apple listed on the stock exchange. And overnight, there were all these millionaires. They didn't know what to do with their money. So they reinvested it and other startups in so you've seen, you know, the 38th generation of successful startups making money, then people reinvesting. And I started my career as an accountant at KPMG in 1979, in San Jose, California, and I worked for a number of tech companies. But after I graduated university, I saved all my money and traveled around the world. For six months, I met my ex wife, who is from Adelaide on a bus from Nepal to London. And we kept in touch. And eventually we got married in 1993. That brought me to Adelaide. I worked tech, the first job that came along and a defense company. And I want up working with the
Daniel Franco:brightest minds, which which company was this was called am read that we
Stuart Snyder:made radar environment generators, for FA teens. And it was a world leader in the company had grown from zero to 55 people in three years, and signed up $30 million in contracts. And I thought, wow, this is by far superior team than anything I've seen in Silicon Valley. And so I suggested one day, we should start our own company. And so the managing director, that defense company was consulting to the Flinders University, and their commercialization airy found an idea to find things that Google couldn't find. And we were caught up in the.com, boom. So in 1999, I co founded your amigo basically, on an idea of some search engine technology that could find stuff Google confined, eventually. And that was last making for six years, which is incredibly stressful. But we had a charismatic CEO, he raised capital, we matched it with grants. And eventually we found our way we became a morphed into a automated search engine optimization service. And we were the only company in the world that really could do this. Using technology we could create from a 900 product page website, over 30,000 pages based on popular search phrases that they had on this site. But they didn't have a page so we could eventually increase traffic and conversions by five to 20%. We were getting paid on a cost per click or revenue share. And it became massively profit, mobile. I think today, it's paid over$60 million in dividends. Yeah. Wow. So that for Adelaide that was very successful,
Daniel Franco:what did it get valued at?
Stuart Snyder:I rather not I can say about that. But But basically, it basically, people, the investors got paid enough dividends, well don't get a return. And it's still going but morphed into a different technology. After 12 and a half years, we were trying to sell the company, and then Google punish the sites for the first time. And I thought it was time for me to change. I didn't enjoy it. So I basically retired. Since then, I started mentoring in all three universities and other programs around Adelaide. I've invested in six companies that startups from Adelaide, and a Sydney based venture capital firm Blackbird ventures, that's done extraordinarily well. They've invested in companies like Canva, zooks, safety, culture, culture, and are all billion dollar companies. Brilliant. So yeah, that's
Daniel Franco:a good journey. Yeah. Isn't it today? So we've got I've got 1000 questions that can come out of that one little story. Okay. It's going back to Silicon Valley. You grew up in Silicon Valley, and you went to school with what you call a young hippie man named Steve Jobs. So for those who don't know, Cupertino is now holds or is the US headquarters for Apple, isn't it?
Stuart Snyder:Yes, their spaceship. We visited it that when I went to my 45 year reunion three years ago, they have something called the spaceship a $5 billion headquarters, which I thought was kind of crazy because Silicon Valley's already overcrowded and overpriced. And now with the everyone starting to work remotely, it'd be interest thing to see to see. But they had that belief that and I think this came out of Pixar, that you need people to mingle with each other to get creative ideas. So that was the idea behind that structure there.
Daniel Franco:It makes sense. Yeah. So you were in Steve's year. Okay. Yes, you were. And you, I know that you've mentioned to me before that you thought he was an issue in character going on a real spiritual journey?
Stuart Snyder:Yep. That's how I knew him. I think we both have something in common that was different that we wanted to obtain Nirvana or spiritual enlightenment. And he would tell me about what he experienced on LSD because he thought that would expand his consciousness. And I tell I didn't think that was a real experience. But I told him, I thought, maybe by living life, I would, you know, obtain Nirvana that way, but I don't think either of us. got there. Maybe he's there now.
Daniel Franco:In a different realm. Yeah. I'm interested in that, in the journey towards enlightenment, what? What mindset brought that on, like, what brought you to the place where you thought, and you were even open to the reaching the point of Nirvana or enlightenment?
Stuart Snyder:I think, for me, I grew up in a very dysfunctional family. And I left home when I turned 19, join the American Navy just to get away from home. But I think when you're sort of a teenager, early 20s, a lot of people start to explore their own spirituality, I looked at a lot of different religions and things, but to try to understand meaning in life and what our purpose is. And so even today, I look back in when I was that age, I was thinking, what do I want to accomplish with my life? What's really important? And Steve was another one who he did think differently than most people. And some people thought that made him weird, but I thought that made him interesting
Daniel Franco:is that a product of the environment was it was around in that area at the time doing the same?
Stuart Snyder:No, there was a bit of that California was part of a hippie revolution and all that and spirituality, New Age thinking, but I think it came down to just some individuals are more inclined to look at that sort of thing. And a lot of my classmates, some of them became one became a Jehovah's Witness. Another Seventh Day Adventist and some are agnostic atheist. Just a variety, everyone went on their own journey. Exactly.
Daniel Franco:So Steve dabbled in the psychedelics. Yeah, there are some famous podcast is out in the world at the moment when namely Joe Rogan, who describes the psychedelic experiences a must if you ever want to reach enlightenment, you said, Steve was on the same thing, but you chose not to. Yeah. Why? Why did you choose not to if that's something that you wanted to? Well, for me,
Stuart Snyder:it didn't feel right. I just felt like drugs are not a natural experience. And that by experiencing life having a lot of interactions with people, so some goods and many not so good, but you learn from life, and that that's real to me, I don't know if I feel like, in my opinion, maybe drugs might be a take you away from reality. And that's what why, for me, it wasn't the right thing to do. Being right.
Daniel Franco:I'm not advocating. It's an interesting, especially given the environment in the year that you were at, they say that there are a few people that doubling
Stuart Snyder:he does say he did say I've read every book about Steve Jobs, and he did say he thinks it's one of the best things he ever did. So for him that that was good, but I actually was disappointed that I think he could have done a lot of good in the world. But he just focused on great products not making life better for people. I think my opinion so
Daniel Franco:did you so you met your wife on a in the poll on the tracks? ex-Wife? Yeah, maybe sorry, ex wife in on a journey to Nepal, you then come to Australia. Was that a big move for you? What, what? What bought that one? Why not settle in, in the world where everything was happening? And why come to?
Stuart Snyder:Well, I think Yeah, growing up in Silicon Valley, it was very materialistic. There's no real culture there. Everyone's about making money. I was a bit burnt out of that, and ready for a change. And maybe because I'm a traveler, I like to try different things. And I think I got out of Silicon Valley. What I could get out of it. When I went back for my reunion I, all the people I grew up with his left or the ones that were still there wanna leave? It's very crowded, very expensive. There's no culture community cutthroat, it's very cutthroat and I didn't, a lot of the people are not nice people. So and that happens when money is, is, you know, the priority when there's a lot of money, so I love Adelaide. So I'm glad I left and most of my friends now kind of envy me I think they look at America is kind of in the decline.
Daniel Franco:Well, given recent events at the moment, it seems like the majors be trying it in the same way. So you come to Australia, you have kids,
Stuart Snyder:I have two adult children, they live with their mother. Unfortunately, our relations strained and so I don't really hear from them and hoping one day that will change.
Daniel Franco:Right? Do you believe that that is a result of the countless hours that you put into work?
Stuart Snyder:That may have been a contributing factor, but I don't think that really was the the main reason it really comes down to the chemistry of the people. There's my own family was dysfunctional. And I think some of the problems may run in my family. But I'm hoping one day to reconcile I still love my children, family,
Daniel Franco:as you would Yeah, well, fingers crossed for you made that it all works out in the future. So you've you've you've started this year working for KPMG as an accountant. And then you decide that you want to get into the startup world.
Stuart Snyder:Well, I had six jobs in 10 years out of university, that's probably shocking from someone from Adelaide, but there were so many opportunities, and I didn't really I didn't I hated KPMG, they didn't show me what to do. And they belittle me and say you're over budget, but they treated everyone pretty much like that. I and then I then I worked for a number of tech companies, some weren't doing well go out of business, you just find another job within three months. And I had more job security there than I ever had in Adelaide, because there are so many opportunities. And I always made more money more responsibility than the last job I had there. I was there for five years. And I enjoyed the people there so that I came to Adelaide.
Daniel Franco:And so tell us about the journey and the decision to move away from the secure the security of a paid job into the startup world. What How did you handle those first couple of years?
Stuart Snyder:Well, I think after the defense company, it was indirectly sold by owned by the state government and sold by them. And then we are made redundant. I had experienced a year in Adelaide without permanent work. I did find two contracts in the government. And I absolutely hated that. It's, I think the opposite of working in startup world. And so that's where I said to my former co workers, let's do a startup one day. And I thought, well, why not give it a go, you know that I've got nothing to lose. I always wanted to try it there. The job market wasn't very good in Adelaide in fortunately, in the long term it worked out. But what I didn't realize is doing a startup in Adelaide in 1999 was not common. I just assumed that everyone would think like me, because I came from Silicon Valley. Yeah. And they would understand it that you could do really well. But here it was foreign
Daniel Franco:that a draw versus success. The fact that no one else was doing it and you guys are in front.
Stuart Snyder:Absolutely. I think I think there's opportunity where others don't see it like in Silicon Valley. It's saturated with startups and money and I think most of them fail here you what I met the brightest group of people I've ever worked with. I probably went find a group like that in Silicon Valley because there's so many opportunities, but here you could get a group of really smart people and and form a company so that was a big advantage.
Daniel Franco:You have often you've been quoted previously to say that in the first six, six years, your plan B was a certain method can you do Can you elaborate? Oh, well,
Stuart Snyder:Matthew mccalla Wits was lecturing at Adelaide uni and he asked me to give a talk. And I kind of jokingly said that I thought my exit strategy might be suicide. But I was just I was joking, but it is an incredibly stressful and something that people didn't talk about in those days. They do talk about that now mental health. Yeah. Because it is a really big issue, you put your whole life online and you have no job security, maybe no income, or little income, and you've got to make a living. And every day is very stressful. But it's also rewarding, because you use your creativity, and your energy and whatever comes out the other end is a reflection of what you've put in. Was the,
Daniel Franco:the plan B, if you look at it with a half glass, full attitude, it's you putting everything into the business, you every heart and soul goes into it. And you need to dive first before it's not successful. Why Why did you have that attitude? Were you passionate about the product that you were creating? Or was it just that you could see the light at the end of the tunnel? Or what was? What, What kept you going?
Stuart Snyder:Well, I think my passion was having worked in Silicon Valley with lots of mediocre people and I positions, I had a strong view that if you had a really bright group of people, like you do in Adelaide, and you had sales and marketing presence in America, you could create a very successful company. And that was my passion. And I had a lot of people put us down tell me we would fail. And even if we did fail, I still would have done it for because I grew as a person from being an accountant who sat behind a computer all day looking at numbers to being someone who been like, two to 300 pitches, to investors to customers, to learn how to communicate, I grew so much as a person, I still would have done it even if we failed and I still would have been a better person even if we failed. But I was very fortunate. We were successful. And all those people who laughed at us are still working and I'm retired.
Daniel Franco:So as you business Katz's yeah unemployed lazy. I love it. Yeah, that's that's very inspirational. Well, you you've reached the point of what every entrepreneur wants to do is to become is ultimately to become unemployed. Well, it's
Stuart Snyder:interesting. I think what most people want is the freedom to choose what they want. And so even though I became very well off the year I retired, I wound up going through divorce and have strained relationships with my family and was very depressed. So even though I was very financially well off, it didn't bring that happiness but then things turned around I remarried a wonderful woman and have a wonderful house wonderful life I'm very very happy. I live a very stress free life. So I think I see some of my the people I used to work with some of them still want to continue on even though they don't need to some and really enjoy what they do. There's there's an ego thing about being successful as that's how they measure success by a monetary but I got off that I said, I don't need that to be happy and happy doing what I do. I think it's an important point. That being financially
Daniel Franco:well being haven't been very wealthy doesn't exactly bring happiness. Do you believe that your journey for enlightenment and meditation and everything that you may have done in your earlier days helped you get through that depression? And that time of your life where you were in a struggle?
Stuart Snyder:Yeah, I I'd have to say I look back I'm one who believes in past lives, I look at a lot of videos on people who experience what's called the near death experience. So I think we all come here for a purpose we to learn different things. In my case. I think what made me really strong was I grew up in a very dysfunctional family. I left home at 19. I had to support myself ever since. So I'm really pretty, pretty tough that I can handle difficult times it's not enjoyable, but I just grind through it. And that's how I deal with with things. I realize some of the worst things that happened to us are actually great. The best learning Yeah, experiences. So not to think it's all the end of the world,
Daniel Franco:we only need to look at the pandemic that's happening at the moment, the amount of learning that is coming out of that
Stuart Snyder:exactly like I think one of the greatest things is remote working. His people have woken up. And I've always believed this, why do you have to all drive in and commute to work when 90% of what you do? You're sitting behind a computer? Or I think it's also great for a company in Adelaide, is you can do a zoom meeting to customers in America or elsewhere. You don't have to fly there to meet people.
Daniel Franco:Absolutely. So you mentioned your left home at 19. What Where did you go? And what did you do? I
Stuart Snyder:joined the American Navy, I was on a aircraft carrier, the USS Enterprise. And again, I hated that. It was like 5000 men at sea for a month at a time. It's like a floating prison. But I got two really valuable things out of that. And it's easy. Now I can look back. Yeah, I couldn't see it then. Because I hate I was just counting how many days I have left there. But I got to travel. Yeah. And so I learned the love of travel. And I saved all my money. When I went back to university when I graduated. Set. I spent six months traveling around the world and you know, and one in two star hotels, but I got to see the world, which I'm so grateful for that change my life. And the other thing I'm realizing what
Daniel Franco:way sorry, what, in what way
Stuart Snyder:Well, I met my future ex wife on that trip. But also I learned about different people in different cultures. And one revealing moment I was in our bus rolled over in the desert in Pakistan, your queta. Pakistan, this is now where the Taliban headquarters are. But I found people friendly there. We took a local bus to Isfahan, Iran. I was there for 10 days where we are waiting for the other person or as many traveling with Aussies. And they told me don't tell them. You're American, because you're seeing people march in the street Death to America. This is a year after Khomeini came in power. And I told everyone I was young. I told everyone Oh, I'm from America. And I was shocked. Like they said, oh, we're so glad to see you. We love the American people. We just hate your government. And I've got relatives there. And I learned right there that people are the same everywhere. There are some good people, some bad people, but most everyone's just trying to make a living. And that was really I learned from that experience something very significant. And I carry that today. I don't try not to judge people based on their background or ethnicity. And I think people are the same everywhere.
Daniel Franco:We're all human being Right, exactly. Yeah. I was I think we've said this before on a podcast, there's a saying named what says I saw it on a T shirt, someone's t shirt and it said, human kind, right. And then underneath that said be both. Yes. Right. So it just and that. For me. It was just a penny drop moment. Wow.
Stuart Snyder:Yeah. What is sad and I view that we're all related. Our ancestors came out of Africa about 100,000 years ago, but now everyone split up in different tribes and they think we're different from you. But we're really not if
Daniel Franco:you will come and see blood. Yeah, explain to force you built with so going back to the Euro amigo journey, me interested in in the fact that it's you I think you and I have spoken about it where you only had clients in America, you had no clients in Australia. How difficult was was that process of actually just trying to win work outside of the country
Stuart Snyder:is actually a lot easier than then people think. And there's some reasons why it was actually harder to sell in Australia, where it's not a competitive advantage environment. And it's a very small market. So like we had a customer in Australia, they want exclusivity for their their industry. We never were asked that in the US. And the thing is in the US, it's so competitive. If they don't grab on to the latest technology, they could lose their job because their competitor will and leapfrog them and they'll be out of work. So they're very open to trying new new things and they didn't care that we're for a small company in Adelaide where the Australian companies cared about that. This Are you going to be in business. All I cared about were you make us money and so it was actually easier to sell in the US than in Australia.
Daniel Franco:How big to the company become, you know, headcount wise,
Stuart Snyder:where I would say let me I'll just leave it at revenue wise, our best year was 24 million. Yeah. So and as I said, it's paid out, it was extremely profitable. Because like, I'd go to sleep, wake up in the morning, fine. We made$30,000. While we were sleeping, someone was clicking in the US and buying products. And so it became very profitable. But we didn't need a lot of people. And that's the ideal business model where you make money while you're asleep.
Daniel Franco:Where did the idea come from?
Stuart Snyder:Well, originally the the idea was, we could find stuff Google couldn't find we have a
Daniel Franco:so where does that come from? I'm interested in the idea what came out? Not up to scratch it. I mean, the search engine world back in those days, yeah,
Stuart Snyder:no. Well, the idea came out of a research project from the Flinders University where our CEO was consulting to, and it seemed the.com boom, and I was caught up in that I said, Oh, well, let's sell this for a billion dollars in two years. But then the.com, boom, ended, we had to find a product. So we started out. So we need to get a product when we said, let's do a search engine for searching. And with websites and internet sin. We had a few customers, but it's very competitive. They didn't see the real value in that. And one day, I said, Well, if we could find stuff Google couldn't find, maybe we could make that visible to Google. And in those days, like Sony Europe had 60,000 products, none of them were in Google's database, that is no longer an issue now. But in those days, that was important. So within three months after engaging us, they had all 60,000 products in Google, paying us 10 pence a click, then our CTO had a great idea of expanding the number of pages based on popular search phrases. And we learned how Google linking worked. And so we were really the world expert, I think, in understanding Google's ranking algorithms and, and also to do this automatically be our competitors just had people in India, just creating pages, and we could keep up when things changed on the site. So yeah, it became very, very lucrative
Daniel Franco:pagham. Google didn't buy you guys.
Stuart Snyder:Oh, they couldn't really because because they view their organic or free listings as objective. Okay, so they quit by a company that's trying to get themselves high and the free listing and back, they made it very difficult for SEO company search engine optimization companies. They used to, you know, provide a lot of data. And then they stopped doing that, then they started punishing sites you used to see in the old days, like Amazon, or eBay would rank number one in Google, but they realize their competitors, now they don't rank anywhere. So in Google, so yeah, that's the nature of business.
Daniel Franco:How important do you go how much emphasis Do you place now on SEO with people
Stuart Snyder:I think it's still very important in the one thing I would say to anyone is get really good quality links to your site. Like say, if you get a university or government organization linking to your site, Google will think that's a really valuable how do you how do you do that? Hey, I that's the challenge. And that's not easy. So that's something your amigo does know that. Now you need to some of the companies, they get them by putting out great content and encouraging people, maybe they blog a lot.
Daniel Franco:Why would a government organization link to
Stuart Snyder:they probably want Yeah, but if they do then is really valuable. But
Daniel Franco:so yeah, we often hear the government and then the universities and then everyone says get them to link in you. Yeah, you flying? What's three and four? What's the let's say
Stuart Snyder:you? Let's say Westpac bank to you are bhp a big, big, big national, exactly, you know, some large sites, like the guy who does there's a guy lives not far from here. Then peacock does solar quotes. Yeah. And I think when he started out, he didn't rank very well. But now he's the number one in solar industry and he puts out some really great content about solar, how to save money on batteries, and he's got a very, very successful business and he is a he was indicating that a lot more of his traffic is not coming organically. We're in the early days he had to pay for it.
Daniel Franco:Yeah, okay. I still don't get why a Westpac or anyone would link to me Another sided unless it was an offering that they?
Stuart Snyder:Yeah, yeah. Yeah, let's say you're in startup world, maybe you can get into startup get startup daily or, you know, news organizations might link to you and then maybe Westpac might, you might be their customer. And they'll say, here's a business of ours a run really well, you got to find an angle there. Yeah, that's a difficult one. I don't have an easy answer to that,
Daniel Franco:though. Yeah. Cuz it always everyone says, You got to get on these big websites is like Why? It's very, very difficult. But yeah,
Stuart Snyder:start right, getting great content, and having other people link to you. And maybe it gets publicity, or maybe the new sites linking to you. Initially, yeah.
Daniel Franco:Okay. Yeah. So you, you do a lot of work in the startup world. Now, you mentioned all the three different universities that you do mentoring programs, through and that you've now invested in plus six companies? Why is there an altruistic thing that you've got going on there? Why do you? Why not? Why not just be the unemployed lazy bum?
Stuart Snyder:Yeah, maybe it goes back to that. My spiritual journey is like, I figure we all have a purpose in life to try and make things better. And I'll give you an example. A couple months ago, I had chest pains, and I had to have a stent put in my heart. And I realized, yeah, when the doctor said, you got to come here, immediately, pack your bags, I started telling my wife about our financials, just panicking. But I really thought about that, that like, what would happen if I did die, like what would have meaning what my life had. And I think the fact that like I invested in some startup companies that might not be here, if I didn't invest in them. And those companies are producing good products, employing people in Adelaide, doing something positive, that even after I am gone long gone, there'll be something that maybe I made some difference. And I feel the same way with my mentoring that I don't get paid for it. But if I make a difference to somebody's life, then that's really meaningful. And that's to me what the purpose of life is, I think,
Daniel Franco:absolutely giving back Yeah. When you mentor these startups, these founders, what is your first thing that you would look at? What what's the when you walk in through the door? Or when they sit down with you the first time? What's the question that you would ask?
Stuart Snyder:Oh, well, I think I do more listening, to find out what they have, where they're at what. And as a investor, what I've always looked at is, and this comes from maybe a Silicon Valley mindset is market size, market potential. Because he wants something that would be really big, if you're an investor. And a lot of these companies that I've seen, they might be a viable business. But that doesn't want to excite an investor, you want something that could be really big and could grow quick and has a unique competitive advantage. Then I try to build relations with the founders. So all the companies I invested in, I've known the founders for a long time, which I can get away with in Adelaide, because there's no competition to be an investor where I couldn't do that in Silicon Valley. But I think that's really important to build relations and see that they're getting traction. They're people who can get things done. But with everyone, I try to see how I could help them even the ones that maybe not have a lot of potential to see if I can connect them with someone I know. That's one of the most valuable things I can do as a
Daniel Franco:mentor is to network. Yeah, exactly. Do you? Do you put a lot of importance on the type of character of the entrepreneur
Stuart Snyder:That to me is the highest important? Yes. Like, oh, I might not have invested in Steve Jobs. Yeah, he's a bit of a jerk.
Daniel Franco:Yeah. But
Stuart Snyder:yeah, to me that that's really important that you're investing in people who are going to do good things in the world and have people who enjoy working in their companies that that's very important to me. But also, I have a business mindset. You want to see someone who can be successful so it's not a charity. Yeah, thing. So
Daniel Franco:I'm curious as an investor you are is an investor and I dabble in the share market in I'm working, I do my own property investing, stuff like that, but nothing to the point where I'm giving money for people to build businesses where I'm interested in, if I was to go to the share market and buy a penny stock, I would know it's pretty volatile, put some money into it. Now, it's most likely I'm going to lose my money on there, but I'm going to have a crack anyway, if I put my money into the Commonwealth Bank or into some of these bigger firms and are to bit more stable, I'm potentially going to get the 10% growth five to 10% growth a year, and the return dividends and whatnot, when you're investing in a business, are you essentially going for that big hit? Is that what you're looking for? Or like, are you investing in a penny stock for the big potential growth? Or do you ever invest in companies that are stable, and sustainable?
Stuart Snyder:So fortunately, I am well off, I've got a lot of money in index funds. It's all a lot of it's in my super fun, you know, which is very tax effective. But I have a speculative portfolio, which is quite large, probably one of more active investors in Adelaide. Yeah, it's one and a half over 100 and a half million in almost 2 million in venture capital and Adelaide based startups. But if I lost that, it wouldn't change my life. So when you're looking at investing in speculative type 8999 sure that you can afford to lose that money. Or that you can recover if you do, but do a lot of due diligence. The problem I would have liked with penny stocks is you have no idea who's managed that's running these companies. Whereas by mentoring and being involved with the startup founders, I have a pretty good insight into how the opportunity and the entrepreneur,
Daniel Franco:yeah. Great. What's one area in when you're investing, and you build these relationships? And you've obviously invested in six plus six different businesses? What's the area that you see, in potential investment opportunities that hold you back? Like, you go? No, no, that's a deal breaker for me or know that, you know, you mentioned market size and character being too critical ones. Is there anything that will is a non negotiable for you that you won't know? Okay,
Stuart Snyder:yeah, I think every investor has a certain appetite. So I like software as a service companies. I don't care for hardware or product companies, although I have recently invested in one. Because I think it's kind of unique and has unique competitive advantage. I love software, because once it's developed, it can be easily distributed solve can be very high margin can grow very rapidly. You can sell it over the internet in many cases. So that's one thing. So yeah, I don't understand consumer products, or our software, just selling to masses of consumer hoping we'll get millions of people to sign up. I don't understand that or claim to. So I don't invest in those sorts of things.
Daniel Franco:So going back to the Silicon Valley, there's a common belief in Silicon Valley that well, people, entrepreneurs and startup founders were failure in their business. And you mentioned earlier that most startups in in Silicon Valley file, then they were this failure as a badge. And in fact, some investors don't even go near or invest unless you've had one or two failures before. Do you adopt the same mindset?
Stuart Snyder:No, I never really heard that till I got here. When I was in Silicon Valley. The people they admired were Steve Jobs. Larry Ellison, were all the successful people. I think what is good there is they don't hold it against you. Like if you worked at a startup and it didn't work out. That's okay. Yeah, I think
Daniel Franco:you would send in a more forward thinking there than here.
Stuart Snyder:Yeah, more exactly. more open to that where I've known people here thought if they their startup field, they would never get a job in Adelaide. Ever. You would never think like that in Silicon Valley. You know, there's always someone out there. They know you have a skill and what is your skill? And what what results can you get? And a lot of times things don't work out but you learn from that. And that's not bad thing.
Daniel Franco:The the tonsley precinct Where Flinders and a few other universities work out? It's been earmarked by the South Australian government was earmarked by the South Australian government as becoming the next Silicon Valley. What's your belief?
Stuart Snyder:Well, when I came here has almost 28 years ago, Daniel, I, I worked with this bright group of people in defense company, I thought Adelaide would be the Silicon Valley of Australia within five years. And that never happened. And I thought why? Yeah, well, my theory is, which a lot of people may disagree with me, but we're kind of a big public service town. And that is one thing that holds everything back. Like in Silicon Valley, everything is private industry. If you need funding, you go to private industry, you need customers, you go to private industry, but here, we have about over 100,000 people work directly for the state government, you know that you don't see that?
Daniel Franco:Is it a population thing, though, that the government can support that many people as opposed to being intimate? In the US,
Stuart Snyder:I think Adelaide is a big enough city. They use that population, I think is being used as an excuse. Because I just displays like Boulder, Colorado is lot smaller than Adelaide, but has many more unicorn companies. And so I think the problem is also government doesn't really understand startups, they're the exact opposite. They're a big bureaucracy, very risk adverse. They don't want to buy from startups they'd rather buy from a large multinational. And what we might see is, our most successful startup in Adelaide, as I understand is sweat, which kind of like came from nowhere, just like Apple Computer did just came from someone's idea who worked in their garage, and tinkering and found there was a huge market for it.
Daniel Franco:If it goes[inaudible audio] at you that talk that you did the other night, if you remember,
Stuart Snyder:there were a couple of people were from there today. Yeah. Which is great, because I think also, what we lack in Adelaide is successful companies where spin offs can come from, so people who work at sweat may one day start their own startup. And they have learned a lot from that.
Daniel Franco:There's this common belief with startups. And my belief is that it holds a lot of people back that that aren't going to the startup world, obviously. And you talk about the South Australians being the public service state. So there's that security of being paid. It's an easy job. Entrepreneurship and starting your own business is often seen as is difficult.
Stuart Snyder:And we have a great lifestyle here. Why would you work those long hours?
Daniel Franco:Well, that's the thing. So why would you work those long hours? Is there a lack of purpose in the world? Is there a lack of reason to succeed? You know, I heard the statistics lately that in each household, we watch 40 plus hours per week of TV. Now, that's a whole work week that we could be putting into our businesses and growing. Why do you believe that? What do you believe is going to be the biggest barrier for South Australia moving forward to actually becoming a hub of some sort.
Stuart Snyder:I think it will happen because I've seen Silicon Valley change. And in the last eight years, I've seen Sydney change. When Atlassian listed overnight, Sydney has changed those people who founded Atlassian, they've invested in the Blackbird ventures they've invested in Canva, when Canva list, you're gonna see all those people with money, they're gonna reinvest. But what I'm starting to see we have more young people who are embracing the startup idea, like they don't want to work for a big corporate. They're willing to work hard in the long hours Currently, the problem we have in Adelaide, and this is the biggest challenges a lot of those people leave because there's not enough job opportunities or quality opportunities. And there's a view it like, when I went to the headquarters of Google in Mountain View and headquarters of Canva in Sydney, I had the lunch there. And they're like all 20 year olds and 30 other very high senior positions. Were Adelaide zoo, almost the opposite got away.
Daniel Franco:boating,
Stuart Snyder:yeah, but that's where if you create new innovative dynamic companies it there'll be a chain reaction, so I'm hopeful that will happen here. Although it's taken a lot longer than what I thought. So this is
Daniel Franco:this event last year in Canva. Sweat these companies having them as as a golf sale, other people look at them go more Walk and do the same and create the same, the more and more of them, we get you believe that will will turn into something great.
Stuart Snyder:Absolutely. So when Blackbird ventures raised their first fund in 2012 2013, they pitched I think it was 540 people to get 85 people to invest like me founders. And it was a very small fund only 29 million. And I, I thought, well, they had the founders of Atlassian. And I knew who they were, but no one else did. Now, blackbirds raised their last fund was $500 million. So their first fund would be in the top 1% performing funds in the world. Prior to that. venture capital in Australia was lost making so super funds one invest, they were banned was too risky. Now, super funds are investing. And so we're seeing sort of that same chain reaction that happened in Silicon Valley when Apple listed success breeds success. And that is the future it's pretty obvious to me that if you're in the digital economy, you're doing really well if you're not, you're gonna struggle.
Daniel Franco:Is that a is that scary for you that everything's moving digital, or you believe that's it,
Stuart Snyder:I see a lot of positives to that it's I do think it makes our lives better in many ways. And even like old companies, let's say like mining bhp, they're now becoming tech companies. It's not enough to find iron ore, you got to dig it out efficiently and use technology to discover it. So everything is changing. And the problem is I see is that wealth isn't being spread out amongst a lot of people who don't have the education or job skills to work in, in the tech Academy. Yeah. And so that's a big challenge. And I think that's the biggest problem in America is like half the people. You know, they don't have a university degree, and they've been left behind. And so they're angry, but we need to get they need to get some skills to fit in the new economy.
Daniel Franco:Well, it goes back to the mindset thing. And it's, you can only blame yourself at the end of the day. If you are if you are one of those people that sitting in front of the TV for 40 hours a week, then you need to look long.
Stuart Snyder:I think that's the reality that it will always be the majority of people who just want an easy, nice, easy life. I think the ones that do startups, you're the top couple percent. And so like one of the companies I invested in Jinju, Lee founded happycow, he couldn't really raise capital, much capital in Adelaide and got into start made and then went to San Francisco. And it's done extremely well there. But I think that's what we see the top couple percent are the ones who will will carry a lot of things that people who he had a lot of ambition and drive and he knew how to sell. So yeah, the reality is, most people aren't going to be great startup founders in even if they try
Daniel Franco:what comes back to that mindset thing. And you know, they creating here creating synergy with big learners and grows and readers and with constant belief in developing ourselves and others. How much emphasis Did you place on that on yourself? Did you did you read? Did you know? There's the saying that those who are illiterate and those who don't read are pretty much the same person? Do you put a lot of time and effort into your growth?
Stuart Snyder:Yeah. Every day, I read a lot of things on the internet. So I think I know a lot about a lot of things. I'm not like at Bill Gates level who reads stacks of books. Yeah. And I think he's one of the smartest people but what I would do is look at what he thinks, yeah, cuz I would have a lot of respect. You're a really smart guy who's done all the research. Absolutely. But what I find there's two ways of learning and my skill was always more analytical reading. We're doing research where other people learn by talking to people, they're great communicators. That wasn't my strength. Because there's a lot of information people have that aren't in books or aren't in the public domain.
Daniel Franco:I was information I've just never written down.
Stuart Snyder:Exactly. But by talking to people or in knowing the right people, you'll learn something that a lot of other people don't know. So there are two ways I think of learning and both are really important.
Daniel Franco:Do you believe that all leaders, entrepreneurs should invest in their own personal development if you're investing into a company or even if you're looking and giving advice to a CEO of a multinational is part of your advice in in continuous growth and improvement.
Stuart Snyder:Yeah, but they probably won't listen to my advice, I think to be a CEO, which probably I wouldn't be great at, I think I'm good in a team. But a CEO, you've got to have a bit of an ego. And sometimes that means you don't listen to others, which is a weakness, I think Steve Jobs strength at Apple was even as big of a company as it was, he said best ideas when. So when they were looking at doing the, he was told, let's do a the iTunes shop, they were gonna do have all these apps in the app shop. He said, that was a stupid idea. And then the next day, he said, we're gonna do this. And that's one of their more profitable divisions, I get 30% of the app. And that's what made their hardware successful. So I give him credit, he was flexible enough to change. What I see when leaders fail is they stopped listening to other people, and they just listened to their own point of view.
Daniel Franco:Why do you believe they listen to their own point of view? Is it an ego thing? Is that their belief that they know it all? Why would anyone, especially given the amount of knowledge it's out in the world at the moment? Why would anyone stick to their own?
Stuart Snyder:I think there is, they probably have been is an ego thing they've been successful and what they've done. So they think they're smarter than other people, or they know more. Or a lot of people put the bad ideas forward, do they have to sift through all that. So sometimes, maybe when a good idea comes forward, they they ignore that but the best teams I've seen are the ones where anyone in the organization can come up with a good idea and it gets embrace. Those are the most successful organizations. I think Canva is like that. I think Atlassian is like that. And that's one of the reasons they're very successful.
Daniel Franco:Talking about mindset and personal growth and development, and understanding self what you're obviously very into the spiritual enlightenment, especially in your younger days on not so much on Yeah, I am, but it's hidden. It's hidden. Yeah. Do you? What is one attribute that you believe has held you in good stead throughout your journey? One attribute that you have in your core, that's, that's gotten you through all the hard times the ups and downs?
Stuart Snyder:Well, one of the things I've always believed is really important is to always tell the truth. Sometimes we may stretch things a little bit, but let's stick close to the truth. Because in the long run, truth matters. It may make you unpopular with people. I may tell people something they don't want to hear. But I've also found it hurts me when I try to sell because I say the good and the bad. But for me, that works really well. Because is an analytical person. I need to test things and understand is what is the reality of the situation. And so I think, being honest and trustworthy. I think people who know me trust me, overall, that's really important. Some people who don't know me may not like me, but that does I don't care.
Daniel Franco:Yeah, that's a great attitude. People have a really good bullshit radar too. If you're not telling the truth. You're talking about analytical people being analytical and yourself being one of those people. If, if you are telling a lie, or you're not telling the full truth, people can very quickly add it up.
Stuart Snyder:That's true. But what scares me, let's take a guy like Bill Gates, I really admire all the work he's done on vaccinations and the malaria. Yeah, same the pipe, but there are a lot of conspiracy theories. He's trying to put a microchip people and the vaccinations are evil. And so that scares me that a lot of people can't see through it. But I think you still stick with the truth and eventually people will, most people will wake up.
Daniel Franco:Absolutely. Do you believe that we're going to see a boom after this pandemic of people? You know, with all the jobs lost? will people be more willing to go out on their own and try?
Stuart Snyder:It is that I think a lot of people are forced to you know, and this is the interesting thing. Had I stayed in Silicon Valley. I would probably still be working as an accountant for some company right now. It would have been easier. Yeah. But had I because I came to Adelaide and it was difficult. I was forced to try something new. So yeah, I think we'll see more people and I am seeing That at university level students like used to be they wanted to be the lawyer, Doctor, accountant engineer. And now more and more are realizing Yeah, we want to be a startup founder.
Daniel Franco:Yeah. Well, it's the light of the of the tunnel. And you did talk about purpose before people are actually realizing that going to work in working for a leader that is not so inspirational and actually hasn't got people connected to the vision isn't what they want to do.
Stuart Snyder:When I had two contracts in the public service. One was state and one was federal, I was going absolutely crazy. I was there with a bunch of other accounting contractors with that it was fine. They were getting a paycheck, but I couldn't handle there was no passion there. People didn't care if they did the right thing. And that was really important to me. So I didn't fit into that environment.
Daniel Franco:That's good. So we're here where we are today. We're at your beautiful home here in seacliff, which is a beautiful view of the ocean how that how is unemployed, lazy, life treating you
Stuart Snyder:really good as I say, I, I have a really unique experience. I have a very stress free life. And then I go out and watch our pond and get even less stress. But it's just for
Daniel Franco:reference is a$50,000 pawn sitting at the back. Yeah, more than a little more than that.
Stuart Snyder:Yeah, it is. It is beautiful, and I love her. But all my life, I was a real struggle. You know, like going back to the Navy, I was at the bottom of the bottom, I barely making a living. And if I didn't save my money, I no one else was going to take care of me. I had jobs I hated, I had bought bosses I didn't like. And I just put up with it to try and make a living. And I got lucky. I think that our startup was successful things turned around. Now, I'm experienced almost the exact opposite of when I was younger, just have a really good life. But what I think I did find important when I did retire, I did a lot of volunteer jobs. Like I drive prisoners to job training and listen to depressed people. But I enjoyed working with young entrepreneurs, I found you need to interact with people and do something positive, which is really important. So I spend some of my time doing that. But never more than I feel I can handle. Yeah.
Daniel Franco:That's great. So what, what is your definition of success, then?
Stuart Snyder:Well, I think success. I'll give you a Bible quote. So I think Jesus said, and I'm not a Christian, but the greatest. The one is the one who serves the most. And I believe that's the definition of success.
Daniel Franco:So giving back as much as you
Stuart Snyder:Yeah, helping other people. And a lot of those people aren't rich. But those are people I admire. I'm not that great of a person, I could do more. But I admire people who are like that, because I think they make it the real difference in the world more than people who this is what I struggled with Apple I don't know what I would have told Steve Jobs is I don't think building great products is what changes the world I think, you know, helping people is what changes the world for the better.
Daniel Franco:In some would argue that products can add to the ability to help people I mean, you connect with more people now there is a lot of truth to that.
Stuart Snyder:But that's a good example on the flip side, we have all these conspiracy theories. Yeah, reading over the internet so it can be used for good or evil correct and bullying but overall, I believe technology is a good thing. Yeah. helps make people's lives better
Daniel Franco:technology if used correctly, or Yeah, why that it was intended.
Stuart Snyder:Yeah. You still have the fundamental brothers the question I asked myself in high school what it took to be a great person and I thought the people who made the world better were the people who changed how people thought you know, how they live their lives, rather than the ones who were sports heroes or entertainment stars are made a lot of money but yeah, by the which I thought were like religious type leaders, but a lot of them aren't really as religious as they claim to be.
Daniel Franco:We have a team of in our in our app business with Synergy IQ, have a team of coaches, we do a little leadership and growth development coaching. And some of the team always report back to us and say, when they see the light bulb, go off and just work You know, as a as a coach, you ask questions you don't tell them what to do you help them get to the answer that they're looking for through the questioning process. When you, when you see the light bulb go off in these people's heads, and you can see that, in almost if even if it's just that one degree shift of their thinking, you just know that in five years time, they could be in a different spot. That is, it is such a great feeling. Knowing that you have had a positive impact on someone's life.
Stuart Snyder:Exactly. I think that's to me, the purpose of life, if you can make a difference in other people's lives in a positive way, it creates a chain reaction, because then that person will maybe change someone else in a positive way. And that maybe is what really changes the world. But I have to say, a lot of times in my mentoring, I question whether I'm really making a difference, like the people listen to what I got to say, think about, but there probably moments when they do and I don't realize it all the time.
Daniel Franco:It's often people come to me for advice, and I dare say they would come to you more. So it's those conversations that you have five or six years down the track with these people again, they'll turn around and you know, I can even say it to you. And then I'll say Stuart, you know that thing you said to me five years ago that completely changed my life. It's those comments that you don't really know. Yeah, even saying that have the most impact I believe so. Which puts a lot of emphasis on make sure the words that you use in the end, what you're actually saying to people is in check and can off and can be a value.
Stuart Snyder:So I think people who are mentees should give thanks to their mentors and let them know how it helped. And I don't often don't hear back. So yeah, I think that's an important thing is to give feedback. And even if you get bad advice, tell him I don't think that was really the right thing for me. And you need that as a mentor to know if you're learning helping people or not.
Daniel Franco:Very good. Alright, so we're at the one hour mark. So we'll start wrapping up we have a quick some quickfire questions. I just like to round it off just to get get the the inner workings of your brain a little bit and how it all goes to here. But one question I do ask everyone and like I said, we are be great is here creating synergy. What is one book or one YouTube video or article that you've watched in your career or read in your in your lifetime, that you would recommend to entrepreneurs, leaders, or anyone who's looking at improving themselves?
Stuart Snyder:Well, I can only recommend. I don't read a lot of books. As I said, I mainly look at things online. But many years ago, in my first year at university, I read a book called sidhartha, which affected me This is affects my spiritual side. Like he tried many different things and was many different people before he obtained enlightenment, I still every 10 years I read that book and to better relate to all these experiences we're having are for a reason. And it helps us grow and become better people.
Daniel Franco:So that's a by whom, and yeah, as well, it's Yeah, it's similar to the optimist, which is the polygala, which is a genuine young young lad and goes through life. I should read that book. Yeah, I miss you. You enjoy that, too. So if you had one superpower, what would you What would you?
Stuart Snyder:Oh, gee, I wish I could help people in their daily lives, and help them to become better people. And maybe that's not a superpower. But if you change people around you, then they, like I say, I think it will be like a wave. You throw a rock in a row. There's a ripple effect. And so yes, I wish I could touch more people's lives that in a positive way.
Daniel Franco:Brilliant. If you had a time machine access to a time machine, where would you go?
Stuart Snyder:I'm happy where I am now. I've studied a lot of history, especially like World War Two in the Holocaust to the extremes. To see the dark side of people, but I think I'm here now for reasons he not interested with it. Next 100 days would look like Well, I think we are creating it now. Yeah. So am I sure I'd be curious what it turns out to be like, but I think we're creating that. And so the future is up to us, is what it looks like.
Daniel Franco:Do you ever feel like I often have conversations with people that like, Ah, it's frustrating knowing that I'm not going to be around until I introduce Tom to see, you've obviously played a lot, especially in the
Stuart Snyder:I feel logically this, I haven't experienced the near death experience, but I've seen hundreds of YouTube videos that people have. And I believe that's that our soul or spirit will live forever. And if it doesn't, well, doesn't matter. But I believe that's probably what happens and it's nothing to fear or be afraid of dying is. I guess the only thing about dying I don't like is the pain like really, you know what, I felt chest pains that wasn't pleasant. If I felt died in my sleep, I'd be happy as long as I've accomplished the things I want to do, and I still have some things left I want to achieve.
Daniel Franco:And that was gonna be my next question. What's one item on your bucket list?
Stuart Snyder:Outside of business outside of business away? I guess the only thing in my life that I would say is less than perfect is my relations with my family ex Family and I hope to that will reconcile I don't feel it's under my control, though. I done everything I felt I could but hoping that maybe as they grow as people we will connect and have an extremely loving relationship would be my goal. Brilliant.
Daniel Franco:Yeah. Excellent. Look, thank you very much, Stuart. It's been an amazing podcast. Getting inside your brain and understanding the inner workings of how you went about your your career and your and your life. Thank you very much. Where can people find you who are interested in connecting?
Stuart Snyder:I'm on LinkedIn linked to me. My email address Stuart.Snyder54@ gmail. com, I'll catch up with most everyone for a coffee if they wants to really see value in my advice.
Daniel Franco:So every single investor listens to the sorry, intrapreneur listens to this will be not gonna.
Stuart Snyder:I've met a lot, lots of people. But you know, I've invested in very few, but I see if I can help in any way gives me a lot of satisfaction. And I get more out of it probably than they do. I meet a lot of interesting people.
Daniel Franco:Brilliant. Thank you very much for your time today, Stuart. It's been been amazing. And we'll catch you next time guys. Cheers. Thank you for having me. Bye. Bye.
Synergy IQ:Thanks. Thank you once again for joining us here at creating synergy. It's been great spending this time with you. Please jump on to the Synergy IQ Facebook and LinkedIn page where the discussion continues after the show. join our mailing list so you'll know what's happening next at Synergy iq.com.au. And of course, don't forget to subscribe to this podcast. And if you really enjoyed it, please share it with your friends.