Tayyab Rizvi Built a Marketplace to Give Restaurant Managers Their American Dream

Anthony Codispoti (00:00)

Welcome to another edition of the Inspired Stories Podcast, where leaders share their experiences so we can learn from their successes and be inspired by how they've overcome adversity. As you listen today, let one idea shape what you do next. My name is Anthony Kotus Bodhi, and today's guest spent a decade shaping how some of the biggest platforms in tech design for growth, then found the real bottleneck for an entirely different industry sitting inside his own family's business.

Two units of the same restaurant concept became an unplanned real-world experiment in what actually makes a business scale. If one store answered to his salary, the other had a partner with money on the line, and the difference showed up everywhere. Tyab Risvey is the CEO and founder of Scalemates, a marketplace that matches franchise owners with vetted operating partners who invest their own capital as minority stakeholders.

He spent his career before that at Google, YouTube, Patreon, and was with General Mills when they were named Canada's Marketer of the Year in 2014. He also runs Starshot Strategy, a YouTube growth consultancy, and together with his in-laws, has scaled their restaurant franchise portfolio to 15 locations. But before we get into all that good stuff, today's episode is brought to you by my company, Ad Back Benefits Agency.

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All right, back to our guest today, the CEO and founder of Scalemates,

Tyab Risbee. Thanks for making the time to share your story today.

Tayyab Rizvi (02:31)

Thank you, Anthony. Really excited for the conversation. Appreciate you having me on.

Anthony Codispoti (02:36)

So Taeb, you were born in Pakistan, grew up mostly in Toronto, and eventually settled in New York. Can you kind of quickly walk me through those different waypoints? What prompted the move out of Pakistan? Why and how did you settle in Toronto? And then how long were you there before you moved to New York?

Tayyab Rizvi (02:56)

Yeah, for sure. Great question. So born in Pakistan, that's really where I had kind of grew up up until the age of seven. so it was still, you know, I was pretty young when we moved to Toronto, but it was a core part of my experience. very typical, relatively modern family, but rooted in the traditional kind of family and community aspect. I think like any family leaving a situation like that, my parents wanted us to have a better opportunity for the next generation.

And so that's really what the move was about. So when I was at the age of seven, we moved from Karachi, Pakistan to Toronto, Canada. And that's really where I, you know, truly grew up. I went to school, did all my schooling in Toronto, went to college out there, and started my career. And Toronto is a really fascinating place. We were talking a bit about this. really multicultural, lots of great immigrant stories coming out of that city and country, and so that's really where.

That aspect of community really doubled down for me and I was able to bring that over. and then New York was a fortuitous kind of move, career wise. It was the company I was at at the time, Google, moved me out here. and it came up, you know, pretty last minute. And I didn't look back. I'm I'm I've been here almost ten years, which is what I hear you can, you know, that's the time that you can call yourself a New Yorker. So I'm looking forward to that next year. and my wife is a New Yorker, so we are

you know, we've established our roots out here. This is where I'm building my business. we our son was born here. So been here for the last nine, ten years and yeah, looking looking forward to continuing our family here.

Anthony Codispoti (04:34)

So when you reach that tenure threshold in New York, do they give you like a card or do you learn the secret handshake or how's that work?

Tayyab Rizvi (04:38)

Yeah. Well I

think I I I honestly I've I even heard that ten years is not enough to call yourself a New Yorker. But yeah, I'm looking forward to that initiation. I I I've kind of like held back and not called myself a New Yorker, but I I think next year I'm gonna start kind of saying that. Yeah.

Anthony Codispoti (04:53)

You're getting pretty close.

and just out of curiosity, why Toronto? How did that end up? Did you guys already have family there? Was there a base for you to connect to?

Tayyab Rizvi (05:00)

Right. I

think it was yeah, it was a it we had a network. we had some family. a lot of my parents my parents are civil engineers by trade, the met in college, and a lot of their friends from college had based in Toronto. And at the time Toronto in the mid nineties was you know, a quite a there's a lot of immigration, great opportunity for families to settle in and it just made sense for us to

pick that. I think like I I was too young to be involved in decision making. I think like Sydney, Australia was also being considered, which I wish from a climate perspective we chose instead. But from a cultural perspective, Canada was an amazing experience for us.

Anthony Codispoti (05:36)

Yeah. And I've got family in Canada too, when our families integrate immigrated from Italy back in like the forties or fifties. Like half of them went to northeast Ohio and half

Tayyab Rizvi (05:46)

Yeah.

Anthony Codispoti (05:47)

went to Toronto. And so yeah, what you're talking about, like a lot of great immigrant stories there. okay, so your first major role out of school was in brand management at General Mills,

Tayyab Rizvi (05:58)

Yeah.

Anthony Codispoti (05:59)

consumer package goods giant.

And this is when while you were there, the whole organization was named Canada's Marketer of the Year in two thousand fourteen.

Tell me about the work that you were doing there and more specifically what led to that kind of recognition.

Tayyab Rizvi (06:15)

Right. Yeah, I think so that was my first job out of out of college. And I think what was interesting about that was it I had always had a passion for marketing. And that was something that, you know, I was always interested in going into. And brand management, in my perspective, is the best place to start your marketing career because it really teaches you fundamentals of marketing, teaches you how to build a business, how to build a brand, rooted in the consumer insight. And so I had two roles there. And at the time, like in hindsight, I think it really led to led me to where I am today.

The first role was typical brand management, you know, the project management that comes behind that, understanding the consumer insight, building a brand behind it, and then taking care of everything from product development to pricing to shelf strategy to make sure the product moves off the shelf. The second part of my role, which was I think the really interesting part, was I was tasked with this upstart internally, which was the digital marketing team. And digital marketing, this is like the mid-2010s.

was just starting off. You know, I still recall I was on I my responsibility was called across all the brands. So I remember back in the day we had like a Facebook brand page for Cheerios, which like right now sounds insane. Like, why would Cheerios have a Facebook brand page? But back then when digital marketing was starting out, a lot of these brands were trying these different platforms to see what worked to get in front of the consumer and kind of create this two-way dialogue. So both on the brand management side, understanding how to build the fundamentals of a traditional brand.

and on the digital marketing side, understanding how do we use these new channels, how do we experiment, how do we reach consumers in new ways, that ultimately led us to winning Canada's best marketer in in 2014. It was a combination of the traditional marketing channel strategy that we had from our campaigns, and then also some of the innovative digital marketing strategies we had. We had one of the first you know, YouTube ad branded campaign.

that Cheerios and Nature Valley ran that won a bunch a bunch of awards. And so I think combination of those really led to that success.

Anthony Codispoti (08:15)

So was it that you were utilizing these new channels that other people weren't utilizing? Were there particular ads that were like very catchy, that v were went viral, that got shared? Like what was it that really set you guys apart?

Tayyab Rizvi (08:32)

Right. So I think a bit a bit of both. So we were real we were getting really strong very early on in terms of what a digital integrated marketing campaign looks like. So what an integrated marketing campaign looks like with both traditional channels and digital channels. So that was one part of it. And then at that time, brands were you know really trying to tap into virality and how do we kind of get these ad campaigns on digital platforms that resonate with new audience. And the one that I think led to that award was it was a really interesting insight. it was behind the Shirios brand.

which was that around that time the concept of dads taking more of a kind of ownership role in the household and you know getting involved in getting their kids ready for school and you know taking them to school and just being more involved in the household the insight was around the the campaign was around how to dad and and it was this whole kind of like banner that we had around dads being involved at home, the Cheerios brand being at the forefront of that.

And the campaign kind of under this how to dad messaging, which you could still probably found find on YouTube, led to that virality and I think read led to that recognition that we received from marketing magazine.

Anthony Codispoti (09:41)

Okay, and then how long were you with General Mills before you moved to Google?

Tayyab Rizvi (09:46)

Right. So it was actually again, that's the the fortuitous example I was sharing before. So I was at General Mills for two years. I think that gave me a good foundational understanding of the marketing landscape. One of my biggest partners at General Mills in the digital marketing team was Google. Obviously, with the digital campaigns that we were running with them, the partnership the strong partnership we had with them as a as a top client led me to build relationships at Google. And because I was doing all this creative work from a

paid, owned, and earned perspective on the digital side, it kind of naturally led me to Google. So I started my transition was to the Google Canada team, where I worked on their digital business, which was basically their Google ads business, their YouTube ads business. and that's when I kind of made the transition to the tech space, leaning on that experience from General Mills, leaning on those relationships, but really now focusing on how can Google as a platform and a and a tech company

promote their advertising solutions and go to markets to convince advertisers that typically spent on TV, that typically spent on print, on radio, to move their ad dollars over to digital because that's where the audiences were. People were using Google search more and more. People were on YouTube watching more YouTube videos than TV. And how do we make sure that brands are present in that conversation?

Anthony Codispoti (11:02)

And I would guess you're like the ultimate spokesperson because you had just done this from the brand side and s and

Tayyab Rizvi (11:07)

Exactly.

Anthony Codispoti (11:08)

found a lot of success with it. So not only am I the president, right, I'm also a member of the men's hair club for you know. Yeah.

Tayyab Rizvi (11:14)

Exactly. And

and that that gave me it was cool because I had both sides of the I had per perspective and experience from both sides of the table. I understood what messages would work convincing a client to move their ad dollars over to YouTube or Google because I did that. I was on the other side tri convincing our brand teams to move their ad dollars to these digital platforms and experiment and test and iterate, you know, move quickly, but still make sure that we were leveraging you know, going back to the consumer insight.

Where are consumers going? Where are audiences going? And how do we make sure that our brands are their brands and General Mills brands are present in those moments? and then the Google experience was cool because General Mills, you know, 100-year-old company had a lot of kind of systems in place, but Google was a place where even at that time, I mean, they're still rapidly going and growing, you know, double digits annually. But at that time, it was kind of extensive growth year over year. And

The that experience, what really resonated with me, and now that I think back to it, it allowed me to think through how do you build systems that scale and how do you kind of make sure that you can set your organiz or organization up for the scale that you're trying to reach, right? So it was a company, especially in Canada, it was a very small business that was growing. and we kind of had to think about how do we make sure these complex decisions and systems are built for the scale that we want to reach.

Anthony Codispoti (12:41)

So I'm trying to understand, were you more in like a like one to many kind of marketing role? Like how do we just sort of blast this out? Or were you actually sitting in on sales meetings with like other really big brands?

Tayyab Rizvi (12:54)

Yeah, so it was one to many for sure. So I was responsible for the go to market and product marketing of our advertising solutions on Google and on YouTube. And so I I I don't think they're two they're not distinct roles that you mentioned. I think to be good at that one to many role, I had to be in those sales meetings. I had to be underst I had to understand how our sales partners were pitching our solutions, what were the opportunities clients were raising.

So was definitely a partnership. Sales was definitely our biggest partner in that one-to-many role because we were essentially upstream of what sales was doing. And so we had to make sure the messages we had in market, the positioning we had of our products, the way we were showing up in the industry was something that sales could go and then activate on. And it kind of went hand in hand.

Anthony Codispoti (13:41)

Does the marketing that you put out at the time, is it different if you're sort of targeting like a sub fifty million dollar a year brand versus a billion dollar a year brand?

Tayyab Rizvi (13:54)

That's it, that's yeah, I think that's a really good question. I think now where Google is right now, that is a hundred percent true. I think they have to be very tailored in terms of how they're approaching it. I think back then, because they were still trying to win budgets and dollars from all of these different brands, there wasn't that segmentation. I think they were trying to kind of they were trying to just get market share and grow that market share. there were, you know, that there were tail we would tailor the messages to if

you know, if it was a small business mom and pop shop, we knew that they would need more hand holding, they would need more customer support and kind of the education on how to get started with the platforms versus a hundred million dollar company. But the positioning and the way the channels that we use were very similar. Now I think Google's definitely in a place where you know, they have clients that are spending hundreds of millions of dollars a quarter versus clients that are maybe spending a few million dollars. And so they've they've become much more segmented in their approach going to market.

But back when I was on the team, that was not the case.

Anthony Codispoti (14:54)

Okay. And then you eventually move over to the YouTube side. I was that like a big transition? I mean, obviously YouTube's owned by Google and you know, there's a lot of sort of cross pollination going on.

How how did the work change from what you were doing when you were specifically with Google versus YouTube?

Tayyab Rizvi (15:11)

Yeah, so that was an interesting transition. So what I what I've tried always to do in my career is find the common thread that takes me to my next role. And I think the common thread that took me from Google to YouTube was the the my passion for the YouTube platform and the fact that more and more audiences were moving over to YouTube. So the main change in the role was I went from more of a an kind of go-to-market expert where we took our advertising solutions to large brands.

To more shaping how the YouTube product showed up for creators. and the reason I want to make that change was while I was working on the advertising business and we were bringing over these ad dollars over to the platform, specifically YouTube, what we found was that there was these great entrepreneurs that were telling their stories and building, you know, multi-billion doll multi-million dollar businesses on the platform, who were, you know, high school kids or college dropouts or just had some.

had found a passion or had a specific niche that they were building a business around. And and that really excited me because that kind of showed me the, you know, value of entrepreneurship, the value of using a platform to reach new audiences. And that move to YouTube was more on the product side. So I went from more of a go-to-market expert to more of a product expert, understanding how to shape the product for creators, what their needs were. YouTube, you know,

Created the creator economy. You you're in this space, so you know, but the creator economy wasn't really a term before YouTube. That's really where, you know, even their RevShare model gave all these creators opportunities to build these businesses. And I really wanted to get behind that and understand how could we build a product, how could we build a business to support these entrepreneurs. and that even translates into what I'm doing with scalemates, which I know we'll get a bit later on, but that kind of giving that opportunity for people to participate in the economy and and own a piece of it is

really what I learnt YouTube.

Anthony Codispoti (17:05)

And so what was it that you came in and were able to do? Clearly there were you were already seeing creators that were making a living, that had found their passion, they were doing this. So what were some of the new tools or services that you were able to put in front of them to support

Tayyab Rizvi (17:17)

Right.

Anthony Codispoti (17:17)

the

Tayyab Rizvi (17:18)

So my rule my role was more on the the kind of workflow that creators use to publish their content, upload it to YouTube. How do they make sure they use the, you know, if how are we integrating artificial intelligence to make that process easier for creators? so it was more on the back end and you know, less so on the storytelling side, which obviously creators know best, they know their audiences, they know what message resonates with those audiences.

But how do we kind of take the burden of getting that out to those audiences? Was really my job. And so a lot of the products I worked on were on a product called Creator Studio, where creators go and upload their content, they tailor it to the specific creativity that they want to get out there. Near the back half of my career at YouTube, we started really thinking about how generative AI can automate some of that process. How can we create tools that make it easier for creators to enhance features in the uploads that they're putting out there?

how do they kind of add prompts throughout their videos so that their audiences can engage? and then some creative tools, which you know we tested, didn't actually end up going out there, but ways to further engage with their audiences on the platform. So it was more on the workflow side and making sure that creators have a million things to worry about. They have to think about production, they have to think about think about, you know, how do they tell a story in a short amount of time? We want to take the burden off their plate on, you know, just simply uploading it and making sure that message got out.

to the audiences.

Anthony Codispoti (18:44)

So tell you you worked at GM, huge company, Google, YouTube, some of the biggest companies in the world. And then you make the decision to shift gears. You joined a smaller company called Patreon. This is a membership platform where creators can sell subscriptions to fans.

Tell us about the decision behind that move.

Tayyab Rizvi (19:06)

Yeah, so Patreon actually, I mean, it's you are the target market for Patreon, which is a podcaster that's growing an audience that has a platform and they want a direct relationship with their audiences. That's really where Patreon was. So instead of relying on advertising revenue, creators could then go directly to their audiences and monetize that relationship with a subscription based membership that that allowed them to get exclusive content. I think the biggest change for me in that experience, obviously the through line there was the creator side.

I had built a career on helping creators succeed. And Patreon to me felt like the next evolution of continuing to do that outside of the ad supported model. I think the biggest learning for me in that experience was going from that comfortable, you know, big tech, well-funded, good business model to more of an upstart startup kind of experience where you didn't have all the inputs that a company like Google or YouTube would have. So I had to learn unro learn a lot of those like big company dynamics and

Habits that you build when you're well funded and have the support and resources. And I had to kind of think through how do you how do you become more scrappy? And how do you think through you know, what are how can you make decisions with incomplete information? How can you like pivot strategy based on something you learned the past two quarters? How can you move much quicker and not rely on kind of a decade of experience that you might have? And Patreon really allowed me to learn that and uncover new ways to.

build these products, build these relationships. So my role was specifically on the podcaster audience and really understanding how that was the biggest vertical that Patreon was focused on from a creator perspective. How do we make sure we're building products for the podcasters that help them succeed and grow their audiences and grow their revenue from their their relationships with their audiences.

Anthony Codispoti (20:53)

so thank you for all that. I I get that. I'm I'm curious why did you leave the cushy confines of of YouTube? Like what were you seeing? 'Cause clearly

Tayyab Rizvi (20:59)

Yeah.

Anthony Codispoti (21:02)

you've got a front row seat to, you know, some of the coolest things that are going on in tech and you know, you've got an an idea, not a crystal ball, but almost like a vision to to where things are headed. What were you seeing where you're like, yeah, Patreon's the place I wanna be?

Tayyab Rizvi (21:17)

I think it was the my time at YouTube. I think the creator economy saw exponential growth. I think that was really the insight that led me or want wanted me to go to a company that was solely focused on the creator economy and kind of reimagining the creator economy. And I felt like Patreon was doing that from a a product and and marketing perspective for creators. They were giving them new ways to diversify their revenue stream. So I think the business model really interested me. I think the

The other aspect was I had spent eight years at Google and I had this itch to want to do something new. I I to your point, I was comfortable and we'll get you'll see this theme come through like me starting Skillmates as well. It was kind of this itch where I was like, all right, I I've I've you know learned everything I could learn at YouTube, even though there's a lot of internal mobility, I could have moved around. I wanted to try something new and trying to try to build a new skill set. And I felt that moving to a scope smaller company.

At the time, it would allow me to do that. And I definitely think it did. It allowed me to get closer to the customer, it allowed me to understand how to move faster, how to be scrappy. And I think the number one thing it allowed me to do was distinguish what productivity or just productive actions versus actual impact and driving the business forward, which you know I could see much more at Patreon. I saw a direct impact on the decisions I made for the business and the customer and the creator.

actually led to a material impact in the business of Patreon, which, you know, at a big company like Google, at a big company at YouTube, you're sometimes a small cog and and you don't see that impact. so I would say it would be those three things. It would be the business model, it would be kind of the the wanting to get a bit more uncomfortable and learn again. And then finally the just being more impactful and seeing the impact of my decisions on the business.

Anthony Codispoti (23:06)

And I think that scrappiness is going to come in really handy here as we get a little bit further into the story. And I think this is a good time to kind of transition into that. Because your wife's family was already building a portfolio of franchise restaurants when you came in, you started helping them on

the side. Tell us about how that unfolded, what that experience was like. Because I think there's a moment in there where you had this realization that it was really talent and not capital that was the ultimate bottleneck to

Tayyab Rizvi (23:37)

Yeah, exactly. And and it was so a bit a bit of background on on how we got started in this space. So my as you said, my wife's family around the time I was at Patreon was starting in franchising, and I'll kind of share a bit more of of how we got started. But at that time we were only at a couple of units, and what we found was wanting to scale, one of the biggest challenges we found every time we opened a new location was that we had access to capital, we had access to brands.

But we didn't have access to what reliable talent that we could trust to run each unit as their own operation. so to date, we've scaled from you know those one to two units to 15 units today. And that was really the testing ground for scalemates. and the scalemates essentially solves what we call the principal agent problem, right? You are a you're relying on the in you're relying on the success of a unit.

On another individual who may not have the incentives to make that unit as successful if you were running it. Exactly.

Anthony Codispoti (24:38)

Like a general manager who's ultimately responsible for it. Yeah.

Tayyab Rizvi (24:41)

A salary general manager who is guaranteed a salary and doesn't kind of get impacted based on how the unit performs. So as we were adding these new locations, what we found was we couldn't clone ourselves. We couldn't be in the third location. We couldn't be in the fourth location. We needed someone that had full responsibility and ownership that was building that system.

To scale for us on our behalf. And it was kind of like an interesting experience because this was while I was at Patreon, we had started on a couple of units that really became an A-B test for us. We had one unit where we hired a salary general manager who was guaranteed a salary to run the location. And we had one unit where we brought on an operating partner. We gave them 15% of the business, they put in that capital of what that business was worth, and they ran it as if they were an owner. And what we saw were.

the night and day differences. The salary general manager's you know, we were seeing challenges with operational leadership, we were seeing challenges with costs being managed, whereas the invested operator was running it as if it was their own business, which it was. They had skin in the game. They were showing up with equity on the line. Their bottom line and profit share was getting impacted by the decisions they were making. And so what we saw in that experience just opened up our light bulb that there is a model here where

If you give that skin in the game, that can really help you improve the scale that you want to operate at.

Anthony Codispoti (26:06)

And so Scalemates came the idea for this, I'm gonna guess, came after you of ran this little split test. It wasn't like you went in with a thesis. It was like, now I'm seeing something at and did you did you yourself come up with the idea? Let's do this this kind of split test, or were you borrowing the idea from somebody else that you had talked to that done it before?

Tayyab Rizvi (26:28)

Right. so yeah, exactly. So the the sc our entire portfolio has been the testing ground for scalemates. The we didn't start at Scalemates on the first two units we started with. It was really after the experience with that that we realized there was an opportunity here. It was me and my brother-in-law that kind of c built this idea of scale mates, but it is borrowed from other i i kind of franchise systems, right? Chick-fil-A has a very similar system where you have to invest if you want to run a Chick-fil-A, you have to invest money, you're kind of an operating partner.

Texas Roadback, Texas Roadhouse, Outback Steakhouse have these models as well where the operating partner or the GM has to invest. So the skin in the model, skin in the gate model has existed. We realized there was no platform out there or no business out there that was providing this opportunity to the mom and pop franchise owners that were trying to scale from two to three units to 15, 20 units. And that's really where me and my brother-in-law Hussein was the operational side of our franchise portfolio, really.

built the idea of scalemates and how could we kind of build a company behind it. And we were lucky because what what Scalemates allowed us to do was we had a franchise portfolio. And so we were able to iron out the kinks of the model, understand how do we source these people, how do we vet these people, how do we place these people, what are the equity terms that work for operating partners and franchise owners within our portfolio before we even came out of stealth and externalized to other franchise owners. So it kind of like that was something we were always

mindful of and it's something we wanted to do was we didn't want to learn on other people's businesses. We had our business, we had our portfolio, and that's really where we wanted to figure out how to set it up.

Anthony Codispoti (28:06)

And so before we get into talking about what Scalemates is and what it's doing now, I want to pause for a moment and really dial in on a really important part of this psychology because I've been through this before myself, this idea of having skin in the game. Right. So I've been on both sides of this, like early on in my entrepreneurial career where I didn't have the funds to invest capital. And I'm making the case for sweat equity. Give me some equity because I'm going to earn it and I'm going to work.

And I've been on the other side where now I'm further along in my career, and there are people who want to partner with me on things, and they're in the same position I was before. I don't have the cash, but man, am I going to work hard. And I've got to tell you, from my experience, and you're nodding along, that sweat equity almost never works. If they haven't actually put cash down, but I'm going to give you all those hours, it's worth that cash. It's not the same. It is just not and you're you're agreeing with me. Let I want to hear your viewpoint here.

Tayyab Rizvi (29:04)

A hundred percent. I think sweat equity is great and I think sweat equity can work in certain systems and certain situations, but it isn't what's going to, at least in our experience and the franchise owners that we've worked with or or spoken with, going to help you build a sustainable business to five, ten years down the line. I think that skin in the game comes from personal capital on the line that is allowing this person

and we'll talk a bit about the operator mindset and the psychology behind that. But these are individuals that have spent a decade plus moving their way up from being a cashier to a sit assistant manager to general manager. You need that skin in the game and that access to ownership for them to have that accountability and have the kind of onus on growing the actual business. So sweat equity can work in certain instances. I'm not saying I've seen it work in certain franchise systems.

But it's not what's gonna get you to scale and it's not what's gonna build that five to ten year horizon that you're looking at. There will always be another opportunity that comes up with someone that has sweat equity because they personally haven't put in the capital needed to have that accountability in the store.

Anthony Codispoti (30:13)

Agree, agree a hundred percent. I I've seen the the sweat equity work occasionally, but there is something different when there's the idea of burning your cash versus burning your time. It has

Tayyab Rizvi (30:25)

Exactly. Exactly.

Anthony Codispoti (30:27)

a very different psychological impact. Okay, so you've seen this play out in the split test that you ran in the family's restaurant

business. And you're like, Okay, like now I really get it. We've seen this up close and personal. Tell me about the bridge.

To starting scalemates. You see that there's this thing that can work. How how does this morph into a business idea where you're going to support other people doing this?

Tayyab Rizvi (30:51)

Right. So I think so we did a bunch of customer research. Obviously, we went out and spoke to a bunch of franchise owners. We understood the the problems that that these owners were facing. We're very lucky again, coming from the franchising space, we had a strong network of both franchise owners and operators. So we did a bit of kind of field testing, if you want to call it, to test the model. And what we found was that this was the number one problem franchise owners were raising, which was that, hey, capital is not a problem for me. I can find financing, I have capital, these are cash, you know, cows.

in certain instances. And so capital is an issue. Brand isn't an issue. There's, you know, nine million restaurants in the US, multiple national brands, multiple scaling emerging brands in the franchise space. That isn't what I'm worried about. What I'm worried about is how do I not have to worry about my fryer being broken at 1 a.m.? Right. And and the general manager that I have not having to call him or not him having or he or she having to call me about the smallest issues in the store.

And that's a challenge that if you can solve for me, I would pay you a lot of money to go and do that because I see the value in that. I see the value in taking that operational burden off my plate so that I can open my next location quicker, which is exactly what we were trying to do. We were trying to get to the fifth, sixth, seventh location. And we couldn't do that if we were worrying about the fryer being broken or hiring talent for the third, fourth location. So once we went out and had these conversations with both franchise owners and operators, we realized there was an opportunity to build a business around here.

And our kind of bridge into the space was how do we build a two-sided marketplace where we're matching franchise owners with these experienced, vetted operators who have capital and put that capital into the business and start a business relationship. I spoke a bit about the operator psychology and that's really important here. One of the kind of values-driven side of Scalemates for us is we're giving these hardworking, you know, the talent and and and workers that have proven themselves in the franchise system in restaurants in our case.

That just don't have the capital to start their own franchise business. And they've been excluded from their American dream. They don't have access to their American dream because they don't have the half a million dollars you need to start a franchise system. But they may have $50,000 and they have the experience and skill sets and the results and impact to show that they would be a good owner. So, how do we bring them those opportunities that are much more accessible to get their American dream kicked off and start building generational wealth? And so it was really about pairing the two, and that's really where we realized there was.

to build scalemates because we were able to find these operators and we knew this talent existed out there. And we knew these franchise owners needed these people. Why not build a system that matches that?

Anthony Codispoti (33:31)

And so these operators, these are folks that have experience specifically running restaurants, right? They were general managers, okay. And they've s and they've saved

Tayyab Rizvi (33:36)

Exactly. We have a very

Anthony Codispoti (33:40)

up some cash. Like these are folks there's there's this whole subset of the population that they've run these operations before as general managers and they have call it fifty thousand dollars in cash available to invest.

Tayyab Rizvi (33:52)

Exactly. We always prioritize minimum five to ten years at the GM or district manager level. So these are high quality, I want to say top 1% of operators in the industry that have the experience, that can point to results, growing stores, managing prime costs, improving guest relations, and have some capital that they can put into the business. and and then we work with the franchise owner to structure the deal in a way the franchise owner is the one that's kind of dictating the deal terms. They're the ones telling us what type of equity they want to give up.

what investment looks like. And we work with them and advise them on how to structure it in a way that becomes accessible for the operators. And they're involved in the process, they get to vet the talent as well. And we'll get through the process in a bit. But we want to make sure both sides are happy with each other and we've built a system where there's multiple touch points where they interact and are confident in each other's ability. So it's not just that we're vetting operators. That's definitely priority number one in making sure we're servicing the best operators, but we're also vetting franchise owners.

Because we don't want to just open any franchise opportunity to these operators. You know, for example, if it's a turnaround unit or a declining unit, how are we going to sell that to an operator to say buy into a unit that's declining and kind of be the magic solution that that makes it better? And so we're trying to manage those aspects as well between both parties.

Anthony Codispoti (35:10)

And so what does that vetting process look like? Tell me first on the franchise or side and then on the franchisee side.

Tayyab Rizvi (35:16)

Yeah, so the franchise or side is pretty clear cut. I think we we obviously I think we

Anthony Codispoti (35:21)

Or sorry s

sorry to interrupt, Tayab. Just occurred to me, maybe I'm misunderstanding the model a little bit. Is your client typically the franchise or or is it one of their franchisees who now wants to go and open up twenty locations? okay.

Tayyab Rizvi (35:33)

It's it's a franchisee. So it's a franchise owner,

franchisee. We also work with franchise ours integrating into their system, but really we're helping the franchisee, right? This is a franchisee that has a deal with a brand that has capital that hopefully has a location, but that's not really a gating need for us. They could be looking at specific markets. We partner with them, we understand the brand, we understand what problem they want to solve. Is it a new build? Is it an existing unit? They want to bring in an operator. We understand.

the financials of that unit, what kind of areas would need to be optimized by this operator. And we package up the deal based on the inputs that franchise owner provides. So things like what's the compensation? you know, we want to be want make sure there's salary because the ultimately the operator is doing the job of the general manager. We want to make sure there's the equity component, there's the investment component, understanding how do we structure that in a way that's accessible for the operators as well. once we've vetted that, once we feel confident that this is a

A unit that would be appealing to bring in an operator that has a decade plus experience and some capital. We then package up a listing and then we go out similar to a recruiting agency. we're not, you know, we I I try not to liken ourselves to a recruiting agency, but the service we provide is very similar. But the key distinction between our services, we're not just finding these people that are looking for a job. We're finding people that are looking for a business opportunity. And that's really what the operator side is. It's someone that has hit a career ceiling.

At the general manager, district manager level. They're feeling stuck, they can move to another brand, but they're still gonna earn that $60,000, $70,000 salary. They have no upside in the success of the business. And that's what we're providing for the operators. So we then go out, we find operators that have the experience through our channels, through our network, and then we take them to our vetting process. It's a very diligent vetting process. We have multiple interview screens. we do manager management placement test where we understand their experience, how does it align with the values?

Of the franchise owner, the things that the franchise owner has told us they're looking for. and then we involve the franchise owner in the interview process as well. So they can see the talent, they can see the experience that these people bring. once the franchise owner is confident in the talent that we brought, they then negotiate the terms that deal directly with them. We're not a broker, we're not an attorney, and so once we've kind of found them that successful operator that we feel will be their partner for five, 10 years down the line, they negotiate to deal directly with them, they sign the agreement with them.

and then start the start the relationship and and bringing them on as that operator.

Anthony Codispoti (38:00)

So from the franchisee perspective, are there particular types of restaurants that you found so far that are a really good fit? Like are you better with QSR or a little bit more of a f like a like a fast casual, like a sit down place?

Tayyab Rizvi (38:18)

Yeah, great question. So right now we've deliberately have been focusing on the restaurant space because we feel that I mean, I mentioned nine million restaurants across the country, multiple brands, both on the national side and emerging side. We think the GM churn problem is most acute in the restaurant space as well. There's a lot of turnover, there's a lot of challenges from an operational perspective. so restaurants have been our focus, but the model applies. We've we're entering the fitness space, we're entering early childhood education franchise space.

The invested operator skin in the game model applies to any franchise system. But what we found from a brand perspective is the emerging brands are the ones that this model appeals most to because they're hungry for growth. They're hungry for expansion. They want to go either nationwide or have very specific geographies based on their offering. And so emerging brands has been really successful for us in the early days. That's really where our portfolio found success with this model as well. But we're also talking to larger national.

I think with the larger national brands, it's obviously a longer sales cycle. There's more approvals involved. we want to make sure that the the brand, the national brand is protected and the franchiser training is implemented in that process. but right now I think the focus and the most acute problem is in the restaurant space with emerging brands, which is what we're finding a lot of success with.

Anthony Codispoti (39:38)

So I wonder are there are any financing options available, right? So you've got a restaurant build that you know costs five hundred thousand dollars to use the number that you threw out before, and an owner wants a partner to put in ten or twenty percent, which would be fifty to a hundred thousand, but maybe they've only got half of that or a third of that. But man, they're a

Tayyab Rizvi (39:57)

Yep.

Anthony Codispoti (39:57)

great operator with the experience. Is there a way to make this work?

Tayyab Rizvi (40:02)

Yeah, a hundred percent. So we actually always recommend. So I think the our kind of recommendation to franchisees is to structure the deal in a way that would attract a talented manager that's earning sixty, seventy thousand dollars to take the leap and move into this business opportunity. So we don't we typically don't gate the entire investment amount. And by that I mean we structure in a way with the franchise owner.

To make it more appealing and accessible for the operator. So you mentioned the $100,000 for a $500,000 bail out, right? The way we would structure that with the franchise owner is: okay, maybe the operator does not have $100,000, but they have $50,000. How can we structure it? So the $50,000 is an initial down payment pre-coming on, and the remaining $50,000 comes from their profit sharing. So the profit that they earn from that equity gets redirected to the initial investment amount. Once they've paid off that investment amount, they then start pocketing.

the the profit sharing from the unit. So it's kind of what you were going at earlier around the sweat equity. It's a version of sweat equity. It's a version of seller financing where the operator is coming in for that $100,000 equity, but they're only putting $50,000 of capital in the business from their pocket. And the remaining $50,000 coming from the profit sharing that they are accountable for. So again, they want to pay that off much quicker. They're going to make sure that the unit is performing well and they're not on, you know, they're not

giving up this opportunity because they didn't have the entire investment about. So 100%. We're always trying to make it so that it's accessible and that the the experience and the talent is not passed on because they don't have the entire investment about.

Anthony Codispoti (41:37)

And that makes a lot of sense because if you're making sixty or seventy thousand dollars a year, the likelihood of you having saved up fifty thousand dollars over the last seven, eight, nine, ten years is not great. Who holds the note in that case? Is it the franchisee? Is it like a third party financing?

Tayyab Rizvi (41:53)

So it's the franchisee in that in that specific example I shared, but then there is also financing options, right? So the the SBA route is al always one that we recommend. We as scalmates are also considering a future line of business where we kind of bring financing solutions to operators. you know, once we kind of perfect this matching process, this vetting process, how do we kind of offer that as a line of business where, you know, we are vetting this person? We're putting our reputation in the a stake in the ground, saying that this is someone that we

Think is going to be a good partner for you, why would we not also provide them financing to go and be successful in that opportunity? so there's multiple avenues. There's the note on the franchisee side, they hold hold that relationship. There's the SBA route that they could get from a third party. we're kind of like an aggregator of that perspective. And then obviously, as a future line of business, how can we offer that as a solution to again stake our reputation in the talent that we're recommending the franchise? It's like we're also coming in with skin in the at that point.

Right. We're saying that this is a person that we betted, we have confidence in, and we will finance part of their investment to make sure they're successful. I think the ultimate theme for us is we want to make sure there's meaningful alignment between the two parties. And we've seen, you know, as low as $10,000 being enough to have that skin in the game, have that accountability from the operator side, and anything else can be financed or or figured out from a third party or our own solutions.

Anthony Codispoti (43:15)

Mm. Any other future lines of business that you're already thinking about?

Tayyab Rizvi (43:20)

I think so. I think you know, we're obviously very new and so we're deliberately very heads down focused on really perfecting this matchmaking process. How can we do it at scale? I think the other element of this is it's a trust-based business. And so my experiences at Google, which was like building scale and building products for billions of users, doesn't really translate here because it's a high trust, high relationship built business. So the focus is really on perfecting that in the early days. I think future lines of business financing is one. I think the other line we've been thinking about is training and education.

Right. A lot of these operators have the operational experience, but they may not have business ownership experience. And so how can we kind of train them to think more like a business owner? And what are the challenges that come with that responsibility and being a business partner with the franchise owner? So training and development is the future line of business that we're looking at. And then I think eventually we want to become like a foundational layer for all businesses, right? Right now we're very specifically focused on franchising. I think a future line of business or future expansion opportunity for us is.

There are millions of businesses coming into the market with a generation of baby boomers retiring who may not have a succession plan in place. They may not want to sell the business. How can they be a minority owner, having an operator come in? So there's I I think like future the future is quite bright in terms of the lines of businesses we could explore, but right now the focus is very much on making this trust repeatable and and scalable to get to get us to a point where we can fund these new lines of businesses.

Anthony Codispoti (44:49)

You said something interesting, Tayab, about your experience with Google and YouTube, you know, being one to billions of users, right? Just this massive scale. And what you're doing now is very much trust oriented, right? It's one to one. They've got to know you. They've got to trust that you're vetting both sides of the

Tayyab Rizvi (45:07)

Exactly.

Anthony Codispoti (45:08)

deal very well. But are there things from your time at Google and YouTube that have been helpful? Maybe from, I don't know, just the general marketing push that you've done?

Tayyab Rizvi (45:19)

a hundred percent. I actually think across you know, it's they always say hindsight so it's the Steve Jobs call where you can only connect the dots when you look backwards. And I think across all my jobs there's been something that kind of translates into what I'm doing with scale based. I think General Mill's easiest example is the love for food, bringing people together for for a meal and kind of how do we enter that in the franchising space. For Google, YouTube and Patreon, I think I go back to that message that I was sharing earlier, which is about how do you build systems and and kind of a a complex structure that that

operates at scale. And so while trust in this business is very high touch and something that we need to lean into, the vetting and the business decision parts that that we have for finding these operators, making sure they're qualified, that's really where I'm leaning on that Google experience on building that system that can help us scale. So I think it's really a Google and YouTube would like kind of brought that experience. And then at Patreon it was more so getting closer to the customer and understanding

how can you build a solution that really achieves the problems that they're facing? I mentioned that about franchise owners in the past, operators as well. There's Indeed, there's BizBySell. Like, how can we kind of structure this platform in a way that allows them to understand the opportunity and kind of really hits the problem they're facing in their career, which is that they've hit a career ceiling and they want to kind of enter into business ownership. So I think those two experiences, those three experiences all translated into what I'm doing at Scalemates. I think Scalemates is just interesting because.

There is such a high level of trust that needs to come from both the franchisee side and the operator side that we're really trying to kind of put in a bottle. and then figure out how do the how does technology help us enable the back end in making sure that once we've kind of like d built that trust, everything else is smooth sailing. How does AI play a role in that? and and close those deals faster.

Anthony Codispoti (47:13)

let's go back a little bit. L tell me about the restaurant brands that your family has. the the the different brands, how many folks you're employing, how many locations, kinda spill it out for us.

Tayyab Rizvi (47:24)

Yeah, so we're we're I by the end of the year we'll be at fifteen locations.

we started in twenty twenty-one, so really over the last five years. 2021 to 2023, it was only three locations. The growth has really come over the last three years. I wouldn't say the majority of it, even in the last year. The three brands are all emerging. One is Naz's Halal. It's a a New York-based or it started in New York, kind of a chicken over rice street cart kind of Mediterranean concept. That's now at 50 units. We're the second biggest franchisee of Naz's Halal.

In the US, we've gone all the way from Rhode Island to Arizona, Florida, taking it to new markets where that New York style, New York street card food may not exist. So that's number one. That's our biggest brand. The second brand is the bubble tea brand, also from Long Island, Yaaas Tea, scaling very quickly, going to be at about 15-20 locations across the brand by the end of the year. And the third one's our newest one, which is Love and Honey Fried Chicken. it's a Philadelphia-based fried chicken brand.

built a cult following in Philadelphia. we are the first franchisee to take it out of Pennsylvania. We took it to Rhode Island and just opened a location in Brooklyn. Very excited about that. but again our we try to focus on emerging brands that we see a lot of potential behind that are scaling because we get to scale with them. I think there's pros and cons because obviously we're one of the first franchisees across all the the three brands and we're helping the franchise or learn as well. We're kind of sharing our learnings and they're kind of helping us, you know

bring their success, bring their menu, bring all the things that have worked in their early locations to new markets. So it's been a fruitful kind of relationship that we've learned a lot from. And it's allowed us to scale to this pro point. And I think we're gonna invest continue to invest in these three brands and find new opportunities in different markets. The other thing that has been interesting with our portfolio is the invested operator model, one of the biggest challenges that franchisees face is they typically expand within like let's say an hour driving distance from where they live.

Right? Our entire fifteen unit portfolio, only two units are in New York. The remaining thirteen units are across the country, wherein

Anthony Codispoti (49:28)

Because you've

got an owner operator at each of these locations.

Tayyab Rizvi (49:31)

Exactly. We have someone that's local to the market that lives there that's running the location. So we make maybe one trip out of a quarter to these locations. We don't have to be there day to day. We have this reliable partner that's running it for us. And what that's allowed to do is go nationwide and expand with these emerging brands nationwide. So with Nashal, they primar primarily expanded in the East Coast. we took it know, we it did expand in the East Coast, but then we took it to California, we took it to

Phoenix. we, you know, obviously went pretty heavy in Florida as a market with that investment operator model. which I think is a is a value proposition that we do lean on on the franchise owner side because most franchise owners are tapping out of that one hour driving distance market. They need to look at new markets to scale and to really earn the wealth and and kind of build a business across multiple units in the double digits, you need to explore beyond your

specific vicinity, which we think that the scale mates model really helps you do.

Anthony Codispoti (50:31)

Love that. What's one of the hardest things you've had to overcome, Tayyab, and what did going through that teach you?

Tayyab Rizvi (50:38)

That that's a really good question. And I think I've kind of like planted some seeds in in like some of my earlier responses. And it's this is probably the most top of mind challenge right now, which is what we were talking about earlier, right? I think one of the biggest challenges and learnings as I've kind of progressed in my career have been has been how do you trade the certainty for that uncertainty? So I talked a bit about I had a lot of certainty at Google. I had a lot of resources, I had a lot of headcount.

a lot of budget, how do you kind of trade that to go to a Patreon and kind of build a new kind of skill set, build a new muscle in operating without the resources of a big company? And then now it's even more profound. How do you scale that? How do you kind of lean on that kind of uncertainty building your own company? So obviously, a lot of imposter syndrome in terms of I've spent a decade plus in big corporate companies.

And now I'm starting my own company. So a lot of kind of had to redefine myself and challenge myself as how do how can I do have the skill sets, I do have the experiences to become a founder and run through the walls that you need to as a founder. How do you kind of lean on that uncertainty, lean on that imposter syndrome and get better every day? And I would say that's kind of the biggest challenge that I'm currently navigating through. And so I haven't solved it. I haven't figured it out. Maybe if we talk in five years when Scalemates is a hundred million dollar company, we can talk about, you know, how I came across came through that experience. But

It's really about trading that certainty for that uncertainty and you know, just redefining yourself and something that I'm going through every day right now as we're building scalemates.

Anthony Codispoti (52:13)

The idea of imposter syndrome comes up on the show all the time. with folks in your seat, with folks who have thousand employee companies. it's just it's it's a very common thread, I think, in humanity, but certainly in high performers. I've got one guest that gave me a nugget, and I'm gonna share it with you in case there's something for you to take away from this. But he said that he's actually figured out a way to frame imposter syndrome as a superpower. So rather than it being this like

weight that's around his neck and like, what was me? Why am I doubting myself? It's like, no, it's this thing that kicks me in the rear end every day. Get up out of bed. Go do better than you did the day before. You can't rest on yesterday's accomplishments. And I see you nodding your head like there's there's some recognition that there's something to this.

Tayyab Rizvi (53:01)

Yeah, 100%. That's a really powerful reframe. I mean, some days it's really hard to do that. Like as a founder, and I'm sure you've been in the space as well, right? It's such a roller coaster. There's the highest of highs and the lowest of lows. And some days, you know, the the the the imposter syndrome takes over and and that positive reframe is challenging. But I a hundred percent agree. I think you have to kind of take that as you know, th that hunger to like prove that imposter syndrome wrong, that you have the skill sets, you have the experience to actually go and build something.

I think the other challenge that comes with that is coming from the corporate experience that I've had, you know, success is it's not easy to replicate, but it's easier to come by because you again are surrounded by successful people, really high bar, you know, talented people that are helping you become successful, have the resources to help you become successful. And now you're kind of doing it on your own. And how do you kind of have that conversation with yourself to make sure that

you do have that powerful reframe and you realize that your self worth isn't tied to an individual win or loss or a difficult week that you might have as a founder. It's kind of like a collective experience and and kind of how do you achieve that broader goal of wanting to create something for yourself.

Anthony Codispoti (54:17)

So I've been in that position many times where I'm starting something new and it's just not working. And I'm like, I can't do this. I I don't know why. I I can't believe I've ever been able to do anything

Tayyab Rizvi (54:25)

Yeah.

Anthony Codispoti (54:26)

in my entire life. And the thing that's been helpful to me is I've got a handful of really close friends that'll kind of like, you know, verbally smack me across the face and be like, Here are multiple instances, multiple examples of successes that you have had. Like, why aren't you seeing those? And I'm like, Okay, yeah, thank you for that reset. Do you have?

People like that in your life.

Tayyab Rizvi (54:48)

yes, a hundred percent. I've been very fortunate to have you know, r really reliable group of mentors that I go back to kind of as a sounding board just to kind of get career advice. I think my friends have been great from that perspective as well, of just kind of giving me that advice. I think the one mentor, he's he's someone I've only met this year and I already consider him a mentor that I would reference. He's a gentleman that introduced us, Rishi. he's been great because what he's allowed me to do is I think him and I have similar experiences because

He comes from a corporate background that has now kind of entered kind of his or started to build his two-sided marketplace as well in the in the restaurant space. And he has been a great sounding board for me because our experiences overlap. I'm like maybe 10 years behind where he was moving from corporate to starting his own company. And so what he allows me to do, every conversation I have with him, I just leave so energized. And so he's kind of like that positive reframe of imposter syndrome for me, where, you know, he's guiding me in the day-to-day decisions of

How to think like a founder, you know, what are the day-to-day nav challenges that you have to navigate. But then also, you know, take a step back. You are going through transformative change in your career. How do you kind of navigate that? How do you kind of navigate the imposter syndrome, the psychology psychological sides of being a founder? And so Rishi's been great for from that perspective because he just grounds me and he makes me realize it's it's it's it's a marathon, not a sprint. and the one thing I keep going back to is.

I've said this to him, I think I said this to you earlier as well as I I heard this great quote where the hardest drug to get off of is a bi weekly paycheck. And I think that is like that I'm going through the withdrawals right now, starting a family and everything, trying to build this company. And that is a hundred percent true and and it's it's something I'm trying to live through every day. And it's like, how do you kind of look at that vision of wanting to build something for yourself, prove that imposter syndrome wrong, and not go back to that comfort of you know, everyday cushy, you know,

That comfort that comes from just having a day to day career.

Anthony Codispoti (56:43)

You know, I guess I was

a little bit lucky in that respect. I never had the taste of that drug. Like right when I graduated college, I was always a founder, but

Tayyab Rizvi (56:48)

Yeah, that I see great. Yeah. It's the best way to do it.

Anthony Codispoti (56:52)

yeah. and Rishi Nigam, I'm glad that you mentioned him. He was another great guest on the show. co-founder, CEO of Franklin Junction, the world's first and maybe only, I don't know, certainly largest host kitchen marketplace. So if

Tayyab Rizvi (57:06)

Yep.

Anthony Codispoti (57:06)

you haven't s listened to that episode, it's a great one. Go check that out.

But Tyab, for you, I've just got one more question today. And before I ask it, I just want to do three quick things for the audience. First of all, if you want to get in touch with Tyab, I'm gonna give you two ways. Go to his website, scalemates.co. Scalemates.co. And then he's also given us his email address. You sure we you want me to give this out here? Okay.

Tayyab Rizvi (57:31)

Yeah, please. I would love to chat.

Anthony Codispoti (57:32)

So it's his first initial T and then his last name, RISV, R-I-Z-E-R.

V-I, T-R-I-Z-V-I at scalemates.co. Don't worry, I'll put that in the show notes. And if you're enjoying the show, please take a moment to subscribe wherever you're listening. It also sends a signal that helps others discover our podcast. So thank you for taking a quick moment to do that right now. And as a reminder, you can finally get your restaurant employees access to therapists, doctors, and prescription medications that

Counterintuitively actually increases your net profits starting in the very first month. There's no co-pays, there's no deductibles, and a lot of your part-timers are going to qualify too. Learn more about how to have happier employees and a stronger bottom line with this Bain Capital Insurance product, addbackbenefits.com.

Okay, so last question for you, Taya. As you think about the work that you're doing now, what is it that you most want to be remembered for?

Tayyab Rizvi (58:34)

Oof. That's a great question. I think I want it kind of goes back to the message I was sharing with my experience at YouTube, helping creators participate in the economy. My response with scalemates in terms of helping these operators get access to their American dream. I've always, you know, been of the mindset of how can you empower individuals that have a great idea, have great experience.

To realize their full potential. And I think Scalemates is really uniquely positioned to help both franchise owners and operators do that. And so if there's one thing I can be I want to be remembered for, it's we helped an entire class of working individuals that have spent decades, you know, putting their blood, sweat, and tears into their job that just have not had access to their American dream, their access to generational wealth. How can we be that platform that's empowering that and giving these individuals

the right to participate in the in the economy that they that they're involved in. And I think if scalemates can be a big part of that in helping people achieve that dream, helping people you know achieve that ownership aspect, then I think we're successful. And that would kind of help me sleep at night, get over that imposter syndrome and just make sure that we are we're happy with the the impact that we've provided these countless families and individuals.

Anthony Codispoti (59:59)

It occurs to me that if you guys don't already have a tagline, you should have something about the American dream in there somewhere. Yeah. All right. Tayab

Tayyab Rizvi (1:00:05)

A hundred percent. Exactly. Yes. Completely agree.

Anthony Codispoti (1:00:09)

Rizvi, from scalemates.co. I wanna be the first to thank you for sharing both your time and your story with us today. I appreciate you being here.

Tayyab Rizvi (1:00:15)

Thank you so much for

having me, Anthony. Really enjoyed it.

Anthony Codispoti (1:00:18)

Hey folks, that's a wrap on another episode of the Inspire Stories Podcast. Thanks for learning with us. And if one thing stood out, put that into action today.

Connect with Tayyab Rizvi:

Website: ScaleMates.co

Email: trizvi@ScaleMates.co