It took me a while to learn to listen to my instincts.

Like my instincts when it came to like people or strategic decisions, etc.

I don't have a thought of like, oh, I need this type of VP of sales. And I'm like, no, actually, never mind. Maybe I just need this type. And I would make mistakes over course a couple of years. I'm like, why didn't I just listen to myself the first time? I'd have little things like that where I just, I knew better, but I didn't listen to myself.

I didn't repeat those mistakes a second go around.

And then the second thing I'd have little things like that where I just, I knew better, but I didn't listen to myself. I didn't repeat those mistakes a second go-round. And then the second thing I'd say is,

I did not delegate well enough in the beginning. It was like almost an over-correction. I would just be like, this has to be perfect, like this way, this way, this way. And I actually had a moment where like the top leaders in the company sat me down, you know, a couple years of company and said,

hey, we think we're going to fail because you're controlling too much. Like you're trying to do this, this, this person doesn't have the freedom to move. This person doesn't have freedom to move. And that moment, I remember calling like one of my board members that night and I couldn't sleep. And I'm like, I might have messed up and like, what do I do? I feel like I'm losing control. But he was like, yeah, that's kind of the point. You got to learn to delegate, pick the right people, and then trust them to do their job. And the next time, you know, Airdome, the second company, like, I really learned that lesson. And I did it very differently on how to build the team. but those are, that's the two of the biggest mistakes I made. Welcome to the Peele. I'm your host, Turner Novak, founder of Banana Capital. Today's guest is Rahul Sidu, founder of Spider-Tech and Aerodone, two companies in the public safety space. It's making air support more accessible to like every community in America for their public safety agencies to keep their community saver.

He sold both of them and our conversation has a heavy emphasis on lessons learned, what do you did differently with the second company Aerodome, and why he sold only 17 months after starting it.

Most people just hear that number go, why did you sell so early? And I watched them go from like zero dollars to hundreds of millions of AR in a period of like seven years in this industry. And I'm like, that's incredible. Their numbers, their margins were good, very good reputation in the public safety industry. If you listen to last week's episode, Paul told us to never talk to the cops. You're supposed to never talk to BCCs. Talking to VCs is like talking to the cops.

Rahul gives us the other side of the table, sharing his playbook for selling to police, the government,

and how he met Nikita Beer in high school. It's been the most useful friend I've had in my tech career, like always helping me out. And why he's still very bullish on drones. The next five to 10

years, the gold rush is like people who can combine robotics and

AI to drive workflow changes, et cetera, especially for enterprise. A quick thank you to Nikita,

Michelle Valls, Alex and Zan at 2048, Amar and William at Carmen Ventures, and SAR at CRV for

helping brainstorm topics for a rule. A reminder, I publish two episodes of the appeal every week,

exploring the world's greatest startup stories just like this one. For regular listeners of the show,

a quick apology that the episode I mentioned was coming out this week is actually out next week,

how a solo GP won from a legal immigrant to a $160 million fun one. Now, let's talk to Rahul.

Rahul, welcome to the show.

Thanks, man.

I get a beer.

Yeah, I'm excited to have you. I know you used to be a comedian way back in the day, and people have been telling me the show has been pretty, pretty dry, so maybe this one will be a little more exciting. Yeah, I've watched a show. It's not funny at all. I didn't laugh once, but I will try to make the

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