4.8 • 18.1K Ratings
🗓️ 4 August 2025
⏱️ 4 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
In this bite-sized bonus episode from Leap Academy, Gary Vaynerchuk reflects on the very beginning of VaynerMedia, asking for office space, deciding not to raise capital, and the pressure of paying salaries with whatever came in. A real look at what building from scratch actually feels like.
👉 Listen to the full episode here:https://open.spotify.com/episode/0nqE9S6qtQaLXebyGemeKN?si=GmEEc8ekSlC-FxLs37N-Gg
Listen to this episode of Leap Academy with Ilana Golan here: https://link.chtbl.com/leapacademy
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0:00.0 | So take me there. So you're basically asking Mike and Cass for their office, which is very bold and very, very scary. |
0:09.6 | And very honestly, because I want to tell the story in truth, Mike and I met because an employee of his was fascinated by my content. |
0:17.9 | And we hit it off in our meeting he offered. |
0:21.6 | Wow. |
0:22.6 | You know, because he's such a mensch, but, you know. |
0:25.6 | And that's pretty incredible because they're not in a big spot by then, you know, they have a small office. |
0:31.6 | And at that point, they're giving you their, you know, their mayor, right know there's half the size of this for context |
0:38.3 | okay so that's your office when you get started yep now you decide if I'm not |
0:43.8 | mistaken not to raise capital correct right so take me there because at that point |
0:49.1 | and we're in Leap Academy decided not to raise capital but at that point it becomes there's some |
0:55.3 | money fears right like whatever you bring in that is the salary so take me to |
1:01.0 | those moments like did you have moments of oh my god I don't have salary this |
1:04.8 | month or like take me there a little bit to the beginning I believe that most |
1:10.1 | companies and most people are unhappy and lose because they don't think in terms of saving money. |
1:18.6 | Tell me more. |
1:19.6 | I will. |
1:20.6 | The reason we worked was every time we got money including that first $30,000, we spent only $15,000 of it. |
1:29.8 | Like I wasn't hiring ahead of our capacity. |
1:32.4 | I didn't care how long it would take me to build this company. |
1:35.2 | I wasn't in a rush. |
1:37.4 | So how did it go? |
1:38.8 | I think that first year, we did well. |
... |
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