On this episode of Entrepreneur Therapy, Dr. Drew Pinsky and Kim Perell meet with a founder whose company is growing fast, but so is the pressure at home.
00:00I gotta give all props to my wife. I used to take business trips and she'd be like,
00:04where are you? Now what I do is I'm in the Google Calendar invite. She's my invitee and then she
00:10has to accept it so that I know it's okay. It's one way of doing it. Yeah. Being an entrepreneur
00:16is not easy. You might have people looking after your business, but who is looking after you?
00:22We are. Welcome to Entrepreneur Therapy. Presented by Amazon Business. In each episode,
00:28renowned health expert Dr. Drew Pinsky and serial investor Kim Perel will meet with small business
00:34owners looking for some advice. We're here to find out what issues still keep them up at night.
00:38I'm Alok Ahuja. I'm the CEO and co-founder of Trexity. Trexity is a superior last mile logistics
00:46technology platform. We build proprietary pieces of technology that solve for the gaps around local
00:52delivery. We are not a logistics company. We don't have warehouses. We don't have fleets of vehicles.
00:57We are an assetless technology company and that has played into our favor and has allowed us to
01:03scale at the rate that we have. So Alok, what are you looking to get out of the show today?
01:09I always kind of second guess. Are we doing the right thing to get an opportunity to go into a
01:15therapy session when you already know it's lonely, when you know it's hard to think inward
01:19is super valuable. So that's why it's super cool and important to do something like this.
01:24I think it's time. We're going to send you over to Dr. Drew and Kim and you're going to have a great
01:29conversation. I'm looking forward to it, man. Alok, thanks for joining us. Thanks for having me,
01:34guys. What are the challenges that you're currently facing today? For us, one of the biggest challenges
01:39we have is being a remote company. And, you know, the pandemic made that kind of normal and then there
01:47was all this back to office. And we did that. However, during the time that we were all working
01:53away from the office, we started to hire people in other cities. And so when we got an office,
01:58it wasn't fair to those in the other cities that couldn't come in to the headquarters.
02:03Did I hear you correctly that it's unfair to the people who are remote? We're so used to hearing it
02:09being unfair to the people that are required to come in.
02:11A dream for a tech founder is to have everybody in one room, right? Our goal is to move as fast
02:18at the speed of light. And I feel like sometimes we're not able to move as fast as we want because
02:24we are a little disjointed in where we sit across the globe.
02:29And what are some of the processes you have right now to increase connection amongst the distributed team?
02:34Yeah. Well, one of the things we started doing about two years ago is we decided to every quarter
02:41is to invest in a what we call a quarterly offsite. So we'll fly the entire company to one location
02:48for three days and two nights. So these are one of the things that we're doing to help us out.
02:53Did you come with specific questions today?
02:55I did come with a few specific questions. What are some of the main priorities I should be thinking about
03:01when it comes to scaling the business into new markets, into scaling our existing offering?
03:07I ask you both, how do you start defining where and when to scale?
03:12Based on my experience, I would start small in a market that you know you can win at
03:16and really try to own it and not try to cover the entire U.S. because you need the drivers, right?
03:24And you need the couriers in that local market. So how do you either find someone to partner with
03:30in that specific market or do you find a experienced executive that could be like that GM of that U.S. market?
03:38But I think it's finding a partner that actually has been there, done it, and can help you navigate the challenges
03:44that someone else has already seen.
03:46Yeah, that's a great point.
03:47In addition to sleep and working out and nutrition are the things that really every entrepreneur needs to pay attention to
03:55or they will get into trouble. The other thing is relationships and then service. So how are your relationships?
04:02Are you spending enough time with your family?
04:03I am. And the only way I'm able to do that, and it's a catch-22, is by being remote and working from home, right?
04:12As much as I want to be in the office and be with all of my peers, the fact that I get to build this at home
04:19and watch my son get off the school bus every day in front of our house and then sneak out of my office
04:24to have dinner as a family every night and then go back in, I've got a pretty good balance there.
04:29Sometimes my wife will think, maybe it's not the best balance, but I am working at it, Dr. Drew.
04:35It is something that is hard because I am addicted to building, and I know sometimes that takes a toll on family,
04:43so I am trying to balance that.
04:44You use the term addicted to building things, and I think that is a real thing, getting addicted to growth.
04:51And when you're in it, you can't imagine that everyone seems happy, everyone's fine.
04:55I'm spending as much time as I can with you. I'm here all the time. We go do stuff.
04:58You will start to hear resentment, but it's really a treacherous place to be addicted to growth.
05:04That's really good advice. So let me ask you this. Would it be like carving out time where I turn things off?
05:12Because that's one of the things I don't do, I don't turn off.
05:15Yeah, of course, but I think more or first, because it might be jarring to them, they may not know what to do with you,
05:23but just start asking more questions about, do you need more from me? Am I available enough?
05:28Is there something I can do to help you? I know I'm distracted a lot.
05:31Just kind of admit more to what it is you're doing and how it might affect them.
05:37Acknowledge it and see if they give you feedback on what more you might be able to do for them.
05:42That's awesome.
05:42Make sense?
05:43Yeah, 100%.
05:44How do you moderate your enthusiasm for your business and your enthusiasm for your family?
05:52How do you decide when to sacrifice one for the other? Do you have a way of doing that?
05:56Or are you just sort of all in on business for right now?
05:58Yeah, that's a great question. And I have to go back to the backbone of this family. And that's my wife. And she allows for that balance to take place. So she knows when, when daddy's busy, that she will organize the kids schedule and hers accordingly. And I do the same.
06:17Uh, I'm sure I can continue to get better at it, but it's definitely something that is very important to me is making sure that I have that, that balance between work and life. And, uh, I got to give all, all props to my wife. I used to take business trips and she'd be like, where are you? Now what I do is I in the Google calendar invite, she's my invitee. And then she has to accept it so that I know it's okay.
06:40It's one way of doing it.
06:41Yeah.
06:43You guys rock. That's all stuff I'm going to steal. Thank you.
06:47It was great.
06:48You don't have to steal it. We give it to you.
06:49Yeah, exactly.
06:50Great talk to you. We'll send you back to Brad.
06:53Congratulations on your success.
06:55Alok, we're back. What is going on in your head right now? How does it feel to go through entrepreneur therapy?
07:02I'm feeling great, man. I'm feeling like I got some work to do now. Like I need to implement some of these ideas and then report back to let them know how it was.
07:09I love it. Well, Alok, thanks so much for participating in entrepreneur therapy presented by Amazon Business.
07:15And to say thank you, we're giving you $1,000 in cash.
07:19That's awesome.
07:20We understand Trexity has a hybrid staff, so managing employee spending and getting them set up with the right gear for their home offices can be hard.
07:28With Amazon Business Prime paid membership, you can simplify your purchasing operations and empower every employee to get what they need when they need it.
07:37This is a huge win for Trexity. Thank you guys so much.
