#088 Toby Rush: $100M Exits, Splitting Companies, Timing Startups, and Ideem Killing 2FA

Smart Friends

Topics:

(00:00:00) - Intro

(00:03:45) - Who are your heroes?

(00:05:16) - What is something you’ve had to teach yourself that’s become a core part of your identity?

(00:07:34) - Taking a sabbatical post-exit

(00:09:30) - Going back into entrepreneurship

(00:12:52) - How to kill two-factor auth

(00:14:34) - When to split a company into two companies

(00:18:04) - Who is the customer of iDeem?

(00:22:37) - Verified Credentials

(00:28:31) - Fighting fraud with technology

(00:30:14) - The story of eyeVerify

(00:49:09) - The new technology trends pushing iDeem

(00:52:01) - The build process of a global start-up from Middle-America

Links:

Ideem - https://www.useideem.com/

Toby on X - https://x.com/TobiasRush

Toby on LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/tobiasrush/

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We discuss:

• Why tying your identity to your company can be both a strength and a liability

• The critical decision to shut down a beautiful but unused blockchain product—and return investor money

• How trusted digital IDs could change how we prove who we are—from checking out online to entering a secure facility

• Why simply having a trusted device could be a stronger way to log in and why invisible two-factor might be the future

• What it’s like to run a global fintech startup from Kansas City and the cultural learnings that come with it

Quotes from Toby:

1. “When the company is dying, that doesn’t mean I’m dying. And when it’s thriving, that doesn’t mean I’m a good person.”

2. “You should absolutely take a window of time when one chapter ends—just having time to yourself is all the justification you need.”

3. “Two-factor authentication is alive and well—it’s just invisible now.”

4. “We reduce friction for the user, fraud for the merchant, and cost for everyone.”

5. “If you’re serving two totally different customers with one product, you probably have two companies.”

6. “The magic moment is at checkout—remove friction there and everything gets better.”

7. “Passwords are terrible. If I can just look at my phone and log in, that’s a win.”

8. “You need friends who can sing your soul’s song back to you when you’ve lost the melody.”

9. “From almost out of money to a $100 million term sheet in five weeks—that’s the startup rollercoaster.”

10. “Authenticity, credibility, and trust are incalculable in value.”

11. “If the thesis is right but the timing is off, you can build something beautiful that no one uses.”

12. “Stop with the techno-babble. We won’t call them NFTs—we’ll just call them useful.”

Important Quotes from the podcast on Business and Entrepreneurship

There is no skill called “business.” Avoid business magazines and business classes. - Naval Ravikant

You have to work up to the point where you can own equity in a business. You could own equity as a small shareholder where you bought stock. You could also own it as an owner where you started the company. Ownership is really important.

Everybody who really makes money at some point owns a piece of a product, a business, or some IP. That can be through stock options if you work at a tech company. That’s a fine way to start.