Summary: Today’s episode is with KP Reddy, author of <a href="https://www.amazon.com/What-Know-About-Startups-Wrong-ebook/dp/B079HWHGDX/&tag=authorhour20" target="_blank" rel="noopener">What You Know About Startups Is Wrong</a>. Being an entrepreneur seems like the ultimate American dream, but the startup mythology is filled with urban legends and false expectations that can cause business owners to lose what’s truly important to them.<br> KP learned this the hard way, through more than 25 years of entrepreneurship experience. He has started, grown and sold multiple successful startups, and he’s even been involved in IPOs and acquisitions.<br> By the end of this episode, you’ll know the behind the scenes reality of building a business, and you’ll have a better idea of what it really means to be a top entrepreneur.<br> <br> <br> <a href="https://www.amazon.com/What-Know-About-Startups-Wrong-ebook/dp/B079HWHGDX/&tag=authorhour20" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"></a>Get KP’s new book <a href="https://www.amazon.com/What-Know-About-Startups-Wrong-ebook/dp/B079HWHGDX/&tag=authorhour20" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">What You Know About Startups Is Wrong</a>.<br> Find out more at <a href="http://kpreddy.co" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">KPReddy.co</a>.<br> <br> KP Reddy: The big turning point for me was in 2009 after the economy was tanking. My startup had been technically bankrupt for six months, but I was fortunate to sell just enough to keep the lights on. I had been approached by an investor, acquirer that wanted to buy the company.<br> My then wife at home wanted to know why I hadn’t gotten a paycheck in five years. I had employees that hadn’t been paid in two months. Investors had caught wind that there was a transaction coming, so they wanted to make sure they were going to have a payday.<br> And I had an acquirer.<br> They were probably the most amazing people I’ve ever run in to—just great, genuine people. They really wanted me to come work for them, and buying my startup was a path for them to do so.<br> We were in final negotiations, and a bunch of things popped up at the end of the deal that were going to kill the deal. The CEO called me and said, “We’re going to take care of you—we will pay off those debts. We want you to have a clean slate so you can be your best for us.”<br> Of course, it’s not going to help the employees, it’s not going to help the investors, all these other people that I made promises to. I had to start making decisions—is it me versus them? Who is this for?<br> <br> I was probably about forty pounds heavier, diabetic, and pumping as much insulin as my body could take just to be healthy.<br> <br> I jumped on a plane to go out to San Francisco to close the deal, and I woke up at the bottom of the bathroom.<br> They were resuscitating me.<br> <br> Hitting Rock Bottom<br> KP Reddy: The flight attendant, fortunately, her son was a diabetic, and she was able to get me back in order. She got me some orange juice and got me back in a good spot. When I landed, walking to the office, I thought, this might happen again, who can I call?<br> I called my lawyer and I basically said, “Hey dude, I think I almost died, I’m not sure. I’m calling you just in case something happens to me, because I kind of feel like if I call anyone else, I’m going to get yelled at.”<br> If I call my wife, she’s not going to be happy. It will open up all kinds of wounds about all the things that I’ve done wrong in my startup, in my life.<br> <br> So I’m literally left calling my attorney in a life and death situation.<br> <br> He basically said, “Dude, I’ll stay on the phone with you until you get to your hotel to make sure you’re okay.”<br> You sit there and you say, “This is where my life has ended up. The only person I can trust is someone that is professionally bound to keep my secrets. I have no one else.”<br>
