The Billionaire-Dollar Company that Never Made a Dime

When I was in law school, a friend and I had a billionaire-dollar idea:

Provide individuals with the ability to monetize their data online.

We called it Goliacyde.

Goliath (as in David and Goliath) + the suffix -cide (meaning “killer” or “act of killing” — homicide, suicide, infanticide, pesticide, etc.).

We threw in the “y” because why not?

We were a billion-dollar company; we could do whatever we wanted to.

The whole idea was that we could create a level of protection around the data that Facebook, Google, Amazon, TikTok, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn, etc. take from its users all the time. Data such as your interactions with other people, ads, other websites, etc. as well as your name, image, location, age, etc.

These companies take that data and sell it to companies that want to advertise to you.

I think at this point, that is well-known. However, when we first started working on this in 2020, this was starting to enter the mainstream media—and probably for good reason.

If we know we’re constantly being tracked online all the time, we might want some protection.

But here’s the thing: not only did we want to protect that data, we wanted to give you the ability to monetize it. We envisioned packaging that data with other people’s data—just like the Big Tech Companies do—but rather than let them profit off of it, we wanted the individuals to. So rather than a Truck Company paying Facebook money to get in front of you, the Truck Company could simply pay you to advertise to you. They’re your eyeballs after all, not Facebook’s.

A novel concept.

Dare I say a brilliant idea.

So what happened?

Well I did what any new wannabe entrepreneur does—or thinks he or she needs to do.

I tried to find the best startup attorney I could. I wanted to protect all this “intellectual property” that I had.

And then I wanted to form Delaware Corporation because that’s what all the cool startups were supposed to do. All the entrepreneurs I was following at that time said that’s what “Angel Investors” wanted to see: that you had a Delaware Corporation so they could send in millions of dollars to invest in Goliacyde.

I researched issuing common stock, NDAs, tax elections, venture capital, all sorts of fancy things.

We even had a website, business cards, hats, and a logo.

I mean how cool is that?

But here’s the issue: we never made a sale. Not one.

We were a billion-dollar company that never made a dime.

I spent thousands of dollars on legal documents and formation (still in law school) and had the perfect idea for how I imagined this company going. But then I missed the whole point of business: to make money.

Without any sales, you have no business.

You may have a great idea.

You may have it all mapped out.

But without someone paying you for your product or service, you do not have a business.

Or as I learned to say later on, I was more interested in playing business than doing business.

Now why do I say all of this?

Because today, by God’s grace, I have a thriving law practice.

And now I get to help other entrepreneurs in their journey.

And the recurring pattern that I see is the same obstacle I ran into when I first started Goliacyde.

Writing out the whole business plan without ever making a sale.

Now don’t get me wrong: business plans are great. Until they’re not. Until they become a distraction from the hard work of actually doing business.

Creating a diagram for which entity will own which assets is not doing business.

Researching all the ways to minimize taxes (without no revenue to account for) is not doing business.

Writing and rewriting the website is not doing business.

Keeping an idea to yourself, insisting on NDAs when you’ve made $0 is not doing business.

But you know what is doing business?

Talking to folks.

Learning about their lives, families, and business.

Then telling them what you do and who you help.

If you do that, then I guarantee you that leads will start showing up.

If you have a business idea in mind, let me encourage to just get started.

Don’t worry about all the ins and outs right now.

Making your first sale validates the idea. And then you can seek wise counsel in any direction you need. Legal, Financial, etc.

Don’t get so hung up in how the book is going to end that you don’t read the first sentence. Or worse: only reading the preface.

If you have the desire to own your own business, then find a way to get started without getting distracted by all the ways you can play business.

And if you need help knowing the next step to take, please reach out. I love helping other entrepreneurs.