🎙️ Build It, Sell It, Repeat - Shai Stern - Episode 46

You know, enthusiasm, it's contagious. When I sat down to talk with Shai Stern, his enthusiasm, his love of life, his love of success in business, of building companies and then just flipping them and starting new companies was only paralleled by his incredible, deep, amazing enthusiasm for Judaism and for Jewish people. Find out Shai's fascinating journey this week on Jewish Grit. Welcome to Jewish Grit. This week on Jewish Grit, we have a really special treat. We have a wonderful, amazing human being all the way from Muny, New York. Shy Stern, welcome to the podcast. Thank you for having me. You know, this is the first time we actually met and we chatted before and I'm really I'm seeing a lot of great things I like about you. Share with me a little bit in like 90 seconds your journey like where did you grow up? What did you where did you learn? What did you do? How did you get into the professional world and where you're at today? >> Okay. So, that's not going to be in 30 seconds, but >> I'm trying to limit you here. >> You know, I I've been blessed. Um just uh a journey that makes no sense. Um so, I dropped out of Yoshiva University. I did go to college. I really didn't have any interest. I couldn't sit still. Preferred shoveling snow or working with my father than jewelry business. And I loved selling and cultivating relationships. So I got an opportunity. The the dean of my high school, the Russa, his name was Haskman in Tar Academy. And he introduced me to the Carfuncle family who gave me my first opportunity. And um I worked at American Stock Transfer for a couple years. And then I worked in the business that they acquired called ASD Stock Plan and learned a lot about the way plumbing and services um worked for publicly traded companies. So in 2002 uh myself and my partner really a brother of life um Seth Farman and I we co-founded a company called Vintage Filings to compete in the SEC filing edgarizing printing space and um had a great time building it. We grew it in five years to 5,000 clients. Um, and then we sold that business to Pier Nuzwire's parent company called United Business Media. And then we said, "What's next?" And then, uh, we met with another good friend of ours called Isaac Mueller, um, who had a small incorporation company in three states. It was called the Incorporator. And we said, "Let's partner up together. We'll get it to all 50 in, uh, in less than 60 days." And then we built that business. It was all just amazing how things unfolded. We built that. We sold that to uh, to Walter's Clue. Then we went into the background check business. And that was a moment where we called up on the same client said hey we now want to go into this solution and they go okay and we got a great young guy who I knew his older brother um so Ari Rdman um was living in LA and we said hey could you come here and be our sales guy and then he did a great job and he became the CEO and the business was literally um on a great trajectory and then co came the business you know was like 90% down and and we thought we were in a lot of trouble um that was a great moment I thought at the same time I was running another company called Checkal um that I ran for 15 years. I was in the payments business. So when these words were coming out about an essential business, PPP money, I had two businesses that were about to fail. And while I've been seriously lying in bed sick as a dog, my wife was giving me a camel back to drink out of because I couldn't lift my head, praying that my breathing would stay well. We had to climb out of that. And then Bashem, thank God, just amazing bounces and friendships that just evolved and people that showed up to help. Then both businesses, you know, continued to to go. And then I left Czech Alton um this past August after 15 years with a burning desire um to open another business. And uh I I looked at it and I said you know this this process of finding a solution being narrow and saying I could do eggizing go get it and then build it sell it and do it again in these different things. Well today with great technology and a great technologist great developers you can build an AI platform where entrepreneurs and SMBs can come and they can buy seven eight different solutions out of the plumbing the orchestration of their business and they can focus on selling. So, um, a great friend of mine, um, from the fintech space, Jeremy Balkan, who runs a company called Today Pay, um, we were meeting up and he goes, "Man, I got a great guy for you, Alicia Herman. Great Jew lives in Parkland, Florida." And we met up and, uh, Alicia was at tech was working technology, marketing tech at HSBC for a dozen years, and we connected and we partnered up and we're now building a company called Gotavi, uh, G- A VI. And the way that that name came up, and then I'll take my 30 second pause. Um, the way that the name came up is the funnest thing of all. You know, my kids, we were sitting on the table chatting about the name on the family chat. And the kids said, "Well, pups, you always say, "Let's go." You got to have a go in there. And then others were saying, "Well, the other companies were called Vilings, VCore, Vtock, V Chat. Put a V in there." I'm like, "Ah, VGO." Like, "What am I going to?" It didn't sound right. Then I woke up in the morning and I go, "Wait one second. Go means histados. It means effort. That that's our job. We got to get up in the morning. We got to go hustle. We got to go to work." But tavi I said means bring forth. So I said look at 51 years old um I said I one thing is incredibly clear. You could work and you could be unsuccessful. You could barely work and you can be successful. The results are all up to the boss upstairs. So I said look I'll do my that's the goal. I'll do my efforts but tav I got to pray to hashem upstairs and he's going to bring forth the blessing onto the business. So we went with that and that's the name of the company >> and here I think that goavi is like some technology term or something like that. >> That's it. And we we advertise that publicly on our website that this a Jewish combination of two words and actually today's do discusses about how words come together. So it's interesting how we just came up with that popped in and >> are you not concerned to advertise like your Jewishness on your company? >> I love being a Jew. It's who I am. I advertise it. I write on my LinkedIn profile. Grandson of Holocaust survivors and proud uncle of Jewish soldiers. So I am as proud uh to be a Jew and I wear it all out there. Um it was actually interesting. I was um we were in Israel October 7th and when we came back I uh like all years I would go straight from Sukus and I'd go now to this great fintech event in Vegas called money 2020 and I've been going there for all these years and I walk into the conference where my yam and all my friends colleagues in the industry they seem to go shy we know we feel so bad you know the right words that people are saying about what's going on in Israel and I looked at them and I go you know I appreciate your concern but let me tell you a little secret they go what's that? I said, ' Let me tell you the end of the movie. They go, 'What's that? I said, 'J win.' And they go, 'What do you mean by that?' I said, 'Well, Jews win. Like, I mean, look at history. We're not going to lose. So, there might be a lot of pain. And there is and there has been tremendous pain over these last couple of years. And over our history, there's been tremendous pain. I said, but we're not going anywhere. We're going to win. It sounds like in a good way, you're all over the place. Um, one business, the next business, and probably thinking in the back of your mind, what's my next move? That's probably how you live your life. C. Has your definition of success changed like from when you were just starting out working for that initial company and then doing stuff on your own and then moving to the West Coast and then coming back? Like is that part of your your your journey of success of what what you need to be successful or is that just been a stagnant a static type of success is success and I'll just plug in the pieces? >> I love the question. I've been incredibly blessed by having great rabbis around me the last 20 plus years. too. Early on, you know, when we when Seth and I started vintage filings in 2002, I had an opportunity to hear about Waxman, Mafry Waxman speak. He's a rabbi ami where I live now. He's a Russia Shiva. He's an incredibly well-known speaker um and incredibly dynamic and he he came out to the five towns to speak um as a benefit for someone's health uh who's going through a tough time. and I went to go hear him and I had known of him because when I went to camp years ago, Sleepaway Camp Manov, he was like a legendary figure that would come um as a youngster. Um so I went to go hear him speak and I was blown away. So a couple weeks later, we were living in Cedar Hurst in the five towns and my wife's um great a passed away and her grandfather living in Muny at the time was sitting Shiva. So she goes, "We got to go out to Muny." And I said, "Look, if you're going to go to Muny, I just want to make two stops. I want to go to the rabba, the grand rabbi of the square. And two, I want to meet this rabbi waxman. Um, I heard him speak. I was so inspired. So, my wife and I cold called the yeshiva. I'm a very I'm a really good cold caller. And um, today the world has shifted. A lot of folks don't even know what cold calling is, but called the yeshiva and his right-hand guy, his name is Mosha Nusen, um, spoke in Yiddish, not a word of English. And today, I can get along rather well in Yiddish, but at that moment I was struggling. So, my English was my Yiddish was probably worse than his English, but we were able to communicate that I wanted to meet the rabbi. And my wife and I went down to meet her by wax in his home. And I asked her by waxing the following question. And I think this is probably the most pivotal question of my entire life. Um, I asked her by wax and I said, "Look, um, I know the right thing is to me to go ahead and to learn Torah every single day. And I know that I have to, and I know that I want to. I just don't know how to go do it." So he said to me, he goes, "I don't know what you could afford at this time, but when you go back home to the five towns of Cedar Hurst, make some phone calls and find out who is the number one, who is the number one Torah scholar in your neighborhood and call him and say, I want to learn with you every single day, seven days a week. Tell me what time works for you. You got to work it out and how much can I pay you?" And you got to pay him. You got to be invested in him because you seem to be a guy who cares about being successful financially. And two, he needs your money. And so therefore, he's gonna be invested in you and you're going to benefit because you're tapping into someone who's sitting in yeshiva, who's growing in Torah. Um, at that moment, I took that advice. Now, there are many pieces of advice over my life I didn't take, but the blessing of that one was I actually listened to it. So, it's so interesting to see how you have this incredible appetite and passion for building businesses, but you also have a huge appetite for studying Torah. Give us give us what you learned just one nugget of what you learned about raising healthy children. >> Um, so it's it's a work in progress. It it's a real work in progress about how do you work with your children? How do you understand them? And how do you don't expect them to do the things that you do? Meaning, I'm a very rigid, regimented guy. Um, and I love being productive. Now, that productivity doesn't typically match the the mind or the behavior of a teenager, especially today. Um, and it doesn't necessarily match a young married person because the man that I am today at 51 was not the man that I was at 20, 30, 40. Um, so being able to say, well, they're kids and I was once a kid as well and my father gave me a lot of rope held me to a very strict standard, but I had a lot of rope and how do you try to be a little bit more patient? um to and my kids are are they're you know they're they're number one they're they're more or less very similar but they all have their unique beautiful qualities and I have an oldest daughter who's 29 is 17 um I can't say there's much in common between the two of them except they're both last name a stern I mean they were raised literally 12 years apart so the the differences in the different challenges of a 17-year-old today are different than one who was 29 and was raised in LA it's just a different different life but I try I'm trying to be slower more. I'm trying to be more accepting. Um I'm trying to um not be um demanding that what I do. And then a lot of times what I've been taught is that sometimes when you take a step back, they actually fall into line um by them seeing the model of what you're trying to trying to structure for them and what you're trying to teach them. >> Talk to us about like you know who Shai Stern is in relation to Ami, the Jewish people. >> I love every Jew and that's something that I am very proud of. I I to me I love Jews that are secular. I love Jews that are in Israel which is a very unfortunately is a very polarizing environment. Um I tell my friends in Tel Aviv who are secular. I said I love you and I tell my friends who are inim I love you and if you come to our weddings and our simas you got those who are non-religious you have those who are modern orthodox and you have those who are and we all hold hands and we all dance together. Um so I love the Jewish people. I always have. Um and and I've been blessed to be able to help out in in a variety of ways and I love doing it and I always dive into Hashem that I could do more. Um at times I you know you have to balance as to the right order of who you're helping out with. And that's a really that's an art um and a science that evolves with time as you ask questions. Especially as you know someone like me that I I fight impulses. So um I don't think too much about whether I should give this amount or that amount. I usually give more than I should. Um I don't regret it. It's just who I am. The Jewish people I tell I tell my friends I said you can't tell me a negative word about our people. Any one of them. Our Jewish people are the most be we're the most beautiful nation, the most beautiful community. Um it's it's fascinating. You know I was recently um for entertainment purposes. My wife and I, we went to Rockland Kosher on a Saturday night before Purim. >> It's like a big kosher grocery store. >> It's a big kosher grocery store in in Munzy where 100% of their clientele are acidic 100%. And I love the energy. It's before pur and this it was a Saturday night. I said I literally just want to go there to see just like how the Jewish people get ready for this yiff. It's amazing. So when I go there and I said to my wife, I say, you know what's amazing? This place is completely hidic. That means that say 60 70% of them are not producing an income. They're not working and they're being studying Torah, studying Torah, teaching, they're being they're not professional business people in the way that we would define it, but yet a 100% of them are online and 100% are walking out with groceries. And then you wonder how is that? And then you go to Israel and you go, how is it that our people have hospitals, medicine, technology, Torah, the amount of giving, you know, that our people naturally give? My my good rabbi may or you did just got out with a new book called The Power of the Giver. >> Yes. >> The book is so inspiring and his classes every single morning are so inspiring to go at it to say that life's not about us. You know, my father was the most giving human being I ever met. Um wasn't a wealthy man. What he had he gave. What he didn't have, he gave. And he gave of his time. He gave endless time. He had a 247 job to listen to people, to give love to people. I'll tell you you know when my grandfather passed away who was the hero of my life my grandfather my zidi was a hero of my life and this story resonated with me I'll never forget it and uh my grandmother is sitting shiva it was the first time in my life that I experienced loss I was 17 years old and it was so shocking um and a woman comes in to pay a shiva visit to my grandmother and my grandmother goes I'm sorry I don't recognize you and uh she goes no you you might but you might not but she says I don't know if you remember you and your husband come down to Miami Beach to go to Crown Hotel. It was one of the hotels back in the day. Um and um and one day when you stepped away from the table, >> your husband said to me and said, "I was your waitress. I was your server." And my your husband, so my idea said to this to this girl and said, "Um, are you Jewish?" And she goes, "Of course." And he says, "Well, what school do you go to?" And the girl says, "I go to public school." Um and he goes, "Well, why don't you go to a a Jewish day school?" And she said to my I I can't afford it. My mother can't afford it. My mom was a single mom, whatever it was, and can't afford it. And my grandfather said to her this, I was there witnessing the story. And she says, "Your your husband, your sad, your grandfather said, if I pay for you to go to Jewish high school, you know, would you go?" And she goes, "I'll go tomorrow morning." And he looked at her and he said to me, "I'm taking care of your tuition." Now, my grandmother never knew that. Never, we none, my father, nobody knew that story. And this woman flew in from Miami Beach to pay a shiva visit to tell us that now no I'm married married a orthodox orthodox kids because your husband your grandfather changed my life. Those stories they go into your soul and when you see just go to Israel or any Jewish community and you see what's going on before any holiday. The pride that we need to have about our people is just it's magical. >> I love the energy and I love the love. It's really special to see that and I think we don't appreciate it enough. We need to take time just to reflect about it and think about like how special we are. We have challenges and we have but one at the end of the day we're amazing. We are the most incredible people. Two after October 7th we went back to Israel for Purim. So when you were going to have the day of Shushan portal and the day before my girls we were in Israel and uh my three girls said to me at the time um my three single girls and they go um let's go to Benrock you know on the port let's celebrate poor Benro. I said, "That's fine. We can go there. Before we go to Benrock, we're gonna go to Telos Shamir Hospital." And they said, "What's that?" I said, "Well, it's a hospital for the wounded Israeli Kayim. We have to go there. We're going to go." They go, "Do you know anybody there?" I said, "I don't know anybody there." They go, "So, why are we going?" I said, "Because they're our brothers and our sisters." So, we went to the bakery. We bought trays of ragal of pastries. Um, we went down to Telles Hospital and we walked in and they go, "Why are you here?" And I said, "Because you're our brothers and sisters. We want to bring you Michanotus Pur and uh we spent a couple hours there. It was unbelievable. You have a microphone in front of you and potentially a message that could reach 70 or 80,000 of our students and young professionals across the globe. People who are trying to figure out how to live their lives and what are the best things they could do? If you have 90 seconds to tell them something, what would what would you want to tell them? >> Three messages. Number one, love being a Jew. Just love being a Jew and what it all stands for and know how much Hashem loves you. That is number one and work to what that actually means. What it means to love being a Jew and how much our boss upstairs, how much Hashem actually loves each and every one of us in infinite ways. Two, when it comes to business, hustle. >> Go out there and work. We didn't talk about business. >> I know. >> And I and I love working and I I dislike wasting time and know that if you feel you are talented, know that your talent is that much greater. And if you feel you're struggling to find out what your talent is, just go. Don't let anything or anybody or any inner hold you back. Because as you go and as you put forth efforts, the boss upstairs has endless capability to bless you in avenues that you never could have dreamt of. Three, um when things go hard for you, just know that Hashem is pushing you to work on yourself to be better. Hashem is our forever loving father. He doesn't do bad. He doesn't want bad. He doesn't give bad. He only wants to give good. So when there is a challenge in life, and we're all going to have them. Nobody will escape a challenge. I have them. I had them. I will have them. That's just life. But when you have them, know that the greatest um the greatest ability that you will have is to go to the source. There's one address, there's one Hashem, there's great books and there's great rabbis and there's great lessons. And to go tap into it because then you'll see one day and you say, >> "I got out of that one and where I ended up was so much better than I could have ever have dreamt." Wow. Sh. Thank you so much for your time. Thanks for your energy. Thanks for the messages. >> I think anyone who watches this is going to be blown away. So, thanks for taking time out of your very busy schedule cuz you're a doer for coming here and contributing. >> It's an honor. Thank you for listening to Jewish Grit, an Ol mentorship podcast. At Olam Mentorship, we believe that everyone needs a mentor. What better way is there to tap into your personal and professional potential than with a Jewish mentor at your side? Learn more at olam.org/metorship. Don't forget to keep listening on Apple Podcast, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts.