Eddie Martucci On Raising $300 Million To Treat ADHD With Video Games

In the dynamic world of entrepreneurship, success often comes hand in hand with overcoming challenges, building a resilient team, and staying true to a visionary goal. This insightful interview with Eddie Martucci delves into his journey – from growing up in Connecticut to founding Akili and taking it public.

In this episode, you will learn:

• Eddie Martucci underscores the challenge of balancing professional and personal life, particularly when leading a company through changing market conditions, an IPO, and raising significant funding, all while managing a family.
• Growing up in a family that owned a community pharmacy, Martucci shares how witnessing his parents’ hard work and entrepreneurial spirit influenced his decision to pursue a career that directly impacts patients, ultimately leading him to the field of digital therapeutics.
• Martucci’s childhood fascination with science and learning, coupled with his parents’ pharmacy business, fueled his interest in making a tangible impact on healthcare, shaping his academic journey in biochemistry and later in research.
• From a background in research at Yale to joining PureTech Ventures, Martucci’s entrepreneurial journey began by bridging sophisticated science with business, leading him to discover his passion for building companies that turn innovative ideas into impactful products.
• The idea for Akili, a digital therapeutic company, originated from a desire to revolutionize mental health care using technology. The vision was to create software applications that could directly stimulate the brain to treat diseases, a novel concept a decade ago.
• Facing skepticism from investors who doubted the viability of a healthcare video game, Martucci emphasizes the importance of perseverance and data collection, advising entrepreneurs to stay true to their vision while remaining open to refining the operational model.
• Reflecting on his journey, Martucci shares his decision to step into the role of Chairman, prioritizing time with family and incubating new ideas, highlighting the importance of adapting to change and continuously trusting one’s instincts in the dynamic landscape of entrepreneurship.

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About Eddie Martucci:

Dr Eddie Martucci co-founded Akili Interactive Labs, and as part of PureTech, has co-founded two other health-focused start-ups, and helped launch their digital health initiative.

He was previously a Kauffman Entrepreneur Fellow, a program sponsored by the Kauffman Foundation of Kansas City, MO, focused on healthcare entrepreneurship.

Prior to that, he completed his graduate work at Yale University in the Departments of Pharmacology and Molecular Biophysics & Biochemistry, focusing on structure-based drug design, where he led a research project that identified two novel chemical scaffolds as proof-of-concept compounds for novel therapy.

Eddie received his BS in Biochemistry from Providence College and his MPhil and PhD from Yale University.

Eddie frequently serves on discussion panels for industry and academic events related to healthcare innovation, and has appeared in media including CNN’s Vital Signs with Sanjay Gupta.

Akili has received recognition including the 2014 Future of Health Technology product award, the 2015 50-on-Fire Boston, and the #1 health company in Entrepreneur magazine’s 100 Brilliant Companies of 2016.

Connect with Eddie Martucci:

• TheOrg
• LinkedIn
• Crunchbase
• eMedEvents

Read the Full Transcription of the Interview:

Alejandro Cremades: All righty hello everyone and welcome to the deal maker show. So today. We have ah a really exciting founder. You know a founder that has been there done. It. You know his last company he took it public and we’re going to be talking today about some really interesting stuff. You know, mainly about how to deal with the skeptics you know during. The early days of building your business how to go about recruiting. You know the best and and really fitting it. You know into the culture too in order to really build something meaningful and then also finding the balance. You know when it comes to the personal and the professional side. You know, especially in his case, he took the company public while having a wife and three kids. And also you know dealing with changing market conditions. So without farther ado let’s welcome our guest today Eddie Martucci welcome to the show. So originally born in Connecticut in west in West Hartford so give us a walk through memory lane. How was life growing up.

Eddie Martucci: Awesome! Thanks Ada Andro great to be here.

Eddie Martucci: Oh man, it’s I mean I had I was very fortunate I had a family that was supportive family had a brother a sister mom and dad. You know a a um upper middle class town Good school. So um, no real things to persevere through in Childhood. Um, and and I was just always interested in Science. My kids like to make fun of me now I tell them it’s true I was actually interested in school I Loved school I liked learning stuff and and that was the environment I grew up in my my parents actually owned a community pharmacy. 1 of the last independent Pharmacies. So I Also got to See. Um, you know the health care through small town business.

Alejandro Cremades: That’s amazing. So how was that to you know to see your parents because they had a pharmacy and you were able to see the apps the downs you know also of them you know, owning their own thing. So how was that for you too.

Eddie Martucci: Yeah, it took me years until I was able to really reflect on it because it was just part of my life growing up. Um I think it was really interesting to see how much work my parents put in right? The amount of work I mean they were it. It was their business from scratch. Um. And so the hours they put in the kind of blood sweat tears stress but also being able to do things that they thought were important in the community right? like they because they owned and operated. They were able to say you know what I think we want to deliver home healthcare to nursing homes and they just did it right? There wasn’t bureaucracy. They weren’t. Having and highing about you know feeling stuck in life. They were just doers and movers and I think that was it was amazing to watch and the other thing is I got to see you know a pharmacy is literally the the end of delivery of medicine right on the long continuum of delivering a new medicine. That’s it. That’s where it actually gets to a patient. Um, and so I I can’t help but think that influenced me kind of every step of my academic journey saying you know what I want to do something that actually gets to patients probably because I got to see thousands and thousands of people get their medicine every day. So um. Had to had to have been an important part of my upbringing.

Alejandro Cremades: So obviously it’s no surprise that you ended up going to college and there you majored in biochemistry. But 1 thing that is really interesting here is I mean obviously you grew up with your family. You know, being in business having their own business.

Eddie Martucci: Right.

Alejandro Cremades: But what you decided to do was to go into research you know instead of the business side. You know at the beginning. So how how did that go I mean how did that come about.

Eddie Martucci: Yeah, well, it’s funny. My ah, my parents like to joke my father told me um, you will not take over this pharmacy and I’m not sure if it was you know the business model or I think it was more that he wanted me to do my own thing as opposed to kind of default back into the. Pharmacy and then it was not an option anyways because he sold it to Cvs while I was in college so he he made sure that ah that I couldn’t take over the pharmacy. But what actually happened from my own internal perspective was um. I went to providence college I a great place. Small liberal arts school really got to go deep in research I got to do research while there but we had a number of symposia and and when I get asked now about budding scientists and how you can you know stoke inspiration I always say this. 1 of the most amazing things is for 1 of the semesters we had. We were forced to go very deep on a brand new research topic and present that to the whole department and that’s very scary as like a 1819 year old but doing that it. It kind of lit something inside me I ended up researching a new drug design and I was like that’s what I want to do so I remember finishing my presentation I don’t know if it went well I think it went okay but all I remember is I finished it and I was like I can’t believe there are people that do this type of stuff for a job.

Eddie Martucci: So right around halfway through college I said I know exactly what I’m going to do I I don’t want to be a doctor I don’t want to run a business I want to go and jump into research and that was that was what I ended up doing immediately after college.

Alejandro Cremades: So then so then let’s talk about that research you know company because that’s where you were able to really see the whole thing you know around drugs you know and and and and what’s the design you know behind them. So so what? what did you learn during this time.

Eddie Martucci: Yeah I was I went to yale university for my ph d and it was a department that has a couple nobel prizes in it. It is it really specializes in extremely exquisite and really careful, high science and that was awesome. Um. But I actually ended up choosing an advisor named Karen Anderson she’s been part of drug discovery in a few different classes of drugs in the pharmacology department and so what I got to see was the mesh of those 2 worlds I got to see how you could do incredibly deep and sophisticated science. But how you could directly apply that to finding new medicines right? and often in academia or in the research world. These 2 things are held separate. It’s like either you’re doing really sophisticated research or you’re selling out in the business world and and the the lab and the group I was in. I was able to see both of those together and then I was able to meet a few different entrepreneurs just through my own explorations while I was at Yale and in New York actually meet a few entrepreneurs who had taken new ideas and built companies out of them. Um, and while while I did pretty well at science i. My ah ph d was in trying to discover a couple new classes of drugs. Um I just got bit by the entrepreneur bug from afar I saw people founding companies and I said that that startup thing looks really really cool. Um.

Eddie Martucci: And so that’s that’s what captured my attention I knew I wasn’t going to be a research scientist long term I’ll leave that to the brilliant people who are incredible at that. Um I said I I think I can have a talent for taking new ideas and and building new products out of them.

Alejandro Cremades: So then at what point I say the opportunity of joining pure tech ventures come knocking because I mean obviously now they’ve grown quite a bit but when you join them. You know they were just in you know about a dozen people. So how did that come about.

Eddie Martucci: I.

Eddie Martucci: Right? Yeah, just a straight up cold application man this is a good example of when I looked on I looked on the ah website and like I was I was intimidated I mean people on the border people like Bob Langer who obviously found our Moderna and and about three dozen other companies. And and a whole host of other people who are incredibly bright minds and successful entrepreneurs. Um, Daphne Zohar who who started and ran pure tech and still does is an incredible powerhouse and I just applied man I was like I had no connections. Um. But I said this looks like I didn’t even know a place like that existed where you could learn to start companies and so I I don’t know I think I I lucked my way into a job there I was like you said 1 of about a dozen people and my job was to start companies out of new science. So. Was really hard. It was grueling very sort of difficult to you know it was an environment that was somewhere between an entrepreneur and a Vc and so it was like it was there were high demands and we were really trying to do big things but I got to learn how to start companies from great people. Um, and learn how to how to sort of put yourself into projects to get them off the ground. It was incredible.

Alejandro Cremades: So then obviously you know during this time is where the Achille you know like you literally like what a smooth transition because you go from research to then seeing it more from like perhaps like the investment and incubators incuation side to all of a sudden making the jump to really. Build your own business. So how was that the the the idea of Achille how did it come you know to live you know what were the sequence of events and how did you guys go about you know saying let’s let’s do this thing.

Eddie Martucci: Sure yeah, one of the cool things about the pure tech model was There’s a lot of there was enough time afforded for brainstorming and so I was actually working on another company getting it off the ground that was a mental health company using a device to stimulate the brain. Um. And we had a couple brainstorms and what we were looking at this is the genesis of Achille we were looking at the standard of mental health care treatment which is ah it still is awful right? It’s either medicines that have side effects or essentially nothing else you you can try to find a therapist. Um. On on the other side of the coin the technology consumer technology industry was thriving right? because if you rewind about twelve thirteen years ago this is right when the iphone just started to explode and so we’re we’re sitting here looking at the consumer tech world and we’re saying. Everything is being done with your phone now. There are apps for literally everything almost? Um, why isn’t there anything in healthcare and the conversation started to really take shape when we said instead of helping medicine with with an app what if an app could treat a disease. And that was like a crazy idea at the time. Um, no one had really put that forward. There was a whole digital health industry but it was more like tools and you know and connections and patient engagement and stuff like that and we said I think there’s I think there’s an opportunity to make an app or.

Eddie Martucci: A software application that could actually stimulate the brain in a specific way so that it could be a treatment. Um, that was the idea so that was the kernel. What actually got it off the ground was I spent about a year talking to neuroscientists all over the country and internationally. And found a number of technologies including the one we decided to license that um, that had at least some initial science that showed we could predictably stimulate the brain through sensory and motor stimulus and that’s what that’s where we went all in put the company together and said we want to be the first. Software application that directly treats a disease and we don’t want to just stop there. We want it to be an entertainment app. So we kind of it’s a funny story before we had even ever talked to the Fda we were covered in the press because I said we want to bird be the first Fda approved video game platform and and. We made that statement. We kind of put the stake in the ground and then we just started running.

Alejandro Cremades: So then what were the what were the early days say like you know for Achille what what were what did they look like yeah.

Eddie Martucci: Who I have to. It’s hard to remember back that far when we were only a couple people. Um, it was interesting because it’s achillly is it is now you know has 2 Fda approved products one for kids 1 for adolescence. It’s a version of the same product. Um, we at the time and even today we’re a hybrid between like a medicine company right? We have to do all the clinical trials to prove that our treatment can actually work and we’ve now done that in Adhd so endeavor Rx and endeavor otc are our products that. Endeavor otc you can get directly from the app store to treat adult Adhd Endeavor Rx is a prescription through a doctor we had to do all the work to get to that point right? So we had to do all the clinical trials we had to do all of the detailed you know quality management. We had to. Actually design the product with cognitive neuroscientists. But on the flipside it is an entertainment app right? It looks and feels like a video game that’s on an iphone or Android. So um, from day one I like our earliest earliest employees that I recruited included a medical device developer. Ah, drug developer an artist and a video game designer and so the early days of Achille were kind of fascinating they were like we were building prototypes we would have people use these prototypes and then we would literally look at the source code and the and the frame by frame data and we’d say is this product adapting the way it should be and then we’d jump on.

Eddie Martucci: Phone with our neuroscientist co-founders and have them scrutinize the data and so these teams were these wild interdisciplinary teams but we were taking extremely painstaking care to develop the algorithm in a way that it would maintain its kind of the patented essence but actually be able to adapt in a consumer product i. I’ve never seen anything quite like it and it was It was really fun time in the early days

Alejandro Cremades: So for the people listening what ended up being the business model of Achille how were you guys really wanted tycing.

Eddie Martucci: Sure? well, we’ve actually evolved it over time. So we initially started and we do have endeavor Rx that prescription product as a more drug like business model and so that is a. Again, it’s a prescribed treatment for Adhd but you download the app. You don’t take a pill right? You download an app you play a video game but it’s ah it’s a clinical video game treatment and that business model is that each prescription has a cost associated with it right? So each one month of prescription has a cost It’s priced roughly at the same price as adderall.

Eddie Martucci: Um, and so either insurance company covers it which is still in the early days of insurance coverage or a patient pays for it. Um, we have recently as we’ve entered the adult market. We’ve adapted and shifted our business model because what we learned through our prescription product is that. There are still far too many stakeholders that are getting in the way of patients getting innovative treatments that includes insurers sometimes it includes doctors and so what we have in endeavor Otc is now a subscription. Business model. So it’s a purchase directly by the consumer with a subscription to either a few months or a year subscription where you have continuous access to this piece of software. So. It’s really interesting because we’re running sort of 2 business models depending on the market.

Alejandro Cremades: So before going public you know and doing this back. You guys say you know went through several rounds I mean obviously he that was say 150000000 in a couple of rounds before the a ipo or before going public with this back and then. Ah, the time of this pack you guys raised another one hundred and 62000000 I know that early on you know when you guys were doing the perhaps the early stages of fundraising you were met with certain skeptics. So how did you address them and how did you overcome that hurdle.

Eddie Martucci: yeah we yeah I’m sure there are a lot of people that deal with skepticism. We have to be in the in the kind of far end of that because if you can today. It sounds not so crazy right? Okay, a health care video game sure but ten years ago like this just wasn’t even in people’s mindset so we would show up and we had we literally had investors laugh when we started pitching um I had I remember this phrase I had a guy sit in a room and cut us off 5 minutes into the pitch and say what are we talking about a glorified pacman here. And as soon as you have an investor say something like that I mean you know the meeting is is off right because at that point there’s just you’re so different in your context than what you’re trying to do and so we weren’t just trying to take a video game to market in a special way. We were trying to make essentially invent a new class of medicine right. There is no class of medicine like this previously. So um, it was you know it was tough sometimes right there were times where um, there was skepticism so we dealt with extreme skepticism. We also dealt with people who kind of believed it but they said. Let’s not go the whole medical route so they liked the technology but they said no let’s shift the business model and I think this is very common for founders and entrepreneurs is that you get vcs who say I kind of like what you’re doing but let me pivot your entire business model or really your vision.

Eddie Martucci: What I was always open to so here’s how we persevered what I was always open to was changes in the model or the operating model or the steps to get there. But what I was unwilling to sacrifice was the vision right? I think it was so important that um. That patients all these millions of patients who deal with cognitive issues and things like attention conditions and and beyond um actually had access to what we were building and that’s critical so I wasn’t willing to kind of take an early off-ramp exit. To you know, change change our whole story. Um, and what I did was I used and and I still do this today I started to learn to use every fundraising conversation as data collection. Um, when I was first doing it I used everyone as like a scoreboard. Like are we doing well or not and that just gets crushing because anytime you’re doing something innovative. Most people don’t understand it once I started using it as data collection and refinement. Um, it helped us realize all right. We might have to go to a few dozen investors or maybe more but this is just a process and um. Luckily in the meantime well I guess not luckily in the meantime and this is what I always ah now coach entrepreneurs on is keep demonstrating the value of your product. So I know sometimes you need a big bulk of funding to do that. But there’s always something you can do to keep.

Eddie Martucci: The belief in your product and so every next time you meet an investor.. There’s a little bit more you can show about your product that that kind of reinforces that belief and so that’s what we did we We kind of persevered and we said we we came with passion saying no people deserve this product. And then every month or every few months we had more and more data that this product was actually valuable and eventually those 2 things converged and and a few investors few investors got it.

Alejandro Cremades: So so what was that journey to of going public because doing the whole spac thing I mean I’m sure it was not easy in and going from being a private you know, company Ceo to a publicly traded company Ceo is also different too. So. How was that for you.

Eddie Martucci: It was um, good I mean we had so Sps facts are have become a dirty. They were a dirty word and then they got to be a really fun word and then they really quickly got to be a dirty word again. So specs were not used. You know were used for kind of illegitimate companies for a long time and then for like a 1 to 2 year period they were actually the the vehicle for some very legitimate and awesome companies and so we came in at the tail end of that phase. It was a really interesting journey because when we. Began that process we saw this as a mega fundraise right? much larger than we could get from a traditional ipo or a private raise. Um, we also saw it as potentially an immediate exit for investors. It’s not why we did it as the primary but you know the market was going great in you know, early 20 ah, 21 and early twenty two market was going great. So we’re out there or rather I’m sorry 20 most of 2021? Um, so we’re out there. We start this back process. We picked this back suiter and the first fundraise conversations were going great and then the end of 2021 hit and if everyone remembers both the biotech and the tech markets crashed and Achille is both a biotech and a tech company. The good news about a sp is by the time we were coming to market and to price the or to list the company. It was eyes wide open right? We saw what was happening in the market. The fundraise was smaller. Um, but.

Eddie Martucci: And so the question was do we still want to go through with this any company in his back can pull out but the way I viewed this as we had to shift our sites a little bit the quantum of capital was going to be less and it was unlikely to be a huge run up exit for all the investors immediately. But. What we saw it instead was as ah was a really good fundraise where we could take in capital. Um, we could become a listed entity and and then we could grow value and when we grow value eventually the stock price will reflect it. So so that was the journey we went on I get asked all the time. Do you regret it. Because you know the market’s been tough to these companies that have gone by us back and has kind of you know, deepriced them? Um, but I don’t regret it because it’s funded our vision and we were able to then launch 2 products. We’ve gotten now this this company that. Had a vision that people are skeptical of has now treated over 50000 people between our 2 products and it’s growing. So um, so it was a means to an end to keep the business growing.

Alejandro Cremades: And then what was it like you know to to do this. You know all of this I mean building a company that does this back and everything and you also have you know a family you know of a wife you know three kids I mean how were you able to find the balance.

Eddie Martucci: It’s funny man I’m not sure I ever found it. I was definitely aware of it. Um I like to say my kids their entire memory life right? The entire life that they can remember I have been running Achille so um. My oldest is seventeen years old and so he was like 5 when I started achilles. So basically his whole life and then my other 2 for sure their whole life. Um I won’t say that I was the best at you know at that balance I don’t even know if there is such thing as a balance I I think what I always tried to do. And we’ll see I’ll look back someday and see if I was successful or not or feel whether I was successful I always tried to bring um the the same energy to the start of my workday that I would then bring to the start of like my night with my family right when I would get home. Um, and you know it’s hard sometimes but I would basically I would come home and say I got to be I got to be the entrepreneur but now for my family right? and so the same way I would motivate employees I’d come in and I would truly say this is my time with my family and I’m going to? Yeah I might be exhausted. But I have to and so I always tried to prioritize at least the time I was there being present now I was traveling a ton. Um, so that was my internal process that was you know that I tried to go through I have an amazing family and kids it’s great and then of course.

Eddie Martucci: I’m waiting for the the climax here is I have an incredible wife right? and so she was holding down the household and keeping me sane and making sure you know the kids were doing what they had to do while she was you know, growing her teaching career. Um, so it really is a family effort I give a ton of credit to my whole family for this journey? Um, but what I tell people is like don’t kid yourself first of all a lot of people say it’s impossible to do this with a family I disagree and I’m proof that it’s not. Right? You can have a family and you can grow a company and you can take it public and you can launch a product. Um, however, ah, don’t kid yourself and say there’s a way to make it perfect all the time right? It’s just freaking hard. Um. And that’s okay and once I once I accepted that all right. It’s gonna be hard and there’s gonna be times I feel like I’m not doing as much as I need to for the business and there’s gonna be times I feel like I’m definitely not doing what I need to at home but just keep going that is the mantra that. That kind of helped me the whole time just live in in each of those moments presently when you can.

Alejandro Cremades: So three to four months ago you decided to um, you know, step up to the chairman side of things and then now you know you see you have a little bit more extra time. So what do you think is next for you. Eddie.

Eddie Martucci: Of great. Oh man. Well first and foremost I mean Achille is at a point you know I always wanted to start this new class of medicine which we’ve done now. There’s now about a hundred companies that are developing software products that are in different phases of clinical trials. So I think. What’s very clear is that this field of medicine is now inevitable and I’m really proud to have kind of catalyzed it and I’m really proud for what achilles has built. Um I think it was time for achilles to have a new leader right? because they’ve gone achilles been through many phases of growth and now we have these 2 products on the market that are growing and so. Um, put in place a Ceo who’s going to put just as much energy into that next phase. Um, and you know I am prioritizing time with my family so everything we just talked about with balance. Um, you know as I have a couple teenagers here and they’re getting ready to go to college is really really important to me to. Maximize that time in the near term. So that’s where I’m focusing my efforts. Um, of course I am incubating some ideas. So um I can’t help but like build you know slide decks of newcos on the side. Um, so I haven’t mentioned anything I’m I’m on a couple boards. Um, I’m definitely interested in. You know, seeing this field of digital therapeutics continue to grow to patients I think it has incredible promise I think endeavor otc which is our direct-to-consumer product has been incredible and I hope people with.

Eddie Martucci: You know adults who struggle with Adhd or attention issues. Go look that product up because it’s helping people dramatically every day and so I’m excited to see that um and in terms of what’s my next big thing I don’t know and I’m not I’m not I’m not trying to perfect it I guess as we’ve talked about here you can probably see in my whole career. I’ve rarely thought like 5 steps ahead I think that’s a fool’s errand I tend to think like 1 step ahead like what’s the next best move where is my energy What am I passionate about and right now that’s you know keeping Achille making sure governance wise it’s doing the right things and then ah spending a ton of time with my family and and thinking about where the future is going. Obviously we’re in a time where both technology with Ai and drug development and biotech is going through incredible technological revolution. So I’m ah I’m watching that and reading a whole lot.

Alejandro Cremades: Amazing. So Edie if I was to put you into a time machine and I bring you back in time to 2012 to maybe that moment where you were thinking about bringing this you know to market and and and and and making something happening on your own. Let’s say you’re able to stop that younger self on the tracks and you’re able to give that younger Eddie. 1 piece of advice before launching a business. What would that be and why given why you know now.

Eddie Martucci: Wo good question just in case, anyone is curious. You did not prep me with that question. So no, this is not a canned response. This is ah um, can I get to I think I have to I would.

Alejandro Cremades: Um, that’s right, Let’s let’s do it. Let’s do it.

Eddie Martucci: I would tell Edie I got 2 things for you. So listen up, bring your attention. Um I think number one is I would say ah stress is good so you want stress but don’t try to perfect every step. So I think. There’s a lot of wasted energy and stress by trying to make every step of by like really gripping everything so tight that you’re trying to perfect it and I do think there were moments throughout the history of Achille where we probably slowed down because we were trying to grip and hold on to some some thing and force fit it. When instead if you could step back and say whatever vision you had is not going to be perfect. There’s going to be 50000 things that go wrong or change. So just keep adapting I think in the end I did that but I think could have done it much more quickly and with and with a lot less kind of. Dramatic stress if you will so so I think it both serves you know it serves being a um, ah, present and functioning human but it also has business ramifications that you know you can grow business a little more expediently. So I think that’s number 1 um I think number two is. Ah, related and it’s um, don’t so when I talked before about the the big vision I think I would tell myself. Yeah and tell other entrepreneurs don’t sacrifice your vision but increase your.

Eddie Martucci: Move up your bar of the things that you’re willing to change and experiment with always um I think there were points in my journey that I had that bar too high I guess too low or too high depending on you think on it meaning you know if if people had a different idea or I was considering a different idea. It’d say no no, no, but that’s not the That’s not the plan we built right? and so what I think I calibrated over a decade was what are those truly untouchable like high-level strategies the high-level nort stars that that is the essence of what we’re building and we’re not going to change that but all of the operations and tactics and really. Calibrating what’s that tactic that um, anything that’s a tactic and an operational principle can change and what I would tell myself is be open to that and just trust your gut right? So there were a lot of times and and I tell a lot of entrepreneurs this now. Um, that second point there are a lot of times where there’s always 4 different opinions in the room right? Whether it’s your own executive team. Whether it’s your investors your board members the general public. There’s tons of opinions. Everyone thinks they know the answer um the truth is you as an operator often know the answer. But if you are too scared or too rigid to to kind of adapt into that answer you’re just going to waste time. So I think I tell myself like trust your gut read read the data and just be willing to adapt on on most parts of the business to keep it growing.

Alejandro Cremades: Amazing. So Eddie for the people that are listening that will love to reach out and say hi. What is the best way for them to do so.

Eddie Martucci: The smoothest.

Eddie Martucci: Oh absolutely. So I’m on you know I’m on Twitter at at Eddiemartucci I’m on Linkedin Linkedin is probably the best place for business contacts. Um, and and so I’m just Eddie Martucci on Linkedin as well. So people should absolutely feel free to get in touch with. With new ideas. You know if they if they have advice if they’re if they need advice if or most importantly, what most people go through is they’re building a company. It seems to be going really fast. They think everything’s great, but they’re dealing with you know imposter syndrome or the I call it the house of cards. Syndrome. You always think that all the great things you’ve built are like at a flick of a risk The whole thing can crumble. All these things are very normal and I just love to talk to entrepreneurs and people building awesome ideas.

Alejandro Cremades: Amazing! Well heyy. Thank you so much for being on the deal maker show. It has been and on Earth to have you with us.

Eddie Martucci: Absolutely thanks So much.

*****

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