The Worst Mistake I've Ever Made

Hey there!

This newsletter is usually reserved for entrepreneurship advice, practical business tips, and some wisdom I wish younger Chris had known.

But today, I wanted to tell you about something that keeps me up at night that I’ve never shared before.

Back in 2022, I was days away from selling my company CROSSNET (a four-way volleyball game - you should check out) for life changing money. I had two bidders for the business, one that I grew up admiring, and another that simply had more money to offer us.

At this time in my life, I was a hermit in my bedroom working on the business day & night. I grew up rather broke, didn’t have “mentors”, or anybody I could really trust to ask the hard questions before making the most important decision of my life. In hindsight, the writing was on the wall and all the red flags were there, I was just too naive and young to see them.

We ended up accepting an offer from the company with the larger pockets and that will go down as one of the worst life decisions I ever made. Over the next 100 days we engaged in never-ending diligence, shared confidential trade secrets, spent nearly $75,000 in legal & accounting fees… all for them to come back three days before the day we were supposed to close and pull their offer.

They offered us 70% less and said take it or leave it.

I was insulted. Disgusted. More pissed off than I’ve ever been in my life. We told them to pound sand and got back to work on the business.

The signs were always there. Had I just known a single person who had been through this experience that I felt close enough to ask the hard questions, I probably would be retired.

Just a few months later I found out that my good friend, Aaron Spivak, was actually going through the same exact process for his company Hush. These negotiations are always 100% tied up with NDAs, making you so afraid to utter a peep about the deal to anyone. Here is one of my best friends in the world, going through the same exact thing I am, and I am litterally clueless.

Lucky for Aaron, he wasn’t. He knew what he was doing. He had an experienced co-founder who had sold businesses before, and more importantly, an incredible network at his disposal that was there for all the tough decisions.

He successfully sold his business to Sleep Country, Canada’s largest sleepwear company for $50M and I could not be happier for him.

As I reflect nearly two years later, the outcome of your life can really be boiled down to just a few important decisions each year. I’ve now had over two years to sit back, play the woulda-coulda-shoulda game, and think about what life would be like if I chose the other offer.

Although the other offer was not 100% certain, one thing is for certain: If either of those deals had closed in 2022, I would not be writing this email today.

That moment changed my life and inspired me to reach out to Aaron and start The Founders Club. 

Why should the rich, connected people always be the ones to win?

What about the entrepreneurs who work for years to save up enough money to launch their dream? The ones who have to decide between leaving their stable 9-5 job and going head first into a business that might not be able to pay them for years. The ones who do it because they want to look their kids in the face one day and say dad tried to make his dream come true, you can to.

I want those people to win. That was me. That still is me. That little boy who wanted to become a famous movie director and saved up six months pay to start his crazy volleyball business.

The Founders Club is the solution to this.

Remove the egos & connect the best founders in the world for in-person meetups, weekly discussions, and monthly masterminds. Every day hundreds of founders are sharing tips, secrets, and things they wish they would have known years ago. The things I’ve learned in a weekend with some of these people have been more valuable than my four years at my overpriced liberal arts degree at Quinnipiac University.

Fast forward eighteen months, and it’s never been more evident that a community for entrepreneurship has never been more needed. People crave real connection, and the ability to network and learn, all without the feeling of people trying to sell them something. This is why we have raced past 200 members and have our eyes set on building the strongest entrepreneurship community in North America.

So, if you’re a founder looking to make 2025 the best year of your life, we’d be stoked to have you apply.

If you’re looking to fast-track your application you can also schedule a call with our admissions team here.

They say the best time to start anything was yesterday,

But the second-best is right now.

Let me know, I hope to see you inside.

Chris

P.S. — If you want to read about our original process + mindset in founding the group over a year ago, here’s the link