Bubba Page borrowed $5,000 from his parents to join a six-founder BYU startup, sold his stake two years later for a 10x return, and got paid half of it in office chairs (everyone in his family got one for Christmas). From there he bootstrapped LaunchLeads, a tech-enabled sales company, to multiple millions and the Inc. 5000, won Utah’s Google Startup Weekend, went through Techstars Boulder, and raised $1.25 million for Outro, a double-opt-in referral platform built on LinkedIn data. Then LinkedIn changed its platform and cut Outro off at the knees. Bubba tells John and Tyler what that failure did to him (“I lost myself in this process”), the investor who said “we’ll invest in you again,” and the lesson he wants every founder to hear: don’t tie your business to someone else’s platform. Plus: why trial and error is too expensive a teacher, the three questions that make anyone feel like you’re their best friend, why every student should be on LinkedIn, how he runs Influence VC as an AngelList syndicate of 200 angels backing consumer brands with influencer expertise, why he dropped “Brant” and went back to “Bubba,” and the legacy he wants to leave behind: faith, family, and building abundance without losing what matters most.

(00:00:00) Cold open: a year with no paycheck, and the deal he made at home
(00:01:05) Welcome, episode 62 with Bubba Page
(00:01:48) Official intro: LaunchLeads, Techstars, Influence VC
(00:05:04) Icebreaker: favorite brands (Cotopaxi, Josh’s Pickles, Tesla)
(00:13:03) Winning Google Startup Weekend in 2014
(00:16:00) Growing up in the Bay Area, then a senior-year move to Mesa
(00:20:38) Techstars’ Next program with John
(00:24:02) Why trial and error is too expensive: get a mentor
(00:28:45) The 3 questions that make anyone feel like your best friend
(00:30:59) Seatability: six founders, $5K from his parents, a 10x exit
(00:32:10) Paid out in $25,000 of office chairs
(00:34:38) Starting LaunchLeads: a “mini MarketStar” with Alan Hall
(00:37:00) Techstars Boulder and Outro.com
(00:39:06) Mistake #1: don’t tie your business to someone else’s platform
(00:40:39) LinkedIn shut it down
(00:42:49) Techstars, Kickstart, Peterson Ventures: $1.25M raised, and it failed
(00:48:14) Depression, and the investor who said “we’ll invest in you again”
(00:49:45) The Page Company: building a social media business together
(00:53:27) Influence VC: angel investing plus influencer expertise
(00:56:42) Bubba’s real name, and why “Brant” didn’t stick
(00:58:43) The one thing: build abundance without losing what matters most
(00:59:52) The legacy he wants on his deathbed
(01:03:31) Wrap-up

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