The Gary Klutt Podcast

Gary Klutt

Interviews of interesting people, learn from their journeys' from childhood to success, from Professional Racecar drivers, Olympians, to billionaire CEO’s to contemporary thinkers. Insight into how interesting people arrange their lives to live their dreams.

  1. 5d ago

    He Sold truLOCAL for $17M — Now He’s Building AI Companies | Marc Lafleur

    Marc Lafleur built truLOCAL into a $20M+ annual revenue business and sold the company for $16.7 million. Today, the former Dragon’s Den entrepreneur is building AI companies through DB8 Labs — while also pursuing another obsession: race cars. In this conversation, Marc tells the full story. From struggling in school and having no idea what he wanted to do with his life, to discovering entrepreneurship, failing at his first two startups, earning $200,000 a year selling meat door-to-door, and ultimately quitting that job to go all-in on truLOCAL.Five years later, truLOCAL was acquired for $16.7 million. Marc talks about what it actually took to build the company, his experience on Dragon’s Den, why most businesses fail from the inside, what he learned from selling a company before 30, and why success eventually pushed him toward an entirely different challenge: motorsport. We also go deep on what Marc is focused on today — artificial intelligence. Through DB8 Labs, Marc and his team are experimenting with a new model for building AI-native businesses. We discuss AI agents, how drastically AI is changing the economics of starting a company, why small teams may soon be able to build enormous businesses, and Marc’s belief that some of the next great products may be built for AI agents rather than humans. In this episode: Building and selling truLOCAL for $16.7M Quitting a $200K/year job to become an entrepreneur Failing at his first two startups Pitching and later returning to Dragon’s Den as an investor Going from track days to competitive racing Why entrepreneurship and racing require similar mindsets Starting DB8 Labs Building companies with AI AI agents and the future of business Why tiny AI-enabled teams could create enormous companies Marc’s philosophy on risk, ambition, failure and going all-in Marc Lafleur is an entrepreneur, investor, race car driver and founder of DB8 Labs. He previously co-founded and served as CEO of truLOCAL, growing the company to more than 60 employees and over $20 million in annual revenue before its acquisition.#MarcLafleur #ArtificialIntelligence #Entrepreneurship #AI #Startups #truLOCAL #DB8Labs #DragonsDen

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Interviews of interesting people, learn from their journeys' from childhood to success, from Professional Racecar drivers, Olympians, to billionaire CEO’s to contemporary thinkers. Insight into how interesting people arrange their lives to live their dreams.

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