Transcript

Anti-MBA: How an 18-Year-Old Became a CEO in 3 Weeks w/ David Guttman & Anna Prudchenko | Coffeez

From Coffeez for Closers with Joe Shalaby · Episode page · Watch on YouTube

· 37 min · 8,035 words · 104 timestamped sections

This is the full, timestamped transcript of "Anti-MBA: How an 18-Year-Old Became a CEO in 3 Weeks w/ David Guttman & Anna Prudchenko | Coffeez", an episode of Coffeez for Closers with Joe Shalaby published December 5, 2025 (37 min, about 8,035 words). It mentions 35 people, works and ideas, including One of One, the AntiMBA, board seat, raise capital, One Official.

What this episode is about

The discussion centers around the unconventional journey of young entrepreneurs, emphasizing that traditional college paths, such as an MBA from Wharton, may not be essential for success. David Guttman shares insights from a mastermind group with young innovators, highlighting how they demonstrate impressive business acumen at a significantly younger age, suggesting a shift in how we perceive educational and career trajectories for aspiring entrepreneurs.

Key takeaways

  • Wharton MBA vs. Middle School Startup: Experiential learning is the new varsity.
  • Masterminds Youthful Revolution: Age 17 to 29, wisdom knows no bounds, not even birthdates.
  • The Anti-MBA: A course to flip business education on its head in 4.5 hours.
  • Investing in Education: Half a million dollars says street smarts trump book smarts.
  • Anna's Journey: From graduation to startup, when mavericks take the road less traveled.

Who speaks in this episode?

What is discussed, and when

  1. – 5:00: board seat, AI agent company, the AntiMBA, Wharton
  2. – 10:00: bachelor's degree, gender studies degree, Newport Beach, Organe
  3. – 15:00: Chicago politics, Mark Zuckerberg, the other side of the country
  4. – 20:00: One of One, raise capital, the AntiMBA
  5. – 25:00: One of One, In the Arena, PowerPoint
  6. – 30:00: One of One, corp versus escorp, raise capital
  7. – 35:00: One of One, Lead Like You Give a, Scottsdale, the AntiMBA
  8. – 37:00: One Official, Dave RGman, David R. Gutman, official David Gman

Notable quotes from "Anti-MBA: How an 18-Year-Old Became a CEO in 3 Weeks w/ David Guttman & Anna Prudchenko | Coffeez"

  • Do you still believe college is the best path for young entrepreneurs? Here's what I think about my Wharton MBA.
    about Wharton · at
  • It's an AI agent company. So, he basically does like AI sales agents.
    about AI agent company · at
  • Said, let me create a course. So, we created a 4 and a half hour course called the AntiMBA. And then I'm anyone who finishes that course I do a coaching call with. I evaluate…
    about the AntiMBA · at
  • Because I know that's, that's what's going to ultimately like lead to success. I'm in Newport Beach. There's no doctors and lawyers on my street.
    about Newport Beach · at
  • Be highly educated, you know. I still want them. Like one of my friend who had a company called Organe he exited couple billion bucks his dad told him I don't care what you do as long as you get your medical degree.
    about Organe · at
  • Exit value of the business. like I think I mentioned before, we don't need to raise capital, but we're going to raise capital just to demonstrate how to raise capital because I…
    about raise capital · at
  • Reflecting how learning is going to look like in the future necessarily. one of one is a poster business. It's a it's a side effect of it. it's the company was started in order…
    about One of One · at
  • Follow One Official on Instagram. It's a very new account. We have 17 followers and we're going to I'm going to document the whole journey. So, this is what you will be following for. It's not.
    about One Official · at

Who and what is mentioned in this episode?

People

  • Mark Zuckerberg — Person · 1 mention · first at
    Really change anything. The reason people like Michael Dell who dropped out of, Harvard and Zuckerberg who dropped out of Harvard, they're successful because they were able to…
  • David R. Gutman — Person · 1 mention · first at
    God bless you guys. Thank you for being on the show. Check them out, guys. David R. Gutman on Instagram. one of unofficial. Make sure to follow. Thanks for tuning in.
  • Theodore Roosevelt — Person · 1 mention

Books & papers

  • the AntiMBA — Book · 3 mentions · first at
  • Lead Like You Give a — Book · 1 mention · first at
    I'm I'm finishing my first book. It's a servant book on servant leadership called Lead Like You Give a and then I'm looking to try to do my first TEDex. I really want to do at…

Companies & orgs

  • One of One — Company · 8 mentions · first at
  • Wharton — Company · 1 mention · first at
  • AI agent company — Company · 1 mention · first at
  • Y Combinator — Company · 1 mention · first at
    Entrepreneurial venture is the CEO. So, I'm I need a way to evaluate. So, you look at think about how Y Combinator works or how Shark Tank works. You're making that investment…
  • Organe — Company · 1 mention · first at
  • PowerPoint — Company · 1 mention · first at
    So, I had to basically buy the high-res image, basically put it in a tool like PowerPoint, superimpose the text, take a screen grab, high it, have it printed high-res, then…
  • Brown — Company · 1 mention
  • Linktree — Company · 1 mention
  • One of One Media — Company · 1 mention
  • TEDex — Company · 1 mention

Products & tech

  • One Official — Product · 2 mentions · first at
  • official David Gman — Product · 1 mention · first at
    So for me, probably my YouTube channel, official David Gman. my link tree is there. All my socials, you can obviously find me on Instagram. It's Dave RGman as my Instagram handle. and I think that is all my Linkree.
  • Dave RGman — Product · 1 mention · first at
    There. All my socials, you can obviously find me on Instagram. It's Dave RGman as my Instagram handle. and I think that is all my Linkree stuff, too. but yeah, anyone, if there's any way I could be helpful to people, please reach out. I I.
  • One of One Official — Product · 1 mention · first at
    To learn how to build a business, and they want to learn from my mistakes, then that's the place to go. One of one official.

Concepts & topics

  • board seat — Concept · 2 mentions · first at
    Think of. And so, I said the best thing for me to do is to be invested in 8, 10, maybe 12 companies where I have a board seat, some equity in the business, and I'm mentoring…
  • raise capital — Concept · 2 mentions · first at
  • talent stack — Concept · 1 mention · first at
    Argue it's the opposite. I think it's the less safe route, like building up your talent stack, having real skills, where you can build something like that you can take anywhere, and so I feel your gender studies.
  • gender studies degree — Concept · 1 mention · first at
    Something like that you can take anywhere, and so I feel your gender studies degree, good luck.
  • bachelor's degree — Concept · 1 mention · first at
    To 18 you'll be done. I was done with college at 19. All of college. I got my degree and bachelor's degree.
  • Chicago politics — Concept · 1 mention · first at
    Wrong, it's not that there's, there's not anything interesting. I took a really interesting class on Chicago politics, okay? When I was at Brown, interesting, nice class and…
  • In the Arena — Concept · 1 mention · first at
    About the fact that I did that Teddy Roosevelt because he has the whole in the arena thing events that he does. and I said that I had David Gogggins and In the Arena and I had that poster in my office. He's No way. He's I just hired.
  • corp versus escorp — Concept · 1 mention · first at
    Of everything from legal issues like how to set up an LLC, how to set up what is corp versus escorp everything. This kid's insane, right? What she's telling me right now, I…
  • AA — Concept · 1 mention
  • APs — Concept · 1 mention
  • exit — Concept · 1 mention
  • GED — Concept · 1 mention
  • learning by doing — Concept · 1 mention

Places & events

  • Newport Beach — Place · 1 mention · first at
  • the other side of the country — Place · 1 mention · first at
    And it's going to add undue duress on the parent. why did you send your kid to the other side of the country?
  • Scottsdale — Place · 1 mention · first at
    Family goal, look, I just right now the big one, part of the reason I moved out to Scottsdale, reason I moved out to Scott, I have an older brother. He's about three and a half years older than me. He's about to turn 63.

Full transcript with timestamps

Do you still believe college is the best path for young entrepreneurs? Here's what I think about my Wharton MBA.

Welcome to another episode of So, I went to Brown undergrad at Wharton for my MBA. In fact, the name of our courses, she came up with the name actually, the anti-MNBA. Went to Wharton business school never taught me. Um, but the reality is if I were born today, I'd have been starting businesses in middle school. I don't think I'd have even finished high school. Honestly,

I mean there is a real stigma with that statement. You you got to finish high school at least just because you know so I'll tell you I got invited

but you can take a GD GED. So yeah exactly. So so I'll tell you I went to a mastermind I got invited I was really flattered I got invited to a mastermind where I was 30 years older than the next youngest person. So the youngest two youngest kids were 17. There were a couple 17 year olds couple 18 year olds. There was a 29-year-old was the oldest. By the way, the 29-year-old works for the 17-year-old who's already running a sevenf figureure business that he started when he was 15.

What company was that? It's an AI agent company. So, he basically does like AI sales agents. Brilliant kid. Um, and uh, honestly, it's like, and don't get me wrong, I think they learned some stuff from me, but I think I learned as much from them as they learned from me. It was a blast.

Where was that mastermind? It was in Costa Rica. So, it was like a four or five day weekend in Costa Rica. They rented some mansion and uh, it was a blast.

That's pretty cool. Yeah, that's pretty cool. So, so tell me about this project that you guys got going on right now.

So, the way it all came to be was I worked backwards from the outcome that I wanted, which is I knew I wanted to make um, you know, I'm in the twilight of my career. I got another 15, 20 years is kind of what I'm thinking. And so, I wanted to spend that in the in the most interesting and entertaining way I could think of. And so, I said the best thing for me to do is to be invested in 8, 10, maybe 12 companies where I have a board seat, some equity in the business, and I'm mentoring the founders of the business. So, I want to do that with people I like doing things I find interesting. So, I'm like, well, what's the best way to do that? And I know that the most important thing in any entrepreneurial venture is the CEO. So, I'm like, I need a way to evaluate. So, you look at think about how Y Combinator works or how Shark Tank works. You're making that investment up front. So, what I decided to do is that I what I

really wanted was I wanted six months to evaluate each CEO. I'm like, well, how am I going to filter that out? So, I said, let me create a course. So, we created a 4 and a half hour course called the AntiMBA. And then I'm anyone who finishes that course I do a coaching call with. I evaluate them and their idea. If I like them and their idea, I invite them into an invitationonly mastermind. 10 people total. That's it. For six months, they have to commit to be mentored by me. The end of that six months, I'll invest in no less than one, no more than three uh of those businesses, a quarter of a million to a half a million dollars um for a board seat, some equity, and ongoing mentorship. So that's how I want to spend the next 15 to 20 years. And that's why I created the course. So Anna was the daughter of a very close friend of mine. I'm an adviser in his company, great guy, Ukrainian. Um, you know,

moved here, barely spoke English, and now, you know, successful entrepreneur. Um, so he's like, "Hey, my daughter's looking for a summer internship. She's going to go to college in the fall. I need I need someone to help me with some of the social media grunt work. I interviewed her. She was super smart." I'm like, "Sure, why not?" Three weeks into it, she's just crushing it. And I'm thinking, you know, the what would be really compelling is if I actually had Anna, if I actually used the course to launch a real business, get it up and running in 30 days, profitable within 90 with someone who's very smart, but no business background whatsoever, just finished high school. What better way to demonstrate the fact that if you have the right raw materials, you could be a successful entrepreneur. I pitched it to Anna. First, I got her dad's permission.

Then I pitched it to Anna. She thought I was crazy, but that's how we started on this journey together. Mhm.

I like it. I like that. That's a cool journey. Uh so Anna, you just graduated high school and instead of college, you're launching a company.

What do you think made you choose that path instead of college? I think it stemmed a lot from the environment that I was in and my parents. My dad is an entrepreneur as David said. So I always had this vision for what I wanted my life to look like in the future. And I quickly realized that if I go to the normal path of going to college and then getting a job and then getting promoting myself over like in the career ladder, I won't get that same life that I really wanted. And I always knew that I had something um in me to do to become an entrepreneur. I wanted to be an entrepreneur since since I was like seven, I think. Yeah, since I was seven. And there was never a doubt in my mind that I would become one. So it was not an easy decision because obviously my mom really wanted me to go to college. She still wants me to go to college. She it's her requirement. Get a degree just get the paper then you can

do whatever you want. But um I think overall it's just a better way for me personally and I've never been one to conform to the usual route. I always take the path less traveled. So, this was kind of like a risky decision that I was just super excited to to take. Yeah.

She speaks with conviction and as a as a young kid, you know, I'm like, I'm impressed. You're the youngest person be on the show. And, you know, I want my kids to go down the entrepreneurial I'm I'm stuck cuz I personally want my kids to go down the entrepreneurial path because I know that's, you know, that's what's going to ultimately like lead to success. I'm in Newport Beach. There's no doctors and lawyers on my street.

There just isn't. Yeah, you can't buy a $7 million house as a doctor, you know.

So, everybody on my street is an entrepreneur. There are nobody. There's nobody unless they own the practice in a bunch of practices. They're not living in Newport in general anywhere.

Yeah. Maybe a condo. And that's the I know some people in Newport cuz I'm Egyptian and everyone in my community is a doctor. That's like how we that's all we knew. Same with Jewish people, right?

Yeah. Yeah. Um they're all doctors. That's the path they started with and then they started to understand Jewish people specifically entrepreneurship was a better route. They understood that in the 70s and ' 80s. We understood that now cuz we came in the 80s,

you know. So we were like, we're going to be doctors. Now their kids are like, we're going to be entrepreneurs. Dad, you're dumb to be a doctor. You made no money. My dad still works like a dog. 76 years old, still works every single day. Um, but the c the caveat is like where I'm stuck is I want them to be entrepreneurs. I'm already having them become young entrepreneurs, you know, and I do that through sports card trading

and I do that through uh like raising capital for, you know, whatever projects. Um, but I still want them to be highly educated, you know. I still want them. Like one of my friend um who had a company called Organe uh he exited couple billion bucks um his dad told him I don't care what you do as long as you get your medical degree. That's just college, right?

Become a doctor first. A lot of school. That's a lot of school. And that's like you're out of school at like 26. Now kids are multi-millionaires at like 19, 17, you know. Yeah.

So, it's it's a it's a path, you know, now and I don't know what the future holds cuz 6 years down the road, education, college is going to be even worth even more worthless.

Agreed. You know, it is like she made the comment that, you know, the safe route of taking an education. I actually argue it's the opposite. I think it's the less safe route, you know, like building up your talent stack, having real skills, um, where you can build something like that you can take anywhere, you know, and so I feel like, you know, your your gender studies degree, I mean, good luck.

Yeah. Especially people don't know what gender they are exactly. Um yeah. Yeah, you're right. Uh and one thing I did which I'm going to encourage all my kids to do um is I just took a test and exit exam at 16 and then I went to community college. At least finish that,

right? You know, like finish 16 high school then go to college at, you know, from 16 to 18 you'll be done. I was I was done with college at 19. All of college. I got my degree and bachelor's degree. Wow. So,

it's possible. Just you just got to get out of high school early. Well, think about it, too. Like, you know, it was about a quarter of a million dollars, you know, all in for my daughter to go to, you know, midling school. Um, and the reality is, think about how much coaching and mentorship and masterminds and stuff you could purchase for $250,000, the rooms you could get in.

And it's like that to me is a way better ROI. Yeah. I'm already taking my 11-year-old to masterminds now.

Smart. I'm I'm already introducing her to to think big. Well, that's why I'm taking her on this podcast towards. It's like, hey, part of what I want you to do, not just, you know, because she's also the daughter of my one close, one of my very closest friends. It's like I want to her to be as successful as humanly possible. I learned the hard way that I should have built my personal brand 5 years ago. And so, I want her to learn from my mistakes. That's what I want all my mentors to do is learn from my mistakes. And so, the business will benefit from it, but she'll benefit from it from it, too. I think to building a personal brand is sort of like the uh the cheat code to life.

Building a personal brand. And I talked to you about this earlier. It's not a cheat code anymore. And it's it's an absolute necessity for every entrepreneur.

Yeah. It's a necessity just because we all want AI. Everyone wants the, you know, the AI to to help them. But AI has no data without personal brand for people, right?

Data on every other thing. But for people to to if it's going to decipher, you need to build your personal brand.

Yeah. people have people you look people you know I can hallucinate um I you know I part of the reason I listen to Joe Rogan or whatever it's like hey this guy never intentionally lies to me this is a people buy from people they like and trust you build a personal brand of authenticity of trustworthiness um you can you can monetize that in an infinite number of ways if monetization is your thing if influence is your thing again you can influence the most people by building a personal brand and doing something that you're passionate about

yeah it's been for both of us, you know, obviously gamechanging. Now, um David, you tore up your MBA diploma publicly, which is so cool.

We're going to show that here on the clip as well. Uh what was the real message behind that moment and what are you challenging in the current system? So, you know, as we were talking about off camera, um, you know, the dirty secret if you know, for people that go to get Ivy League degrees, go to Stanford, places like that, is, and don't get me wrong, it's not that there's, you know, there's not anything interesting. I took a really interesting class on Chicago politics, okay? When I was at Brown, interesting, nice class and all, it's not changing my life in any way. Um, the reality is in terms of practical knowledge, you know, that I'm able to apply in my life, it wasn't particularly useful. And because everyone benefits from the fact that everybody else is so impressed that they went to those schools, the dirty secret is it didn't really change anything. The reason people um like Michael Dell who dropped

out of, you know, Harvard and Zuckerberg who dropped out of Harvard, they're successful because they were able to get into Harvard, not because Harvard educated them in some way. And so the dirty secret is the people that benefited from that don't want to let the secret out. And I'm like, so that's why I tore it up. It's like I'm old. I don't have anything to prove. And so it's like, you know, I wanted to if I put your money where your mouth is. If I'm trying to say, look, I didn't want my kid to go to school. I'm encouraging her not to go to school.

And that was 5 years ago. You don't want your kid to go to school. Seven years ago.

Seven years. Now, college is even worthless even more now. Even more now. And I was begging her then.

And I would argue if especially if the kids go away for college, that it's actually harmful for children because they're going to go to college and they're just going to party. They're going to drink. They're going to be exposed to all types of harmful situations.

Yeah. For their life and for their livelihood. And it's going to add undue duress on the parent. Like, why did you send your kid to the other side of the country? He's a kid. You expect him not to fall into social temptation?

I remember one time my daughter calls me up because she set her curtains on fire. You know, literally, they're inflamed. I'm like, "Why are you calling me and not the fire department? I don't understand. What the hell am I supposed to do?" It's like

fire department, Dad. Yeah, call the fire department. Exactly. Right. I'm like, hang up and call the fire department. Um, honestly, it's just it's unfathomable that it it's such an expensive way that the excuse is, hey, you're going to spend a quarter of a million dollars, but they're going to learn how to be an adult. Kind of sort of, right? Because

keep them from running a business. They'll learn to be an adult like that. Exactly. Right. Make payroll then, you know, have to make payroll for your people. Then then you're actually an adult. So, I I just think that it's um again, I understand it's just it's brainwashing. and societal programming that that's the way it's supposed to be. And the reality is um I think it's a fool's errand.

Yeah. I mean, what's your opinion on that anyways? Like about college? I think I went I'm probably at the moment in my life that I will later refer to as the pivot point because for the past four years, I've been working towards a college degree. I took nine APs. I was really going out.

And you have this a few more classes. cuz you got your AA. Exactly. That's what I'm doing right now. That's what I'm doing right now. That's what I'm doing. College, community college part-time, you know, it's barely anything. So easy.

And it's it's super easy. It's barely anything. And I'll get it done. And then if I want to, I can transfer. If I don't want to, I don't have to transfer, you know. It's it's it's there's a plethora of opportunities there.

Make your mom happy. Exactly. No, I'm I have to be careful about what I say on camera because she's going to be watching. So yeah, I will say that I am

yes, I am going to get my degree. But yeah, I think that I was going towards this thing. I couldn't afford college actually. Um I got accepted into a lot of colleges. I didn't couldn't afford it. So that's why I'm going to community college. And I realized that you know what, what was I even working towards? Like why did I want to go to college in the first place? It's kind of like a aha moment. Like what was I what was I doing? And I was going to college for networking. I thought the only reason to go to college was to meet people that you can network with and like do business later on. And then I realized that um while meeting David and just going through his network and meeting the people that he's meeting, I'm going to get so much more connections and more networking than any college.

Coming here, going around to these podcast events, this is where it happens. Exactly. Yeah.

I mean, networking is like what you're going to your your college buddy 20 years down the road is going to be doing what we're doing now. something about him.

Exactly. If you somehow find him on whatever social media is out there and you're like, I remember that guy.

Mhm. Um, so, so Anna, you started as an intern for David and within 3 weeks, you became the CEO of a brand new company. What was going on through your mind when he offered you that role?

I thought he was crazy and I thought that but it was a good kind of crazy. And I also thought that okay, I Anna, come on. You wanted to be an entrepreneur since you were 7 years old. Yes, you thought you were going to do it when you were like 21, 22. It's coming a bit early, but it's now or never. So, I didn't even have to think about it for too long. I got off I got offered this opportunity. I was like, "Yeah, I'm going to take it because well, the risks are the risks like the benefits way outweigh the risks in this scenario, especially because I knew David just a little bit. He was friends with my dad.

I trusted him. So yeah, it was a really a no no-brainer to be honest. What are the traits that you saw in her that you realized this girl can do something much bigger than what she's doing here?

Yeah, I wouldn't have I wouldn't have proposed it. Like I when I first met her, she was sharp. It was funny. We had um you know, my friend had you said, "Hey, you know, I said, "Hey, let me talk to your daughter. Have her." So I basically said on Monday, "Review my social media. We'll talk on Friday, and I want to hear your thoughts."

She's 15 minutes into a 30-minute monologue about how broken it is and what I need to fix. And halfway through I'm like, "All right, shut up. You're hired." Um, but then we worked together for the next few weeks. And what I what I saw was she was super creative. She was super curious. She was very disciplined. She was also smart, but honestly, the smart wasn't even the B. That's that's a nice to have. That's not even a have to have in my experience. And but she was she was also very open-minded and she took direction really well. The other thing that surprised me was um she didn't come to me with every little thing. Like a lot of people that are her age, they'll come to you with every last thing. She tried to solve everything on her own as much as she possibly could before she came to me. And so those really are the raw materials that I think you need to be successful. The other thing was she was

having to coordinate with a lot of other people, all of whom are significantly older than her. and she handled it so well and she was able to kind of command the respect even though just by her her sheer presence. So it's like she had the raw materials and so and I thought, you know, one she's going to make me look like a genius, right? So it's like I like I I know I have a I have a ringer but everyone else doesn't know that because I know what I know what to look for. I have a good eye for talent.

Yeah. I mean I that's kind of my job, you know. I'm a talent scout at my position now. That's what I always look for. That's cool that you're looking for that humble model.

Humble was the other one. Humble. Humility is important. Yeah, humility is definitely important. So, David, what did you So, um, what are you both What are both of you trying to prove right now or maybe disprove with the launch, especially under the banner of the antiMBA campaign? I'll go first. Uh, you know, like you said, I I I believe that I can, in fact, I know I can take an 18-year-old with the right raw materials and between the course and a little bit of guidance from me, help her be a successful entrepreneur. The goal is going to be I don't really care about um uh about the exit value of the business. Um, like I I think I mentioned before, we don't need to raise capital, but we're going to raise capital just to demonstrate how to raise capital because I think that's a really important skill to have, especially if you want to build something big and scale. Um, but so we're going to take it, the goal is over

the next 18 to 24 months to exit. I don't care how much we exit for. Maybe it'll only be very high six, low seven figures, doesn't really matter. Um, but I want to be able to take it all the way through the the life cycle. Yeah. Because again, most people don't realize that um due diligence, the main goal of due diligence is to lower the purchase price. What are all the things you can do to help mitigate those risks and to push back against that? We I one of the companies that that I exited 8 figure exit, we exited in December of 2008 and and every company I knew was getting their uh exit value, you know, huge haircuts, 25, 35, 50% haircuts in their valuation. And because of how we managed the exit, um we got the exact asking price that we wanted. So there's a lot of things that um you cuz you can build a company up and exit wrong and and destroy so much of the value you spent years building.

Wow. Now um how often does one-on-one media reflect what you believe the future of learning leadership and media should look like?

You want to take that one or you want me to? You mean the the company itself, the idea of company,

the own media? I mean, I don't know if it's uh reflecting how learning is going to look like in the future necessarily. I mean, one of one is a poster business. It's a it's a side effect of it. You know, it's the company was was started in order to showcase all of the little details of how a usual a regular business will function and some of the challenges that a usual business will go through, right? But then the one of one, I mean, it's all about it's all about motivation. We're doing tech integration. We're doing AI features. It's like the poster is just one thing, but it's also becomes a portal into your own self-growth journey. So, there's like a lot of different things. It's both novelty, but it's also a simple concept to brute force in the beginning uh that we chose just because that that was the best thing to show the course like the contents of the course.

I think too that for me um I wanted to demonstrate that the best way to learn is by doing, right? And it's like if if you're not making mistakes, you're not making enough decisions,

right? I think you said something really profound here, and people really need to hone in on this. The best way to learn is by doing because everybody just wants to sit there in class and just like receive information that doesn't do anything for you. You have to make decisions. And look, one of the big mistakes people make is they have analysis paralysis. They're afraid to make mistakes. You know, one of the things I was I've been teaching Anna and and I was really proud of her. I remember when we first came up with the logo or she came up with the logo. She hired a graphic designer. She had him do a logo. She showed me the logo. I could tell by the look on her face she didn't like it, but she's like, "The logo isn't going to make the business successful, succeed or fail." And so, let's just keep moving. And I was like, "Wow, like there's people in their 40s and 50s that don't realize that, right?" And so,

again, that's how I knew this logo doesn't matter. Yeah. That's how that's how I knew I picked the right the right quarterback. But but ultimately, what I wanted to do is I wanted to show a couple things. One, that you learn by doing. And the second thing was, and I know I always beat on beat this drum pretty hard to the point the end probably hates hearing it now, but it's like I'll take a mediocre idea really well executed over an amazing idea executed mediocre any day. And and at the end of the day, well, I think the one of one posters is a good idea. It it wouldn't matter. It really doesn't matter. It's about, you know, people always talk about, oh, when Home Depot moves into a a new city, all the mom and pop hardware stores go out of business. That's only mostly true.

About 80% of them do. The other 20% actually do better, right? because they're, you know, good luck trying to get someone at Home Depot to help you actually figure out which power tool to buy or whatever it might be. But the mom and pop, you know, hardware store that's run well will actually make more money.

One of one, let's talk about that. Is who are your competitors? I feel like you could do that stuff on Amazon or write or whatever.

I would have thought so too. Like when I had the idea for the Michael Jordan poster, right? I like I knew I wanted this quote. I knew I wanted the poster. There was nowhere I could buy it at any price. It wasn't possible. I looked, you know, there's an old company,

actually a high quality one. Yeah. You know, and I I wanted it, you know, really nicely printed, really nicely framed. Um, and there just wasn't any way to do that. I couldn't even get the poster part done, you know, period. So, I had to basically buy the high-res image, you know, basically put it in a a tool like PowerPoint, superimpose the text, you know, take a screen grab, high it, have it printed high-res, then getting it framed. The whole thing took like two weeks. It was a huge pain in the ass, you know. And then I started giving them as gifts and every person I gave it to said, "Best gift I've ever gotten." And so, cuz not only that, but it's sitting on their wall in a place of pride, you know, about, you know, either in their office or in their living room or in their bedroom. And every time they look at, they're thinking about me and wow, that was a really thoughtful thing Dave did. Who wants something other than

that? And, you know, you know, and think about the think about the lifetime value of a customer. The per perfect customer is someone someone like you who like wants to get that Michael Jordan poster really well done and you want to have it at the office and then you're like, "Oh, I really like that. Hey, maybe I'll start giving them as gifts." So, you have some for yourself, you have some for the office, you start giving them as presents. Now, the lifetime value of a customer is high hundreds, low thousands of dollars over time. That's a really good business.

In my business, the lifetime customer value is 13 to 14 mortgages. That's a lot of money.

Yeah. So, every mortgage is six to 10 grand. That's beautiful. So, for these guys out here thinking lifetime value, they got to deliver um very nice closing gifts.

Yeah, I bet. You know, so and what this would be a great closing gift. In fact, it was funny. Um I probably shouldn't let the cat out of the bag, but um actually Anna's mom had this great idea that everyone we're having that we're doing these podcasts with, we should give them a one-on-one poster as a thank you for having us on their podcast. So, I was talking to Dan yesterday when I was ripping up my diploma and I was saying telling him about um the the fact that I did that Teddy Roosevelt because he has the whole in in the arena um thing events that he does. Um and you know, and I said that I had David Gogggins and In the Arena and I had that poster in my office. He's like, "No way." He's like, "I just hired David Gogggins today to do an event."

He's a huge Gogggins fan. So, guess who's getting an In the Arena poster with David Gogggins on it, right? What better way to do that, you know? And every time he sees it, he'll think of us. Dan's the sweetest guy, too.

He's a great guy. He's a sweet He's He's the true like embodiment of a servant. His whole life is just serve. He does not care about money. I'm sure you got like 50 introductions after that.

He's a machine. He's amazing. So, that that's just his mindset. He's been an inspiration for me. Um and a huge help with just building my brand. That's all he's been trying to do is just help me. So, anytime I come across guests or something, I'm like, "Dan, Dan here."

Yeah. Yeah. And that's how he knows that God just blesses him like that. So, um, so Anna, you've gone from high school grad to company builder in a matter of weeks.

What's one what's something you've learned on the job that school never prepared you for?

Everything like everything because school does not teach you how to become an entrepreneur. School teaches you how to become a good employee, right? It's how it teaches you how to follow directions, teaches you the very technical skills that you need to know in order to do a specific kind of job. So everything that I've learned this summer, I have not learned at school. And even like the only overlap that I could talk that I could really think about is because I was heavily involved in leadership at school because I was always trying to do something of my own.

I hate following like directions from people that I don't aspire to. So I always tried to do something of my own and that was the only place that I was like okay so I got some of the soft skills and I brought them here but nothing else was taught here. I'm learning so much more. I'm learning all of everything from legal issues like how to set up an LLC, how to set up what is corp versus escorp everything. This kid's insane, right? What what she's telling me right now, I wish my kids were here in this, you know, like this is crazy, you know? It's like I never thought that school just prepares you to be an employee. I I mean, but but she's right out of school and she's like, "Yeah, I was just basically preparing myself to go, you know, just be a follower, you know, just be a really kind of like a flunky, you know, in my opinion."

100%. Yeah. I'm just learn here just to take orders. I'm just an order taker. And that's that's an unfortunate reality about our school system.

Not only that, but think about it, too. Like, people have this just bizarre illusion that the corporations they work for care about them. You know, it's like, look, I've been uh, you know, you probably know a little bit of my backstory, but I was misdiagnosed with cancer and told I had six months to live when I was 24. And that just pivoted me into being a servant leader. Before that, I really wasn't. I wasn't a bad guy, but but I led and I and I thought about leadership and and and everything in a very different way. And so for me, um, it's just such a happier way to travel through life is find people to invest in, invest, you know, pour your heart into those people and it pays back, you know, in an infinite number of ways.

Now, um, David, what would you tell other founders or executives about hiring people like Anna, not for where they've been, but for who they are and where they're going? I think Elon Musk has made this, you know, this comment a couple times and and it's been my experience too is I've made the mistake too often that I would hire based on talent, you know, or primarily on talent or or a specific domain expertise. Now, there are some rare exceptions where that's an absolutely necessary thing if you're building an AI company and you know, you need some very specialized knowledge, but uh but for me, it's like now I hire on humility. Um, I hire based on curiosity, creativity, discipline, and the fact that and and I guess I'd call it heart for lack of a better way to say it. And and when I do that, um, I I've just seen that's what that those people are the ones that are the game changers in the organization. The other

thing that I've learned, um, is the only uh is that you have to learn how to fire fast. Um, because you'll make mistakes. I don't care how good you are at interviewing, how much you do reference checks, won't matter. You'll make some hiring mistakes. Um, one bad hire can can in the same way that a really good hire can help move the needle in a positive way. A bad hire goes the other way. 100%. It's the only thing in my business career that's 100% true. Every time I have delayed I had the thought to fire someone and I delayed it, I've regretted it without a single exception in a 35 year career. Actually, about a year and a half ago, I thought I had that one exception and then actually ended up having to fire him. So, you know, that's the thing. It's like look for the right raw materials um and you can teach the skill set.

Couple last questions now. Where do you both want one-on-one media to go and what do you hope this this conversation inspires in the next generation of builders?

I mean the one of one for my personal goals I want to learn as much as possible from building scaling it and then exiting. So one of one is bound to have an exit for sure. We also want to teach how to raise capital and everything like that. This whole journey is kind of like a super transparent no journey and like like a documented journey where others can learn. Okay, you don't really have to go get an MBA. You don't really have to have a bachelor's in business in order to start a business. Here is what you need to know. Here is exactly what you need to know. And that is kind of what this is going to inspire in the future generations. Hopefully people are going to realize the value of just a single course or a single mastermind or multiple masterminds over a quarter million education.

For me, I just want I want the one of one to just be the template and and and this journey to be the template that I apply to other entrepreneurs. It's, you know, to me, um, I I I I wish so much that this was available to me when I was when I was her age. Um, and so honestly, just the idea that I can in, you know, pour myself into, you know, 8, 10, 12 entrepreneurs that where their hearts are really in it, the idea of making all of them millionaires is thrilling to me. So, that's the outcome I want. And yeah, I'll make some money as a side effect, but it's not important to me. Couple last questions before we adjourn here. This is about goals.

What's a personal goal? You guys can both share a a family goal. You don't have family yet up, but you can also allude to it. And then a business goal, which we kind of tapped into, but

um family goal, I mean, look, um I just right now the big one, um part of the reason I moved out to Scottsdale, reason I moved out to Scott, I have an older brother. He's about three and a half years older than me. He's about to turn 63. um he's my height and he's he was a little bit over 350 lbs when when he started his journey and um I mean he's he's the nicest guy. Um and it just his life is not where it where it really should be especially for someone who's just such a wonderful person. Um so you know I asked him, hey, if I moved out here, would you work with me? He's already dropped 25 pounds. um he's got a long way to go obviously, but that's that's my number one goal uh as in a family is to be able to help him um you know have the kind of life that I think he deserves. So I would say that's probably my primary family goal. Um and I would say on the you know on the business side um I I have I have a few

um I'm I'm finishing my first book. It's a servant book on servant leadership uh called Lead Like You Give a Um and then uh I'm looking to try to do my first TEDex. I really want to do at TEDex about some of the some of the stuff I want to talk about on servant leadership and obviously what we're doing with one of one and uh and the antiMBA um is super important to me because again I feel like um you know back when I was misdiagnosed and thought you know and I I realized I wasn't going to die um I made a conscious decision that I was going to try to affect just the the handful of people closest to me but the internet didn't exist back then and so now that now I've expanded that scope and I'm like I feel like I can cast a much wider net and have um bigger ripple effect. Um so if I can create a dozen annas, how much influence and impact those people can have. And so that's what I'm excited about.

Yeah. Uh for me, a personal goal, I really value change. I've moved 14 times in my life. I've come to accept change as it comes. But I also um I only feel successful and satisfied in myself if I am not the same person when I end the year compared to when I started it. So a personal goal would be to continue growing to continue changing. If I reflect back on the beginning of this journey and I'm like yeah I don't even know what I was doing back then. Like I don't understand like I made so many mistakes I wouldn't want to do that again. That's what I want to be later on. That's a personal goal. As a for a business goal, I think well obviously I want to bring one of one to success. I want to have a successful exit. But also because I'm young, because I'm very very new to business, I want to build uh a lot of relationships and a lot of network like a big good network so that I can start ideulating and start

launching my next business before I even exit this one. Um this is not going to be the end for me. This is only the beginning and I need to start preparing for the next big thing already.

This is definitely the beginning too. This is 18 years old. Like literally like

Yeah, she's I'm excited to see what you do in your life and um I'm going to have my kids interning for you.

I love it. I love it. Last question. When you're in front of the pearly gates, what do you think God's going to tell you? Um, you know, my life has turned out different and I and I was always fairly ambitious in what I wanted to accomplish in my life. My dad started a software company in his late 20s that eventually IPOed and um so I always had pretty ambitious goals for myself. my life has turned out completely different in every possible way from what I had originally envisioned and and better, you know, if I were to like compare what my original plans were versus how they turned out.

Um and and I guess for me, all I really want to all I want to think about cuz someone once asked me the question on a podcast, you know, um what would I want my daughter to say about me, you know, at the end of my life? And it was just that I was a good human being. It's really as simple as that. I think that if I uh if I can get to the pearly gates um and feel comfortable that um you know that I that I really was a good human being and I I touched as many people in a positive way as I possibly could and left them better than I found them. Um I feel pretty good about the journey.

I feel almost bad asking a young lady that, but it's how the show goes. I was thinking about it. I was like what would I what would he say to me? And I mean obviously I want to leave a lasting impact on the closest people that I have. I mean the more people I can reach the better obviously. And that is a a good answer I think in that regards. But I think personally speaking he's going to be like I gave you so many warnings. Why did you step into every single one of them? Like why did you take all of these risks? and I will say, "Well, this because that's life and I had a great life and I experienced so many things."

So, I think he's gonna be a little upset with me, but he's gonna be like, "Okay, whatever. Come on in. Come on in."

Yeah, that's what I think. Uh, if people want to connect with you, how do they find you?

Um, so for me, um, you know, probably my uh my my YouTube channel, you know, official David Gman. Um, my link tree is there. All my socials, uh, you can obviously find me on Instagram. It's Dave RGman as my Instagram handle. Um, and I think that is all my Linkree stuff, too. Uh, but yeah, anyone, if there's any way I could be helpful to people, please reach out. Um, I I I uh I drive my wife crazy sometimes. Um, but but I love being helpful to other people, and uh if I could be helpful on on someone else's journey, I'm happy to do so.

How about you, Anna? Follow One Official on Instagram. It's a very new account. We have 17 followers and uh we're going to I'm going to document the whole journey. So, this is what you will be following for. It's not like the business page. It's more like, okay, I'm building this business in public. Here's what I'm learning along the way. So, if there's anyone who wants to learn how to build a business, um, and they want to learn from my mistakes, then that's the place to go. One of one official.

One of your journey, a young 18-year-old entrepreneur going from the very grassroots to an exit. Let's go.

Yes. God bless you guys. Thank you for being on the show. Check them out, guys. David R. Gutman on Instagram. one of unofficial. Make sure to follow. Thanks for tuning in.

Questions about this episode

Who speaks in "Anti-MBA: How an 18-Year-Old Became a CEO in 3 Weeks w/ David Guttman & Anna Prudchenko | Coffeez"?

Joe Shalaby (Host), David R. Guttman (Guest), Anna Prudchenko (Guest).

What is "Anti-MBA: How an 18-Year-Old Became a CEO in 3 Weeks w/ David Guttman & Anna Prudchenko | Coffeez" about?

The discussion centers around the unconventional journey of young entrepreneurs, emphasizing that traditional college paths, such as an MBA from Wharton, may not be essential for success. David Guttman shares insights from a mastermind group with young innovators, highlighting how they demonstrate impressive business acumen at a significantly younger age, suggesting a shift in how we perceive…

What is mentioned in this Coffeez for Closers with Joe Shalaby episode?

35 people, works and ideas are mentioned, including One of One, the AntiMBA, board seat, raise capital, One Official, Wharton. Each one on this page links to its own page with every episode that mentions it.

How long is "Anti-MBA: How an 18-Year-Old Became a CEO in 3 Weeks w/ David Guttman & Anna Prudchenko | Coffeez"?

The episode runs 37 min; the transcript is about 8,035 words in 104 timestamped sections.

More from Coffeez for Closers with Joe Shalaby

About this transcript: the episode's spoken words as captioned on YouTube, split into timestamped sections. Reclip.Me locates every person, work and idea in the text, keeps the time it is first named, and quotes the words around it verbatim. Last updated December 15, 2025.