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Timestamps

00:00 Intro

06:25 The night that changed everything (college brawl → jail)

12:48 “I saw scared racism for the first time”

19:40 I spent six months in jail — and then decided “I’m never coming back”

25:50 How the justice system traps you (and how he beat it)

35:47 200 job applications… and 200 rejections

40:12 “No one would hire me, so I hired myself”

46:33 The $3,000 house that changed his life

55:40 I lost $170,000 in Houston, it was a betrayal! (my blood was boiling!)

1:03:22 The birth of Goodies: How I turned a $1,000 truck into a $1M business

1:09:55 The SYSTEM that makes restaurants print money

1:22:58 How to find the hidden “opportunities” in any market

1:27:40 This 1 mindset made me successful

About the Guest / About the Episode

Dawon Matthews is the ultimate underdog, he went from being kicked out of college, jailed, and rejected from over 200 jobs to building a $1.2M food truck in 11 months. His story is a masterclass in resilience, reinvention, and building systems that scale This episode will shift how you think about adversity, opportunity, and what’s truly possible when you refuse to quit....Enjoy

All investing involves the risk of loss, including loss of principal. Brokerage

services for US-listed, registered securities, options and bonds in a self-directed account are offered by Public Investing, Inc., member FINRA & SIPC. Public Investing offers a High-Yield Cash Account where funds from this account are automatically deposited into partner banks where they earn interest and are eligible for FDIC insurance; Public Investing is not a bank. Crypto trading provided by Zero Hash LLC. Zero Hash LLC is licensed to engage in virtual currency business activity by NYDFS and is not a registered broker-dealer or a FINRA member. Crypto is highly speculative and involves significant risk, including loss of principal. Cryptocurrencies are not protected by FDIC or SIPC. See disclosures for more details: https://docs.zerohash.com/page/us-licenses-and-disclosures. Alpha is an experimental AI tool powered by GPT-4. Its output may be inaccurate and is not investment advice. Public makes no guarantees about its accuracy or reliability—verify independently before use. *3.6% as of 11/14/25. APY. Rate may change. See terms of IRA Match Program here: public.com/disclosures/ira-match. Matched funds must remain in the account for at least 5 years to avoid an early removal fee. Match rate and other terms of the Match Program are subject to change at any time.

Live from JFL Montreal 2015