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Speaker 1: My name is Mike Boris, and I've teamed up with Stake,

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Speaker 1: one of Australia's top investing platforms, to talk about going public.

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Speaker 1: IPOs are exciting milestones that unlock new capital, draw more attention,

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Speaker 1: and open up opportunities, but a lot happens before and

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Speaker 1: after the trading bill rings, and it's not all glamour.

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Speaker 1: Join me in Canada conversations with prominent business leaders as

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Speaker 1: we reveal all the ups and downs of getting a

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Speaker 1: private company listed. Hey guys, just before we start this podcast,

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Speaker 1: I have to make a disclaimer. I, through one of

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Speaker 1: my family companies, is an investor in the Train outa

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Speaker 1: entity that is listed on the NYAC. So I am

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Speaker 1: an investor, but it's not going to change the way

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Speaker 1: I approach this. Nick Langton, welcome to a going public mate.

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Speaker 1: Thank you Marcus and made its fantastic here because I

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Speaker 1: sort of remember back in the mental days, how many

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Speaker 1: years ago is a pre COVID that's for sure. Your business,

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Speaker 1: which you and others founded, was called Whimp.

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Speaker 2: To Warrior W two W a long time ago.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, changed the name appropriately, I think to train Alta

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Speaker 1: Alta you were, well, do you go back and tell me,

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Speaker 1: how where the idea came from?

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Speaker 3: Yeah, so how many years ago to this is going

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Speaker 3: back a fair way. So you know, I got back

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Speaker 3: involved training martial arts in my late thirties. I'd done

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Speaker 3: it as a kid, came back to it. There was

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Speaker 3: actually a program that was founded called Wimp to Warrior,

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Speaker 3: and the whole idea was it was actually created originally

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Speaker 3: as a potential reality TV platform. The idea that you

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Speaker 3: take forty men and women have never trained before, trained

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Speaker 3: them for six months and let them compete in amateur mma,

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Speaker 3: and which is kind of a really bold and exciting

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Speaker 3: and unique concept. But what I found going through the program,

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Speaker 3: and I.

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Speaker 2: Was working at Perpetual.

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Speaker 3: I was running a division of Perpetual at the time,

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Speaker 3: and so had a kind of a young family and

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Speaker 3: a white collar job.

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Speaker 2: But I got back into the.

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Speaker 3: Gym in the mornings and trained really hard. Obviously you

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Speaker 3: have to in preparation for competing and for fighting. But

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Speaker 3: what I found was how much I enjoyed being back

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Speaker 3: in the gym, not just for the work you were doing.

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Speaker 3: What I was learning about the sport, reconnecting with it.

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Speaker 3: Having done a lot of judo as a kid and

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Speaker 3: kind of kind of rediscovering how much fun I had

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Speaker 3: role modeling for my three sons, who this is going

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Speaker 3: back sort of over ten years ago, and they just

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Speaker 3: started their jiu jitsu journey. So from my perspective, it

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Speaker 3: was what it showed me was actually training in combat

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Speaker 3: sports martial arts. I found it a lot stickier in

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Speaker 3: terms of how much I wanted to do it. And

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Speaker 3: I think we often talk about the fact that fitness

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Speaker 3: is fad based, but sport is evergreen. If it's a

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Speaker 3: practice or a past time, you know, it doesn't it's

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Speaker 3: not like you churn through. You know, we all know

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Speaker 3: there's all sorts of different fitness brands that come and go,

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Speaker 3: and maybe they're on short cycles or long cycles, but

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Speaker 3: ultimately they.

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Speaker 2: Come and go. But sport is far more enduring.

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Speaker 3: And I thought to myself, like the product inside a

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Speaker 3: martial arts gym. You know that the care of the

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Speaker 3: coach is technical instruction, the community of people you train with.

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Speaker 3: It's a remarkable product, but maybe the wrapping paper isn't

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Speaker 3: that great in terms of how it's presented to the market.

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Speaker 2: And that was kind of an epiphany for me.

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Speaker 3: So I invested in the original concept of the business,

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Speaker 3: which you know at the time was programs and you know,

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Speaker 3: potentially a nonscripted TV see is. But what it kind

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Speaker 3: of morphed into and when I decided to leave my

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Speaker 3: corporate life at the end of twenty sixteen was I'm like, Okay,

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Speaker 3: this actually has legs in terms of martial arts is

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Speaker 3: growing massively in popularity. The growth of the UFC has

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Speaker 3: been absolutely stunning. There's huge interest in how to get started,

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Speaker 3: but there's no easy consumer on ramp in terms of

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Speaker 3: how would I do that? And my epiphany was, Okay,

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Speaker 3: if there's will now they say six hundred and forty

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Speaker 3: million fans of MMA, how could we convert those fans

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Speaker 3: to participants? And how could we leverage globally this wonderful

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Speaker 3: inventory of coaches and gyms that already exist and funnel

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Speaker 3: those customers into them to train and learn and do programs.

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Speaker 3: And so that was the genesis of it back at

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Speaker 3: the end of twenty sixteen early twenty seventeen, when I

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Speaker 3: came out to do this full time, I kind of

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Speaker 3: invested in the concept back in twenty third team, but

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Speaker 3: when I decided, hang on, I'm going to take a

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Speaker 3: big bet here and leave my corporate life. That was

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Speaker 3: on the belief that there was a huge opportunity in

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Speaker 3: this sports vertical around the transition from fandom to participation.

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Speaker 2: And that's when it started.

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Speaker 3: And I think maybe five months after I started that journey,

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Speaker 3: I came in and had my first chat to you

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Speaker 3: on the Mentor podcast in twenty seventeen.

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Speaker 1: I was twenty seventeen.

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Speaker 2: It was that was the first time we we brought up.

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Speaker 1: So at that time, who were your founding partners shoholders,

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Speaker 1: et cetera, and sort of what was the structure we're

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Speaker 1: talking about.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, so we had there was originally me and another

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Speaker 3: founder who was the guy who created the program. You know,

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Speaker 3: really passionate, talented martial arts coach, but a guy who

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Speaker 3: really was focused on the coaching element and enjoyed the

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Speaker 3: transformation that could provide to people in their lives. I

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Speaker 3: suppose I came in with a view number one that

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Speaker 3: sort of the consumer lens going, this has really wide applications,

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Speaker 3: but how could we scale this? How could this be

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Speaker 3: something valuable? And then I think our big break was

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Speaker 3: at the end of twenty sixteen early twenty seventeen, John Cavanaugh,

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Speaker 3: who's conor McGregor's coach for a lot of years now.

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Speaker 3: You know, John had run this program in his gym

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Speaker 3: in Ireland and it had been really successful in terms

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Speaker 3: of getting a very different type of member into his gym,

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Speaker 3: typical middle class families who now wanted to found a

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Speaker 3: pathway to train, as opposed to the next Conor MacGregor

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Speaker 3: wanna bees who don't really want to pay their fees

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Speaker 3: and whatever, and so so John came on board as

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Speaker 3: a co founder, gave the business obviously enormous credibility from

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Speaker 3: a standpoint of his profile, but importantly he started talking

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Speaker 3: about what it did for him as a small business owner.

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Speaker 3: And I think a lot of people assume just because

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Speaker 3: he coaches Connor that he's got it made in the shade. Well,

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Speaker 3: he's still got a business to run, you know, he's

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Speaker 3: still got five six hundred members of a gym in Dublin. Yeah,

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Speaker 3: he's got a big pro fight team as well. But

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Speaker 3: the profile team doesn't pay the bills. So it was

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Speaker 3: really John getting out there and starting to tell the

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Speaker 3: world with his platform about what we did. And then

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Speaker 3: that was an opportunity to really look at fast tracking

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Speaker 3: the business to say okay, so now we've got this notoriety,

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Speaker 3: now people have.

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Speaker 2: Heard about us.

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Speaker 3: What we really focused on is the next phase of growth.

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Speaker 3: You've got to do that through technology. So how do

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Speaker 3: we scale this from IP and a brand and a

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Speaker 3: payments platform, which is where we were at the start.

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Speaker 3: How do you scale that into a sort of more

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Speaker 3: enduring technology and an investment thesis that will get institutional

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Speaker 3: investors to come on board. So in the early stages,

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Speaker 3: I was raising money my network. Obviously, having twenty plus

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Speaker 3: years in investments and financial services, I had a really

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Speaker 3: good network.

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Speaker 1: I should disclose that I was one of those early investors.

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Speaker 1: So I should disclose let's call the conflict if there

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Speaker 1: is such a thing in this discussion, But I was

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Speaker 1: one of the early investors. So you raise some money

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Speaker 1: is like your I don't know, first round. I don't

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Speaker 1: know what they call it these days. Everyone's got a

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Speaker 1: different terminology. But that was your sort of first round.

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Speaker 1: But you need to raise money. You need capital to

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Speaker 1: take it to the next strategic level and correct because

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Speaker 1: ultimately you identified good brand, good concept, good thesis, rising tide.

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Speaker 1: People around the world love MMA. BFC was a bigger

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Speaker 1: part of that. But purpose you go train with a purpose. Correct,

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Speaker 1: there's an outcome. But I think the really important thing

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Speaker 1: that I like that you identified is this has got

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Speaker 1: to be a technology play.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean that's sport tech. I don't know what

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Speaker 2: you want to call it. Is it a word for it?

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Speaker 3: It's you know, I mean we kind of traverse a

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Speaker 3: number of different elements there that there's obviously there's there's

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Speaker 3: IP branding, there's marketing and promotion, so there's content publishing

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Speaker 3: in that regard. Our payments architecture.

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Speaker 2: Is at the core of it.

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Speaker 3: Like you know, part of our value proposition to JIM

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Speaker 3: owners was we'll bring in new customers and we'll also

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Speaker 3: take care of it.

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Speaker 1: Could you explain it? I think it's really important to

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Speaker 1: make sure. So let's let's pick an example. What train

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Speaker 1: El does today does a lot of things, but at

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Speaker 1: that level, at the gym owner level. Yes, identify a

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Speaker 1: JIM owner, Let's profile him or her a little bit

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Speaker 1: and then tell me what your tech does and what

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Speaker 1: training does for that gym owner and for the consumer

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Speaker 1: who who subscribes to it.

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Speaker 3: Ye. Of course, So from a gym owner's perspective, they've

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Speaker 3: got the opportunity to sign a license with us so

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Speaker 3: they can run an outer program. Our value proposition to

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Speaker 3: them is to say, look, we're not going to charge

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Speaker 3: you assent for the license up front. You know, you

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Speaker 3: sign the t's and c's, you get access to the

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Speaker 3: syllabus and the training. You're going to help us co

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Speaker 3: promote your series, but we're gonna we're going to market

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Speaker 3: to get a program on the mats in your gym.

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Speaker 1: Tell us about the syllables. Yes, and that's your that's

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Speaker 1: your IP. That's sort of what you transfer to them

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Speaker 1: for that license. So what's your syllabus?

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Speaker 3: So the syllabus I think I mean, obviously i'm the

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Speaker 3: business guy and I'm the guy who's who's trained, so

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Speaker 3: I'm not a coach. But if I talk about the

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Speaker 3: nature of the syllabus, and what I think the business

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Speaker 3: has done really well over a lot of years, is

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Speaker 3: it's created a syllabus that makes the entry point to

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Speaker 3: training in combat sports and mixed martial arts as gentle

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Speaker 3: and easy as possible. Now that kind of sounds paradoxical,

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Speaker 3: right because it's you're going into a fight gym and

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Speaker 3: learning to train. But I think the genius in the

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Speaker 3: program in terms of how it was originally created, and

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Speaker 3: then the subsequent refinements have been that the syllables put

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Speaker 3: together like none of the coaches, there's nothing in it

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Speaker 3: they haven't taught a hundred times, right, whether they're teaching

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Speaker 3: an armbar from mount, whether they're teaching footwork when you're striking,

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Speaker 3: whether they're teaching takedown off the cage or whatever they're

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Speaker 3: they've taught that stuff a million times. What you find,

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Speaker 3: particularly with beginners and first time is it's all about

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Speaker 3: the sequencing of the training so people don't feel overwhelmed

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Speaker 3: on a learning basis, because the hardest thing learning something new.

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Speaker 3: It's kind of like if you went in and took

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Speaker 3: a guitar lesson and in the first lesson your guitar

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Speaker 3: teacher was trying to teach you to play the guitar

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Speaker 3: like Eric Clapton, I think you'd feel pretty deflated, overwhelmed, overwhelmed, deflated,

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Speaker 3: I'm not going to get this.

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Speaker 2: This ain't for me.

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Speaker 3: That's about yeah, correct, that's attrition. And I think sometimes

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Speaker 3: in certainly in this sector, and I think it's probably

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Speaker 3: potentially most, but sometimes coaches feel that the utility for

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Speaker 3: the customer comes from how much like what's the value exchange,

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Speaker 3: I e. How much if I give you more. The

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Speaker 3: more I give you, the more value I'm providing. Whereas

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Speaker 3: the consumer might be feeling overwhelmed and I'm not getting it.

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Speaker 2: I'm a bit embarrassed to ask.

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Speaker 3: So I think the genius in the syllabus that we've

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Speaker 3: built and you know, we've put close to ten thousand

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Speaker 3: people into their first amateur MMA fight in the last

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Speaker 3: sort of seven odd years. Right, nobody in the world

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Speaker 3: has done what we've done in terms of bring beginners

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Speaker 3: to you know what is a pretty sort of challenging

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Speaker 3: sport and space. But I think the genius in the

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Speaker 3: syllabus is that it gives the coaches a model that

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Speaker 3: if they follow that to the letter and follow the

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Speaker 3: bouncing ball, that what they're going to get is sticky customers.

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Speaker 3: And that's what we want. We want people to start,

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Speaker 3: we want people to go to the end and finish

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Speaker 3: if they choose to compete, which most of them do.

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Speaker 2: You know, we run those live events.

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Speaker 3: But more importantly then we want the customer to keep

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Speaker 3: going with their learning journey. Now, maybe they decided I

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Speaker 3: liked boxing the best, or maybe they decided I liked

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Speaker 3: Jiu jitsu the best or whatever. That's another beauty of

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Speaker 3: combat sports and martial arts is that you can really

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Speaker 3: you can focus on the areas you.

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Speaker 2: Like the most.

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Speaker 3: And so that's that lifelong learning journey. And that's where

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Speaker 3: you know, if we talk in investment terms, that brings

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Speaker 3: really sticky lifetime value of customer attributes to the gym,

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Speaker 3: to the gym, to the sector, right participants. I always

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Speaker 3: say to my investors, if you want a real life

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Speaker 3: story and lifetime value of customer, you look at Nick Langton,

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Speaker 3: who's paid I don't know, over thirty grand of fees

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Speaker 3: to our local jiu jitsu academy while you know my

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Speaker 3: boys and variously I have trained there over the last decade.

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Speaker 3: Well to a small business owner, that's a lot of

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Speaker 3: money from one family. So and why is that because,

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Speaker 3: particularly in the case my boys, they started a sport

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Speaker 3: that they trained and loved and competed in for a

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Speaker 3: lot of years.

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Speaker 2: And they had a bunch of mates at the gym.

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Speaker 3: And so that's where I really that's what we love

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Speaker 3: about this sector that once you get customers over the hurdle, right,

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Speaker 3: once they realize what a great gym is and what

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Speaker 3: a great coach is they become really sticky, and you

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Speaker 3: know you know that from you know all the training

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Speaker 3: you've done with Larry.

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Speaker 2: Right, It's not necessarily the easiest place to walk into.

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Speaker 2: You could look a bit dawning.

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Speaker 3: You could walk in at the wrong time and see

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Speaker 3: a sparring session thing hot shit like totally, But once

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Speaker 3: you're immersed in the gym community and culture there, you're.

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Speaker 2: Not going to leave that and go back to a

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Speaker 2: boot camp in the park. Yeah, I get it.

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Speaker 1: And so your thesis, Nick, is that it's much more

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Speaker 1: complicated than this. Your thesis is that train aw to

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Speaker 1: provides syllabus, it also provides assistance and or marketing content

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Speaker 1: for the gym owner to recruit. I don't know, twenty

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Speaker 1: or thirty people, train them up for how long is

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Speaker 1: it a half year?

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Speaker 3: It's twenty weeks, one hundred lessons for the primary program,

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Speaker 3: which is our Warrior training program. Yes, and then for

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Speaker 3: them to be stay members of ALTA and keep training

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Speaker 3: in their gym.

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Speaker 1: And pay fees program correctich they might not have had

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Speaker 1: in the past. They might not have had any of

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Speaker 1: these people in the past. It gives the MMA person

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Speaker 1: in the in the gym a program to follow, so

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Speaker 1: it's consistent. It's a consistent program, so it's not changing

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Speaker 1: every week. He doesn't have to make a decision what

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Speaker 1: he's going to do tomorrow morning. It's all set out

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Speaker 1: for him or her. And then they take these people

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Speaker 1: through and at the end of twenty weeks you put

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Speaker 1: on an event trying to train. Alter puts on an

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Speaker 1: event where these individuals have a choice if they wanted

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Speaker 1: to compete or not, and someone goes as there must

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Speaker 1: be a matchmaker in there. Someone says, well, you can

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Speaker 1: fight this person, yeah, girl, girl, boy or whatever it is.

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Speaker 1: And they invite their friends and family and they all

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Speaker 1: get up.

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Speaker 2: There and have a time.

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Speaker 3: Kind of a big sold our crowd, you know, last

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Speaker 3: big one we had in Sydney Roundwick Race Course, a

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Speaker 3: thousand people sitting at fine dining tables watching.

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Speaker 1: You know.

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Speaker 2: It's the ultimate kind of white collar mma.

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Speaker 3: It's kind of the ultimate sort of bucket list in

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Speaker 3: style experience. And so that's the that's the trojan horse,

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Speaker 3: that's the piece of friction that creates excitement around how

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Speaker 3: to get involved in the sector. But what at the

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Speaker 3: central to our value proposition is we're saying to gym's

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Speaker 3: we're going to bring in new customers.

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Speaker 2: We're going to help you with your marketing.

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Speaker 3: We're going to bring payments infrastructure that makes you don't

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Speaker 3: have to worry about collections.

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Speaker 2: Correct.

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Speaker 3: We do all of that and you pay them back

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Speaker 3: to the gym. We keep our split repay to them,

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Speaker 3: and you do the marketing correct in conjunction with them.

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Speaker 3: So we leverage our content. We ask them to record content.

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Speaker 3: They publish stuff on their socials, publish it on ours,

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Speaker 3: We boost it where we need to. We build landing

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Speaker 3: pages for them, all that kind of stuff to make

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Speaker 3: sure we can capture and on board the members. Collect

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Speaker 3: deposits and say, okay, day one of your program. Here's

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Speaker 3: a cohort of people who want to come in and

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Speaker 3: train with you for twenty weeks.

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Speaker 2: Look after him.

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Speaker 3: Here's the syllabus, and what you find in the sector.

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Speaker 3: And again, you know, you know, in martial arts and

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Speaker 3: combat sports it can sometimes it appears, you know, some

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Speaker 3: of the owners, coaches, whatever, they can kind of appear

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Speaker 3: a little bit like rough diamonds. In reality, it is

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Speaker 3: one of the most nurturing and caring sectors.

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Speaker 2: And so we know when we partner with a gym.

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Speaker 3: They're going to look after the people we put on.

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Speaker 1: Their mats and you and now to do all this,

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Speaker 1: there's a big piece of technology sitting in the middle

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Speaker 1: of it, which you know. To be honest with that,

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Speaker 1: gim under doesn't really need to know about it, just

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Speaker 1: as long as it works. But a big part of

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Speaker 1: your business is technology. I mean, for me, I see

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Speaker 1: your business as a tech business more than anything else business,

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Speaker 1: and therefore you need to raise more money. So just

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Speaker 1: take me through the rounds that you've been through. I

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Speaker 1: think I've been through two rounds, so there's a couple.

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Speaker 1: There's a few rounds involved. So just take our listeners

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Speaker 1: through the process of how you as our next investment

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Speaker 1: banker guy like you know this area backwards.

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Speaker 2: And you know.

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Speaker 1: You have some interesting names who are investors as well.

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Speaker 1: To take me through the rounds. How to go through

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Speaker 1: the rounds, and probably more importantly than just stop before

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Speaker 1: we get to the listing on the New York Stock Exchange,

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Speaker 1: which is unbelievable for an Australian ensity to do that.

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Speaker 1: Not too many Australians do that. Proud, you should be proud.

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Speaker 1: That's a big deal. It is, and it's an arduous course.

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Speaker 1: I mean, my god, that's worse than fighting all the

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Speaker 1: top UFC fighters one half the other.

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Speaker 2: That's what I do. Like, I'm sure it did so

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Speaker 2: over a number of years.

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Speaker 1: But just on me through the early raises and then

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Speaker 1: then just just just stop before we get to the NYC.

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Speaker 3: Yeah sure, so Yeah, like all businesses, we scaled up,

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Speaker 3: we wanted to obviously grow our revenues. We wanted to

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Speaker 3: prove out our unit economics, we wanted to invest in growth.

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Speaker 2: We also had.

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Speaker 3: Because we had the opportunity to sign big names in

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Speaker 3: other regions, you know, like John like Eugene Bhman coming

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Speaker 3: on City Kickboxing.

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Speaker 2: From New Zealand.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, you know when we originally signed the guys at

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Speaker 3: TriStar in Montreal, these were really big name gyms. And so,

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Speaker 3: you know, a pure let's say, a consultant or accountants

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Speaker 3: talking to us and saying, well, why are you now

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Speaker 3: operating in multiple tax jurisdictions and why are you making

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Speaker 3: multiple currencies and this is just making everything too complex,

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Speaker 3: And I agree it certainly did when the business is subscale,

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Speaker 3: but you have to take advantage of those opportunities when

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Speaker 3: they arise, like those big names want to get involved,

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Speaker 3: so you find a way, and so to that extent,

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Speaker 3: then we're like, okay, we need to fund the growth.

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Speaker 2: We've got some big names on board.

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Speaker 3: I did an initial round, let's call it, in twenty eighteen,

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Speaker 3: where I'd obviously invested a lot of my money, and

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Speaker 3: also for the first several years, you know, I worked

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Speaker 3: without any taking any money out of the business, which

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Speaker 3: you have to do as a founder. You can't ask

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Speaker 3: for investment money and then start saying, well, I'm going

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Speaker 3: to take a commercial service, give it to It's bullshit,

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Speaker 3: but they won't give it to nor should they, nor

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Speaker 3: should they. So from our perspective, I raised the first year.

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Speaker 3: So twenty seventeen was critical in that I needed to

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Speaker 3: see that there was enough spark that we were going

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Speaker 3: to get somewhere. So I kind of funded the business

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Speaker 3: for the first twelve months completely, and then it was like,

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Speaker 3: if I'm going to take money, I want to take

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Speaker 3: it from trusted people in my circle, who are sophisticated investors,

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Speaker 3: who can cut six figure checks, who know exactly what

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Speaker 3: they're getting themselves into. They know the risks of investing

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Speaker 3: in startups and private companies. And once I took that

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Speaker 3: first check, you know, from a mate who again really

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Speaker 3: sophisticated investor, and I'm not worried that if he lost

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Speaker 3: that money he'd be on the bones of his ass

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Speaker 3: or anything. But at the same time, it was almost

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Speaker 3: worse than having my own money in And I think

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Speaker 3: that was when I realized that, Okay, like we go

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Speaker 3: until we either make it or it falls apart, and

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Speaker 3: I've done everything with him a power because you know,

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Speaker 3: I once heard a you know, somebody said that raising capital,

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Speaker 3: raising capital is just creating obligations, and you know, from

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Speaker 3: from my perspective, I felt those obligations, but I felt

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Speaker 3: the benefit of them.

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Speaker 2: Was it on the really tough days, I could look

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Speaker 2: at the.

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Speaker 3: People who'd invested in me and believed in what I

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Speaker 3: thought I could do and pushed forward.

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Speaker 2: So that was that was kind of easy. We went

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Speaker 2: through through that phase.

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Speaker 3: I was able to probably raise some bigger checks than

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Speaker 3: if I look back on it now, I'm like, how

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Speaker 3: the hell did I do that?

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Speaker 2: But I had a core group of people who believed

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Speaker 2: in me.

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Speaker 3: So let's say that was kind of twelve investors who

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Speaker 3: all cut six figure checks. And then the next step

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Speaker 3: after that was in twenty nineteen, we were like, well,

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Speaker 3: we've got a following and people know about us and

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Speaker 3: all that. Could we leverage that for some money through

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Speaker 3: through crowd equity, and so we actually raised some money

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Speaker 3: through a platform called Burtual. I'd say that I originated

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Speaker 3: the overwhelming majority of the money. But what it did

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Speaker 3: was a couple of things. It enabled us to take

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Speaker 3: on more investors than you typically can as a PTY

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Speaker 3: limited so smaller checks. Yeah, so it gives you. It

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Speaker 3: sort of gave us a framework to be able to

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Speaker 3: do that. So we picked up some money there and

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Speaker 3: got you know, obviously a bigger retail investor following, and

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Speaker 3: then you go through phases like that literally happened in

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Speaker 3: mid to late twenty nineteen, and the business then we'd

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Speaker 3: done four years in a row of doubling our revenue,

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Speaker 3: so so triple digit revenue growth year on year for

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Speaker 3: four years in a row, and we were absolutely flying

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Speaker 3: coming into March of twenty twenty and then we know

439
00:23:20,560 --> 00:23:26,040
Speaker 3: what happened and the wa and Gym's closed, And that

440
00:23:26,119 --> 00:23:28,399
Speaker 3: was when we did realize the utility of being a

441
00:23:28,440 --> 00:23:31,440
Speaker 3: payment's hub, so we could we had all this money

442
00:23:31,440 --> 00:23:33,680
Speaker 3: that people had prepaid for training.

443
00:23:33,280 --> 00:23:35,040
Speaker 2: And no one knew back then, how long are we

444
00:23:35,160 --> 00:23:36,199
Speaker 2: are we going to be stopped? You know what?

445
00:23:36,280 --> 00:23:38,600
Speaker 3: They say, what was that bullshit? Two weeks to flatten

446
00:23:38,600 --> 00:23:40,760
Speaker 3: the curve? You know, they're still telling us that shit

447
00:23:40,800 --> 00:23:43,399
Speaker 3: two years later. So and I say that with a

448
00:23:43,400 --> 00:23:45,600
Speaker 3: bit of passion because I spoke to so many small

449
00:23:45,600 --> 00:23:48,320
Speaker 3: business owners during that period, and I think a lot

450
00:23:48,359 --> 00:23:52,120
Speaker 3: of people don't understand how hard that period was for

451
00:23:52,320 --> 00:23:53,399
Speaker 3: you know, for small business.

452
00:23:53,400 --> 00:23:55,320
Speaker 2: Some flourished, but a lot of them did it.

453
00:23:55,640 --> 00:23:58,280
Speaker 1: People facing businesses, Yep, did it really tough.

454
00:23:58,320 --> 00:24:01,600
Speaker 3: So that happened, and then there was a case of Okay,

455
00:24:02,000 --> 00:24:04,879
Speaker 3: we'd shown a lot of traction, We'd got our annual

456
00:24:04,920 --> 00:24:08,800
Speaker 3: revenues to seven figures, we'd shown really good growth, the

457
00:24:08,960 --> 00:24:13,159
Speaker 3: sector is booming now COVID's happened. And so then it

458
00:24:13,240 --> 00:24:16,080
Speaker 3: was a case of going, Okay, we need to stabilize,

459
00:24:16,080 --> 00:24:17,919
Speaker 3: we need to work out a pathway through. I'm going

460
00:24:17,960 --> 00:24:20,320
Speaker 3: to have to do a recap you know later in

461
00:24:20,359 --> 00:24:23,080
Speaker 3: the you know, in twenty twenty. Thankfully I was able

462
00:24:23,160 --> 00:24:26,240
Speaker 3: to then, you know, do a round which i'd kind

463
00:24:26,280 --> 00:24:28,160
Speaker 3: of call my series A.

464
00:24:28,400 --> 00:24:29,679
Speaker 2: I get a bit caught up.

465
00:24:29,600 --> 00:24:32,880
Speaker 3: You know, I'm not as OFAI with all the noenclature

466
00:24:32,880 --> 00:24:36,280
Speaker 3: as the young kids who know startups these days. But

467
00:24:36,520 --> 00:24:38,560
Speaker 3: that was what we'd kind of call our Series A,

468
00:24:39,600 --> 00:24:43,880
Speaker 3: which was the end of twenty twenty early twenty twenty one.

469
00:24:44,200 --> 00:24:46,760
Speaker 3: So we then kept building the business, investing in our tech,

470
00:24:47,320 --> 00:24:50,520
Speaker 3: you know, really building scale so that you know, as

471
00:24:50,520 --> 00:24:52,800
Speaker 3: soon as we could prove out the next phase of growth,

472
00:24:52,840 --> 00:24:54,320
Speaker 3: then we could go for the big check. So the

473
00:24:54,520 --> 00:24:57,480
Speaker 3: Series A which we raised about I think we raised

474
00:24:57,480 --> 00:24:59,760
Speaker 3: about six million bucks ozzie or something like that.

475
00:25:01,240 --> 00:25:03,919
Speaker 2: And then that was early twenty twenty.

476
00:25:03,680 --> 00:25:06,320
Speaker 3: One, and then you know, we remember by mid twenty

477
00:25:06,359 --> 00:25:08,560
Speaker 3: twenty one, then Australia got shut down again for another

478
00:25:09,359 --> 00:25:12,919
Speaker 3: you know, sort of six months in terms of businesses, gyms,

479
00:25:12,920 --> 00:25:13,399
Speaker 3: what have you.

480
00:25:14,480 --> 00:25:16,920
Speaker 2: And then you know, we went through a process.

481
00:25:17,040 --> 00:25:21,640
Speaker 3: Of iterating, growing, continuing to grow our footprint, prove out

482
00:25:21,680 --> 00:25:26,399
Speaker 3: our thesis, built out our unit economics. I think an

483
00:25:26,440 --> 00:25:29,800
Speaker 3: advantage we had mark as a startup we were always

484
00:25:29,840 --> 00:25:33,320
Speaker 3: selling something early we never had We never came from

485
00:25:33,359 --> 00:25:37,520
Speaker 3: that startup ethos of give something away for free, get

486
00:25:37,520 --> 00:25:39,600
Speaker 3: a huge mass of huge amount of users and then

487
00:25:39,640 --> 00:25:42,879
Speaker 3: workout monetization. We started at the other end, we were

488
00:25:42,920 --> 00:25:46,280
Speaker 3: charging for a premium product that we were licensing to

489
00:25:46,359 --> 00:25:47,679
Speaker 3: gyms and putting in the gyms.

490
00:25:47,760 --> 00:25:48,640
Speaker 1: But they needed it.

491
00:25:48,920 --> 00:25:52,000
Speaker 2: They needed it, and I think a real advantage to us.

492
00:25:52,040 --> 00:25:54,399
Speaker 3: At least we could always sit down with investors and

493
00:25:54,440 --> 00:25:55,639
Speaker 3: show them an income statement.

494
00:25:55,680 --> 00:25:57,120
Speaker 2: We had millions of dollars of revenue.

495
00:25:57,119 --> 00:25:59,760
Speaker 3: Now, did we have losses, absolutely, as we invested in

496
00:25:59,800 --> 00:26:03,440
Speaker 3: our tech to grow, But at least investors could always see, Okay,

497
00:26:03,720 --> 00:26:07,800
Speaker 3: there's real union economics here. You know, these real customers

498
00:26:08,080 --> 00:26:10,520
Speaker 3: paying good amounts of money for this.

499
00:26:11,240 --> 00:26:12,159
Speaker 2: The gyms love it.

500
00:26:12,240 --> 00:26:15,159
Speaker 3: Okay, we get to prove a concept, yeah, well and

501
00:26:15,200 --> 00:26:19,080
Speaker 3: truly and proved it in multiple markets in North America,

502
00:26:19,200 --> 00:26:22,600
Speaker 3: proved it in UK Island, proved it in Australia, New Zealand,

503
00:26:23,320 --> 00:26:25,959
Speaker 3: so you know, over thousands and thousands of customers. So

504
00:26:26,000 --> 00:26:30,240
Speaker 3: you go, okay, so this works. Now we want to

505
00:26:30,240 --> 00:26:33,120
Speaker 3: get the capital to really scale it. And that's when

506
00:26:33,160 --> 00:26:36,600
Speaker 3: we ran into the middle of twenty twenty two and

507
00:26:37,119 --> 00:26:42,560
Speaker 3: private markets just froze. I remember being actually away. It

508
00:26:42,600 --> 00:26:45,720
Speaker 3: was the June Long weekend in twenty twenty two. We'd

509
00:26:45,720 --> 00:26:48,080
Speaker 3: shaken hands with a couple of investors who were going

510
00:26:48,119 --> 00:26:52,240
Speaker 3: to basically close our round for us. These were material checks.

511
00:26:52,440 --> 00:26:56,840
Speaker 3: I think totally about five to six million bucks. I

512
00:26:57,480 --> 00:27:01,639
Speaker 3: was out at Orange for a state rugby championships with

513
00:27:01,680 --> 00:27:04,240
Speaker 3: my youngest I'm out there going like I've just closed

514
00:27:04,240 --> 00:27:07,479
Speaker 3: my around, so excited about the next phase of growth.

515
00:27:08,200 --> 00:27:13,520
Speaker 3: The market's absolutely capitulated overnight on on the Monday in

516
00:27:13,840 --> 00:27:19,200
Speaker 3: the US, and within two days those two investors pulled

517
00:27:19,200 --> 00:27:22,239
Speaker 3: their investment. You know, they got call you know, they

518
00:27:22,280 --> 00:27:24,840
Speaker 3: got margin calls from prime brokers, whatever the case may be,

519
00:27:24,920 --> 00:27:28,359
Speaker 3: and we suddenly went old shit where we're really stuck

520
00:27:28,400 --> 00:27:34,199
Speaker 3: here and like all like every startup that scarred their

521
00:27:34,200 --> 00:27:36,920
Speaker 3: way to these they've all gone through it, right, it's

522
00:27:36,960 --> 00:27:39,840
Speaker 3: not unique to us. It feels really unique in personal

523
00:27:39,840 --> 00:27:42,919
Speaker 3: at the time. But you know you have to you

524
00:27:43,000 --> 00:27:43,720
Speaker 3: have to battle on.

525
00:27:43,840 --> 00:27:47,320
Speaker 2: And we did. We we you.

526
00:27:47,280 --> 00:27:51,600
Speaker 3: Know, scraped and scratched, and all our key staff got

527
00:27:51,600 --> 00:27:54,480
Speaker 3: in behind us and helped us with our cash burn

528
00:27:54,520 --> 00:27:58,040
Speaker 3: and just could not have been more supportive because we

529
00:27:58,040 --> 00:28:02,240
Speaker 3: were just so close. And then thankfully we found our

530
00:28:02,280 --> 00:28:06,120
Speaker 3: partnership with some guys down in Melbourne from a group

531
00:28:06,160 --> 00:28:09,879
Speaker 3: called Reach Markets, who are actually fantastic. They raised around

532
00:28:09,880 --> 00:28:11,679
Speaker 3: for us at the end of twenty twenty two and

533
00:28:11,760 --> 00:28:15,520
Speaker 3: twenty twenty two was brutal for raising money into private companies,

534
00:28:15,520 --> 00:28:20,520
Speaker 3: So kudos to the guys at Reach Markets and that

535
00:28:20,600 --> 00:28:24,800
Speaker 3: was literally the bit of money we needed to get

536
00:28:24,840 --> 00:28:27,800
Speaker 3: to the next phase. And then we got introduced to

537
00:28:27,840 --> 00:28:30,199
Speaker 3: our US investment bank, which is the start of the

538
00:28:30,720 --> 00:28:31,520
Speaker 3: listing story.

539
00:28:31,680 --> 00:28:33,639
Speaker 1: So you originally you were going to, as I recall,

540
00:28:33,680 --> 00:28:36,400
Speaker 1: you're going to list on the NASDAK. Yeah, I think

541
00:28:36,400 --> 00:28:37,840
Speaker 1: at one stage anyway.

542
00:28:37,520 --> 00:28:41,520
Speaker 3: Yeah, it was notionally we're going to list in the

543
00:28:41,680 --> 00:28:43,920
Speaker 3: Obviously we're a microcap company, so we're going to list

544
00:28:43,960 --> 00:28:48,640
Speaker 3: in the US. Technology companies are immediately associated with the NASDEK.

545
00:28:50,600 --> 00:28:52,680
Speaker 3: But then you know, we're talking to our bankers and

546
00:28:52,720 --> 00:28:56,320
Speaker 3: our lawyers and they said, you know, the NYC is

547
00:28:56,440 --> 00:28:59,200
Speaker 3: really worth a look too, and so you kind of

548
00:28:59,200 --> 00:29:01,840
Speaker 3: go through this pro s where you go and meet

549
00:29:01,880 --> 00:29:04,680
Speaker 3: both of them, you take advice from your bankers, and

550
00:29:04,720 --> 00:29:07,240
Speaker 3: you kind of work out which is the best fit

551
00:29:07,320 --> 00:29:11,840
Speaker 3: for you. Obviously they're both incredible exchanges, and I suppose

552
00:29:11,880 --> 00:29:13,720
Speaker 3: as well, part of the fact that you know, the

553
00:29:13,840 --> 00:29:18,600
Speaker 3: ny C with all its history, it felt pretty special

554
00:29:18,640 --> 00:29:20,880
Speaker 3: to sort of go there and meet those people. And

555
00:29:20,920 --> 00:29:24,800
Speaker 3: then also knowing that that's where ultimately the UFC is

556
00:29:24,840 --> 00:29:28,560
Speaker 3: a listed company through t KO on the on the

557
00:29:28,680 --> 00:29:31,360
Speaker 3: n y C. So there's just a whole range of

558
00:29:31,400 --> 00:29:34,280
Speaker 3: reasons that ended up bring them and which was great.

559
00:29:34,440 --> 00:29:41,520
Speaker 1: So just teamed me through this part. You mentioned very

560
00:29:41,600 --> 00:29:48,280
Speaker 1: quickly then your advisors, lawyers and bankers. How does you

561
00:29:48,400 --> 00:29:52,680
Speaker 1: go about putting a team like that together to get

562
00:29:53,280 --> 00:29:55,880
Speaker 1: set up on the NYC, the New York Stock Exchange?

563
00:29:58,440 --> 00:30:00,720
Speaker 1: Did you look up the who to go to? I

564
00:30:00,720 --> 00:30:03,240
Speaker 1: mean with your process, man, how did you find the

565
00:30:03,720 --> 00:30:04,920
Speaker 1: bankers and the advisors?

566
00:30:05,280 --> 00:30:08,320
Speaker 3: That all starts with having great investors here in Australia,

567
00:30:08,360 --> 00:30:09,840
Speaker 3: So you've got you've got knockdowns.

568
00:30:09,960 --> 00:30:12,000
Speaker 1: Someone said, go and see this person is that.

569
00:30:11,760 --> 00:30:16,520
Speaker 3: We got introed in, and actually we got introed in.

570
00:30:16,560 --> 00:30:19,640
Speaker 3: And then my chairman Vaughan Taylor, you know Vaughn Well,

571
00:30:20,840 --> 00:30:23,280
Speaker 3: Vaughn then was on a trip for a company that

572
00:30:23,320 --> 00:30:25,640
Speaker 3: he sits on the board of. He had the first

573
00:30:25,720 --> 00:30:29,320
Speaker 3: chat with the bankers, a group in the US cooled

574
00:30:29,320 --> 00:30:33,600
Speaker 3: think Equity, fantastic guys to work with. They were really

575
00:30:33,680 --> 00:30:36,600
Speaker 3: interested in getting to know us a bit more. I

576
00:30:36,680 --> 00:30:39,640
Speaker 3: jumped on a bunch of phone calls with them, and

577
00:30:39,680 --> 00:30:41,920
Speaker 3: they're like they saw it straight.

578
00:30:41,640 --> 00:30:43,880
Speaker 1: Away, like they saw the rising tide.

579
00:30:44,280 --> 00:30:45,960
Speaker 2: Yeah, they saw the thesis.

580
00:30:46,000 --> 00:30:50,520
Speaker 3: They saw this incredible growth in combat sports, they saw

581
00:30:50,560 --> 00:30:55,880
Speaker 3: the rampant success of the UFC, and they saw an

582
00:30:55,920 --> 00:31:00,360
Speaker 3: opportunity to aggregate the sector at scale from it from

583
00:31:00,400 --> 00:31:03,920
Speaker 3: a small company. So from us, listing is about this.

584
00:31:04,480 --> 00:31:07,800
Speaker 3: I actually kind of I joked to my wife after

585
00:31:07,840 --> 00:31:11,520
Speaker 3: we after we listed, I said, it took me seven

586
00:31:11,680 --> 00:31:14,720
Speaker 3: years to get to the starting line, Like, this isn't

587
00:31:14,720 --> 00:31:17,200
Speaker 3: a capital event for us. This is the start of

588
00:31:17,240 --> 00:31:21,000
Speaker 3: what our real growth story will be, which is enormously exciting.

589
00:31:21,040 --> 00:31:24,240
Speaker 3: But we were so lucky Mark that I've had great

590
00:31:24,240 --> 00:31:27,560
Speaker 3: investors here in Australia who were always looking to and

591
00:31:27,600 --> 00:31:31,520
Speaker 3: you've done it for me too, give me advice, make intros.

592
00:31:31,840 --> 00:31:35,360
Speaker 3: And as a founder you have to lean on your.

593
00:31:35,160 --> 00:31:36,800
Speaker 1: Investors unashamably too.

594
00:31:37,080 --> 00:31:42,160
Speaker 3: Absolutely, if you're working your ass off, they know you're

595
00:31:42,200 --> 00:31:45,600
Speaker 3: doing the absolute best to protect their capital.

596
00:31:46,120 --> 00:31:48,040
Speaker 2: And good investors of.

597
00:31:48,040 --> 00:31:51,640
Speaker 3: Which I've got a lot, have really opened a ton

598
00:31:51,680 --> 00:31:54,280
Speaker 3: of doors. But as a founder you have to stay active.

599
00:31:54,600 --> 00:31:58,479
Speaker 3: They're all ridiculously busy people. You're a particular example of that.

600
00:31:58,640 --> 00:32:01,200
Speaker 3: But if you text them, and half I say, I'll

601
00:32:01,200 --> 00:32:03,000
Speaker 3: come and see you. Can I buy your coffee if

602
00:32:03,000 --> 00:32:06,120
Speaker 3: you've got fifteen minutes. It is a contact sport. You

603
00:32:06,200 --> 00:32:06,960
Speaker 3: have to stay busy.

604
00:32:06,960 --> 00:32:09,000
Speaker 2: Normally they'll say yes. They will say yes.

605
00:32:09,160 --> 00:32:10,040
Speaker 1: Normally they'll say yes.

606
00:32:10,120 --> 00:32:10,479
Speaker 2: Yeah.

607
00:32:10,640 --> 00:32:13,240
Speaker 3: So that was how we got introduced in And then

608
00:32:13,360 --> 00:32:16,560
Speaker 3: you know, as I say, we started working with bankers

609
00:32:16,600 --> 00:32:19,560
Speaker 3: who were kind of trusted and known to people within

610
00:32:19,600 --> 00:32:22,719
Speaker 3: our close circle. And then they introduced us to some

611
00:32:22,800 --> 00:32:27,440
Speaker 3: great securities lawyers who have been awesome to work with

612
00:32:27,520 --> 00:32:29,600
Speaker 3: and get to know over the last twelve months. And

613
00:32:30,480 --> 00:32:33,000
Speaker 3: you know, and then we had had our own team,

614
00:32:33,040 --> 00:32:37,440
Speaker 3: our own staff here who had to work so incredibly

615
00:32:37,480 --> 00:32:40,320
Speaker 3: hard to get through all the filings and all the

616
00:32:40,320 --> 00:32:44,200
Speaker 3: iterations of the filings. And I mean, I'm the talking

617
00:32:44,240 --> 00:32:47,040
Speaker 3: here who goes out and sells the vision, which I

618
00:32:47,040 --> 00:32:49,840
Speaker 3: do passionately because I bloody love it and I'm super

619
00:32:49,840 --> 00:32:53,880
Speaker 3: excited about where we're taking this company too. But what's

620
00:32:53,880 --> 00:32:56,240
Speaker 3: not lost on me is there's an incredible team behind

621
00:32:56,320 --> 00:32:58,600
Speaker 3: me who were doing a lot of the far less

622
00:32:58,600 --> 00:33:02,600
Speaker 3: glamorous work right to get to get to listing.

623
00:33:04,080 --> 00:33:05,440
Speaker 2: And so you do, you do.

624
00:33:06,000 --> 00:33:10,200
Speaker 3: Nine months of work to uplift all your financials go

625
00:33:10,280 --> 00:33:13,840
Speaker 3: through ridiculous levels of order, all the stuff that you.

626
00:33:13,840 --> 00:33:18,040
Speaker 1: Have to otherwise called due diligence, because and your advisors

627
00:33:19,280 --> 00:33:21,719
Speaker 1: have to do or help you participate in the due

628
00:33:21,720 --> 00:33:24,200
Speaker 1: diligence alongside you, because they're sort of putting their name

629
00:33:24,200 --> 00:33:26,120
Speaker 1: to it a little bit, because they're putting it out

630
00:33:26,160 --> 00:33:30,440
Speaker 1: to other people to invest in the business. Correct, So

631
00:33:31,360 --> 00:33:34,080
Speaker 1: could you maybe just give us a sense of how

632
00:33:34,120 --> 00:33:37,240
Speaker 1: long did it take you to get this process up?

633
00:33:38,480 --> 00:33:40,520
Speaker 1: Did you have to actually and importantly a lot of

634
00:33:40,560 --> 00:33:42,360
Speaker 1: people don't know this, but you have to spend a

635
00:33:42,400 --> 00:33:45,040
Speaker 1: lot of time in the US. Yes, it's not and

636
00:33:45,080 --> 00:33:47,200
Speaker 1: you know it sort of means you're away from your family.

637
00:33:47,240 --> 00:33:50,000
Speaker 1: You've got two sons at school. They're still a school,

638
00:33:50,000 --> 00:33:50,280
Speaker 1: aren't they.

639
00:33:50,360 --> 00:33:51,280
Speaker 2: Yeah, three boys at school.

640
00:33:51,320 --> 00:33:54,000
Speaker 1: Three boys at school, right, and I know very close

641
00:33:54,040 --> 00:33:56,480
Speaker 1: to me, and obviously your wife is here as well,

642
00:33:57,200 --> 00:33:59,760
Speaker 1: and you ordinarily have pretty involved in what they do,

643
00:34:00,240 --> 00:34:03,920
Speaker 1: the footy players and and all that stuff. That's a

644
00:34:03,960 --> 00:34:05,880
Speaker 1: big sacrifice. I mean, I think that partner needs a

645
00:34:05,880 --> 00:34:08,880
Speaker 1: big we need to talk about that league, that commitment

646
00:34:10,080 --> 00:34:15,040
Speaker 1: to spend a lot of time overseas talking shop and

647
00:34:15,080 --> 00:34:18,600
Speaker 1: then who runs an Australian deal, like who's actually doing

648
00:34:18,680 --> 00:34:19,919
Speaker 1: BAU the business as usually?

649
00:34:20,120 --> 00:34:22,279
Speaker 3: I mean I've got a great leadership team who they

650
00:34:22,440 --> 00:34:24,480
Speaker 3: run it independent of me. I mean I sit on

651
00:34:24,520 --> 00:34:28,200
Speaker 3: our most mornings, I sit on our morning whip where

652
00:34:28,239 --> 00:34:32,239
Speaker 3: our exec team talks about our absolute priorities for the day,

653
00:34:32,320 --> 00:34:33,360
Speaker 3: the week, whatever.

654
00:34:35,160 --> 00:34:37,040
Speaker 2: From a management style basis.

655
00:34:36,680 --> 00:34:40,520
Speaker 3: I've always been like, find great people, make sure they

656
00:34:40,600 --> 00:34:43,960
Speaker 3: understand the goals in a really explicit way, but then

657
00:34:44,040 --> 00:34:46,160
Speaker 3: how they go about executing that. If you found the

658
00:34:46,239 --> 00:34:49,080
Speaker 3: right talent that they will find their way. They can

659
00:34:49,120 --> 00:34:50,759
Speaker 3: come back to you if they want clarity or they

660
00:34:50,760 --> 00:34:54,319
Speaker 3: want to understand something, so they do run They do

661
00:34:54,440 --> 00:34:57,480
Speaker 3: run the business right Like my job obviously has been

662
00:34:58,520 --> 00:35:01,880
Speaker 3: you know, corporatizing the can't me raising capital, finding great talent.

663
00:35:03,160 --> 00:35:05,719
Speaker 3: You know, I've got a very you know, I've got

664
00:35:05,719 --> 00:35:09,280
Speaker 3: a very passionate view on the investment thesis of the company,

665
00:35:09,280 --> 00:35:12,000
Speaker 3: and I do get involved in you know kind of

666
00:35:12,200 --> 00:35:15,720
Speaker 3: you know, decisions around strategy, even short term tactics, whatever

667
00:35:15,719 --> 00:35:18,440
Speaker 3: the case may be. But it is the team in

668
00:35:18,480 --> 00:35:20,360
Speaker 3: the offices running the business day today.

669
00:35:20,480 --> 00:35:24,480
Speaker 1: And you're and you're you're how how do you go bad?

670
00:35:24,560 --> 00:35:27,239
Speaker 1: Saying to your family. Listen, I've got to spend a

671
00:35:27,239 --> 00:35:28,719
Speaker 1: lot of time over the next fine months in the US.

672
00:35:28,760 --> 00:35:31,120
Speaker 1: I mean, what's that process look like before we list.

673
00:35:31,000 --> 00:35:34,520
Speaker 3: You say, do you like living in this house? Do

674
00:35:34,560 --> 00:35:37,400
Speaker 3: you like going to the school you go to? No,

675
00:35:38,600 --> 00:35:42,920
Speaker 3: it's one of those things that because I've been doing

676
00:35:43,000 --> 00:35:46,680
Speaker 3: the startup thing since the beginning of end of twenty sixteen,

677
00:35:46,800 --> 00:35:51,120
Speaker 3: beginning of twenty seventeen. So my twin sons are about

678
00:35:51,120 --> 00:35:54,160
Speaker 3: to turn eighteen, my youngest is about to turn sixteen,

679
00:35:54,880 --> 00:35:57,399
Speaker 3: they only have really vague memories of when dad used

680
00:35:57,400 --> 00:35:59,560
Speaker 3: to put on a suit and go to work five

681
00:35:59,600 --> 00:36:03,279
Speaker 3: days a week in the CBD. They really they're they're

682
00:36:03,400 --> 00:36:07,879
Speaker 3: enduring memories of me is a startup founder, hunched over

683
00:36:07,920 --> 00:36:12,000
Speaker 3: a laptop at the kitchen table, probably more stress than

684
00:36:12,360 --> 00:36:16,520
Speaker 3: he wants to appear. All those things so as an evolution,

685
00:36:16,680 --> 00:36:19,880
Speaker 3: So they watched you evolve into this person des nearly like, oh,

686
00:36:19,920 --> 00:36:21,719
Speaker 3: well that's the next step. Dad's got to go, and

687
00:36:21,760 --> 00:36:23,960
Speaker 3: we expect that's what we sort of expect. Yeah, very

688
00:36:24,080 --> 00:36:27,399
Speaker 3: much like I would say, it was massive excitement from

689
00:36:27,400 --> 00:36:30,000
Speaker 3: the whole family that Okay, you've got to be away

690
00:36:30,040 --> 00:36:34,839
Speaker 3: a lot, but you're pursuing something a pretty ambitious goal,

691
00:36:35,000 --> 00:36:35,760
Speaker 3: a big dream.

692
00:36:36,280 --> 00:36:37,120
Speaker 2: Can we get there?

693
00:36:37,160 --> 00:36:41,560
Speaker 3: And to your earlier question, mark like, from the I

694
00:36:41,560 --> 00:36:43,319
Speaker 3: think we did it about as quick as you.

695
00:36:43,280 --> 00:36:43,799
Speaker 2: Can do it.

696
00:36:44,680 --> 00:36:48,600
Speaker 3: From the moment we signed the mandate agreement with our

697
00:36:48,600 --> 00:36:52,719
Speaker 3: investment bank to the day we listed, I think it

698
00:36:52,800 --> 00:36:56,359
Speaker 3: was like just under maybe a couple of days under

699
00:36:56,440 --> 00:36:59,760
Speaker 3: eleven months, so call it eleven months a bit less.

700
00:37:00,719 --> 00:37:02,759
Speaker 2: And because at the start.

701
00:37:02,520 --> 00:37:04,520
Speaker 3: I think when we sign the mandate later and we

702
00:37:04,520 --> 00:37:06,359
Speaker 3: were like, okay, so how quick can this be done?

703
00:37:06,360 --> 00:37:09,000
Speaker 3: And they see, well, we've seen it done in six months,

704
00:37:09,040 --> 00:37:13,920
Speaker 3: But that's a push. I can honestly say now, I

705
00:37:14,040 --> 00:37:16,680
Speaker 3: could not imagine we could have got it done any faster.

706
00:37:16,760 --> 00:37:22,200
Speaker 3: And that is testament to our professional services firms we

707
00:37:22,239 --> 00:37:25,879
Speaker 3: work with, but most importantly the staff, my staff who

708
00:37:25,960 --> 00:37:27,239
Speaker 3: helped drive that process.

709
00:37:27,360 --> 00:37:30,920
Speaker 1: So how important in the process of talking to your

710
00:37:30,920 --> 00:37:33,640
Speaker 1: investment bankers, particularly before we get the mandate, But how

711
00:37:33,640 --> 00:37:37,279
Speaker 1: important is it to sort of, you know, throw in

712
00:37:37,400 --> 00:37:43,560
Speaker 1: those sexy things like yeah, you know Daniel Cormier, yep,

713
00:37:45,160 --> 00:37:47,640
Speaker 1: Connor McGregor there. I mentioned his name at this on

714
00:37:47,680 --> 00:37:53,960
Speaker 1: this podcast. Obviously we talked about Eugene earlier on and

715
00:37:55,239 --> 00:37:58,319
Speaker 1: John Cavanaro as well. How important is it to throw

716
00:37:58,360 --> 00:38:00,799
Speaker 1: those things around just a little bit a spice into

717
00:38:00,800 --> 00:38:01,240
Speaker 1: the fire.

718
00:38:02,080 --> 00:38:03,400
Speaker 2: Look, it is important.

719
00:38:03,480 --> 00:38:05,839
Speaker 3: I mean if you if you're if you're working with

720
00:38:06,080 --> 00:38:08,640
Speaker 3: the biggest names in the sport. If the biggest name

721
00:38:08,680 --> 00:38:11,120
Speaker 3: in the history of the sport, Connor is an early

722
00:38:11,120 --> 00:38:14,920
Speaker 3: stage investor in your business, yeah, of course, that's validation.

723
00:38:15,360 --> 00:38:15,960
Speaker 1: What does it do?

724
00:38:16,160 --> 00:38:16,920
Speaker 2: It is validation.

725
00:38:17,000 --> 00:38:20,200
Speaker 1: But let's let's let's not assume that he's a great

726
00:38:20,360 --> 00:38:23,080
Speaker 1: business person, although he's a good business person, but let's

727
00:38:23,080 --> 00:38:25,840
Speaker 1: assume he's just like any other fighter who's got some money.

728
00:38:27,520 --> 00:38:27,759
Speaker 2: Is it?

729
00:38:28,040 --> 00:38:30,960
Speaker 1: That's sizzil part. I mean, we always talk about sizzling stakers. However,

730
00:38:31,360 --> 00:38:34,440
Speaker 1: that's that is important. So I think if you're running

731
00:38:34,440 --> 00:38:36,319
Speaker 1: one of these programs, it doesn't matter where it is,

732
00:38:36,360 --> 00:38:40,880
Speaker 1: but having some cred or people of cred gives you

733
00:38:40,960 --> 00:38:43,880
Speaker 1: cred or gives a concept of thesis crede of course.

734
00:38:43,920 --> 00:38:46,880
Speaker 3: So what does it do for the bankers, Well, it

735
00:38:47,440 --> 00:38:50,400
Speaker 3: validates that when you say your partnered with the biggest

736
00:38:50,440 --> 00:38:53,279
Speaker 3: names in the sport, that that is real. Right, When

737
00:38:53,320 --> 00:38:55,760
Speaker 3: you say you run your programs with the best gyms

738
00:38:55,800 --> 00:38:58,080
Speaker 3: in the world, that is real when you say you've

739
00:38:58,120 --> 00:39:01,600
Speaker 3: demonstrated these unit economics over thousands of participants over a

740
00:39:01,640 --> 00:39:04,160
Speaker 3: lot of years, and then it comes out in the

741
00:39:04,160 --> 00:39:05,840
Speaker 3: financial statements that is real.

742
00:39:06,080 --> 00:39:07,680
Speaker 2: Right, So that's the kind of.

743
00:39:07,600 --> 00:39:09,839
Speaker 3: The d D they do at the start to go, okay,

744
00:39:09,880 --> 00:39:13,760
Speaker 3: this is a listable business because all these elements are

745
00:39:14,080 --> 00:39:17,320
Speaker 3: you know, are real. And of course then when bankers

746
00:39:17,320 --> 00:39:20,239
Speaker 3: are thinking about how do I get cut through with

747
00:39:20,880 --> 00:39:25,120
Speaker 3: a story, right, with a story about a growth company

748
00:39:25,120 --> 00:39:28,000
Speaker 3: that's going to be a microcap that we feel investors

749
00:39:28,040 --> 00:39:30,520
Speaker 3: will understand the thesis and then they want to get

750
00:39:30,560 --> 00:39:35,840
Speaker 3: behind it. So I often say, how the investment thesis

751
00:39:35,840 --> 00:39:38,600
Speaker 3: of the company is convert six hundred and forty million

752
00:39:38,640 --> 00:39:41,680
Speaker 3: fans to participants. But I think another way to think

753
00:39:41,719 --> 00:39:45,560
Speaker 3: about us, particularly now that we're in training in public markets,

754
00:39:45,640 --> 00:39:49,040
Speaker 3: is I want to convert six hundred and forty million

755
00:39:49,120 --> 00:39:52,400
Speaker 3: fans of MMA into people who want to own a

756
00:39:52,440 --> 00:39:54,880
Speaker 3: share in the growth of this sector. Well, that's a

757
00:39:55,400 --> 00:39:57,600
Speaker 3: that's a compelling proposition. So if you want to get

758
00:39:57,600 --> 00:40:02,200
Speaker 3: the attention of retail investors, let's use Connor for an example.

759
00:40:02,880 --> 00:40:06,879
Speaker 3: Alta is the only company that a retail investor can

760
00:40:06,920 --> 00:40:10,200
Speaker 3: invest alongside Connor in the other companies are.

761
00:40:10,080 --> 00:40:11,440
Speaker 2: All private proper twelve.

762
00:40:11,560 --> 00:40:15,360
Speaker 3: You know that forged Irish Stout, you know, he's apparel

763
00:40:15,400 --> 00:40:19,800
Speaker 3: Company's McGregor fast, all those things, they're all privately held.

764
00:40:20,280 --> 00:40:21,120
Speaker 2: This is the deal.

765
00:40:21,160 --> 00:40:23,080
Speaker 3: Whereas you go, okay, if we accept the fact that

766
00:40:23,120 --> 00:40:25,640
Speaker 3: everything that guy touches turns to gold, which it does,

767
00:40:26,600 --> 00:40:29,759
Speaker 3: then if you want to invest alongside him, well, come

768
00:40:29,800 --> 00:40:31,720
Speaker 3: and invest in Alta. If you believe in the growth

769
00:40:31,719 --> 00:40:36,120
Speaker 3: of MMA over the next decade, come and invest in Alta.

770
00:40:36,239 --> 00:40:40,600
Speaker 3: So from a banker's standpoint, that's a compelling story to

771
00:40:40,680 --> 00:40:44,759
Speaker 3: take to market. So investors, you know, get cut through

772
00:40:44,800 --> 00:40:47,520
Speaker 3: and hey, I get that. That's a story I could

773
00:40:47,520 --> 00:40:51,040
Speaker 3: get on board and follow. That's the I think that's

774
00:40:51,040 --> 00:40:54,440
Speaker 3: one of the real advantages. And then people say to us, like,

775
00:40:55,239 --> 00:40:57,719
Speaker 3: you know, you've gone public so early. Going public is

776
00:40:57,800 --> 00:41:01,840
Speaker 3: really expensive, it's very owner for companies of your size.

777
00:41:01,960 --> 00:41:04,960
Speaker 3: All this is true. I'm not disputing any of that.

778
00:41:06,480 --> 00:41:09,560
Speaker 3: My answer to that is there's also more if you

779
00:41:09,600 --> 00:41:13,040
Speaker 3: can get public. There are better pools of capital available

780
00:41:13,080 --> 00:41:15,560
Speaker 3: in public markets. There are far deeper pes in the US,

781
00:41:15,840 --> 00:41:19,160
Speaker 3: especially in the US, and investors have been favoring liquidity

782
00:41:19,200 --> 00:41:21,720
Speaker 3: for the last few years, right, That's.

783
00:41:22,320 --> 00:41:24,279
Speaker 1: What you mean by that, though, was investors that would

784
00:41:24,360 --> 00:41:26,359
Speaker 1: rather invest in a list identity where they could buy

785
00:41:26,400 --> 00:41:29,080
Speaker 1: and so whatever the price is, as opposed to investing

786
00:41:29,120 --> 00:41:30,800
Speaker 1: in a private endy where they're sort of stuck a

787
00:41:30,800 --> 00:41:31,719
Speaker 1: little bit r.

788
00:41:31,719 --> 00:41:32,640
Speaker 2: Capital is locked up.

789
00:41:33,080 --> 00:41:36,240
Speaker 3: And so for us, that was one of the big drivers.

790
00:41:36,760 --> 00:41:39,760
Speaker 3: Having a great investment bank who've got a track record

791
00:41:39,800 --> 00:41:44,600
Speaker 3: of scaling companies from our size to significantly larger them

792
00:41:44,640 --> 00:41:46,160
Speaker 3: wanting to take us public that was.

793
00:41:46,160 --> 00:41:50,399
Speaker 2: Another big reason. And then probably the other reason is.

794
00:41:50,360 --> 00:41:52,520
Speaker 3: That I think when you're a company like ours that

795
00:41:52,640 --> 00:41:55,520
Speaker 3: has so many big names involved and has a great

796
00:41:55,520 --> 00:41:58,839
Speaker 3: global footprint and works with all these you know, these

797
00:41:58,880 --> 00:42:02,680
Speaker 3: star gyms, coaches and athletes, you do have a story

798
00:42:03,040 --> 00:42:08,279
Speaker 3: that resonates and cuts through for retail investors. So you

799
00:42:08,320 --> 00:42:10,960
Speaker 3: could argue that you're going to realize a lot more

800
00:42:11,040 --> 00:42:13,960
Speaker 3: value in your company, your.

801
00:42:13,719 --> 00:42:17,480
Speaker 2: Brand, your notoriety when retail.

802
00:42:17,120 --> 00:42:19,240
Speaker 3: Investors can invest in you and they can buy shees

803
00:42:19,239 --> 00:42:21,480
Speaker 3: in your company on public markets than if it was

804
00:42:22,000 --> 00:42:24,720
Speaker 3: closed and it was private. And yeah, it was minimum

805
00:42:24,800 --> 00:42:28,120
Speaker 3: check size of fifty grand, and you've got to satisfy

806
00:42:28,160 --> 00:42:31,080
Speaker 3: all sorts of wholesale investor provisions to be able to

807
00:42:31,120 --> 00:42:35,480
Speaker 3: get access. So that's another reason why it made a

808
00:42:35,520 --> 00:42:38,080
Speaker 3: lot of sense for us to go public.

809
00:42:37,719 --> 00:42:40,319
Speaker 1: At the stage we did in terms of marketing, and

810
00:42:40,400 --> 00:42:43,920
Speaker 1: I don't mean marketing to retail investors as such, but

811
00:42:44,120 --> 00:42:46,840
Speaker 1: marketing it to the investment bankers who are going to

812
00:42:46,840 --> 00:42:49,560
Speaker 1: support it so that it can go to retail investors.

813
00:42:49,600 --> 00:42:53,560
Speaker 1: How important is it to Pepper or maybe a better

814
00:42:53,560 --> 00:42:58,680
Speaker 1: word is to balance your front of house with female

815
00:43:01,800 --> 00:43:03,880
Speaker 1: female talent. And I don't mean that in terms of

816
00:43:03,920 --> 00:43:06,200
Speaker 1: technical talents technical talent. I do mean that, but I'm

817
00:43:06,239 --> 00:43:06,919
Speaker 1: talking about at.

818
00:43:06,800 --> 00:43:07,279
Speaker 2: The front end.

819
00:43:07,320 --> 00:43:10,000
Speaker 1: Right you go, Conor McGregor, Daniel call me out, But

820
00:43:10,040 --> 00:43:12,440
Speaker 1: like what about the front I mean, who did you

821
00:43:12,520 --> 00:43:15,040
Speaker 1: go out after and how does that process work? How

822
00:43:15,080 --> 00:43:16,759
Speaker 1: do you find these individuals? If you did find an

823
00:43:16,760 --> 00:43:20,480
Speaker 1: individual a female to balance up the outlook?

824
00:43:20,600 --> 00:43:23,880
Speaker 3: Yeah, well, I mean three years ago we signed we

825
00:43:23,960 --> 00:43:27,080
Speaker 3: bought Laura Sanko into the business as one of our

826
00:43:27,120 --> 00:43:32,840
Speaker 3: first big US brand ambassadors. Laura commentates on the UFC.

827
00:43:32,880 --> 00:43:35,960
Speaker 3: In fact, she commentated on the UFC that you and

828
00:43:36,040 --> 00:43:38,200
Speaker 3: I were together at in Sydney, one of the big

829
00:43:38,200 --> 00:43:41,120
Speaker 3: pay per views. She's the first woman to have commented

830
00:43:41,160 --> 00:43:44,000
Speaker 3: on a UFC pay per view in like, well over

831
00:43:44,560 --> 00:43:47,239
Speaker 3: twenty five years or something like that. She's one of

832
00:43:47,239 --> 00:43:51,280
Speaker 3: the UFC's top broadcaster as analysts. She's a former pro fighter,

833
00:43:51,880 --> 00:43:53,520
Speaker 3: she's in a forty, she's a mom.

834
00:43:53,840 --> 00:43:55,680
Speaker 1: How do you approach someone like that? I mean, how

835
00:43:55,680 --> 00:43:58,440
Speaker 1: did you get her to come on board? So to speak?

836
00:43:58,440 --> 00:44:00,000
Speaker 2: On the story? I mean look through our.

837
00:44:00,040 --> 00:44:04,359
Speaker 3: Networks, right, so you know, classic example, one of our

838
00:44:04,400 --> 00:44:09,240
Speaker 3: long term PR guys in la Zach Rosenfield, who's become

839
00:44:09,239 --> 00:44:12,440
Speaker 3: a great mate over the years. Zach also happens to

840
00:44:12,480 --> 00:44:18,560
Speaker 3: manage ate Nate Diaz legend. Yeah, and we've been so

841
00:44:19,040 --> 00:44:24,960
Speaker 3: heavily tied into the sector at an elite level for

842
00:44:25,000 --> 00:44:30,080
Speaker 3: a long time because we generated a lot of credibility

843
00:44:30,239 --> 00:44:33,800
Speaker 3: through how we monetized gyms and so we were we were,

844
00:44:33,320 --> 00:44:37,040
Speaker 3: we're we're a sector insider mark like that's and so

845
00:44:37,080 --> 00:44:40,120
Speaker 3: how do we get to law Zach? Zach Newlawa's agent.

846
00:44:40,200 --> 00:44:42,840
Speaker 3: He picked up the phone says, Hey, there's this company.

847
00:44:42,880 --> 00:44:46,400
Speaker 3: They do really great things. They really want to, you know,

848
00:44:46,440 --> 00:44:48,920
Speaker 3: focus on getting more and more women involved in training

849
00:44:49,239 --> 00:44:52,480
Speaker 3: martial arts and combat sports. Her star was really on

850
00:44:52,520 --> 00:44:56,160
Speaker 3: the rise, you know, three years ago, and we sat

851
00:44:56,160 --> 00:44:59,600
Speaker 3: down and Zach Lawa and I had a conversation and

852
00:44:59,719 --> 00:45:02,680
Speaker 3: then she told us a remarkable story about how her

853
00:45:03,440 --> 00:45:04,800
Speaker 3: her training journey begins.

854
00:45:04,840 --> 00:45:08,520
Speaker 2: She never intended to be a fighter. She she went to.

855
00:45:07,960 --> 00:45:09,719
Speaker 3: Start training in the gym at a time she was

856
00:45:09,800 --> 00:45:11,880
Speaker 3: kind of she'd come out of a bad breakup, she

857
00:45:11,960 --> 00:45:14,960
Speaker 3: was lonely, she was just wasn't feeling herself, and she

858
00:45:15,080 --> 00:45:19,720
Speaker 3: kind of just started training martial arts and somehow fell

859
00:45:19,760 --> 00:45:22,919
Speaker 3: forward into ultimately being convinced to have an amateur fight

860
00:45:22,960 --> 00:45:25,839
Speaker 3: that went on too, multiple amateur fights and ultimately some

861
00:45:25,880 --> 00:45:29,759
Speaker 3: professional fights. So she said to me on our first conversation,

862
00:45:30,120 --> 00:45:35,640
Speaker 3: Nick Olter, story is my story, Like this resonates with me,

863
00:45:36,160 --> 00:45:38,160
Speaker 3: and I mean we've been working with her ever since.

864
00:45:38,640 --> 00:45:41,879
Speaker 1: So the big the big deal and all this stuff too,

865
00:45:41,880 --> 00:45:42,520
Speaker 1: by the way, is.

866
00:45:44,000 --> 00:45:44,839
Speaker 2: All that stuff is good.

867
00:45:44,960 --> 00:45:47,920
Speaker 1: Everyone's interested, everybody wants support. Of course, the valuation parts

868
00:45:48,120 --> 00:45:51,400
Speaker 1: the big story, Lad, how do you arrive at evaluation

869
00:45:52,200 --> 00:45:58,160
Speaker 1: for ALTA when you know you have to project forward

870
00:45:58,160 --> 00:46:00,600
Speaker 1: what you wouldn't want to project forward? Your valuations they're

871
00:46:00,600 --> 00:46:03,440
Speaker 1: going to be, you know, and the job of the

872
00:46:04,120 --> 00:46:06,160
Speaker 1: bankers a lot of times is to sort of rs

873
00:46:06,239 --> 00:46:08,000
Speaker 1: or you and get your price down or your value

874
00:46:08,040 --> 00:46:11,759
Speaker 1: down or more respectable, more acceptable of the words, how

875
00:46:11,760 --> 00:46:12,759
Speaker 1: do you go about that?

876
00:46:13,200 --> 00:46:15,000
Speaker 2: How do you go about it? Yeah, so that's a

877
00:46:15,200 --> 00:46:16,879
Speaker 2: that's a process you go through.

878
00:46:16,920 --> 00:46:21,160
Speaker 3: I think ours was anchored in fundamentals, right, So if

879
00:46:21,200 --> 00:46:24,160
Speaker 3: you look at two primary things that drives what we

880
00:46:24,360 --> 00:46:29,200
Speaker 3: believe the valuation to be and why we looked Number one,

881
00:46:30,120 --> 00:46:33,160
Speaker 3: some long term unit economics of producing millions of dollars

882
00:46:33,200 --> 00:46:36,600
Speaker 3: of revenue and paying millions of dollars to gym owners

883
00:46:36,640 --> 00:46:40,600
Speaker 3: around the world. So we had core unit economics that said,

884
00:46:40,600 --> 00:46:43,320
Speaker 3: if we run out to programs in this number of gyms,

885
00:46:43,800 --> 00:46:47,200
Speaker 3: this is gross revenue on a per gm basis. These

886
00:46:47,200 --> 00:46:50,000
Speaker 3: are our margins on the customers that we that we

887
00:46:50,000 --> 00:46:53,640
Speaker 3: bring on board. So we had kind of a really

888
00:46:54,320 --> 00:46:57,680
Speaker 3: we had deep unit economics that said, Okay, as a banker,

889
00:46:57,760 --> 00:47:00,440
Speaker 3: they go, okay, I get that. That's not You've done

890
00:47:00,480 --> 00:47:03,440
Speaker 3: it in one or two locations, You've proven it broadly.

891
00:47:04,520 --> 00:47:08,040
Speaker 3: So if we give you the fuel to grow, how

892
00:47:08,080 --> 00:47:10,279
Speaker 3: quickly can you grow it? And then so then the

893
00:47:10,440 --> 00:47:14,160
Speaker 3: other dimension in that is, well, what is your footprint?

894
00:47:14,160 --> 00:47:17,239
Speaker 3: How many gyms have you got signed agreements with that

895
00:47:17,239 --> 00:47:20,200
Speaker 3: they're ready to run your programs and take customers from you.

896
00:47:20,680 --> 00:47:23,160
Speaker 3: And so then you get these kind of average unit

897
00:47:23,239 --> 00:47:27,600
Speaker 3: economics with your gym footprint, and you get to us

898
00:47:27,640 --> 00:47:32,320
Speaker 3: having an embedded revenue opportunity of fifty sixty million dollars,

899
00:47:32,680 --> 00:47:34,680
Speaker 3: whatever the case may be. So then you go, Okay,

900
00:47:34,840 --> 00:47:38,279
Speaker 3: if we don't sign another gym and we just execute

901
00:47:38,400 --> 00:47:44,800
Speaker 3: on our plan, then there is a revenue opportunity of

902
00:47:45,760 --> 00:47:49,239
Speaker 3: up to fifty sixty million dollars without growing your gym

903
00:47:49,239 --> 00:47:51,480
Speaker 3: footprint anymore. Now, of course, we're going to continue to

904
00:47:51,480 --> 00:47:54,680
Speaker 3: grow and do all these other things. So valuation was

905
00:47:54,760 --> 00:48:00,160
Speaker 3: ultimately derivative of what is the opportunity as it exists today,

906
00:48:00,680 --> 00:48:04,600
Speaker 3: and you know what proven unit economics of you guys displayed,

907
00:48:04,719 --> 00:48:08,120
Speaker 3: and that ultimately, you know, then your factor in some

908
00:48:08,120 --> 00:48:11,680
Speaker 3: some other factors, maybe you know, capital race today, valuation

909
00:48:11,760 --> 00:48:14,319
Speaker 3: of previous rounds, that sort of all, you know, went

910
00:48:14,400 --> 00:48:15,080
Speaker 3: up gently.

911
00:48:16,200 --> 00:48:18,799
Speaker 2: You know, we raised you know that the.

912
00:48:18,760 --> 00:48:23,279
Speaker 3: IPO was done at circa fifty million dollar valuation for

913
00:48:23,320 --> 00:48:26,759
Speaker 3: the company. You know, the last time we raised money

914
00:48:26,800 --> 00:48:29,360
Speaker 3: before that, the company was valued in the high thirties,

915
00:48:29,520 --> 00:48:32,439
Speaker 3: early forties. So it was kind of just that kind

916
00:48:32,440 --> 00:48:36,359
Speaker 3: of natural graduation as we proved out what we were doing.

917
00:48:36,400 --> 00:48:39,160
Speaker 1: But you've got to keep fighting every every step of

918
00:48:39,200 --> 00:48:39,520
Speaker 1: the way.

919
00:48:39,800 --> 00:48:40,480
Speaker 2: You don't stop.

920
00:48:41,200 --> 00:48:42,440
Speaker 1: And what is your ticker?

921
00:48:43,800 --> 00:48:44,600
Speaker 2: It's the best ticky?

922
00:48:44,680 --> 00:48:47,360
Speaker 1: What is it? M m m m.

923
00:48:47,719 --> 00:48:52,560
Speaker 3: Well that's that's kudos to to one of our bankers

924
00:48:53,280 --> 00:48:57,880
Speaker 3: in New York. We were talking about, you know, stock symbols,

925
00:48:57,960 --> 00:49:01,880
Speaker 3: and I kind of naturally was, so, can we get

926
00:49:02,200 --> 00:49:05,160
Speaker 3: ALTA or what could we I kind of just immediately

927
00:49:05,160 --> 00:49:08,360
Speaker 3: went to something that was derivative of and he said,

928
00:49:09,520 --> 00:49:11,759
Speaker 3: what about if we went for the sport mm A.

929
00:49:11,880 --> 00:49:14,280
Speaker 3: And I'm like, well, I mean, surely that's been taken.

930
00:49:14,320 --> 00:49:17,120
Speaker 3: He goes, well, it's worth a look. And so we

931
00:49:17,160 --> 00:49:19,880
Speaker 3: went straight to our lawyers and then applied through the

932
00:49:19,880 --> 00:49:22,560
Speaker 3: relevant channels and it came back clear, no, no, no,

933
00:49:22,640 --> 00:49:23,640
Speaker 3: that's that's free.

934
00:49:23,719 --> 00:49:27,160
Speaker 2: And then that was like the quickest response.

935
00:49:26,800 --> 00:49:32,040
Speaker 3: Ever to an email now, and I will say a

936
00:49:32,080 --> 00:49:34,239
Speaker 3: lot of investors and I was on investor calls early

937
00:49:34,320 --> 00:49:37,640
Speaker 3: this morning in the US, like everyone says, my god,

938
00:49:37,719 --> 00:49:38,680
Speaker 3: like that's stock ticker.

939
00:49:38,880 --> 00:49:39,800
Speaker 2: That's just a killer.

940
00:49:39,880 --> 00:49:43,000
Speaker 3: And again, when you think about us wanting to engage

941
00:49:43,560 --> 00:49:46,040
Speaker 3: fans of m M A who love the way the

942
00:49:46,120 --> 00:49:50,480
Speaker 3: sector is growing. Right, that's a pretty easy way is

943
00:49:50,520 --> 00:49:55,920
Speaker 3: stock ticket get exposure. So so kudos to our to

944
00:49:55,960 --> 00:49:57,080
Speaker 3: our bankers there.

945
00:49:56,920 --> 00:50:01,600
Speaker 1: And with the capital that's raised, what did you tell

946
00:50:02,000 --> 00:50:04,160
Speaker 1: your bankers et cetera what the purpose of the money

947
00:50:04,239 --> 00:50:05,759
Speaker 1: is for? And a part of growth, I get it

948
00:50:05,960 --> 00:50:08,600
Speaker 1: better acquisitions and have you done anything about that?

949
00:50:08,719 --> 00:50:08,919
Speaker 2: Yeah?

950
00:50:09,040 --> 00:50:13,719
Speaker 3: So, so use of funds was specifically around obviously investment

951
00:50:13,719 --> 00:50:17,239
Speaker 3: in marketing and growth to fund revenue growth, activating in

952
00:50:17,280 --> 00:50:20,880
Speaker 3: the business, our gym footprint that you making a handful

953
00:50:20,880 --> 00:50:24,000
Speaker 3: of key highs. Obviously, you know people who work in

954
00:50:24,000 --> 00:50:26,520
Speaker 3: in startups a special people. If if you can stay

955
00:50:26,520 --> 00:50:30,320
Speaker 3: working in startup for a long time, you've got tremendous resilience.

956
00:50:30,360 --> 00:50:33,360
Speaker 3: And so you know, hiring a few extra people in

957
00:50:33,400 --> 00:50:36,480
Speaker 3: to help out the team, which is great. And then

958
00:50:37,239 --> 00:50:40,960
Speaker 3: we've looked at acquisitions on a strategic basis, so if

959
00:50:41,040 --> 00:50:42,680
Speaker 3: it makes sense, i e.

960
00:50:43,440 --> 00:50:47,439
Speaker 2: Can it add to can it accelerate revenue growth? Right?

961
00:50:47,480 --> 00:50:49,400
Speaker 3: So are we acquiring an asset that might have a

962
00:50:49,400 --> 00:50:53,120
Speaker 3: whole bunch of users, It could be an adjacent business

963
00:50:53,160 --> 00:50:56,520
Speaker 3: that is really easy to kind of monetize that user

964
00:50:56,520 --> 00:50:58,840
Speaker 3: base into our world. That would be a reason we

965
00:50:58,880 --> 00:51:01,200
Speaker 3: would we would look at an act position or the

966
00:51:01,239 --> 00:51:05,080
Speaker 3: other one is could the acquisition provide a bunch of

967
00:51:05,200 --> 00:51:10,360
Speaker 3: utility that we can deploy to fast track our technology platform.

968
00:51:10,400 --> 00:51:13,680
Speaker 3: So we made an acquisition that we announced last week

969
00:51:14,320 --> 00:51:19,120
Speaker 3: a business called Hype, which is this incredible mobile marketing platform,

970
00:51:19,320 --> 00:51:23,120
Speaker 3: you know, sort of CRM, website builder, payments, but all

971
00:51:23,160 --> 00:51:27,440
Speaker 3: built mobile centric by some really really smart guys in

972
00:51:27,480 --> 00:51:31,160
Speaker 3: the US. And we started talking to them because we

973
00:51:31,200 --> 00:51:34,680
Speaker 3: wanted to become a customer and get exclusivity in our

974
00:51:34,760 --> 00:51:38,640
Speaker 3: sector around what they did. But before we want, before

975
00:51:38,640 --> 00:51:42,600
Speaker 3: we went to build expensive integrations and what have you

976
00:51:42,680 --> 00:51:45,680
Speaker 3: to embed it, we got into deeper conversations and we

977
00:51:45,719 --> 00:51:48,160
Speaker 3: got to a position where it actually made a lot

978
00:51:48,160 --> 00:51:52,399
Speaker 3: of sense for their manned US that we could acquire them.

979
00:51:52,600 --> 00:51:57,080
Speaker 3: And you know, that's fast tracking our tech roadmap by

980
00:51:57,480 --> 00:51:59,880
Speaker 3: minimum twenty months, probably twenty four months. It's going to

981
00:52:00,040 --> 00:52:02,960
Speaker 3: as a fortune in in tech Capex and we've picked

982
00:52:03,040 --> 00:52:05,479
Speaker 3: up like a world class engineering team.

983
00:52:05,520 --> 00:52:06,680
Speaker 2: So it's just win win win.

984
00:52:06,800 --> 00:52:09,600
Speaker 1: And you're how important I mean when you're listed, I

985
00:52:09,640 --> 00:52:13,560
Speaker 1: mean you've got a lot of currency, So how important

986
00:52:13,600 --> 00:52:17,080
Speaker 1: is it in acquisitions? For example, being able to use

987
00:52:17,120 --> 00:52:20,120
Speaker 1: your own currency, that is your stock, issuing stock or

988
00:52:20,239 --> 00:52:22,319
Speaker 1: part stock by cash, or it can be all cash

989
00:52:22,320 --> 00:52:26,160
Speaker 1: of course, or all stock. How important is that flexibility

990
00:52:26,480 --> 00:52:28,200
Speaker 1: from being listed on the MYC.

991
00:52:28,880 --> 00:52:32,399
Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean, that's it's huge when you can when

992
00:52:32,400 --> 00:52:36,160
Speaker 3: the consideration for an acquisition can be your own stock.

993
00:52:37,400 --> 00:52:40,399
Speaker 3: You know, cash is obviously precious at all times, and

994
00:52:40,440 --> 00:52:43,399
Speaker 3: so we were fortunate Mark we were able to make

995
00:52:43,480 --> 00:52:46,640
Speaker 3: We made some acquisitions late last year that were script

996
00:52:46,680 --> 00:52:50,319
Speaker 3: based only, so just using our stock, no cash consideration,

997
00:52:51,600 --> 00:52:55,240
Speaker 3: and made those acquisitions. Obviously those the people who sold

998
00:52:55,520 --> 00:52:58,640
Speaker 3: had the hope that we would be successful in going public,

999
00:52:58,680 --> 00:52:59,319
Speaker 3: which we were.

1000
00:53:00,440 --> 00:53:01,400
Speaker 2: So, Yeah, being able.

1001
00:53:01,280 --> 00:53:05,879
Speaker 3: To issue our own equity as consideration for those when

1002
00:53:05,920 --> 00:53:10,120
Speaker 3: it's a really highly aligned acquisition, it's enormously valuable.

1003
00:53:10,560 --> 00:53:15,239
Speaker 1: So how final question for it, mate, have you had

1004
00:53:15,239 --> 00:53:19,360
Speaker 1: a holiday since you started this journey in twenty forteen

1005
00:53:19,440 --> 00:53:22,799
Speaker 1: or whatever it was? I mean, and are you as

1006
00:53:22,840 --> 00:53:26,799
Speaker 1: excited today or are you more relieved as to are

1007
00:53:26,840 --> 00:53:30,640
Speaker 1: you as excited today as you were at the beginning

1008
00:53:30,680 --> 00:53:33,680
Speaker 1: of the journey or more relieved? Which one?

1009
00:53:34,239 --> 00:53:35,040
Speaker 2: It's gone through far?

1010
00:53:35,160 --> 00:53:37,000
Speaker 3: I am now as I sit here now, I am

1011
00:53:37,040 --> 00:53:41,000
Speaker 3: more excited than I've ever been. I did have a holiday,

1012
00:53:41,040 --> 00:53:43,600
Speaker 3: I did refresh, you know, I took sort of twelve

1013
00:53:43,640 --> 00:53:44,200
Speaker 3: days off.

1014
00:53:45,320 --> 00:53:47,560
Speaker 2: I would still I still thought about the business and

1015
00:53:47,600 --> 00:53:48,120
Speaker 2: what have you.

1016
00:53:48,160 --> 00:53:52,200
Speaker 3: But I said at the start mark, like for me,

1017
00:53:52,560 --> 00:53:54,480
Speaker 3: it feels like it took me seven years to get

1018
00:53:54,520 --> 00:53:57,440
Speaker 3: to the starting line, and this is just the beginning

1019
00:53:58,160 --> 00:54:01,960
Speaker 3: of what we're going to build in the incredible sports vertical,

1020
00:54:02,040 --> 00:54:06,160
Speaker 3: and so I feel more excited about where we're going.

1021
00:54:06,280 --> 00:54:09,080
Speaker 2: I do feel I do feel.

1022
00:54:08,800 --> 00:54:12,319
Speaker 3: Really relieved that we got there, and it was it

1023
00:54:12,360 --> 00:54:17,400
Speaker 3: was a really tough journey. But now yeah, like the

1024
00:54:17,400 --> 00:54:21,680
Speaker 3: rest of the team, we've finally got the resources we need.

1025
00:54:22,560 --> 00:54:25,080
Speaker 3: We're operating in a really big market again, the pools

1026
00:54:25,080 --> 00:54:27,200
Speaker 3: of capital in the US, it just it's just so

1027
00:54:27,360 --> 00:54:31,520
Speaker 3: much deeper. The sport has grown evolved and it's just

1028
00:54:31,560 --> 00:54:32,879
Speaker 3: so much more advanced there.

1029
00:54:33,000 --> 00:54:35,400
Speaker 2: So it really feels we've.

1030
00:54:35,239 --> 00:54:38,719
Speaker 3: Got the jet pack on now and yeah, that's that

1031
00:54:38,880 --> 00:54:40,560
Speaker 3: really makes it easy to get out of bed.

1032
00:54:40,400 --> 00:54:40,920
Speaker 2: In the morning.

1033
00:54:41,760 --> 00:54:44,600
Speaker 1: Nick Langton, CEO of AS it's still called Train Outer

1034
00:54:44,680 --> 00:54:45,680
Speaker 1: or it is just Outer now.

1035
00:54:45,760 --> 00:54:47,000
Speaker 2: Well, it's our global group.

1036
00:54:47,160 --> 00:54:50,680
Speaker 3: But the funny thing is that all our social handles

1037
00:54:50,680 --> 00:54:52,840
Speaker 3: are train Alter. Yeah, I see that, so everyone just

1038
00:54:52,840 --> 00:54:53,680
Speaker 3: calls es train outer.

1039
00:54:54,080 --> 00:54:57,640
Speaker 1: So I just want to say congratulations and well done.

1040
00:54:58,200 --> 00:55:00,239
Speaker 1: You know, I've made some investments, some things I've done

1041
00:55:00,280 --> 00:55:02,799
Speaker 1: so well, but this one I don't even looked at

1042
00:55:02,800 --> 00:55:04,879
Speaker 1: the share price. But just the fact that you got

1043
00:55:04,920 --> 00:55:07,040
Speaker 1: listened to the NYC and I was a small part

1044
00:55:07,040 --> 00:55:07,200
Speaker 1: of that.

1045
00:55:07,400 --> 00:55:08,360
Speaker 2: I feel so happy.

1046
00:55:08,400 --> 00:55:10,399
Speaker 1: It makes me really happy, and it makes me even

1047
00:55:10,400 --> 00:55:12,399
Speaker 1: happy to be able to talk to you many many

1048
00:55:12,440 --> 00:55:17,200
Speaker 1: years later on going public about the process of raising

1049
00:55:17,239 --> 00:55:19,880
Speaker 1: money and make you raise it at the ultimate place,

1050
00:55:20,000 --> 00:55:20,920
Speaker 1: the New York Stock Exchange.

1051
00:55:21,000 --> 00:55:22,800
Speaker 2: Yes, congratulations mate, Thank you. Mark