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Speaker 1: I'm off my game today. No, you're not. People are

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Speaker 1: going to have to start making better content. I think

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Speaker 1: we're gonna be talking about this for a long time.

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Speaker 1: When you program for everyone, you program for no one.

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Speaker 1: I think it's that we're purpose driven platform, like we're

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Speaker 1: trying to get to substance. How was that? Are you

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Speaker 1: happy with that? This is marketing therapy right now? It

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Speaker 1: really is? What's up? I'm Laura Currenty and I'm Alexa Kristen.

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Speaker 1: This is the moment at Landia, a moment we haven't

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Speaker 1: talked about, a moment that's coming. This is our last

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Speaker 1: episode with Panoply. What do you think, Laura, I'm getting emotional.

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Speaker 1: Are you You're going to cry? It's been two years

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Speaker 1: of unbelievable conversations UM. So many incredible people that we've

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Speaker 1: had the opportunity to meet, meet and network with and

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Speaker 1: introduce to the community. UM. And speaking of the community,

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Speaker 1: I think it's been an unbelievable experience to get to

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Speaker 1: have conversations UM with so many listeners who have become

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Speaker 1: a part of the narrative with us and are taking

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Speaker 1: the ideas that they're hearing on the show and applying

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Speaker 1: it to their business and finding ways to advance the

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Speaker 1: industry forward as practitioners for practitioners and people who are

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Speaker 1: unwilling to say, yeah, just put it on the spreadsheet. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: that's just what I was told to do. The people

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Speaker 1: who are willing to question and take risk and say

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Speaker 1: what if, why not, but actually do it. And I

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Speaker 1: think that's kind of the magic of the Adlandia community.

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Speaker 1: While I'm getting emotional too, So with that, we have

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Speaker 1: the founders of the Infatuation, Andrew Steinthal and Chris Sang.

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Speaker 1: Andrew's obviously been on the show. They've had incredible growth

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Speaker 1: over the last year really since we spoke with him,

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Speaker 1: and it's interesting to see how their entrepreneurial spirit and

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Speaker 1: certainly ability to be scrappy and network and average all

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Speaker 1: of the assets that I think we value and turning

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Speaker 1: their business into a contender in the food space. What

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Speaker 1: I think that you and I find so compelling about

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Speaker 1: them and what's so different about them is what I

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Speaker 1: think Andrew talks a lot about is like, we're not

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Speaker 1: going to sell someone, We are actually going to partner

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Speaker 1: with people, and that means their relationships, their pitch, the

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Speaker 1: work that they end up doing is totally different. He's like,

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Speaker 1: we are idea guys that actually do things, build things,

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Speaker 1: make things. We execute, we know how to do it,

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Speaker 1: and that really is the spirit of I think at Landia,

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Speaker 1: the show and and the community of listeners that we have.

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Speaker 1: So with that, our last episode at the Pana Police Studios,

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Speaker 1: we'll be right back and we're back in the studio

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Speaker 1: with the co founders of The Infatuation Andrew Steinthal. Welcome

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Speaker 1: back to the show. Andrew. Hey, oh, thanks for having me.

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Speaker 1: We're not talking about the Knicks and what's up? Christang? Hi, Christang,

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Speaker 1: thanks for coming you guys. Why can't we talk about

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Speaker 1: the next? I love you talk about the next? All

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Speaker 1: the tweet about it a lot you do. Okay, we

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Speaker 1: don't have to talk about it. Let's just read tweets

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Speaker 1: this whole show. Yeah, that's a great idea. That could

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Speaker 1: be a new segment. Andrew, you came to visit us

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Speaker 1: roughly a year ago. Um, The Infatuation was in a

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Speaker 1: much different place, so much that this episode we actually

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Speaker 1: had to go through your comms team to get you

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Speaker 1: on the show. Listen, we're growing, which is a sign

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Speaker 1: that you've made it. Yeah, bureaucracy once you have breacracy

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Speaker 1: in place. That's how you know things are going really well.

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Speaker 1: We've got layers of approvals. Don't tell anyone are our

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Speaker 1: comms guy is also a really good friend of ours

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Speaker 1: and one of our first clients ever from a partnership

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Speaker 1: we did with Whole Foods back in the day, and

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Speaker 1: might love New Jersey more than I do. So talk

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Speaker 1: to us about what's happened since we last saw you.

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Speaker 1: You've had incredible growth, a big acquisition, some new news

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Speaker 1: coming out. Yeah so, I guess the last time you

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Speaker 1: were here, Andrew was pre these a GAT announcement. Yes, so, yeah,

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Speaker 1: so we bought the GAT from Google, which was an experience,

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Speaker 1: to say the least, for how much I can't talk

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Speaker 1: about He can't say that, But I do have a

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Speaker 1: question because one of the things that people didn't report

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Speaker 1: on it's like, how did you actually get it out

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Speaker 1: of the hands of Google. Like one of the things

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Speaker 1: that people were talking about was Google was sitting on

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Speaker 1: this asset right and no one really recognized it and

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Speaker 1: they didn't really do a lot with it. How did

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Speaker 1: you even go to have that negotiation? Like I think

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Speaker 1: listeners want to know, like what was the insight. How

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Speaker 1: did you even know Google had it? Were you just

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Speaker 1: doing research? Were you guys tracking this stuff? And then

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Speaker 1: who did you go and talk to it Google and say,

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Speaker 1: you know what, let's take it off your hands. So

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Speaker 1: I'd love to give myself and everybody a whole bunch

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Speaker 1: of credit about having this like savvy, like sit down

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Speaker 1: strategically and then how we're gonna go like knock on

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Speaker 1: Google's door. They emailed me on a Friday night, literally

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Speaker 1: and they said, we're going to sell this. Would you

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Speaker 1: be interested. I was in London with our team and

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Speaker 1: I just literally, you know, it's probably eleven in the

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Speaker 1: morning San Francisco time, but Friday at eight o'clock or

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Speaker 1: something like that at night in London, and I looked

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Speaker 1: at the email, and I was on my way and

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Speaker 1: to have dinner with our team there, and I just

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Speaker 1: like couldn't really even process it. So I just kinda

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Speaker 1: put the email down, had dinner, and then woke up

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Speaker 1: the next morning and got on the plane to come

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Speaker 1: home on Saturday and started just like thinking about, Okay,

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Speaker 1: if we did this, what would it look like and

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Speaker 1: what why would we do it? And it really over

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Speaker 1: time as we started talking more and more about it

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Speaker 1: just seemed like there was a big opportunity there, to

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Speaker 1: your point, to take advantage of maybe something that you know,

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Speaker 1: Google didn't take advantage of, and maybe we would be

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Speaker 1: very positioned to do something great with it just because

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Speaker 1: of our domain expertise. So how did they know about

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Speaker 1: you guys? I don't know. I think they literally like

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Speaker 1: looked me up. I'm not It was the weirdest set

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Speaker 1: of circumstances ever. Hi, Hi Chris. You don't know me,

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Speaker 1: but I'm Google and we own That was literally almost

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Speaker 1: word for word that you know, I'm not kidding. It

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Speaker 1: was like, hey, I think they said they found my

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Speaker 1: name in pitch book, which I still don't even know

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Speaker 1: what that is. Um, and they were like, yeah, we're

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Speaker 1: you know, we're going to sell it, and I just

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Speaker 1: thought you guys might be interested in So I actually

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Speaker 1: said to her, I was like, well, can I just

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Speaker 1: call you on Monday because this is way too much

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Speaker 1: for me to try and you know, digest from an email.

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Speaker 1: I mean, I don't know if she expected me to

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Speaker 1: respond back and be like yeah, well yeah right, but

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Speaker 1: uh yeah. And then so we just we just started

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Speaker 1: talking and it became apparent that they had a few

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Speaker 1: sort of priorities in mind, one of which being getting

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Speaker 1: a deal done quickly. Um, and I basically kind of

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Speaker 1: hit them and I was like, look, you know, Andre

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Speaker 1: and I are the board and we can get this

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Speaker 1: dawn on Friday if you want, and uh, and started

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Speaker 1: that process. But then, of course it took, you know,

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Speaker 1: six months to do the deal. So, so for our listeners,

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Speaker 1: give the high level pitch on why Infatuation was founded,

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Speaker 1: what it's mission and purposes, and how this acquisition may

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Speaker 1: change that. Yeah, so, I mean, what for for a

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Speaker 1: bunch of reasons. When we launched this thing in two

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Speaker 1: thousand and nine, I think what we were talking a

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Speaker 1: lot about and maybe realized, even though we didn't realize,

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Speaker 1: we realized it, was that there had been this big

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Speaker 1: shift in popular culture in the sense that people treated

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Speaker 1: dining differently, probably because of Food Network and food television,

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Speaker 1: probably because of early days social media like Facebook and

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Speaker 1: Twitter and people sharing photos, you know, mid let's call

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Speaker 1: it two thousand's there was this real shift in consumer

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Speaker 1: behavior around dining, where like everyone was suddenly interested in

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Speaker 1: food as a passion and not just a thing you

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Speaker 1: did before you went to a concert or whatever, you know,

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Speaker 1: and suddenly, you know, a night out with a date

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Speaker 1: or with a friend was burgers and beers and not

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Speaker 1: you know, French food and white tablecloths. And what we

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Speaker 1: felt like, for a variety of reasons, was that there

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Speaker 1: hadn't been a correlated shift with the sort of people

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Speaker 1: that are covering dining or you know, in restaurant discovery,

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Speaker 1: meaning that you know, The New York Times was still

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Speaker 1: kind of talking at a very high level about you know,

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Speaker 1: restaurant and the chef and the concept of the restaurant.

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Speaker 1: And we felt like, well, let's what if we created

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Speaker 1: something that was like, hey, I know you're trying to

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Speaker 1: figure out wheld have a first date in the Lower

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Speaker 1: East Side. Here's the best restaurant that fits into those parameters.

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Speaker 1: And so we started conceptualizing with them might look like.

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Speaker 1: And then there became this other layer about well, you know,

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Speaker 1: two thousand and nine when we started, Yelp was new

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Speaker 1: but big, and people were trying to figure that whole

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Speaker 1: thing out, and even then you felt like there was

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Speaker 1: just this like you know, missing major missing elements. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: people were like hated it, even though it wasn't even

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Speaker 1: that old, right, you just could tell that there was

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Speaker 1: going to be a lot of problems, you know, with

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Speaker 1: with the nature of user generated content, especially if there

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Speaker 1: weren't you know, smart ways to moderate it and smart

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Speaker 1: ways to sort of make sure that the content is

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Speaker 1: of a certain quality, um and then the other you know. Additionally,

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Speaker 1: there's like this whole idea of just making sense of

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Speaker 1: the fire hose, and that the Internet had produced food

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Speaker 1: blogs of all sorts of you know, shapes and sizes,

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Speaker 1: and you know, social media again was a place where

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Speaker 1: people would find opinions and see content. So we just

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Speaker 1: kind of wanted to create something that had a very

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Speaker 1: clear point of view that would help people make sense

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Speaker 1: of the fire hose. And then like you could agree

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Speaker 1: with us or disagree with us, but at least you

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Speaker 1: knew where we stood. And then we wanted to make

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Speaker 1: it funny and entertaining and all that other stuff. But

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Speaker 1: that was that is and was it wasn't is still

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Speaker 1: the thesis and the mission for the Infatuation is to

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Speaker 1: create situational restaurant recommendations for people and have a relatable

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Speaker 1: voice and be um, you know, have the tone that

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Speaker 1: sounds like you're talking to a really knowledgeable friend um,

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Speaker 1: and when we started thinking about how difficult that is

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Speaker 1: to scale, meaning that you know, you go city by

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Speaker 1: city and you hire teams of writers and editors and

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Speaker 1: you really have to you know, do your work a

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Speaker 1: certain way so that you're seeing as trustworthy and objective.

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Speaker 1: It's hard to become a really big company, and you know,

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Speaker 1: a global company quickly. So we we knew pretty immediately

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Speaker 1: that we were going to have to confront you GC,

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Speaker 1: user generated content, just because that's what scales. If you

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Speaker 1: create a platform, people fill with content that can get

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Speaker 1: really big, really quickly if you do it right. So,

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Speaker 1: you know, when we started talking about that, there was

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Speaker 1: always a concern about how do you you know, connect

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Speaker 1: user generated content of some sort with you know, with

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Speaker 1: the infatuations editorial voice and not muddy the waters. Well,

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Speaker 1: turns out the Gap was the first ever example of

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Speaker 1: user generated content in the in the dining space back

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Speaker 1: in when you know, Tim and Nina the founders had

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Speaker 1: their friends filling out surveys. So that was really the

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Speaker 1: light bulb moment with the acquisition was can we take

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Speaker 1: there's a Gap brand, which is arguably the most successful

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Speaker 1: brand in the restaurant discovery space. That's ever existed, take

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Speaker 1: it back to its roots of user generated content, and

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Speaker 1: create a platform by which we could then have both.

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Speaker 1: So we have u g C and editorial content. At

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Speaker 1: some point people can cross reference both. Gives us a

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Speaker 1: bigger percentage of the market. It seemed like a good idea.

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Speaker 1: So one of the things that Laura and I hear

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Speaker 1: a lot from our listeners is people talk about doing it,

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Speaker 1: but they never do it. You guys were colleagues right

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Speaker 1: in the music We were friends first and then colleagues

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Speaker 1: and then colleague. We never actually worked at the same company.

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Speaker 1: We worked at the same parent company, but we never

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Speaker 1: worked together. And so when you started talking about it,

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Speaker 1: what was and I don't believe in the moment, Like

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Speaker 1: I don't believe in having this moment. What were the

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Speaker 1: steps into just doing it, you know and just like

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Speaker 1: moving it forward? I mean, look, the day that we met,

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Speaker 1: we looked at each other and we're like, we're going

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Speaker 1: to do ship right like like like that was how

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Speaker 1: did you know? We juste corpse lights? Actually, but you know,

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Speaker 1: we we had a million different business ideas over the

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Speaker 1: course of time. You know, we spent ten years trying

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Speaker 1: to figure out what it was that we were going

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Speaker 1: to do together, you know, and at first it was

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Speaker 1: gonna be a record label. And once you get in

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Speaker 1: the music business and from the years two thousand two,

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Speaker 1: you know, to that and twelve, you realize that's not

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Speaker 1: the best idea, that that wasn't the best time to

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Speaker 1: do that. Um. We had a T shirt company at

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Speaker 1: one point, we made one T shirt, had one meeting, UM,

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Speaker 1: and we had a bunch of other ideas, and you know,

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Speaker 1: the doing part was never going to be the problem

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Speaker 1: with us. We were we were. The thing that kind

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Speaker 1: of brought us together is that we were both big

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Speaker 1: time doers of many things. You know, we really enjoyed

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Speaker 1: whatever it was, whether it was the music, whether it

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Speaker 1: was going out to eat, whether it was traveling, all

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Speaker 1: of it, you know. And because a lot of people

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Speaker 1: go to meet ups and networking events to try to

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Speaker 1: find like minded partners. So even just unpacking that I

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Speaker 1: think would be helpful for our listeners who are entrepreneurs

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Speaker 1: or thinking about ideas but are looking for a business

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Speaker 1: partner to sort of move forward with. Aside from twenty

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Speaker 1: three corps lights and being doers, like, what were the

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Speaker 1: things that you looked for in one another and how

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Speaker 1: you complimented each other to build a business. At first,

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Speaker 1: I don't I mean we just got lucky. I mean

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Speaker 1: we Yeah, that's that's true. Actually, it really I think

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Speaker 1: we were probably I think about this a lot because

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Speaker 1: I don't know. I actually don't know. But it's funny

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Speaker 1: because that was It's sometimes when you when you tell

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Speaker 1: these stories, you sort of tend to like embellish things

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Speaker 1: and be like, oh, we just knew that we were

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Speaker 1: going to be business partners and and usually that's bullshit.

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Speaker 1: But actually in our case, it was a true that

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Speaker 1: we we became friends because we were somehow certain we

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Speaker 1: were going to be really successful together in business somehow,

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Speaker 1: but I don't really know that either of us could

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Speaker 1: articulate it then now looking at how things have played out,

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Speaker 1: the reason we've been successful is because we're very different,

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Speaker 1: but we trust each other so like I have a

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Speaker 1: totally different skill set than Ander does and vice versa.

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Speaker 1: And like if you saw our day to day at

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Speaker 1: the office, like we hardly interact with each other because

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Speaker 1: we're both kind of off of our off in our

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Speaker 1: own world. But it's so fine because we know we're

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Speaker 1: both trying to do the same things, and then ultimately

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Speaker 1: like there's no there's none of that nervousness about like, well,

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Speaker 1: what's what's he up to over there? What we know

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Speaker 1: is he going to do the right thing in that meeting?

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Speaker 1: There's none of that there. So if you have business

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Speaker 1: partners that have this same skill set as you do,

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Speaker 1: or that you know, even if there's like an ounce

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Speaker 1: of uncertainty or distrust, it can be really, really really

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Speaker 1: hard to even make it three steps out of the gate.

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Speaker 1: So I think he's right, Andrew's right, and that we

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Speaker 1: did get lucky for sure because we just happened to

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Speaker 1: have very different skill sets. I think the thing that

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Speaker 1: isn't luck is that, for whatever reason, we recognized it,

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Speaker 1: and then once we did end up starting the infatuation,

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Speaker 1: that then, as it started to play out, became really

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Speaker 1: our biggest strength. I think you just gave tons of

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Speaker 1: advice to brands and marketing teams because there's this really

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Speaker 1: interesting thing about pairing people that are actually different but

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Speaker 1: have the same ethos. So often, you know, cmos and

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Speaker 1: brand leaders are looking for this really cohesive team, and

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Speaker 1: they're looking at attributes that are too similar, and there's

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Speaker 1: like something they're in the tension of being different. That's brilliant. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: it's really necessary. But the thing is is the craziest

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Speaker 1: part about all of this is that I feel bad

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Speaker 1: for people that are just sort of having a checklist

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Speaker 1: of you know, I know the feeling we wanted to

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Speaker 1: start something and wanting to start a business, and I

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Speaker 1: understand and totally relate to that, but it's I can't

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Speaker 1: imagine having like a checklist of being like, Okay, I

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Speaker 1: need an idea, and then I need a business partner,

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Speaker 1: and I need a business plan and having to sort

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Speaker 1: of like check those things off in order, because that's

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Speaker 1: never how it happens. It's always so messy, and you know,

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Speaker 1: you start doing one thing, then another thing happens, and

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Speaker 1: then something else comes up and you maybe chase an

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Speaker 1: opportunity or you don't. And that's the hardest part to tell. Like,

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Speaker 1: when you give people advice about how to start a

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Speaker 1: business or how to find a co founder, you can

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Speaker 1: definitely give them fundamental pieces of advice like this, but

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Speaker 1: so much of it's just like you got to just

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Speaker 1: start doing stuff and seeing what happens. So what was

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Speaker 1: the first thing that the infatuation did. Well, there's a.

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Speaker 1: There's a story around this that's really funny actually, because

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Speaker 1: we've been talking for a while about doing what ended

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Speaker 1: up becoming at the time called the Maculate Infatuation, and

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Speaker 1: the really the only reason we actually pulled the trigger

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Speaker 1: was that at the time I was single, and Andrew

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Speaker 1: wrote me into doing some like New York posts like bachelor. Now.

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Speaker 1: I haven't thought about it. I just found I know,

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Speaker 1: I I I blocked that on my mind obviously because

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Speaker 1: I just moved and I found the newspaper. I have

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Speaker 1: a bunch of them. It's hilarious. So he Andrew was like,

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Speaker 1: oh my god, you just gotta do this, because he

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Speaker 1: was just so excited about me embarrassing myself in New

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Speaker 1: York media. But so I was like, you know what, fine,

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Speaker 1: I'll do it as long as we launched this website

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Speaker 1: thing and I'll mention it in my blurb in the

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Speaker 1: New York Post. And that was the catalyst as to

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Speaker 1: why we finally did it, was it was like, alright, fine,

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Speaker 1: if I'm gonna do this embarrassing thing, give me something

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Speaker 1: out of it. And that was what happened. Wait, so

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Speaker 1: what was the track like four people? I don't know,

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Speaker 1: I really don't know, but that that was it that

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Speaker 1: And that's the thing is it's always that's the hardest

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Speaker 1: step is always just saying cool or to do it.

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Speaker 1: Because once we started doing it, whatever whatever we got

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Speaker 1: from that New York Post thing, which was nothing, didn't matter.

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Speaker 1: What we did though, was we had this thing that

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Speaker 1: we could now put into a newsletter that Andrew put.

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Speaker 1: You know, we literally, between the two of us, put

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Speaker 1: every person we knew on this email only send it out.

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Speaker 1: And that was the beginning of the whole thing. And

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Speaker 1: we're and look at our careers in the music business

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Speaker 1: came into play in a huge way. You know, I

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Speaker 1: was a publicist, Chris was a marketing guy, and like,

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Speaker 1: we used our skill sets to drive this thing. Attributes

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Speaker 1: that I love most about the both of you, and

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Speaker 1: I think it comes through very clearly when you partner

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Speaker 1: with you to do business or the way you talk

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Speaker 1: about your brand is the sort of scrappiness and the

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Speaker 1: leveraging of a network and the human connection and authenticity

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Speaker 1: that you both bring to the marketplace, which is so refreshing.

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Speaker 1: How are like, what do those skill sets look like

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Speaker 1: for the both of you? And then how are you

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Speaker 1: bringing that into your company with the employees that you're hiring. Sure,

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Speaker 1: I mean, look, are as a pr guy in music, right, Like,

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Speaker 1: you get handed a bunch of crappy bands a lot

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Speaker 1: of the time, and you've got to hustle your ass

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Speaker 1: off to try and make do something, find it, find

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Speaker 1: something that could potentially work. But then all of a

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Speaker 1: sudden you get one or two good ones and you're like, oh,

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Speaker 1: this is you know you and you can feel the

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Speaker 1: audience talk back to you right like immediately, and that

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Speaker 1: and that that's the kind of thing that happened with

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Speaker 1: us where we put this out into the world that

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Speaker 1: you know, we weren't sure it could have been a

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Speaker 1: not so great band, or it could have been somebody,

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Speaker 1: you know, one that people wanted to hear more from.

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Speaker 1: And immediately we here, we you know, felt this poll.

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Speaker 1: And once we felt the poll from the public, we

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Speaker 1: were like, let's go and we kind of you know,

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Speaker 1: took this. We have. One of the things that attracted

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Speaker 1: each other to one another is just the drive part

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Speaker 1: of it, right. We were both really determined to be successful,

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Speaker 1: to win, to build something, to whatever it was within

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Speaker 1: our careers or whatever we were going to build. And

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Speaker 1: once we started rolling. That was that was how we

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Speaker 1: went and then and that really helped push us into

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Speaker 1: you know what ultimately became leaving our jobs five years

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Speaker 1: later and building a company. And I think that has

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Speaker 1: always been the fundamentals of what we are. We we

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Speaker 1: we want it badly, and we want to do it

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Speaker 1: our way, and we want to be honest and real

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Speaker 1: and transparent, and you know that's you know, I hired

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Speaker 1: another public assists. You know, I'm I run our sales,

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Speaker 1: I'm our c r O and whatever. I've got a

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Speaker 1: I brought another publicist in that we have worked with

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Speaker 1: in the music business. Her names Savannah, and she's crushing

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Speaker 1: and sales. She's never done sales in her life neither,

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Speaker 1: and I, you know, and so like, I don't know

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Speaker 1: what people are supposed to be doing in these roles.

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Speaker 1: I've just been figuring it out along the way and

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Speaker 1: being pretty real with the brands and just trying to

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Speaker 1: create real human relationships with people and expose them to

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Speaker 1: the infatuation in our audience and all this cool stuff

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Speaker 1: from culture that we can bring to the table for them.

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Speaker 1: How many brand partnerships have you done today? You know,

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Speaker 1: we've probably worked with over a hundred and fifty brands

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Speaker 1: or so. Wow, what does success look like? Success looks

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Speaker 1: like this, the infatuation existing forever, the inpetuition, and now's

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Speaker 1: a gap, you know, being the default for restaurant recommendations

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Speaker 1: everywhere forever and building a really sustainable successful business? What that?

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Speaker 1: What eventually evolves? And how that? How we get there?

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Speaker 1: I don't know? But how are brands finding you? I

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Speaker 1: was just I just set off Mike. I was telling

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Speaker 1: a brand about you today and they're like, good, heard

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Speaker 1: of them, Please please keep doing that. Well, it takes

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Speaker 1: a look that That's how brands find us. People who

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Speaker 1: know tell people or people there is generally one person

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Speaker 1: inside an organization that's like sees the stuff we're doing

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Speaker 1: and it's like I want to work with them, or

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Speaker 1: like I spend all of my time trying to find

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Speaker 1: those people, unearthed those people. You know, our business is

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Speaker 1: built on integrated brand partnerships, right, Like we have a

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Speaker 1: you know what Chris was talking about, right, we have

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Speaker 1: we have this audience that we've developed a real personal

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Speaker 1: human relationship with that. You know that we feed social

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Speaker 1: capital to that. We are you know, we're credible, Like

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Speaker 1: we pay for our own meals. We can't you can't

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Speaker 1: buy the infatuation stamp of approval, right, and like we

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Speaker 1: are really selective with who writes for us on the

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Speaker 1: editorial side. But at the same time, and like we're

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Speaker 1: incredibly selective and proactive with what brands we work with.

430
00:20:57,480 --> 00:20:59,159
Speaker 1: You know, we only want to work with brands that

431
00:20:59,200 --> 00:21:02,240
Speaker 1: fit our brand and that our audience will feel like

432
00:21:02,400 --> 00:21:05,480
Speaker 1: there's an authentic connection to Like we can't you know,

433
00:21:05,560 --> 00:21:08,479
Speaker 1: we can't go work sorry McDonald's, but we can't. Like

434
00:21:08,520 --> 00:21:11,080
Speaker 1: we will we will lose the credibility and connection to

435
00:21:11,160 --> 00:21:13,040
Speaker 1: the audience. But there's another key part of this though,

436
00:21:13,040 --> 00:21:15,919
Speaker 1: which is that we're not building businesses that people who

437
00:21:16,040 --> 00:21:19,840
Speaker 1: advertise with you know, digital media companies are used to write,

438
00:21:19,840 --> 00:21:24,240
Speaker 1: So like, we don't produce content for volume sake, We

439
00:21:24,320 --> 00:21:26,520
Speaker 1: just don't do it because that's not what we're building.

440
00:21:26,520 --> 00:21:28,600
Speaker 1: We're not building a media company. We're building a resource

441
00:21:28,640 --> 00:21:30,440
Speaker 1: that if you need to find a restaurant on a

442
00:21:30,480 --> 00:21:32,119
Speaker 1: Saturday night, you come to and you find the restaurant,

443
00:21:32,119 --> 00:21:33,600
Speaker 1: you get and you get out, you're done. Like we don't.

444
00:21:33,840 --> 00:21:36,000
Speaker 1: It's not about getting you to consume as much content

445
00:21:36,040 --> 00:21:38,280
Speaker 1: as possible. Actually, we actually have to think about even

446
00:21:38,280 --> 00:21:41,119
Speaker 1: though we measure ourselves differently, because maybe it's not a

447
00:21:41,160 --> 00:21:43,080
Speaker 1: bad thing if somebody comes to our site, spends three

448
00:21:43,080 --> 00:21:44,960
Speaker 1: minutes on it and finds a restaurant and the leads.

449
00:21:45,160 --> 00:21:48,120
Speaker 1: The interesting thing that you're bringing up is a conversation

450
00:21:48,320 --> 00:21:51,080
Speaker 1: that I think is getting more attention in the marketplace.

451
00:21:51,240 --> 00:21:54,520
Speaker 1: Is the new standards or need to evolve the standards

452
00:21:54,600 --> 00:21:56,439
Speaker 1: of measurement in this industry? Right Like, we've had a

453
00:21:56,440 --> 00:21:59,560
Speaker 1: ton of conversations with different entrepreneurs and founders and media

454
00:21:59,560 --> 00:22:04,720
Speaker 1: company executives about measuring things like overnight ratings on television,

455
00:22:04,840 --> 00:22:08,399
Speaker 1: click through rate, volume of impressions. You talk about the

456
00:22:08,440 --> 00:22:11,879
Speaker 1: infatuation being around forever. What does that look like in

457
00:22:11,960 --> 00:22:14,239
Speaker 1: these conversations and brands are coming in, how are you

458
00:22:14,280 --> 00:22:17,120
Speaker 1: getting them to understand that the value of what our

459
00:22:17,160 --> 00:22:20,359
Speaker 1: community is bringing doesn't fit in that Excel spreadsheet. This

460
00:22:20,359 --> 00:22:22,719
Speaker 1: is why we do so many events because when you

461
00:22:22,960 --> 00:22:26,080
Speaker 1: literally put on a food festival and in New York City,

462
00:22:26,320 --> 00:22:28,960
Speaker 1: it sells out and then tickets are going for three

463
00:22:28,960 --> 00:22:31,640
Speaker 1: times face value on StubHub the day after it sells out,

464
00:22:32,040 --> 00:22:34,720
Speaker 1: and then people show up and there's a thousand people

465
00:22:34,720 --> 00:22:37,440
Speaker 1: outside the venue before the doors open, and they're going

466
00:22:37,560 --> 00:22:39,640
Speaker 1: nuts when they get inside. Like that's how you look

467
00:22:39,640 --> 00:22:41,879
Speaker 1: at brand partners or whoever, and you go, this is

468
00:22:41,880 --> 00:22:43,960
Speaker 1: it and that's that's the thing. Is we end up

469
00:22:44,000 --> 00:22:46,399
Speaker 1: intil get it. Yeah, it's not hard like when you

470
00:22:46,400 --> 00:22:50,640
Speaker 1: see it like we there's a famously legendary man named

471
00:22:50,680 --> 00:22:53,720
Speaker 1: Chef Gordon who's now one of our advisors. He's read

472
00:22:53,720 --> 00:22:55,760
Speaker 1: his book or watch his documentary it's called they called

473
00:22:55,920 --> 00:22:58,440
Speaker 1: it's called Superman's the documentary. And he's a he's basically

474
00:22:58,480 --> 00:23:01,399
Speaker 1: the man that's responsible for creating a celebrity chef. You

475
00:23:01,400 --> 00:23:03,159
Speaker 1: could do a whole podcast with him. We'll line that

476
00:23:03,240 --> 00:23:05,520
Speaker 1: up someday. But he's a legend and and he we

477
00:23:05,600 --> 00:23:08,879
Speaker 1: basically paid him to speak at our first food festival, right,

478
00:23:09,320 --> 00:23:11,919
Speaker 1: And he's this guy that literally like created Emerald and

479
00:23:11,960 --> 00:23:15,159
Speaker 1: that was like where it started. And then man, no,

480
00:23:15,560 --> 00:23:17,199
Speaker 1: because he the way he looks at it is he

481
00:23:17,240 --> 00:23:20,159
Speaker 1: brought he brought food culture in people's homes in a

482
00:23:20,240 --> 00:23:23,160
Speaker 1: way that it wasn't existing before, right, Julia Child, Sure,

483
00:23:23,160 --> 00:23:24,840
Speaker 1: but like you know, he did it in a different

484
00:23:24,840 --> 00:23:28,320
Speaker 1: way and and anyway, so he's this like legend and

485
00:23:28,359 --> 00:23:30,120
Speaker 1: we had basically told him. I was on a phone

486
00:23:30,160 --> 00:23:31,760
Speaker 1: call with him prepping him to come to this thing

487
00:23:31,760 --> 00:23:34,560
Speaker 1: and speak, and um. He came, and you know, he

488
00:23:34,840 --> 00:23:36,320
Speaker 1: was like, yeah, I get it. I think I get it.

489
00:23:36,320 --> 00:23:37,840
Speaker 1: After we were sort of talking about what we are

490
00:23:37,880 --> 00:23:40,479
Speaker 1: and all that stuff, and he came to the festival.

491
00:23:40,520 --> 00:23:42,600
Speaker 1: He hung out all day, he was talking to people

492
00:23:42,720 --> 00:23:44,919
Speaker 1: and just like having a great time. And then he

493
00:23:44,960 --> 00:23:46,520
Speaker 1: emailed me the next day. He had just gotten to

494
00:23:46,600 --> 00:23:48,560
Speaker 1: Vegas and he emailed me and he was like, I

495
00:23:48,640 --> 00:23:51,120
Speaker 1: just keep thinking about what I saw there, and I'm

496
00:23:51,160 --> 00:23:54,680
Speaker 1: so happy because it makes me realize that this still exists.

497
00:23:54,760 --> 00:23:57,440
Speaker 1: That like young people in and around the food community,

498
00:23:57,840 --> 00:24:00,119
Speaker 1: they're they're passionate about your thing in an ext this

499
00:24:00,680 --> 00:24:03,080
Speaker 1: and I'm so happy about that. And so, you know,

500
00:24:03,920 --> 00:24:06,520
Speaker 1: that's what that story repeats itself over and over again

501
00:24:06,520 --> 00:24:08,399
Speaker 1: when people who don't know much about us show up

502
00:24:08,400 --> 00:24:11,360
Speaker 1: in our world, especially in that sort of in real

503
00:24:11,400 --> 00:24:13,639
Speaker 1: life environment, because you just look around and you see

504
00:24:14,000 --> 00:24:16,760
Speaker 1: a really engaged community of people spending a lot of

505
00:24:16,760 --> 00:24:18,919
Speaker 1: time just hanging out with each other and sharing like

506
00:24:19,040 --> 00:24:22,400
Speaker 1: my you know, they're like minded people sharing experiences and um,

507
00:24:22,400 --> 00:24:24,080
Speaker 1: and the fact that we can have them lined up

508
00:24:24,080 --> 00:24:26,959
Speaker 1: around the block at you know, a stadium in Forest

509
00:24:27,040 --> 00:24:29,320
Speaker 1: Hills tells a story that's really hard to tell with

510
00:24:29,880 --> 00:24:31,719
Speaker 1: you know, stuff that fits in a spreadsheet. If you

511
00:24:31,880 --> 00:24:35,280
Speaker 1: don't know when you go to a media partner what

512
00:24:35,359 --> 00:24:38,320
Speaker 1: they do well and what they don't do well. We

513
00:24:38,400 --> 00:24:40,760
Speaker 1: want to buy the thing that is not for sale well.

514
00:24:40,800 --> 00:24:43,760
Speaker 1: And also and it's and it's also the truth of

515
00:24:43,960 --> 00:24:49,439
Speaker 1: what makes that company important. It makes it valuable. I

516
00:24:49,480 --> 00:24:52,600
Speaker 1: don't want right, like, don't give me the frill, give

517
00:24:52,600 --> 00:24:54,840
Speaker 1: me the meat. Just to add to that point, like so,

518
00:24:54,920 --> 00:24:57,119
Speaker 1: and this requires the industry, and I'd be curious to

519
00:24:57,160 --> 00:24:59,720
Speaker 1: know how you're going on and pitching your unique I

520
00:24:59,840 --> 00:25:02,000
Speaker 1: p you right, because so many publishers walk in and

521
00:25:02,040 --> 00:25:03,959
Speaker 1: the first thing that you see in a presentation is,

522
00:25:04,119 --> 00:25:07,560
Speaker 1: here's how many people we reach? Like why are you

523
00:25:07,640 --> 00:25:10,880
Speaker 1: competing on scale? Because if I want scale, there's probably

524
00:25:10,920 --> 00:25:14,080
Speaker 1: two platforms that I'm going to to get it. It's

525
00:25:14,119 --> 00:25:17,840
Speaker 1: a commodity and scales. But the thing that you don't

526
00:25:17,920 --> 00:25:21,560
Speaker 1: get to so many times in the presentation is what

527
00:25:21,720 --> 00:25:25,040
Speaker 1: is the unique thing that I can't get anywhere else

528
00:25:25,040 --> 00:25:27,840
Speaker 1: in the market. Sell me that. The problem is all

529
00:25:27,840 --> 00:25:30,800
Speaker 1: of this takes discipline that many companies can't afford it,

530
00:25:31,000 --> 00:25:33,320
Speaker 1: Like it's either they can't afford it because they don't

531
00:25:33,320 --> 00:25:36,199
Speaker 1: have enough money to take this sort of like you know,

532
00:25:36,280 --> 00:25:38,639
Speaker 1: we're gonna put our stake in the ground and this

533
00:25:38,680 --> 00:25:40,040
Speaker 1: is what we're gonna do, and you're gonna buy it

534
00:25:40,119 --> 00:25:42,880
Speaker 1: or not until you realize, Like we're lucky enough. We've had,

535
00:25:42,960 --> 00:25:45,560
Speaker 1: you know, investors and partners that have agreed with us

536
00:25:45,600 --> 00:25:47,840
Speaker 1: that you do it a certain way and build quality

537
00:25:47,880 --> 00:25:50,400
Speaker 1: over time because we say no to all kinds of things,

538
00:25:50,440 --> 00:25:52,160
Speaker 1: you know, like that we I talk about a lot

539
00:25:52,200 --> 00:25:54,359
Speaker 1: that like we're probably more defined by the stuff we

540
00:25:54,400 --> 00:25:56,280
Speaker 1: don't do than the stuff that we do. Like what's

541
00:25:56,320 --> 00:25:58,520
Speaker 1: the stuff you don't do? Digital video for the sake

542
00:25:58,520 --> 00:26:01,639
Speaker 1: of an advertiser podcast because it's a hot it's a

543
00:26:01,680 --> 00:26:04,320
Speaker 1: hot sector. You know, how many digitals, how many mistakes

544
00:26:04,359 --> 00:26:07,280
Speaker 1: have been made in digital media and publishing because people

545
00:26:07,320 --> 00:26:09,919
Speaker 1: start creating content for what they think advertisers want, not

546
00:26:09,960 --> 00:26:12,919
Speaker 1: because they think an end user or reader wants it.

547
00:26:13,040 --> 00:26:14,639
Speaker 1: I mean, I think we've seen the headlines for how

548
00:26:14,680 --> 00:26:17,480
Speaker 1: that ends exactly, But but we're still there because the

549
00:26:17,480 --> 00:26:20,520
Speaker 1: brands are still r fpeeing about, Hey, we want, while

550
00:26:20,560 --> 00:26:22,600
Speaker 1: we want our video views, well you know that, like

551
00:26:22,720 --> 00:26:25,280
Speaker 1: most of those are bullshit, so cool. You can have them,

552
00:26:25,280 --> 00:26:26,959
Speaker 1: not with us, but you can probably get them somewhere.

553
00:26:27,000 --> 00:26:29,040
Speaker 1: But do you want to actually watch someone and interact

554
00:26:29,080 --> 00:26:31,399
Speaker 1: with your product in a meaningful way. If you do,

555
00:26:31,480 --> 00:26:34,720
Speaker 1: we can talk. We're marketing partners and executors. We don't

556
00:26:34,760 --> 00:26:37,440
Speaker 1: fit in the spreadsheet at all. We can play in

557
00:26:37,480 --> 00:26:39,720
Speaker 1: the spreadsheet, but if you don't know who we are

558
00:26:39,760 --> 00:26:41,320
Speaker 1: and you just look at the spreadsheet, you're not going

559
00:26:41,359 --> 00:26:43,760
Speaker 1: to understand why to work with. There's no context. There's

560
00:26:43,760 --> 00:26:47,600
Speaker 1: no context. So for us, we are very proactive working

561
00:26:47,680 --> 00:26:49,600
Speaker 1: trying to work brand direct right. So we work with

562
00:26:49,600 --> 00:26:53,439
Speaker 1: American Express, we work with Don Julio over Ago, we

563
00:26:53,480 --> 00:26:55,639
Speaker 1: work with smart Water, inside a Coca Cola and some

564
00:26:55,680 --> 00:26:58,720
Speaker 1: of the other brands there, um and and we're super

565
00:26:58,760 --> 00:27:03,800
Speaker 1: proactive with building long term partnerships with brands that align

566
00:27:03,840 --> 00:27:07,720
Speaker 1: well to our values and that are trying to reach

567
00:27:08,359 --> 00:27:10,480
Speaker 1: our audience. You know, the kind of audience that we reach,

568
00:27:10,520 --> 00:27:15,080
Speaker 1: which is the you know, young influencer, but real influencer,

569
00:27:15,160 --> 00:27:19,440
Speaker 1: not like nonsense marketing term influencer. People in their circles

570
00:27:19,480 --> 00:27:23,920
Speaker 1: who are influential right, the first ones in who really care,

571
00:27:24,000 --> 00:27:26,040
Speaker 1: Because ultimately, if you care and you spend the time

572
00:27:27,119 --> 00:27:29,280
Speaker 1: figuring out where you're gonna eat, right, you also care

573
00:27:29,320 --> 00:27:32,040
Speaker 1: about what you're wearing, what car you're driving, what you're

574
00:27:32,040 --> 00:27:36,000
Speaker 1: listening to. Literally everything good taste is good taste. And

575
00:27:36,240 --> 00:27:38,160
Speaker 1: you know we are we we have an audience full

576
00:27:38,200 --> 00:27:41,000
Speaker 1: of people with good taste, and you know, it's really

577
00:27:41,000 --> 00:27:43,159
Speaker 1: hard to reach those people too, and so much of

578
00:27:43,160 --> 00:27:45,560
Speaker 1: what we do is bringing those people out into real life.

579
00:27:45,640 --> 00:27:49,040
Speaker 1: Last year we did sixty five events across all across

580
00:27:49,040 --> 00:27:51,399
Speaker 1: the country and you know, into the world in London

581
00:27:51,440 --> 00:27:54,560
Speaker 1: as well, and you know we're we are able to

582
00:27:54,720 --> 00:27:59,520
Speaker 1: cultivate localized audiences in a lot of different pockets that

583
00:27:59,680 --> 00:28:02,200
Speaker 1: brand can interact with. Brands have goals, they have a

584
00:28:02,200 --> 00:28:04,760
Speaker 1: whole narrative they want to ladder up to. We can

585
00:28:04,800 --> 00:28:06,960
Speaker 1: be a great partner to help them do that. But

586
00:28:07,000 --> 00:28:08,520
Speaker 1: it's a lot easier for us to do that on

587
00:28:08,560 --> 00:28:10,600
Speaker 1: the front side of the RFP than on the back.

588
00:28:11,040 --> 00:28:13,320
Speaker 1: You've got a couple of announcements we've heard that you

589
00:28:13,320 --> 00:28:17,080
Speaker 1: want to share on the show. Yeah, sure, so, um

590
00:28:17,200 --> 00:28:19,640
Speaker 1: we do a food festival. I'm not sure if everyone's

591
00:28:19,640 --> 00:28:22,960
Speaker 1: aware but now you are called eats Con and it

592
00:28:22,960 --> 00:28:26,680
Speaker 1: it happens in both New York and Los Angeles. Um.

593
00:28:26,840 --> 00:28:30,399
Speaker 1: The Los Angeles Festival is coming up this year on

594
00:28:30,680 --> 00:28:34,239
Speaker 1: May eighth and nineteen, and the most important part of

595
00:28:34,240 --> 00:28:37,159
Speaker 1: that little phrase, there's the end. Uh. This will be

596
00:28:37,200 --> 00:28:39,840
Speaker 1: the first time we're doing two days. UM. So we're

597
00:28:39,840 --> 00:28:41,800
Speaker 1: scaling it up in Los Angeles, which is really really

598
00:28:41,800 --> 00:28:45,320
Speaker 1: exciting and UM just sort of you know, building on

599
00:28:45,360 --> 00:28:47,840
Speaker 1: what we started two years ago in that market, which

600
00:28:47,880 --> 00:28:50,400
Speaker 1: is the whole concept is really that you know, as

601
00:28:50,400 --> 00:28:54,040
Speaker 1: we built this massive audience of young people around the

602
00:28:54,080 --> 00:28:57,320
Speaker 1: brand and around the content, we realized that our audience

603
00:28:57,360 --> 00:29:00,200
Speaker 1: and really probably an even larger audience of young pool

604
00:29:00,200 --> 00:29:02,920
Speaker 1: who are social media savvy and you know, the people

605
00:29:02,960 --> 00:29:05,680
Speaker 1: that walk around this planet between the age of twenty

606
00:29:05,720 --> 00:29:08,080
Speaker 1: and you know, thirty five, they're not going to like

607
00:29:08,080 --> 00:29:10,400
Speaker 1: the New York City Food and Wine Festival because that's

608
00:29:10,440 --> 00:29:12,520
Speaker 1: just not how they live their lives and it's not

609
00:29:12,800 --> 00:29:15,479
Speaker 1: what necessarily what they're looking to do, which is dropping

610
00:29:15,480 --> 00:29:17,680
Speaker 1: eight hundred fifty dollars for a weekend past to go

611
00:29:17,800 --> 00:29:20,600
Speaker 1: like eat a little tiny bite of pursudo and you know,

612
00:29:20,680 --> 00:29:23,200
Speaker 1: catch a celebrity chef, you know, for thirty seconds. So

613
00:29:23,480 --> 00:29:25,960
Speaker 1: we wanted to build something that felt more community driven,

614
00:29:26,080 --> 00:29:29,280
Speaker 1: that felt more uh focused around the restaurants. We talked

615
00:29:29,280 --> 00:29:31,040
Speaker 1: about it being like a music festival, but were the

616
00:29:31,080 --> 00:29:34,360
Speaker 1: restaurants of the headliners. Um, And we programmed with with

617
00:29:34,440 --> 00:29:37,720
Speaker 1: speakers and we have bands and it's an awesome day

618
00:29:38,080 --> 00:29:40,640
Speaker 1: and now two days. But it's really an interesting part

619
00:29:40,680 --> 00:29:43,160
Speaker 1: of our business that's growing. And it was a you know,

620
00:29:43,160 --> 00:29:46,000
Speaker 1: an example of us moving into another space that's adjacent

621
00:29:46,040 --> 00:29:47,920
Speaker 1: to us but feels very related to what we do.

622
00:29:48,120 --> 00:29:51,280
Speaker 1: We just saw big white space and there's other spaces

623
00:29:51,320 --> 00:29:52,800
Speaker 1: like that that I think we're gonna move in too

624
00:29:52,800 --> 00:29:59,440
Speaker 1: soon as well, but um, potentially someday. But there's stuff

625
00:29:59,480 --> 00:30:01,680
Speaker 1: in the food food space that's still wide open that

626
00:30:01,680 --> 00:30:03,640
Speaker 1: we want to go gobble up. But there are other

627
00:30:04,120 --> 00:30:06,800
Speaker 1: sort of lifestyle things out there that are not being

628
00:30:06,920 --> 00:30:09,080
Speaker 1: as well addressed. I think we'll probably chase those things

629
00:30:09,080 --> 00:30:11,080
Speaker 1: down first. There's a big hole in travel. I don't

630
00:30:11,080 --> 00:30:12,760
Speaker 1: know that we're going to jump right into travel, but

631
00:30:12,880 --> 00:30:15,040
Speaker 1: there's a big, massive hole there. We know that for

632
00:30:15,080 --> 00:30:16,760
Speaker 1: a fact because we get people hitting us up all

633
00:30:16,760 --> 00:30:19,320
Speaker 1: the time being like hey, I read the Rome recommendations,

634
00:30:19,320 --> 00:30:21,560
Speaker 1: but where do I stay? Text tracks are texting platform.

635
00:30:21,920 --> 00:30:23,760
Speaker 1: We could ask all kinds of questions that have nothing

636
00:30:23,800 --> 00:30:25,960
Speaker 1: to do with restaurants inside of that platform because people

637
00:30:25,960 --> 00:30:29,280
Speaker 1: trust us, so they'll start asking us, yeah, dating, what

638
00:30:29,320 --> 00:30:31,200
Speaker 1: should I watch? I mean people literally hit up that

639
00:30:31,200 --> 00:30:33,400
Speaker 1: platform and ask us what should they be watching while

640
00:30:33,400 --> 00:30:36,080
Speaker 1: they order delivery or something like that. So there's there's

641
00:30:36,120 --> 00:30:38,400
Speaker 1: a bunch of interesting stuff. Is I want someday for

642
00:30:38,480 --> 00:30:41,080
Speaker 1: us to be able to serve people in the way

643
00:30:41,080 --> 00:30:43,760
Speaker 1: that we do around restaurant recommendations with and help them

644
00:30:43,760 --> 00:30:45,760
Speaker 1: make other decisions. I don't really know what that means yet,

645
00:30:45,800 --> 00:30:49,160
Speaker 1: maybe a recommendation brand as opposed to brand. It's like

646
00:30:49,200 --> 00:30:51,200
Speaker 1: a little bit of it just down to helping people

647
00:30:51,200 --> 00:30:53,080
Speaker 1: make decisions, you know, Like we use this we talk

648
00:30:53,120 --> 00:30:55,640
Speaker 1: about social capital, right, there's that there's a great deal

649
00:30:55,640 --> 00:30:58,040
Speaker 1: of social capital and being the person in your group

650
00:30:58,040 --> 00:30:59,520
Speaker 1: of friends or in your family who can pick a

651
00:30:59,520 --> 00:31:02,280
Speaker 1: great rest staurant or great bottle of wine, order a

652
00:31:02,280 --> 00:31:04,840
Speaker 1: bottle of wine off wine list, all of those things,

653
00:31:05,000 --> 00:31:07,600
Speaker 1: so you know, and that's what's actually way more powerful

654
00:31:07,640 --> 00:31:10,000
Speaker 1: than just being like, yeah, we give people restaurant advice.

655
00:31:10,240 --> 00:31:13,520
Speaker 1: We give them the social capital that makes them more

656
00:31:13,560 --> 00:31:16,160
Speaker 1: important in the office, better at dating, all these things

657
00:31:16,160 --> 00:31:18,200
Speaker 1: that are really important to people in their lives. So

658
00:31:18,280 --> 00:31:23,240
Speaker 1: you guys had a pretty good investment from someone in Hollywood.

659
00:31:23,360 --> 00:31:26,000
Speaker 1: We did, and I assume that everything you're talking about

660
00:31:26,080 --> 00:31:28,760
Speaker 1: kind of head nods to a vision that you guys

661
00:31:28,800 --> 00:31:32,160
Speaker 1: have that they bought off on. Can you talk about

662
00:31:32,200 --> 00:31:35,000
Speaker 1: that at all? Yeah, um so, yeah, we we just

663
00:31:35,080 --> 00:31:39,120
Speaker 1: raised a bunch of money from Jeffrey Katzenberg, who had

664
00:31:39,160 --> 00:31:42,400
Speaker 1: the movie executive best known for his uh role in

665
00:31:42,480 --> 00:31:46,560
Speaker 1: founding dream Works. But um, he's obviously a visionary and

666
00:31:46,640 --> 00:31:48,240
Speaker 1: you know, he has done a lot of amazing stuff

667
00:31:48,240 --> 00:31:51,160
Speaker 1: in his career. Um. But one thing that apparently he

668
00:31:51,200 --> 00:31:53,040
Speaker 1: wanted to do is to raise a big venture fund

669
00:31:53,120 --> 00:31:56,160
Speaker 1: and to start investing in businesses. Um. So he built

670
00:31:56,440 --> 00:31:59,920
Speaker 1: a team which was for us very interesting and felt

671
00:32:00,000 --> 00:32:01,600
Speaker 1: are in line with the kind of business of the

672
00:32:01,600 --> 00:32:04,320
Speaker 1: world building which is the main partners. They're kind of

673
00:32:04,360 --> 00:32:08,760
Speaker 1: split between content and media executives from DreamWorks and Disney.

674
00:32:08,800 --> 00:32:11,600
Speaker 1: This woman and Daily who ran DreamWorks next to Jeffrey

675
00:32:11,600 --> 00:32:13,920
Speaker 1: for a very long time. Um, and they have an

676
00:32:14,000 --> 00:32:16,000
Speaker 1: l a office of some other people that are just

677
00:32:16,080 --> 00:32:18,440
Speaker 1: brilliant and come from that world. And then there's a

678
00:32:18,480 --> 00:32:22,400
Speaker 1: team in San Francisco that is UM, led by a

679
00:32:22,400 --> 00:32:24,960
Speaker 1: guy named Suja Joshua who was the CFO at drop Box,

680
00:32:25,080 --> 00:32:27,000
Speaker 1: and a bunch of other drop Box people and sort

681
00:32:27,000 --> 00:32:29,880
Speaker 1: of a more tech focused UM point of view. So

682
00:32:30,240 --> 00:32:33,280
Speaker 1: those two things together felt very relevant to what we're building,

683
00:32:33,320 --> 00:32:35,720
Speaker 1: which is, you know, a great product with great content

684
00:32:35,760 --> 00:32:38,120
Speaker 1: inside of it UM. But it was also for us

685
00:32:38,160 --> 00:32:40,240
Speaker 1: exciting to think about partnering with some of that understands

686
00:32:40,240 --> 00:32:44,800
Speaker 1: culture and understands how to storytell and understands how brands

687
00:32:44,840 --> 00:32:47,920
Speaker 1: matter and how you know, what we're building ultimately is

688
00:32:47,920 --> 00:32:50,360
Speaker 1: a big brand that people need to trust UM and

689
00:32:50,400 --> 00:32:53,360
Speaker 1: need to find useful and indispensable to their daily lives.

690
00:32:53,400 --> 00:32:55,880
Speaker 1: So we've been this is our third round raising money,

691
00:32:55,880 --> 00:32:59,480
Speaker 1: and we've been very fortunate, you know, throughout the past

692
00:32:59,520 --> 00:33:02,640
Speaker 1: of having rate investors that you know, really understood our

693
00:33:02,800 --> 00:33:05,600
Speaker 1: vision and understood the timeline and understood that we were

694
00:33:05,600 --> 00:33:07,960
Speaker 1: gonna do things a different way than maybe conventional wisdom

695
00:33:08,000 --> 00:33:10,440
Speaker 1: says we should, based on whatever bucket you want to

696
00:33:10,440 --> 00:33:12,960
Speaker 1: put us in. But UM, so this bigger round, the

697
00:33:13,000 --> 00:33:15,280
Speaker 1: series A, we were pretty nervous, like can you find

698
00:33:15,320 --> 00:33:17,760
Speaker 1: those same kind of people with that same kind of

699
00:33:17,760 --> 00:33:20,600
Speaker 1: patience and that same outlook on the world when they're

700
00:33:20,600 --> 00:33:24,320
Speaker 1: writing a really big check. And I don't know that

701
00:33:24,360 --> 00:33:26,440
Speaker 1: the answer would have been yes, have we not found

702
00:33:26,720 --> 00:33:28,600
Speaker 1: wonder Co which is the name of the fund and

703
00:33:28,680 --> 00:33:31,280
Speaker 1: Jeffrey Nan and suj So it's early days. We just

704
00:33:31,320 --> 00:33:34,280
Speaker 1: closed the deal in August, and you know, are starting

705
00:33:34,280 --> 00:33:37,280
Speaker 1: off a big, ambitious year together. But so far it's

706
00:33:37,280 --> 00:33:40,040
Speaker 1: been great and we have exciting plans and they definitely,

707
00:33:40,520 --> 00:33:41,880
Speaker 1: you know, that was the thing is every time we'd

708
00:33:41,880 --> 00:33:44,680
Speaker 1: sit down and talk, they definitely agreed and believed in

709
00:33:44,720 --> 00:33:47,080
Speaker 1: the same things we did, which is, let's go out,

710
00:33:47,120 --> 00:33:49,200
Speaker 1: let's build a really big business, but let's build it

711
00:33:49,240 --> 00:33:51,280
Speaker 1: the right way and understand that these things take time.

712
00:33:51,320 --> 00:33:54,440
Speaker 1: That you can't just build something that can change culture

713
00:33:54,480 --> 00:33:57,560
Speaker 1: within two years. It's gonna take ten. So Andrew, you're

714
00:33:57,600 --> 00:34:01,040
Speaker 1: gonna tell us about a big partnership that you guys

715
00:34:01,040 --> 00:34:05,000
Speaker 1: are doing and that you're super excited. We're really excited

716
00:34:05,040 --> 00:34:09,800
Speaker 1: we're doing We are We US and T Brand Studio

717
00:34:09,840 --> 00:34:13,799
Speaker 1: from the New York Times UM collaboratively are doing a

718
00:34:14,080 --> 00:34:18,520
Speaker 1: podcast with BMW. I know, you know, look, we were

719
00:34:18,680 --> 00:34:21,680
Speaker 1: the infatuation as a brand has never done a podcast before,

720
00:34:21,800 --> 00:34:27,360
Speaker 1: original content, original content, not at and a story about

721
00:34:27,560 --> 00:34:30,799
Speaker 1: cities and looking through the lens of restaurants and how

722
00:34:30,840 --> 00:34:33,560
Speaker 1: they impact the culture and how you know they drive

723
00:34:34,080 --> 00:34:37,000
Speaker 1: different parts of different cities. Um. And it's it's just

724
00:34:37,040 --> 00:34:40,960
Speaker 1: been a really really interesting experience, definitely a unique experience

725
00:34:41,000 --> 00:34:44,600
Speaker 1: to work alongside the Times to do this, you know,

726
00:34:44,800 --> 00:34:47,040
Speaker 1: a leap of faith by BMW to do something different.

727
00:34:47,120 --> 00:34:49,960
Speaker 1: You know, that's all came from from them being very

728
00:34:50,000 --> 00:34:54,120
Speaker 1: interested in having partners collaboratively come to them with ideas.

729
00:34:54,360 --> 00:34:56,560
Speaker 1: What's the name of the show, it's called the Special.

730
00:34:57,000 --> 00:35:00,279
Speaker 1: What was your role in in the in the concert Upton,

731
00:35:00,360 --> 00:35:02,719
Speaker 1: in the production, like what was the infatuations for all?

732
00:35:02,800 --> 00:35:04,400
Speaker 1: You know, The New York Times is definitely leading the

733
00:35:04,480 --> 00:35:07,279
Speaker 1: charge on the production of the podcast, right, that is

734
00:35:07,320 --> 00:35:11,200
Speaker 1: what they do. Um. So they're they're they're driving that.

735
00:35:11,280 --> 00:35:14,400
Speaker 1: But you know, we were very instrumental in the whole

736
00:35:14,440 --> 00:35:17,080
Speaker 1: like conceptualizing of the idea. And then we have a

737
00:35:17,120 --> 00:35:20,600
Speaker 1: whole plan that we're rolling out that has some really

738
00:35:20,600 --> 00:35:24,000
Speaker 1: interesting content on top of Instagram. Using BMW's with our

739
00:35:24,000 --> 00:35:27,520
Speaker 1: writers in different markets. We're producing a big event in

740
00:35:27,719 --> 00:35:30,560
Speaker 1: l A. That is going to be really fun that

741
00:35:30,880 --> 00:35:32,480
Speaker 1: you know, that's part of our part of the deal.

742
00:35:32,600 --> 00:35:36,239
Speaker 1: So very cool, interesting party, be fun to see how

743
00:35:36,280 --> 00:35:38,680
Speaker 1: it plays out. Before we let you go, since we

744
00:35:38,719 --> 00:35:43,600
Speaker 1: are recording here in New York, must go to restaurant

745
00:35:44,400 --> 00:35:48,680
Speaker 1: off the top of your head, go I still for Charles.

746
00:35:48,719 --> 00:35:52,279
Speaker 1: If people haven't been there yet, that place there, it's

747
00:35:52,360 --> 00:35:54,480
Speaker 1: it's hard to get into. It's in the West Village.

748
00:35:54,640 --> 00:35:57,359
Speaker 1: But can we say we know you. It doesn't work,

749
00:35:57,480 --> 00:36:00,279
Speaker 1: it doesn't. We don't pull those we don't pull those levers. Yeah,

750
00:36:00,560 --> 00:36:07,920
Speaker 1: there's we don't have relations, Chris. There's a great Vietnamese

751
00:36:07,960 --> 00:36:11,320
Speaker 1: restaurant green Point called D and D that's really amazing

752
00:36:11,440 --> 00:36:14,239
Speaker 1: and just like one of my favorite spots right now

753
00:36:15,000 --> 00:36:17,880
Speaker 1: before we go is our game killed by d I y,

754
00:36:18,040 --> 00:36:21,040
Speaker 1: can it all be Knicks related? Come on, come on,

755
00:36:21,120 --> 00:36:24,920
Speaker 1: I'm so over it. I would definitely buy them somehow.

756
00:36:24,960 --> 00:36:29,400
Speaker 1: I always see your tweets because my entire Twitter existence

757
00:36:29,480 --> 00:36:31,680
Speaker 1: is is sports Twitter. That's what I must have no

758
00:36:31,760 --> 00:36:33,960
Speaker 1: life because you're always at the top of my feed

759
00:36:34,719 --> 00:36:37,880
Speaker 1: because you engage, you just don't don't like them, then

760
00:36:37,880 --> 00:36:40,799
Speaker 1: you won't see so you're buying the Knicks. I'm gonna

761
00:36:40,800 --> 00:36:45,040
Speaker 1: buy the Knicks. I'm gonna kill the traditional media agency model.

762
00:36:45,719 --> 00:36:50,200
Speaker 1: Um more on that another time. Yeah, And what am

763
00:36:50,200 --> 00:36:53,960
Speaker 1: I doing now buying things? No? Doing yourself? Builds a

764
00:36:54,000 --> 00:36:57,879
Speaker 1: printer that actually works. I hate printers and like every

765
00:36:57,880 --> 00:36:59,960
Speaker 1: time I need one, it just doesn't work. They all break.

766
00:37:00,480 --> 00:37:03,760
Speaker 1: I know the first time playing, first time playing is exciting.

767
00:37:03,840 --> 00:37:07,520
Speaker 1: Kill What would you kill? Twitter? Ahead? What's because of

768
00:37:07,560 --> 00:37:11,279
Speaker 1: your next It's because literally I'm just getting to this

769
00:37:11,280 --> 00:37:14,319
Speaker 1: point where like I literally cannot just watch people take

770
00:37:14,680 --> 00:37:17,919
Speaker 1: hot Sideline takes on like every topic in the world

771
00:37:18,000 --> 00:37:20,640
Speaker 1: and always be wrong and always be just like riling people.

772
00:37:20,719 --> 00:37:22,360
Speaker 1: Like it's We've got to find a better way to

773
00:37:22,360 --> 00:37:25,080
Speaker 1: have discourse. Because it's a great platform. I think it's awesome,

774
00:37:25,320 --> 00:37:28,160
Speaker 1: but like that, there's some crazy ship going on on

775
00:37:28,160 --> 00:37:30,560
Speaker 1: Twitter that we could probably just like do without. Do

776
00:37:30,680 --> 00:37:33,800
Speaker 1: you see the Jack Harris Swisher live tweet interview and

777
00:37:33,920 --> 00:37:35,200
Speaker 1: tried to follow it, But it's like one of those

778
00:37:35,200 --> 00:37:36,839
Speaker 1: things that I'm like, now my blood pressure is high

779
00:37:36,840 --> 00:37:38,279
Speaker 1: and I need to go like have a glass of

780
00:37:38,280 --> 00:37:40,839
Speaker 1: wine to just calm down, Like I swear, maybe I'll

781
00:37:40,840 --> 00:37:42,279
Speaker 1: just kill my phone. Maybe it's just my phone. I

782
00:37:42,280 --> 00:37:43,960
Speaker 1: don't want to kill in another company. I'll just kill

783
00:37:44,040 --> 00:37:46,160
Speaker 1: my phone, all right, all right, good? What would you

784
00:37:46,200 --> 00:37:52,680
Speaker 1: buy another phone? What would you do yourself? Um? Doing myself?

785
00:37:52,760 --> 00:37:55,040
Speaker 1: I would love to build something that actually like actually

786
00:37:55,080 --> 00:37:57,080
Speaker 1: build something with my hand, like build a piece of

787
00:37:57,120 --> 00:37:59,600
Speaker 1: furniture or something. What would you make I don't know,

788
00:37:59,640 --> 00:38:01,520
Speaker 1: like a I mean, based on the amount of money

789
00:38:01,560 --> 00:38:04,000
Speaker 1: that like Scandinavian style chairs seemed to sell for. I'd

790
00:38:04,000 --> 00:38:06,440
Speaker 1: probably throw some sheep skin on a modern piece of

791
00:38:06,480 --> 00:38:08,600
Speaker 1: wood and start a whole new business or something time

792
00:38:08,640 --> 00:38:15,719
Speaker 1: within reach. If you don't know about the infatuation, go

793
00:38:15,840 --> 00:38:19,280
Speaker 1: check it out after listening to this show, Andrew Chris,

794
00:38:19,320 --> 00:38:22,480
Speaker 1: always a pleasure. Congratulations on all your success. If people

795
00:38:22,480 --> 00:38:26,000
Speaker 1: want to build an event, a partnership, or just figure

796
00:38:26,000 --> 00:38:27,960
Speaker 1: out where they need to go eat tomorrow night, how

797
00:38:27,960 --> 00:38:32,920
Speaker 1: did they get in touch with you? Andrew? H M

798
00:38:32,920 --> 00:38:34,839
Speaker 1: O E Y bring it on. I won't see you.

799
00:38:34,840 --> 00:38:36,560
Speaker 1: You will never see it because he won't have a phone.

800
00:38:36,600 --> 00:38:39,080
Speaker 1: He's on t he's on his way to buy any one. Alright, guys,

801
00:38:39,200 --> 00:38:46,280
Speaker 1: thank you, thank you. So I could go like forever

802
00:38:46,880 --> 00:38:52,880
Speaker 1: that That conversation I think left me thinking about some

803
00:38:52,960 --> 00:38:56,719
Speaker 1: of the key insights that Chris particularly was hitting on

804
00:38:56,760 --> 00:39:00,360
Speaker 1: around social capital and not being willing to comprom mise

805
00:39:00,560 --> 00:39:03,440
Speaker 1: your core values for add dollars and being comfortable and

806
00:39:03,520 --> 00:39:07,000
Speaker 1: saying like you want to come and engage a community

807
00:39:07,120 --> 00:39:10,880
Speaker 1: and create an experience that is going to drive lifetime

808
00:39:10,960 --> 00:39:16,320
Speaker 1: value or long lasting relationships with our audience. Let's talk. However,

809
00:39:16,320 --> 00:39:19,880
Speaker 1: if you're looking for scale and some sort of commoditized format,

810
00:39:19,920 --> 00:39:22,359
Speaker 1: like we're not for you, And I think what that

811
00:39:22,440 --> 00:39:26,359
Speaker 1: will do for their business is indicative of where they're

812
00:39:26,360 --> 00:39:29,080
Speaker 1: headed and the acquisitions they're making, the investments that they're taking,

813
00:39:29,440 --> 00:39:33,640
Speaker 1: and thinking about how it stands up in the current marketplace.

814
00:39:33,680 --> 00:39:35,800
Speaker 1: And I think what we've seen over the last few

815
00:39:35,840 --> 00:39:38,440
Speaker 1: months is that people were chasing scale, which he was like,

816
00:39:38,480 --> 00:39:40,640
Speaker 1: it's a myth. One thing we didn't ask that we

817
00:39:40,640 --> 00:39:43,120
Speaker 1: should have asked again, we could have gone on for

818
00:39:43,160 --> 00:39:45,319
Speaker 1: four hours, was how long is your pipeline? Like how

819
00:39:45,360 --> 00:39:47,480
Speaker 1: long how long does it take to get someone to

820
00:39:47,640 --> 00:39:50,680
Speaker 1: actually buy and do an activation and how long does

821
00:39:50,680 --> 00:39:54,400
Speaker 1: it take for them to get comfortable with that sale?

822
00:39:55,280 --> 00:39:58,279
Speaker 1: Which I think you know, so many people are quick

823
00:39:58,320 --> 00:40:01,360
Speaker 1: to close the sale, but it as you get into

824
00:40:01,400 --> 00:40:04,880
Speaker 1: the weeds, of the project, you start to realize that

825
00:40:04,920 --> 00:40:07,719
Speaker 1: maybe there's not a whole lot of alignment here. I

826
00:40:07,719 --> 00:40:10,160
Speaker 1: think that's a great point, Laura, and I think that Uh.

827
00:40:10,280 --> 00:40:12,880
Speaker 1: Andrew also, what he was saying is like, we do

828
00:40:12,960 --> 00:40:18,080
Speaker 1: it in front, in the process, in front of the work.

829
00:40:18,320 --> 00:40:20,200
Speaker 1: The process in front of the work is like, let's

830
00:40:20,239 --> 00:40:23,520
Speaker 1: get to know each other. I want to understand you.

831
00:40:23,840 --> 00:40:26,080
Speaker 1: What are you really trying to do, who are you

832
00:40:26,120 --> 00:40:28,759
Speaker 1: really trying to speak with? And what are you what's

833
00:40:28,760 --> 00:40:32,799
Speaker 1: your equity? Right? And those details are not in an RFP,

834
00:40:33,120 --> 00:40:35,560
Speaker 1: not in the standard RFP right. And they even said, yeah,

835
00:40:35,560 --> 00:40:38,560
Speaker 1: we get our FPS, but the way they are handling that,

836
00:40:38,680 --> 00:40:43,400
Speaker 1: the way they think about the RFP, totally different. Infatuation.

837
00:40:43,719 --> 00:40:46,759
Speaker 1: They're going places and so are we? So are we? So?

838
00:40:46,800 --> 00:40:49,920
Speaker 1: Speaking of that, we are going to take a brief

839
00:40:50,040 --> 00:40:54,560
Speaker 1: hiatus and we will be announcing shortly on our Twitter

840
00:40:54,640 --> 00:40:58,120
Speaker 1: at Atlantia podcast where we will be set up next

841
00:40:58,239 --> 00:41:01,640
Speaker 1: and how you can join us. We must thank all

842
00:41:01,640 --> 00:41:04,440
Speaker 1: of our friends and family at Panically for giving us

843
00:41:04,440 --> 00:41:09,560
Speaker 1: this incredible platform and opportunity, in particular Jacob Weisberg, Matt Turk,

844
00:41:09,880 --> 00:41:14,080
Speaker 1: Andy Bauer. We have to thank our most incredible production

845
00:41:14,120 --> 00:41:16,360
Speaker 1: partners who have stuck with us to make the show

846
00:41:16,440 --> 00:41:19,320
Speaker 1: what it is. So big. Thank you to Laura Mayor,

847
00:41:19,360 --> 00:41:24,520
Speaker 1: Cameron Drew's, Laura Morris, and our own Dana Bolic. The

848
00:41:24,560 --> 00:41:27,279
Speaker 1: producers we've worked with and we've had the opportunity to

849
00:41:27,280 --> 00:41:30,239
Speaker 1: get to know are phenomenal. You guys should reach out

850
00:41:30,239 --> 00:41:32,440
Speaker 1: to them because they know what's happening in the audio space.

851
00:41:32,760 --> 00:41:35,160
Speaker 1: They can come in, they can help your brand, they

852
00:41:35,160 --> 00:41:39,080
Speaker 1: can liaise with the studios. They're amazing, and we are

853
00:41:39,120 --> 00:41:43,000
Speaker 1: even going to give you Dana's email in the description

854
00:41:43,040 --> 00:41:44,480
Speaker 1: of the show so you can get a hold of

855
00:41:44,480 --> 00:41:47,560
Speaker 1: her because she is one of the best so Atlantia.

856
00:41:48,160 --> 00:41:51,160
Speaker 1: We will be back, not in two weeks, but soon enough.

857
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Speaker 1: Thank you so much for sticking with us. We can't

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Speaker 1: wait to share what's next. See you saying full disclosure,

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Speaker 1: Our opinions are our own.