Speaker 1: Welcome to another episode of Strictly Business, the podcast in
Speaker 1: which we speak with some of the brightest minds working
Speaker 1: in the media business today. I'm Andrew Wallenstein with Variety.
Speaker 1: Kevin Hart has got to be one of the busiest
Speaker 1: people in show bidz. In addition to appearing in a
Speaker 1: steady stream of movies, TV shows and more, he also
Speaker 1: owns a company with dozens of active projects across a
Speaker 1: wide range of platforms and media. But because heart can't
Speaker 1: be everywhere at once, he turns to my next guest
Speaker 1: to oversee his operation. Ty Randolph is the CEO of
Speaker 1: Heartbeat Get It, and she's with us today to walk
Speaker 1: us through Hearts Empire. We'll be back with her in
Speaker 1: just a moment. We're back with Ty Randolph, the producing
Speaker 1: partner to Kevin Hart and the any many projects he's
Speaker 1: overseeing through his Heartbeat company. Thanks for joining us, Tie,
Speaker 1: Thanks for having me such a great way to start
Speaker 1: the morning. Sure, so, I'll have you know you are
Speaker 1: the two hundred and fifty seven podcast. We've done it
Speaker 1: Strictly Business. And I tell you that because the very
Speaker 1: first one we did four and a half years ago
Speaker 1: was with a gentleman by the name of Kevin Hart,
Speaker 1: and so I'm curious, after all this time, over these
Speaker 1: past four and a half years, what has it been
Speaker 1: like watching the growth of the production side of what
Speaker 1: he does. Because when we first talked about it with him,
Speaker 1: it seemed like something that was kind of almost besides
Speaker 1: the point in terms of his career, and now it's
Speaker 1: quite an empire. It's really interesting that you referenced the
Speaker 1: four and a half year mark. I had been in
Speaker 1: Kevin's ecosystem for about five and a half years. It'll
Speaker 1: be six in April next year. In the four and
Speaker 1: a half year reference point is really significant because that
Speaker 1: was around the time that Kevin launched to Laugh Out
Speaker 1: Loud with uh Lionsgate. It was a joint venture and
Speaker 1: it was one of the entities that would be emerged
Speaker 1: into what is now Heartbeat, and I think it marked
Speaker 1: a real entrepreneurial evolution in his career. He had Heartbeat
Speaker 1: Productions and that was the banner through which he was
Speaker 1: producing his stand up specials and you know, had a
Speaker 1: really interesting theatrical debut with Night School. That film's producer
Speaker 1: about twenty onlion dollars and went on to gross over
Speaker 1: one hundred in the box office and UM and and
Speaker 1: so there was this commercial success and he was in
Speaker 1: the film. There was this entrepreneurial hustle around producing and
Speaker 1: even financing his earlier stand up specials UM, but Laugh
Speaker 1: Out Loud was really going into a business partnership with
Speaker 1: a studio, and it was a different way of doing business.
Speaker 1: It was also very future focused. The goal was to
Speaker 1: create the UM future of comedy is We used to
Speaker 1: discuss it and create a platform for new version. We
Speaker 1: haven't even smaller one now at Heartbeat we talk about
Speaker 1: existing to keep the world laughing take together, so just
Speaker 1: the whole globe, you know. So it was, it was.
Speaker 1: It was very ambitious. But what we realized in targeting UM,
Speaker 1: you know sort of like youth audiences and a really
Speaker 1: multicultural global audience, was that having a single destination for
Speaker 1: us in our proposition UM wouldn't really fully fulfill that
Speaker 1: that that ambition of creating the future of comedies. Around
Speaker 1: twenty nineteen, UM, you know, Kevin maybe we architected a
Speaker 1: deal with lions Gate that saw Kevin buying out the
Speaker 1: majority of their interests UM and really taking this independent
Speaker 1: and when we move the team from lions Gate UM
Speaker 1: to en seing know, a really a different culture was
Speaker 1: was born. He had these two enterprises literary really you know,
Speaker 1: under the same under the same roof, and the synergy
Speaker 1: and the opportunity started to snowball. On the laugh Out loudside,
Speaker 1: we brought on nbc U as an investor, UH the
Speaker 1: peacock nbc U and UM we got into television and
Speaker 1: the team grew, and then the commercial traction grew. We
Speaker 1: were profitable upon carb out and we would go on
Speaker 1: to double revenue year over year for the next couple
Speaker 1: of years. Later that year, so later in the year,
Speaker 1: in March, Kevin asked me. Later I was already CEO
Speaker 1: of laugh Out Loud, Kevin came and asked me to
Speaker 1: expand my role to Heartbeat as well. So we set
Speaker 1: up the shared services into team between and I started
Speaker 1: to oversee the business operations and strategy for both ORGS
Speaker 1: and UM and so and then again we were small
Speaker 1: at the time, you know, about a dozen employees at
Speaker 1: both both companies, a dozen eaves. So you know, I'm
Speaker 1: told me something employees and in both are having banner years.
Speaker 1: You know. On the harpy production side, we UH had
Speaker 1: partnered with Netflix on on the feature side and had
Speaker 1: a multi picture deal there for Kevin and then you
Speaker 1: know this this overall on the film side. So we
Speaker 1: were seeing tremendous traction. On the Lackout Loud side. We
Speaker 1: were partnering with Peacock to create some really amazing vitrel hits.
Speaker 1: Our brand partnerships business was growing. What was the ration
Speaker 1: now for bringing these companies together? You know, it was
Speaker 1: very clear that independently these were interesting organizations. Together though
Speaker 1: we had already assembled under our hood the capability and
Speaker 1: the personnel to really make market and monetize any type
Speaker 1: of communic ip we could imagine, and so we were
Speaker 1: simply stronger together. It was a you know, in our belief,
Speaker 1: one plus one equals you know, one billion or more proposition,
Speaker 1: and and that was you know, sort of the thesis
Speaker 1: for the merger the other, you know, sort of just logistically,
Speaker 1: we were growing into each other's backyard, right Heartbeat had
Speaker 1: been television and film laughout that laugh out Loud was
Speaker 1: starting to do a lot more on the television side.
Speaker 1: Heartbeat was getting into more brand partnerships. Both had audio
Speaker 1: relationships and imprints, so um, you know, they're they're just
Speaker 1: it didn't make any sense to keep those things separate.
Speaker 1: But also when we combined UM all of those assets
Speaker 1: and and that team, uh, all of a sudden, it
Speaker 1: was just sort of like really impressive platform. Right when
Speaker 1: we looked across the ecosystem, at the talent relationships that
Speaker 1: we had, commercial partnerships that we had UM, and just
Speaker 1: the expertise that was in the organization, Uh, it all
Speaker 1: made sense. So that happened in July one. We merged
Speaker 1: the company, uh within the next you know, five and
Speaker 1: a half months. So we lifted the UM, the curt
Speaker 1: and on heartbeat the combined entity on January of two.
Speaker 1: And then we would go on to further capitalize the
Speaker 1: company through one million dollar cash infusion from a private
Speaker 1: equity group. Every partners that when we closed that deal
Speaker 1: at the end of April two. And what did you
Speaker 1: sell avery on? Why were they ready to invest it
Speaker 1: quite a big level? Yeah, So you know, one, we
Speaker 1: sold them on the idea that we are a mission
Speaker 1: driven company, right like our mission is to keep the
Speaker 1: world laughing together. So there was this big unifying idea
Speaker 1: and purpose that really set us apart in the industry.
Speaker 1: We also had not only the number one, uh, comedian,
Speaker 1: and that's not from a subjective standpoint, but by you know,
Speaker 1: pretty much every commercial measure um you know, at the HELM.
Speaker 1: So there was no one more qualified to pursue that
Speaker 1: endeavor than him and to execute on that. We just
Speaker 1: had really solid case studies about how impact so he
Speaker 1: had been and how impactful the company had been. When
Speaker 1: we went in, we had doubled revenue from one as
Speaker 1: a combined entity if we look back, and we were
Speaker 1: on track to do so again in that year that
Speaker 1: we were closing, which was two. We went on to
Speaker 1: fulfill that right. So post close, we went on to
Speaker 1: deliver on those goals that we projected. And so it
Speaker 1: was just a solid commercial organization. We were living a nimble,
Speaker 1: really hard working but also very focused on the bottom line.
Speaker 1: And I think that combination of big ambition but bottom
Speaker 1: line focus was what did it. But I'm curious, you know,
Speaker 1: when you sell a private equity company and the idea
Speaker 1: of you know, conquering the comedy world. As you know,
Speaker 1: comedy is a tough business right now in film Kevin's
Speaker 1: probably one of the few draws left, uh, and it's
Speaker 1: not easier anywhere else. So what makes you guys so
Speaker 1: confident you can sort of succeed in a place where
Speaker 1: there's plenty of failure. We don't fashion ourselves a comedy company, right,
Speaker 1: We're an entertainment company. Remember I said our mission was
Speaker 1: to keep the world laughing together. Um. But the focus
Speaker 1: there is together laughter, which is at the core of
Speaker 1: what we do, not everything that we do right in truth,
Speaker 1: and a few people know this just because Kevin is
Speaker 1: at the Helm, but all around seventy pcent of our
Speaker 1: projects are comedic, right that that are currently in market.
Speaker 1: When you look to the year ahead, um, and the
Speaker 1: years ahead, you see that ratio still having that comedy
Speaker 1: is the focus in the majority. But what happens outside
Speaker 1: of comedy and connected to comedy, at the intersections of
Speaker 1: comedy and culture, comedy and sports, comedy and you name it, um,
Speaker 1: you know, start to grow. What we do is program
Speaker 1: with humor, heart and heat. Well. I think another big
Speaker 1: opportunity is companies like yours in general in the past
Speaker 1: few years have been attracting a ton of investment there.
Speaker 1: I think it's, you know, the the explosion of the
Speaker 1: streaming world and all the selling opera tune and needs
Speaker 1: that that creates has made companies like Heartbeats so hot.
Speaker 1: You've gotten this infusion from private equity. Could you guys
Speaker 1: eventually sell to a high bidder or is this something
Speaker 1: where you know Kevin is going to take stay in
Speaker 1: control as long as Pete wants to. Really good question,
Speaker 1: you know with what one of the things I've been
Speaker 1: really impressed by is just Kevin's entrepreneurial acumen. You know, um,
Speaker 1: not just with Heartbeat, but he has other ventures outside
Speaker 1: of the entertainment space. And while he is the consummate entertainer,
Speaker 1: you know, he's also the consumt entrepreneurial. So this is
Speaker 1: a commercial in deavorens one. It's fueled by passion, but
Speaker 1: this is not a vanity project where you know, he
Speaker 1: or any of the management team and a are sitting
Speaker 1: around and saying, um, you know, we do stuff only
Speaker 1: because we want to and we're not focused on, you know,
Speaker 1: the commercialization of the business and that um you know,
Speaker 1: our our business is actually and not for Kevin, but
Speaker 1: the business a Heartbeat is actually larger than the brand
Speaker 1: of Heartbeat right now. So you know, one of my
Speaker 1: big objectives going into this next year is to really
Speaker 1: um let our audiences are our content buyers, consumers, you know,
Speaker 1: co creators, know everything that's under the hood and everything
Speaker 1: that the company is capable of it is doing, and
Speaker 1: make sure that attribution happens um because it's a it's
Speaker 1: a really significant business and it's one that's scaling in
Speaker 1: terms of you know, sort of the long term plan.
Speaker 1: We are trying to grow and we will grow the
Speaker 1: healthiest business possible. And I say that because we want
Speaker 1: to maximize you know, profit, we want to maximize potential,
Speaker 1: but maximize optionality. Um. You know, I think we want
Speaker 1: to keep advancing this vision to keep the world laughing
Speaker 1: together and that could take lots of different forms um
Speaker 1: in terms of how that is executed, but also in
Speaker 1: terms of what the ownership structure with the cap table
Speaker 1: looks like. We're going to be right back with more
Speaker 1: with Tyrandolph's CEO of Heartbeat m. We are back with
Speaker 1: Ty Randolph, who works very closely with one Kevin Hart
Speaker 1: on the company known as Heartbeat Ty. I gotta ask,
Speaker 1: I mean, what is it like working with a Kevin
Speaker 1: Hard who I mean, obviously he's a hard working guy,
Speaker 1: but he's you know, he's off shooting stuff and there's
Speaker 1: all the things he's doing in front of the camera.
Speaker 1: How active is he really in, you know, running things
Speaker 1: alongside yourself? Unbelievably active? I don't. It's hard to articulate
Speaker 1: because he would have to assume that he has more
Speaker 1: hours in his day, and I'm not convinced that he
Speaker 1: does not, but you know, he is one. So there's
Speaker 1: this before, you know, before a merger the two companies.
Speaker 1: On on the Hartbeat side, our logo was this sort
Speaker 1: of echo cardiogram, right like a pulse going through a
Speaker 1: heart and on laugh about Wold it was l L
Speaker 1: with an exclamation point. And I think those two symbols
Speaker 1: um really represent the role that Kevin plays in the organization.
Speaker 1: So one, he's the pulse, right he's the heartbeat of it,
Speaker 1: pun intended, and so we get our pace, our passion,
Speaker 1: our persistence from him. The energy that you see and
Speaker 1: I think anyone who's met him in on set or
Speaker 1: you know, in in business capacity, you know, there's just
Speaker 1: sort of like kinetic by right like, and it's pretty infectious.
Speaker 1: So that's the energy that he sort of seeds through
Speaker 1: the organization, and it really sparks a hunger to win
Speaker 1: and a belief that all things are possible. I get it.
Speaker 1: He's the real deal. So you mentioned branding is a
Speaker 1: big priority for the coming year. I know also you
Speaker 1: guys are looking towards expanding your experiential business. What what
Speaker 1: does that going to look like? Yeah, so you know,
Speaker 1: back to that mission keeping the world laughing together. There
Speaker 1: is a big global de demand UM for comedy in
Speaker 1: particular on the live events space. Now that that you know,
Speaker 1: we figured out at least you know, for now the
Speaker 1: world over is relatively open and so Kevin has been
Speaker 1: seeing UM on his personal tour. Uh, just a wild
Speaker 1: demand for tickets selling out, you know, just about everywhere,
Speaker 1: multiple shows and cities. People want to connect, right, They
Speaker 1: want to be together again. They want that high impact entertainment.
Speaker 1: And so we really drafted off that next year and
Speaker 1: so you know, we will be rolling out global experiences
Speaker 1: in Africa, Europe, will be activating domestically UM in in
Speaker 1: ways are obvious to to us, and you know, sort
Speaker 1: of like both being an intimate comedic experience but also
Speaker 1: really honing in on that comedy and culture piece. Right.
Speaker 1: So um, everything that the Heartbeat brand represents, so comedy,
Speaker 1: our intersections with music and sports, but also um in
Speaker 1: some areas be too, be an industry component to it,
Speaker 1: where there will be a thought leadership component in some
Speaker 1: of these markets. But we'll bring you know, really bright
Speaker 1: minds across the industry, whether it's entertainment or creativity and technology,
Speaker 1: um around sort of business opportunities. So we're really excited
Speaker 1: about um that from a consumer engagement perspective, but also
Speaker 1: a brand building perspective, right, you know, the experiential the
Speaker 1: experienial side of our business is a really big way
Speaker 1: um to advance the Heartbeat brand globally. You guys have
Speaker 1: like seventy different projects in development. What are the priorities
Speaker 1: for three? Are there any big releases we should be
Speaker 1: expect from Heartbeat? Well, I mean we're really excited that
Speaker 1: we're continuing, um, you know with some of our existing franchises,
Speaker 1: you know, whether they be branded or television or films. So, um,
Speaker 1: you know we're working on We just rend production on
Speaker 1: our next installment of our diehar Our Diehart franchise with
Speaker 1: with Roku or in the final stages of production through
Speaker 1: that road post production. Um, you know, we'll see cold
Speaker 1: as Balls come back again. Like I said, it's in
Speaker 1: as favorite sports show, and we still have a lot
Speaker 1: of fun doing it. UM. You know, there's audio expansion
Speaker 1: on our business. Will be rolling out new audio properties
Speaker 1: with you know that aren't Kevin with some really unique
Speaker 1: and exciting voices both in podcasts and radio, UM and
Speaker 1: and really expanding the footprint at business. We've got some
Speaker 1: really exciting audio books lined up VRR you know deal
Speaker 1: with UM Audible. We'll have a new film project that
Speaker 1: I'm not I can't say much about coming out Netflix
Speaker 1: next year. UM Peacock NBCU who's a really deep partner
Speaker 1: of ours. There's a big slate in pipeline there unscripted,
Speaker 1: scripted UM across the board. So it's it's been really
Speaker 1: really robust for us UH and and in terms of
Speaker 1: just overall priorities outside a project are unscripted business UM.
Speaker 1: You know, we're really leaning into and looking to create
Speaker 1: buzz of your formats UM and and continue down the
Speaker 1: path that we've been on. There's a project that we're
Speaker 1: working on right now with Nick Cannon that was actually
Speaker 1: really inspired by UM a prank UH those prank mechanisms
Speaker 1: that he and Kevin had going back and forth, and
Speaker 1: so now you'll see that come to life in a
Speaker 1: new in a new format on television. And I know
Speaker 1: you've got something important to you coming up at the
Speaker 1: Sundance Film Festival, the return of the Women Right Now franchise. Uh,
Speaker 1: tell me a bit about how that came together, what
Speaker 1: it is. So, you know, at Heartbeat, we pride ourselves
Speaker 1: on our commitment to diversity, equity and inclusion, and I'm
Speaker 1: really proud of the composition of the company. We are
Speaker 1: it's current day. We are people of color and I
Speaker 1: say that sometimes and people feel like we're over indexing,
Speaker 1: but actually the world is people of color. So it's
Speaker 1: a very kind of reflective UM organization in that way.
Speaker 1: We are at this moment women again, the world is
Speaker 1: fifty one and so UM you know, we it's really
Speaker 1: important for us to you know, provide opportunity and create
Speaker 1: a real meritocracy across the board. That said, UM, you
Speaker 1: do that by recognizing that everyone could do better. There's
Speaker 1: always opportunity in rooms to improve. So one of the places, UM,
Speaker 1: you know that I was particularly attuned to was the
Speaker 1: idea that comedy can feel like a boy's club, right,
Speaker 1: and comedy writer's ums in particular can feel that way.
Speaker 1: And then when you double drilled down and you say, well,
Speaker 1: how many black women get in those those places? All
Speaker 1: of a sudden, we've narrowed down on this very specific
Speaker 1: insight right where there's this very you know, significant disparity
Speaker 1: and where we were in our uniquely positioned to action
Speaker 1: and improved that reality. So we UM, based on based
Speaker 1: on that insight, came up with a program called Women
Speaker 1: Right Now. We co founded it with Sundance Institute, so
Speaker 1: with a partnership with them, and you know, the idea
Speaker 1: was see something, say something, but also do something about it.
Speaker 1: So we put up our own money of at Heartbeat
Speaker 1: and said we're gonna launch this program and partnership with Sundance.
Speaker 1: We went to Sundance because you know, there's no organization
Speaker 1: that cares for cultivates artists better. And we wanted a
Speaker 1: no barrier to entry program. So there are no fees
Speaker 1: to participate if you're a black woman, and you can
Speaker 1: run right if you write us an original short. We
Speaker 1: didn't no matter how many submissions that we get, and
Speaker 1: you know that was nearly a thousand last year, and
Speaker 1: so UM we narrowed that down to three who go
Speaker 1: through the program. These three fellows and they get this
Speaker 1: really immersive experience with hearty executives and creative Sundance Institute
Speaker 1: program Uh, you know, administrators and creatives. But also we
Speaker 1: bring together this community and we had folks from a
Speaker 1: MC and P Peacock and most of the talent agencies
Speaker 1: and publicists and wonderful showrunners and writers who really spent
Speaker 1: two weeks with these women going through this immersive program
Speaker 1: UM to really get their project from spirit to screen.
Speaker 1: And then because when you start to do good, that
Speaker 1: snowball's right. Um, we found an opportunity to you know,
Speaker 1: help solve another challenge. We and and this was said,
Speaker 1: I gotta give Jeff Plan again, our chief distribution officer,
Speaker 1: um the credit for action. And as he said, yeah,
Speaker 1: you know, writers have a tough time, but I've noticed
Speaker 1: that black women in film actresses have a harder time
Speaker 1: making the transition from acting to directing, right. And so um,
Speaker 1: we pair these writers with first time directors who are actresses.
Speaker 1: And then we produced these films for them with this
Speaker 1: a significant budget. Uh. And so they're held by Heartbeat,
Speaker 1: our Heartbeat production team. We put real money into the
Speaker 1: programs and then we take them all to the Sundance.
Speaker 1: So it said with their work, they all get first
Speaker 1: looks um with with Heartbeat and we'll be announcing more
Speaker 1: about you know what happen with the fellows in terms
Speaker 1: of distribution. But in the last cycle all the films
Speaker 1: were distributed on Peacock thanks our partnership with the NBC Universal.
Speaker 1: Chase Sapphire came on to write the program and so
Speaker 1: they allowed us so much more with them and then, um,
Speaker 1: you know, one of the writers received a blind script
Speaker 1: deal from UH from Universal uh last cycle and we've
Speaker 1: got some really interesting distribution and commercial opportunities lined up
Speaker 1: for them this year. Well, it sounds like this could
Speaker 1: be a real growth here, not just for that program,
Speaker 1: but for Heartbeat in general and yourself and so uh
Speaker 1: TI thanks for coming on, wishing you a great thame
Speaker 1: to you, Thanks for having me. This has been another
Speaker 1: episode of Strictly Business. Tune in next week for another
Speaker 1: helping of scintillating conversation with media movers and shakers, and
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