Speaker 1: I will Lucas and this is black Tach Green Money.
Speaker 1: Al Fonzo Fons Terrell is the co founder and CEO
Speaker 1: at Spill and Kenya Parhaim as Chief Growth Officer. Spill
Speaker 1: is a social media at that presents a visual conversation
Speaker 1: moving at the speed of culture. The company recently launched
Speaker 1: a million dollar community investment round which is live now
Speaker 1: and we funded so you can own a piece starting
Speaker 1: us off with you financy here. I'm interested in kind
Speaker 1: of I don't even say evolution with the growth of Spill, Like,
Speaker 1: you know, when we started off this as a culture
Speaker 1: first platform, how does that or has it evolved over time?
Speaker 2: War Like, how do you think about that today?
Speaker 3: Yeah, it's it's changed quite quite a lot, I'll say.
Speaker 3: I think the first thing I want to say is
Speaker 3: for those that aren't familiar with Spill, we came out
Speaker 3: the gate really focused on being visual conversation at the
Speaker 3: speed of culture. We really felt like there was something
Speaker 3: missing from the space, and personally, having worked at platforms
Speaker 3: like Twitter and been in the game for a minute,
Speaker 3: you never win by duplicating something that already exists. You
Speaker 3: win by innovating and building something new and exciting. So
Speaker 3: we were really focused on, Okay, how do we give
Speaker 3: people new tools to create those memes that lit up
Speaker 3: the timeline when you were watching Insecure or Game of
Speaker 3: Thrones or some of these big shows. How do we
Speaker 3: create spaces where we can flex our cultural knowledge, build community,
Speaker 3: all of that in real time. And so that was
Speaker 3: the initial thesis. And what has evolved over time, I'd
Speaker 3: say that we weren't necessarily planning for, but has been
Speaker 3: really beautiful to see is community Spill has become a
Speaker 3: place where people who are looking to find their tribe,
Speaker 3: their homies, their sometimes their lovers, their friends are coming
Speaker 3: to it and having great success. So there's you know,
Speaker 3: art spill and foodie spill and gamers spill. There's local
Speaker 3: meetups starting in cities around the country. Atl spill Sphiladelphia
Speaker 3: spillikin Valley even we've seen recently and we actually have
Speaker 3: a couple that met on the platform, I believe right
Speaker 3: around the time we launched. They got married of a
Speaker 3: year later and two months after that announced that they
Speaker 3: were pregnant. And I believe this is the first Spill
Speaker 3: baby ever we're going to have on the platform that's
Speaker 3: literally going to be due any week now.
Speaker 4: Five weeks, five weeks.
Speaker 3: So, yeah, we started out and we're still very much
Speaker 3: a real time conversation platform. You're going to get your latest,
Speaker 3: you know, breaking updates. We're getting even better at that.
Speaker 3: But Spill is really a home, right, It's it's a community.
Speaker 3: When people join, we say welcome home when they when
Speaker 3: they enter onto the platform.
Speaker 2: You know, Kay spoke on this a little bit.
Speaker 1: But like when you watch you make assumptions when you
Speaker 1: build something that people will use something in a certain way,
Speaker 1: and then you put it in the hands of the
Speaker 1: wild and they do things that you might not have anticipated,
Speaker 1: Like are there things that when you were in those
Speaker 1: early days thought they were going to do it some
Speaker 1: way other than like community? Like you know, which is
Speaker 1: a grade that Fund talked about. What unanticipated things have
Speaker 1: you realized are growing on the platform or ways of use?
Speaker 5: Oh, I mean what fond just mentioned was incredibly surprising
Speaker 5: to us. I mean, there's something powerful that last time
Speaker 5: we were with you, right, we talked about how we
Speaker 5: were matching our cultural fluency with our technological expertise and
Speaker 5: building for tools that we need. Right, we're a team
Speaker 5: that has the lived experiences to understand why a spill
Speaker 5: existing is so vital and necessary and at a moment
Speaker 5: like this is truly survival right. And when we talked
Speaker 5: about some of the technology that we've brought to the
Speaker 5: table around training AI to be culturally competent and be
Speaker 5: used as a line of defense to help keep our
Speaker 5: community safe, one of the things that I think has
Speaker 5: been the most inspiring is that it's now for offense
Speaker 5: as well too, not just defense. So this safety solving
Speaker 5: for safety on our platform means that people are showing
Speaker 5: up in authentic voice and making connections in real time,
Speaker 5: further demonstrating to us that, like Fon said, community is
Speaker 5: the most one of the most valuable things that people
Speaker 5: are telling us that they need right now. And what
Speaker 5: happens when you solve for community, people meet their new
Speaker 5: best friend circles, They can find the love of their lives.
Speaker 5: They can you know, get the encouragement that they need
Speaker 5: from the community to start that manuscript, go for that
Speaker 5: job promotion right and continue to live out their best
Speaker 5: lives in a way that they're receiving that encouragement that
Speaker 5: the real world oftentimes doesn't give to us. Whether we
Speaker 5: live in areas where we're disconnected from people who look
Speaker 5: and have the same life experiences as us, or we're
Speaker 5: still healing from some of the social isolationism that you know,
Speaker 5: the Surgeon Generals has written about, you know, creating issues
Speaker 5: following the pandemic.
Speaker 6: Right, So I think that.
Speaker 5: Has been some of the most encouraging and affirming for us,
Speaker 5: not necessarily surprising, but reaffirming for us.
Speaker 6: Why our thesis aligns.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I want both of you guys to touch on this.
Speaker 1: When I started with you, Kenya, is I think about
Speaker 1: being authentically cultural and leaning into authentic culture and scale
Speaker 1: and sometimes those things can be odds, and I want
Speaker 1: to know how you think about those.
Speaker 2: I'll start with you ken You sure.
Speaker 5: I mean we have a winning combination of both cultural
Speaker 5: fluency and technological expertise, like I said, and we're building
Speaker 5: Spill to be more than just a successful business model.
Speaker 5: We are showing that platforms thrive when they center culture
Speaker 5: driving communities, namely black communities, brown communities, queer communities, who
Speaker 5: have historically made all of these other platforms pop but
Speaker 5: have never had the tech built for them. We're showing
Speaker 5: that that makes not just sense from a values perspective,
Speaker 5: but it also makes business sense. We've been experiencing a
Speaker 5: massive wave of growth. Q three and Q four alone
Speaker 5: of last year twenty twenty four, we experienced over two
Speaker 5: hundred and eighty percent growth in sign ups, and we're
Speaker 5: also making money on spill. We're set to cross a
Speaker 5: million dollars in annualized revenue this year.
Speaker 6: Right.
Speaker 2: A lot of people don't hit that.
Speaker 1: A lot of people don't hit that, especially any revenue, any.
Speaker 6: Revenue, any revenue at all, for sure, for sure.
Speaker 5: I mean, you know, and from an advertiser perspective, we've
Speaker 5: had you know, ads and paid partnerships since day one
Speaker 5: on Spill.
Speaker 6: Every single rfp uh excuse me, every single.
Speaker 5: Partner who has stepped up to the plate to run
Speaker 5: a pilot with us has rfp'ed us again, Right, and
Speaker 5: you know, we've got folks who are building with us
Speaker 5: behind this model, and that's been incredibly validating, not just
Speaker 5: on the community side, but also on the business side.
Speaker 2: Finals.
Speaker 1: Can you touch on this, you know, being leaning into
Speaker 1: your culture or culture is authentically and scale.
Speaker 3: Yeah. Absolutely. I think first we need to just talk
Speaker 3: about the data. Right, Black people, Asian Americans, Spanic Americans
Speaker 3: are the fastest growing communities in the United States period.
Speaker 3: So I think we need to debunk this myth that
Speaker 3: investing in these communities is a niche play. This is
Speaker 3: not the case, and it's going to continue to be
Speaker 3: the truth as we go forward. And so thinking about
Speaker 3: how we position ourselves. We don't have to try and
Speaker 3: be all things to all people necessarily all the time.
Speaker 3: But we really just need to focus on solving the
Speaker 3: problems that our communities face. And if we do that well,
Speaker 3: it actually solves a problem for everyone. Right, And when
Speaker 3: we talk about the hate speech and harassment that's been
Speaker 3: going on, when we started Spilled two years ago, we
Speaker 3: knew this was bad, and this was a problem that
Speaker 3: every single social platform has struggled with, largely because the
Speaker 3: leadership of these platforms don't feel these problems personally.
Speaker 4: Right, it's sort of an.
Speaker 3: Academic thing or Okay, we'll get to it when we
Speaker 3: can sort of get to it. We understand that this
Speaker 3: is the prerequisite to being a successful platform and sustaining
Speaker 3: over time. So us being authentic starts with solving what
Speaker 3: has what was a problem back then and is now
Speaker 3: metastasized to the point where almost one out of every
Speaker 3: four Americans that uses social media, and this is everyone
Speaker 3: has experienced some form of hate speech and harassment in
Speaker 3: the last twelve months alone.
Speaker 4: This is insane.
Speaker 3: This is like a hate crime, and nobody is really
Speaker 3: prioritizing it from the legacy platform standpoint. So for us,
Speaker 3: authentic means really focusing on these problems that affect our
Speaker 3: community and by solving them really well, we know that
Speaker 3: not only will our community win, but so many other
Speaker 3: folks who are looking for safe spaces now will also
Speaker 3: win as well.
Speaker 4: So, by all.
Speaker 3: Intents and purposes, focusing on our communities is the best
Speaker 3: business that you can do right now. It's not in
Speaker 3: any way a niche play, and we need to debunk
Speaker 3: that officially forever.
Speaker 1: Want I want to highlight a phrase word I should
Speaker 1: say that both of you guys are touched on that
Speaker 1: safety online. And the part of what keeps us coming
Speaker 1: back to platforms like this is like this necessary tension
Speaker 1: like this.
Speaker 2: We love to debate, We love to work through things
Speaker 2: that that.
Speaker 1: It's just a human thing to you know, battle out
Speaker 1: whether we're talking about the game, we're talking about social
Speaker 1: issues away like that's just.
Speaker 2: What we do naturally as human beings.
Speaker 1: And I think about my curiosity on how do you
Speaker 1: foster that and ensure safety?
Speaker 6: Yeah?
Speaker 5: Sure, I mean, you know, we've got some of the
Speaker 5: most progressive community guidelines, right, and I help to author
Speaker 5: them myself along with top trust and safety professionals in
Speaker 5: the industry, many of whom are black women too, right,
Speaker 5: And so our community guidelines I encourage everybody to go
Speaker 5: check them out on spill dot com. We mean what
Speaker 5: we say, and we say what we mean, right. We
Speaker 5: don't tolerate misinformation and disinformation. We don't tolerate hate against anybody,
Speaker 5: body shaming, debt naming.
Speaker 6: Right.
Speaker 5: We're very clear about what our rules are and most
Speaker 5: importantly enforce them. People don't want to abide by the
Speaker 5: rules of the House of Spill, you're out of here, right,
Speaker 5: It's really clear. And so you know that safety team
Speaker 5: looks like you know, humans in the loop, who are
Speaker 5: a team of dedicated individuals who are on call twenty
Speaker 5: four to seven, three sixty five, who are.
Speaker 6: The human lines of defense.
Speaker 5: And then again, you know, we're building one of the
Speaker 5: first ever large language models for content moderation that is
Speaker 5: trained by the very people who get the most hate online,
Speaker 5: which you know fawnds just named black communities, queer communities,
Speaker 5: brown communities, not just domestically but also abroad, and that
Speaker 5: is a winning combination of safety. What we've noticed also
Speaker 5: is that Spill is a community that has been leaning
Speaker 5: into these guidelines because they're recognizing that when enforced, the
Speaker 5: air is different in the spilloverse right, and they're starting
Speaker 5: to govern themselves, so we don't even have to have
Speaker 5: a heavy handed approach as you know, a moderation system
Speaker 5: or trust and safety teams. The community has come in
Speaker 5: and leaned into some of the product features that we have,
Speaker 5: like you know, a tag that we have that's available
Speaker 5: in composed that people can add, you know, an NSFW
Speaker 5: filter on right. The community has said, hey, when you're
Speaker 5: talking about triggering posts, we would love for you to
Speaker 5: use that so that we can be kind as people scroll,
Speaker 5: so that we don't trigger each other. That's community led
Speaker 5: innovation with products that we've put forward. They're telling us
Speaker 5: how they want to to, you know, engage with each other,
Speaker 5: and that's been amazing.
Speaker 1: You know, finds I want to talk about, you know,
Speaker 1: your journey as like a founder in this way, it's
Speaker 1: like you know, you're working at some of the other
Speaker 1: big company these previous of this, and you're running, you know,
Speaker 1: a startup now, and how.
Speaker 2: Have you had to develop as a leader.
Speaker 1: And as you know, how you think about solving problems
Speaker 1: and building teams and building companies and generating revenue and
Speaker 1: raising money and all of these things, like how do
Speaker 1: you how has that forced you to develop and grow?
Speaker 3: There's a whole podcast series that I will talk to
Speaker 3: you about the time, but I'd like to talk about
Speaker 3: probably the things that are most relevant to our audiences,
Speaker 3: especially your audience will because everybody's builders, right, That's what
Speaker 3: afrotech is about, That's what Blavity's been about. And I
Speaker 3: actually benefited tremendously from that community and thinking about starting
Speaker 3: spill in the beginning.
Speaker 4: So I was, for those that don't know, I led.
Speaker 3: Social media at Twitter for three and a half years
Speaker 3: right up until the acquisition by Elon Musk in November
Speaker 3: of twenty twenty two. I was part of a wave
Speaker 3: of layoffs, which I know a lot of people are
Speaker 3: dealing with right now n fortunately, and two things came
Speaker 3: clear to me at that moment. The first was I
Speaker 3: need to do everything I can to support my teammates,
Speaker 3: you know, my fellow colleagues. This is tough, right anytime
Speaker 3: layoffs are happening. But the second was that it's time
Speaker 3: to build. And for me, particularly at that time, starting
Speaker 3: as a non technical founder, that was a pretty daunting challenge.
Speaker 3: And I think that mindset of just determination that no
Speaker 3: matter what, I'm going to figure out.
Speaker 4: A way to make something.
Speaker 3: If I don't raise a dollar, if I got to
Speaker 3: do whatever, like everything starts, I think from that particular mindset,
Speaker 3: and that has what is what's magnetized. I think the
Speaker 3: type of energy that we've been able to build around
Speaker 3: spill from my co founder to building really great relationships
Speaker 3: with some of our early investors. You know, it really
Speaker 3: starts with that courage. We can't wait for other people
Speaker 3: to tell us it's time or to give us permission.
Speaker 3: We got to take it, and especially now in these environments,
Speaker 3: that's the mindset that I think is the only way
Speaker 3: we're going to move forward.
Speaker 4: Now.
Speaker 3: The reality of raising money, especially venture capital, as a
Speaker 3: black founder is pretty daunting as well. Right, we raise
Speaker 3: less than one percent of all venture capital every year,
Speaker 3: and I think unfortunately it's been going down, right, I
Speaker 3: think it was like one point five and now it's
Speaker 3: one over the last couple of years, so we really
Speaker 3: need to think creatively about how we you know, source talent,
Speaker 3: how we hire people, and where we get this capital from.
Speaker 3: So we've been benefit really lucky to have venture partners
Speaker 3: come to the table pretty early. From the time I
Speaker 3: was laid off. I was able to raise about two
Speaker 3: point seventy five million within three months of being laid off,
Speaker 3: and that is not a typical story, right, So we
Speaker 3: understand that we are blessed and you know, need to
Speaker 3: take this opportunity and maximize it. But at the same time,
Speaker 3: we really wanted to do innovative things being an innovative company,
Speaker 3: not just from a product standpoint, but also from our
Speaker 3: business model. And from the moment we launched Spill in
Speaker 3: the summer of twenty three, we had people asking us,
Speaker 3: you know, users, community members.
Speaker 4: Hey, how can I invest?
Speaker 3: Which is kind of crazy to think about that people
Speaker 3: would want to invest in something at this stage, but
Speaker 3: actually it was pretty revolutionary when we really stepped back
Speaker 3: and looked at the opportunity. And you know, typically our
Speaker 3: communities don't get access to early stage technological companies that
Speaker 3: are on a fast growth trajectory and in twenty twelve,
Speaker 3: there was a new law that was passed, the Jobs Act,
Speaker 3: which basically said that you know, prior to this, literally
Speaker 3: was illegal to invest in early stage companies if you
Speaker 3: didn't make a certain amount of money. You literally had
Speaker 3: to have I think north of a million dollars in
Speaker 3: personal net worth and all this kind of stuff. And
Speaker 3: so after that, these crowdfunding platforms started emerging, and I
Speaker 3: think even now it's still missed understood what the opportunity
Speaker 3: is there. But we felt like, hey, what if we
Speaker 3: could take the best of what's happening on venture and
Speaker 3: you know, empower our community, especially because it's a community
Speaker 3: driven products, to be able to participate in our success
Speaker 3: as well. So just a couple of days ago, we
Speaker 3: launched our own Conversation campaign, where after a year of
Speaker 3: talking to our partners, our venture team and everything, people
Speaker 3: can now invest in Spill with as little as two
Speaker 3: hundred and fifty dollars and participate in that success not
Speaker 3: just from using the platform, but also as we continue
Speaker 3: to grow and when you guys get to you know,
Speaker 3: not just you know, have the conversation or join the conversation,
Speaker 3: but own it too. And we think that's really exciting.
Speaker 1: Can you what like what qualities as you you know,
Speaker 1: you hire and hire levels of leadership in your career
Speaker 1: and in your personal journey?
Speaker 2: What qualities have you had to develop to be able
Speaker 2: to do what you're doing now? It's a great.
Speaker 6: That's a great question.
Speaker 5: I mean I have to start off and say that
Speaker 5: I'm a two time founder myself, and working at Spill
Speaker 5: is honestly the first time I've been one hundred percent
Speaker 5: in house with another company in my whole career. So
Speaker 5: I arrived in the world of tech as somebody who
Speaker 5: was not traditionally trained to work in tech, but had
Speaker 5: a wealth of experience from being an entrepreneur for over
Speaker 5: a decade. Right, and for all the entrepreneurs who are listening,
Speaker 5: y'all know, you have to develop a diverse skill set
Speaker 5: to be able to run your own business, regardless of
Speaker 5: the industry that that's in.
Speaker 6: Right.
Speaker 5: I started off at SPILL two years ago. I just
Speaker 5: I just celebrated my spiliversary. I say that with pride.
Speaker 5: I started off with Spill two years ago as the
Speaker 5: global Vice President for Community and Partnerships, where I was
Speaker 5: responsible for owning and executing spills audience development strategy, developing
Speaker 5: partnerships and activations with media and brands, and you know,
Speaker 5: that was a dream come true. I could have never
Speaker 5: thought that I'd work in tech, nor did I realize
Speaker 5: how transferable my skill set was, coming in from working
Speaker 5: in electoral politics, being a big advocate for civic engagement
Speaker 5: and now fundraising. Now I stepped into the role at
Speaker 5: the top of this year as Chief Growth Officer, a
Speaker 5: title I could have never known, and I believe, you know,
Speaker 5: in consumer Social and one a few, if not the
Speaker 5: only black woman to hold that title. So I carry
Speaker 5: that heavily and I'm now responsible for optimizing our.
Speaker 6: Complete user journey.
Speaker 5: But this role chief Growth Officer is one that I
Speaker 5: had to grow into.
Speaker 6: Funds can admit that too. I've I've had to.
Speaker 5: Learn to look at things from a product perspective, from
Speaker 5: you know, being data informed, having a very reciprocal relationship
Speaker 5: with our community who is telling us in real time
Speaker 5: how they want to use our product. And I've also
Speaker 5: had to learn, you know, from an insights perspective, how
Speaker 5: to how to develop relationships with our partners, our paid partners,
Speaker 5: and serve up products that are that meet their needs
Speaker 5: but also center and value the opinions from the community
Speaker 5: that I come from and that we're centering on our platform,
Speaker 5: and so, you know, it's a lot of learning in
Speaker 5: real time, you know, not being afraid uh to misstep,
Speaker 5: but also leaning on the expertise of my fellow leaders
Speaker 5: at SPILL. We have such a talented team that Fonds
Speaker 5: has curated and put together, and I am so deeply
Speaker 5: supported in this work and that makes, you know, me
Speaker 5: have the courage to continue to stretch for the things
Speaker 5: that might be in my twentieth out of one hundred
Speaker 5: percent tile. But I know that I am am you
Speaker 5: know well well supported on the teams that we're on you.
Speaker 4: Know as well.
Speaker 3: Sorry, if I could just double click, because Kenya often
Speaker 3: under sells what.
Speaker 4: She've accomplished in this you know, I just.
Speaker 3: Want to talk about the trust and safety piece for
Speaker 3: a second, just because the whole industry is actually moving
Speaker 3: away from this discipline. You know, Metas rolled back their
Speaker 3: trust and safety teams. We've seen it across the board,
Speaker 3: and Kenya stepped into this role not having any formal
Speaker 3: background or training in that world at all, and has
Speaker 3: built not only the guidelines which essentially when you're building
Speaker 3: a social platform it's like designing a country. You're like
Speaker 3: the designing laws that people are going to abide by
Speaker 3: to participate. And Kenya stepped up to this challenge not
Speaker 3: only designed a whole framework for governance on the platform,
Speaker 3: but built the team from the ground up that is
Speaker 3: executing on this and informs the technological piece of it.
Speaker 3: Also informs how we enforce our guidelines in ways that
Speaker 3: are thoughtful, right and have context versus just you know,
Speaker 3: a hammer that smashes everything right.
Speaker 4: And I think you brought this up earlier. Will.
Speaker 3: What that has enabled people to feel is I can
Speaker 3: be myself here.
Speaker 4: I don't have to code switch. I can talk how
Speaker 4: I talk all of that.
Speaker 3: I can engage in dialogue, I can engage in even
Speaker 3: you know, some debate here or there. But I also
Speaker 3: understand that it is about respect and this is a
Speaker 3: problem that trillion dollar companies have not solved. And Kenya
Speaker 3: has made tremendous, tremendous impact in this area on spill.
Speaker 3: So I just want to give her her flowers for
Speaker 3: that and also again shout her out for her new
Speaker 3: promotions and chief growth.
Speaker 6: Look, thank you.
Speaker 2: I love that.
Speaker 1: I mean I think about you know, as somebody responsible
Speaker 1: for growth, not solely, but yeah, you're leading growth and
Speaker 1: even you find as you can chime in on this too,
Speaker 1: Like the job is to figure out what people are
Speaker 1: going to want tomorrow, not necessarily just today.
Speaker 2: But we got to be ahead, you know, skating to
Speaker 2: where the buck is going. Like what do you what.
Speaker 1: Do you think social media looks like eighteen months from now,
Speaker 1: twenty four months from now?
Speaker 2: Like what are we going towards? What are you seeing
Speaker 2: the data?
Speaker 1: And just in you know, you know, just recognizing trends
Speaker 1: that may not show up in data qualitative.
Speaker 2: That's the where I was looking for qualitative. How do
Speaker 2: you what are we aiming at?
Speaker 6: Sure?
Speaker 5: Well, first I have to lean in on the data
Speaker 5: that we are seeing. That's validated by the momentum that
Speaker 5: we've been experiencing. Right, so people are flocking to spill
Speaker 5: and have been. I shared with you that we had
Speaker 5: an over two hundred and eighty percent increase in user
Speaker 5: sign ups. The money that we're that we're pacing to make, right,
Speaker 5: we're crossing over a million dollars in annualized revenue coming up.
Speaker 5: But that is all around again, you know, people wanting
Speaker 5: and needing a product to help them find and connect
Speaker 5: with more people who think like them, who you know,
Speaker 5: acknowledge and affirm their identities at all of their intersections,
Speaker 5: and who make them feel safe at a time like this, right,
Speaker 5: and a place where you can learn and grow in
Speaker 5: an environment that you know isn't just around isn't just
Speaker 5: about being around people who think and look like you?
Speaker 5: But where can I grow as an individual? Where can
Speaker 5: I be challenged in ways that foster my own growth?
Speaker 6: Right?
Speaker 5: And all of that is happening at Spill and again,
Speaker 5: I think the momentum that we're experiencing validates that. Before
Speaker 5: I hand it off to FONDS, I'll say that, you know,
Speaker 5: a lot of the products that we are coming out
Speaker 5: with are emblematic of our visions for what we hope
Speaker 5: social to be. We're really building that in real time
Speaker 5: on FOND. Do you want to share some of that?
Speaker 3: Absolutely, I think to add to some of the context
Speaker 3: that we're seeing on the macro trends. There definitely is
Speaker 3: a generational split. You know, folks who are you know,
Speaker 3: like myself, elder millennials. We you know, want to stay
Speaker 3: informed and keep up to date, and that's a lot
Speaker 3: of what people in that sort of demographic are loving
Speaker 3: about Spill. We have a team, you know, and shout
Speaker 3: out to Kenya's team that also leads this as well.
Speaker 3: That's giving you those breaking push notifications.
Speaker 4: You know, whenever the.
Speaker 3: Latest Kendrick track drops coming at Drake or something else,
Speaker 3: you're going to find out about it on Spill first.
Speaker 3: But the younger audiences we're seeing are really looking for
Speaker 3: that community piece in a much smaller way, right They
Speaker 3: want to curate and create their own subcommunities. And so
Speaker 3: we launched a product, a group's product and Spill that's
Speaker 3: in beta right now, and it was amazing. We had
Speaker 3: thousands of groups created within the first week. And when
Speaker 3: you look at it, it's just this beautiful cornucopia of
Speaker 3: just all type interests you know, from you know, I mean,
Speaker 3: my one of my favorite groups is pot It like
Speaker 3: It's hot that has for all the plants, zaddies and
Speaker 3: daddies there.
Speaker 4: Everybody's just showing off how they take how they take
Speaker 4: care of them, you know, to like Divine nine groups,
Speaker 4: to original groups.
Speaker 3: You know, to people that are interested in you know, uh,
Speaker 3: you know, legal back, you know, connecting with other people
Speaker 3: with legal backgrounds or doctors or teachers or things like that.
Speaker 3: We have Spill University, people are actually teaching courses on
Speaker 3: the spill as as one of those examples. So I
Speaker 3: think that that trend is going to continue. People are
Speaker 3: going to look for places where they can not only
Speaker 3: create and curate these subcommune unities, but then start to
Speaker 3: monetize them over time as well. I think that, you know,
Speaker 3: in a world where AI slop is going to take
Speaker 3: over a lot of these bigger platforms, where people are
Speaker 3: just content farming constantly to try and get engagement, it's
Speaker 3: going to put a premium on actual human interaction.
Speaker 4: I think it's going to be like, wow, are there
Speaker 4: real people here? Can I actually make a real connection?
Speaker 3: And you don't need a ton of those like you
Speaker 3: need really like five good friends in life to like
Speaker 3: feel really satisfied.
Speaker 4: But it's hard right to find.
Speaker 3: That, and we feel like spill is going to be
Speaker 3: an incredible tool for that in the future and going
Speaker 3: to make that a lot easier to find versus other platforms.
Speaker 5: We've been focused on three main pillars in our development.
Speaker 5: That's culture, right what Fon said, serving up the hottest
Speaker 5: of what's happening, you know, making sure you know what's
Speaker 5: breaking news and informs uh had your experience in the world. Connection,
Speaker 5: like we've been saying, connecting you with you know, people
Speaker 5: who are of similar interest, helping you to grow and
Speaker 5: expand your networks in ways that are super meaningful. And commerce, right,
Speaker 5: not just generating revenue on platform, but really leaning into
Speaker 5: what are the opportunities for our communities, which we know
Speaker 5: have the largest purchasing power, right, what are the opportunities there?
Speaker 5: And I think most most recently, the trends that we're
Speaker 5: seeing around folks really wanting to be meaningful and intentional
Speaker 5: with where their dollars are spent are also influencing our
Speaker 5: perspective on what's possible and what we should might might
Speaker 5: want to consider doing on spill as well too. So culture, connection,
Speaker 5: commerce are what we're focused on, and we think that
Speaker 5: that is an incredibly winning combination for the future of
Speaker 5: social media.
Speaker 1: He talked about this earlier, like the partners, the advertisers
Speaker 1: of people who.
Speaker 2: Are you know, making thing they want to reach. Audience
Speaker 2: is here.
Speaker 1: And in the early days, you know, like there's there's
Speaker 1: advertiser because we're trying to build legal attraction.
Speaker 2: But you're at that.
Speaker 1: Point where you're getting to those your point, the RFPs
Speaker 1: and et cetera. And I wonder like how you balance
Speaker 1: what advertisers want versus saying true to the culture your building.
Speaker 5: Yeah, that's a great that's a great question, and I
Speaker 5: appreciate it.
Speaker 6: And I have.
Speaker 5: To just offer a slight correction and say that we
Speaker 5: had our first paid advertisers before we were even available
Speaker 5: for public download.
Speaker 1: Right, that's a break that I love that I just
Speaker 1: have generally generous that's say, generally people don't have advertises.
Speaker 6: Generally people do not correct.
Speaker 5: Generally people do not, but we did, and and I
Speaker 5: just have to shout out our partners right at Horizon Media.
Speaker 5: Right Lionsgate was our first paid partner before we launched. Right,
Speaker 5: and these are folks that recognizeciens very clearly the value
Speaker 5: of our communities. And as we've continued to grow, and
Speaker 5: the communities have been very vocal about the types of products,
Speaker 5: offering insights into what they're into, and we've been able
Speaker 5: to editorialize and tell the story about the how the
Speaker 5: community is blossoming on spill. We've developed a really dope
Speaker 5: reciprocal relationship with these advertisers, and so oftentimes people will
Speaker 5: come to Spill and say, man, I'm just so glad
Speaker 5: that there's no ads here. They say it all the time, right,
Speaker 5: And that's a direct response to us serving up content
Speaker 5: and making sure that partners come to the table with
Speaker 5: information and products and opportunities for the community that don't
Speaker 5: feel like we're we or they are selling right.
Speaker 6: And we're very open and honest.
Speaker 5: Fonds and I do regular town halls and our goal
Speaker 5: live feature on platform called Tea Parties. We just did
Speaker 5: one the other day and somebody said in the chat
Speaker 5: they had been on platform for a year, and we're like,
Speaker 5: oh my goodness, just please keep it ad free. We
Speaker 5: were like, well, we've had ads from the beginning, but
Speaker 5: they're served up in ways that are meaningful to y'all,
Speaker 5: and you know, you know, I'm grateful for that. So
Speaker 5: I think continuing to be very clear about what works
Speaker 5: for us and have partners come to the table that
Speaker 5: trust us. We've built trust where you know, we have
Speaker 5: partners who are now coming up on their fourth or
Speaker 5: fifth paid campaign with us. They are building with Spill
Speaker 5: as Spill is building, and so there's a lot of
Speaker 5: learnings there. There's a lot of insights there, but again,
Speaker 5: we just appreciate partners who have come to the table
Speaker 5: to say, y'all know what's going to work here, you
Speaker 5: let us know and let's see what happens, and those
Speaker 5: tests and learn opportunities have developed into you know, partners
Speaker 5: evangelizing you know, fandoms on platform in organic ways and
Speaker 5: being able to build on that success campaign over campaign.
Speaker 4: Funds.
Speaker 1: I want to start with I love to ask this question.
Speaker 1: I just find it interesting personally, like what's in your
Speaker 1: a DC or everyday care? Like what are the things
Speaker 1: fond has to have, whether it be you can't say
Speaker 1: your phone, because that the people does. That's a give me,
Speaker 1: that's a gimme. You gotta have your phone. But what
Speaker 1: are the things that funds got to keep nearby?
Speaker 4: Wow?
Speaker 3: I think we were joking about this before, but you know,
Speaker 3: there's no sleep in this game. So heavy on the
Speaker 3: face mask under eye patches, so I do not look haggard,
Speaker 3: as I don't bring no haggard face to your esteemed show. Well,
Speaker 3: that's definitely getting getting heavy rotation these days. I'd say,
Speaker 3: you know, I'm definitely an airpod's you know, yes, and
Speaker 3: got to have that on the movie. And I usually
Speaker 3: care carry a pair of Buddhist prayer beads. I've been
Speaker 3: practicing Buddhism for about twenty years, and especially in this environment,
Speaker 3: I've needed to stay grounded, and it's the higher powers
Speaker 3: more than ever with everything that's going on. So I'd say,
Speaker 3: aside from the phone and keys and some basic stuff
Speaker 3: I keep, I keep it under eye patch so I
Speaker 3: don't look whack, and I keep some prayer beads so
Speaker 3: my spirit don't look whack either.
Speaker 2: Kenya, what's in your everyday care?
Speaker 1: Your EBC? Like one are the things Kenya's got to
Speaker 1: have within arms weeks? Like before you need a house,
Speaker 1: before you leave the apartment.
Speaker 5: Yeah, yeah, yeah, So I travel a lot. I be
Speaker 5: on the road all the time, and so this is
Speaker 5: a good question for me. So one you saw me
Speaker 5: just hold this up. I drink a ton of water.
Speaker 5: We got to stay hydrated, We got to care for ourselves.
Speaker 5: My favorite water cup is the spilled tumbler shameless plug okay,
Speaker 5: double insulated, stainless you fantastic. Uh you see what I
Speaker 5: did there available at shop dot s.
Speaker 6: Buil dot com. Uh we.
Speaker 5: And what else do I keep on me? You know,
Speaker 5: I've had to really be really regimented about my mornings.
Speaker 5: And I've learned from Fonds in that way too. You know,
Speaker 5: as an entrepreneur, I had developed a strong muscle for
Speaker 5: you know.
Speaker 6: Hustle, hustle, hustle, hustle, hustle all.
Speaker 5: The time, right, And you know, I've had to be
Speaker 5: really clear with like I start my mornings off with
Speaker 5: sound bowls. Now, I gotta make sure that I'm tuning
Speaker 5: myself to be receptive and also uh to wash away
Speaker 5: some of yesterday if I wasn't able to before I
Speaker 5: passed out on my computer, uh, before I went to sleep.
Speaker 6: And then uh.
Speaker 5: I've also loved uh diving into some of the products
Speaker 5: that I've learned from our Spill community. Like just before
Speaker 5: I got on this interview with you, to calm myself,
Speaker 5: I was coloring a page and a coloring book from
Speaker 5: an artist on Spill that I learned about, right, And
Speaker 5: that's just keeping some of those products around me that
Speaker 5: are infused in remind me the why of what I'm doing.
Speaker 5: This work is incredibly affirming because the minute that I
Speaker 5: walk out of my sacred space, right, I'm reminded about
Speaker 5: why we have to keep building and some of those
Speaker 5: experiences aren't always the most positive. So I'm so grateful
Speaker 5: that we've built an ecosystem where we can continue to
Speaker 5: fuel up using the products that we are housing in
Speaker 5: spill that you know people come from the community to
Speaker 5: share with on platform, and you know that I also
Speaker 5: am being unapologetic about what I need in order to
Speaker 5: feel my best self because our communities deserve us at
Speaker 5: our best, so we got to make sure.
Speaker 6: We're hearing for us.
Speaker 1: Final one goes to you find I'm interested in your
Speaker 1: thoughts on what is something you are your team. I'm
Speaker 1: gonna let I'm gonna let you pick this. What is
Speaker 1: something you or you have your team do that you
Speaker 1: believe more startups or founders individually should adopt m great question.
Speaker 3: I'll pick one thing and try and sort of land
Speaker 3: this in a way that isn't super woo woo. But
Speaker 3: one thing that we started this year that I think
Speaker 3: is really helpful is collective team visualization. We as CEOs,
Speaker 3: as leaders are really responsible for setting a clear vision
Speaker 3: that everybody can focus on and then help empower everybody
Speaker 3: on our teams to have the resources, the focus, and
Speaker 3: everything to accomplish their part so that everything everybody wins.
Speaker 3: But if everybody doesn't have the same picture of success
Speaker 3: in their heads, or we don't really have a shared vision,
Speaker 3: then everybody's just kind of off on their own zone.
Speaker 3: And that's a big focus, especially for early stage companies
Speaker 3: and building culture. So I encourage founders to do some
Speaker 3: shared visualization with your team. Take five minutes, I'm sure
Speaker 3: you all have some sort of all hands meeting or
Speaker 3: whatever it is, and just put something up on the
Speaker 3: screen or the board and have everybody just sit and
Speaker 3: say nothing and just visualize what does it feel like
Speaker 3: to be in that success, what does it smell like,
Speaker 3: what are the things that need to be true in
Speaker 3: order to get there? And really feel it viscerally, and
Speaker 3: then use that as the tone setter for the rest
Speaker 3: of your week that we've started experimenting with. And I
Speaker 3: think it's really starting to shape our tea culture in
Speaker 3: an exciting way, and I think also really builds trust
Speaker 3: with all the team members at a much deeper level,
Speaker 3: especially if you have teams like ours that are remote.
Speaker 3: It is really hard to build a culture remotely, especially
Speaker 3: as a startup. So having that shared time to just
Speaker 3: be like, what is our target, what are we after
Speaker 3: and it's more than just numbers, like feel it. What
Speaker 3: does that success feel like in your body, in your hands,
Speaker 3: what's true, what's happening? What is that reality like? And
Speaker 3: then it becomes much easier. I think to work backwards
Speaker 3: from there and go get it, and then you focus
Speaker 3: on the next one.
Speaker 4: So that'd be my record.
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