WEBVTT - Infatuated with Unlikely Pairings 0:00:00.080 --> 0:00:02.519 I'm off my game today. No you're not. That's true. 0:00:03.360 --> 0:00:05.360 People are going to have to start making better content. 0:00:05.400 --> 0:00:06.680 I think we're gonna be talking about this for a 0:00:06.720 --> 0:00:09.840 long time. When you program for everyone, you program for 0:00:09.920 --> 0:00:11.960 no one. I think it's a word purpose driven platform, 0:00:12.039 --> 0:00:15.200 like we're trying to get to substance? How was that? 0:00:15.400 --> 0:00:19.080 Are you happy with that? This is marketing therapy right now? 0:00:19.120 --> 0:00:23.600 And it really is? What's up on? Laura Crunty and 0:00:23.680 --> 0:00:29.160 I'm Alexa Kristen. Welcome back at Landia. We made It's 0:00:29.200 --> 0:00:32.279 got us already hustling. Laura's calling in from Jersey. I'm 0:00:32.320 --> 0:00:34.800 in Connecticut. We're doing our thing. I wish I was 0:00:34.840 --> 0:00:36.640 calling in on my way to the gym, but clearly 0:00:36.680 --> 0:00:39.839 that resolution hasn't taken off yet, so better luck tomorrow. 0:00:39.880 --> 0:00:41.879 I like this new thing that people are saying. It's 0:00:41.880 --> 0:00:46.120 not a resolution, it's an intention. So I talk to 0:00:46.159 --> 0:00:48.960 go to the gym tomorrow. I intend to go, but 0:00:49.000 --> 0:00:52.839 now I'm really excited about I think there's a lot 0:00:52.920 --> 0:00:56.560 of promise. I agree. I mean, coming off the Golden 0:00:56.560 --> 0:00:59.600 Globes this weekend, like Oprah speech. I mean, if you're 0:00:59.600 --> 0:01:02.880 noting hope and a new horizon, is ahead of us. 0:01:02.920 --> 0:01:05.960 I don't. I don't know what you're feeling. Who's your VP? 0:01:06.120 --> 0:01:08.440 Pick I would say, I thought the Natalie Portman thing 0:01:08.480 --> 0:01:12.520 was hilarious, but you mentioned Michelle Obama and I agree, 0:01:12.560 --> 0:01:15.840 so Oprah Michelle twenty I'm in. I'm all yeah, there was. 0:01:15.880 --> 0:01:17.880 There was so much emotion and passion, and it was 0:01:18.280 --> 0:01:22.320 really exciting to see UM the platform of Time's Up 0:01:22.360 --> 0:01:24.960 and the women. You know, on Sundays we wear black, 0:01:25.000 --> 0:01:28.640 all of the actors and actresses wearing black in solidarity 0:01:28.680 --> 0:01:33.720 around equality. And you know, we talked a lot about UM, 0:01:33.800 --> 0:01:37.080 this idea of causes and building these sort of purpose 0:01:37.160 --> 0:01:40.720 driven platforms, which has given way to these collaborations and 0:01:40.800 --> 0:01:45.319 unlikely pairings as you've talked much about two. Yeah, I 0:01:45.360 --> 0:01:47.280 think that, you know, we don't like to do a 0:01:47.280 --> 0:01:51.200 lot of like future casting, but I think that one 0:01:51.240 --> 0:01:53.320 thing that Laura and I are really excited about right 0:01:53.360 --> 0:01:57.880 now is in is like these unlikely partnerships UM. I 0:01:57.880 --> 0:02:00.720 think there's a ton of opportunity for people to not 0:02:00.880 --> 0:02:05.040 just see what is already established, but to establish new. 0:02:05.400 --> 0:02:07.640 And we've talked a lot in we talked a lot 0:02:07.680 --> 0:02:12.040 about creating new I p creating new partnerships creating new brands. 0:02:12.639 --> 0:02:15.440 Um so one that I think is kind of interesting 0:02:15.560 --> 0:02:18.040 and it's a smaller one, but I think it's really 0:02:18.080 --> 0:02:21.639 interesting because a big um, you know, global brand, Duncan 0:02:21.680 --> 0:02:24.360 Donuts partner to celebrate the darkest day of the year 0:02:24.440 --> 0:02:29.280 with warm Town Brewery, which is in um Worcester, Massachusetts. 0:02:29.639 --> 0:02:32.040 I think things like that, this is a signal. Right, 0:02:32.080 --> 0:02:34.519 you say, oh, it's a stunt. It was to celebrate 0:02:34.520 --> 0:02:36.400 the darkest day of the year to talk about their 0:02:36.480 --> 0:02:40.760 dark growth. Yes, but Duncan has been pivoting and really 0:02:40.760 --> 0:02:44.080 talking more about their drink category and now them going 0:02:44.200 --> 0:02:49.240 into alcoholic beverages through partnership that's local with rabid fans. 0:02:49.600 --> 0:02:52.560 Actually is very interesting. So these are the types of 0:02:52.600 --> 0:02:55.560 things that we're talking about. And they were selling out 0:02:55.560 --> 0:02:57.760 in a day. They were selling out of this beer 0:02:57.840 --> 0:03:01.280 in a day. So the it's not just a stunt. 0:03:01.320 --> 0:03:04.080 It's really about how do you start getting into new categories, 0:03:04.120 --> 0:03:06.240 how do you start reaching new customers, how do you 0:03:06.280 --> 0:03:09.880 actually root yourself in kind of the local fabric and 0:03:10.000 --> 0:03:13.640 local zeitgeist, but still do it at a national or 0:03:13.639 --> 0:03:17.400 global brand. And I think that's really interesting. I love that. Yeah, 0:03:17.440 --> 0:03:19.600 because there's a couple of different ways you can sort 0:03:19.639 --> 0:03:21.920 of slice this, right, what you're talking about is creating 0:03:21.960 --> 0:03:25.000 limited edition products, and then there's other ways, like over 0:03:25.040 --> 0:03:28.639 the break, I went to a local spin studio and Hoboken, 0:03:28.680 --> 0:03:31.480 New Jersey called prime Cycle, and I just saw recently 0:03:31.520 --> 0:03:35.480 that they're pairing with Birch Box UM to do certain 0:03:36.040 --> 0:03:39.000 products that are specific to the studio. Right. So again 0:03:39.040 --> 0:03:42.480 this pairing of local with a national entity. And I 0:03:42.520 --> 0:03:45.480 think it's interesting to think about UM that one being 0:03:45.520 --> 0:03:49.160 around community, right Son you talk exclusive products, you're talking 0:03:49.160 --> 0:03:51.680 about like mind of brands, you know, fusing together. I 0:03:51.680 --> 0:03:53.720 think one of the ones Rachel Typograph alluded to in 0:03:54.160 --> 0:03:57.760 seventeen was interesting about how DTC brands are sort of 0:03:57.840 --> 0:04:01.200 galvanizing around community as well and cheering technology that allows 0:04:01.240 --> 0:04:05.520 them to create best practices and learnings to grow their audiences. 0:04:05.560 --> 0:04:07.720 So that signal that you just said, Alex, I think 0:04:07.720 --> 0:04:11.200 it is so interesting this idea of national established brands 0:04:11.240 --> 0:04:16.480 partnering with local UM you know, sort of startup, homegrown, 0:04:16.520 --> 0:04:20.240 community driven brands will be one that it's it's not 0:04:20.320 --> 0:04:22.400 necessarily a new thing, but I think one we can 0:04:22.440 --> 0:04:25.159 probably expect to see more of one thing that I 0:04:25.160 --> 0:04:27.919 thought was so smart and UM a lot of people 0:04:27.920 --> 0:04:30.159 were talking about was how we work invested in the 0:04:30.200 --> 0:04:33.760 way if that doesn't have like layers of signals and 0:04:33.800 --> 0:04:38.640 the noise, both from kind of a female capital standpoint, 0:04:38.680 --> 0:04:41.800 but also you know, the future of work and how 0:04:41.839 --> 0:04:44.919 we're going to work and working outside of offices and 0:04:45.040 --> 0:04:50.560 collaborating with um, maybe somewhat unlikely partners think is what 0:04:50.760 --> 0:04:53.159 we're really excited about. And we brought a guest on 0:04:54.040 --> 0:04:57.120 to talk to us about kind of all of those things. Yeah, 0:04:57.200 --> 0:05:00.240 andrews Dienthal, co founder of The Infatuation, who, along with 0:05:00.320 --> 0:05:03.680 his co founder Chris Stang, started a food discovery platform 0:05:03.720 --> 0:05:07.039 that was really meant to allow people to learn about 0:05:07.200 --> 0:05:11.120 new restaurants UM within certain cities that is really just 0:05:11.320 --> 0:05:14.440 meant to fulfill the context of your everyday life. Yeah, 0:05:14.680 --> 0:05:16.600 and so I think that Andrew is going to talk 0:05:16.640 --> 0:05:19.159 a lot about building a brand from the ground up, 0:05:19.240 --> 0:05:22.080 of building a community from the ground up, what it takes, 0:05:22.120 --> 0:05:25.880 how important trust is, and then going out and looking 0:05:25.880 --> 0:05:29.560 at different types of partners and partnerships and being kind 0:05:29.560 --> 0:05:34.400 of relentlessly focused on who they were partnering with because 0:05:34.400 --> 0:05:38.039 they wanted to make sure that their community was there. 0:05:38.120 --> 0:05:41.400 Kind of most valuable asset, and I think that is 0:05:41.760 --> 0:05:45.479 kind of key going into your audience and your community. 0:05:45.720 --> 0:05:51.200 So with that, Andrew Steinshal the Infatuation and kicking it in. 0:06:07.520 --> 0:06:13.599 So we're in the studio having spicy margarita's with not spicy, no, 0:06:13.760 --> 0:06:16.360 but they're they're damn good, Like you don't even need 0:06:17.080 --> 0:06:19.640 there's a hint of spice in here. There's a spice. 0:06:19.640 --> 0:06:23.400 According to Lauren Lauren our bartender, guest bartender, I mean, 0:06:23.400 --> 0:06:25.320 watch out, Andy Cohen. This is like watch what happens 0:06:25.320 --> 0:06:29.719 live at Landia, compliments of our guest Andrew Steinthal, the 0:06:29.720 --> 0:06:34.200 co founder and c r O of The Infatuation Eats. 0:06:34.640 --> 0:06:39.000 You did that really well, Thank you. I did. And 0:06:39.040 --> 0:06:42.320 that's how do you know that Rachel typograph? Do you 0:06:42.360 --> 0:06:47.880 know Rachel? So? She told me about eats like two 0:06:47.960 --> 0:06:51.080 years ago and when it was like there was like 0:06:51.160 --> 0:06:55.840 I don't know sixty people who were like hashtagging eats 0:06:56.440 --> 0:06:58.839 and you guys created it. We didn't. The best thing 0:06:58.880 --> 0:07:01.279 anybody's ever said to us once was oh, you guys 0:07:01.320 --> 0:07:04.479 created eats. I thought that was like internet speak, like 0:07:04.560 --> 0:07:07.240 b RB. So tell our listeners who at home who 0:07:07.279 --> 0:07:09.720 for whatever reason, aren't subscribed to the Infatuation. If you aren't, 0:07:09.760 --> 0:07:12.920 you better go online right now and do it. Um 0:07:12.960 --> 0:07:16.080 what it is, how you built it, and we'll get 0:07:16.120 --> 0:07:19.400 into the backstory loaded question. All right, let's do this. Uh, 0:07:19.640 --> 0:07:23.080 The Infatuation is a restaurant discovery platform. So we help 0:07:23.120 --> 0:07:26.760 you find great places to eat, drink, spicy margarita's, go 0:07:27.880 --> 0:07:30.200 on a date, go out with your friends, you know, 0:07:30.280 --> 0:07:34.560 go somewhere late night, business lunch, situational based dining experiences, 0:07:34.760 --> 0:07:38.720 you know. Yeah, we we We started because myself and 0:07:38.800 --> 0:07:40.680 my business partner, Chris Stang, we were both in the 0:07:40.720 --> 0:07:43.480 music business, right we were. I was the VP of 0:07:43.520 --> 0:07:45.840 pr at Warner Brothers Records, Chris was a VP of 0:07:45.880 --> 0:07:48.360 Marketing Atlantic Records, And we were these dudes who were 0:07:48.360 --> 0:07:52.000 out all the time, going to shows, eating meals. Because 0:07:52.080 --> 0:07:55.880 going out to shows, you're eating or drinking or whatever 0:07:56.720 --> 0:07:58.960 three times a week and you're out, and like, there 0:07:59.040 --> 0:08:01.840 was no resus out there for us to turn to 0:08:01.840 --> 0:08:05.800 to find situational based recommendations that were, you know, spoken 0:08:05.840 --> 0:08:07.680 in a voice that we could relate to, you know, 0:08:07.840 --> 0:08:10.680 all the all the food and restaurant discovery you know 0:08:10.920 --> 0:08:15.360 platforms out there were you know, more catered towards people 0:08:15.360 --> 0:08:19.040 who really care about celebrity chefs or cooking or you 0:08:19.080 --> 0:08:21.680 know that one percent of people who take this stuff 0:08:21.720 --> 0:08:23.800 really really seriously. The rest of us just want to know, 0:08:23.880 --> 0:08:25.600 is this supposed to have a good burger? Can I 0:08:25.600 --> 0:08:28.040 go here? Before show at Bowery Ballroom? Can I go here? 0:08:28.040 --> 0:08:31.480 After taping an episode of at Landia in Brooklyn? You know, like, 0:08:31.560 --> 0:08:34.360 you know, situational based dining recommendations in a way that's 0:08:34.400 --> 0:08:39.760 fun and interesting and you know, speaks to the way 0:08:39.880 --> 0:08:41.920 that we all live our lives. And you hear it's 0:08:41.920 --> 0:08:43.840 almost like hearing it from a friends, the way you guys, 0:08:43.960 --> 0:08:48.640 your editorial, your tone, everything, even like your social media, 0:08:48.880 --> 0:08:52.320 which I love, we love. We were talking about it earlier. Um, 0:08:52.800 --> 0:08:56.240 it feels like we're sitting down with your friends. Like 0:08:56.360 --> 0:08:58.800 we've always tried to relate to people the way that 0:08:58.840 --> 0:09:00.480 they would relate to their friends. You know, we don't 0:09:00.559 --> 0:09:03.760 hire professional food writers, don't really high professional writers. We've 0:09:04.040 --> 0:09:07.720 hire people to write about restaurants that experienced it the 0:09:07.720 --> 0:09:10.120 same way that your friends experienced it. And I think 0:09:10.160 --> 0:09:12.240 that's what is so relatable about our content and why 0:09:12.360 --> 0:09:15.800 initially it it really reacted with people was because it 0:09:15.840 --> 0:09:17.520 was just me and Chris talking to our friends. You know. 0:09:17.559 --> 0:09:19.240 That's why it started in the first place, was because 0:09:19.240 --> 0:09:21.040 we were like, we need this for ourselves and for 0:09:21.080 --> 0:09:23.600 our friends, and that just started to grow from there. 0:09:23.880 --> 0:09:25.920 So you have you You said that you and Chris 0:09:25.960 --> 0:09:30.079 both got your start um in the music industry, record business. Um, 0:09:30.120 --> 0:09:32.360 when we had first met, you gave me the backstory 0:09:32.480 --> 0:09:35.280 that the Infatuation really just started as a side hustle. 0:09:35.880 --> 0:09:38.480 Can you talk a little bit about, um, what that 0:09:38.559 --> 0:09:40.679 was like in terms of growing something on the side 0:09:40.679 --> 0:09:43.840 and at what point you and Chris knew that we've 0:09:43.960 --> 0:09:45.920 arrived at a place where we can walk away from 0:09:45.920 --> 0:09:48.800 our jobs at these labels and actually make the Infatuation 0:09:48.840 --> 0:09:51.680 a full time gig. Yeah. Um, so we we did 0:09:51.679 --> 0:09:53.600 this for five years while we had our full time 0:09:53.640 --> 0:09:56.280 gigs in the music business. Um. It was quite quite 0:09:56.280 --> 0:09:58.960 a journey, um from the beginning. But this was always 0:09:59.000 --> 0:10:02.000 it was never something that we arted that we were like, oh, 0:10:02.200 --> 0:10:05.360 this is a side project that we're just doing it 0:10:05.440 --> 0:10:08.120 for the passion, right, Like this was always like we're 0:10:08.160 --> 0:10:10.840 building a business. Yeah, Like we had always we met 0:10:11.520 --> 0:10:13.520 a long time. We actually met on set at TRL 0:10:13.600 --> 0:10:16.000 of all places were amazing when we were both college 0:10:16.160 --> 0:10:20.200 music college music directors at our respective college radio stations. 0:10:21.080 --> 0:10:22.280 When we were I told you that I had a 0:10:22.320 --> 0:10:25.400 guest appearance on the grind. That's that is amazing. Where 0:10:25.440 --> 0:10:30.840 is that of my prom weekend? Is that it? Does 0:10:30.880 --> 0:10:33.920 the tape exist? I hope not? All? Right? Anyway, keeping 0:10:34.120 --> 0:10:37.280 it was cool because we've you know, we we had 0:10:37.480 --> 0:10:40.520 the luxury of working in the music business and our 0:10:40.559 --> 0:10:43.760 bosses approved of what we were doing, which was huge, 0:10:43.840 --> 0:10:46.800 and they were really supportive. And I don't know that 0:10:46.800 --> 0:10:50.199 any other industry would have supported something like this, but 0:10:50.760 --> 0:10:52.240 they got it, and it was a compliment to what 0:10:52.280 --> 0:10:54.360 we were doing. And you know, we were able to 0:10:54.360 --> 0:10:58.120 build slowly, right. We spent so much time just in 0:10:58.240 --> 0:11:03.360 it marketing and guerrilla grassroots marketing our brand the way 0:11:03.400 --> 0:11:04.680 that we knew how to build a band. You know, 0:11:04.679 --> 0:11:06.480 we we basically applied everything we knew about building a 0:11:06.520 --> 0:11:08.720 band to building a brand that happened to be a 0:11:08.760 --> 0:11:12.800 brand that encapsulated restaurant reviews, right, and and we took 0:11:12.840 --> 0:11:14.760 all the tricks that we had learned in terms of 0:11:15.000 --> 0:11:18.000 building audience, building community and really connecting with them and 0:11:18.040 --> 0:11:21.440 taking the time to communicate and make people feel like 0:11:21.440 --> 0:11:23.920 they're part of something. In addition to trying to write 0:11:23.960 --> 0:11:26.440 hit songs right, trying to continue to write stuff that 0:11:26.520 --> 0:11:28.880 people were going to respond to and connect with. So 0:11:28.960 --> 0:11:32.080 it took you know, not building a brand is it 0:11:32.120 --> 0:11:35.000 takes a long time. You know, learning trust is something 0:11:35.040 --> 0:11:38.080 that you cannot as Chris, my business partner, says all 0:11:38.080 --> 0:11:40.320 the time, you can't growth hack trust. There's just no 0:11:40.360 --> 0:11:44.160 way to do it. And you know, we're we've been 0:11:44.200 --> 0:11:46.520 at you know, it took a minute, but you know, 0:11:46.640 --> 0:11:48.839 slowly but surely, you would just see it. Every point 0:11:48.920 --> 0:11:51.440 we would get another hit or something would happen and 0:11:51.480 --> 0:11:53.680 like we move up a notch and it would keep growing, 0:11:53.720 --> 0:11:56.480 slowly but surely, and you you know, I first our 0:11:56.480 --> 0:11:58.600 friends and our friends and friends and then strangers, and 0:11:58.640 --> 0:12:00.440 then all of a sudden we were d having people 0:12:00.440 --> 0:12:02.880 into restaurants and making a difference and you just could 0:12:02.960 --> 0:12:05.280 see it growing and at you know, one point and 0:12:05.280 --> 0:12:06.680 it was just like, all right, if this is going 0:12:06.760 --> 0:12:11.400 to be fully realized, um to its full potential, it's 0:12:11.480 --> 0:12:13.200 time to jump. And it took us like a year 0:12:13.280 --> 0:12:15.800 to fully unwind from our jobs and like convince people 0:12:15.840 --> 0:12:18.440 that we were actually going to do this time and 0:12:18.480 --> 0:12:20.120 this is gonna be our thing, even though we knew 0:12:20.480 --> 0:12:22.000 deep down that this was what we were going to do. 0:12:22.200 --> 0:12:24.319 Let's go into the community, because Alex and I kind 0:12:24.760 --> 0:12:27.320 of about what it takes, because I don't think a 0:12:27.320 --> 0:12:30.120 lot of people understand, especially in the fact that you 0:12:30.200 --> 0:12:33.199 talked a lot about this off Mike, that you didn't 0:12:33.200 --> 0:12:35.959 put paid investment behind, that you haven't taken money from 0:12:36.040 --> 0:12:38.679 vcs to investigate. Everything was very grassroots in the same 0:12:38.679 --> 0:12:41.920 way as you you um referenced, in the same way 0:12:41.920 --> 0:12:44.000 you would build a band or a following up a band. 0:12:44.160 --> 0:12:46.960 Can you talk about what community building look like at 0:12:47.000 --> 0:12:50.160 the Infatuation early days and how that plan has evolved 0:12:50.520 --> 0:12:52.720 like early early days. I mean, look, we we we 0:12:52.800 --> 0:12:56.000 launched the Infatuation in April two nine, right, and the 0:12:56.000 --> 0:12:58.800 iPhone was like two years old. Twitter was brand new, 0:12:59.080 --> 0:13:03.720 and we knew that this was going to be a 0:13:04.000 --> 0:13:06.319 business and a you know, brand that was built on 0:13:06.360 --> 0:13:10.000 the back of social media. And we spent hours on 0:13:10.040 --> 0:13:12.679 Twitter building community. I mean, like we would go in 0:13:12.720 --> 0:13:16.599 there and just start responding to anybody talking about Momofuku 0:13:16.760 --> 0:13:20.000 or shake Shack or any of the restaurants that were 0:13:20.320 --> 0:13:22.680 popular and cool and people were talking about on social 0:13:22.720 --> 0:13:25.720 Media's hop into conversations like posts, follow people and hope 0:13:25.720 --> 0:13:27.839 they would follow us back. And I would sit there 0:13:27.880 --> 0:13:30.079 for three hours literally a day, just doing stuff. And 0:13:30.120 --> 0:13:31.520 at that point it was like I'll go on chow 0:13:31.600 --> 0:13:34.600 Hound and start like jumping into conversations because it was 0:13:34.600 --> 0:13:36.800 like a message board back then that like people actually 0:13:36.880 --> 0:13:39.280 kind of used to get recommendations, and I would. I 0:13:39.280 --> 0:13:40.960 had no business, I've never been on it before in 0:13:40.960 --> 0:13:43.439 my life, but like I started going in there and 0:13:43.880 --> 0:13:47.480 posting part of our reviews to relevant things, and you know, 0:13:47.760 --> 0:13:49.439 hoping that people would click on our links and we'd 0:13:49.480 --> 0:13:51.480 go on Yelp. We got kicked off Yelp like three 0:13:51.520 --> 0:13:54.520 times because because I'd basically go on all the restaurant 0:13:54.520 --> 0:13:57.160 pages and then be like, here's two or three lines 0:13:57.200 --> 0:13:58.600 from our review, go check out the whole thing. At 0:13:59.320 --> 0:14:01.960 that point, it was a maculate infatuation dot com and 0:14:02.360 --> 0:14:04.000 they kicked me off because they like, see you later. 0:14:04.040 --> 0:14:06.360 What are you're doing? Stop? Stop using this to self promote. 0:14:06.360 --> 0:14:08.760 But it's all about trying to find audience that might 0:14:08.760 --> 0:14:11.480 be interested in what you're doing and spending the time 0:14:11.520 --> 0:14:13.400 to go connect with people in those worlds. And like 0:14:13.440 --> 0:14:17.319 that's what we did for literally five years. And how 0:14:17.360 --> 0:14:20.480 big is the community today. It's tough to I mean, 0:14:20.480 --> 0:14:23.760 like across all platforms, we probably reach about three million 0:14:23.760 --> 0:14:25.840 people a month. But you know we have like Instagram 0:14:25.880 --> 0:14:29.080 is also a huge piece of our community, puzzle right, 0:14:29.240 --> 0:14:31.840 And and so we're events, Like we started doing events 0:14:32.600 --> 0:14:34.600 one year in as a company. We put tickets on 0:14:34.640 --> 0:14:36.800 sale though an event that we called Turkey Leg Ball 0:14:36.960 --> 0:14:40.400 and it was like a fun just like ridiculous party 0:14:40.400 --> 0:14:42.280 where we got a couple of brands to come in 0:14:42.360 --> 0:14:45.680 McCallan being one of them, and come poor drinks and 0:14:45.720 --> 0:14:48.000 serve food and have a good time. And you know, 0:14:48.040 --> 0:14:50.440 we had remember going into a meeting at work we 0:14:50.440 --> 0:14:52.640 had put tickets on sale, went into a meeting, came 0:14:52.640 --> 0:14:54.160 out an hour later and we were sold out three 0:14:54.480 --> 0:14:56.360 tickets and we were like are they before we could 0:14:56.400 --> 0:14:57.600 even go to friends and family and we were like 0:14:57.600 --> 0:14:59.880 who are these people? But like the reality is that 0:15:00.000 --> 0:15:02.600 people want to come and hang, they want they want 0:15:02.600 --> 0:15:06.680 to meet like minded people, create something, you know, a 0:15:06.720 --> 0:15:10.160 community around an idea that people want to share on 0:15:10.200 --> 0:15:11.800 and it's it's similar, like what you guys are doing 0:15:11.880 --> 0:15:13.600 right now. I think people who listened to this show 0:15:13.720 --> 0:15:15.800 want more. Like I started listening to the show and 0:15:15.840 --> 0:15:18.240 I'm like, this is amazing because I'm really interested in 0:15:18.280 --> 0:15:21.600 this world, and I think you guys know what you know? 0:15:21.640 --> 0:15:23.920 You you connect on a real level. How did you 0:15:23.920 --> 0:15:27.560 find it? I was tipped off by a girl we 0:15:27.560 --> 0:15:30.080 were interviewing, who was like, do you listen to this podcast? 0:15:30.120 --> 0:15:32.480 And I was like, what did you hire? I tried 0:15:32.520 --> 0:15:36.240 to started binging all but and then immediately I hopped 0:15:36.240 --> 0:15:37.520 on Twitter and it was like, what are you guys doing? 0:15:37.840 --> 0:15:41.240 Because it's something that I think is necessary and interesting, 0:15:41.280 --> 0:15:42.880 and I think there's a there's a big need for 0:15:42.920 --> 0:15:46.200 a fresh voice in the whole advertising stings. There is, 0:15:47.120 --> 0:15:48.320 and I think it's the same the same. It was 0:15:48.360 --> 0:15:50.560 the same thing for food, right, like the same want 0:15:50.560 --> 0:15:52.840 to say, the same voices had been around for so 0:15:52.880 --> 0:15:55.840 long it was you know they all do who are 0:15:55.880 --> 0:16:00.280 those voices? So it's like New York Times and New 0:16:00.320 --> 0:16:02.840 York Meg and Food and Wine and the Food Network 0:16:02.880 --> 0:16:05.680 and like those those are all great publications, right like 0:16:05.680 --> 0:16:07.880 they all serve a specific audience and they do it 0:16:08.240 --> 0:16:11.600 really really well. But like for a community that is 0:16:11.680 --> 0:16:15.840 being you know, connected to each other via social and 0:16:15.960 --> 0:16:18.280 the Internet, it's it's a different thing. I think what 0:16:18.320 --> 0:16:20.240 Alex and I are after marketing is the very same 0:16:20.280 --> 0:16:22.320 thing you know you're talking about in the food business. 0:16:22.320 --> 0:16:25.600 It's it's access. It's sort of that underground niche we've 0:16:25.600 --> 0:16:28.440 been talking about this rat pack community that we're creating 0:16:28.480 --> 0:16:32.240 that um really speaks to the author that, like you 0:16:32.240 --> 0:16:33.880 talked about, I just want to get a review about 0:16:33.880 --> 0:16:35.840 where to get a burger with my buddy, and we 0:16:35.880 --> 0:16:38.480 want to talk about the conversations over spicy margarita that 0:16:39.680 --> 0:16:41.560 people don't hear and they're not having these kind of 0:16:41.560 --> 0:16:43.760 provocative conversations that they need to have and bring it 0:16:43.800 --> 0:16:46.640 mainstream and stereo sound, you know, totally. And it's also 0:16:46.680 --> 0:16:49.120 about empowering people with knowledge, right, I think I think 0:16:49.120 --> 0:16:51.200 it's like the one of the best things that people 0:16:51.440 --> 0:16:53.400 have always said to us is that, like you make 0:16:53.480 --> 0:16:55.240 me look so good because you give us all this 0:16:55.280 --> 0:16:57.480 information and we pass it on as our own and 0:16:57.520 --> 0:16:59.800 like we look like a million bucks. And that's the 0:16:59.840 --> 0:17:01.960 whole point for us at least. Right, It's like this 0:17:02.000 --> 0:17:05.119 discovery platform where we want people to know all the 0:17:05.160 --> 0:17:07.520 great spots and like, if we're helping you pack a 0:17:07.560 --> 0:17:09.680 great restaurant for a first date and that works out, 0:17:10.119 --> 0:17:12.920 you're gonna So what are brands when they are coming 0:17:12.960 --> 0:17:15.760 to you? Because I assume a lot of them, I 0:17:15.800 --> 0:17:18.800 know are coming to you. Yeah, I mean they come, 0:17:18.840 --> 0:17:21.160 we go to them. That's been our like, we we 0:17:21.160 --> 0:17:23.359 were really pretty you say I want to work with 0:17:23.400 --> 0:17:25.840 you because we we we I mean, our whole world 0:17:25.880 --> 0:17:29.240 is curation, right, So like we've been really specific about 0:17:29.840 --> 0:17:31.679 the brands that we work with from the beginning, and 0:17:31.680 --> 0:17:34.720 we knew that coming from the music business, brands underwriting 0:17:34.720 --> 0:17:37.200 a lot of the music because like music business is 0:17:37.200 --> 0:17:38.840 great because you've got to learn how to market with 0:17:38.880 --> 0:17:43.119 no money, right, So that is always a challenge that 0:17:43.160 --> 0:17:45.679 we you know, we had underwrite videos or you know, 0:17:45.760 --> 0:17:47.639 back then it was like Diesel was a big brand 0:17:47.680 --> 0:17:49.560 and like you they have a community people you could 0:17:49.600 --> 0:17:55.600 get a song on their seeing Yeah, well sure, um, 0:17:55.640 --> 0:17:58.120 but you know they would create you can they could 0:17:58.119 --> 0:18:01.200 bring in money, they could create new audience to market 0:18:01.240 --> 0:18:03.680 yourself towards. So you know, we we when we started 0:18:03.680 --> 0:18:05.400 the company, we made a list of brands that were 0:18:05.440 --> 0:18:07.160 on our hit list from the beginning, from day one 0:18:07.200 --> 0:18:10.680 that we're like American Express and Nike and Whole Foods 0:18:10.680 --> 0:18:15.760 and at that time like Seamless and Delta, and you know, 0:18:15.800 --> 0:18:18.160 we just started hacking away, you know, trying to figure 0:18:18.200 --> 0:18:20.720 out how to make relationships with these people. And it 0:18:20.760 --> 0:18:22.320 took a lot of time. Like I was knocking on 0:18:22.320 --> 0:18:26.119 the m X door for literally five years before I 0:18:26.240 --> 0:18:28.920 finally cracked it open to get in there. And now 0:18:28.960 --> 0:18:31.480 there are longest tenured and biggest partner and we do 0:18:31.520 --> 0:18:33.320 all kinds of interesting stuff with them. So what are 0:18:33.359 --> 0:18:35.879 you focusing on? Because you told me, like, I'm not 0:18:36.000 --> 0:18:38.640 from this industry. I didn't grow up in media. I'm 0:18:38.680 --> 0:18:42.560 not beholden to legacy. What is that experience? Right? It's 0:18:42.560 --> 0:18:44.479 like this, So what is your social experience? Where do 0:18:44.560 --> 0:18:47.959 consumers and real human beings spend their time? Right, they 0:18:47.960 --> 0:18:50.760 spend their time on their phones. They are scrolling through Instagram, 0:18:50.760 --> 0:18:54.159 they are on Twitter, They're on whatever platforms they are 0:18:54.240 --> 0:18:57.400 choosing right there, messaging with their friends, like texting back 0:18:57.440 --> 0:19:00.800 and forth, and they're going to do ship do cool things. Right. 0:19:00.840 --> 0:19:03.520 They want to go and experience things and meet new 0:19:03.560 --> 0:19:06.639 people and post stuff on their social media about how 0:19:06.640 --> 0:19:09.719 cool their lives are. Right like, and so that's what 0:19:09.760 --> 0:19:12.439 we do. We create experiences online and off and like 0:19:12.520 --> 0:19:14.800 in a great brand into our world. So right like, 0:19:14.840 --> 0:19:17.480 we're a restaurant discovery platform. All the guides and content 0:19:17.520 --> 0:19:19.639 that we do on the web, it's all based around 0:19:20.240 --> 0:19:23.840 you know, food dining restaurants. You know, we don't do 0:19:23.920 --> 0:19:25.920 news or anything like that, but we are able to 0:19:26.000 --> 0:19:28.760 underwrite a lot of that stuff around a narrative or 0:19:28.760 --> 0:19:30.600 a theme that we would do anyway that we can 0:19:30.600 --> 0:19:33.000 fit a brand into. And you have a very editorial, 0:19:33.680 --> 0:19:37.880 right perspective. It is absolutely editorial, and it's a very 0:19:37.880 --> 0:19:40.399 specific voice and p O V and and we'll do 0:19:40.520 --> 0:19:43.240 like a package of content like our Summer Guide, for example, 0:19:43.240 --> 0:19:46.040 which we've now done for six straight years. We've sold 0:19:46.040 --> 0:19:47.600 it for five straight years that we sell for a 0:19:47.680 --> 0:19:50.320 ton of money. That's a big content package that a 0:19:50.400 --> 0:19:53.199 brand underwrites the stellar artois and what does that look like? 0:19:53.359 --> 0:19:56.600 What does that incorporate Here incorporates a big launch of content. 0:19:56.720 --> 0:19:58.719 They own a couple of the guides inside of it. 0:19:58.760 --> 0:20:00.560 We do a ton of social content tent where we'll 0:20:00.560 --> 0:20:04.880 go to a bunch of accounts that they have UM 0:20:05.080 --> 0:20:07.679