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Speaker 1: Welcome to Strictly Business Variety, weekly podcasts featuring conversations about

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Speaker 1: the business of media and entertainment. I'm senior business writer,

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Speaker 1: TV and video games Jennifer Moss. Found up in twenty sixteen,

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Speaker 1: legion M billed itself as the first fan owned media company,

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Speaker 1: using disruptive new equity crowdfunding laws that allow people to

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Speaker 1: invest as little as forty dollars to own a piece

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Speaker 1: of the company. Legionem has produced films including My Dead

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Speaker 1: Friend Zoe, a hit at last year south By Southwest

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Speaker 1: that's set to launch in theaters February twenty eighth, and

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Speaker 1: the documentary William Shatner. You can call me Bill. Here

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Speaker 1: to speak with us today about legion M's philosophy and

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Speaker 1: business model is co founder and CEO Paul Scanlon. Thank

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Speaker 1: you for taking it time to join me today, and

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Speaker 1: it's exciting to finally be talking about the release of

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Speaker 1: My Dead Friend Zoe after I had the pleasure of

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Speaker 1: seeing it at south By last year, so.

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Speaker 2: The very first time I was shown, Yes, it was.

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Speaker 1: Exciting, it was a big deal, and you guys came

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Speaker 1: out very well out of south By with that prize,

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Speaker 1: and yeah, let's start there, let's start with that as

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Speaker 1: as a good starting point for what Legion IV is

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Speaker 1: trying to do and and that being an example of

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Speaker 1: one of your projects. So can you start there.

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Speaker 2: Absolutely. Yeah, thank you, Jenny, it's nice to see you again.

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Speaker 2: And uh yeah, we're approaching that moment that we've been

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Speaker 2: working towards for, you know, multiple years now. And Kyle

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Speaker 2: Housman Stokes, our writer and director, is I mean, this

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Speaker 2: has been this is his life's work. I mean, the

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Speaker 2: movie is really about his life. But we're we're really

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Speaker 2: excited about it because you know, it's it's been a journey,

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Speaker 2: you know, working on this film, and but also we

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Speaker 2: really feel like this film is very important, you know,

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Speaker 2: and it's a movie that can you know, have a

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Speaker 2: purpose and and do good for society and help people.

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Speaker 2: It's also entertaining and you know, as you as you

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Speaker 2: know you've seen it, it's it's it's funny and it's

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Speaker 2: also tragic at the same time, which is you know,

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Speaker 2: as Natalie Morales likes to say, it's like that's what

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Speaker 2: life is like, you know, that's what our lives are like.

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Speaker 2: And uh yeah, So we'll be releasing the film with

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Speaker 2: Briar Cliff On the twenty eighth. We're excited to be

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Speaker 2: working with Tom Mortenberg and his team and they've been

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Speaker 2: doing a great job getting you know everything, everything's set up,

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Speaker 2: but it's yeah, it's going to go out and it's

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Speaker 2: going to be in theaters. And one of the things

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Speaker 2: that like for Legion them, it's really you know, it's culminating,

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Speaker 2: you know, peak for us because you know, when we

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Speaker 2: started this film, like, this is a film that you know,

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Speaker 2: it really embodies the Legion M model, which is, you know, Kyle,

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Speaker 2: it's the first time feature director. You know, we learned

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Speaker 2: about this story through one of our advisors, Richard Silverman,

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Speaker 2: connected us to him, and you know, we took it

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Speaker 2: to our community, which we always do. I mean, just

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Speaker 2: as you're familiar with our community. But Legion M is

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Speaker 2: a fan and owned entertainment company and what that means

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Speaker 2: is that we're guided by and supported by our community,

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Speaker 2: and so before we embark on these long journeys, we

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Speaker 2: we always go to them and say, hey, what do

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Speaker 2: you what do you guys think of these projects? And

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Speaker 2: this was a project that really resonated with our community,

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Speaker 2: and so you know, it's not just the team that's

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Speaker 2: been working on this, that is excited and anticipating this release.

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Speaker 2: But the thousands and tens of thousands of people that

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Speaker 2: are you know, a part of Legion M are really

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Speaker 2: kind of, you know, right there at our side anticipating

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Speaker 2: this release as well.

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Speaker 1: Let's go back, you know, to the launch was started

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Speaker 1: leave you I'm twenty sixteen. Let's let's talk about, you know,

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Speaker 1: the idea for a fan owned media company and what

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Speaker 1: that would mean, where that came from, and what it

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Speaker 1: actually means to be owned by fans and liman terms,

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Speaker 1: how you would exscribe it people, what does that mean?

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Speaker 2: Yeah, sure, So well, back in twenty sixteen, there's really

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Speaker 2: you know, we were you know, just getting started, and

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Speaker 2: there was really a concept and a little bit of

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Speaker 2: an experiment. I mean actually one hundred percent in experiment.

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Speaker 2: You know, my co founder Jeff Anderson, he and I

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Speaker 2: have started three companies together. We started a very successful

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Speaker 2: streaming company early on. Then we did a kind of

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Speaker 2: similar model in music, you know, for a few years,

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Speaker 2: and when we decided to do Legion M, where we're

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Speaker 2: really kind of looking at a couple of the combination

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Speaker 2: of a few things, which is the first thing is

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Speaker 2: understanding because you know, we're we're entertainment executives like that

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Speaker 2: came to the industry from Silicon Valley side, so we're

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Speaker 2: a little bit of like insiders with an outsider's perspective,

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Speaker 2: I guess, or just looking at like the industry critically

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Speaker 2: and like looking at ways that we can improve it

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Speaker 2: or try to, you know, do things differently. And one

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Speaker 2: of the things that I think is a kind of

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Speaker 2: fairly common refrain from people in the industry and outside

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Speaker 2: the industry is that, you know, our Hollywood's obsession with

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Speaker 2: the built in audience has created a little bit of

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Speaker 2: a paradox right where we prioritize existing IP over anything

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Speaker 2: else and then we're starving for fresh ideas. And one

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Speaker 2: of the things that we really feel like Legion M

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Speaker 2: can represent is this entertainment company that's owned by a

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Speaker 2: built in audience, but that built in audience is diverse

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Speaker 2: and it's versatile, so it's not tied to existing IP

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Speaker 2: or you know, focused on retreading and existing franchise. Where

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Speaker 2: versatile we can introduce the introduce new concepts and new

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Speaker 2: fresh IP and hopefully get birth to some some new

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Speaker 2: franchises in the future.

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Speaker 1: So when it when it comes to development. How does

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Speaker 1: Legion M handle something like that when you're looking at

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Speaker 1: what projects to do? Is it done by fan consensus

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Speaker 1: and how does that work?

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Speaker 2: Yeah, it's a great question. I wouldn't say we like

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Speaker 2: fan consensus would be like a strong way of describing it,

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Speaker 2: like fan guided one hundred percent. You know, like we

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Speaker 2: go to our community and but we never like put

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Speaker 2: projects up like for a vote and have them compete

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Speaker 2: against each other or anything like that. It's more that

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Speaker 2: we have we have a part of our platform, our

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Speaker 2: communication platform that we call Impulse and impulses anytime we're

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Speaker 2: looking for feedback on something, it could be on new

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Speaker 2: projects that were considering. It could be you know, trailers

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Speaker 2: that could be casting, it could be anything like we

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Speaker 2: you know, anytime either ourselves or our partners are looking

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Speaker 2: for feedback, we have this sort of you know, built

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Speaker 2: in focus group. We can go to them and you know,

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Speaker 2: we can pose these questions and literally overnight we can

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Speaker 2: have tens of thousands of people giving us feedback and

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Speaker 2: so we'll know like oh okay, you know, and leg

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Speaker 2: to them like one thing that's really important to us

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Speaker 2: and this was something that we made this promise when

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Speaker 2: we started the company is that we genuinely care about

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Speaker 2: what the community wants. You know, We're not just here

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Speaker 2: to like produce content that I think is good and

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Speaker 2: I'm just gonna tell everyone else they should like it.

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Speaker 2: We really believe that this collaborative approach to it where

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Speaker 2: we can get that early insight and understanding and know

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Speaker 2: that like, okay, we're working on a project that is resonating,

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Speaker 2: and so like in the case of my dead friend Zoe,

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Speaker 2: this is exactly what we did like before we you know,

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Speaker 2: we met Kyle, we were impressed by the project. It

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Speaker 2: didn't have any cast, it was just a screenplay and

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Speaker 2: Kyle had made a short film that was very compelling,

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Speaker 2: and you know, we were moved by it. But then

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Speaker 2: we put that out to our community and just said, hey,

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Speaker 2: you know, what do you think. We know that we've

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Speaker 2: got a lot of military and veterans. I mean, what's

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Speaker 2: nice about Legion M is we're literally like a cross

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Speaker 2: section of society. You know, we're not in one direction.

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Speaker 2: We're not one political party, We're not one you know,

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Speaker 2: like demographic, we're not one geographic. You know, We're across

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Speaker 2: section and that's by design. Like we really want to

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Speaker 2: be you know, a diverse community because we believe that

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Speaker 2: content can you know, it doesn't. We have so many

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Speaker 2: things that are divisive in our world today. Uh, and

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Speaker 2: content can be divisive, but content can also be unifying.

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Speaker 2: And that's one thing that like we really care about,

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Speaker 2: like we want, you know, all of our projects aren't

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Speaker 2: going to have the same level of purpose that like

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Speaker 2: my dead friend Zoe has, but everything will have some meaning,

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Speaker 2: some important meaning to it. But anyway, so we put

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Speaker 2: this out to our community and yeah, they've really you know, resonated,

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Speaker 2: and so we have very positive feedback. So we knew

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Speaker 2: we're onto something. But then that that measure gets tested

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Speaker 2: when we when we start the project because typically, and

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Speaker 2: not always, sometimes we're just developing something and we already

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Speaker 2: have the finance lined up or a buyer or something else.

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Speaker 2: But in other cases, we plan to finance it ourselves.

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Speaker 2: And if we're financing it ourselves, then you know, we're

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Speaker 2: going to go out to our community just to back

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Speaker 2: up and explain. So we have over fifty thousand investors

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Speaker 2: that co own the company. They've invested in the production

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Speaker 2: company which is leading them, and that's a company that

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Speaker 2: we expect to continue to grow and we'll have a

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Speaker 2: diverse portfolio of content in the feature film space and

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Speaker 2: also in television. But from time to time, and because

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Speaker 2: we asked our community, like what else could we be

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Speaker 2: doing that we're not doing, and they said, hey, when

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Speaker 2: you know, when you go out and you're looking for

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Speaker 2: finance for films, come to us. We want to make

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Speaker 2: direct investments into those projects. And so we did that

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Speaker 2: with my dead friend Zoe. It was the second project

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Speaker 2: we did. The first project was our William Shatner documentary

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Speaker 2: that we financed, fully financed that project with our community

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Speaker 2: with two emails in four days, and we had enough money.

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Speaker 2: We had to turn it off because we're like, okay,

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Speaker 2: we have enough money. It's a documentary we don't need,

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Speaker 2: you know, And so you know, we we produced that film.

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Speaker 2: It also premiered it south By. It's got a theatrical release,

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Speaker 2: was one of the top performing, you know, documentaries of

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Speaker 2: that year. And now it's out in the marketplace and

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Speaker 2: doing well, and you know, money is going to be

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Speaker 2: coming back to our community, the ones that made the

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Speaker 2: direct investment. So we always tell you know, we're never

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Speaker 2: high pressure in our community, like it's always purely optional,

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Speaker 2: and we're really transparent about the risks. This is one

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Speaker 2: thing that I think, you know, not a lot of

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Speaker 2: producers and fundraisers in this industry do very well, is

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Speaker 2: like explain how risky these investments are. But we also

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Speaker 2: want to, like we believe that Legion m is one

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Speaker 2: of those levers that can reduce the risk on investment,

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Speaker 2: you know, And so we took this one out. My

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Speaker 2: Dead friend Zoe was our next film that we were

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Speaker 2: going to finance directly with our community. And you know,

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Speaker 2: I'm not going to talk about the budget of the

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Speaker 2: film because you know it's but two thirds of the

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Speaker 2: finance came from our community, like and just by sending

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Speaker 2: emails and letting them know about it. And that was

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Speaker 2: a substantial amount of money, like much more than what

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Speaker 2: we needed. I mean, we have Morgan Freeman, Ed Harris,

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Speaker 2: and Eka, Martin Green, Natalie More, we have a cast.

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Speaker 2: Well what's amazing about this is when we went to

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Speaker 2: our community, like they have been there from the time

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Speaker 2: that it was just a script. They were there when

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Speaker 2: we got Ed Harris, they were there when we got

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Speaker 2: Morgan Freeman. And these are celebration events like when we

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Speaker 2: when we attached Morgan Freeman to our community, we tell

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Speaker 2: them and of course everybody celebrates and you know, it's

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Speaker 2: and it's these galvanizing moments. And then you know, you

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Speaker 2: were there at South Bay when we premiered the film.

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Speaker 2: We probably had you know, two hundred of our investors

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Speaker 2: in the film were there, you know, celebrating with us.

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Speaker 2: But so you know, we also have another partner. So

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Speaker 2: in that case we had Radiant Media Studios was our

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Speaker 2: other finance partner. So they brought in the other third

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Speaker 2: of the money. That included Travis Kelce who's one of

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Speaker 2: the EPs on the project. And you know, they've been

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Speaker 2: a great partner. So it's really been you know, it's

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Speaker 2: been this awesome journey, you know that our community. And actually,

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Speaker 2: if you're interested, I can share with you just some

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Speaker 2: of the feedback that we get from the people involved

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Speaker 2: that are making these direct investments. And you know why

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Speaker 2: they make that investment, you know, because most of our investors, yeah,

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Speaker 2: it's a financial decision, but it's really an emotional decision.

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Speaker 2: They want to be a part of something, they want

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Speaker 2: to back something that is worthy and has purpose. But

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Speaker 2: then they get all this emotional ROI from you know,

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Speaker 2: being there at south By or you know, celebrating these

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Speaker 2: wins when we attach and now that we're getting a

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Speaker 2: theatrical release, you know, this is one of the things

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Speaker 2: that like when we when we started this project, we

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Speaker 2: can't promise them that the movie's ever going to be

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Speaker 2: in theaters. You know, that's not like we're not making,

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Speaker 2: you know, movies that are guaranteed to get that. So

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Speaker 2: to be able to get that and to get the

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Speaker 2: Briarcliffe level of support, and then we do. We haven't

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Speaker 2: announced it yet, but we do have a major studio

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Speaker 2: that picked up the worldwide rights to the film, which

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Speaker 2: is amazing for us and it's really good financially for

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Speaker 2: our investors because that matters to us because we want

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Speaker 2: them to want to do this again.

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Speaker 1: How sooner are we going to be annouing the worldwide partner.

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Speaker 2: That's a great question. We have a call tomorrow. I'm hoping.

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Speaker 2: I'm hoping it's coming soon. I mean, we're releasing in

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Speaker 2: just a couple of weeks, so yeah, February twenty.

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Speaker 1: Yes, all right, No, I mean that's amazing to hear

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Speaker 1: and the understanding of why people are looking to do

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Speaker 1: this so I know that based on the Job Act,

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Speaker 1: it was that allowed people to invest as little as

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Speaker 1: forty dollars to own a piece of the company. Is

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Speaker 1: that correct? And so I want to know what that

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Speaker 1: looks like for investors versus what they get returns, what

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Speaker 1: shares are worth, profit sharing, that kind of thing, and

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Speaker 1: how you will break down that internet?

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Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, absolutely so yeah, so we there's two ways

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Speaker 2: to invest in Legion them. So the first one is

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Speaker 2: investing in the company itself, and we always tell anyone

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Speaker 2: considering that investment just know that this is a very

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Speaker 2: high risk investment in a startup.

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Speaker 1: Yeah.

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Speaker 2: I mean we've been around for nine years, so we're

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Speaker 2: not exactly the startup, but we're.

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Speaker 1: Like a new levels of startup.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, We're not a huge studio, you're We're a new

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Speaker 2: entrant in a very dynamic, hit driven space. Right, So

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Speaker 2: it's a risky Like, we just are very transparent with

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Speaker 2: people that like, don't invest more than you can afford

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Speaker 2: to lose. Statistically, the most likely outcome is that Legion

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Speaker 2: M goes out of business trying to do what we what.

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Speaker 2: You know, it's just a reality that every entrepreneur needs

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Speaker 2: to understand. It's what motivates us is because we are

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Speaker 2: it is life or death. Everything is life or death.

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Speaker 2: But if we're successful, we believe that we can go

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Speaker 2: on and create a company that is one of the

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Speaker 2: more one of the most valuable companies in the space.

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Speaker 2: And that's what we're focused on. So the average investor

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Speaker 2: puts like four hundred dollars in the minimum investment. In

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Speaker 2: our last round, we lowered the minimum investment to just

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Speaker 2: forty dollars. You invest, you can buy shares for just

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Speaker 2: forty dollars. There's still their Jobs Act shares, so there

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Speaker 2: you can sell them. There are some rules around it,

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Speaker 2: but you can sell them, but there's no like open

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Speaker 2: market to sell them, so there's not a lot of

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Speaker 2: liquidity with those investments. But our plan is, you know,

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Speaker 2: and we don't talk about a timeline or anything like

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Speaker 2: that just yet, but our plan is to ultimately take

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Speaker 2: the company public right and there'll be a point in

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Speaker 2: time where we're required to do that by the SEC

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Speaker 2: because we already have fifty thousand investors, so at some

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Speaker 2: point we're just going to need to list it at

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Speaker 2: a very minimum and more likely like take it through

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Speaker 2: and take it through an IPM. But so the investors

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Speaker 2: that invested in that first round, you know, invested at

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Speaker 2: a share value that's been going up ever since. And

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Speaker 2: so you know, I don't know the exact statistic, but

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Speaker 2: they probably tripled their money, you know, assuming that they

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Speaker 2: could you know, liquidate and sell the shares. And you know,

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Speaker 2: so every round. We just closed our ninth it was

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Speaker 2: our largest round that we've ever had, and we're about

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Speaker 2: to open our tenth round. So we'll be opening that

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Speaker 2: actually by the time this podcast there is, it'll it'll

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Speaker 2: it'll be open hopefully not on what but so that'll

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Speaker 2: be our tenth round. We you know, every time we

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Speaker 2: do this because the company, you know, the valuation of

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Speaker 2: the company is determined by several factors. One is the

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Speaker 2: you know, diversity and value of the projects that we're

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Speaker 2: involved in. Also the size of our community, right because

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Speaker 2: the bigger our community gets, the more valuable the company is.

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Speaker 2: And then of course our revenue and other financial metrics,

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Speaker 2: and all of those have been trending upwards, right like

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Speaker 2: our our slate keeps growing with bigger and to be honest,

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Speaker 2: like I mean better projects like my dead friend Zoe is,

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Speaker 2: I mean, it's it's you know, it's one of the

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Speaker 2: best projects that we've ever been involved in. And it's

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Speaker 2: not just a project that we're involved in, like we

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Speaker 2: this is our project, Like this was what we call

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Speaker 2: born at Legion M project, Like we incubated this from

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Speaker 2: you know, from script to screen and everything. You know,

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Speaker 2: we're the producers of it. So we did, you know,

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Speaker 2: everything along the way. And you know, we have several

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Speaker 2: more projects in development. We have one in post production

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Speaker 2: right now that we're really excited about. We just watched

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Speaker 2: the first rough cut from the director and it just

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Speaker 2: completely blew us away. And when you see it, you'll

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Speaker 2: understand why we did this project because it's literally about

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Speaker 2: it's a comedic, ironic horror film about pre existing IP. Yeah,

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Speaker 2: it's great.

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Speaker 1: We'll be back with more from Legion M's Paul Scanlan

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Speaker 1: after this break. Is that sage black or is there another?

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Speaker 2: Yes?

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Speaker 1: When it when it comes with who you're looking to

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Speaker 1: partner with for these projects and things, you know, from

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Speaker 1: the investor side, the fanside, that base is there. By

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Speaker 1: the way, I think you said that one of your

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Speaker 1: long term goals is one million shoholders, and now you're

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Speaker 1: at fifty thousand, right, So that's where we are in

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Speaker 1: that count.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, okay, yeah, yeah. So if you look at our logo,

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Speaker 2: our logo is an M with the bar over it

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Speaker 2: and that so we built that long term goal into

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Speaker 2: our logo. So the mbar is a Roman numeral for

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Speaker 2: one million. That's our goal. And you know, things like

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Speaker 2: people say to us, well you're at fifty thousand, we

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Speaker 2: still have a long way to go, and that is true.

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Speaker 2: But it's also we're growing like a snowball. You know.

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Speaker 2: It's like the bigger we get, the faster we grow.

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Speaker 2: We also, we don't expect that we would need to

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Speaker 2: have a million investors before we take the company in public.

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Speaker 2: It's more likely because right now there's still a pretty

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Speaker 2: not a big hurdle, but there are hurdles to investing.

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Speaker 2: You know, you got to go sign up at this

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Speaker 2: website sec platform, and then in the next round will

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Speaker 2: actually be investors can buy shares directly from our website,

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Speaker 2: which is an exciting kind of development because it'll reduce

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Speaker 2: some of the barriers. You know, you have to provide

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Speaker 2: your self security number. It's not like you just go

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Speaker 2: into your brokerage account and you buy the shares, right,

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Speaker 2: So it's a little more complicated, but eventually we'll be

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Speaker 2: able to like just sell you the shares and your

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Speaker 2: brokerage account.

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Speaker 1: So with that and with the fans and investors and

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Speaker 1: everything and what you have going into the projects. What

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Speaker 1: does it look like on the other side when you're

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Speaker 1: looking for distribution partners, when you're working within the more

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Speaker 1: established Hollywood framework and doing something more disruptive on the

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Speaker 1: fundraising side and on the ownership side, and then looking

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Speaker 1: for traditional partners to work with, or maybe untraditional partners

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Speaker 1: like for example, the Briar Cliff Like, how do you

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Speaker 1: go to them? And you're like, well, this is my difference, Zoway,

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Speaker 1: this is what we want to do. How does that

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Speaker 1: go from a conception at Legion M to taking it

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Speaker 1: to the traditional model.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, that's a great question. I would say this is

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Speaker 2: one of the areas where, you know, things really opened

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Speaker 2: up for Legion M. Like I think when we when

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Speaker 2: we started, you know, I mean industries, not just Hollywood,

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Speaker 2: but any industries oftentimes kind of reluctant to like new

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Speaker 2: things or new things that they don't quite understand. And

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Speaker 2: I think that we we we had a little bit

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Speaker 2: of resistance to Legion M in the early days, you know,

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Speaker 2: and and it took us a while to kind of

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Speaker 2: even just explain to people what it is and you know,

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Speaker 2: help them not worry too much about it, that this

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Speaker 2: is like actually a good thing. Now, I'd say that,

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Speaker 2: like the vast majority of people we talked to are

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Speaker 2: very excited about the legion M element, Like about our

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Speaker 2: business model isn't a risk factor anymore, it's a value contributor.

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Speaker 2: Like they realize that, like, oh wow, this is a

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Speaker 2: film that's coming to us and we're going to be

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Speaker 2: the distributor. But we know we have a built an audience,

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Speaker 2: you know that a vibrant, engaged community of people that

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Speaker 2: are excited for this film. I know, you know Tom

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Speaker 2: Rtenberg at Briarcliffs that really mattered to him. You know that.

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Speaker 2: It's almost like, you know, Morgan Freeman has an audience,

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Speaker 2: you know, Ed Harris has an audience, Sunique Natalie everybody,

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Speaker 2: you know, veterans, the genre, et cetera. But then legion M.

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Speaker 2: That's this other element which is like oh yeah, and

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Speaker 2: then plus you get all these you know, this legion

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Speaker 2: M community of advocates and supporters and people that will

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Speaker 2: pre buy tickets and you know, make sure that we

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Speaker 2: can you know, get people out and amplify all the

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Speaker 2: press and other things that we're that we'll be getting.

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Speaker 2: So yeah, and then you know, you got the Travis kelceyman.

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Speaker 2: I mean, you've got a lot.

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Speaker 1: So you touched on this a little bit. But I'd

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Speaker 1: like to go back now just to your background and

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Speaker 1: Jeff's background and what really brought you to this now

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Speaker 1: and where you started and what contributes to legion.

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Speaker 2: M sure so well, so our background, So Jeff and

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Speaker 2: I we we started a company back in the early

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Speaker 2: two thousands called mob tv. It was one of the

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Speaker 2: early streaming uh pioneers. We were like an early version

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Speaker 2: of like Netflix, but for live TV back then like

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Speaker 2: the vod thing hadn't and we were targeting mobile phones.

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Speaker 2: We were the first company to stream the mobile phones.

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Speaker 2: And we we grew that company like it grew like

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Speaker 2: like wildfire. I mean it was you know, we we

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Speaker 2: grew to you know, hundreds of employees and close to

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Speaker 2: one hundred million in annual revenues and offices around the world.

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Speaker 2: It was actually this incredible experience and a real you

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Speaker 2: know journey, and we won an Emmy, uh with that

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Speaker 2: company because we were you know, it was funny because

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Speaker 2: when we started it, we were, you know, the industry

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Speaker 2: wasn't quite sure, like, oh, people would tell us like, well,

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Speaker 2: no one's going to watch video or TV on their

431
00:23:48,359 --> 00:23:51,000
Speaker 2: cell phones. That's a bad idea. But keep in mind

432
00:23:51,080 --> 00:23:53,480
Speaker 2: cell phones weren't what they are today. You know, they

433
00:23:53,480 --> 00:23:57,879
Speaker 2: were just getting the color displays. And but anyway, so

434
00:23:57,920 --> 00:23:59,879
Speaker 2: we we had a lot of success with that, and

435
00:24:00,000 --> 00:24:02,680
Speaker 2: and we had peeled out. I stayed at the company,

436
00:24:03,600 --> 00:24:06,960
Speaker 2: Jeff peeled out, and we launched something called New York

437
00:24:07,040 --> 00:24:10,919
Speaker 2: Rocket Exchange, which was kind of like an early almost NFT,

438
00:24:11,200 --> 00:24:14,840
Speaker 2: like it was a little too early. We were anticipating

439
00:24:14,880 --> 00:24:17,760
Speaker 2: the Jobs Act coming, but then the Jobs Act ended

440
00:24:17,840 --> 00:24:21,160
Speaker 2: up taking multiple years. So then when I was getting

441
00:24:21,200 --> 00:24:24,360
Speaker 2: ready to leave, New York, Rocket Exchange hadn't quite worked out.

442
00:24:24,440 --> 00:24:27,159
Speaker 2: But then so Jeff and I teamed up again and

443
00:24:27,200 --> 00:24:30,240
Speaker 2: we started this company, and we had some amazing partners

444
00:24:30,280 --> 00:24:33,400
Speaker 2: that came on board. Because when we first started, like, yeah,

445
00:24:33,440 --> 00:24:35,760
Speaker 2: we had our background, we had you know, we had

446
00:24:35,760 --> 00:24:41,879
Speaker 2: our Emmys, but we we didn't have like a slate

447
00:24:41,920 --> 00:24:45,320
Speaker 2: of projects or anything. It was really just very conceptual.

448
00:24:45,400 --> 00:24:48,480
Speaker 2: But you know, we had Stupid Buddy Studios came on

449
00:24:48,560 --> 00:24:50,960
Speaker 2: board with us. We had Neon. We had you know,

450
00:24:51,040 --> 00:24:53,840
Speaker 2: the founders of Neon, Tim League and Christian Parts and

451
00:24:54,280 --> 00:24:57,080
Speaker 2: advisors like that. We had Lisa tay Back from Netflix

452
00:24:57,160 --> 00:25:00,440
Speaker 2: or you know, later got bought by Netflix. We had

453
00:25:00,480 --> 00:25:04,200
Speaker 2: this incredible like group of people that understood what we

454
00:25:04,200 --> 00:25:07,000
Speaker 2: were trying to do and we're willing to like help

455
00:25:07,119 --> 00:25:10,399
Speaker 2: us accomplish it. And today we're you know, when we

456
00:25:10,440 --> 00:25:13,600
Speaker 2: look back at that, it's like it's funny because we think, like,

457
00:25:13,840 --> 00:25:16,159
Speaker 2: how did we even do that? Like we had nothing.

458
00:25:16,320 --> 00:25:19,400
Speaker 2: We were just like explaining what we wanted to do.

459
00:25:20,359 --> 00:25:22,720
Speaker 2: But we you know, we we we made it happen.

460
00:25:22,960 --> 00:25:26,640
Speaker 2: And today we're just you know, we feel like we've

461
00:25:26,640 --> 00:25:30,240
Speaker 2: got we have winded our sales. But at a time

462
00:25:30,280 --> 00:25:33,040
Speaker 2: where the industry is facing a lot of volatility, right

463
00:25:33,160 --> 00:25:35,040
Speaker 2: and so you know a lot of people would ask

464
00:25:35,119 --> 00:25:37,840
Speaker 2: us like, well, oh, but isn't the industry facing a

465
00:25:37,840 --> 00:25:41,919
Speaker 2: lot of you know, uncertainty, And I would say, you know,

466
00:25:42,000 --> 00:25:44,000
Speaker 2: we like you'd have to have your head in the

467
00:25:44,040 --> 00:25:48,640
Speaker 2: sands to not feel that that's the case. But we

468
00:25:48,720 --> 00:25:51,560
Speaker 2: feel like that that's where the opportunities are, you know,

469
00:25:52,040 --> 00:25:55,119
Speaker 2: fear is driving decision making in Hollywood right now. You know,

470
00:25:55,200 --> 00:25:58,920
Speaker 2: studios are cutting back, streamers have become more powerful than ever.

471
00:25:59,440 --> 00:26:02,359
Speaker 2: Risk take is at an all time low. But that's

472
00:26:02,440 --> 00:26:06,560
Speaker 2: exactly why legion M is so important. Like that's where

473
00:26:07,040 --> 00:26:09,640
Speaker 2: you know, if if the c's were calm and everything

474
00:26:09,840 --> 00:26:13,320
Speaker 2: was like normal and everything was thriving, it would probably

475
00:26:13,359 --> 00:26:16,159
Speaker 2: be a lot harder for legion M to even you know,

476
00:26:17,440 --> 00:26:22,400
Speaker 2: kind of get noticed. And so we're we're motivated by

477
00:26:22,760 --> 00:26:24,520
Speaker 2: you know, where we are. I mean, we watched the

478
00:26:24,560 --> 00:26:28,600
Speaker 2: industry you know had uh, but but we're we have

479
00:26:28,640 --> 00:26:31,639
Speaker 2: a very like optimistic you know, forecast for you know,

480
00:26:31,680 --> 00:26:34,399
Speaker 2: the people's appetite for content is not going to do

481
00:26:34,840 --> 00:26:36,960
Speaker 2: And you know, one of the things that we always say,

482
00:26:37,080 --> 00:26:40,040
Speaker 2: you know, and I think it's important with legion M's

483
00:26:40,080 --> 00:26:43,719
Speaker 2: model is, no matter what happens with the industry, how

484
00:26:44,240 --> 00:26:47,439
Speaker 2: we consume content, whether it's you know, streaming or in

485
00:26:47,480 --> 00:26:51,480
Speaker 2: a theater or you know, wherever those trends end up,

486
00:26:51,720 --> 00:26:55,440
Speaker 2: the one thing that will never stop mattering is the audience,

487
00:26:56,080 --> 00:26:59,080
Speaker 2: right because there is no industry without this audience. We're

488
00:26:59,080 --> 00:27:01,720
Speaker 2: the ones, you know, the audience we pay for everything.

489
00:27:01,800 --> 00:27:05,639
Speaker 2: You know, they are the fuel that drives everything, and

490
00:27:05,720 --> 00:27:08,560
Speaker 2: so you know, that's our focus is to like we

491
00:27:08,600 --> 00:27:11,800
Speaker 2: want to we want to have the best possible connection

492
00:27:12,359 --> 00:27:15,040
Speaker 2: to that audience. And you know, we feel like in

493
00:27:15,080 --> 00:27:19,040
Speaker 2: the future, you know that that audience can be the

494
00:27:19,280 --> 00:27:22,840
Speaker 2: you know, the the industry won't be determined by who

495
00:27:22,840 --> 00:27:26,120
Speaker 2: has the deepest pockets, It'll be determined by who has

496
00:27:26,160 --> 00:27:28,200
Speaker 2: the deepest relationship with the audience.

497
00:27:30,200 --> 00:27:34,199
Speaker 1: Your audience are your investors as well, though, and so

498
00:27:34,320 --> 00:27:37,119
Speaker 1: wondering about you know, separate from the industry, but just

499
00:27:37,160 --> 00:27:40,679
Speaker 1: looking at the country as a whole, macro economic concerns

500
00:27:40,800 --> 00:27:44,920
Speaker 1: the new administration. If you see chances of investors going

501
00:27:45,000 --> 00:27:47,840
Speaker 1: down because people choosing where they are going to put

502
00:27:47,880 --> 00:27:49,479
Speaker 1: their money and where they are going to spend their

503
00:27:49,480 --> 00:27:50,679
Speaker 1: money at this time.

504
00:27:50,680 --> 00:27:53,760
Speaker 2: It's a really good question. I don't I think because

505
00:27:53,840 --> 00:27:56,600
Speaker 2: we are you know, the average investor puts like four

506
00:27:56,640 --> 00:28:02,040
Speaker 2: hundred dollars in you know, we're really not focused on like, oh,

507
00:28:02,160 --> 00:28:06,000
Speaker 2: you know, we're a core part of your diversified portfolio

508
00:28:06,040 --> 00:28:08,560
Speaker 2: and you need to move from Legionham into bonds or

509
00:28:08,680 --> 00:28:13,440
Speaker 2: something like that. I mean, we're really like disposable gambling.

510
00:28:13,840 --> 00:28:16,760
Speaker 2: You know, it's like that that's literally how we think

511
00:28:16,800 --> 00:28:19,719
Speaker 2: about it. Like, and the people that are investing, you know,

512
00:28:20,040 --> 00:28:24,240
Speaker 2: are investing because they believe in what we're doing and

513
00:28:24,240 --> 00:28:26,359
Speaker 2: they want to be a part of it, and that

514
00:28:26,720 --> 00:28:29,040
Speaker 2: owning shares. And we have a lot of people that

515
00:28:29,119 --> 00:28:31,320
Speaker 2: invest in every round. They might only put you know,

516
00:28:31,359 --> 00:28:33,800
Speaker 2: one hundred dollars or maybe a few hundred dollars in

517
00:28:34,240 --> 00:28:36,639
Speaker 2: every round, but they're in for every round. So we

518
00:28:36,760 --> 00:28:38,600
Speaker 2: know when we open up a new round, they're going

519
00:28:38,680 --> 00:28:40,720
Speaker 2: to be in. You know, they want to buy in

520
00:28:40,800 --> 00:28:44,200
Speaker 2: every every round. And you know, the company, I think

521
00:28:45,120 --> 00:28:48,360
Speaker 2: we continued to I mean, look, it's a it's a

522
00:28:48,360 --> 00:28:51,680
Speaker 2: pretty big audience of people in a community, and so

523
00:28:51,800 --> 00:28:57,080
Speaker 2: we it's hard to like make everybody happy. But we're like,

524
00:28:57,200 --> 00:28:59,240
Speaker 2: I feel like we're doing a good job there, like

525
00:28:59,320 --> 00:29:02,720
Speaker 2: because we really do have a diverse portfolio. Like we

526
00:29:02,800 --> 00:29:05,760
Speaker 2: tell people like, look, you're not gonna love every project

527
00:29:05,800 --> 00:29:08,080
Speaker 2: we do, Like maybe you will. I mean that there'll

528
00:29:08,120 --> 00:29:10,760
Speaker 2: be some people that that do. But you know, some

529
00:29:10,800 --> 00:29:13,960
Speaker 2: people want more horror, some people want more drama. You know,

530
00:29:14,000 --> 00:29:16,080
Speaker 2: whatever we're going to have, we're going to do all

531
00:29:16,120 --> 00:29:20,080
Speaker 2: of it. And you know, one of our our most

532
00:29:20,120 --> 00:29:24,920
Speaker 2: exciting projects, like the project that is it's hard to

533
00:29:24,920 --> 00:29:27,440
Speaker 2: say most exciting because we love all of our children,

534
00:29:27,920 --> 00:29:31,680
Speaker 2: but we have a project that we've been working on

535
00:29:31,760 --> 00:29:35,040
Speaker 2: for a couple of years and and it's full kind

536
00:29:35,080 --> 00:29:41,240
Speaker 2: of blossomed, you know, incarnation. It will be the perfect

537
00:29:41,800 --> 00:29:45,240
Speaker 2: prototype for what legen m represents because it's a it's

538
00:29:45,280 --> 00:29:48,440
Speaker 2: a project. It's called Definan. It's the story of Robert

539
00:29:48,520 --> 00:29:50,120
Speaker 2: Small's I don't know if you've ever heard of this

540
00:29:50,240 --> 00:29:53,000
Speaker 2: story or if we've spoken about it in the past.

541
00:29:53,320 --> 00:29:56,160
Speaker 2: I can follow up and send you some information about it,

542
00:29:57,120 --> 00:29:59,440
Speaker 2: but this is a this is a story that came

543
00:29:59,520 --> 00:30:02,400
Speaker 2: to us from our community. Like I had never heard

544
00:30:02,400 --> 00:30:05,040
Speaker 2: of Robert Smalls. Most people have never heard of Robert Smalls.

545
00:30:05,040 --> 00:30:08,720
Speaker 2: I mean that's Robert Smalls was an enslaved man working

546
00:30:08,760 --> 00:30:12,120
Speaker 2: on a Confederate warship during the Civil War. When I

547
00:30:12,160 --> 00:30:14,520
Speaker 2: start to describe this, maybe you've heard about it. But

548
00:30:14,720 --> 00:30:17,920
Speaker 2: so one night and what's got to be the most

549
00:30:17,920 --> 00:30:21,160
Speaker 2: audacious heist in the history of the world. He stole

550
00:30:21,360 --> 00:30:24,959
Speaker 2: the ship that he was working on, filled it with

551
00:30:25,000 --> 00:30:29,640
Speaker 2: other enslaved family members and their friends or in their family,

552
00:30:30,120 --> 00:30:33,960
Speaker 2: and sailed it to freedom. In this just unbelievable Ocean's

553
00:30:33,960 --> 00:30:38,720
Speaker 2: eleven style heist. But the story doesn't stop there. So

554
00:30:38,800 --> 00:30:42,400
Speaker 2: when he sells it to Freedom, it's very you know, tenuous,

555
00:30:43,200 --> 00:30:47,040
Speaker 2: high stakes, you know, heist. He gets it to, surrenders

556
00:30:47,080 --> 00:30:49,560
Speaker 2: it to the North, has to sail past you know,

557
00:30:49,640 --> 00:30:52,440
Speaker 2: Fort Sumter and the darkened night and do the codes

558
00:30:52,480 --> 00:30:57,160
Speaker 2: and everything. It's just an unbelievable story. So then they

559
00:30:57,240 --> 00:31:00,400
Speaker 2: surrender it to the North. They had lined the ship

560
00:31:00,440 --> 00:31:03,240
Speaker 2: with dynamite because they if they were going to be

561
00:31:03,280 --> 00:31:05,560
Speaker 2: taken down, they were just gonna they didn't want to

562
00:31:05,640 --> 00:31:09,000
Speaker 2: be be caught because that would have been the worst

563
00:31:09,040 --> 00:31:13,880
Speaker 2: possible situation. But so after they surrender it Lincoln, he

564
00:31:13,960 --> 00:31:17,200
Speaker 2: mates with Lincoln. Lincoln puts him on an evangelizing tour

565
00:31:17,280 --> 00:31:20,520
Speaker 2: where he's you know, building support for the for the

566
00:31:20,560 --> 00:31:26,080
Speaker 2: war and helping to get black Americans to fight on

567
00:31:26,160 --> 00:31:28,680
Speaker 2: behalf of the North, which is ultimately what turned the tide.

568
00:31:28,760 --> 00:31:31,720
Speaker 2: Lincoln made him a captain the same ship that he

569
00:31:31,800 --> 00:31:35,040
Speaker 2: stole they re you know, patrioted as a Northern ship.

570
00:31:35,440 --> 00:31:38,840
Speaker 2: Made him a captain. He sailed in like fourteen naval battles,

571
00:31:39,360 --> 00:31:42,400
Speaker 2: became the first. After the war is over, he moves

572
00:31:42,440 --> 00:31:46,280
Speaker 2: back South. He's from Charleston. This is where the Heighstriok place.

573
00:31:47,080 --> 00:31:49,880
Speaker 2: He becomes one of the first black congressmen, starts the

574
00:31:49,920 --> 00:31:54,280
Speaker 2: first compulsory public schools, buys his former slave master's plantation.

575
00:31:54,680 --> 00:31:57,880
Speaker 2: I mean, this guy is a legend, an absolute legend,

576
00:31:58,280 --> 00:32:00,560
Speaker 2: and you know, it's a true story, and it's been

577
00:32:00,600 --> 00:32:03,800
Speaker 2: out there and no one's made this movie yet. And

578
00:32:03,840 --> 00:32:06,600
Speaker 2: so our community said, hey, you know, there's this incredible,

579
00:32:07,040 --> 00:32:10,160
Speaker 2: you know, story out there. Why won't Hollywood or why

580
00:32:10,240 --> 00:32:13,160
Speaker 2: won't the industry, you know, tell this story? And you know,

581
00:32:13,200 --> 00:32:16,480
Speaker 2: we're always really pragmatic when we take on a project,

582
00:32:16,480 --> 00:32:19,120
Speaker 2: and this was a few years ago, and we said, well, look,

583
00:32:19,360 --> 00:32:23,320
Speaker 2: this sounds amazing, like what an incredible story. But just

584
00:32:23,360 --> 00:32:26,760
Speaker 2: to set expectations, you know, we can't just like wave

585
00:32:26,800 --> 00:32:28,840
Speaker 2: our fingers and make a movie like. There's a lot

586
00:32:28,880 --> 00:32:31,600
Speaker 2: that goes into it. There could be other projects in

587
00:32:31,640 --> 00:32:36,400
Speaker 2: the works. And fast forward to today, we are publishing

588
00:32:36,480 --> 00:32:39,920
Speaker 2: a graphic novel about like and we have schools and

589
00:32:40,000 --> 00:32:44,479
Speaker 2: libraries ordering them already. It's going to be an award

590
00:32:44,480 --> 00:32:46,440
Speaker 2: winning book. I can we can share with you what

591
00:32:46,520 --> 00:32:49,120
Speaker 2: it looks like, but it tells the full and complete story.

592
00:32:49,400 --> 00:32:54,440
Speaker 2: We have Rob Edwards, the screenwriter of the New Captain

593
00:32:54,480 --> 00:32:58,960
Speaker 2: America movie and screenwriter of Fresh Prince of bel Air

594
00:32:59,080 --> 00:33:05,880
Speaker 2: and I treasure plan it and it's just this unbelievable

595
00:33:06,000 --> 00:33:09,320
Speaker 2: like team that's come together. Now we have the Robert

596
00:33:09,320 --> 00:33:12,640
Speaker 2: Small's family involved in our project like we have there

597
00:33:12,720 --> 00:33:16,520
Speaker 2: and we and so we are it'll be historically accurate.

598
00:33:16,640 --> 00:33:19,440
Speaker 2: I mean, it's just this awesome project. And so it's

599
00:33:19,440 --> 00:33:21,720
Speaker 2: a graphic novel. It's also a movie that we're in

600
00:33:21,800 --> 00:33:25,600
Speaker 2: development on, and you know, it's it's just this exciting

601
00:33:25,920 --> 00:33:29,920
Speaker 2: project that our community, they're the ones that asked us

602
00:33:29,960 --> 00:33:32,600
Speaker 2: to do it, and now we're we're doing it great.

603
00:33:32,800 --> 00:33:35,320
Speaker 1: Well, thank you so much for your time today, Paul.

604
00:33:35,400 --> 00:33:36,479
Speaker 1: I so appreciate it.

605
00:33:36,760 --> 00:33:39,040
Speaker 2: Yeah, thank you. Now, this has been lovely and I

606
00:33:39,120 --> 00:33:43,160
Speaker 2: appreciate you you having us on the show and including us.

607
00:33:43,240 --> 00:33:43,880
Speaker 2: It's been great.

608
00:33:46,520 --> 00:33:49,520
Speaker 3: Thanks for listening. Be sure to leave us a review

609
00:33:49,560 --> 00:33:53,160
Speaker 3: at Apple Podcasts or Amazon Music. We love to hear

610
00:33:53,200 --> 00:33:56,480
Speaker 3: from listeners. Please go to Variety dot com and sign

611
00:33:56,560 --> 00:34:01,000
Speaker 3: up for the free weekly Strictly Business newsletter, and don't

612
00:34:01,040 --> 00:34:03,920
Speaker 3: forget to tune in next week for another episode of

613
00:34:03,960 --> 00:34:13,640
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