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Speaker 1: Hey guys, it's your friend Kate Max and welcome back

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Speaker 1: to Post run High. Today's guest is Andrew Steinhal, the

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Speaker 1: co founder of The Infatuation and if you live in

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Speaker 1: New York you already know, but The Infatuation is basically

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Speaker 1: the city's restaurant bible. It's where everybody goes to figure

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Speaker 1: out where to eat, from last minute date nights to

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Speaker 1: new spots that you have to try. Before we sat

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Speaker 1: down for this conversation, Andrew and I went for a

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Speaker 1: run through Brooklyn, which fell especially full circle because we

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Speaker 1: found out in today's conversation that in the early days

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Speaker 1: of The Infatuation Andrew and his team actually hosted run

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Speaker 1: clubs that would end with the group eating at a

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Speaker 1: local restaurant. And I just love knowing that running was

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Speaker 1: a part of the brand start and a way to

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Speaker 1: build community through movement and food. In this episode, we

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Speaker 1: talk about how The Infatuation began as a side project

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Speaker 1: between two friends, how it turned into one of the

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Speaker 1: most trusted food media brands in the world, and what

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Speaker 1: it was really like navigating its massive acquisition by JP

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Speaker 1: Morgan Chase. This is Andrew stein Fall on Post Run High.

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Speaker 1: Let's get into it. Andrew Steinthal, welcome's post run high,

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Speaker 1: happy to be here, Thank you so much for comming. Absolutely,

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Speaker 1: how was the run for you?

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Speaker 2: It was great. I've been listen. I've been a big

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Speaker 2: fan of what you are building here with this whole thing.

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Speaker 2: Is somebody who runs a lot and very much enjoys

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Speaker 2: talking on the phone while running a lot. It's fun

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Speaker 2: to do an interview while running.

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Speaker 3: Aha, who's your go to call?

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Speaker 2: That's a great question. It just depends. I feel like

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Speaker 2: I have a friend Brent Montgomery, who it's always given

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Speaker 2: me a hard time. You can't believe that we can

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Speaker 2: have twenty minute conversations while we go over various business

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Speaker 2: things on the phone, and he likes to tell everybody

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Speaker 2: about it. So shout out to Brent.

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Speaker 1: Wait, do you know that I love Brent Montgomery. He's

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Speaker 1: kind of a friend. I would call him a friend.

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Speaker 2: Well, I think we should probably make a show out

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Speaker 2: of the running show to distribute to all of the

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Speaker 2: platforms and evolve this as just you know, right now

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Speaker 2: you're on TikTok and Instagram, But like, there's a way

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Speaker 2: larger swath of people that could be interested in a

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Speaker 2: running interview show like this should be a segment on

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Speaker 2: the Today Show. Someday, this should be a segment somewhere else, Like,

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Speaker 2: there's just so many places this could go because it's

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Speaker 2: such a fun, informal way to get to know people.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, did you hear that, Brent?

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Speaker 2: He's got it.

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Speaker 1: That's so funny and it's so true. He's such a

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Speaker 1: great guy and Wheelhouse is doing such cool stuff. So

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Speaker 1: it's cool to know that you guys are good friends

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Speaker 1: and that he's your go to call when you're running

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Speaker 1: and makes a lot of sense.

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Speaker 3: He's definitely a talker.

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Speaker 1: So Andrew is the co founder of Infatuation, you're also

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Speaker 1: a great runner. We're going to get to everything that

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Speaker 1: you guys built with Infatuation, But I want to start

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Speaker 1: out talking a little bit about the run because I

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Speaker 1: like finding out that co founders are runners, because I

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Speaker 1: think oftentimes people misconstrue being busy and having this like

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Speaker 1: crazy job with not having the time to work out

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Speaker 1: or move your body. Right, So, has running always been

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Speaker 1: a big part of your life?

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Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean you got to make the time. I

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Speaker 2: think that's with anything, right, Like you, if you care

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Speaker 2: about it and are passionate about it, you find the

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Speaker 2: time and you figure out how to get it done.

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Speaker 2: And for me, like running has always been like I've

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Speaker 2: never done therapy, so running is my own therapy right

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Speaker 2: where like I kind of need it and if I

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Speaker 2: don't do it for a couple of days, I get

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Speaker 2: a little crazy. Like my wife is like, can you

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Speaker 2: please go on a run or something to clear your

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Speaker 2: mind so you can stop being a grouch. And I

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Speaker 2: think it's just something that I've been doing for a

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Speaker 2: long time and very much enjoy and it's time for

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Speaker 2: myself with my music or my podcasts and nobody else

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Speaker 2: for the most part unless' making phone calls.

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Speaker 1: Mm hmm, No, I mean I completely really agree. It

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Speaker 1: really is therapy in a big way, and it's a

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Speaker 1: nice time to collect your thoughts and also come up

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Speaker 1: with some of your best ideas maybe.

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Speaker 2: For sure, no, one hundred percent. I mean that is

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Speaker 2: I will voice note all kinds of things that I

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Speaker 2: think about on my run, Like the run is basically

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Speaker 2: for other people their showers, right where you're like, oh,

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Speaker 2: I think of the best ideas in the showers, Like

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Speaker 2: my best idea is generally come when I'm out running,

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Speaker 2: because you're finally like alone with your thoughts for a

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Speaker 2: little bit and the creative juices are flowing.

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Speaker 1: And you were talking to us on the run saying

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Speaker 1: that in the early days of Infatuation, you guys bridged

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Speaker 1: running with infatuation as you were kind of starting the company.

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Speaker 3: So let's talk about that.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, we would, you know, we were as we were

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Speaker 2: discussing on the run. The Infatuation, which was originally called

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Speaker 2: Immaculate Infatuation, was a side hustle for five years while

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Speaker 2: we had jobs in the music business, and both my

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Speaker 2: business partner, Christang and I both loved run, like we

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Speaker 2: were both runners, and like we were doing half marathons

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Speaker 2: and just kind of messing around and having fun. And

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Speaker 2: we started we started doing the half marathon, specifically the

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Speaker 2: Brooklyn Half Marathon, and we got our community to come

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Speaker 2: run it with us. And so we would organize training

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Speaker 2: runs for like I'd say, eight weeks leading into the

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Speaker 2: race and bring people together in Central Park or Prospect

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Speaker 2: Park or you know, out here in Dumbo or wherever,

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Speaker 2: and get people together to run, meet each other, hang

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Speaker 2: and then we'd go eat somewhere great afterwards. And so

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Speaker 2: this became a thing that we would do and we

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Speaker 2: would get everybody's shirts with our logo on it, and

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Speaker 2: you know, ultimately had fifty seventy five one hundred people

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Speaker 2: running with us every time, and it was just a

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Speaker 2: great way to build community and build our brand, right

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Speaker 2: And I think so much of building a brand is

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Speaker 2: bringing together like minded people and that is such a

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Speaker 2: powerful thing. And so I met some great people that way,

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Speaker 2: and people I still have relationships with. And I was

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Speaker 2: telling you before, but like one of the best things

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Speaker 2: that happened out of that run club era for us

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Speaker 2: was I remember we got an email from this woman

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Speaker 2: who it was a photo of her and a bride

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Speaker 2: and she was like, FYI, I am the bride'smaid in

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Speaker 2: this wedding. And we met on an Immaculate Infatuation training

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Speaker 2: run for the Brooklyn Half Marathon, and that's where we

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Speaker 2: became friends.

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Speaker 1: So you guys really like the immaculate infatuation. Those run clubs,

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Speaker 1: you guys did them for a while in New York.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean it was we didn't call them run

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Speaker 2: club you know, I feel like you ruined that for everybody.

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Speaker 1: We see this boom of run clubs happening right now.

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Speaker 1: But it's just so awesome to know that that existed

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Speaker 1: for It's been around for so long, right, like run

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Speaker 1: clubs and the idea of coming together through running.

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Speaker 2: It's correct, It's just do you think have we reached

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Speaker 2: peak run club already? In New York City? I feel

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Speaker 2: like it can't get like the oversaturation point and like

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Speaker 2: the like dating run clubs and all the insanity that

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Speaker 2: I see on the internet, Like can we keep going up?

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Speaker 2: Or have we reached the peak?

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Speaker 3: Okay, well what do you think? I feel like you're

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Speaker 3: the RD.

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Speaker 2: I mean, I'm an old man now, so I'm not

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Speaker 2: in it every day. I'm not going to them. I

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Speaker 2: don't know what's going on in the streets. But but

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Speaker 2: you're still running. I'm still running a lot. Yeah, it

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Speaker 2: looks like we've reached the peak and like we need

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Speaker 2: to settle down a little bit and find the next

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Speaker 2: club thing to like date around.

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Speaker 1: Yeah.

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Speaker 3: No, it's interesting.

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Speaker 1: It's like when I went to school here, I feel

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Speaker 1: like run clubs weren't definitely weren't as big. I don't

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Speaker 1: feel like like when I was in I went to

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Speaker 1: college boredom Lincoln Center, and when I would go to

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Speaker 1: a run club, it was like I was running the

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Speaker 1: New York City marathon through obviously New York Roadrunners or

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Speaker 1: the Team for Kids, and I would be going to

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Speaker 1: the New York road Runners organized runs, or I'd be

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Speaker 1: going to the Team for Kids organized runs. And now

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Speaker 1: it's literally like everybody has a run club. Like I

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Speaker 1: think Jeremy was at a run club the other day

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Speaker 1: for Founders. You know, there's literally a run club for

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Speaker 1: every single niche. I think it's awesome. I'm a big

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Speaker 1: believer in coming together through like being active. I think

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Speaker 1: it's awesome. I think a lot of people think about

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Speaker 1: New York and like my older brother would say to

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Speaker 1: me when I was younger, the only things to do

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Speaker 1: in New York are eat and drink, and I'm like,

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Speaker 1: you know what, he's a finance bro. I totally get

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Speaker 1: that from his perspective, But for me, I always felt

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Speaker 1: totally different because you know, I love running with people

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Speaker 1: and connecting through movement. So I think the run club

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Speaker 1: thing is great. I would like to be able to

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Speaker 1: go for a run on the West Side Highway without

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Speaker 1: being swarmed by a flock of like one hundred people.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, it's crowded out there, but it's great. I mean, listen.

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Speaker 2: I also love I love that brands, I mean, like

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Speaker 2: brands like Bandit are building out communities around connection and

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Speaker 2: membership and run clubs and all that stuff, and it's

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Speaker 2: really interesting and it's a cool model and that idea

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Speaker 2: similar to what Infatuation was originally. Yes, we reviewed restaurants

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Speaker 2: and like you know, help people figure out where to go.

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Speaker 2: But what we always have been is a brand that's

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Speaker 2: building community and building connections around with people that are

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Speaker 2: like minded, and running is such an amazing tool to

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Speaker 2: do that.

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Speaker 1: Right.

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Speaker 3: So how did you and Chris meet you were working

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Speaker 3: in music?

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Speaker 2: The story is we were both music directors at our

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Speaker 2: respective college radio stations when we were both in college,

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Speaker 2: and so I was at Ithaca College WICB was was

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Speaker 2: the music radio station. I was a music director at

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Speaker 2: he was at KCSU, Colorado State. We actually met at

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Speaker 2: a CMJ music convention in the year two thousand. We

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Speaker 2: were both invited to MTV TRL Total Request Live and

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Speaker 2: we were six like this guy that worked US Records

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Speaker 2: picked his six favorite music directors to go to TRL,

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Speaker 2: and he and I met online walking into TRL, and

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Speaker 2: ultimately we're sat next to each other. Destiny's Child was

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Speaker 2: the guest on TRL that day. Jump and Jump In

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Speaker 2: was the song they removed me and Chris within the

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Speaker 2: first commercial break because we were not freaking out enough

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Speaker 2: behind Carson Daily. But that was how we met and

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Speaker 2: we became fast friends and drank a couple of beers

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Speaker 2: that night and we're like, oh, we're gonna we're gonna

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Speaker 2: take over the music business together. And you know, he

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Speaker 2: he moved to New York after college, and we both

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Speaker 2: ultimately got jobs at Warner Music Group and always sort

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Speaker 2: of just had this like bond and entrepreneurial idea and

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Speaker 2: spirit that we wanted to do together. We always wanted

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Speaker 2: to do something and ultimately immaculate infatuation was was the

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Speaker 2: path and that's that's that's how it started.

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Speaker 1: What we're sending the other ideas that you guys would

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Speaker 1: be like brainstorming together.

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Speaker 2: We had all right, So I had I wanted to

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Speaker 2: start a T shirt company. I've always been obsessed with

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Speaker 2: like a pail, and there was this T shirt store

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Speaker 2: in the East Village that you could like make these

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Speaker 2: custom T shirts. And I was making all these stupid

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Speaker 2: custom T shirts. So I made one. I called it.

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Speaker 2: We had the T shirt company called My Future. We

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Speaker 2: made one total T shirt that never got anywhere. The

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Speaker 2: best business I do that I still think is a

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Speaker 2: good idea was we both had single moms and we

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Speaker 2: had an idea for datearmoms dot com, which was a website,

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Speaker 2: a dating website where the kids would post for their parents,

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Speaker 2: right or they're like, it could be a niece or

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Speaker 2: nephew or coworker or like somebody, because you know, my

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Speaker 2: mom was not somebody and isn't somebody who's going to

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Speaker 2: go put herself on a dating platform. And I think,

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Speaker 2: but I think there is a the there is a

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Speaker 2: bond that can very quickly be formed between two older

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Speaker 2: people who both have really close relationships with their kids.

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Speaker 2: And if the kids have a close enough relationship with

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Speaker 2: the parents that they care enough to go on spend

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Speaker 2: their time trying to help set their parents up with

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Speaker 2: somebody special, Like there could be something there. So that

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Speaker 2: one that one we never ultimately did, but that was

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Speaker 2: that was in the hopper, is an opportunity.

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Speaker 3: Did you ever pitch that idea to your mom?

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Speaker 2: Yeah? She was like embarrassed and was like what are

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Speaker 2: you doing? But she was like, I'm available for somedings

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Speaker 2: literally going to.

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Speaker 1: Say, You're like, mom, I have this idea, and not

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Speaker 1: only do I have this idea, but you're also gonna

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Speaker 1: be the poster mom for it.

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Speaker 3: So get ready.

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Speaker 2: She doesn't like being in the spotlight, but yeah, she's

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Speaker 2: the best.

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Speaker 3: That's so cute.

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Speaker 1: Okay, Well, so you guys were working at Warner Music,

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Speaker 1: and at what point did you I start infatuation.

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Speaker 2: So this whole thing started. We became myself and Chris

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Speaker 2: at least in our group of friends at work. We

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Speaker 2: became the guys who like knew the city well right,

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Speaker 2: Like we would go to restaurants and bars and like

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Speaker 2: had strong opinions and could help get tell people where

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Speaker 2: to go. And it ultimately came to the fact that, like,

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Speaker 2: when we were getting all these inbound requests from friends

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Speaker 2: and coworkers, you're like, maybe we should do something with this, right,

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Speaker 2: And at that time, there wasn't. There was nothing that

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Speaker 2: was relatable for us as it related to restaurant reviews. Right.

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Speaker 2: There was very serious criticism right in the newspapers and

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Speaker 2: the magazines and even on the blogs. It was all

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Speaker 2: like very serious food people. And we were more of

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Speaker 2: these guys in the music business for like, yeah, the vibes,

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Speaker 2: the playlist, the food the Burger, like situational dining needs

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Speaker 2: where you need someplace to go on a date with

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Speaker 2: your boyfriend or girlfriend, which is different than a date

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Speaker 2: first date with somebody you just met right or you're

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Speaker 2: going out with your parents, or you got people coming

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Speaker 2: in from Europe that you want to entertain, or you're

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Speaker 2: looking for something late night, and like, there just wasn't

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Speaker 2: a situational dining discovery platform in a way that like

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Speaker 2: we wanted it to be. And so we were we

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Speaker 2: would go to the back of New York Magazine, right,

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Speaker 2: and like they had like little listings about the restaurants

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Speaker 2: back there that was the most useful tool for us,

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Speaker 2: and it wasn't really that useful ultimately, right, and so

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Speaker 2: we were like, screw it, Like let's let's write restaurant

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Speaker 2: reviews and build it all around this like perfect for

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Speaker 2: ecosystem of tags so that you could find the right

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Speaker 2: place for the right occasion or the right place near

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Speaker 2: a music venue. Obviously you worked in music business. So

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Speaker 2: it was like we'd tag all the restaurants that were

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Speaker 2: near Bowery Ballroom or Madison Square Garden or Williamsburg Music

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Speaker 2: Hall or any of those places, right, because we needed

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Speaker 2: places before or after shows. So that was how it started,

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Speaker 2: and we basically applied everything we knew about building bands,

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Speaker 2: which we'd been doing for twelve years, to building a

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Speaker 2: brand that happened to represent restaurant Discovery. It was write

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Speaker 2: hit songs and play shows right, and so it was

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Speaker 2: like cool, we had to come. We had a new

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Speaker 2: restaurant review every day. We flip flopped every single day.

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Speaker 2: There was never a day off, and every Friday I

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Speaker 2: was a publicist, so I would go chase down celebrities

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Speaker 2: like basically what you're doing on the show, like try

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Speaker 2: and go get you know, Jerry Seinfeld and Anthony Bourdain,

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Speaker 2: may He Rest in Peace and pad Malakshmi to like

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Speaker 2: give us their five favorite restaurants in New York City

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Speaker 2: and then cross our fingers that they would post it

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Speaker 2: on their back then Facebook page, because if they posted

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Speaker 2: on their Facebook page, we would get all these new,

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Speaker 2: you know, new eyeballs on us, right, and so we

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Speaker 2: were just really consistent with the content. So it was

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Speaker 2: like write hit songs and then play shows. Get people

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Speaker 2: to get right, whether that was getting together to run

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Speaker 2: training runs for the Brooklyn Half Marathon or hosting parties.

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Speaker 2: We threw parties, Like we did a lot of events

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Speaker 2: and we just brought people together. We used to have

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Speaker 2: an event that we did called the Turkey Leg Ball,

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Speaker 2: which was our first foray into like larger scale events,

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Speaker 2: but it was right before Thanksgiving. Our logo was a

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Speaker 2: turkey leg back in the day. Yeah, it's like it's

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Speaker 2: evolved into what it's a hamhorn. But this is ridiculous.

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Speaker 3: It makes so much sense.

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Speaker 1: And like, when I think about Infatuation, I do, like

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Speaker 1: I do think about how conversational the platform was, right

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Speaker 1: and it was like your first date, this is a

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Speaker 1: good spot to go on Beyonce's X, Like it was

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Speaker 1: very situation and.

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Speaker 2: The idea was always like I talked to talk write

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Speaker 2: the review like you're talking to your friend, right and

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Speaker 2: like always like when people would be like, oh, how

327
00:14:49,800 --> 00:14:52,880
Speaker 2: do you write for the Infatuation? We never hired food writers, right, like,

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Speaker 2: and we always me and Chris wrote everything for the first.

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Speaker 1: Six years, right, So your day to day life was

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Speaker 1: like you would go to work, right, you'd work your

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Speaker 1: job with the music industry, and then you'd be going

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Speaker 1: out to dinner, out.

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Speaker 2: To dinner, and then you'd stay up till two am

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00:15:04,560 --> 00:15:06,400
Speaker 2: writing the review for the next day. We would flip

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Speaker 2: flap who wrote what, and then do it all over again, right,

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Speaker 2: And so it.

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Speaker 3: Was like no sleep, go to work full meal, right.

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Speaker 2: And the running was really important then because you had

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Speaker 2: to have a balance because we were gross. Like back

340
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Speaker 2: at that it was it was you towards the After

341
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Speaker 2: doing that for like six seven years, I felt horrible,

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00:15:23,480 --> 00:15:27,240
Speaker 2: which then had me, you know, like really transitioned to

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Speaker 2: be like, all right, I need to work out as

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Speaker 2: much as humanly possible.

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Speaker 1: I mean that is like I feel like one of

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Speaker 1: the things that's so under talked about. And I know

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00:15:33,720 --> 00:15:36,160
Speaker 1: you guys don't like the word foodie, but with foodies online,

348
00:15:36,160 --> 00:15:37,800
Speaker 1: like content creators that are because there's a lot of

349
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Speaker 1: content creator and creators now that specifically do food reviews.

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Speaker 3: And I am always wandering with them.

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Speaker 1: Like some days they'll do reviews where it's like they're

352
00:15:44,800 --> 00:15:47,160
Speaker 1: going to five places in one day, trying out like

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Speaker 1: five different burger joints, right, and I'm thinking to myself,

354
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Speaker 1: how do they possibly stomach all this food and not

355
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Speaker 1: you know, get on health No.

356
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Speaker 2: Way they eat it all right, right, But yeah, no,

357
00:15:57,560 --> 00:15:59,440
Speaker 2: it's it's that was the lifestyle and so like the

358
00:15:59,440 --> 00:16:01,920
Speaker 2: events were a big part of us building this brand

359
00:16:01,960 --> 00:16:04,400
Speaker 2: and bringing people together, and that's what ultimately led us

360
00:16:04,440 --> 00:16:07,960
Speaker 2: to really, you know, building something in New York to

361
00:16:08,080 --> 00:16:10,640
Speaker 2: start that people cared about, People were into it. People,

362
00:16:10,680 --> 00:16:13,760
Speaker 2: it was like a thing. It became, you know, something

363
00:16:13,800 --> 00:16:17,920
Speaker 2: that people identified with, which was which was really cool,

364
00:16:17,920 --> 00:16:20,160
Speaker 2: and it led, like the Turkey leg Ball ultimately led

365
00:16:20,520 --> 00:16:24,160
Speaker 2: to us starting our own festival called Eatscon, and like

366
00:16:24,520 --> 00:16:26,560
Speaker 2: you know this this all this whole thing, like it

367
00:16:26,600 --> 00:16:28,160
Speaker 2: was like one thing after the next after the next.

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00:16:28,200 --> 00:16:30,480
Speaker 2: And we were first generation social media. So when we

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Speaker 2: launched the same year Twitter started, right, Yeah, so maybe

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00:16:34,600 --> 00:16:37,200
Speaker 2: Twitter started in two thousand and eight, but like same

371
00:16:37,280 --> 00:16:40,720
Speaker 2: same era, right, And we were early on Instagram, Like

372
00:16:41,360 --> 00:16:44,200
Speaker 2: beginning of Instagram, we would post, we had a we

373
00:16:44,240 --> 00:16:47,240
Speaker 2: would do hashtag contests, and then eventually land on the fact,

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00:16:47,240 --> 00:16:49,040
Speaker 2: oh no, we need our own hashtag and make people

375
00:16:49,120 --> 00:16:51,080
Speaker 2: use it. And so we started the eat hashtag with

376
00:16:51,120 --> 00:16:53,920
Speaker 2: five e's because it was like, oh, people are like,

377
00:16:53,960 --> 00:16:56,440
Speaker 2: what is that? What is eats? It's like people are like,

378
00:16:57,360 --> 00:17:00,440
Speaker 2: we didn't want to do like infatuation Graham or something

379
00:17:00,480 --> 00:17:03,400
Speaker 2: weird like that. So we used eats as our calling card.

380
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Speaker 2: And I remember, I mean I spent I ran all

381
00:17:06,359 --> 00:17:09,480
Speaker 2: our socials and just spent hours and hours and hours

382
00:17:09,480 --> 00:17:12,680
Speaker 2: and encouraging people, engaging like with anybody who was using

383
00:17:12,720 --> 00:17:16,719
Speaker 2: the hashtag, liking their photos, commenting, building community through social

384
00:17:17,240 --> 00:17:19,879
Speaker 2: and reposting photos that were great and people would be like,

385
00:17:19,920 --> 00:17:22,240
Speaker 2: oh my god, you know that, like I'm famous, moment

386
00:17:22,280 --> 00:17:24,639
Speaker 2: you're on the infatuation Instagram, which back then didn't have

387
00:17:24,680 --> 00:17:27,280
Speaker 2: that many followers, but like that was just something that

388
00:17:27,359 --> 00:17:31,080
Speaker 2: fueled our growth and built community, right and that ultimately

389
00:17:31,400 --> 00:17:35,200
Speaker 2: that Eats brand almost became bigger than the Infatuation brand

390
00:17:35,240 --> 00:17:37,959
Speaker 2: almost on Instagram, and it led us to be like, Okay,

391
00:17:38,560 --> 00:17:41,000
Speaker 2: we had come from the music business, know a lot

392
00:17:41,080 --> 00:17:43,960
Speaker 2: about the music festival ecosystem. We had been working with

393
00:17:43,960 --> 00:17:45,800
Speaker 2: the guys at Governor's Ball for a long time to

394
00:17:45,880 --> 00:17:48,600
Speaker 2: like curate the food there. That was always an amazing

395
00:17:48,600 --> 00:17:50,679
Speaker 2: platform for us to be able to get involved and

396
00:17:50,760 --> 00:17:55,520
Speaker 2: see how they ran their festival from the vending perspective,

397
00:17:56,040 --> 00:17:58,119
Speaker 2: and you know, ultimately come up with our own concept

398
00:17:58,200 --> 00:18:01,040
Speaker 2: around you know, being a music fan and working in

399
00:18:01,040 --> 00:18:03,000
Speaker 2: the music business and then working with a lot of

400
00:18:03,000 --> 00:18:07,280
Speaker 2: the festivals from outside lands to Coachella to Governor's Ball

401
00:18:07,520 --> 00:18:09,320
Speaker 2: to be like, look, people are really interested in the

402
00:18:09,320 --> 00:18:11,760
Speaker 2: food almost as much as they are the music these days,

403
00:18:11,760 --> 00:18:15,240
Speaker 2: Like we should do the music business music festival model,

404
00:18:15,359 --> 00:18:17,479
Speaker 2: but with a food festival and make it something that

405
00:18:17,600 --> 00:18:20,840
Speaker 2: is you know, has headliners, has discovery things, but that

406
00:18:21,000 --> 00:18:25,600
Speaker 2: is like a really fun, programmed, culturally vibrant place, which

407
00:18:25,640 --> 00:18:28,080
Speaker 2: is what birthed our festival Eats con that we now

408
00:18:28,119 --> 00:18:30,440
Speaker 2: do in fur markets. So it's been this like evolution

409
00:18:30,640 --> 00:18:33,040
Speaker 2: of like we started in the music business and know

410
00:18:33,080 --> 00:18:34,720
Speaker 2: how to do stuff from the music business and then

411
00:18:34,800 --> 00:18:38,159
Speaker 2: taking that approach to like something that is kind of different.

412
00:18:38,359 --> 00:18:40,159
Speaker 1: And I mean what I find so impressive is for

413
00:18:40,200 --> 00:18:41,919
Speaker 1: five years, it seems like from what you're saying, like

414
00:18:41,920 --> 00:18:44,920
Speaker 1: you guys had so much momentum, right, and like Infatuation

415
00:18:45,200 --> 00:18:47,440
Speaker 1: was a grassroots approach, but it was starting to take off.

416
00:18:47,440 --> 00:18:51,520
Speaker 1: You're starting to work on iconic events like Governor's Governor's Ball,

417
00:18:51,560 --> 00:18:54,120
Speaker 1: I mean that's a huge New York festival music festival.

418
00:18:54,240 --> 00:18:56,800
Speaker 1: Did you guys have moments during those five years were

419
00:18:56,840 --> 00:18:59,240
Speaker 1: you ever like, oh, this is unsustainable, Like I'm just

420
00:18:59,280 --> 00:19:00,840
Speaker 1: too busy with work, and what did you kind of

421
00:19:00,840 --> 00:19:03,000
Speaker 1: do in those moments and what kept you guys going, Yeah, I.

422
00:19:03,000 --> 00:19:05,040
Speaker 2: Think I think what kept us going is that we ultimately,

423
00:19:05,119 --> 00:19:08,600
Speaker 2: like we really once this thing started to hit and

424
00:19:08,640 --> 00:19:10,840
Speaker 2: once you feel and I'm sure that you feel this

425
00:19:11,200 --> 00:19:13,919
Speaker 2: with what you're doing, when you get that positive reinforcement

426
00:19:14,000 --> 00:19:17,080
Speaker 2: from people, when you feel it starts when it's like,

427
00:19:17,440 --> 00:19:19,200
Speaker 2: you know, your friends and family like yeah, that's cool,

428
00:19:19,240 --> 00:19:21,160
Speaker 2: that's cute whatever. Right, But then all of a sudden,

429
00:19:21,200 --> 00:19:23,959
Speaker 2: when you start getting emails from random people or you

430
00:19:24,000 --> 00:19:26,159
Speaker 2: meet somebody out that they're like, oh my god, I

431
00:19:26,240 --> 00:19:28,639
Speaker 2: know what you do and I like it, right, you

432
00:19:28,720 --> 00:19:31,520
Speaker 2: just start to like feel this and when and when

433
00:19:31,520 --> 00:19:34,719
Speaker 2: that momentum starts to build, you know, you can have

434
00:19:34,800 --> 00:19:37,959
Speaker 2: down moments, you can feel you know, life, everything goes up,

435
00:19:38,000 --> 00:19:41,120
Speaker 2: everything goes down. You gotta stay as grounded as possible.

436
00:19:41,200 --> 00:19:44,639
Speaker 2: But those positive reinforcements really can keep you going. And

437
00:19:44,680 --> 00:19:47,800
Speaker 2: if you really see that you have something people care about,

438
00:19:48,560 --> 00:19:50,720
Speaker 2: it's hard not to want to chase it even further,

439
00:19:50,880 --> 00:19:54,000
Speaker 2: to make it as the big as it could possibly be.

440
00:19:54,359 --> 00:19:56,400
Speaker 2: You know, it was at first it was so slow

441
00:19:56,520 --> 00:19:58,800
Speaker 2: and like but like we would be there every day

442
00:19:58,800 --> 00:20:01,719
Speaker 2: on Google Analytics, just looking at the website, Like like,

443
00:20:01,760 --> 00:20:04,080
Speaker 2: look like got to one hundred, can we get to

444
00:20:04,119 --> 00:20:06,119
Speaker 2: a thousand? Can we get to two thousand? Can we

445
00:20:06,119 --> 00:20:08,879
Speaker 2: get to ten thousand? You know what I mean? And like, ultimately,

446
00:20:08,960 --> 00:20:13,119
Speaker 2: like getting to a million was our We were you know,

447
00:20:13,560 --> 00:20:16,560
Speaker 2: we were dying to get there, you know. And and

448
00:20:16,600 --> 00:20:19,560
Speaker 2: we never we didn't pay It was all organic, you know,

449
00:20:20,040 --> 00:20:22,840
Speaker 2: we never we never spend any money. It was all bootstrapped, right,

450
00:20:22,840 --> 00:20:25,879
Speaker 2: it was all real. And I think that that was

451
00:20:26,000 --> 00:20:29,679
Speaker 2: such an important thing that we didn't even plan really

452
00:20:29,800 --> 00:20:32,239
Speaker 2: in a sense, right, Like we had the luxury of

453
00:20:32,320 --> 00:20:34,879
Speaker 2: spending five years while we had full time jobs figure

454
00:20:34,920 --> 00:20:37,680
Speaker 2: out if this thing had product market fit right, and

455
00:20:37,760 --> 00:20:40,960
Speaker 2: like got to the point where this thing was it

456
00:20:41,000 --> 00:20:43,560
Speaker 2: was undeniable that this was a thing. That thing was

457
00:20:43,600 --> 00:20:45,199
Speaker 2: going to be, What this business was going to be,

458
00:20:45,320 --> 00:20:47,840
Speaker 2: how what the end result was going to be, who knows.

459
00:20:47,920 --> 00:20:51,000
Speaker 2: But but ultimately we were like we can build this brand.

460
00:20:51,040 --> 00:20:53,399
Speaker 2: People are into it what we're doing, and there's a

461
00:20:53,520 --> 00:20:58,160
Speaker 2: huge opportunity out there because there's nothing really like it, right.

462
00:20:58,080 --> 00:21:00,119
Speaker 1: No, And you know, it's interesting because I was interviewing

463
00:21:00,160 --> 00:21:03,480
Speaker 1: the CEO of builds Bear the other day and something

464
00:21:03,480 --> 00:21:05,119
Speaker 1: that she said to me. That was really interesting is

465
00:21:05,119 --> 00:21:07,840
Speaker 1: when they think about like selling products, you think about

466
00:21:07,880 --> 00:21:10,800
Speaker 1: like somebody's daily life, right and like their day to day,

467
00:21:10,840 --> 00:21:14,080
Speaker 1: So like they're you know, nine am till ten pm,

468
00:21:14,400 --> 00:21:16,320
Speaker 1: and you kind of figure out, like where are the

469
00:21:16,359 --> 00:21:19,640
Speaker 1: ways that we can infiltrate somebody's day. And I think

470
00:21:19,640 --> 00:21:22,480
Speaker 1: it makes so much sense infatuation for New Yorkers because

471
00:21:22,760 --> 00:21:25,520
Speaker 1: New Yorkers we go to work and then sometimes when

472
00:21:25,520 --> 00:21:28,080
Speaker 1: we're on our lunch break or after work, we're on

473
00:21:28,160 --> 00:21:30,359
Speaker 1: Google trying to figure out where should we go to dinner?

474
00:21:30,359 --> 00:21:31,879
Speaker 1: I want to plan this event with my friends for

475
00:21:31,920 --> 00:21:34,879
Speaker 1: the weekend. So you guys really broke into like the

476
00:21:34,960 --> 00:21:36,920
Speaker 1: daily habits of people's.

477
00:21:36,600 --> 00:21:37,280
Speaker 3: Lives in New York.

478
00:21:37,400 --> 00:21:39,080
Speaker 2: Yeah, you nail it. I mean I think that that

479
00:21:39,160 --> 00:21:41,919
Speaker 2: was always the thing is like if when you're thinking, oh, restaurant,

480
00:21:42,000 --> 00:21:43,159
Speaker 2: I need to figure out where to go, and now

481
00:21:43,200 --> 00:21:45,320
Speaker 2: all of a sudden, you're going with the infatuation because

482
00:21:45,359 --> 00:21:48,880
Speaker 2: you associate that we are your beacon of trust as

483
00:21:48,880 --> 00:21:51,479
Speaker 2: it relates to figuring out where to go. You know,

484
00:21:51,760 --> 00:21:54,760
Speaker 2: that becomes something that people start to use in their

485
00:21:54,800 --> 00:21:57,960
Speaker 2: daily life. And look, the big challenge for us it

486
00:21:58,000 --> 00:21:59,720
Speaker 2: was always the two of us who were writing, and

487
00:21:59,720 --> 00:22:01,760
Speaker 2: then it was like, can we transition this off of

488
00:22:01,840 --> 00:22:04,320
Speaker 2: just us two to other people in New York and

489
00:22:04,320 --> 00:22:07,920
Speaker 2: then ultimately find other people like us who weren't professional

490
00:22:07,920 --> 00:22:12,119
Speaker 2: restaurant critics, but were you know, people who worked in

491
00:22:12,320 --> 00:22:14,480
Speaker 2: you know, who were actors, who were lawyers, who worked

492
00:22:14,520 --> 00:22:17,639
Speaker 2: in cosmetics, who you know. We have all kinds of

493
00:22:17,760 --> 00:22:20,800
Speaker 2: hilarious stories. Like one of the women who was writing

494
00:22:20,840 --> 00:22:22,240
Speaker 2: for us in Chicago for a long time was a

495
00:22:22,240 --> 00:22:26,240
Speaker 2: hairdresser and like you know, was super passionate about food

496
00:22:26,320 --> 00:22:28,160
Speaker 2: and like was one of the best writers we've ever had.

497
00:22:28,240 --> 00:22:30,240
Speaker 2: You know, She's amazing and now is like one of

498
00:22:30,240 --> 00:22:32,440
Speaker 2: our managing editors for the whole site and is the best.

499
00:22:32,600 --> 00:22:35,800
Speaker 2: Shout out to Adrian, But like, you know, how did

500
00:22:35,800 --> 00:22:39,480
Speaker 2: you find her? She so the guy Sam.

501
00:22:39,240 --> 00:22:41,280
Speaker 3: Fay who was sort of expanding into other cities.

502
00:22:41,359 --> 00:22:43,120
Speaker 2: Yeah, well, this is when we left our job, when

503
00:22:43,119 --> 00:22:45,680
Speaker 2: we were getting ready to leave our jobs. I actually

504
00:22:45,920 --> 00:22:48,720
Speaker 2: it was hilarious because you talk about positive reinforcement and

505
00:22:48,760 --> 00:22:50,800
Speaker 2: people knowing what you were doing. I actually had jury

506
00:22:50,840 --> 00:22:54,520
Speaker 2: duty and got put on an a as an alternate

507
00:22:54,560 --> 00:22:58,000
Speaker 2: for this case, and we were in your job, right right, right,

508
00:22:58,000 --> 00:23:00,080
Speaker 2: I was like about we were close to leave, and

509
00:23:00,119 --> 00:23:02,600
Speaker 2: we were like probably six months away from leaving. And

510
00:23:03,480 --> 00:23:05,760
Speaker 2: I went to Jerry Duty and we were all sitting

511
00:23:05,800 --> 00:23:07,720
Speaker 2: in this little room and introducing ourselves to one and

512
00:23:07,880 --> 00:23:09,240
Speaker 2: we were going to be together for two weeks. And

513
00:23:09,280 --> 00:23:11,760
Speaker 2: it was like it's Andrew, I worked at you know,

514
00:23:11,800 --> 00:23:12,800
Speaker 2: I work at a record label.

515
00:23:12,960 --> 00:23:15,320
Speaker 3: So I also go to Jerry Duty. But you got selected.

516
00:23:15,320 --> 00:23:16,879
Speaker 2: I got selected, you know. I tried really hard to

517
00:23:16,880 --> 00:23:21,280
Speaker 2: get out and so I and I was like, I

518
00:23:21,320 --> 00:23:23,840
Speaker 2: have a restaurant review website. And this guy who was

519
00:23:23,840 --> 00:23:26,040
Speaker 2: sitting next to me was like, oh my god, immaculate infatuation.

520
00:23:26,160 --> 00:23:27,840
Speaker 2: Oh my god, and was like losing his mind. And

521
00:23:27,840 --> 00:23:29,800
Speaker 2: all these other people like we're looking at like what

522
00:23:29,840 --> 00:23:31,280
Speaker 2: is wrong with this guy? And like he was like, no,

523
00:23:31,320 --> 00:23:33,640
Speaker 2: I'm from Chicago, and like you guys need to come

524
00:23:33,640 --> 00:23:36,720
Speaker 2: to Chicago, Like we're upset. We need this so badly.

525
00:23:36,760 --> 00:23:39,040
Speaker 2: In Chicago. You got to meet my friend. I'm like, dude,

526
00:23:39,040 --> 00:23:41,320
Speaker 2: find me somebody in Chicago and like maybe we'll see

527
00:23:41,320 --> 00:23:42,879
Speaker 2: and he's like I'm gonna email all my friends. I'm

528
00:23:42,920 --> 00:23:46,439
Speaker 2: like great, and so whatever. Cut to months later, and

529
00:23:46,480 --> 00:23:48,720
Speaker 2: like two weeks later, I got an email from somebody

530
00:23:49,359 --> 00:23:51,000
Speaker 2: that I didn't really look at or think about, but

531
00:23:51,080 --> 00:23:54,119
Speaker 2: he was a friend of this guys and I remember

532
00:23:54,200 --> 00:23:56,560
Speaker 2: he was like, I'm in Chicago whatever, and then cut too.

533
00:23:56,600 --> 00:23:58,640
Speaker 2: Four months later we had left our jobs and we

534
00:23:58,720 --> 00:24:02,160
Speaker 2: and the first week we had this conference in Chicago,

535
00:24:02,680 --> 00:24:03,960
Speaker 2: and I remember Chris being like, is there anybody we

536
00:24:03,960 --> 00:24:05,480
Speaker 2: should meet in Chicago? And I was like, you know,

537
00:24:06,000 --> 00:24:07,920
Speaker 2: I've got this email from this guy. And I pulled

538
00:24:08,000 --> 00:24:10,520
Speaker 2: up this email from a guy named Sam Fay, who

539
00:24:10,680 --> 00:24:13,120
Speaker 2: ultimately became one of our first employees who we wound

540
00:24:13,240 --> 00:24:17,400
Speaker 2: up meeting that day and loving, and he has been

541
00:24:17,400 --> 00:24:21,560
Speaker 2: with us forever and ultimately Sam built Chicago for us.

542
00:24:21,600 --> 00:24:24,879
Speaker 2: He now does other things at JP Morgan Chase on

543
00:24:25,000 --> 00:24:31,560
Speaker 2: the sponsorships and talent front with us. But he used

544
00:24:31,600 --> 00:24:33,919
Speaker 2: to get his haircut by this woman, Adrian, and so

545
00:24:34,000 --> 00:24:35,520
Speaker 2: he would go in and get his haircut and talk

546
00:24:35,520 --> 00:24:40,520
Speaker 2: about restaurants with his hairdresser and Adrian. Ultimately, when he

547
00:24:40,600 --> 00:24:43,399
Speaker 2: was looking to expand his role and stop writing all

548
00:24:43,400 --> 00:24:45,240
Speaker 2: the restaurant reviews because you can only do this for

549
00:24:45,280 --> 00:24:48,320
Speaker 2: so long before you are you are gonna burn out,

550
00:24:48,400 --> 00:24:50,960
Speaker 2: to burn out on eating at restaurants up bazillion days.

551
00:24:52,040 --> 00:24:53,959
Speaker 2: She was like, yeah, that would be amazing. So like

552
00:24:54,000 --> 00:24:58,200
Speaker 2: the web of hilarity of Jerry Duty to this guy

553
00:24:58,280 --> 00:25:01,119
Speaker 2: leaving his job as a lawyer to be like, screw it,

554
00:25:01,119 --> 00:25:02,560
Speaker 2: I'm going to go write restaurant reviews and build the

555
00:25:02,640 --> 00:25:05,560
Speaker 2: Chicago thing to like us hiring the woman that cut

556
00:25:05,560 --> 00:25:08,240
Speaker 2: his hair as the next person. It's just it's just

557
00:25:08,320 --> 00:25:10,240
Speaker 2: amazing and it's kind of fun.

558
00:25:10,359 --> 00:25:11,760
Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, And you know food.

559
00:25:11,920 --> 00:25:14,240
Speaker 1: Food is one of those things where obviously we eat

560
00:25:14,280 --> 00:25:17,320
Speaker 1: it every day and people are really passionate about it,

561
00:25:17,359 --> 00:25:19,359
Speaker 1: so it's like you can find it's so it's so

562
00:25:19,440 --> 00:25:20,680
Speaker 1: funny that like shit.

563
00:25:21,359 --> 00:25:23,479
Speaker 2: And that was always what we said to people. It's like,

564
00:25:23,560 --> 00:25:26,760
Speaker 2: you know, everybody, that's why we hate the word foodie

565
00:25:26,800 --> 00:25:28,040
Speaker 2: so much, where it's like, oh my god, I'm such

566
00:25:28,080 --> 00:25:29,760
Speaker 2: a foodie. I want to write for the infatuation. It's

567
00:25:29,800 --> 00:25:33,520
Speaker 2: like congrats, everybody loves food, like right, but like what

568
00:25:33,680 --> 00:25:35,359
Speaker 2: kind of value, what kind of story can you tell?

569
00:25:35,520 --> 00:25:38,400
Speaker 2: What kind of perspective can you bring, and like how

570
00:25:38,400 --> 00:25:42,800
Speaker 2: can you make restaurant reviews entertaining and fun but also

571
00:25:42,920 --> 00:25:45,320
Speaker 2: with the perspective that people are going to be like, oh,

572
00:25:45,320 --> 00:25:46,920
Speaker 2: I want to read it something else by them, right,

573
00:25:46,960 --> 00:25:48,280
Speaker 2: I want like I trust them?

574
00:25:48,600 --> 00:25:50,800
Speaker 3: What do you look for in a writer for infatuation?

575
00:25:51,800 --> 00:25:57,280
Speaker 2: Like levity, humor, storytelling ability, How do you weave in

576
00:25:57,320 --> 00:26:01,919
Speaker 2: references that are pop culture that like you know? And

577
00:26:02,200 --> 00:26:06,560
Speaker 2: how do you how do you analyze the experience of

578
00:26:06,600 --> 00:26:09,679
Speaker 2: the restaurant and not just like the food right and listen.

579
00:26:10,400 --> 00:26:12,359
Speaker 2: Writing is hard. I've never been a great writer. I

580
00:26:12,359 --> 00:26:14,120
Speaker 2: mean I've figured out how to do it. But Chris

581
00:26:14,160 --> 00:26:16,919
Speaker 2: was always a way better writer and editor than I was.

582
00:26:17,160 --> 00:26:19,560
Speaker 2: It was didn't come easy to me. Like I would

583
00:26:19,600 --> 00:26:22,119
Speaker 2: go in stretches where I was like, I can't be

584
00:26:22,359 --> 00:26:24,119
Speaker 2: I can't figure like it just what it like? You

585
00:26:24,119 --> 00:26:26,720
Speaker 2: know you It was hard, but.

586
00:26:26,680 --> 00:26:29,720
Speaker 3: That's really the voice that you guys were writing for people.

587
00:26:29,720 --> 00:26:32,640
Speaker 2: Probably people would find you right, you could get and

588
00:26:32,680 --> 00:26:35,040
Speaker 2: like you. There would be emails that would land in

589
00:26:35,080 --> 00:26:37,560
Speaker 2: our inbox sometimes from somebody and be like, oh my god,

590
00:26:38,400 --> 00:26:42,920
Speaker 2: yes this person. Find this person immediately because this is

591
00:26:42,960 --> 00:26:45,480
Speaker 2: our kind of person and it just you know, they

592
00:26:45,520 --> 00:26:49,880
Speaker 2: had that that personality, that humor, that swag about how

593
00:26:49,920 --> 00:26:51,719
Speaker 2: they how they wrote, and it stood out.

594
00:26:51,880 --> 00:26:54,159
Speaker 1: So was Chicago the first city that you guys expanded

595
00:26:54,200 --> 00:26:55,040
Speaker 1: you outside of Newark.

596
00:26:55,080 --> 00:26:56,920
Speaker 2: It's a great question. I think we try. I think

597
00:26:57,000 --> 00:26:59,800
Speaker 2: I think it was Chicago and then La and then

598
00:26:59,840 --> 00:27:02,000
Speaker 2: we did Denver. Chris was from Denver, and the Denver

599
00:27:02,119 --> 00:27:04,360
Speaker 2: was sort of a failed experiment. But I think you've

600
00:27:04,359 --> 00:27:07,800
Speaker 2: also realized that, like, oh, Denver's a market that people

601
00:27:07,800 --> 00:27:09,919
Speaker 2: don't use restaurants the way they use them in their

602
00:27:09,960 --> 00:27:12,000
Speaker 2: daily lives like in New York or in La or

603
00:27:12,000 --> 00:27:14,880
Speaker 2: an even in Miami or Chicago. Right, It's like people

604
00:27:14,880 --> 00:27:16,399
Speaker 2: go out to eat every once in a while, and

605
00:27:16,440 --> 00:27:18,600
Speaker 2: it's not like there aren't a lot of new restaurants

606
00:27:18,600 --> 00:27:20,000
Speaker 2: that open every year. So it was like, oh, we

607
00:27:20,000 --> 00:27:23,199
Speaker 2: need to focus first on the markets that have the

608
00:27:23,240 --> 00:27:26,040
Speaker 2: saturation from a restaurant perspective and all the new stuff

609
00:27:26,080 --> 00:27:28,280
Speaker 2: opening and people who like are really dialed into the

610
00:27:28,280 --> 00:27:29,080
Speaker 2: restaurant scenes.

611
00:27:29,280 --> 00:27:32,320
Speaker 1: What was the hardest part about expanding outside of New York.

612
00:27:32,200 --> 00:27:35,280
Speaker 2: It was the voice, like trying to translate the voice

613
00:27:35,280 --> 00:27:36,800
Speaker 2: that we had built in New York with the two

614
00:27:36,840 --> 00:27:40,120
Speaker 2: of us to other markets with other people, right, And

615
00:27:40,160 --> 00:27:43,840
Speaker 2: I think that credit to Chris and Hillary Reinsberg, who

616
00:27:43,880 --> 00:27:47,640
Speaker 2: was our first employee who's still with us. You know,

617
00:27:47,760 --> 00:27:51,399
Speaker 2: they wrote up an amazing style guide, and they spent

618
00:27:51,640 --> 00:27:56,240
Speaker 2: so much time building out a handbook about how we

619
00:27:56,280 --> 00:27:59,680
Speaker 2: do things. And everybody's different. But if you can take

620
00:27:59,760 --> 00:28:03,840
Speaker 2: the fatuation, idea and voice and make it your own,

621
00:28:04,640 --> 00:28:07,119
Speaker 2: that's incredible. And that's what's happened in a bunch of

622
00:28:07,160 --> 00:28:09,960
Speaker 2: these markets. And we have some amazing people that have

623
00:28:10,040 --> 00:28:12,080
Speaker 2: been writing for us for a long time and we've

624
00:28:12,119 --> 00:28:17,360
Speaker 2: found all these different voices that you know, have continued

625
00:28:17,359 --> 00:28:19,359
Speaker 2: to grow the brand and build what it is today,

626
00:28:19,359 --> 00:28:20,639
Speaker 2: and it's just it's amazing.

627
00:28:20,880 --> 00:28:22,680
Speaker 1: Is it wild to think about, like where you guys

628
00:28:22,720 --> 00:28:24,439
Speaker 1: are now compared to money first started.

629
00:28:24,520 --> 00:28:26,879
Speaker 2: It's absolutely insane. Like if you had ever told me

630
00:28:26,920 --> 00:28:30,119
Speaker 2: that this is how this would all net out, be

631
00:28:30,200 --> 00:28:33,040
Speaker 2: like a pipe dream, right, But it somehow has worked out,

632
00:28:33,119 --> 00:28:37,160
Speaker 2: and I'm extremely grateful and I can't believe that this

633
00:28:37,240 --> 00:28:39,600
Speaker 2: is what's happened. I think we made a lot of

634
00:28:39,760 --> 00:28:42,239
Speaker 2: right decisions along the way. I think we screwed some

635
00:28:42,280 --> 00:28:45,720
Speaker 2: things up, but I think in general, Chris had a

636
00:28:45,800 --> 00:28:48,560
Speaker 2: vision for a lot of this with the voice and

637
00:28:48,720 --> 00:28:52,560
Speaker 2: saying no to so many different opportunities and being very

638
00:28:52,600 --> 00:28:56,080
Speaker 2: focused on, you know, just doing one thing and doing

639
00:28:56,080 --> 00:28:57,960
Speaker 2: that one thing really well. And I think it's a

640
00:28:58,000 --> 00:29:00,800
Speaker 2: testament to like, you can't be every to everybody. We

641
00:29:00,880 --> 00:29:03,280
Speaker 2: never did recipes, we never did news, we never did

642
00:29:03,440 --> 00:29:06,240
Speaker 2: traditional video. We were like, we do restaurant reviews and guides.

643
00:29:06,320 --> 00:29:08,160
Speaker 2: That's what we do, and all of our content is

644
00:29:08,200 --> 00:29:11,000
Speaker 2: geared toward that on the infatuation front, and then we

645
00:29:11,200 --> 00:29:12,880
Speaker 2: bring people together through experiences.

646
00:29:13,000 --> 00:29:15,160
Speaker 1: Is there ever an experience that you guys said no

647
00:29:15,320 --> 00:29:16,760
Speaker 1: to that you regret saying no to?

648
00:29:17,240 --> 00:29:19,280
Speaker 2: No, no, no, I think.

649
00:29:19,560 --> 00:29:21,040
Speaker 1: Or was there ever an experience that you said no

650
00:29:21,120 --> 00:29:22,680
Speaker 1: to at first and then came back around and you

651
00:29:22,720 --> 00:29:24,360
Speaker 1: were like, yes, now we can say yes to it.

652
00:29:24,720 --> 00:29:27,000
Speaker 2: I always wanted to do. We were a little torn

653
00:29:27,000 --> 00:29:29,400
Speaker 2: on it. I wanted to go. I was like, we

654
00:29:29,400 --> 00:29:32,280
Speaker 2: were huge Top Chef fans. And one of the first

655
00:29:32,320 --> 00:29:34,920
Speaker 2: brand partnerships we ever did was with Bravo around Top Chef.

656
00:29:34,920 --> 00:29:37,880
Speaker 2: It was just some little like local event thing, but

657
00:29:38,560 --> 00:29:40,160
Speaker 2: I thought it was so cool because we were like,

658
00:29:40,160 --> 00:29:41,680
Speaker 2: oh my god, we got to top we got to

659
00:29:41,720 --> 00:29:44,200
Speaker 2: do something with Top Chef, and we were just like

660
00:29:44,360 --> 00:29:47,400
Speaker 2: Padma and Gail and just like the whole dynamic they

661
00:29:47,400 --> 00:29:49,120
Speaker 2: were building. I mean, Top Chef. We were born out

662
00:29:49,160 --> 00:29:51,920
Speaker 2: of a moment where so much of the energy around

663
00:29:51,960 --> 00:29:55,560
Speaker 2: dining when we started was what Top Chef had created, right,

664
00:29:55,640 --> 00:29:58,800
Speaker 2: And so I had always dreamed of being on Top Chef,

665
00:29:58,880 --> 00:30:02,560
Speaker 2: like being a guest judge or whatever. That that never materialized,

666
00:30:02,600 --> 00:30:04,160
Speaker 2: But that's one of those things that I look back

667
00:30:04,200 --> 00:30:05,120
Speaker 2: on and I'm like, damn.

668
00:30:04,880 --> 00:30:07,000
Speaker 3: I wish we I feel like you could still do that.

669
00:30:07,600 --> 00:30:09,160
Speaker 2: Yeah, probably you'd be good.

670
00:30:09,320 --> 00:30:10,960
Speaker 1: You have such like the personality for it. You know,

671
00:30:11,040 --> 00:30:13,320
Speaker 1: my first ever celebrity guest on the Running Interview Show.

672
00:30:13,320 --> 00:30:14,960
Speaker 3: Do you know who it was? Bobby Flay.

673
00:30:15,160 --> 00:30:19,240
Speaker 2: Oh, Bobby Flay. That guy's great. Yeah, he's he's the best.

674
00:30:19,320 --> 00:30:23,480
Speaker 2: He was in We did this video. We didn't do

675
00:30:23,520 --> 00:30:26,200
Speaker 2: traditional video, but we did. Chris wrote this fake restaurant

676
00:30:26,200 --> 00:30:29,400
Speaker 2: review once called Underfinger. That's probably, to this day the

677
00:30:29,440 --> 00:30:31,680
Speaker 2: best thing we ever did is Infatuation. He wrote this

678
00:30:31,720 --> 00:30:35,280
Speaker 2: fake restaurant review when like there was this Nordic craze,

679
00:30:35,840 --> 00:30:39,160
Speaker 2: which is absurd to say. It was like all these

680
00:30:39,200 --> 00:30:42,720
Speaker 2: restaurants from Copenhagen and Denmark and like had all of

681
00:30:42,800 --> 00:30:46,400
Speaker 2: these interesting restaurants that were opening up in Brooklyn and

682
00:30:46,440 --> 00:30:48,479
Speaker 2: it was just like a thing for a while in

683
00:30:48,520 --> 00:30:53,200
Speaker 2: New York. And Chris wrote this hilarious review of a

684
00:30:53,240 --> 00:30:55,960
Speaker 2: fake restaurant on the Lower east Side that was serving

685
00:30:56,360 --> 00:31:02,680
Speaker 2: seahorse to see me and a meat glove, and and

686
00:31:02,680 --> 00:31:04,720
Speaker 2: and people thought it was real. And The New York

687
00:31:04,760 --> 00:31:08,040
Speaker 2: Times picked it up the knowing it was fake but

688
00:31:08,160 --> 00:31:10,760
Speaker 2: saying that it was hilarious. But you had people call

689
00:31:10,840 --> 00:31:12,840
Speaker 2: a number on it. And it became this thing for

690
00:31:12,880 --> 00:31:17,400
Speaker 2: a minute on the internet. And there was a chef

691
00:31:17,480 --> 00:31:20,360
Speaker 2: named Justin Warner who had this restaurant do or Dying.

692
00:31:20,400 --> 00:31:23,720
Speaker 2: He was like this, like he just he did creative, weird,

693
00:31:23,800 --> 00:31:26,680
Speaker 2: wild stuff and he was on Food Network and he

694
00:31:26,840 --> 00:31:29,000
Speaker 2: was super into that restaurant review. He was like, dude,

695
00:31:29,040 --> 00:31:31,000
Speaker 2: can we make this reel? Can we please make this real?

696
00:31:31,040 --> 00:31:33,840
Speaker 2: And so Chris and Justin made this real and filmed

697
00:31:33,920 --> 00:31:39,000
Speaker 2: this like spinal tap type of movie. As we made

698
00:31:39,680 --> 00:31:42,479
Speaker 2: the restaurant reel for a night right and then and

699
00:31:42,560 --> 00:31:45,360
Speaker 2: Bobby Flay played a key role in it because he

700
00:31:45,440 --> 00:31:47,560
Speaker 2: was super into it as well. And he was he

701
00:31:47,720 --> 00:31:52,720
Speaker 2: was in the film and film it was so good.

702
00:31:52,800 --> 00:31:55,960
Speaker 2: But we loved but Bobby. We we are appreciative to

703
00:31:56,040 --> 00:31:59,240
Speaker 2: Bobby forever because he was he was into what we

704
00:31:59,240 --> 00:32:01,440
Speaker 2: were doing as weird and stupid as it was. You know,

705
00:32:01,480 --> 00:32:03,600
Speaker 2: he got into it and it was really cool. Yeah.

706
00:32:03,600 --> 00:32:05,440
Speaker 3: You know, Bobby Flay's got his finger on the pulse,

707
00:32:05,480 --> 00:32:06,120
Speaker 3: he really does.

708
00:32:06,280 --> 00:32:08,400
Speaker 2: Yeah. I remember Chris. Chris told a story. I'd said,

709
00:32:08,400 --> 00:32:09,960
Speaker 2: like The Underfinger had just come out, and Chris was

710
00:32:09,960 --> 00:32:12,760
Speaker 2: eating at the bar at Gatto, which was at that

711
00:32:12,920 --> 00:32:15,880
Speaker 2: time one of his new restaurants, and Bobby had come

712
00:32:15,920 --> 00:32:17,520
Speaker 2: that they'd never met before. And I remember Chris was

713
00:32:17,520 --> 00:32:19,800
Speaker 2: always a big Bobby Flay guy, and Bobby came up

714
00:32:19,840 --> 00:32:22,840
Speaker 2: to Chris and was like, yo, Underfinger and thing was

715
00:32:22,920 --> 00:32:25,640
Speaker 2: like what he was like, He's like, yeah, we're making

716
00:32:25,640 --> 00:32:26,680
Speaker 2: a video. You want to be in it? And he

717
00:32:26,720 --> 00:32:30,080
Speaker 2: was like hell yes. So Bobby Flay's good people.

718
00:32:39,520 --> 00:32:42,240
Speaker 1: What finally gave you the confidence after those five years

719
00:32:42,280 --> 00:32:44,320
Speaker 1: of you know, managing both your full time job and

720
00:32:44,360 --> 00:32:47,640
Speaker 1: starting infatuation to go full time with infatuation, Well.

721
00:32:47,680 --> 00:32:49,720
Speaker 2: Chris, my business partner, was ready to go, and he's

722
00:32:49,760 --> 00:32:51,960
Speaker 2: like all right, dude, like it's time. I was ready

723
00:32:51,960 --> 00:32:54,080
Speaker 2: to stay and have I had just had my first

724
00:32:54,160 --> 00:32:57,040
Speaker 2: kid and I liked my like paying job. But at

725
00:32:57,040 --> 00:32:58,880
Speaker 2: the end of the day, like if you want to do,

726
00:32:59,000 --> 00:33:00,920
Speaker 2: if you want, if you want to realize your full

727
00:33:00,960 --> 00:33:03,680
Speaker 2: potential for something, and we had product market fit. We

728
00:33:03,680 --> 00:33:05,760
Speaker 2: could feel it right like you could you had all

729
00:33:05,800 --> 00:33:09,239
Speaker 2: of this positive reinforcement consistently. You could feel that there

730
00:33:09,280 --> 00:33:12,680
Speaker 2: was something there. And if you're not willing to dive

731
00:33:12,720 --> 00:33:15,400
Speaker 2: in full time and do you know, commit your entire

732
00:33:15,480 --> 00:33:18,239
Speaker 2: being to this thing that you are building, you are

733
00:33:18,240 --> 00:33:20,440
Speaker 2: not going to be successful at all. And it got

734
00:33:20,480 --> 00:33:23,120
Speaker 2: to the point where it was like it no longer

735
00:33:23,240 --> 00:33:26,320
Speaker 2: could we do our real jobs and our side hustle

736
00:33:26,360 --> 00:33:28,120
Speaker 2: at the same time. It was you had to pick

737
00:33:28,120 --> 00:33:30,080
Speaker 2: one or the other. And it was obviously going to

738
00:33:30,120 --> 00:33:32,800
Speaker 2: be the thing we'd been building for five years, right,

739
00:33:32,840 --> 00:33:34,600
Speaker 2: and so it was like, okay, you rip the band

740
00:33:34,640 --> 00:33:37,360
Speaker 2: aid off and you go figure it out. And it

741
00:33:37,440 --> 00:33:40,880
Speaker 2: was not easy, but we had the luxury of being

742
00:33:40,880 --> 00:33:43,000
Speaker 2: able to work full time jobs for five years to

743
00:33:43,000 --> 00:33:46,920
Speaker 2: get ourselves to a point where we were ready to

744
00:33:46,960 --> 00:33:50,200
Speaker 2: commit to doing that. And I highly suggest other aspiring

745
00:33:50,320 --> 00:33:53,880
Speaker 2: entrepreneurs start something on the side, mess around, see if

746
00:33:53,880 --> 00:33:56,840
Speaker 2: there's a fit before you're like, this is my thing, right,

747
00:33:56,920 --> 00:33:59,000
Speaker 2: because I think a lot of times people will be like,

748
00:33:59,040 --> 00:34:01,040
Speaker 2: this is my thing in my mind mind, and I'm

749
00:34:01,080 --> 00:34:03,520
Speaker 2: so committed to this thing in my mind, but in reality,

750
00:34:04,040 --> 00:34:07,560
Speaker 2: do people want that thing? Tbd? Right? And like if

751
00:34:07,560 --> 00:34:09,359
Speaker 2: some people don't want that thing, you should not do

752
00:34:09,400 --> 00:34:11,600
Speaker 2: that full time, right. But like if you can find

753
00:34:11,600 --> 00:34:14,879
Speaker 2: something where there really is traction and there's something there,

754
00:34:14,880 --> 00:34:17,440
Speaker 2: and even if you can't determine exactly what that is initially,

755
00:34:17,440 --> 00:34:20,200
Speaker 2: but you feel it, and it's like it's showing that

756
00:34:20,239 --> 00:34:22,040
Speaker 2: to you day in and day out, that people care,

757
00:34:23,040 --> 00:34:23,520
Speaker 2: go for it.

758
00:34:24,280 --> 00:34:27,279
Speaker 1: We did having your first child, Like, yeah, it gets

759
00:34:27,400 --> 00:34:28,440
Speaker 1: you know, motivate you even more.

760
00:34:28,440 --> 00:34:32,959
Speaker 2: I think ultimately, I was motivated to have a great

761
00:34:33,000 --> 00:34:35,200
Speaker 2: life for myself and for my family, and I think

762
00:34:35,239 --> 00:34:37,920
Speaker 2: that we wanted to, you know, I think Chris and

763
00:34:37,960 --> 00:34:42,000
Speaker 2: I both were keen to be successful in our careers,

764
00:34:42,280 --> 00:34:45,480
Speaker 2: make some money, you know, be able to be in

765
00:34:45,520 --> 00:34:49,560
Speaker 2: control of our own time ultimately, and you know. So, yeah,

766
00:34:49,600 --> 00:34:52,080
Speaker 2: having kids obviously will make you care a lot more

767
00:34:52,280 --> 00:34:55,959
Speaker 2: and also stress a lot more because they're not cheap.

768
00:34:56,320 --> 00:34:59,600
Speaker 1: Yeah, especially on the East Coast. But was your wife

769
00:34:59,640 --> 00:35:01,000
Speaker 1: and support it when you went full time?

770
00:35:01,040 --> 00:35:02,920
Speaker 2: And my wife has been amazing. I mean she's been

771
00:35:02,960 --> 00:35:05,520
Speaker 2: supportive of this journey the whole way. And I've been

772
00:35:05,560 --> 00:35:11,600
Speaker 2: an insane roller coaster of emotions and travel and just insanity.

773
00:35:11,800 --> 00:35:17,080
Speaker 2: So Shashana has been supportive and been around for this

774
00:35:17,160 --> 00:35:17,719
Speaker 2: whole ride.

775
00:35:17,840 --> 00:35:22,600
Speaker 1: So yeah, seriously, no, the founder journey, the founder journey

776
00:35:22,600 --> 00:35:24,320
Speaker 1: really does come with so many highs and the lows.

777
00:35:25,080 --> 00:35:27,799
Speaker 1: How do you deal with the lows and you know,

778
00:35:28,040 --> 00:35:29,239
Speaker 1: not let the highs get too high?

779
00:35:29,320 --> 00:35:31,560
Speaker 2: Yeah, the lows, I mean this thing will chew you

780
00:35:31,680 --> 00:35:34,520
Speaker 2: up and spit you out, like this stuff can you.

781
00:35:34,640 --> 00:35:39,000
Speaker 2: I've hit rock bottom multiple times in multiple experiences with

782
00:35:39,040 --> 00:35:42,479
Speaker 2: this company, and it's hard. The pandemic was really hard,

783
00:35:42,640 --> 00:35:44,880
Speaker 2: you know, like there's just there's a lot going on

784
00:35:45,080 --> 00:35:49,520
Speaker 2: and but you just just like in life, you've got

785
00:35:49,560 --> 00:35:51,440
Speaker 2: to be resilient across the board, you know. I think

786
00:35:51,480 --> 00:35:54,560
Speaker 2: that's anybody has to deal with that, whether you're an

787
00:35:54,600 --> 00:35:57,799
Speaker 2: entrepreneur or just a regular person who's doing their their

788
00:35:57,880 --> 00:36:00,920
Speaker 2: their regular job and in their life, you know, and

789
00:36:00,960 --> 00:36:03,200
Speaker 2: you got to figure out how to deal with knock

790
00:36:03,239 --> 00:36:05,960
Speaker 2: it too high on the highs and knock at too

791
00:36:06,040 --> 00:36:08,239
Speaker 2: lows on the lows and realize that it's all about

792
00:36:08,280 --> 00:36:09,040
Speaker 2: that equilibrium.

793
00:36:09,080 --> 00:36:11,440
Speaker 1: So when you look back on infatuation, what were some

794
00:36:11,440 --> 00:36:13,360
Speaker 1: of the big turning points for you guys where you

795
00:36:13,440 --> 00:36:16,239
Speaker 1: were like, oh wow, we are now in a completely

796
00:36:16,360 --> 00:36:18,280
Speaker 1: We're pushing this company in a completely different direction.

797
00:36:18,360 --> 00:36:20,239
Speaker 2: I think there's like little things in the beginning. I

798
00:36:20,280 --> 00:36:23,160
Speaker 2: remember in the beginning one of the biggest aha moments

799
00:36:23,360 --> 00:36:26,080
Speaker 2: was we had put tickets on sale to our first event.

800
00:36:26,239 --> 00:36:28,799
Speaker 2: We were doing this thing called Turkey Leg Ball. Our

801
00:36:29,040 --> 00:36:31,440
Speaker 2: logo was a turkey leg back in the day, and

802
00:36:31,520 --> 00:36:33,280
Speaker 2: so we were like, we got to get our people together,

803
00:36:33,440 --> 00:36:35,000
Speaker 2: and so we threw this party. We had no idea

804
00:36:35,040 --> 00:36:36,200
Speaker 2: what we were doing, but this was our first thing.

805
00:36:36,239 --> 00:36:37,719
Speaker 2: I remember we put tickets on sale. I think they

806
00:36:37,760 --> 00:36:40,640
Speaker 2: were like twenty five or fifty bucks, and we had

807
00:36:40,680 --> 00:36:42,840
Speaker 2: emailed it out to our email list, and I remember

808
00:36:42,880 --> 00:36:44,960
Speaker 2: going into a meeting at work, a marketing meeting at

809
00:36:44,960 --> 00:36:48,360
Speaker 2: Warner Music Group, and had sent the email out and

810
00:36:48,719 --> 00:36:51,040
Speaker 2: came out and we had sold out in an hour

811
00:36:51,160 --> 00:36:53,759
Speaker 2: of like three hundred tickets before we'd even send to

812
00:36:53,760 --> 00:36:55,920
Speaker 2: our friends and family or whatever. I remember looking at

813
00:36:55,920 --> 00:36:57,880
Speaker 2: the like manifest of people who bought tickets. I'm like,

814
00:36:57,920 --> 00:37:01,000
Speaker 2: I don't know any of these people is going on right,

815
00:37:01,040 --> 00:37:04,000
Speaker 2: And it's like we are selling out three hundred cap

816
00:37:04,080 --> 00:37:08,319
Speaker 2: rooms in an hour. That it was mind boggling. Right,

817
00:37:08,360 --> 00:37:10,440
Speaker 2: and she's just like those were the things. And then

818
00:37:10,480 --> 00:37:12,520
Speaker 2: you have that party and see all these people come together,

819
00:37:12,640 --> 00:37:14,600
Speaker 2: all excited to be a part of the brand, and

820
00:37:14,640 --> 00:37:16,960
Speaker 2: you're just like, Okay, there's something real here, you know.

821
00:37:17,080 --> 00:37:19,719
Speaker 2: And I think those types of things happened time and

822
00:37:19,760 --> 00:37:25,960
Speaker 2: time again, and you know, at different levels, but super

823
00:37:26,920 --> 00:37:29,279
Speaker 2: super exciting when those things, when those things happen.

824
00:37:29,480 --> 00:37:33,040
Speaker 1: Right, in twenty eighteen, you guys acquired Zagu, right, yeh,

825
00:37:33,080 --> 00:37:35,440
Speaker 1: and Zagg it was like a historic kind of like

826
00:37:35,560 --> 00:37:39,000
Speaker 1: infatuation before infatuation, right. And I don't know much about

827
00:37:39,040 --> 00:37:41,440
Speaker 1: Zagu because I only know kind of like what I

828
00:37:41,480 --> 00:37:43,759
Speaker 1: was seeing online today. I guess it was a pamphlet

829
00:37:43,800 --> 00:37:45,240
Speaker 1: that was handed out.

830
00:37:45,360 --> 00:37:48,080
Speaker 3: During the hall. You're a young girl, okay, what was Zagu?

831
00:37:49,040 --> 00:37:51,440
Speaker 2: The Gat? The gat, which we learned in the process

832
00:37:51,719 --> 00:37:54,080
Speaker 2: of acquiring it is how you pronounce it's a gat

833
00:37:54,080 --> 00:37:57,640
Speaker 2: like the cat. But Tim and ninas a Gat started

834
00:37:57,719 --> 00:38:00,600
Speaker 2: a It was always survey based they did. They they

835
00:38:00,640 --> 00:38:03,360
Speaker 2: printed a book every year that was that like maroon

836
00:38:04,640 --> 00:38:08,960
Speaker 2: little like you know, larger than a pocket sized, but

837
00:38:09,400 --> 00:38:12,080
Speaker 2: it was all done via survey. So they would go

838
00:38:12,200 --> 00:38:15,960
Speaker 2: out to their audience and the audience would fill out

839
00:38:16,000 --> 00:38:19,080
Speaker 2: surveys and send those surveys back and then they would

840
00:38:19,120 --> 00:38:22,200
Speaker 2: pull quotes and they would average out the ratings based

841
00:38:22,239 --> 00:38:24,279
Speaker 2: upon what the community said. It was honestly, it was

842
00:38:24,320 --> 00:38:27,640
Speaker 2: the first version of user generated content just physical right

843
00:38:27,719 --> 00:38:31,600
Speaker 2: like before Yelp, Like, the GAT was really the first thing.

844
00:38:31,719 --> 00:38:33,799
Speaker 2: And and they curated in a way that it was

845
00:38:33,840 --> 00:38:37,080
Speaker 2: extremely trustworthy because they went out to like people that

846
00:38:37,520 --> 00:38:39,480
Speaker 2: were unnamed, right like it was it was it was

847
00:38:39,560 --> 00:38:42,319
Speaker 2: random people. There wasn't like one the GAT reviewer, right,

848
00:38:42,440 --> 00:38:45,480
Speaker 2: it was everybody, and it was a it was it

849
00:38:45,520 --> 00:38:49,360
Speaker 2: was all done via survey. So GAT forever, like the

850
00:38:49,480 --> 00:38:52,880
Speaker 2: GAT was the Bible, like for my generation, my parents

851
00:38:53,640 --> 00:38:56,120
Speaker 2: they all had Zagat's right, the GAT that that was

852
00:38:56,120 --> 00:38:58,080
Speaker 2: how you figured out where to go was based upon

853
00:38:58,120 --> 00:39:00,239
Speaker 2: the GAT ratings and so for us that that was

854
00:39:00,239 --> 00:39:03,600
Speaker 2: always part of the pitch for us was like, we

855
00:39:03,640 --> 00:39:05,960
Speaker 2: want to be a GAT of this next generation. Right,

856
00:39:06,000 --> 00:39:09,040
Speaker 2: it's a GAT. They did an amazing job of building

857
00:39:09,120 --> 00:39:11,760
Speaker 2: the physical book and then they transitioned to the Internet,

858
00:39:11,800 --> 00:39:14,279
Speaker 2: but and it was a membership based thing and they

859
00:39:14,320 --> 00:39:18,280
Speaker 2: ultimately sold the Google and then Google, you know, ultimately

860
00:39:18,320 --> 00:39:21,160
Speaker 2: we acquired it from them. But you know, I think

861
00:39:21,200 --> 00:39:25,120
Speaker 2: that they it's hard to transition platforms like from from

862
00:39:25,320 --> 00:39:28,399
Speaker 2: physical to digital, right like, and you see this all

863
00:39:28,440 --> 00:39:31,359
Speaker 2: the time where it's hard, and so that left an

864
00:39:31,360 --> 00:39:33,719
Speaker 2: opportunity for somebody like us to take some of those

865
00:39:33,719 --> 00:39:37,879
Speaker 2: same ideals of like trust and you know, and make

866
00:39:37,960 --> 00:39:41,320
Speaker 2: it something that could evolve. And so that was always

867
00:39:41,400 --> 00:39:46,040
Speaker 2: part of our thought was, Hey, the GAT didn't necessarily

868
00:39:46,080 --> 00:39:48,560
Speaker 2: transition to the Internet the best way they possibly could have,

869
00:39:48,600 --> 00:39:51,680
Speaker 2: which leads an open door for somebody to go take that.

870
00:39:51,960 --> 00:39:57,840
Speaker 2: And so that was that was part of our vision initially.

871
00:39:57,960 --> 00:39:59,880
Speaker 2: And then when the opportunity arose to acquires a G,

872
00:40:00,239 --> 00:40:02,279
Speaker 2: we were like, oh my God, like yes please, And

873
00:40:02,320 --> 00:40:04,000
Speaker 2: so we're still figuring out. We had a bunch of

874
00:40:04,000 --> 00:40:07,320
Speaker 2: different plans for it, and now we've got some stuff

875
00:40:07,360 --> 00:40:10,520
Speaker 2: happening in stealth. So you will see that brand reappear

876
00:40:10,680 --> 00:40:11,359
Speaker 2: sooner than later.

877
00:40:11,640 --> 00:40:14,400
Speaker 1: Okay, Yeah, it's I feel like it's fun to like

878
00:40:14,560 --> 00:40:16,920
Speaker 1: with like an iconic nostalgic brand like that, to pay

879
00:40:16,960 --> 00:40:18,759
Speaker 1: a little bit of homage to their brand.

880
00:40:18,840 --> 00:40:22,120
Speaker 2: Voice building brands is really hard, Like zi Cat has

881
00:40:22,160 --> 00:40:25,960
Speaker 2: so much value, like they have they have been a

882
00:40:26,000 --> 00:40:30,080
Speaker 2: beacon of trust for over forty years, like that time.

883
00:40:30,400 --> 00:40:34,400
Speaker 2: You know, building brands takes time, so having the ability

884
00:40:34,440 --> 00:40:37,080
Speaker 2: to utilize that brand and do some fun stuff with it.

885
00:40:37,160 --> 00:40:38,719
Speaker 2: Moving forward, we're really excited about.

886
00:40:38,840 --> 00:40:41,120
Speaker 1: Did you guys do collaborations with celebrities where you would

887
00:40:41,120 --> 00:40:42,640
Speaker 1: have them give you their top restaurants?

888
00:40:42,680 --> 00:40:42,919
Speaker 2: Yeah?

889
00:40:42,920 --> 00:40:43,200
Speaker 3: Okay.

890
00:40:43,200 --> 00:40:45,000
Speaker 1: Who were some of the biggest celebrities that you guys

891
00:40:45,040 --> 00:40:47,080
Speaker 1: had on infatuation in the early days?

892
00:40:47,080 --> 00:40:49,480
Speaker 2: Like who was in early days? I mean, as I said,

893
00:40:49,480 --> 00:40:52,120
Speaker 2: Anthony Bourdain, I mean I mean we idolized. I mean

894
00:40:52,160 --> 00:40:54,839
Speaker 2: Boordain is amazing. I mean, I think anybody who came

895
00:40:54,920 --> 00:40:57,399
Speaker 2: up in our era about restaurants and food, I mean,

896
00:40:58,160 --> 00:41:00,160
Speaker 2: he's He's the goat. Nobody'll ever to.

897
00:41:00,560 --> 00:41:01,720
Speaker 3: What was his go to spot?

898
00:41:01,960 --> 00:41:06,479
Speaker 2: I remember Bourdain in his picks with us included Swan

899
00:41:06,560 --> 00:41:10,759
Speaker 2: Oyster Depot, which was this amazing dive oyster bar in

900
00:41:10,840 --> 00:41:14,600
Speaker 2: San Francisco, and he had done it was on it

901
00:41:14,960 --> 00:41:18,399
Speaker 2: was on his show too. But that that was one

902
00:41:18,440 --> 00:41:21,120
Speaker 2: of my first when I first when first started the

903
00:41:21,360 --> 00:41:24,000
Speaker 2: site in went to San Francisco. We went right to

904
00:41:24,080 --> 00:41:26,799
Speaker 2: Swan lined up because that there's no you know, you

905
00:41:26,880 --> 00:41:29,640
Speaker 2: just wait for your spot outside and like he led

906
00:41:29,719 --> 00:41:32,000
Speaker 2: us to the promised line there and like that he had,

907
00:41:32,200 --> 00:41:34,839
Speaker 2: he had his taste was just so impeccable. He just

908
00:41:35,120 --> 00:41:37,839
Speaker 2: liked all the cool stuff and he would go find

909
00:41:37,880 --> 00:41:41,760
Speaker 2: the diamonds and the rough and whatever loveboarding. But we had,

910
00:41:41,880 --> 00:41:43,920
Speaker 2: you know, we would go get Jerry, like Jerry Seinfeld.

911
00:41:44,760 --> 00:41:47,120
Speaker 2: Shout out, shout out to Jess Seinfeld who enabled that,

912
00:41:47,800 --> 00:41:51,480
Speaker 2: who was always a longtime fan and believer in the infatuation.

913
00:41:51,719 --> 00:41:54,400
Speaker 2: Really helped us get to some great celebrities back in

914
00:41:54,400 --> 00:41:57,720
Speaker 2: the day. But she she had Jerry do one, which

915
00:41:58,040 --> 00:42:01,640
Speaker 2: was was was amazing. We had some Knicks, we had

916
00:42:01,640 --> 00:42:04,279
Speaker 2: some Yankees. You know, we're huge sports fans, so that

917
00:42:04,400 --> 00:42:06,799
Speaker 2: was always that was always fun and honestly, the Top

918
00:42:06,880 --> 00:42:09,160
Speaker 2: Chef stuff did really well. And because we would get

919
00:42:09,400 --> 00:42:11,239
Speaker 2: the folks who were on Top Chef, whether it was

920
00:42:11,280 --> 00:42:15,799
Speaker 2: Gail Simmons or Richard Blaize or Padma and not only

921
00:42:15,840 --> 00:42:18,680
Speaker 2: would they share on their Facebook pages, which drove a

922
00:42:18,719 --> 00:42:20,640
Speaker 2: ton of eyeballs and traffic for us, but like the

923
00:42:20,680 --> 00:42:24,040
Speaker 2: Bravo Top Chef page would post. We became friends with

924
00:42:23,800 --> 00:42:25,400
Speaker 2: the with the people who ran a lot of the

925
00:42:25,480 --> 00:42:28,759
Speaker 2: marketing for Bravo and like, if we could get back

926
00:42:28,800 --> 00:42:30,600
Speaker 2: then wanted them to do it, and they would post

927
00:42:30,680 --> 00:42:33,320
Speaker 2: on the Bravo Top Chef page, so many new people

928
00:42:33,320 --> 00:42:35,399
Speaker 2: would come find us. It's the same stuff as doing

929
00:42:35,440 --> 00:42:39,319
Speaker 2: a collab post on Instagram for you know, with celebrities

930
00:42:39,320 --> 00:42:40,840
Speaker 2: these days, right, or like if.

931
00:42:40,680 --> 00:42:42,239
Speaker 1: You have a brand, having a brand where you're hat

932
00:42:42,360 --> 00:42:44,560
Speaker 1: or whatever, it might exactly, yeah, no, that makes a

933
00:42:44,600 --> 00:42:45,000
Speaker 1: lot of sense.

934
00:42:45,000 --> 00:42:46,520
Speaker 3: So celebrity endorsements were a big part.

935
00:42:46,880 --> 00:42:48,520
Speaker 2: And it was we didn't pay anybody. It was just

936
00:42:48,640 --> 00:42:50,919
Speaker 2: it was organic, right. It was it was like, hey,

937
00:42:51,400 --> 00:42:53,640
Speaker 2: finding people who were really into food. So I would

938
00:42:53,719 --> 00:42:56,959
Speaker 2: constantly be on the lookout for people who were talking

939
00:42:56,960 --> 00:42:58,920
Speaker 2: about the pizza they ate or the ice cream they liked,

940
00:42:59,080 --> 00:43:01,319
Speaker 2: or you know, saw something in one of the like

941
00:43:02,000 --> 00:43:05,680
Speaker 2: you know people or US Weekly rags about like Brad

942
00:43:05,680 --> 00:43:07,279
Speaker 2: Pitt eating pizza, and you're like, all right, how do

943
00:43:07,360 --> 00:43:09,120
Speaker 2: I get to Brad Pitt? Never got that, it never

944
00:43:09,160 --> 00:43:10,759
Speaker 2: made that happen, But like, how do I get to

945
00:43:10,800 --> 00:43:13,480
Speaker 2: Derek Cheater? How do I get to people that? Like

946
00:43:13,760 --> 00:43:15,919
Speaker 2: our audience would also be like, oh, you guys got

947
00:43:15,960 --> 00:43:18,120
Speaker 2: this person to do something for you guys, because like

948
00:43:18,160 --> 00:43:21,279
Speaker 2: that helped us level up our credibility absolutely.

949
00:43:31,239 --> 00:43:33,600
Speaker 1: I mean, and I know Infatuation was known for mainly

950
00:43:33,680 --> 00:43:35,680
Speaker 1: highlighting like the restaurants to go to.

951
00:43:36,960 --> 00:43:40,200
Speaker 3: But you guys were very honest in your reviews. Yep,

952
00:43:40,360 --> 00:43:41,040
Speaker 3: did you ever?

953
00:43:42,040 --> 00:43:45,799
Speaker 1: And restaurant tours in New York City get very protective of,

954
00:43:45,960 --> 00:43:48,839
Speaker 1: you know, their spots. Was there ever a situation where

955
00:43:48,840 --> 00:43:52,000
Speaker 1: you maybe gave a restaurant not the review that they

956
00:43:52,000 --> 00:43:54,680
Speaker 1: were looking for all the time? And how did you

957
00:43:54,719 --> 00:43:56,240
Speaker 1: manage those conversations?

958
00:43:56,400 --> 00:43:58,080
Speaker 2: It's hard. Well, we didn't talk to anybody the restaurants,

959
00:43:58,080 --> 00:43:59,520
Speaker 2: but they would they would make they would come, they

960
00:43:59,520 --> 00:44:01,520
Speaker 2: would make sure or they would have heard after the fact.

961
00:44:02,080 --> 00:44:04,560
Speaker 2: You know, Listen, we paid for all our meals ourselves,

962
00:44:04,600 --> 00:44:06,920
Speaker 2: and that was sort of the differentiating factor here of

963
00:44:07,000 --> 00:44:10,920
Speaker 2: that we always went in. We never took free meals,

964
00:44:11,239 --> 00:44:14,000
Speaker 2: we never went to openings. We were never on the take.

965
00:44:14,080 --> 00:44:17,640
Speaker 2: So we never owed anybody anything. Right that being said,

966
00:44:17,760 --> 00:44:20,040
Speaker 2: we weren't out there trying to tear people down. You know,

967
00:44:20,160 --> 00:44:22,360
Speaker 2: I think that if you go out into the world

968
00:44:22,440 --> 00:44:25,200
Speaker 2: trying to do that, even though the low reviews are

969
00:44:25,200 --> 00:44:27,879
Speaker 2: the ones that are most shared, that our people want

970
00:44:27,920 --> 00:44:30,360
Speaker 2: to talk about the most and all of that. So

971
00:44:31,160 --> 00:44:32,719
Speaker 2: you know, every once in a while we would write

972
00:44:32,760 --> 00:44:35,800
Speaker 2: we would we would let it rip on. Yeah, we

973
00:44:35,840 --> 00:44:39,040
Speaker 2: would let it rip on a new restaurant, and those

974
00:44:39,080 --> 00:44:43,240
Speaker 2: people were not happy about it, you know. But in general,

975
00:44:43,760 --> 00:44:46,000
Speaker 2: we were more lovers than we were haters, and we

976
00:44:46,080 --> 00:44:48,759
Speaker 2: tried to be very you know, you have to there's

977
00:44:48,760 --> 00:44:51,000
Speaker 2: a responsibility. I mean the beginning, we had no idea

978
00:44:51,040 --> 00:44:53,719
Speaker 2: what we was, just kind of whatever, right like, but

979
00:44:53,800 --> 00:44:57,719
Speaker 2: we certainly were not like trying to just take people down.

980
00:44:57,800 --> 00:45:00,560
Speaker 2: And I think as we became a platform that had

981
00:45:00,640 --> 00:45:04,160
Speaker 2: scale and size, there's a responsibility that comes along with that, right,

982
00:45:04,239 --> 00:45:06,919
Speaker 2: And so these are people's livelihood, Like you don't want

983
00:45:06,960 --> 00:45:10,040
Speaker 2: to get too crazy, like you want to give people

984
00:45:10,080 --> 00:45:11,600
Speaker 2: a shot, and like a lot of times if we

985
00:45:11,640 --> 00:45:14,359
Speaker 2: go to places and you're just like, yeah, not great,

986
00:45:14,719 --> 00:45:19,680
Speaker 2: probably just skip it instead of like saying something super negative.

987
00:45:19,800 --> 00:45:22,680
Speaker 2: You know. But that being said, there's been plenty of

988
00:45:22,719 --> 00:45:26,479
Speaker 2: situations where people are unhappy with our coverage. And as

989
00:45:26,600 --> 00:45:29,640
Speaker 2: I have always been not necessarily the face, but the

990
00:45:29,640 --> 00:45:33,399
Speaker 2: more publicly out there person, a lot of people will

991
00:45:33,400 --> 00:45:37,359
Speaker 2: come to me and I get the phone calls that

992
00:45:37,560 --> 00:45:38,759
Speaker 2: with unhappy customers.

993
00:45:38,880 --> 00:45:40,719
Speaker 1: When I think of evatuation, I think of it as

994
00:45:40,760 --> 00:45:42,719
Speaker 1: I'm going to it to find the best places to go,

995
00:45:42,760 --> 00:45:44,560
Speaker 1: so you're really not always see the negative. I had

996
00:45:44,560 --> 00:45:46,480
Speaker 1: to ask though, because of these restauranteurs in New York

997
00:45:46,480 --> 00:45:48,000
Speaker 1: are protective of their babies, of.

998
00:45:47,960 --> 00:45:48,480
Speaker 2: Course, you know.

999
00:45:48,800 --> 00:45:51,160
Speaker 1: So what I think is like really cool about what

1000
00:45:51,160 --> 00:45:54,160
Speaker 1: you guys did is the anonymous that going in in

1001
00:45:54,200 --> 00:45:56,240
Speaker 1: an anonymous way, kind of like the way a Michelin

1002
00:45:56,239 --> 00:45:58,080
Speaker 1: Star critic or reviewer.

1003
00:45:57,640 --> 00:45:58,680
Speaker 3: Goes into a restaurant.

1004
00:45:58,880 --> 00:46:02,000
Speaker 1: You guys would go when basically undercover, right, nobody would

1005
00:46:02,040 --> 00:46:04,200
Speaker 1: really know kind of that you were in there reviewing

1006
00:46:04,200 --> 00:46:06,080
Speaker 1: the food. And I feel like that is such an

1007
00:46:06,120 --> 00:46:10,360
Speaker 1: important factor. But was it ever hard to not be

1008
00:46:10,480 --> 00:46:12,719
Speaker 1: tempted by a free meal? You know because probably in

1009
00:46:12,719 --> 00:46:14,799
Speaker 1: the early days it gets expensive, right paying for your

1010
00:46:14,800 --> 00:46:15,400
Speaker 1: food out Yea.

1011
00:46:16,920 --> 00:46:19,319
Speaker 2: Honestly, it was never something we considered. I just think

1012
00:46:19,360 --> 00:46:21,759
Speaker 2: it was always such a point of emphasis for us,

1013
00:46:21,960 --> 00:46:24,920
Speaker 2: as like, yeah, we're not gonna you're not taking anything

1014
00:46:24,920 --> 00:46:28,320
Speaker 2: from you, right, and so we always were really focused

1015
00:46:28,360 --> 00:46:32,080
Speaker 2: on just you know, trying to be anonymous. It gets

1016
00:46:32,080 --> 00:46:34,920
Speaker 2: hard these days, like everybody knows, like the infatuation New York.

1017
00:46:34,960 --> 00:46:37,279
Speaker 2: Everybody knows the people who are the infatuation New York.

1018
00:46:37,360 --> 00:46:41,360
Speaker 2: So like it's just now it's not about necessarily just

1019
00:46:41,360 --> 00:46:43,319
Speaker 2: being anonymous, even though all their reviews are made with

1020
00:46:43,360 --> 00:46:45,560
Speaker 2: fake names, and they like, you know, they're not wearing

1021
00:46:45,600 --> 00:46:47,919
Speaker 2: costumes or anything though, but they do have fake names

1022
00:46:47,960 --> 00:46:51,000
Speaker 2: that they rotate in and out of and listen people

1023
00:46:51,000 --> 00:46:53,279
Speaker 2: that will recognize you and identify you, and it's just

1024
00:46:53,320 --> 00:46:55,160
Speaker 2: like cool, like you can try to pay for the meal,

1025
00:46:55,200 --> 00:46:56,520
Speaker 2: but I'm not going to allow you to.

1026
00:46:56,920 --> 00:46:58,680
Speaker 3: Do you have a fake name back in the day, yeah,

1027
00:46:58,719 --> 00:46:59,200
Speaker 3: tons of them.

1028
00:46:59,280 --> 00:47:01,520
Speaker 2: I never had any ones though. I just went I

1029
00:47:01,600 --> 00:47:04,359
Speaker 2: just my fake name. I was just my wife's maiden name,

1030
00:47:05,239 --> 00:47:08,320
Speaker 2: like that was that was my fake name. That's pretty simple.

1031
00:47:08,360 --> 00:47:11,680
Speaker 2: But other people have more elaborate and hilarious schemes. I

1032
00:47:11,719 --> 00:47:13,800
Speaker 2: forget some of the some of the good ones, but

1033
00:47:14,560 --> 00:47:16,719
Speaker 2: you know, they'll know. They'll recognize you and be like

1034
00:47:17,480 --> 00:47:20,719
Speaker 2: sometimes and try and send out free dishes or free

1035
00:47:20,760 --> 00:47:23,480
Speaker 2: food and your sig please just we're paying for this.

1036
00:47:24,520 --> 00:47:26,719
Speaker 1: Well, in twenty twenty one, you guys were acquired by

1037
00:47:26,800 --> 00:47:29,279
Speaker 1: JP Morgan, and it's been fun kind of going down

1038
00:47:29,360 --> 00:47:31,880
Speaker 1: just the rabbit hole of all these different eras of

1039
00:47:31,920 --> 00:47:34,640
Speaker 1: infatuation and kind of the just how you guys built

1040
00:47:34,680 --> 00:47:38,160
Speaker 1: over the years. What has this new chapter working with

1041
00:47:38,280 --> 00:47:40,120
Speaker 1: JP Morgan been like for you? And you know, we

1042
00:47:40,160 --> 00:47:41,560
Speaker 1: talked about this on the run a little bit, but

1043
00:47:42,040 --> 00:47:44,319
Speaker 1: you know, music guy gets into the food world and

1044
00:47:44,320 --> 00:47:45,799
Speaker 1: all of a sudden you're working at, you know, a

1045
00:47:45,800 --> 00:47:48,839
Speaker 1: massive financial company, right, it's so unexpected.

1046
00:47:49,080 --> 00:47:52,680
Speaker 2: I've had a lot of eras, Yeah, eras. It's been amazing.

1047
00:47:52,719 --> 00:47:57,840
Speaker 2: I mean, honestly, the acquisition partnership could not couldn't have

1048
00:47:57,880 --> 00:48:01,719
Speaker 2: gone any better. We got really lucky. JP Morgan Chase

1049
00:48:01,719 --> 00:48:04,359
Speaker 2: has been an amazing landing spot for the infatuation. It's

1050
00:48:04,360 --> 00:48:06,200
Speaker 2: been an amazing landing spot for a lot of our

1051
00:48:06,239 --> 00:48:10,080
Speaker 2: employees who've gone on to have new opportunities within the

1052
00:48:10,080 --> 00:48:12,520
Speaker 2: bank that they're doing. You know, there's not a lot

1053
00:48:12,560 --> 00:48:16,799
Speaker 2: of companies like ours that get acquired into JP Morgan Chase, right,

1054
00:48:16,880 --> 00:48:19,680
Speaker 2: so it actually creates you know, our people are unique

1055
00:48:19,680 --> 00:48:23,960
Speaker 2: within within the landscape of the firm, and there's a

1056
00:48:23,960 --> 00:48:25,640
Speaker 2: lot of opportunity and a lot of the things that

1057
00:48:25,680 --> 00:48:29,480
Speaker 2: we do as it relates to like creating experiences, creating

1058
00:48:29,560 --> 00:48:35,000
Speaker 2: content you know, endemic to social endemic to events and

1059
00:48:35,200 --> 00:48:40,120
Speaker 2: taste makers and amplification and you know, like stuff they

1060
00:48:40,200 --> 00:48:42,879
Speaker 2: could use some help with and that's been a really

1061
00:48:42,920 --> 00:48:46,680
Speaker 2: good fit, you know. So I'm now leading talent partnerships

1062
00:48:46,680 --> 00:48:49,880
Speaker 2: and culture partnerships for the bank. I work closely with

1063
00:48:49,920 --> 00:48:51,600
Speaker 2: all of the credit cards, but also different parts of

1064
00:48:51,640 --> 00:48:54,400
Speaker 2: the bank, the investment bank, the private bank, the consumer bank,

1065
00:48:54,719 --> 00:48:58,200
Speaker 2: and helping them work with celebrities and talent but in

1066
00:48:58,200 --> 00:49:01,239
Speaker 2: authentic ways, right, Like what are you know? Every a

1067
00:49:01,239 --> 00:49:04,120
Speaker 2: lot of people use different parts of the Chase ecosystem

1068
00:49:04,120 --> 00:49:06,000
Speaker 2: in their daily lives, so like how do we double

1069
00:49:06,040 --> 00:49:09,319
Speaker 2: down on that and like make that an authentic connectivity

1070
00:49:09,360 --> 00:49:12,640
Speaker 2: point so that we can do content and marketing with

1071
00:49:12,800 --> 00:49:15,840
Speaker 2: people that make sense, you know, And so you know,

1072
00:49:15,840 --> 00:49:17,160
Speaker 2: we're just talking to you about like you know, it

1073
00:49:17,160 --> 00:49:19,600
Speaker 2: would be really interesting to think about. You know, we're

1074
00:49:19,640 --> 00:49:22,080
Speaker 2: working there's a there's a new card, the Chase Saphire

1075
00:49:22,080 --> 00:49:24,879
Speaker 2: Reserve for Business. You just did a whole new uh

1076
00:49:25,280 --> 00:49:27,359
Speaker 2: all these new benefits on the Saphire Reserve card as

1077
00:49:27,360 --> 00:49:29,399
Speaker 2: well as it's a brand new card for business. And

1078
00:49:30,040 --> 00:49:32,120
Speaker 2: you know, we could have you host a running show

1079
00:49:32,560 --> 00:49:34,560
Speaker 2: right where we funnel in a bunch of really cool

1080
00:49:34,680 --> 00:49:38,000
Speaker 2: entrepreneurs who we want to work with and storyteller who

1081
00:49:38,120 --> 00:49:40,520
Speaker 2: use the Sapphire for business card in their daily lives

1082
00:49:40,520 --> 00:49:43,520
Speaker 2: who use Chase Business Banking, which I know you said.

1083
00:49:44,000 --> 00:49:45,920
Speaker 1: You know, guys, I'm a soul Chase user. It's the

1084
00:49:45,920 --> 00:49:47,640
Speaker 1: only credit cards that I have are Chase.

1085
00:49:47,760 --> 00:49:50,960
Speaker 2: Yeah. So like there's just like fun story storylines that

1086
00:49:51,000 --> 00:49:53,200
Speaker 2: we could do and that and and think about ways

1087
00:49:53,200 --> 00:49:56,560
Speaker 2: that we can integrate into culture in ways that feel

1088
00:49:56,760 --> 00:49:59,600
Speaker 2: feel good and feel authentic and and so you know,

1089
00:49:59,719 --> 00:50:02,000
Speaker 2: the position has gone really well. And for the infatuation,

1090
00:50:02,080 --> 00:50:04,120
Speaker 2: which I don't work on that much anymore these days,

1091
00:50:04,320 --> 00:50:10,160
Speaker 2: which is which is crazy but also amazing nice for you.

1092
00:50:10,160 --> 00:50:11,960
Speaker 1: Right, because I feel like oftentimes we've had a lot

1093
00:50:11,960 --> 00:50:14,360
Speaker 1: of founders on the show, and I think the biggest

1094
00:50:14,400 --> 00:50:16,440
Speaker 1: thing that they talk about is like sometimes it's just

1095
00:50:16,520 --> 00:50:18,719
Speaker 1: you want to It's like you're such a creative, entrepreneurial

1096
00:50:18,760 --> 00:50:22,520
Speaker 1: person to work on one thing only for so many years,

1097
00:50:22,920 --> 00:50:24,800
Speaker 1: can get a little stick, can get I mean, obviously

1098
00:50:24,800 --> 00:50:27,040
Speaker 1: you guys do so much with infatuation, but it's nice

1099
00:50:27,080 --> 00:50:28,520
Speaker 1: to it's like your baby, it's.

1100
00:50:28,400 --> 00:50:32,200
Speaker 2: A you know, we're doing a sweet sixteen party this week.

1101
00:50:32,280 --> 00:50:34,479
Speaker 2: We've been you know, we've been around for sixteen years,

1102
00:50:34,480 --> 00:50:37,600
Speaker 2: so like, you know, it's grown up, and it's different

1103
00:50:37,640 --> 00:50:40,680
Speaker 2: than it was ten years ago or sixteen years ago,

1104
00:50:40,840 --> 00:50:42,640
Speaker 2: you know, and so but it's amazing to still be

1105
00:50:42,680 --> 00:50:46,120
Speaker 2: able to be totally adjacent to it, associated with it,

1106
00:50:46,320 --> 00:50:50,000
Speaker 2: and to see it flourish and JP Morgan Chase have

1107
00:50:50,040 --> 00:50:53,560
Speaker 2: given it opportunities to continue to grow and evolve and scale.

1108
00:50:53,719 --> 00:50:56,440
Speaker 2: It's phenomenal so that the whole thing has worked out

1109
00:50:56,480 --> 00:50:56,919
Speaker 2: really well.

1110
00:50:57,200 --> 00:50:59,920
Speaker 1: Yeah, you know, it's interesting because you're really at the

1111
00:51:00,040 --> 00:51:02,719
Speaker 1: forefront of some major partnerships, right, Like did you just

1112
00:51:02,760 --> 00:51:04,720
Speaker 1: work on the Haley Beber Sapphire partnership?

1113
00:51:04,800 --> 00:51:05,400
Speaker 2: Yep, for sure.

1114
00:51:05,480 --> 00:51:07,879
Speaker 1: What would you say, Like, there's so many like people

1115
00:51:07,920 --> 00:51:10,160
Speaker 1: out there that are in the creator industry or you know,

1116
00:51:10,200 --> 00:51:12,080
Speaker 1: work within it. Like what are some of the things

1117
00:51:12,080 --> 00:51:14,560
Speaker 1: that you look for with talent and people that are

1118
00:51:14,560 --> 00:51:15,440
Speaker 1: good fits to I.

1119
00:51:15,400 --> 00:51:17,560
Speaker 2: Think people that are passionate about something other than like

1120
00:51:17,640 --> 00:51:20,279
Speaker 2: especially like you know, we can pay anybody to just

1121
00:51:20,360 --> 00:51:24,120
Speaker 2: be in a commercial, but like that doesn't take you

1122
00:51:24,200 --> 00:51:26,319
Speaker 2: so far in this day and age, right, you want

1123
00:51:26,320 --> 00:51:28,120
Speaker 2: to have a through line to some other stuff, Like

1124
00:51:28,160 --> 00:51:31,200
Speaker 2: we've you know, the Haley thing as an entrepreneur. I mean,

1125
00:51:31,239 --> 00:51:33,880
Speaker 2: what she did with road is unbelievable. That team. Like

1126
00:51:33,920 --> 00:51:35,880
Speaker 2: what they were able to do in five years building

1127
00:51:35,880 --> 00:51:38,759
Speaker 2: that brand and differentiating themselves from everything else in that

1128
00:51:38,800 --> 00:51:42,399
Speaker 2: ecosystem and then selling it for a billion dollars to ELF,

1129
00:51:42,800 --> 00:51:46,279
Speaker 2: It's unreal. And like JP Morgan was involved in that transaction, right,

1130
00:51:46,400 --> 00:51:48,319
Speaker 2: And so like that thread was a great one to

1131
00:51:48,360 --> 00:51:51,840
Speaker 2: pull on to think about Haley as an entrepreneur and

1132
00:51:51,920 --> 00:51:54,080
Speaker 2: celebrity who would make a lot of sense for a

1133
00:51:54,120 --> 00:51:56,879
Speaker 2: campaign that the Sapphire Reserve team was building out right,

1134
00:51:57,040 --> 00:52:00,200
Speaker 2: And so that made a lot of sense. And you

1135
00:52:00,200 --> 00:52:02,520
Speaker 2: know her celebrity and her moment right now, I mean

1136
00:52:02,600 --> 00:52:06,680
Speaker 2: she's grown up and she's doing amazing things, right, And

1137
00:52:06,719 --> 00:52:09,120
Speaker 2: like we've been working with Tom Holland a bunch on

1138
00:52:09,920 --> 00:52:12,759
Speaker 2: He has a non alcoholic beer brand called Biro that

1139
00:52:12,800 --> 00:52:16,120
Speaker 2: he's super leaned into and super passionate about because he

1140
00:52:16,160 --> 00:52:18,920
Speaker 2: loves a pint but he doesn't drink alcohol anymore, and

1141
00:52:19,000 --> 00:52:21,759
Speaker 2: so he started this business because he really wanted to

1142
00:52:21,760 --> 00:52:23,399
Speaker 2: have a beer that he was into. And now we're

1143
00:52:23,400 --> 00:52:28,359
Speaker 2: distributing his beer at the Sapphire Reserve Airport lounges. We

1144
00:52:28,400 --> 00:52:30,840
Speaker 2: are working with him on some things around the Sapphire

1145
00:52:30,840 --> 00:52:34,600
Speaker 2: for business card. We you know, underwrote his Padel tournament

1146
00:52:34,760 --> 00:52:37,120
Speaker 2: in London as part of a Wimbledon thing that we

1147
00:52:37,160 --> 00:52:40,319
Speaker 2: did together. So like we're integrating into his world, he's

1148
00:52:40,360 --> 00:52:43,320
Speaker 2: integrating into our world. And it's just a really good,

1149
00:52:43,680 --> 00:52:47,239
Speaker 2: serendipitous partnership that has value on both sides, right, So

1150
00:52:48,000 --> 00:52:50,440
Speaker 2: just looking for opportunities like that with people who are

1151
00:52:50,480 --> 00:52:54,239
Speaker 2: passionate and that have business endeavors that can, like you know,

1152
00:52:54,960 --> 00:52:57,560
Speaker 2: add value that we can add value to in addition

1153
00:52:57,600 --> 00:52:59,520
Speaker 2: to them adding value to the things that we're working on.

1154
00:52:59,760 --> 00:53:01,680
Speaker 1: Yeah, you know, I asked you this on our run,

1155
00:53:01,680 --> 00:53:03,800
Speaker 1: but just to elaborate a little further on it is,

1156
00:53:03,840 --> 00:53:05,680
Speaker 1: could you imagine telling your twenty year old self that

1157
00:53:05,719 --> 00:53:07,719
Speaker 1: you're working at Chase right now running partnerships?

1158
00:53:08,320 --> 00:53:12,040
Speaker 2: No, that would be me working at a bank. Was

1159
00:53:12,120 --> 00:53:14,760
Speaker 2: never something that I envisioned in my life, but honestly,

1160
00:53:14,960 --> 00:53:18,200
Speaker 2: I wouldn't. I wouldn't change anything. So it's working out.

1161
00:53:18,600 --> 00:53:20,359
Speaker 2: It's working out really well, and this is this place

1162
00:53:20,400 --> 00:53:23,600
Speaker 2: has been really good to us and excited about the future.

1163
00:53:23,760 --> 00:53:25,200
Speaker 3: Is music still a big part of your life?

1164
00:53:25,280 --> 00:53:27,760
Speaker 2: Yeah, of course, I mean music is forever will forever

1165
00:53:27,840 --> 00:53:30,400
Speaker 2: be a passion of mine, and so many relationships that

1166
00:53:30,440 --> 00:53:32,839
Speaker 2: we built in music business. You know, we in the

1167
00:53:32,880 --> 00:53:34,960
Speaker 2: field that we work on. We're still working closely with

1168
00:53:35,040 --> 00:53:38,920
Speaker 2: booking bands and artists, and you know, we have a

1169
00:53:38,920 --> 00:53:42,200
Speaker 2: big partnership with Apple Music right now through a Sapphire

1170
00:53:42,200 --> 00:53:44,279
Speaker 2: Reserve partnership that we're doing a lot with and we

1171
00:53:44,360 --> 00:53:47,160
Speaker 2: get to stay grounded and you know in a lot

1172
00:53:47,160 --> 00:53:49,239
Speaker 2: of the music stuff that I grew up in, So

1173
00:53:49,480 --> 00:53:53,799
Speaker 2: still have all those relationships and get to participate in

1174
00:53:53,840 --> 00:53:55,440
Speaker 2: it without being fully in it.

1175
00:53:55,840 --> 00:53:57,279
Speaker 3: Yeah, it's cool.

1176
00:53:57,320 --> 00:53:59,080
Speaker 1: It seems like what you do now is really a

1177
00:53:59,080 --> 00:54:01,160
Speaker 1: combination of all of the things that you're passionate about,

1178
00:54:01,200 --> 00:54:03,279
Speaker 1: which you know sometimes you never think you get that

1179
00:54:03,320 --> 00:54:04,319
Speaker 1: at a bank, but you really do.

1180
00:54:04,480 --> 00:54:07,160
Speaker 2: Right Like somehow, somehow that has worked out.

1181
00:54:07,239 --> 00:54:08,239
Speaker 3: You have built your dream job.

1182
00:54:08,239 --> 00:54:08,520
Speaker 2: All right.

1183
00:54:08,560 --> 00:54:11,840
Speaker 1: Well, I have some pop questions for you. Some of

1184
00:54:11,840 --> 00:54:13,960
Speaker 1: them were submitted by our audience, some of them were

1185
00:54:14,000 --> 00:54:14,600
Speaker 1: submitted by me.

1186
00:54:15,760 --> 00:54:18,959
Speaker 3: So here we go. What's one NYC restaurant that's worth

1187
00:54:18,960 --> 00:54:19,480
Speaker 3: the hype?

1188
00:54:19,680 --> 00:54:23,160
Speaker 2: Via Cororoda everybody like everybody you know via Karota, just

1189
00:54:23,200 --> 00:54:27,400
Speaker 2: one of the best restaurants in New York. Go to lunch,

1190
00:54:27,440 --> 00:54:30,080
Speaker 2: move all the time, Get there early, Get there eleven

1191
00:54:30,160 --> 00:54:33,000
Speaker 2: thirty see if you can see if you can squeeze

1192
00:54:33,040 --> 00:54:35,520
Speaker 2: yourself into a table because you won't be able to

1193
00:54:35,520 --> 00:54:37,680
Speaker 2: get a reservation for the most part. But I love

1194
00:54:37,760 --> 00:54:39,840
Speaker 2: via Corona and like the people watching it via Corooda.

1195
00:54:40,040 --> 00:54:40,879
Speaker 2: It doesn't get better.

1196
00:54:41,000 --> 00:54:43,759
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's so good. Which city has the best food

1197
00:54:43,840 --> 00:54:45,160
Speaker 1: scene outside of New York City?

1198
00:54:45,280 --> 00:54:48,760
Speaker 2: Los Angeles? I mean, there's just the La food scene.

1199
00:54:48,880 --> 00:54:50,840
Speaker 2: On a jack tie. I mean, people are tired about

1200
00:54:51,080 --> 00:54:54,439
Speaker 2: me talking about on a jack but like it's there's

1201
00:54:54,480 --> 00:54:57,040
Speaker 2: just so much good stuff in La. La is so

1202
00:54:57,200 --> 00:54:59,839
Speaker 2: vast there, and I think that over the last like

1203
00:55:00,280 --> 00:55:03,279
Speaker 2: five or six years, it's really become an amazing place

1204
00:55:03,280 --> 00:55:03,560
Speaker 2: to eat.

1205
00:55:04,000 --> 00:55:05,839
Speaker 1: Well, we're going to be living in LA for the winter,

1206
00:55:05,960 --> 00:55:08,040
Speaker 1: so I'm gonna need a list of good spots there.

1207
00:55:08,120 --> 00:55:10,439
Speaker 1: When you're at a restaurant and the food is mid,

1208
00:55:10,640 --> 00:55:12,120
Speaker 1: do you finish it?

1209
00:55:13,320 --> 00:55:16,839
Speaker 2: Probably? Yeah, I generally clean my plate. Yeah if it's

1210
00:55:16,880 --> 00:55:19,480
Speaker 2: really mid though. If it's really mid then now yeah,

1211
00:55:19,520 --> 00:55:21,000
Speaker 2: But it just depends on what kind of mid we're

1212
00:55:21,000 --> 00:55:21,520
Speaker 2: talking about.

1213
00:55:21,960 --> 00:55:24,040
Speaker 1: I was at a restaurant last night, in an Italian restaurant,

1214
00:55:24,080 --> 00:55:26,600
Speaker 1: and I really like truffle Noki, and the truffle Noki

1215
00:55:26,719 --> 00:55:29,760
Speaker 1: was just not hitting and I finished it. But uh,

1216
00:55:29,920 --> 00:55:32,040
Speaker 1: I was like, I'm paying for I need those carbs

1217
00:55:32,080 --> 00:55:35,000
Speaker 1: for the best restaurant bathroom in New York City.

1218
00:55:35,400 --> 00:55:36,759
Speaker 2: I don't know my answer. I don't have a good

1219
00:55:36,800 --> 00:55:38,160
Speaker 2: d We have a whole guide on that go to

1220
00:55:38,160 --> 00:55:40,960
Speaker 2: the infatuation and check out the bathroom. There's definitely like

1221
00:55:41,000 --> 00:55:44,239
Speaker 2: an infatuation guide to the best restaurants in New York City.

1222
00:55:44,239 --> 00:55:45,480
Speaker 2: But I don't. I don't go to a lot of

1223
00:55:45,480 --> 00:55:49,000
Speaker 2: restaurants anymore. Really, Yeah, like I'm kind of retired, Like

1224
00:55:49,040 --> 00:55:49,840
Speaker 2: I'll go, what's.

1225
00:55:49,680 --> 00:55:51,399
Speaker 3: Your go to spot in Connecticut?

1226
00:55:51,840 --> 00:55:54,000
Speaker 2: I No, I don't. There's no place to go.

1227
00:55:54,040 --> 00:55:56,359
Speaker 3: And you're like, I'm cooking my meals at home.

1228
00:55:56,400 --> 00:55:57,480
Speaker 2: There's no place to go in Connecting.

1229
00:55:57,480 --> 00:55:58,560
Speaker 3: Okay, well those are pop far.

1230
00:55:58,960 --> 00:56:00,439
Speaker 2: Actually I'm not sure. I went to Wait and See

1231
00:56:00,440 --> 00:56:02,760
Speaker 2: Food this past weekend and that place is amazing. Okay,

1232
00:56:03,400 --> 00:56:06,160
Speaker 2: lobster rolls oysters really good?

1233
00:56:06,320 --> 00:56:08,279
Speaker 3: All right, Well, Andrew, thank you so much for being

1234
00:56:08,280 --> 00:56:08,840
Speaker 3: with me today.

1235
00:56:08,960 --> 00:56:11,120
Speaker 2: Yep, thanks for having me. Good times. Keep on doing

1236
00:56:11,120 --> 00:56:12,080
Speaker 2: your thing. This is amazing.

1237
00:56:12,200 --> 00:56:12,560
Speaker 3: Thank you.

1238
00:56:12,880 --> 00:56:15,719
Speaker 1: If you enjoyed today's episode with Andrew, please make sure

1239
00:56:15,719 --> 00:56:18,640
Speaker 1: to follow post Run High wherever you listen and share

1240
00:56:18,680 --> 00:56:21,359
Speaker 1: this episode with a friend. Your support really helps us

1241
00:56:21,400 --> 00:56:24,759
Speaker 1: continue bringing you inspiring stories like this one. Thank you

1242
00:56:24,760 --> 00:56:27,440
Speaker 1: guys so much for listening and I will see you

1243
00:56:27,480 --> 00:56:35,640
Speaker 1: next week on Post run High