WEBVTT - Wealth Wednesday Interview: Kickstarter CEO Everette Taylor 0:00:00.160 --> 0:00:03.520 What's his way up at Angela. He on a Wealth Wednesday. 0:00:03.600 --> 0:00:05.040 So Stacy Tisday is here. 0:00:05.120 --> 0:00:08.600 Happy Wealth Wednesdays, everybody, And it is week two of 0:00:08.640 --> 0:00:12.600 Wealth Wednesdays, celebrating Black Business Month. And we have yet 0:00:12.680 --> 0:00:17.240 another slacker for you today. We have Everett Taylor and 0:00:17.280 --> 0:00:21.840 he is the CEO of Kickstarter, and we are just 0:00:21.920 --> 0:00:27.360 so incredibly thrilled to have you here and just knowing 0:00:27.400 --> 0:00:30.680 about who you were anyway and knowing your backstory, I 0:00:30.760 --> 0:00:34.200 just have to tell people you started what your mom 0:00:34.479 --> 0:00:36.839 reached out to a classified ad when you were fourteen 0:00:36.920 --> 0:00:37.360 years old? 0:00:37.520 --> 0:00:39.720 Fourteen? Wow, you did you well researched? 0:00:39.920 --> 0:00:41.280 Oh I know you better than you. 0:00:41.479 --> 0:00:44.040 Listen, listen, we got our own AI right here. 0:00:44.240 --> 0:00:46.680 Yeah, so you were fourteen years old? 0:00:46.840 --> 0:00:50.320 I was fourteen? Yeah, what happened? Yeah? I was. 0:00:50.440 --> 0:00:53.800 I was running the streets doing things that I shouldn't 0:00:53.800 --> 0:00:54.360 have been doing. 0:00:54.880 --> 0:00:58.200 And imagine that, Yes, she applied for you. 0:00:58.400 --> 0:00:59.760 She knows. She called them up. 0:01:00.080 --> 0:01:02.760 It was like, my son needs the interview here, and 0:01:03.400 --> 0:01:04.440 they gave me an interview. 0:01:04.440 --> 0:01:05.800 I was fourteen years old, They didn't. 0:01:06.000 --> 0:01:08.840 It was for a very junior marketing role for a 0:01:08.880 --> 0:01:13.679 nonprofit called Eastern National. And yeah, they didn't even realize 0:01:13.720 --> 0:01:15.560 I was fourteen, And at the end of the interview, 0:01:15.600 --> 0:01:18.040 I was like, oh, he was like, can you start 0:01:18.040 --> 0:01:19.280 Monday at like nine am? 0:01:19.360 --> 0:01:20.440 And I was like I can't. 0:01:20.840 --> 0:01:22.240 I got school and he thought I was a college 0:01:22.280 --> 0:01:24.000 sup And I was like, no, I'm a freshman in 0:01:24.080 --> 0:01:27.840 high school. But they gave me an opportunity still to 0:01:27.880 --> 0:01:29.760 go with that job. And that job changed my life 0:01:29.800 --> 0:01:32.280 because it introduced me to marketing. And I tell a 0:01:32.319 --> 0:01:35.000 lot of people when it comes to wealth creation, figuring 0:01:35.040 --> 0:01:37.039 out what your gift is, what your skill is, what 0:01:37.120 --> 0:01:39.520 is the thing that you do better than everybody else? 0:01:39.800 --> 0:01:43.440 And to me, it was like you know Ray Charles 0:01:43.440 --> 0:01:45.800 on the Keys. To me when I started doing marketing, Yeah, 0:01:45.840 --> 0:01:47.960 it was like just such a natural thing. So that 0:01:48.840 --> 0:01:51.560 completely changed my life trajectory because it got me out 0:01:51.560 --> 0:01:53.680 of the hood. It got me out of Southside Richmond, 0:01:53.760 --> 0:01:56.360 and I went into a space with people that were 0:01:56.480 --> 0:01:59.720 college educated. I was meeting people from all around the world, 0:02:00.080 --> 0:02:02.800 and so that completely changed the trajectory of my life. 0:02:02.880 --> 0:02:04.640 Being able to get the opportunity to shout out to 0:02:04.720 --> 0:02:05.040 my mom. 0:02:05.480 --> 0:02:08.400 I have to say to your point of there's a 0:02:08.440 --> 0:02:11.480 lot of people who when you're younger. Just one thing 0:02:11.720 --> 0:02:15.040 like that can change everything. There's so many people that 0:02:15.120 --> 0:02:18.280 are great at like hustling, but that turned into a 0:02:18.360 --> 0:02:22.200 different type of hustle. Is what can actually make you flourish. 0:02:22.480 --> 0:02:24.880 And sometimes it is just being around the right people 0:02:24.880 --> 0:02:27.400 because you could be brilliant and so smart, but if 0:02:27.480 --> 0:02:29.919 that's not used in the right way, then who knows 0:02:29.919 --> 0:02:30.520 what can happen? 0:02:30.639 --> 0:02:35.840 Absolutely, and we're celebrating Black Business Month and now you're 0:02:35.840 --> 0:02:37.800 the CEO of Kickstarter, but we're not going to get 0:02:37.840 --> 0:02:42.480 there yet because you're a serial serial entrepreneur and to 0:02:42.560 --> 0:02:44.960 continue that journey or don't want to dwell on this, 0:02:45.120 --> 0:02:47.000 but you had some real challenges and I know you 0:02:47.040 --> 0:02:51.680 experienced homelessness in high school, but at nineteen you're like, 0:02:52.200 --> 0:02:53.960 I know what I'm going to do and you started 0:02:54.000 --> 0:02:57.800 your own company. How do how did you have belief 0:02:58.080 --> 0:02:59.720 all the things that you experience is where did the 0:02:59.720 --> 0:03:01.440 belief that you could do that come from? 0:03:02.560 --> 0:03:02.800 You know? 0:03:03.000 --> 0:03:06.919 I hate talking about this a little bit because some 0:03:06.960 --> 0:03:09.760 things are just God given, you know, and some things 0:03:09.800 --> 0:03:13.119 you're just built for it, you know, And like it's 0:03:13.480 --> 0:03:16.560 you can put yourself in the same circumstances as someone else, 0:03:16.600 --> 0:03:19.800 but you might have this unwavering belief in yourself. For me, 0:03:20.320 --> 0:03:24.959 I was always super confident. I was always even when 0:03:24.960 --> 0:03:28.280 I was young, you know, I was super confident in myself. 0:03:28.600 --> 0:03:31.400 I had this mindset of I'm gonna do better. I'm 0:03:31.400 --> 0:03:33.760 going to do something different. You know, I'm not going 0:03:33.840 --> 0:03:36.160 to just be stuck here doing the same things that 0:03:36.200 --> 0:03:39.120 everyone else did. And so for me, I've always had 0:03:39.160 --> 0:03:44.480 this incredible sense of awareness about my abilities but also 0:03:44.600 --> 0:03:47.120 confidence in what I could do. And so even at 0:03:47.120 --> 0:03:49.000 a young age, I was like, no, I'm going to 0:03:49.120 --> 0:03:51.760 do something else. And when I was nineteen, you know, 0:03:51.840 --> 0:03:56.280 I was working a minimum wate job at Joanne Fabrics Fabrics, 0:04:02.000 --> 0:04:05.120 and it was terrible because I would literally go go 0:04:05.200 --> 0:04:08.040 there and just the gas money and then grabbing some lunch. 0:04:08.080 --> 0:04:11.240 I'm like, did I even make any money today? 0:04:11.240 --> 0:04:11.800 Exactly? 0:04:12.280 --> 0:04:15.200 And so, you know, during my freshman year of college, 0:04:15.240 --> 0:04:17.720 I dropped out. After my freshman year, you know, I 0:04:17.760 --> 0:04:20.280 threw parties and I enjoyed doing parties and events, and 0:04:20.360 --> 0:04:22.400 so I was like, Hey, let me try to start 0:04:22.440 --> 0:04:25.640 doing my own parties here in Richmond. And then you know, 0:04:25.680 --> 0:04:27.520 I learned how to code a little bit. During my 0:04:27.520 --> 0:04:30.119 freshman year. I went to Virginia Tech and a couple 0:04:30.120 --> 0:04:33.360 of my buddies. We all built a platform called easy Events, 0:04:33.400 --> 0:04:35.560 which was a ticketing platform. 0:04:37.360 --> 0:04:39.520 It was no event right already existed, and I didn't know. 0:04:40.040 --> 0:04:42.360 I didn't know. I didn't know event bright existed. 0:04:42.480 --> 0:04:45.120 And you know, we can have conversations of knowing the 0:04:45.200 --> 0:04:47.440 value of what you've built because I didn't know at 0:04:47.480 --> 0:04:51.359 the time. But yeah, we built that, and yeah, we 0:04:51.360 --> 0:04:52.839 sold the company a couple of years later. 0:04:53.000 --> 0:04:55.760 I want to ask you when you started Easy Events, right, 0:04:56.200 --> 0:04:58.720 did y'all have the sense to be like, Okay, we're 0:04:58.720 --> 0:04:59.880 going to do a business plan. 0:04:59.760 --> 0:05:01.680 Or what is it? Just let's do it and figure 0:05:01.680 --> 0:05:02.200 it out. 0:05:02.440 --> 0:05:05.800 You know what's crazy is that I really fumbled my 0:05:05.839 --> 0:05:09.239 bag on this one. So I started doing events right, 0:05:09.320 --> 0:05:11.440 and I didn't have an LC. I was doing everything 0:05:11.520 --> 0:05:15.440 cash whatever. And then what I realized was, you know, 0:05:15.600 --> 0:05:18.240 people were starting to sell like this is like two 0:05:18.320 --> 0:05:20.240 thousand and nine, so people were actually starting to sell 0:05:20.880 --> 0:05:21.919 event tickets online. 0:05:21.960 --> 0:05:24.640 And I was like, oh, I need to build that myself. 0:05:24.680 --> 0:05:26.720 And so I hit up a couple homies that I 0:05:26.760 --> 0:05:29.799 went to school with and they helped me build the platform. 0:05:29.839 --> 0:05:31.719 And then one of the fathers of one of my 0:05:31.760 --> 0:05:34.479 co founders, like established the LC for us and did 0:05:34.480 --> 0:05:36.760 all that, but I didn't know what I was I 0:05:36.760 --> 0:05:39.040 didn't know what I was doing and what was so crazy. 0:05:39.080 --> 0:05:40.800 They helped me build it, and then after that I 0:05:40.839 --> 0:05:43.120 continue to run a business without them, But when I 0:05:43.240 --> 0:05:46.159 sold it, because of the way that the LC was built, 0:05:46.440 --> 0:05:49.160 they each of us owned thirty three percent of the company. 0:05:49.160 --> 0:05:52.880 So despite me building the company, I only got to 0:05:52.920 --> 0:05:55.920 get thirty three percent of the proceeds. And that's because 0:05:55.920 --> 0:05:58.960 I didn't know anything about equity and ownership and things 0:05:59.000 --> 0:05:59.280 like that. 0:05:59.279 --> 0:06:02.680 That's a good lesson right there, year, So don't be 0:06:02.720 --> 0:06:05.520 so hard on yourself not to build bring up something 0:06:05.560 --> 0:06:08.840 else painful. But it was sold after that for like 0:06:08.880 --> 0:06:09.480 a lot more. 0:06:09.880 --> 0:06:12.840 Yes, yes, man, she's on it. 0:06:13.640 --> 0:06:15.479 Yes, it was sold for a lot more because I 0:06:15.480 --> 0:06:17.240 didn't know about the event bright of the world and 0:06:17.320 --> 0:06:20.440 the other ticketing platforms in the world. And the person 0:06:20.480 --> 0:06:23.920 that bought it from us was also a serial entrepreneur investor. 0:06:25.279 --> 0:06:27.800 He knew where he was going to flip it right after, 0:06:28.000 --> 0:06:31.200 and so I had to learn a really really valuable lesson. 0:06:31.240 --> 0:06:33.640 Not only did I learn a lesson of like ownership, 0:06:33.680 --> 0:06:36.000 and equity. Not only did I learn the lesson of 0:06:36.640 --> 0:06:41.920 taxes and capital gains, but you know, and the other 0:06:42.000 --> 0:06:46.000 lesson I learned was like being well researched and knowing 0:06:46.000 --> 0:06:48.039 what you've built and knowing the value of what you've 0:06:48.040 --> 0:06:50.640 built because people will take advantage of you. And I 0:06:50.680 --> 0:06:52.600 told myself once that happened, I would never be taking 0:06:52.640 --> 0:06:53.520 advantage of That's a. 0:06:53.480 --> 0:06:54.760 Good lesson to have learned early on. 0:06:54.800 --> 0:06:54.920 Though. 0:06:54.960 --> 0:06:56.720 I want to say, because you were so young when 0:06:56.760 --> 0:06:58.440 you did that, that's valuable. 0:06:58.480 --> 0:06:59.760 It's like paying for education. 0:07:00.120 --> 0:07:02.160 Yeah, the part that you ended up having to give up, 0:07:02.160 --> 0:07:06.359 but then you went on to education, but to become, 0:07:06.440 --> 0:07:09.560 like she said, a serial entrepreneur and you launched other businesses. 0:07:10.440 --> 0:07:11.320 So let's talk about that. 0:07:12.160 --> 0:07:12.440 Yeah. 0:07:12.640 --> 0:07:15.960 You know, so I went and when I learned about 0:07:16.040 --> 0:07:19.840 that company selling for what it's so for, I was like, Oh, 0:07:19.880 --> 0:07:21.520 I need to go to Silicon Valley. I need to 0:07:21.520 --> 0:07:23.920 be in California. And I went to go work with 0:07:23.960 --> 0:07:27.240 a guy named Sean Ellis who like led growth at 0:07:27.280 --> 0:07:29.760 like dropped box in event right. That's how he knew 0:07:29.800 --> 0:07:33.240 about me because it was vent Bright, and you know, 0:07:33.320 --> 0:07:36.119 he was like this really well known guy in Silicon Valley, 0:07:36.160 --> 0:07:38.160 and so I learned under him. And while I was 0:07:38.560 --> 0:07:41.800 learning the ropes of Silicon Valley leading marketing for him, 0:07:42.200 --> 0:07:44.840 I started building my own companies. And so I started 0:07:44.840 --> 0:07:48.240 with my first marketing firm, and then we built a 0:07:48.240 --> 0:07:50.400 company together, and then like over the course of the 0:07:50.440 --> 0:07:54.000 next few years, I built several, you know, million dollar 0:07:54.160 --> 0:07:55.120 plus companies. 0:07:55.440 --> 0:07:57.240 I think I did four of them for the age 0:07:57.280 --> 0:07:57.960 of twenty seven. 0:07:58.320 --> 0:08:01.760 But the difference between me and like my like kind 0:08:01.760 --> 0:08:04.280 of white counterparts out there in the world was that 0:08:04.880 --> 0:08:08.120 I felt like I had to build profitable businesses right away. 0:08:08.280 --> 0:08:09.800 You couldn't get investors. 0:08:09.800 --> 0:08:12.800 I couldn't get investors, And so the way that I 0:08:13.000 --> 0:08:15.760 was thinking about building my companies was like companies that 0:08:15.800 --> 0:08:19.480 I could go and make money from, like right away, 0:08:19.880 --> 0:08:24.200 right day one, right where I saw like my white counterparts, 0:08:24.520 --> 0:08:27.800 you know, I remember like Snapchat, Evan Spiegel, Like they 0:08:27.800 --> 0:08:30.360 had no they didn't know how they were going to monetize, 0:08:30.480 --> 0:08:32.960 and they would have these big ideas that turned into 0:08:33.000 --> 0:08:35.520 these multi billion dollar companies that we used to work. 0:08:35.800 --> 0:08:38.880 We still do with fintech companies. Yeah, and some of 0:08:38.920 --> 0:08:42.439 these founders, I'm like, people just give you money that 0:08:42.640 --> 0:08:44.840 you just said oh, I want to do this. It's crazy. 0:08:44.920 --> 0:08:47.280 And the funding environment wasn't like that for people that 0:08:47.320 --> 0:08:49.600 look like us, and it still isn't in a lot 0:08:49.600 --> 0:08:52.760 of ways. But you know, for me, I felt like 0:08:53.520 --> 0:08:57.920 a lot of my creativity was was was dampened because 0:08:59.240 --> 0:09:01.120 I didn't feel like I could go out there with 0:09:01.200 --> 0:09:03.880 the big idea and raise a bunch of capital and 0:09:03.920 --> 0:09:06.720 things like that. So I stuck to trying to build 0:09:06.760 --> 0:09:10.960 well for myself by building profitable companies that you know, 0:09:11.040 --> 0:09:14.040 had high ebadah, and I could go and be able 0:09:14.040 --> 0:09:15.960 to pay myself and take care of my family and 0:09:16.040 --> 0:09:16.720 make investments. 0:09:16.960 --> 0:09:18.760 So interesting is you put? You know, you got the 0:09:18.800 --> 0:09:22.680 marketing bug at fourteen, and you've built all these different 0:09:22.720 --> 0:09:26.560 types of companies. So it hasn't been marketing, you know, 0:09:26.640 --> 0:09:30.319 I just staying in marketing. At what point did you realize, okay, mate, 0:09:30.320 --> 0:09:31.960 I might be good at marketing, but I'm just really 0:09:32.000 --> 0:09:33.360 good at building businesses. 0:09:34.080 --> 0:09:36.840 Yeah, well, thank you for saying that. I think I do. 0:09:36.920 --> 0:09:41.760 Okay, I think, uh once you've done it a couple 0:09:41.800 --> 0:09:44.440 of times. So, you know, I started my first company, 0:09:44.480 --> 0:09:47.680 sold it. I became head of marketing for a startup 0:09:47.920 --> 0:09:54.000 in Silicon Valley, that sold right, I you know, started 0:09:54.200 --> 0:09:56.560 a couple of companies that you know, did seven figures 0:09:56.559 --> 0:09:58.960 in revenue, and like I was like, wow, everything that 0:09:59.000 --> 0:10:02.960 I'm doing is actually becoming successful. And I'm like, Okay, 0:10:03.200 --> 0:10:05.719 I think I'm pretty I'm pretty good at this, and 0:10:05.760 --> 0:10:08.160 that gave me more. I was already confident in myself. 0:10:08.400 --> 0:10:10.800 But once you have the repetition and you do it 0:10:11.040 --> 0:10:14.160 over and over and over again, you just learn so 0:10:14.200 --> 0:10:17.080 many lessons throughout and you cut out the mistakes and 0:10:17.120 --> 0:10:19.880 you just become more efficient, You become more dangerous at it, 0:10:19.920 --> 0:10:22.600 you know what I mean. You really become a really 0:10:22.640 --> 0:10:25.360 great entrepreneur as you're learning. And for me, I was 0:10:25.400 --> 0:10:29.360 just always super customer obsessed and I just identify different 0:10:29.400 --> 0:10:32.400 opportunities and I knew how to reach target audiences and 0:10:32.760 --> 0:10:36.120 build things and scale things, and yeah, the rest was history. 0:10:36.520 --> 0:10:39.760 Something seems different. I've been working a lot all summer 0:10:40.120 --> 0:10:43.600 with entrepreneurs on creating the mindset for scaling. It's very 0:10:43.600 --> 0:10:49.280 different than growing black entrepreneurs. And they don't sell their company. 0:10:49.320 --> 0:10:51.680 That's one of the things. Like they never think, Okay, 0:10:51.679 --> 0:10:54.280 I'm building something to make something bigger. And I know 0:10:54.320 --> 0:10:57.800 there's a lot of ownership need in our community. But 0:10:57.840 --> 0:11:00.120 I think that's one lesson people have to learn a 0:11:00.280 --> 0:11:02.160 scaling mindset. But you don't seem to have a problem 0:11:02.160 --> 0:11:02.439 with it. 0:11:03.200 --> 0:11:03.400 You know. 0:11:03.600 --> 0:11:06.680 It's interesting. It's it depends on what you're what you 0:11:06.760 --> 0:11:08.560 want and what you're looking for. A lot of people 0:11:08.600 --> 0:11:11.240 don't realize this, and Angreli, you probably know this. Like 0:11:11.960 --> 0:11:16.439 when you go raise capital and you have you know, investors, 0:11:16.480 --> 0:11:19.120 and you have a board, and you know, you split 0:11:19.120 --> 0:11:24.120 that ownership, Like the board decides how much you get paid, right, 0:11:24.240 --> 0:11:27.040 the board decides if you get a bonus when you 0:11:27.080 --> 0:11:29.000 own one hundred percent of your Like, so you could 0:11:29.000 --> 0:11:31.480 have one hundred million dollar company and be doing two 0:11:31.559 --> 0:11:35.840 hundred twenty million in profit, and the board is like, oh, 0:11:35.960 --> 0:11:38.440 you have a half a million dollar salary because we're 0:11:38.480 --> 0:11:42.240 trying to scale this up to being a multi billion 0:11:42.280 --> 0:11:44.400 dollar company. That's what they invested in you for. They 0:11:44.400 --> 0:11:48.440 wanted the outsize impact where you can build a five 0:11:48.480 --> 0:11:52.640 to ten million dollar business, right that is, say profitable 0:11:52.720 --> 0:11:54.839 three four five million dollars a year and pay yourself 0:11:54.920 --> 0:11:57.800 to three million dollars a year and it's a much 0:11:57.840 --> 0:12:01.040 smaller business than that big business within So it really 0:12:01.080 --> 0:12:03.200 depends on what you want. Do you want to build 0:12:03.240 --> 0:12:05.960 a business where you're gonna like create a really great 0:12:06.040 --> 0:12:09.480 lifestyle business or you know, create you know, like not 0:12:09.600 --> 0:12:11.800 that outside wealth, or are you going to go for it? 0:12:11.840 --> 0:12:13.439 And if you go for it, you're probably gonna have 0:12:13.480 --> 0:12:16.320 to raise a lot of capital and you know you're 0:12:16.320 --> 0:12:18.280 gonna have to exit, meaning you're gonna have to sell 0:12:18.320 --> 0:12:20.280 the company. You're gonna have to take the company public, 0:12:20.720 --> 0:12:23.320 and then that's when you get the money that. 0:12:23.200 --> 0:12:24.080 You really want. 0:12:24.120 --> 0:12:25.240 You may even be forced out. 0:12:25.400 --> 0:12:26.320 You might be forced out. 0:12:26.440 --> 0:12:27.680 You never know what can happen. 0:12:27.920 --> 0:12:31.599 Yeah, I want to ask you, with all of this entrepreneurship, 0:12:31.960 --> 0:12:35.160 you deciding to take this position as CEO Kickstarter, how 0:12:35.240 --> 0:12:35.960 did that happen? 0:12:37.000 --> 0:12:37.360 Who? 0:12:37.840 --> 0:12:41.000 I'll try to make a long story short. So I was, 0:12:41.160 --> 0:12:44.520 so I've always had this balance of being an executive 0:12:44.760 --> 0:12:47.120 and a founder, right, And I think it kind of 0:12:47.160 --> 0:12:50.400 comes from, you know, that place of understanding that a 0:12:50.440 --> 0:12:52.559 business could go sideways at any time and you could 0:12:52.600 --> 0:12:54.520 always lose a job. And so I've always had this 0:12:54.679 --> 0:12:58.679 like really beautiful balance of doing both. And then I 0:12:58.679 --> 0:13:02.120 got to a point where where I really wanted to 0:13:02.480 --> 0:13:04.559 learn and I wanted. 0:13:04.240 --> 0:13:05.880 To really be at businesses at scale. 0:13:05.880 --> 0:13:08.560 And I took a job as a chief marketing officer 0:13:08.640 --> 0:13:11.920 at Artsy and Artsy is the biggest online platform for 0:13:12.080 --> 0:13:14.600 art and so I sat there and I really learned. 0:13:14.640 --> 0:13:16.320 And I still have my other companies, but I was 0:13:16.360 --> 0:13:19.360 really focused on learning. And when I was there, I 0:13:19.440 --> 0:13:24.720 reported into a CEO named Mike Steibe, and he really 0:13:24.720 --> 0:13:27.120 taught me the ropes of what it meant to be 0:13:27.200 --> 0:13:31.079 a CEO of like a billion dollar global type of company. 0:13:31.160 --> 0:13:33.319 Right, you have to back up because you told him 0:13:33.360 --> 0:13:34.480 you wanted his job. 0:13:34.600 --> 0:13:39.360 I did tell him, Yeah, I did, because what I 0:13:39.520 --> 0:13:43.160 what I realized was two things. One was that I 0:13:43.200 --> 0:13:46.520 had built some really incredible companies, seven to eight figure companies, 0:13:46.960 --> 0:13:50.160 but I hadn't really built anything at scale. So I 0:13:50.200 --> 0:13:54.200 really wanted to learn that. The other thing is, for 0:13:54.200 --> 0:13:56.160 those who don't know what a CMO is, as chief 0:13:56.200 --> 0:14:00.520 marketing officer, you have a very limited trajectory as a 0:14:00.559 --> 0:14:04.079 CMO in terms of compensation and opportunities. The people that 0:14:04.240 --> 0:14:07.960 really get compensated the best are CEOs, Right, So you 0:14:08.000 --> 0:14:09.520 can hit a wall as a CMO. 0:14:09.800 --> 0:14:11.800 That's what boz of Us Saint John always talks about. 0:14:11.840 --> 0:14:14.200 When she was a CMO at so many different companies. 0:14:14.240 --> 0:14:16.800 It's because it's not something that's meant to be like 0:14:16.840 --> 0:14:17.920 a long term position. 0:14:18.200 --> 0:14:20.080 Yeah, I mean it can be. 0:14:20.200 --> 0:14:23.080 It can be, but if you want that, if you 0:14:23.160 --> 0:14:25.280 want that. But it's a really tough role to be 0:14:25.360 --> 0:14:27.880 in and I and I really wanted to do a 0:14:27.920 --> 0:14:30.160 lot more than just be the head. 0:14:30.000 --> 0:14:31.320 Of marketing or a CMO. 0:14:31.920 --> 0:14:34.400 And so I told my CEO at the time that 0:14:34.440 --> 0:14:35.760 I wanted his job. 0:14:36.320 --> 0:14:37.560 How does somebody respond to. 0:14:37.520 --> 0:14:40.680 That, Well, listen, I was killing it too, so you know. 0:14:41.360 --> 0:14:44.640 And I told him when he left when he left, 0:14:44.680 --> 0:14:48.600 and he did eventually left and ran another multi billion 0:14:48.640 --> 0:14:52.000 dollar company. But I told him that I wanted the 0:14:52.120 --> 0:14:55.200 role whenever he left, So prepare me to be a CEO, 0:14:55.240 --> 0:14:57.840 because being a CEO of a small seven to eight 0:14:57.880 --> 0:15:00.280 figure company is not the same of being at a 0:15:00.280 --> 0:15:03.160 global tech company, right, So he really taught me that. 0:15:03.240 --> 0:15:06.000 And then I also told myself, I'm not going to 0:15:06.080 --> 0:15:08.240 take another CMO role. So I'm getting hit up for 0:15:08.280 --> 0:15:11.040 CMO roles from some of the biggest companies in the world. 0:15:10.840 --> 0:15:14.720 Which I can't say. Yeah, and I was. 0:15:14.720 --> 0:15:17.200 Turning them down, turning them down, turning them I mean 0:15:17.520 --> 0:15:23.000 incredible roles, and I meet this woman who was just like, hey, 0:15:23.000 --> 0:15:27.120 I want to pick your brain and I was like, sure, 0:15:27.240 --> 0:15:30.120 like black women, I want to support you, and had 0:15:30.160 --> 0:15:32.080 no idea who she was. At the end of our meeting, 0:15:32.120 --> 0:15:34.800 she said, actually write for the Financial Times, and I 0:15:34.840 --> 0:15:36.240 was like, oh wow. She was like, I want to 0:15:36.240 --> 0:15:39.200 write a story on you. And now this story kept 0:15:39.240 --> 0:15:42.760 getting delayed and delayed and delayed, and then finally we 0:15:42.800 --> 0:15:44.760 did it and it came out. Now, if it came 0:15:44.800 --> 0:15:47.080 out when it was supposed to, I would not be 0:15:47.160 --> 0:15:48.320 the CEO of Kickstarter. 0:15:48.840 --> 0:15:52.000 But that delay ended up happening right. 0:15:51.840 --> 0:15:54.480 When they were looking for a new CEO at Kickstarter, 0:15:54.920 --> 0:15:56.920 and one of the board members ended up picking up 0:15:56.960 --> 0:16:00.000 The Financial Times that day that I was in it. 0:16:00.280 --> 0:16:03.560 And then obviously I went through a long process, six 0:16:03.640 --> 0:16:06.640 seven month process to become the CEO of Kickstarter. And 0:16:06.800 --> 0:16:10.120 I was a very unorthodox candidate because I was thirty 0:16:10.120 --> 0:16:12.320 two at the time. You know, I hadn't run a 0:16:12.320 --> 0:16:15.640 company of that scale. But they really took a shot 0:16:15.680 --> 0:16:16.680 on me and a chance on me, and. 0:16:17.320 --> 0:16:17.920 It worked out. 0:16:18.400 --> 0:16:21.560 So at that point, Kickstarter was having some issues right 0:16:21.600 --> 0:16:24.440 before they hired you. So what was that like and 0:16:24.800 --> 0:16:26.760 because we want to talk about how you managed to 0:16:26.760 --> 0:16:29.360 turn that around as an unorthodox CEO. 0:16:29.680 --> 0:16:31.160 Yeah, I mean listen. 0:16:31.440 --> 0:16:36.160 I was listening to this panel down in Boca recently 0:16:36.200 --> 0:16:38.680 a few months ago. It was with a few block 0:16:38.760 --> 0:16:41.880 CEOs because it's not a lot of us, and they 0:16:41.880 --> 0:16:45.120 were talking about when there is a CEO opportunity given 0:16:45.120 --> 0:16:47.240 to us, it's not gonna be a good job. 0:16:48.680 --> 0:16:49.560 It's gonna be a mess. 0:16:49.560 --> 0:16:50.680 You got to put a fire, it's. 0:16:50.600 --> 0:16:51.800 Gonna it's gonna be a mess. 0:16:51.840 --> 0:16:55.000 So for me, you know, when I came in, you know, 0:16:55.160 --> 0:16:59.280 revenue was in steep decline. The culture was not where 0:16:59.280 --> 0:17:02.680 I needed to be. There was a lack of ambition, 0:17:03.160 --> 0:17:06.199 like when you've been number one for so long, like 0:17:06.240 --> 0:17:08.920 it's really really hard to get people fired up and 0:17:09.000 --> 0:17:11.960 be like change you know, change agents. And so for 0:17:12.080 --> 0:17:14.919 me coming in, I was like, guys, like I had 0:17:14.920 --> 0:17:19.120 this entrepreneurial my mentality of like hey, whatever you thought 0:17:19.280 --> 0:17:23.040 was working before, like I don't care, like we're going 0:17:23.080 --> 0:17:25.199 to do something new. We're looking at this like a 0:17:25.200 --> 0:17:28.560 blank canvas, Like we're not just because we've been number 0:17:28.560 --> 0:17:30.959 one for so long, our growth has stalled and if 0:17:30.960 --> 0:17:34.120 we continue to do this if you're not grown, you're dying, right, 0:17:34.119 --> 0:17:37.159 if you're not evolving as a business. You saw it 0:17:37.200 --> 0:17:40.320 a lot during COVID. These people businesses went like this 0:17:40.840 --> 0:17:43.000 and they didn't evolve, and now where are they now? 0:17:43.520 --> 0:17:45.359 And so for me, I just wanted to come in 0:17:45.400 --> 0:17:47.760 there with a new energy, a new level of ambition, 0:17:48.920 --> 0:17:51.560 new creative strategy. I was thirty three, I was young, 0:17:51.640 --> 0:17:54.439 I was in the culture I still am, and so 0:17:54.520 --> 0:17:57.800 I just wanted to bring a new mentality to Kickstarter. 0:17:58.320 --> 0:18:01.159 I you know, I had an entrepreneur background. Gave you 0:18:01.240 --> 0:18:02.400 a different wins. 0:18:02.200 --> 0:18:05.000 Yeah, one hundred and ten percent, And just all of 0:18:05.040 --> 0:18:08.400 my experiences being a young black man, experiencing the things 0:18:08.400 --> 0:18:11.040 that I've experienced, being a creator myself, being a creative 0:18:11.080 --> 0:18:14.000 person myself, knowing what it was like not to be 0:18:14.080 --> 0:18:16.760 able to have funding for the things that you wanted 0:18:16.760 --> 0:18:20.880 to do. But also shift the perception of Kickstarter because 0:18:20.880 --> 0:18:24.240 we're not gofund me, we're not donations, We're not hey, 0:18:24.280 --> 0:18:25.160 this is a charity. 0:18:25.480 --> 0:18:28.720 Like No, you'd be reluctant because of how it looks. 0:18:29.600 --> 0:18:31.880 And I want to ask it being a young thirty 0:18:31.920 --> 0:18:34.160 two to thirty three year old black man coming in there, 0:18:34.240 --> 0:18:36.679 as the CEO and wanting to shake things up? 0:18:36.720 --> 0:18:37.840 How do people take to that. 0:18:39.960 --> 0:18:42.600 I'm gonna look at my my PR person right now. 0:18:42.640 --> 0:18:43.240 I'm just caring. 0:18:43.760 --> 0:18:48.400