The Exchanges

Q And off the schedule here, but just too interested to, to not ask, and it's eighty million, absolutely incredible, a number of people you're reaching. In terms of the growth, Was it a, was it a very linear growth where it kind of, you know, went up in a very, uh, even motion or were there definite inflection points where the trajectory really took it to another level?

A Um, you know, I would say year over year, you know, in the first couple of years, it was probably like five to 10 X growth just because of, you know, starting from nothing. The past two or three years has been very steady. Um, almost, almost three X growth. Year over year, which is still tremendous growth. Um, what, what freaked me out, to be quite honest, was the seasonality of the business. Um, so as you can imagine, Brit & Co. is very, um, trendy during the holiday time periods of the year, and so we would see, like, our traffic in the first year or two, we would see our traffic just starting to bike like crazy, you know, when Halloween was coming up, or Easter, and then, especially after Easter, when you don't have another big holiday right after, like, Fell off a cliff. And I was freaking out, you know, that the company was going to shambles. Um, and then, you know, after you have a couple years of data, you just start to realize, you know, your content is seasonal. And, and, um, at this point, you know, we've flattened out that seasonality quite a bit by, um, evolving into broader types of content. So we don't see that, you know, those cliffs anymore, but it was definitely like something, um, to learn in the early days that, you know, those things happen in media businesses.

AI assessment note: “in the first couple of years, it was probably like five to 10 X”

Q What do you make of the subscription model for content? I'm a, I'm a big fan of the information, uh, by Jessica Lesson. Um, and, and I'm intrigued as to how you think that will play out in the evolution of content and journalism as a, as a content platform and how we'll monetize that. Do you think subscription will be a fundamental method?

A Yeah. I mean, I mean, look at what most people, I mean, not anymore, but back in the day were cable subscribers, right? So there is definitely a history of people who are willing to pay to subscribe to great content. And I think it's a fantastic model. Um, if you can pull it off again, it means that you have to really think about your strategy differently, you know, and also protect your content and put up, you know, walls of, you know, different in different places, which blocks you off from building a brand very quickly. You know, Jessica and the information can't necessarily put their content All over social media networks and Snapchat and everything, you know, so that might create a, um, a harder time building the brand for the information itself, but if they only care about a niche community who's paying hundreds of dollars a year to access their content, then maybe that doesn't matter. So I'm, I'm a huge fan of it. Um, I think that there are pros and cons of doing it, and it depends on the type of brand you want to build. For Brit & Co., you know, my vision is to, you You know, be the next Disney. I want to build a global brand that is around for, you know, over a hundred years, that has experiences combined into it, that has products and merchandising, and that has content. Um, and so for me, I care the most about creating mass appeal and, and mass awareness for what we'…

AI assessment note: “I think it's a fantastic model. Um, if you can pull it off”

Q Can I ask, is that incredible vision, uh, compatible then with an interest in niche communities like, say, Like the information, say, you know, a more specific, defined, uh, customer profile. Is that compatible with the mass vision of creating the next Disney?

A Yeah, I, I think, well, mass and niche are kind of conflicting words, right? I, I actually, I think niche communities are amazing. There are so many of them on the web that, you know, have incredible engagement. Um, the communities themselves, um, Businesses are willing to pay for things. They're just hungry and waiting for the next piece of content or, you know, the next product to drop. Um, I think if you are starting a media company today, you should absolutely consider starting with a niche community and then, you know, maybe consider building on top from there if you want. I would say Brit & Co is sort of, sort of gets to cheat a little bit and we get to say we're a Relative projects, um, or, you know, utilitarian projects kind of sit across all lines of lifestyle, which means, you know, we can teach women the right way to put on their makeup. We can teach them how to cook. We can teach them how to design their house. We can teach them how to style their clothes. So we get to cut across every vertical, even though we sort of speak from this aspect of being utilitarian in the sense of like how to live a little bit more creative lifestyle. That's It's been nice for us as we have needed to grow, obviously, as a growing startup, um, but stay true to our values and our mission as well.

AI assessment note: “mass and niche are kind of conflicting words, right? I, I actually, I think”

Q What were your biggest lessons in the early days of growing that organic niche community into the mass as you said it is today? What were the big lessons and takeaways in terms of kind of fostering that organic environment?

A Oh man, so many lessons. I think that, well, I mean, there's, um, there's like technical lessons, right, of just like how to design Media products for mobile and for desktop to create, you know, engagement and, and drive traffic and audience thinking about how to keep your user engaged, um, on the site, you know, programming related content, A-B testing headlines, A-B testing images, all of those things. Um, then there's the content itself. Um, and we, you know, have now collected almost five years of data to understand what trends, when does it trend? Like for instance, did you know that Halloween content starts Trending in July. Um, like that's when people start searching for it. So we've been able to program our content strategy around those time periods. Right now we're super focused on video, trying to understand when a user drops off a video, why they drop off, how to captivate them and capture them, you know, in the 1:03 seconds, how to get them to share content. All of those things, um, are really important for us right now too. So I would say, you know, it just continues to evolve, but one of the benefits, Of the type of content we create is that it's a lot of evergreen content. So, you know, the same, you know, Halloween costumes idea, costume ideas, you know, we did back in 2013, um, is still really relevant here now in 2016 and is actually, you know, one of the tren…

AI assessment note: “there's like technical lessons... then there's the content itself.”

Q And moving into kind of fundraising and funding, before we actually touch on your fundraising path, I'm intrigued Mark Andreessen asserted that print journalism is converging in quality and technique with blogs and Wikipedia. Do you agree with that statement in terms of the conversion of traditional media into the modern style of writing that we see today in blogs and on new media platforms?

A I still believe that print journalism is an art, and I have to say, when I entered this business, I knew almost nothing about media. Like, I had no idea what the difference of a managing editor versus a regular editor was, and like, um, any, you know, how magazines worked and functioned, and now, you know, fast forward, I've, of course, educated myself. I've visited all the big magazine companies, Um, Condé Nast, Hearst, Time, etc. Um, I've watched them, you know, and how they think about layouts, how they think about telling stories. Um, I think that, again, that's, there's such an, an art to how people are creating these tactile products and how print journalists actually take the time to write and report on stories. I don't see that necessarily ever going away. I think that blogs and, and Wikipedia are, You know, offshoots of thoughts and ideas. I mean, Wikipedia is, is a whole different topic in itself, but blogs are, they are lower quality. You know, I think there's always going to be some disparity between the quality you'll find in print versus the quality you'll find digital.

AI assessment note: “I think there's always going to be some disparity between the quality you'll find in print”

Q How did you equalize that? I'm asking for personal advice now.

A Yeah, it's crazy. I think it was just, like, having to go through it over and over and over again, and, like, learn that it's gonna be okay whenever it's bad. Like, it's, the pendulum is gonna swing back up at some point, and when it It's good. Like brace yourself because things are about to get crazy. Um, you're going to fall and trying to, to find that equilibrium has been key, especially just in my emotions, um, and managing the team and the company, um, and meeting with partners, you know, not getting overexcited about a big deal. We just won because, um, there might be another big deal that falls through and just understanding there's going to be those moments back and forth, back and forth, um, for years. And, and I think that's really helped me, Maintain a steady ground as we've grown the business, um, and maintained, you know, a management style with whether we, we secure amazing new candidates, um, who become employees and whether those employees like, you know, again, I was that girl who never got rejected. And so dealing with losses and rejection has like helped me grow significantly.

AI assessment note: “having to go through it over and over and over again, and, like, learn”