The Exchanges

Q Yeah. And I guess you eventually started doing some TV too, right? Like, uh, again, like, hosting, like, local TV shows for kids?

A Yeah, so it wasn't kids anymore, because I was 15 at the time, and I felt like I was a very cool teenager, not a kid, but yes, I was a kid. Fair enough. And, um, you know, it was a local news. It wasn't anything extraordinary, and I got to, you know, be a reporter first on anything that was related to entertainment, arts, and culture. Um, and then after that, I launched my own TV show locally, which, because it aired in the US, I was able to get nominated for a few Emmys. Um, so they were the first Emmys that Mexico won, I guess, as a country. So that was a very big deal, and that's when I made the move to Mexico City, right after college.

AI assessment note: “Yeah, so it wasn't kids anymore, because I was 15 at the time”

Q So walk me through the business model because it's free. Like you can go download the app. There's all this free information. You know, there's different tools like a calculator on whether it's better to rent a home or buy a home or, um, there's gold trackers, there's savings trackers. So there are all these tools that are available. So how does, how will Sumo eventually make money?

A Yes. So great question. So it's been free so far. It's a freemium version, like I was saying, to really build the community, the trust, the brand, and the scale of We think that it's much better to have a big funnel for when you want to convert those super users into a paid version, and that's where we are now. So a lot of the resources are free, but not all of them. We have a membership that it's a premium wealth-building membership that gives you access to the app and the premium coaching. It gives you access to our Summaverse, which, think about a gamified universe where you're able to do all these different activations, We have a financial gym. We have a credit cocina activation, where through food recipes, you're able to learn how to up your credit score. We have a reggaeton and money mariachi plaza, where, you know, you learn about getting off debt from there. We have our sumaversity, so think about masterclasses. We have certifications, and we give you proof of learning on the blockchain, but we also have a deal with Arizona State University, where you're able to get a Real life ASU certificate should you want one. So it's almost like a whole ecosystem to help you build wealth and that has a premium to it.

AI assessment note: “It's a freemium version... to convert those super users into a paid version”

Q So you were, I mean, you were essentially running a production company, a small, I think a fairly small to medium sized production company, but you would basically go and, and, you know, pitch a show to the Travel Channel or Nickelodeon or E! Entertainment, or they might come to you and say, hey, can you produce this series for us?

A Yes, I think it was more me going to pitch to them than them coming to me, especially since, you know, nobody knew me at the time. Um, and, you know, it was a really great run for many years, but it was also that same time where I felt incredibly frustrated with seeing how few people like me were able to produce shows that portrayed Latinos in an authentic way. Um, so, you know, that's when digital came about. And I started to get incredibly interested with that democratization of who gets to tell stories and how if you have a phone, you absolutely have an opportunity. And that's how I sort of started thinking about my next company that went beyond the production company.

AI assessment note: “Yes, I think it was more me going to pitch to them than them coming”

Q Lab. I'm Guy Raz, and my guest is Beatriz Acevedo, founder of MeToo and Sumo Wealth. All right, so you have this concept, MeToo, and I know that it grew into something quite significant. So it's still around. But how did you start this thing? It's 2012. I mean, to start something like this was going to cost a lot of money. How did you get it off the ground?

A Well, we started organically, so we got it off the ground really within the same office of our production company, and it was my husband and I, um, and we, we just thought, listen, let's just see where it goes. Let's start talking to all these, because at the time, the multi-channel networks were made up of a lot of talent, so it was really that you were curating different YouTubers at the time, particularly for the YouTube MCN, Um, and then you would aggregate them with a promise that you would, you know, bring them advertising dollars. At that time, they couldn't monetize on their own. They had to be a part of a network. Um, so we started it just, you know, us making phone calls to the biggest names at the moment, and, you know, once we had some scale, I remember our goal was like, let's have thirty million views a month. At the time, views was a metric, and because there was nobody else in the space, it was very, very quick And, and easy to reach our number and to aggregate the top talent at the time. And then after that, we decided to raise capital. And that's a whole other story, um, which, you know, I'd never raised capital before. Venture capital. Just a whole other beast than what I was used to.

AI assessment note: “we got it off the ground really within the same office of our production company”

Q know, it's, it's, it's a shadow of what it once was valued at. Um, it's a very, very challenging. Media companies are really hard. Um, some of them work, right? I mean, Axios sold, Politico sold, the New York Times is profitable, but they're rare. What was the biggest challenge for you in, in trying to, you know, in trying to create a company that you wanted to make profitable?

A I think the biggest challenge was staying stuck in thinking that our revenue should be advertiser driven only, you know, doing advertising and handholding for brands, particularly with a demo that they knew, but now it was so different trying to convince them that the way they've been doing things should progress as well as the community had, um, That was tough. It took a lot of time. It's very unscalable. Um, every day was a challenge of why we matter as a community, so that over-explanation to those CMOs of why they should not be under-investing in us, and why not only they should be looking into, you know, a Univision or a Telemundo when they were targeting young audiences. I think the other thing was venture capital at the time, and we were venture-backed like all of the other digital media companies, They really put a premium on views, as we were talking about earlier, right? Yes, yes. And the more billions of views you had, even if those views were, like I call them, empty calorie views.

AI assessment note: “the biggest challenge was staying stuck in thinking that our revenue should be advertiser driven”

Q And you started this in the pandemic, right?

A Oh, yes. In the middle of the pandemic. I mean, I had employees that I met a year after I had hired them. I raised capital with people to this day I've never met in my life. Um, so this was total lockdown, um, No vaccines, uh, no meetings, um, so it was a very interesting time, but it was also the perfect time to start a company to help Latinos understand their finances, and there's, there's so much there when it comes to wealth building in our community. There's so much distrust in financial institutions. I would say that's something that cuts across all generations because we come from a lot of financial trauma, From our countries of origin, you know, some of us still remember the day our parents lost it all in a devaluation, or one day the president would announce, there's no more U.S. dollars in the country, so all your U.S. dollars are gone, like, out of nowhere. Um, so it's very, very hard for Latinos in the U.S. to fully trust financial institutions, and just like at Me Too, the top two questions or statements were, finally a brand that gets me, or where have you been all my life? At Suma, the two statements are, Or the two comments are, you know, who do you trust, Suma, and who can I trust, right? And that definitely speaks volumes of why this demographic is just so behind when it comes to wealth building and, um, just really getting a grip on their finances. It's kind …

AI assessment note: “Oh, yes. In the middle of the pandemic.”

Q Yeah, yeah. And eventually, I mean, you, you did a bunch of licensing deals, right, with, even with Huffington Post, AOL, the AOL properties, right? And I've seen, I mean, maybe a bit different now, but, but I'm assuming, you You also did a lot of brand partnerships.

A Yes, we did a lot of brand partnerships. You know, it was a very different concept for a lot of the brands to think about in culture. You know, they would always think in language, always, always, always. And in language worked maybe 2030 years ago when the majority of the U.S. population was pretty much an immigrant population, right? Now the growth is nativity, is U.S. born, and we know we are super, super young. And that's a very different demographic than the one agencies or brands were targeting 2030 years ago. So, um, we were sort of like the go-to media company for them to really understand this demo. And we also did a lot of research around, um, who is this demo? What are they like? Why are they such a big influence on older family members and their communities? You know, why that ROI is never one to one, but one to many in our community. So it was, yes, they would come to us for the creativity, for sure, um, but also for the thought leadership. And, you know, we loved doing that. We loved showing that there was a different type of Latino to target in our country. That was very, very valuable as you think about future-proofing any brand into the future.

AI assessment note: “Yes, we did a lot of brand partnerships.”