The Exchanges

Q Okay, got it. And do you mind me asking, well, well, give us a sense of where you were in life at this point. Were you leaving corporate, coming out of college? What was the?

A I was 25 years old. I had been in corporate for about a little over two and a half years, and Brittany and I started the business knowing absolutely nothing, and we would have been miles better if we had podcasts like this back in 2000. Um, there, there really wasn't a lot of resources, and so, at that point, it was pretty much a Googling game, you know, Googling how to start an LLC, Googling how to work QuickBooks. Um, it was a really, kind of, ah, an interesting road, but a lot of that was just, like, pure hustle, you know, eating ramen noodles, and macaroni and cheese, and, and trying to make as much business as we could, and also trying to be taken seriously as twenty-five-year-old women who, who probably looked more like 21, 22, trying to pitch these forty-five-year-old Man on, on an idea.

AI assessment note: “I was 25 years old. I had been in corporate for about a little over”

Q Now, so let me ask you, did you see a meaningful bump in sales the day it went, the episode went live? My, and I'm gonna tell you my guess before you answer. My guess is that the answer's actually no. It was more about leverage for you to get in with the bands to say that you're on Shark Tank.

A Yes and no. For us, it was really about, okay, we've saturated the music space. A lot of people know us, which is great. We want to get into sports, and we want to get into things like Comic-Con, and kind of these things outside of the music industry, but that still have these really passionate fan bases. And so, Shark Tank's really a show for B to C consumers, you know, people selling peanut butter or socks, or, you know, where they want you to log in, and all of a sudden, 10,000 people bought socks. But since we're really more of a B to B business, You know, the average user probably isn't going to hire us, uh, you know, because they're not necessarily working for a sports team or an artist or a festival. So our goal going in was like, if we could get five to 10 solid business leads from this, qualified leads, you know, we'll consider that, we'll consider that a win, and I'm happy to report since the episode aired in April, now we're coming up to, you know, a full year since it aired, we're working with the Boston Red Sox, we're working with the New York Mets, and all of those are clients that came from Shark Tank.

AI assessment note: “Yes and no. For us, it was really about, okay, we've saturated”

Q And how helpful are the sharks in lining these deals up for you? Because I imagine they must be very busy.

A Well, we actually didn't go through with our deal. Uh, we did the deal on the show, and then in due diligence, we ended up not going through the deal, but we still remain very friendly with everybody, but, um, for us, it was really the exposure on the show. You know, you'll be surprised how many CMOs and CEOs are sitting at home watching, or their wife is watching, or their son or daughter called them because they watched. Um, you know, you kind of don't realize it's one of those shows that maybe isn't a water cooler conversation, like a scandal or a Game of Thrones, But, you know, a lot of people are tuning in, which is really surprising.

AI assessment note: “Well, we actually didn't go through with our deal.”

Q Got it. And so, you film it, you leave the stage, when do they start due diligence?

A You start your diligence a couple weeks afterwards, and that's really when you're getting into the nitty gritty of, you know, for us, a lot of people on the show, you know, might, it might be their first deal, and, you know, they've only had their company for a year or six months, and they're saying, great, you know, you're going to give me 40,000 dollars or 20%? That sounds awesome. For us, you know, we have been a company for four years at that point, having, you know, some pretty A-list clients, so for us, it was a little more nitty gritty about, you know, what are the dilution rates? And what are the equity splits look like? And what are the board seats? So I think we were a little more complicated than probably the majority of people on the show who maybe have only been in business for a handful of years.

AI assessment note: “You start your diligence a couple weeks afterwards”

Q Got it. So you work directly with them. What do they pay you for this?

A Well, we work with them and management. It's kind of like a big smorgasbord that we see how that has to get along. Um, you know, there are some cases where, and I'm sure, you know, your listeners can go through this too, where, you know, a company might really like it, and they take it to management, the artist, and the artist is like, hmm, I'm not really feeling it. So, you know, everybody has to sign off, but yeah, that's our direct client. Um, and with them, we work really like an agency, so very much like a wholesale system where we'll sell them, you know, the passport, let's say, for Three dollars. They'll in turn mark it up four or five, whatever the amount needs to be between them and the artist and sell it for, you know, 20 dollars or 15 or whatever kind of they decide with the artist.

AI assessment note: “very much like a wholesale system where we'll sell them, you know, the passport”

Q Three to five, three to five. Okay, and what does it typically cost you to make?

A We always try to shoot for anywhere from, you know, a 20, 25, 30%, 35% profit margin, but I have to be honest, I have girl crushes just like everybody else, and there have been some artists where if we can't get the numbers to work, I'm just like, fine, you know, we'll do it for you too. It's Taylor Swift, and I'm so excited. So, you know, there's always a little bit of that, and I feel like a lot of entrepreneurs kind of lose that, um, Spirit, but we, even after five years, we totally still have it that, you know, if Paul McCartney calls, I'm going to make sure, you know, it's not necessarily about the dollar at the end of the day. It's, can I say, you know, to my mother that I worked with Paul McCartney.

AI assessment note: “We always try to shoot for anywhere from, you know, a 20, 25, 30%, 35% profit margin”