 You know we were sort of bright-eyed bushy tailed and was like we got the idea We want to do it and we just started spending money without sort of new and custom discovery Validating and stuff like that and I love the nipsey hustle nipsey hustle got a quote He says, you know good decisions come from experience experience comes from bad decisions, right? We got better with candy because we had made some stupid decisions with instant speakers Just spending a ton of money build a build a mobile app They cost over six figures before you had even tested the market at all We spent $100 launching candy right as we went from $200,000 for instant speakers, which was totally ravaged overnight And we spent $100 building candy right like that's that mark of entrepreneurs like learning a lesson and improving on This is started by storefront the podcast where we inspire entrepreneurship through truth Today's guests are keithan and keonte hedrick the husband and wife duo behind candy Candy is a platform that allows you to video chat with celebrities in real time And was born out of the ashes of their first joint venture instant speakers The failure of instant speakers while difficult showed them what to focus their money and energy towards with candy And the success of apps like cameo showed that there was a very real market for personal connections with celebrities We filmed this episode three days prior to candy's debut on shark tank So while they weren't able to discuss the specifics of the show We made sure to cover their preparation for the inevitable shark tank bump So listen in as we cover everything from the importance of surveying the market before starting a business Why celebs tend to overpriced themselves? And why kevin hart probably wouldn't be the best fit for a service like candy Now back to the episode Welcome to the podcast everyone on today's show we're talking about the founders of candy Question for either one of you to take just give a quick introduction on what your company does Yeah, I can I can take that one candy is a platform that allows fans to video chat with their favorite celebrities and influencers It's pretty much that simple straight forward You had a pretty big day here on shark tank exploding pretty amazing. Congrats for getting on that show On I wanted to ask you guys. What was that experience like for you? And so we've talked to a lot of companies that have been on shark tank Some of them say they're in hotel rooms for two weeks waiting for that call I know covid has changed a lot of this stuff. So what was what was getting on the show like for you? How much notice did they give you? How long were you hunkered down just waiting for that call? Yeah, so I mean, I think you know, most people get on the shark tank one of two ways either you like audition or You know producers reach out to you fortunately for us. We didn't have to audition producers reached out to us You know, that's a cool experience. You know, obviously, you know, yeah, you got it, you know It's covid and so restrictions are tied You gotta be patient. Yeah, you gotta be patient and and you know, obviously we can't talk fully about the experience But I imagine that other people that have been on the show maybe had a more You know accelerating the experience prior to covid than what we have right? It's like it's pretty, you know Everything's pretty regimented Nothing nothing especially that you don't see in every other industry right now But I'm sure they probably had a little bit more a little bit more fun with it Going back to just your company. What made you guys want to start the company? What opportunity did you guys see? In the space and we're like, all right, let's see if we can do this Yeah, so actually we were watching some reaction videos from another company called cameo Which provides pre-recorded videos from celebrities and we were like, wow, like this is amazing Just seeing all the fans being so excited like what if like they could actually talk to the celebrity Like what if we could produce something that allows them to communicate with their favorite celebrities and influencers? So from then we were like, okay, like this is the next step ideally and we delve into it Yeah, it felt like the natural next iteration to what they were doing right which was like, okay This is awesome if somebody's crying or somebody's like super ecstatic because they got a Pre-recorded video from their favorite celebrity, but they got no interaction You know the natural next iteration is well How excited would you be if instead of getting the phone to someone telling you to press play? You got the phone and the celebrity was there you could interact and ask Ask questions and have a conversation and so for us, you know candy was the pivot from a prior business So we had a company called instance speakers, which we launched late 2019 And that was a platform that allowed users to get a video call from a translator on demand So let's say you're in china. You didn't speak chinese You you know, we're trying to navigate trying to have a conversation with someone But then 10 seconds you could have an english to chinese translator on the phone Ready to you know, help you navigate have a conversation or whatever And our key customer demographic for instance speakers was US travelers traveling the nine english-speaking countries right traveling the nine english-speaking countries So we launched late 2019 in an off travel season on purpose as we were gearing up for the spring and summer of 2020 Which would be our first travel season. We all sort of know how the rest of the story goes right like You know the covid hits and then our our customer base literally is wiped out overnight Right. Nobody's traveling the nine english-speaking countries. Nobody's traveling internationally And so we had thought of the idea for candy in december of 2019 But we were focused on instance speakers, right? So we didn't you know, do anything What it just had in our mind and was like, hey, that's pretty cool Once the instance speakers arrived as we sort of quickly pivoted over the candy We always say this on our show all the time. I mean the mark of an entrepreneur is kind of like an athlete It's like their ability to to pivot their ability to to take what's in front of them and not Sort of not get stuck and not lament and not get all upset about it But just kind of pivot to the next thing and so as you guys go down that road So here you are you're pivoting Probably not easy all good, but you have this new idea. It makes perfect sense You're seeing what's happening in the space and you're like that obviously the next thing is to talk live Just like we're doing right here. And so did you guys go? Okay, let me reach out to some celebrities Do you have any contact? Like what was what was the thing in figuring out? Do celebrities even want this? Like are they even willing to talk to somebody live? Yeah, so for us we definitely had to hit the ground running But we started with surveys because we learned our lesson with previous companies Or business ideas that we had so we knew to start with a survey and you know Reach out to like customers and super fans and even celebrities to see like is this something that they'd even be interested in So that was our first step. Yeah, we surveyed we sent out surveys over 2000 celebrities Right, I think it was like was down like 80 of celebrities said that they want to be able to video chat with their fans for a fee and 64 percent of the you know Fans that we surveyed said that they would pay the FaceTime a celebrity, right? And so once we sort of had those metrics We had enough of a sense that hey, this is something that people want and that we can proceed moving forward because as counter alluded to We said we had spent over 200 grand on instance speakers out of our personal money bootstrap cash, right? And so when that ride is you know, you read you learn really quickly that you got to be nimble and that right like And and that was our first real endeavor, right? And so, you know, we were sort of bright-eyed bushy tailed and was like we got the idea We want to do it and we just started spending money Without sort of you know, customer discovery validating and stuff like that and I love the nipsey hustle Nipsey hustle got a quote where he says, you know Good decisions come from experience experience comes from bad decisions, right? And I love that love that quote because it's like we got better with candy because we had made some stupid Decisions with instance speakers just spending a ton of money build a build a mobile app It cost over six figures before you had even tested the market at all, right? Like just stuff that you know, just is crazy But it made us better for candy because we we spent a lot of time Validating the idea for candy before we even spent any real resources. I love to tell this part of the story Like we spent $100 launching candy, right? So we went from 200,000 for instance speakers, which was totally ravaged overnight And we spent $100 building candy, right? Like that's that mark of entrepreneurs like learning a lesson and improving on it. I really love what you guys are saying for our listeners I mean, this is the stuff that we really want to get into I think uh, I went to business school and I tell people the only thing I learned in business school was the power of surveys It's like It's like you don't know shit like if you're making ice cream ask people What memories they like stop thinking that you like, you know I'm in chocolate chip and you think the the market likes that they might they also probably don't Well, there's that great story of the jc penny CEO a couple years ago You know, they had hired a new CEO. He came in like he thought he knew it Everybody wanted he was changing the way the stores were set up and it tanked and he was out like within a year or something like that So, yeah, yeah, you see that shit all the time. It's really interesting The good thing about jc pennies. They have a lot of real estate and so I think they'll be okay But yeah, no, I love the survey thing and then the other thing that you mentioned It was related to the nipsey hustle quote But but basically it's like just test like I tell entrepreneurs all the time just test like stop Stop the thing and just test. I remember we were at y-combinator I was just telling my wife this story and there was four of us in the room Three of us three of us were engineers and I was like the guy the sales guy, right? and so Michael Siebel who's who's now the fat the partner at the CEO at y-combinator says All right, cool. Like what do you do? He's like, oh, I do front end. What do you do? I do back end Okay, cool. How many customers do you guys have and he's like, oh, we got we have one beta customer right now And he goes cool. You're all salespeople now And like it stunned our engineering team because they had never picked up the phone That's just not something that they did or sent an email to a customer And so he's like, but we have to build this product and Michael's like who you building the product for And and the guy's like, well our future customer, how many customers do you have today? And then it likes it dude. I'm telling you it was the best as the salesperson I was like, yes, let's go, you know, and then from that point on That's another another thing. It's like what are the engineers doing? So from that moment on what ended up happening is we went back all the engineers started writing scripts So we can get free leads online through all these like databases like zoom info and stuff It was like amazing. So next thing you knew we had like 40,000 people on an email list And we were just pumping through it And it was like the moment where you realize as a company like sometimes It's easy to get stuck doing what you're good at But what you're good at doesn't really matter all the time, right? It's like the dev matters when you have the market the market You get the market and so the sales matters to get the market and so those steps become Pretty good. So I just love that you guys are sharing that story. Okay, so you send out the survey Got it. Everything looks good. It makes sense Conceptually it makes sense And then what is your first step because I can imagine some sometimes these celebrities is an instagram live Or they do they want to FaceTime? Is there an intermediary so no one knows their phone number? You know, so what is that? Like what is the next thing of actually doing the first call look like? Yeah, so it's perfect, right? So if you think about what we do, you know Again, instant speakers taught us to be lean, right? And to stop thinking about the big picture and really think about like at a core what you're doing So at a core and you mentioned this earlier at the core of what we do We're just connecting two people via video chat, right? Like at the core like it sounds sexy Like in celebrity video chats and all that and they give me tech But we use zoom to this day we use zoom, right? We've been operating for a little bit over a year And we've used them because it just hasn't made sense We couldn't justify the expense of building the tech when everybody, you know, through the pandemic We launched the height of the pandemic in april 22nd Everybody's the zoom expert has been on a million zoom know how to use zoom And that's a product that was ready to go And we could we could spend a hundred hundreds of thousands of dollars trying to build a product That still may not the video capabilities won't be as good as zoom, right? Like so it just didn't make sense So to this day, you know for us, we were like we skip past tech. We said we got tech We know we can use zoom we can we can create a link, right? That way the celebrity has no anonymity They don't give out their small number or anything like that. It's totally safe It's encrypted all of the stuff that you need zoom has already figured that out So we got to spend money trying to do that. So that was the cool part I and no those are sort of the first step in terms of the first question we saw like we're not building tech Yeah, and then as far as the website goes We just use a square space template like instead of having a product or a candle or a shirt We put the picture from our talent They gave us a picture that they wanted to show and we just put it up their their name their price that they set themselves And it was just that simple and that's that allowed us to be lean and more nimble That was able to launch for a hundred dollars. So now you've got the zoom platform You've got the square space website And you've got this survey telling you that celebrities and participants alike want to to connect So how do you then get the celebrities? How do you reach out to them? Yeah, that's the biggest that was obviously the biggest part of our business right like that's the big if we couldn't solve that problem We had no business So, you know, what we did was we just start hustling man Like, you know, we had to start to put together some celebrity emails from the uh for the for the surveys And it's a little bit of everything like we were on phone with people's cousins We were like on their instagram getting their booking emails. We were reaching out to agents and managers We we put together a sales team to get as many You know emails as we could from celebrities again scouring up mostly obviously primarily Their social medias, right? Like, you know, they all have booking stuff like that And I and I put together a ebook and some stuff to teach people how to do this because I think The first step for us was getting the emails, which is cool. That's like the first step but as you know like You it's certain things you got to say to get to guard the answers these celebrities get, you know Literally thousands and thousands of emails of people soliciting them to promote their product, right? The email has to say some some certain thing key things in order to bite their interests And so, you know, it took us we've seen literally over a hundred thousand emails of celebrities literally over a hundred thousand emails And over that time we've learned like what to say and what not to say what do they want to hear what peaks interest What managers care about versus the talent? And so, you know, that was really it I mean like we every we've turned over every stone we could about how to you know, recruit talent Right. Obviously we did our research. We saw how other competitors in the market how they had done it And we you know piggybacked off some of that as well Did you guys find trouble? So like when I think about companies when they first start sometimes the hard part is breaking through Not being known for one thing. And so the obvious example is like only fans, right? Only fans is now trying to move away And so with you guys were you guys like, oh, we're crushing the television market, but not like The a-list like what was the thing or was it not like that where you guys finding success across the board And even like managing some of the calls was not as easy, you know I can imagine friction sometimes of like, hey, we said one o'clock and then all of a sudden they're like Like snoop dogs and Tories for this shit. He's like, oh, sorry. I'm in the studio. And so You guys find friction along the way or is it like been easier than you thought? What has that been like? I would say our problem has was inverse. I feel like at the beginning it was it was Honestly a lot easier and you just gotta think about the pandemic, right? Like always I'm an attorney, you know about trade, right? So always like a kin what we do now to like being a bankruptcy attorney like bankruptcy attorneys Relish when the economy is terrible and their practice goes down when the economy is doing well, right? Less companies are filing for bankruptcy I feel like for us as the pandemic was at its height like our business was the best, right? Because celebrities weren't, you know, think about when we launched April 2020 There was no NBA games, no NFL games, no shows were filming, no movies So it was a lot easier to get in contact with talent and they were a lot easier to be available, right? You needed somebody sometimes we can get somebody to do a meet and greet the same day that it got booked, right? Like now we went from like, let's say an average of a two to three email back and forth, you know Booking time to now it's like eight to ten emails, right? Because they're back working. They're back on tours They're back filming movies, right? So it's a lot harder now to to get meet and greet book as as easy before I literally was like one or two emails And you got it. It's on the schedule. You ready to go now It's like, you know, six follow-up emails and then two emails And then you got to call in the morning to remind them so they don't forget It's a little bit, this is a little bit more work now, you know, but but it works out So you guys were like, let's go Delta. Let's go. Let's go Omicron I mean, I just tell people the truth, man I mean, if you look at some of the problems we were dealing with and again, you know, you know Cameo dealt with the same thing and they created the space like, you know Pre-pandemic if you do your research, like they were struggling with the same thing, right? Like it's just, you know, hard to really grow when you're trying to pin talent down to do these And they're busy and they'll tell you the same thing that the pandemic was the best thing Happened for their business, right? Like they probably had like a 300 million dollar valuation Or something like that free pandemic and had a pandemic they hit a billion, right? Like because it's just literally companies in our space If we could have created COVID and obviously I don't make light of the deaths and you know Stuff like that, you know, being sensitive to those things, but from a business perspective It couldn't have been a better time for us Yeah, no, for us, I mean, it's funny So we did the podcast this whole time during COVID and I quite literally no joke 90 I want to say with the exception to one company that we spoke to They all were two three times revenue than previous years And it was basically a function of them just figuring out or leaning into the thing The only thing that was working which COVID I think simplified It's like COVID exactly like all this shit's broken This is the only thing working And yeah, you have to be leaning with more language operations like resources It was scarce and so you have to really drill into that And I think that, you know, for us, you know, because it just worked out Because it just was so much easier to get in contact with talent Like I said, managers were trying to find ways to get them in their talent Hey, ages were the talent a lot of times we have talent, you know Reach to respond to us directly, right? Coming up with different ideas also that was pretty helpful Like not limiting it to just a video chat Like have actual events like cooking events or, you know, studio sessions So it improved from there Yeah, and like you said, the request of our talent Because again, they were home trying to find ways to continue to generate revenue So that their creativity sort of worked with ours All right, so maybe this is thinking down the road But kind of to what you just said around cooking Do you guys view events as the next thing for you guys? And so not just a one-on-one phone call, but more of like a tailored discussion Or, you know, something that maybe multiple people can buy tickets to What are you thinking about for, let's say, the end of 2022 Or even just the summer of 2022 For us, events have by far been our most profitable, you know, sort of items Right, like the one-on-one meeting greets are great But the difference with the one-on-one meeting greets again Is just it creates a lot of scheduling conflicts, right? And so you're also trying to batch, right? Because you're trying to get this, you know, celebrity to sit down For five minutes to do one meeting greet It's really not worth their time, right? So they want to do, you know, they want to sit down and do 15 or 20 And so we do those types of, so we call like curated events Where we come up with these different things Again, like Maya has done multiple cook with Maya shows Where you literally her kitchen, she, we sent out the recipe in advance And you're going through it, she's like your cooking instructor for the day, right? We've done speed dating events, we've done business pitch events So like a lot of our celebrities, right? They get a thousand emails of businesses asking them to pitch their business We held a pitch competition where businesses came on to have to send their product To the PO box in advance They got to come on for five minutes and pitch Hey, that's why you should promote my product, right? And then we chose two businesses that got free promotion from that celebrity, right? And so, you know, we've done these different types of things And different types of events And then, but then also the events that we found to be most profitable Is us just setting a date for the meeting greet event So instead of saying, you know, hey, you can go on there whenever you want And you can select the time you want We just preset it, right? So, hey, meet Keontae on, you know, July 5th at 12 p.m., right? And then pushing all of the bookings there, kind of like concerts, right? We think about it, that's where our idea came from It's like we make concerts And those are more successful because, again, it gives everybody a pre-determined date And it gives a celebrity something they can post around So that's the biggest thing, right? It's like, because we don't, we haven't spent any money on marketing and advertising, right? So like it gives a celebrity something they can post Or instead of just saying, hey, I'm on candy, meet me anytime you want to Yeah, we're always thinking about this for the podcast We were on, we were a launch partner with a company called Bright Live They decided to build their own platform But it's similar style where they do tickets and stuff like that And so we've been through, like with them through Kind of the bumpy road of their platform not really working I mean, some of the hiccups there were I mean, imagine like you get, you buy a ticket to an event But then you have to download a Zoom type software Like that's friction, like as a tech person My brain goes like, you're adding too much friction there It's easier just to use something people already have installed Even if I get a go-to meeting thing, I'm like, fuck that I'm not, I don't want to go to court Yeah, it's too much, it's too much, it's too much And at night time, I gotta tell you, you're jumping on a call Like 30 seconds before it starts And then that just throws the whole thing off Yeah, that's exactly right And so we've seen them go through it But now it seems like they have like the lot They're doing a lot of things with, I would call like maybe A, B Listers on the celebrity space And it seems to be working But obviously when you're building your own tech, you have They've made it a little bit harder than I think they needed to And it's tough, man, like with the A and B Listers And you see that with other platforms We all love A and B Listers and high B Listers But it's tough, the economics are tough with those types of talent It's hard to find a price point that makes sense for the company And that makes sense for the talent And the ticket prices make sense for the fan Versus, you know, we love Kevin Hart And we would love for him to be on candy But just the metrics of it, right Like, just anything that he does will have to be for charity And he will have to set it at a rate that he knows Is not worth his time But it's more about generating revenue for charity But to get somebody like that to do your platform Consistently on a meaningful basis You're talking about 10,000 for a five-minute meet and greet time Right, like it's just nobody can afford that The people that can afford that are probably his friends So it's like- Yeah, and then we also see like with our influencers Like the curated events such as like birthday parties And things like that Their fans really love that type of stuff So like the TikTokers and everything like that Like they really want to interact with them even more And we provide that opportunity to Yeah, and going back to you earlier Of course you mentioned too Like that is a segment that we really grew That really took our business off even more Was, you know, we got a lot of influencers Who were lesbian TikTokers And they really took our platform Even to that next level in the height of the summer They have super loyal fan bases And so if you go on our platform There's a category called WLW Women, Love and Women And we've dedicated a full category to that population Because they just really have been loyal They love our platform They have some of the highest rebook rates You know, they participate And they have some of the most interesting events We even actually Before, you know, before things, you know Delta spiked again We had a virtual festival That we were doing Women, Love and Women Festival But a lot of our talent, you know, were struck with Delta And so we had to cancel it But, you know, it was It's a community that really took us to the next level Even You know, that's funny that you say that Because we talked with another company Who we were talking about Social media followings And if you have someone who has 100 followers On social media You might look at that and think Oh, this person's a nobody But if you were to then get 100 people in a room That is something That is an event Yes And so it really does depend on how passionate And how motivated And how engaged your individual fan base is It can make the difference between You know, you having a successful event With someone who only has 100 followers Or a non-successful event With someone who has a million followers But that don't really care about that person I talk about that a lot Sort of in my e-book and again These products that I'm putting together These digital products Because we talked about You mentioned the word engagement rate, right? Like, you know, and telling people like You can't just partner with any celebrity influencers Just because they have a high number of followers, right? Like, if they don't have a high engagement rate, right? At least a 1% engagement rate Then it's really not worth the investment in capital Because, you know, if you've got a million followers But, you know, only 100 of them are actually liking And engaging on content But you're charging me, you know, for a million people, right? Then there's a disconnect there So, you know, we talk about, you know, teaching people And businesses how to really maximize influence of marketing Yeah, well, in that vein You said you don't send any money on marketing Are you then completely reliant on your celebrity users To market it to their crowd? And do you offer any advice to them On how to push it out more effectively? Yeah, absolutely So as we evolve This is something that we have, you know Obviously that's part of the shark tank pitch And obviously we can't talk about the results But the whole reason is to be able to do more formal marketing Because, you know, you don't want to rely solely on your talent Long-term for that But as you're starting off, right And you have limited resources You really don't have a choice, right? And so what we were able to do was create those events And that would help our celebrities So that's what we did to be able to Again, instead of just those generic posts That's like, hey meet me on candy Right, like we all know Like we force demand by setting a date, setting a time And so a lot of our celebrities when they post When they're posting They're posting for a specific event date and time That they're promoting around And we find that to be the most successful Because it's like, you know Ultimately if you can't generate enough fans For your event individually Right, then doing a general ad with you Whatever it really isn't You know, as I tell people And I will tell our celebrities this I can run an ad on you all day, Nick Right, like no matter what But at the end of the day The people that I'm really trying to get to That I'm trying to target are your followers People that are self-selected To engage with your content on a daily basis Right, so for any individual celebrity There's no better demographic Than their follower base You can run a million ads you want But if I want to get your Nick's Event to sell out the most Your social media is going to be the people That actually care about it the most I know you guys alluded to getting Kevin Hart on your pitch Yeah, yeah, yeah Kevin Hart was the guest shark for our episode Which was super, super cool Obviously, you know, he's a super A-lister You know, and it was his first time ever Being a guest shark And so like to be able to get that experience Was just like, you know, super crazy I mean, we love Damon and John as well Would have been great to have him on the show as well But having Kevin Hart in that seat was also a win And how did that happen? Was just by happenstance Like it was this complete accident? Yeah, like we didn't know in advance That he would be, like we kind of surmised On our own, like following Shark Tank Like through their social media We were like, maybe he's going to be our guest shark Yeah, because like they announced them Right, like around, you know Like when they announced that he would be a guest shark You know, and we knew our filming date And we thought it made sense Right, like in terms of what our product was You're like, it would make sense That if he's going to be a guest shark If they're looking at all these different companies Our company, you know, just fits Right, entertainment company It just fits Stuff that you would probably try to put in front of him To see, to peek his interests And so we were super excited When we heard that he would When we saw it on the social media That he'd be a guest shark And we had our fingers crossed Like man, it would be so dope if we get to pitch Kevin Hart And then it happened Yeah, it was cool, man It was super cool Like, you know, obviously by the time you filmed And then you know, you know, it's confirmed At that point, by the time you're like, you know Walking into the tank you knew before that But yeah, you know, it was surreal So do you change your pitch at all? Knowing that Kevin's gonna be on it Or do you just like, you keep it the same way It's always been But it's nice to have him in the room Yeah, I mean, without giving away any spoilers I'll definitely think that, you know If you're a savvy business person You gotta, you know, try to tailor it a little bit Yeah, 100% I would tailor it a whole bit Yeah, you know, you might look at the guy And say something to him You know, that probably makes sense Like what's been the hard part of it Is it the celebrities go too low with their price Or is it that they go too high with their price So it doesn't support the price For sure too high For sure too high, right Like not even a question What's a too high number for, I don't know If it's a 10, 20, 30 I mean, I've had, I've had like, you know I won't say name But I've had bona fide like superstars Want to charge a thousand dollars for, you know A meet and greet But it's like, you know Your legacy is amazing And you're a great person But if sometimes it's hard to have these conversations With people if, you know They're not at the peak of their popularity, right And so maybe there was a time Where they could demand those rates But maybe they can't do that now But also getting them to understand Like what the product is, right Like you can't akin this to Hey, like some, you know We guys have said, well, I charge 5,000 For one social media post, right Like for one Instagram But well, you can't equate it that This is a different product, right Like fans aren't looking at the monetization In the way that you are, right So, you know, I could You know, some people are like I can make you, you know 20,000 in a month If you set your price at this And there's gonna be a good value But if you said at this I don't know if we'll sell, you know 10, right And like it's a delicate balance Because at the end of the day We always tell our talent Like only you can determine the value For your time, right Like it's your choice at the end of the day But we also We want to see you be successful Because we get a percentage of the revenue So we also like are vested To make sure that the price is set right So we can sell But we don't We frankly, we don't always win that battle And you know, I think we're more right Than I because we have the data And we know what people can charge But ultimately, hey, if you want to Yeah, because it's their time Ultimately, that's what they're paying For and although it's virtual And it's not in person It's still their time And we know that those nuances Make a difference as far as what we're giving To our fans But the talent is still like This is my time Yeah So sometimes it is a little frustrating When you're trying to get a celebrity To a set appropriate rate That you know Will ultimately both of us a success But you know, again It's always their choice And you're always delicate about that So the episode comes out on this Friday And we know from talking with past guests That there's always a shark tank bump How are you both preparing For the inevitable bump And the traffic to your website? Have you hired more people? Or are you like getting more servers? And what is your process In getting ready for this inevitable flow? Oh yeah, I love this question So as you know, obviously I've seen different interviews like You only get three weeks heads up Of when your show is going to air, right? And so for sure, like the first thing You're doing is you're on a tip phone With your development team, right? You're like, you know, Can our service handle this low? Like the biggest thing you work Is to make sure your website doesn't crash, right? We've heard that so many times In the past where companies just Literally, you know, their website And if your website goes down Let's say for an hour Right after the show airs Like that's the time where you're probably Going to make the peak amount of money That you would have made, right? That's just unacceptable And so we for sure have made sure That our web speed and performance is up That our service can handle a high low For absolute, we have a contingency plan So we, you know, we reached out to, you know Different staffing agencies and things like that To be able to quickly scale if we needed to And we're putting together internal trainings Like you're doing all the Hey, if she is the fan Like we got to be ready And we don't want to performance the slack So we've had meetings, you know, daily Talking about, you know How we're going to handle things, right? Like in different contingency plans If it's another thousand, you know Orders per month or if it's another 10,000, right? Like what's the difference? And when do we enact this plan? So we have a written plan that we Have in place and it's like When we hit a certain number That's when we'll, you know, push the button And fire all our cylinders I love it What does the thing behind you mean? Where it says go best friend Is that, is that unique in some way to your company? Oh, actually, that's a podcast That I host with my best friend So it's what I call Go Best Friend Podcast Yeah What's your podcast about? It's really just girl talk Between me and my best friend, you know Shooting the stuff And it's ironic because it launches on Friday And that day was set pre-before the episode But it couldn't have worked out better Better for the brand and for the podcast So definitely on Friday, January 7th Check out the Go Best Friend Podcast On all platforms with podcasts are available Do you guys envision this turning Into like a television show at some point? Or like Podcast? How far down the media Not the pop, well maybe the podcast But also just what you're working on now You know, at some point I always envision this thing where So COVID hits and a lot of entrepreneurial beliefs Get cemented, right? Where it's like your employer doesn't really care Your job never really cared 401k was never going to save you Right? With all these things Like I've been preaching this forever And everyone like seemingly I've been a dick And then COVID hits and I'm like You see? You didn't need to be in the office You didn't need to work nine to five You didn't need to be glued to your chair Your boss doesn't care Your family's more important And your health is more important Like I've been saying this forever And everyone's like Oh, it's absolutely It's literally what he just says True Right? And so in that I always think like Okay, I just want there to be like an awakening Where maybe even through your platform It's just like business to business It's like it's like entrepreneur So a part of the celebrity thing Is also just like a business workshop thing Where it's like I'm scared to launch my own company How did you do it? And it's a quick like 10 minute fire up session That you know isn't an audio book It's not a two hour YouTube video It's just like boom It's like it's you know what I mean And I just I just want platforms I don't think the market's there yet I know it's growing Like he said I mean that's total So I've launched KeatonHendry.com Which is that Like I'm just putting together Quick digital products That businesses and resources can use Right? And the next time it should be my ebook But teaching businesses like How to do this Like I'm telling people like Here's how we started can Here's how we were from Sitting on our couch Watching these celebrities To actually like FaceTime And they're partnering And working with them And getting invited to their concerts And being on their tour bus and backstage Like with no And I think this is the most important thing We have no prior connection to Hollywood Right? None Like we don't know anybody We don't have anything And so it's like teaching businesses How to do that Or how to go from sitting on your couch Right? One day watching Shark Tank To like a producer calling you out of blue And you know asking you to be on the show Right? Like so teaching people like how How you can you know sort of create that energy Right? And I think what you said is so true You know but the flips I also That I'm always cautious about You know we're talking about entrepreneurship As well as like I think that there's a balance Right? And I think the balance is There as I always tell people There's no great company in the world And we hope to one day be a public company That doesn't have employees Right? And so we always strike that balance between like Hey, if you got an entrepreneur bug That's what you know flows you're both fine But no I always tell people Because I have a lot of friends who are entrepreneurs And they're like I'm my own boss And I'm great and I'll never work for them And I'm like that works for you But you won't create a billion dollar company Without employees Right? It just there's no bill You ask Bezos, you ask Gates, you ask Whomever you want to ask Wherever unicorn Whatever you know the next White Combinator unicorn They got a team of people Right? And if everybody you know if we If we push entrepreneurship too heavy Then how is anybody going to create the next greatest thing Unless we are robots And we're in like the meta version You're on your computer in your basement right And so I always try to strike that balance between like If it's in you Then you do it right And you pursue that passion Because it's your passion But if you want to you know Make a good living And you want to be As I always use the example I'm like you know Jamie Diamond the CEO It chases an employee right But I'm sure he's not like complaining about Working for somebody else You know what I mean? So it's like It's a lot of opportunity and money out there Being an employee If that's what you want to do So Kevin Hart He did an interview recently And he talks about this employee thing And he goes I don't have employees I have partners Everyone on my team is a partner And I just to me that was Because that's how I treat our podcast I love that Yeah We have a team of people like And that means I listen to you That means I give a shit It also means you have equity You know And I respect you And even if I think your idea is shit You're my partner So I'm going to try to find a way To understand why this might work And it usually And that's how you keep people long term too For sure I totally think that's how you keep people long term Because you know We started our belong team With virtual assistants Out of the Philippines right Like and I think people Anybody on our team will tell you That they have just as much say So in the decisions we make As we do Right We give them full autonomy To make decisions To provide an input To your point I think being a good leader Is not just about like I listen to everything you do And I do what you say Right but more so about I hear you And I do You know at least Listen to what you're saying And I contemplate Whether or not that makes sense for the company Yeah Honestly I'll take the CEO of Candy But you know I'm sorry to cut you off But that autonomy Produces like more of an ownership Feeling from our team members too So we appreciate that I'm giving every one of our people That work for our team Like that speech of like I'm not hiring Like somebody do a project Right I want people that own the business So I don't want you to just focus on like Hey you asked me to Paint the backwards I painted the backwards I want you to Like when I hide you to paint the backwards I want you to say Well look There's some splendors In this wood Like I could paint over this But like I think we should change this board Right like And like that's the idea that I have Like I literally said Like I hire partners People that own the projects And treat it like their own As opposed to people that's like You told me to do it and I did it Right It's like that's not That's not really what What we're looking for Yeah it makes total sense What is it like working together And how did you guys have to figure that out Oh we love him It's a breeze It's so scary So it's huge Wow You're going to lie You're going to lie to all of our listeners No I tell people So here's how it works for us We have to have conversations In the compartmentalized space Right So we It is not uncommon If you're in a household to hear us say As a business partner Right we preface that And then we have this conversation Hey I'm talking to you as As CEO of Kenny Hey I'm talking to you as My co-owner in this business Right I'm talking and then it's like Oh I'm talking to you as your husband Because I think for us When we compartmentalize that Then it's like Okay we don't take it personal Right like Okay if I say certain things to her And I don't say Hey as your as your business owner Then it's like I'm offending her as a husband But as a business partner I gotta be able to talk to you The same way I would Any of my business partners And there's some discernment there Like he doesn't have to coddle you Or anything like that Well advice first right She comes to me and stuff as well Yeah So it's some discernment there But I think the key is You gotta compartmentalize And you see that on Star Trek A lot of couples come on there And I'm sure that they probably Will echo a similar sentiment But you have to be able to Have these certain comp Because when you have a tough conversation About decisions that are made As business partners That's a tough conversation And you gotta be able to have that conversation And then go upstairs and then Have a good night's sleep And watch a movie And not have it be personal It doesn't always work out that smoothly But I think when you compartmentalize It helps Especially I was just thinking For you guys to pivot You know you spent $200,000 I'm sure that wasn't easy to get And then you have to figure it out I mean that can put a lot of stress But I think in that You've got a lot of interact And what I love is Steve Harvey has a book And we listen to it And you call it Jump, right? Like when he talks about that And I love that now He says like When you first jump out there Like you're going to get scratched On the rocks You're going to hit some branches You're going to hit like But if you never jump You'll never soar And so like that was like a huge You know when we before we even Started as the speakers We had that conversation of like When we first jump out here Like we're not going to be Naive and think that like It's just going to blow up tomorrow Like we don't know what the Adversity will be But we got to understand that It is coming And how we respond to it Ultimately is going to be The difference between us Being successful or not And so it's like The knock on wood The grace is that We didn't spend money We didn't have Right And so I think that helps Like it sucks when you lose Like 200 grand But like you know The light stayed on The water kept flowing And it worked out I love that Are you guys doing anything In the crypto NFT space? I'm going to ask every Entrepreneur that I speak to This year No, no, no, no, no No doubt Like I've been going hard Learning I mean actually we own crypto Right So we definitely got You know in that space But in that tease is something That I'm like super stoked about And like trying to figure out I understand what it is Right, I get it I understand I've researched it Now it's like making my own one It is really this like It's a real one When we were like I could really pay a designer Like to make this And like put it out there And like You know if somebody likes it Like I could make like You know like Is it really this simple Like what is I'm What am I missing And I know I'm not missing Anything but As you know like It's hard to Like you're not Miss something in the NFT space You're like Now nothing is easy But you're like it's really People are really taking like This you know this Whatever artwork And like making 100,000 of a night Like it's freaking crazy It actually is that That easy I think the thing I've I've picked We had a call yesterday So we have a In our studio space We have a big mural And it was done by A semi-famous artist I would say He's a friend of ours He did like a video With Snoop Dogg He releases of a NFT with Snoop Dogg And so in that It's a really cool mural And I was like You know it'd be cool To make this something Like animate it And then that led to Oh we could NFT this And then For people that listen To our podcast It gives them away Of like literally owning A piece of our Of our studio And it's not like That connection is really Important to our community However, in the NFT space There's just people Banking random stuff And in that There is no community aspect And so no one cares Right And that's what that boards Ape and all that stuff Is trying to do For sure Yeah and so for people Like follow our podcast Or even the artist Or just want to start To dabble in the NFT space We're gonna Launch one In an effort to see What happens You know and we really I don't Yeah exactly That's the same thing I'm like I'm just It's the jump thing again Right Like I'm just We're just gonna jump With this NFT thing And if it pops Fuck it It is what it is Right I'll take it I literally a little Upwork I think like Maybe three or four weeks To go Like I got a job out there Like we're You know For designers Like almost somebody Created NFT project for us And you know Something we're also Thinking about With our talent Right Is like You know Can we create Some type of NFT project With our talent To be able to launch You know Schools of cash Probably could That person's like stats On the back Like how many drinks They had And it's Really interesting And obviously Drinkchaps They have the community though They have the Of course Of course I mean The only thing I think About the NFT space though Is I think I like Gary V You know He talks about a little bit Is like You know He He Kins it's like The beginning of the internet It's like They're gonna There's gonna be this Like bust Right Like Because it's so new And so And the bear's entries Are so low And so easy to get into That You know Obviously beginning The dot com Where everybody's making A lot of money But there'll be a bust To reset You know Thing At some point And so You know I don't know Where that Where that Where that Come But I do believe it Come Because I think at some point Like the bear's entries are just Too low It's too easy For a lot of people Make too much money Like That can't Be the way Forever Like at some point The marketer Have to correct it So To make it a little bit You know More tough It's like Literally you Like Like this 12 year old kid Like you know Made up You know 500,000 yesterday From like The picture you drew In two minutes And you're like Like Because Part of you are like This is crazy Like Like I don't get it Like the boy Ain't they They look kind of cool But you're like And people are like The utility I get it I get all that But it still feels kind of Crazy Like it still feels like Like a gimmick a little bit If you Like I mean If I'm being honest Like I get it And at the end of the day I think everybody cares about it Because everybody else cares about I guess That's the only reason why Right I think all the celebrities I'm buying them Because you're like Well I don't care about it But if you care about it And I can make money Selling it to you then Then I care about it Right Like I think that's It's been like this Like everybody jumping on a wagon It's honestly that simple We talked to a lot of people That have been in the crypto space Since like 2012 And none of them have bought NFTs Specifically around the board apes They just They don't get it They're like This is really a fad But Just like fashion You know Fashion has a tendency to do the same thing And so Yeah That's all it really is And you How to get in and get your money man Yeah And really you hope that these teams are doing Like they have a five-year plan Or a two-year plan To create more Right So people keep interested But as you know As I mean you guys know It's intimately a platform Around celebrity It is hard to hold on for that moment And make that whole It's too hard You know Five, ten years So we'll see What crypto do you like And then we'll wrap We got those We got uh What's the uh Sheep's The dog I can't even pronounce it Sheba We got Sheba We got those We got those in Sheba Um You know right now I need Sheba to rally back Cause like I bought some at the dip I bought some at the height I needed I needed to like I'm hoping to have that like That Dogecoin or Bitcoin story Of like two years Right I'm in for the long play on On both of them I want to like I had it when it was Less than a dollar And now it's like Ten dollars story As opposed to like A lot of people made a lot of money And got out Which makes sense too I'm trying to hold on again So as we're going down the NFT road One of the things we've been told Is that if we wanted to Allow people to pay Like if we wanted to sell an NFT We need to give people a way to do that And so um Right now there isn't a square space Meta mask plugin But would you guys ever think about Like accepting payment via crypto Directly to your website? I think you almost have to I think you're Like I think it's one of You'll be so behind Right like You go to mall They got Bitcoin ATM Right like you gotta kind of get in tune with You know that And the other thing we're thinking about too And I'll give you a sneak peek Like we're really spending a lot of time Trying to figure out How we can do Meeting groups in the metaverse Right like Like have you know Somebody's avatar Like you're actually meeting with the celebrity But like You know that your avatars are meeting You get access to exclusive You know Club candy to candy club Or you know whatever Um We're exploring that again But it's one of those things where like I remember Snoop Dogg was on the thing With Kevin Hart yesterday He said You know he's like He got a set A virtual real estate in the sandbox She's like I don't understand this shit But I'm making money You know it's like It's like that's about Like the world we're in Like that's the pole Like I don't understand this shit But I'm making money Yeah I mean we're thinking about The same thing doing like a podcast studio In the metaverse Cause like that That's needed And how cool would that be That's kind of cool We can bring people into our studio Without And even like in a COVID way Right It's like Oh we can't Yeah So meet me in the studio Put your shit on And like I'll see you there Yeah and like Afro text conference The last two years has been like that With this virtual Sort of world Where you have your avatars They're walking around They're dressing And all that kind of stuff And you know Obviously Nike And all these other companies Are like Super capitalizing on Virtual fashion So I mean I don't know I think You gotta get into Whether you like it or not Whether you agree with it or not Whether you understand it or not You if you don't get into You're gonna be lost behind It's gonna be a lot of people Making a lot of money On this like Net gold rush And so it's like I don't fully understand it I'm like I don't see myself being Like In a virtual space for 20 To 20 hours a day That everybody's predicting But I mean You know We're adaptable Sam Well look I appreciate you guys Coming on the podcast Thank you guys Tell everyone where they can Find you Where they can support What they can do Who they can book with All that good stuff www.meetcandy.com Candy with an I So C-A-N-D-I Celebrities and Influencers It's an acronym Same thing on socials Instagram Facebook Twitter Meet Candy And then again Also And you know You want to meet celebrities We have Maya Tori Spella And Chris Katan Some of the biggest Housewives Hall of Fame Athletes Some of the biggest Tic-Tac and Instagram influencers In the world Check it out You know Book your favorite celebrity The standard rate is Five minutes So you You get five minutes So you can purchase Up to an hour We have fans that book An hour at a time And some celebrities Accept those book And some don't Some do And so you can get it You know You can meet with somebody You always idolize And believe it or not For us Most of our bookings Aren't gifts The other platforms Majority of the bookings Are gifts Majority of our bookings Are for people that Want to meet the celebrity Themselves And I'll say the last thing Like 40% of our fans Have used our service At least four times 70% of our bookings On a monthly basis Come from repeat customers Right So We really do have a stickiness We see people creating a friendship I really would say What separates us If you're listening to this podcast You want to know What separates us from Candy O Or any other platform You heard of The difference with our platform People use Candy To create friendships With their favorite celebrities And influencers When you come back on a podcast And Tori Spelling's like Hey Nick I noticed you got a haircut Or like Nick last time Where's your dog Sparky I saw last time Like that's what you get When you book on our platform Because if you meet somebody For a Zoom You know we've been on here For almost an hour Guys if I see you guys On the street We're going to recognize each other That's what you get When you do candy So that's why I meant Most of our fans 40% At least four times Because they're like Yo this celebrity Actually going to know me Might as well walk down the street now Tori Spelling will recognize who I am Because we've talked For you know For an hour worth of time before That's what you're getting on You want to create a relationship A friendship with your favorite celebrity Candy's the place to do that Boom That's a pitch baby I like it Let's go I'm rooting for you guys Yeah I appreciate you guys Fellas man Thanks a lot Thank you Thank you Thank you The start of the store front team Consists of Diego Torres Palma Natalia Capolini Owen Capolini Lexie Jamison And me Nick Conrad Our music is composed by DoubleTouch We release a new episode each week So make sure to subscribe So you don't miss a thing Our handle for all social media platforms Is at Startup Storefront We also film all of these episodes And put them up on our YouTube page Because there's just some things That can't be experienced Through audio alone You can always go back And listen to any of our other episodes Available wherever you get your podcasts And on our website StartupStorefront.com Thank you for listening We'll see you next time