 This is Startup Storefront. Hollywood does not treat all filmmakers equally. Despite being a critically acclaimed director, Fanny Grande funded extremely difficult to find funding for her new movies. The major studios saw Latino movies as a niche market with very little broad appeal. That's why Fanny and her husband, Nelson Grande, founded Avenida Productions, a movie studio in the heart of LA. They're providing equal opportunity to filmmakers to fund, film and distribute their next big hit. In this episode, we spoke with both Nelson and Fanny Grande about why crowdfunding campaigns fail. Why Fanny is the top crowdfunding coach for creatives across the country and why they created their own streaming service. And thank you to Catfootware for sponsoring this episode. They're a premier shoe company that empowers builders and doers to reframe the world to create something more meaningful. And on that note, grab your popcorn and please take a seat. The movie will begin shortly. All right, welcome to the podcast on today's show. We're talking to the founders of Avenida Productions. Thank you guys for joining. Either one of you can take this, explain a little bit about the company. What do you guys do? Yeah, thanks. We are a non-traditional movie studio and our mission is to democratize access to Hollywood specifically for underrepresented communities. And the way that we do that is by providing solutions for funding, production and distribution. What made you aware of the problem that you're trying to solve? Were you guys in Hollywood? Were you trying to become actors yourselves? What was the thing where you were like, okay, this is a real problem? Well, both Nelson and I are actors. We started acting. I actually grew up in Venezuela. I've been acting my whole life. Were you born in Venezuela? I was born in the U.S., but I grew up in Venezuela. Okay. I'm from Peru. I was born in Peru. Oh, yay! South America! So when I moved to the U.S., you know, the situation in Venezuela was getting really bad. So my parents are like, we're out of here. So we went to the U.S. and I was so excited because it was gonna be closer to Hollywood. You know? Did you come right to California? I moved to Denver, Colorado to go to university. So closer to Hollywood, but not quite. Yeah, well to me it was like the same country. I didn't realize how big it was. We moved to Massachusetts and I still don't know why. Yes. So we ended up in Denver, which by itself was a huge culture shock from the Caribbean to there. But when I was in college, I wouldn't get cast in any of the college plays and I'd be like, why? I don't understand. Even like the local stuff. Yeah. So the dean of the college pretty much said, well, you know, people are not gonna, she literally said, people are not gonna believe you can play these roles because I'm a Latina. You should go to the Latino theater company in town. I was like, wait, I'm paying you to educate me like I cannot, you know, understand. I'm so backwards. It's backwards. So, you know, I did join the Latino theater company in town and I met a community of people that, you know, felt excluded. I did have one professor in college that said, listen, you have to just write your own stuff. So when I was in college, I started writing plays and then I wrote my first short film. Well, as soon as I graduated, I moved to LA and obviously the issues that I was facing in LA were a lot bigger here. Right? Every Latino actor and creator that I met, writers, directors, we're facing discrimination when it came to Hollywood. And the few roles that were available or are still available are usually negative stereotypes, you know? And I'm like, I don't want my community represented this way, especially because I come from Latin America, like we have lawyers and teachers and, you know, we're all Latino. You mean you don't import them from the U.S.? I don't have them. So I was like, wait, I'm pretty sure we have them in this country too. And obviously we do, right? Yeah, it's not like California's view of a Latina. There's a lot of diversity in what that means. Exactly, but not in media. And it's, you know, to this day, if you turn on the TV, we're usually the criminals or something like that, or the props. So I decided to keep creating films and to cast my friends, actually I cast Nelson in one of them. Yeah, nice. One of the first films we got, 15, 16 years ago. More like 20, but sure. All right. So that's how we met. Yeah. And, you know, I kept making these short films and winning awards and like major festivals like South by Southwest, but I still could not get a representation as a filmmaker or as a filmmaker. So you won South by Southwest? Yes. And I still could not. And no one was still, No! I mean, people should be lining up to... That's what I'm saying. When you wonder why or when you ask them why, are they honest with you or are they kind of like, look, you're, I don't even, the way I don't even know if they're like, maybe you're just a niche product, niche market, and it's just not big enough. That's what they think of it. We're niche, we only speak Spanish. You know, we're 20% of the population. Like we've been here forever. We're not just new immigrants and even new immigrants, eventually you wanna see themselves represented, you know? So a lot of people say, well, it's cause you gotta, you have to film your first feature length film. That's why you're not getting ahead. I was like, oh my gosh. Okay. The time I was a single model too. So the solution is make a movie? Yeah. Like a full... Yeah, I'm like, how am I gonna... There's always one more step. Yeah, there's always one more step. Oh, that's what they would say. So I'm like, okay. Okay, so I wrote a feature film and then I started pitching it to studios, production companies, et cetera, et cetera, with my resume of all these awards. And they're like, well, why is it in English? Why is it not said in East LA? These are things people actually told me. Wow. You know, I was like, oh my God, are you serious? I was like, we're speaking English right now. Like we're a huge portion of the population. We don't all fit in East LA. Like I wanna tell a story about an American family that just happens to be a Latino family, you know? So I just could not get a green lit. So I heard of something called crowdfunding. I didn't know what that was at the time. This was 10 years ago. So I went to the community and I said, okay, everybody, I'm gonna make a movie that's gonna represent us in a positive light. No stereotypes, right? So a lot of people from across the country gave me a little bit of money. And it was awesome because I raised enough money to make a film. How much did you raise? It wasn't that much. It was about 50K, right? To make a feature film. A feature because that's like. She was doing budget. Oh yeah. That is, yeah. Well, I had to have more fundraisers after that. But the beautiful thing about this process was that I actually filmed it in Texas in a border town. And people had seen the crowdfunding campaign on Facebook and social media. So a lot of people showed up. So I didn't have to pay for one extra. I didn't have to pay for any locations. That helps a lot. My picture cards. So that money went really, somebody even said, hey, I have a crop duster. This is before drones. So they showed up on set with their crop duster and your camera man in the back of their truck. That's literally what happened. And my DP was like, okay. So he flew and I had aerial shots in my first feature, which was unheard of back then, you know? And the movie came out really beautiful because he was a labor of love. What's the name of the movie? It's called Homebound. Homebound. You can still watch it. Yeah. But then nobody would buy it. Like there's no distribution. They were like, well, there's no celebrities. I'm like, okay, I can't afford, we have two JLo and Sofia Bergara. They're not gonna do my movie. I'm trying to make celebrities. So I went back to the community because by this time, some of many people were invested in this movie, right? I went back to the community and I said, okay, this is the situation. So people started requesting the film at their local movie theater. Now it was really beautiful. Really nice grassroots movie. Yes, so I toured the whole country and that's how I finally sold the film. I sold it to two companies actually and it's still going strong. Like the movie's still going eight years later. And, you know, other filmmakers started seeing what I was doing and they're like, how'd you do that? You know, especially Latino filmmakers, right? So I started sort of like, at the time I was part of the board for Nosotros, which is the oldest nonprofit for Latino Hollywood. And it was founded by Ricardo Montalban. So I had access to so many filmmakers and so I started helping them with their projects as a hobby kind of because I had, you know, had to work, I had two kids that was doing my own thing. And at the time, Nelson and I, even though we've known each other for a very long time, he saw me coaching people and helping raise all this money. And he was like, babe, what are you doing? This is a business. Yeah, I saw how she was hustling. And I said, wait a minute, wait a minute. You know, there's a lot of money moving through this here. I was like, we need to capture this. And it's, you know, it's a combination of a perfect business, but on top of that, doing something that's helpful and aligned with the passion of what she's been doing for several years. So, you know, we kicked off immediately. And he came from business. So I was like, no, I don't want to do this. I don't want to charge people because this is like a social service I'm doing. And he's like, you don't understand, you can have it both. You don't have to have five jobs and do that. You can actually have a business with a social cause. And you know, because that's where he comes from. So he brought all that. And because I trusted his experience, I was like, okay, let's do it. Yeah, I mean, it was great because we started off and within a month, I had already quit my job. Okay, what were you doing before this? So we were both actually... I mean, we have many, many different jobs. Primary jobs, you know, as an artist, you know, you have a million different jobs. But we were actually both working for a mutual friend and colleague as directors reps for directors for commercials. So that's actually where we learned that we work well together. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And that was actually pretty vital in our relationship overall. And then once you realize like you could monetize, like what is the first step in doing that? And so is it just setting up entity and then like taking a fee? Yeah, so what we started off with was because, you know, the biggest need is funding. You know, there are a million, million, million great amazing stories and projects out there on paper. But without the funding, none of it goes anywhere. So crowdfunding was our biggest first service. To date, we've raised millions and millions of dollars for how many hundreds of projects now. And then is it on Kickstarter? Like, what do you... Yeah. We started using other people's platforms, but as of February, we launched our own. Oh, nice. Congratulations, what's it called? At South by Southwest, we launched it. It's called Support Our Story. And is it just Latinos or have you guys branched out? It's for anybody, but I will say most people that use it are members of underrepresented communities. We're all about diversity and inclusion. That is our niche, that's our fight. That's what we thrive. And we're very proud of this platform because we just launched, we already raised close to half a million dollars for projects. The success rate is 96% compared to the other platforms. And what we did was, you know, because I was coaching people how to crowdfund, we sort of took that knowledge and we put it into the platform. So as people are crowdfunding, they get coaching sent to them every single day, telling them what actions to take. On their crowdfunding. Yeah, on their actual crowdfunding platform. Because it's a real hustle. Well, a lot of people don't realize it. It's not just like, put it out there and let the social media do the work. It's like, you need to be front and center. You actually have to campaign. That's why it's called campaign. And that's the thing behind it. The number one reason crowdfunding campaigns fail is because of lack of information and guidance. On top of that, there's an abundance of information online because there's different several types of crowdfunding. You have equity crowdfunding and then you have product crowdfunding and then medical bills and all of these other things. But what we do is we focus specifically on artists. And artists crowdfunding, which is for reward space crowdfunding, you know, you don't get equity, you just get incentives, is very, very different than any of the other types of campaigning. So when we focus specifically on the creators and we provide them with this coaching, it's a game changer. We're raising what, four times the amount of the competing platforms. And you think that's why? Because you've sort of used solely for the failure. Oh, yeah, yeah. We're looking at the data. We're looking at the data again this morning. We're always on top of it, looking at what's actually the driving force behind it. And it is the information. And we have anonymous feedback from our campaigning clients. And it's all about the coaching. And the information. So what's the playbook that you've set up? Because like we've talked to a lot of founders who have maybe done a one-off crowdfunding and like that takes a lot of effort. But for you both, having done this so many times and specifically for artists, is there like a set playbook that you go by and that you coach them through? Like, okay, you've got to feature this in your video. You've got to do this amount of posts about it. Like, you know, talk us through that. You know, I'm the top crowdfunding coach for creatives in the country. So I sort of just took everything. Legend. Yes. Let's go. Kind of out of necessity, right? I didn't know this was going to be a skill. Yeah, sure. We've just gotten funded in the beginning. None of this would have been necessary. But things don't work out so that you can figure stuff out. So I did notice that certain things worked for everybody. Those are the things that we added to the platform. But that being said, we do have a lot of coaching in the platform that not everybody gets. So you're not going to get the same coaching as you are. Why not? Because it's triggered by where you are in your campaign process. So some people are like, oh, they really planned it well and they raised, you know, 50% of their goal on the first day and then that's it, it stops, right? So the coaching for them is different than somebody who's doing it steadily and, you know, wins at the end. So we have the technology that we created triggers depending on where you are, depending on your... So every step. Yeah, there's several points of recognition. Do you have to do with the, you know, ton of different types of metrics? We also have live coaches. So a lot of times when people get stuck or they just want to talk to somebody, they can actually talk to somebody for an hour, 30 minutes. It makes a huge difference on their campaign. The best one I've ever seen and, you know, just a small data point is this person kept raising, raising, raising and they were like, if I get to within 10% of my goal all we're like a bear costume. Yeah, we do a lot of that. And so somebody, you know, and this was years ago. We have to paint their hair, their face. Some people shave their heads. Not women, they had like, we had a client that had shaved his beard for years. So it's like, I promise you, if you post it, you're gonna shave. Once you get to $20,000, people are gonna give, especially your family. Boom, he got it. It's amazing that kind of spectacle works. We're gonna do that with Nick. We're gonna shave his head. But you gotta be like, you gotta be, you gotta be game. You gotta be like, I'm gonna do this, I'm gonna have fun, because people- It's the conviction that people respond to. Exactly, and the mission of your project. Okay, what are you doing with this project that's gonna transform the way your community is portrayed? At the end of the day, that's really what fuels people. So then once they have the money, that's how they meet the goal and then they're out to like make the movie what happens then, how are you guys involved? Phase two of the pipeline here. A lot of our clients are like, I have all this money, I can't afford any place. Yeah, so that's why we've created our studio. That's why you have your own studio. We have our studio, standing sets. And it's close by, right? Yeah, it's just south of Echo Park. It's called Filipino town, so it's under Beverly. I tell people it's next to the, it's close to the Tommy's out there, the original one. That's usually a landmark most people recognize. Yeah, they're from LA, absolutely. Because again, most of these communities and creators don't have access to these type of facilities, we wanted to incentivize and give them access to the place. So we put this place together and the cool thing about it is that we thought of all the amenities. We have, you know, hair and makeup room, changing rooms, makeup stations, production office. We just had a dedicated fire line brought in for remote directing if needed. Just, we pretty much put together everything we wished we had. Yeah, you put it in there. We put it in there for creators. With standing sets, we have equipment. So we have like a fake buliga, an apartment, a restaurant, a courthouse. You have a chapel, too, right? Yeah, yeah, a chapel. And a jail cell. People tell us, oh man, I could do my whole thing. Right, yeah. People start adjusting their stories around, like, what's everything that's there, it's great. It's cool because we've seen it dressed up in so many different ways already and people bringing their own creative looks to it. It's really cool. And it's just fun to see the different looks that the sets have. I'll say people walk into it and cry because they don't think they have access to a place like that. Especially people of color, you know, LGBTQ women. Like, it's really like, wow, okay, so our passion really is helping people's dreams come true and we're just doing what we can. Okay, two things here, right? So I'm a real estate developer. In doing that, I meet with entrepreneurs and to some extent, I'm like literally building their dreams. Yeah, exactly. There's a lot of pressure to doing that. It's a lot. You guys go to bed every night and you know that you're kind of responsible for people's, I mean, it's on you. Yeah. Isn't that terrifying? It's a yes and no, right? It is, it's a yes and no because listen. You're comfortable with it. Business, yeah, business. We signed up for this. Listen, Hollywood's a tough industry. No matter what, no matter, you know, what community you're, who you are, gender, however you identify, it's a tough industry. And top of that, you know, being an entrepreneur in that industry is another thing. But I think that the reward has been just so astronomically fulfilling. People have come to us and said like, I've been trying to make this movie for 10 years and within one year of contacting you guys. My movies on Netflix or whatever, you know? Yeah, that's powerful. So do you guys help them with that too? So you get- If they want, yeah. Okay, explain that part to me. So once we have it made and we want to get it into distribution. So you know how I told you like at the beginning, people started requesting my film at the local movie theater? Well, that platform that I used is no longer around so we launched our own. Which is like, you need the solution? We got it. So we have partnerships with movie theaters and filmmakers can do one-off screenings as long as they pre-sell enough tickets to cover the cost of the screening. Okay. And then- How much is that? How much is the screening typically? Depending on the theater. Sometimes a matter of selling, you know, 60 tickets, 70 tickets, we'll cover the fee. And then on top of that what we just- Is that like two grand? Like- It depends on the region or our nation. Yeah, if you're going downtown L.A. or outside of L.A. or depending whatever, you know, city we're in- The whole market is 500 bucks, you know. But some- But here's obviously 3,000. So it'll be like 500 to 5,000. 500 to a couple of grand, it's more common. But it doesn't cost the filmmaker anything. They're just using their social media and the coaching we give them. And then by the end of the year we're launching Avenida TV. She's going to be- By the end of this year. By the end of this year. Wow. Let's go, what is it? American Latino platform? American Latino network, yeah. Nice. Congratulations. And why? Is that a fast channel? Or what do they call those? Is that what that is? It's a streaming like- Okay. Like one of those. So we're already approved on Apple TV, Amazon Fire, Roku, iOS devices in Android. And people listening, it's like an app they can just download. Yeah, no, yeah. Smart TV, boom. Yes. Okay. You can be on your smart TV or on your computer. It will be. It will be. How long has that been in the works? For a long time. I can imagine. Because all these projects that have been created over the six years, many of them have not been able to be so old, the same experience that I had. Because all the times, oh, where are your celebrities? Like you can't afford a celebrity at this level. Or- Do you ever talk to these celebrities and are they willing to have a conversation and just say like, look, play ball. Just we don't have the money, but like- Oh yeah. Like John Leguzan was that client of ours. He's done two crowdfunding campaigns. So the celebrities we do work with are the ones who want to tell their stories their own way. They want to like- Right, they want to E.P.A. Well, it's like the Latin history for morons. I mean, that was his story in a very unique way. Yeah, and he did that. I don't know if you saw the campaign. Phenomics. It's like a comic book. And that got picked up by a huge publisher. And I think his goal is to turn that into like, he wants like Latino superheroes out there, you know? Yeah. The thing is Latinos buy one in four movie tickets. We consume the most media. We are almost 20% of the population. We only get about 5% of roles and they're mostly negative stereotypes. Behind the scenes, we get about 2% of roles. And what if we were the seventh largest economy? Yeah, if we were our own country, we'd be the seventh largest economy in the world. So what we're doing is smart because there's a whole community that doesn't have representation and we're going to fill that gap. And that's what we're doing, you know? Even with beer, I remember like just in the small way, right? So it's like we're bringing this Latino brewery to a 98% Latino community in Bell. And here's the coolest part for me. So it's like, that's cool enough. But the coolest part was then there was a kid who ended up working there as like a beer tender. Latino kid, all of a sudden he's like, oh, like they're gonna teach me how to make beer. I'd never even thought of that. And now he's literally, he works for George Lopez at his brewery as the master brewer. And it's like, you asked that kid five years before that brewery was there. If he'd ever been in beer or ever been working at a bar, he'd been like, maybe I'll work at a bar as like a bar back, but never like a master brewer, you know? And it changes life, changes kids' life. Creating opportunities in your community and showing them what's possible. It's just the exposure. It's just the exposure. We have a lot of interns. So we have internship programs where we partner with local high schools and colleges. And we've had kids come through and one of them decided, cause you know, we just build our sets and he was helping us with the props, like removing the labels and designing the labels and stuff because you can't show brands. And he was like, this is what I'm gonna do with my life. Oh my gosh, wants to make, I want to cry. You know, for somebody to be like, this is it? This is it for me. And why shouldn't we? Like it's such a large industry that we should participate in. Especially here in LA when there's so many Latinos here. With the majority. You gotta try to keep us out to keep us out. It's gonna be a conscious decision. And so then from your perspective, just in terms of like getting the distribution, what's the hard part with the networks? What are they, you know, not understanding? What is the fight that you guys are always fighting? You know, number one, I feel like they just don't value us number one because we're consuming so much already. I feel like the mentality is like, if it's not broke, why fix it? What is it? What did they say it right? So in a perfect world, you view it like the Latino should vote with their eyeballs and by doing that, they should only watch or they should really like be more aware, I guess of what they watch. More discerning, yeah. That's interesting. Does it help if every Latino TV or the majority of Latino TVs is portrayed as a criminal? Like that's gonna affect how we're perceived as a community. To me, most importantly is our kids, right? If all you see on TV or the movies is somebody that looks like you who's always committing a crime or something, you know, or who's not from this American, like we're American too, you know? We're always the other, we're always portrayed as the other. So that is what we want to transform. That's what we're working to change because it affects how our kids, what you just said. If you see it, you can be it, right? It's a huge impact. And I'll give you a very vulnerable share from myself. I grew up wanting and trying as a kid to be white. Like to me, even within the culture, the Latino culture, a lot of it, it's like be like the white people or things like that, things that are said. So for a kid to feel like he isn't, to be aware that he isn't enough and he's considered an other is, I mean, it's traumatizing. I didn't get to actually understand the impact of it. I'm gonna say to like my late 20s, you know? This is something that I've actually had to like undo in myself and realize that I had self-worth and that I was capable of doing things. And so to be able to give kids a different, a different, you know, just a different experience. And it's already happening. Listen, it's starting to happen. I agree with that. I mean, same thing. I grew up, so we moved from Peru to Massachusetts and we moved into this neighborhood that was like a third of third of third. It was like the most diverse place on the planet. It was crazy. The difference was all the Latinos, they were Puerto Rican. And so people would be like, oh, you're Puerto Rican. And I was like, oh. Like in LA, we're all Mexican. You're all Mexican. I'm a Mexican. I don't care. What part of Mexico is that? I bring them over to the globe because there's no Google. So I go to the globe and I'd be like, I'm from right here, Peru. And they're like, oh, how'd you get here? You know, they're like blown away. And I'm like, Puerto Rico. I was like, Puerto Rico's over here. Do you see how these things aren't the same? But they didn't get it. And so I just got bucketed into this thing. But I think the media has a lot to do with that. Oh, 100%. It's media, but it's also like at that time, you know, in the 90s, 80s, it's like stereo, you just fall, the white people fall into stereotypes. People fall into stereotypes. And so for me, it was like, oh, he's Puerto Rican. And then I wouldn't dress Puerto Rican. And so they'd be like, oh, you're dressing like a white kid. And I'm like, so I'd go home to my mom being like, these people think I dress like a white kid. I know white kids that are dressing like grunge and punk rock. So like, what are they dressing like if I'm dressing like a white kid? And they're like, oh, they mean like you're preppy. And I'm like, I just wear what I wear. And then I'd have to do this thing where, what was weird to me is it was always like, I never took it personal. I was always like, oh, that's interesting. Like it was almost like an anthropological. Like a third person. Yeah, yeah. And so I was like, I'd ask them. It made me curious. So I'd be like, oh, so how should I dress? And they're like, oh, your pants should be like more baggy. And I'm like, oh, okay. But like, but then why? I was like, have you ever met a Peruvian? They're like, no. And I'm like, do you know how Peruvians dress? They're like, no. And I was like, they dress like me. Do you see the difference? And they're like, oh yeah. And I was like, yeah. And you know, you're all kids. So you're just saying dumb stuff all the time. You're all like learning on the fly. But it was like, it was this weird thing. And I went to high school and then it was like, it was even more on display, you know? Cause in high school, everyone's finding their personality and all this stuff. And so now you're wearing like different sneakers and you're really like experimenting. And it was just, I just remember it being like, man, it's hard to fit in, right? It's hard to like, who are you really? Down to being told that we're not American. I don't know about you. If you grew up in Peru, right? To us, America is the continent. Like why are North Americans more Americans than South Americans? So I'm always like, wait, I don't understand. You know, if you look at the history, like America of Espooja never even made it to North America, you know? Like, is he not big? But it's cultural, it's all cultural. And every- You get to see the programming though. It's really the programming of like TV. We talk about this like even with food, right? It's like, I've never seen fruit roll-ups and gushers in my life until I went to first grade and I'm sitting with all these five-year-olds around me and everyone's opening their lunchbox and I have like real food and they have not real food. And I'm like, where is this coming from? I'm like, oh, and then you go home and you start watching like Nickelodeon or like Disney Channel. Saturday morning cartoons. Oh, look at all the programming. And then you're asking your mom, can I have those things? They were like, crack. I'm like, these things are delicious. But at the same time- Oh, you have full of sugar. Right, totally, yeah. But you realize the programming. That's what I became very aware of. And I was like, oh, it's what they're watching means what's in their lunchbox. Interesting. And then you realize brands on everything. Or like if you own the eyeballs, you own... People think they have free will, but no, not so much. Well, we're just influenced. You're influenced. And also it's cultural constructs, right? You put somebody in a box because it makes you feel like, oh, okay, I know how the war works. This is who... And we all do it. We do it too. Everybody does it. I tell people, like, groovians are some of the most racist people you'll ever meet. And they're like, it's the same people. They're just different colors. And it's like, it doesn't make any sense. I think it comes down to just... Culture, right? Culture, and I also put some of it on human nature. Listen, everyone wants to feel validated and special. And what we do is we all clan up. We find ourselves groups. And you try to find how your group is better than another group. And I think that all stems down to insecurities. Secure person really just doesn't care about that stuff. It's the ego you got to get rid of. Yeah. For you guys, do you think anything's changing on the distribution side at all? We're getting two seasons of stuff. I think what's happening is the conversation is changing. The conversation is changing. Is the boardroom changing more women? No, so there's not enough of us in power, right? Yeah, the decision makers. Yeah, so there's still this... We're the other. That's still very prevalent. This is why we're doing what we're doing because our goal is that people understand, like, hey, we're just American as you are. We just have different... And we're not a monolith, obviously. We're so different within our own community. So the issue is that there's so little content being created for the community that one thing comes out. We expect it to represent everybody. Like you just mentioned a show and you're like, oh, I don't know. It's not my cup of tea. I completely get it. Or gentrification. What was it called? Hentification. It's not meant for every Latino in this country to identify with it. There's a lot of people that were like, oh my God, this is the first time I ever saw myself. For me, when I saw one day at a time, the remake, to me, I was like, oh, this is like me. This is how we talk, because they're Caribbean, you know? That's funny. But because there's only one at a time, it's not gonna... Like Mayans, for example. That's obviously not my culture at all. Right, right. But people love the show and it's only fifth season, thank God. For me, my philosophy is like as Latinos, we just gotta watch anything Latino just so that we can send us a strong signal to Hollywood. Hey, we want... And then there'll be more options because right now what's happening is like, we get two shows, then I'll get marketed properly. And after the first season, maybe the second if we fight hard enough and they'll give us a second one and then it gets canceled. But also as an audience, as audiences, we have to support these creatives. The fact that Hentify got made is a freaking miracle because I talked to the creator a couple of weeks ago and she was telling me, I was like, oh my goodness, a miracle that he even got made. So but when he comes out, we're like, oh, that doesn't represent me, I'm not gonna watch it. Oh yeah, but you... What did you say? But Nelson's like, oh, it doesn't represent you, but you watch Star Wars? What, like you go to space? You're like... So while you were talking about this, I'm like, everyone will tell you, I don't watch television or watch movies at all. I've never watched a Star Wars. I've never watched any major movie. And I joined this tennis club where everyone there is like this Hollywood producer that makes everything on TV and I'll like freely talk about my opinions on their shitty show. Like I'm like, yeah, I saw like five minutes and then they're like, oh, I wrote that. And I'm like, yeah, it could have been better, I think. Spend more time next time. At that point, you have to just own the joke. But this is the thing, like I don't watch any of this and I'm maybe starting to consider maybe this is why, maybe because when I watch these things, I don't need people in these Stormtrooper outfits. What's the point of that? Like I'm not high, I'm not on acid. I don't understand. It's called entertainment. I know. The fantasy of it all. For me, it's like I love documentaries, love those. And that's probably why we have this podcast where we talk to real people about real things. Well, if it is a truly a volume game and I would imagine that you are somewhat constrained by how fast you can crowdfund and crowdfunding probably has a limit. You're probably not gonna raise $200 million in crowdfunding. So have you either considered doing an outside capital raise like a Series A or something like that for Avenida to you're coming out with this new app platform. Are you looking to expand the volume of shows that you can put out to be competitive with like a Netflix or other streaming service? Oh, absolutely. So, we're never gonna try to go after the same general market as Netflix is because we are gonna be producing a lot of our in-house studio productions. We also have partnerships with other creators who have shows existing on other platforms who are excited to come over to Avenida TV and have exclusivity there because it's more fitting. And on top of that, you know, we're working out deals with them. So, yeah, we are gonna have original, Avenida TV original programming on top of licensing a bunch of other. But when you're talking about capital raise so Latinos only get 1% of VC funding. And I've been telling everyone we're part of the 1% just to throw them off. But yeah, but not that 1%. We're part of the 1% of the Latinos that receive funding. So even in that space, because you know, we have a business, we are to start up with the tech component. And this is a whole new bowl game for us. We have, so we are in the middle of racing the seat round. So thank you for asking. If anybody's listening. How much are you raising? How much are you raising? Why not? We're doing, on our seat round, we have a million left. We already have 600 that we raised. Who right now is like investing? Like who are your capital partners? Are they mostly just like angels or Latinos? Latitude Ventures, Latitude Ventures. They are amazing. Latitude Ventures. They are Latino VC. Yeah, yeah. They've just been the most amazing partners. They get us, they understand the need and they know the market. You know, they have partners that are funding that fund. And they took a risk on us. They're very happy with where we are. And because media is something that impacts every industry. It really is, believe it or not. I feel like Silicon Valley is a little bit more open to what we're doing because we're disrupting an industry and the people in that industry generally don't want to invest in what we're doing because it's... I can say that. You know? But people in tech do see the value of it, you know? So that's kind of like the people we're talking to. And individuals. Individuals who are believing what we're doing. So are you raising as a platform? We're all the full ecosystem, yeah. And that's one of the questions most people ask. They said, oh well... That's the hard part. Because they want to know what they're investing in and they want that to be simple. The whole ecosystem. So at the end of the day, you're not investing in one movie because that's really risky. You're investing in this platform that allows people to tell a story. It's like an index fund of sorts. It's almost like an incubator, right? But you're actually investing in a movie studio, right? So you have ownership of a little bit of ownership of the whole system but also like the content that's getting created. And that's what's exciting for investors. And it's very unique what we're doing. Oh yeah, all of it. It's very unique. Is there a valuation? Or is there's no valuation? Yes. We're not going to tell you right here, but do you want to invest? Because I'll give you my deck and everything. This is how I invested in this strength apartment. It happened real time, live. What has been the hardest part when you go raise capital today? I think it's very similar to what's happening in Hollywood. Is it a cultural disconnect? Not understanding like, well, we tried that before and it hasn't worked. Get to Latinas, I'm like, yeah, but who? You try it? You don't have the relationships that we have. It's also not the understanding and the sensitivity to it. There's a huge disconnect. And even in the projects, people will throw projects our way. They're like, hey, well, there's this movie. And I'm like, well, there's a lot of just mismatch in the movie. And I'll give you a quick example. Say, well, we tried this movie out and it didn't work out. It's like, they don't understand that we come from different countries. You'll see there'll be scenes where there's, you know, a mariachi plane and then, you know, and then a matador will come out. It's like, wait, that's Spain and that's Mexico. And then, you know, something with some gaucho, you know, comes in and starts cutting meat. And it's like, y'all just kind of crossed over three different countries, don't understand. Don't really understand why Latinos are getting behind it. The protagonist is from Michigan. Like, why? With a Cuban accent. Yeah, it was big English, like maybe a little Spanish but let me tell you something. People do see the opportunity. It's there because we're a huge buying power. It's just a matter of, like, educating. So in my head, I'm always like, okay, cool. How do you give people, like, cookie crumbs to the big picture, right? And so do you think it starts, maybe you've already tried this, but do you think it starts small where you're just kind of like, hey, like I can imagine maybe they're using a cooking show, let's say. And it's like, hey, why don't you use some quinoa? You know, or like, they're like, oh, where's that from? Don't worry about it, just use the quinoa. And then all of a sudden, like, no, where's it from? Oh, it's from Peru. And then it's like, oh, maybe we feature like a farmer from Peru. And then all of a sudden it's like, but it's their idea. And so even with, if there's a show, you just kind of go like, oh, maybe like the coffee and they talk about the coffee in a way that's like, from Cuba or something simple in that way that kind of gives them the idea that they can build over time of like, oh, maybe there's something here and maybe there's a partnership collaboration that I had to consider. Who's day? The makers of these things today. Oh, the studio system? The studio system today. Oh, no. Yeah, there's zero. You know, the instant response is still goes back to what's been attempted and didn't work. That's why a billion remakes. There's no original stories, but there is. There's a lot of talent in this town, in the whole country, there's a lot of talent. I remember when we were talking to H, my wife was on HGTV on like a show and they wanted us to do a show, my wife and I. And so as we're doing, because they wanted to get more diverse, more fun, as I'm talking to them about doing the show, which is like no money, by the way. I make way more money doing what I do for a living. Why would I do your show? And then we're going down this road and they're like, you guys sound too hip. And then I'm like, I sound too hip. And they're like, we don't like what you wear. And I'm like, I'm wearing neutrals. Like I am right now, as a matter of fact. This is a neutral thing. I don't understand why you think I'm like too hip with my clothing. And then I started that wonder. And so I was like, who's your viewer? Who's your viewer? Oh, our viewer is 70 years old. Like, sir, can you be less brown, sir? Yeah, I'm like, oh, your average, okay. And like middle America, I imagine. And then if you watch the commercials in H-E-T-V, you actually pick this up because it's like life alert, adult diaper. Stair climber device. And then I'm like, man, how did it gay dude? Right? But then I realized what the networks are solving for is like, they don't want to take any risks, zero risks. They just want the rinse and repeat of what's working. We'll just do that. And it's a bummer for creatives. But I get it. I get the CEO doesn't want to be fired. They're playing it safe. They don't want to be fired. But there's an opportunity in that. Their return. For any new network. I mean, to own that. One of our movies has to make to get on the green is so little compared to one of these Marvel movies. That's why they make a billion of them. And you know, you're asking, oh, what if we start small? I've been, just to remind you, I've been advocating for 20 years. I started in a nonprofit where we advocated. That was the plan. Let's, you know, I would go to meetings with studios every year and they would give us the numbers. And every year our numbers go down. I don't know how, because they weren't even there to begin with. All we would ask is like, okay, can you cast two people, two Latinos? I wanna hear shows. Well, you know, I'm like, you cannot even cast two of us, two. When you think about your entire journey, like what has been like if there's one story that just really captivates all of it or like the hardest part where it was about to be over? And then- Oh man, how many times does that happen as in the business, in the life of an entrepreneur? I mean, you know what, is Fanny and I have come across those situations at least half a dozen times when you're like, what are we gonna do? How are we gonna do this? How do we make payroll? How do we make payroll? It's happened in the past. It's like, how do we do this? We have a couple of key things, integrity. Do work with integrity because people can sniff that a mile away. If you do good work and you have integrity, there are good people around here who will understand what you're going through and they will, you know, it'll come through. And for us, it's just, there's just no other option. This isn't a side hustle. This isn't a hobby. For us, this is more than just a business. This is a lifestyle. So one of the hardest parts I think I can share is that getting the attention of potential investors and partners because those generally are outside of our community. So that has been the biggest challenge when we don't have as many at bats as anyone else, we have to be tighter and more spot on every time we go up to the plate. I do think also like during the pandemic, it was very difficult for us because we weren't allowed to be at our space. We had a smaller space actually. And we tried doing the business. Everybody from their home, you know, it just wasn't working out. It was very tough for us. But crowdfunding, it's online. So I figure out a way, like we were like, we had no money in the bank, but like we're gonna close our doors. But we figure out, wait, crowdfunding is online. People are, we have a captive audience. Right? So I called, so we called all these clients that had paused their campaigns because they're like, I don't want to ask people for money during that freaking world pandemic, but we figure out a way to still crowdfund successfully, not from ego, like, okay, how do you say that your project is actually gonna help this industry? And you know, at the end of the day, crowdfunding is perfect because you're asking for $5, $10 at a time. Yeah, they're not spending it at their local establishments in their neighborhood anymore, so they have it. So we pivot it and we figure out a way and every single one of our campaigns was successful. Throughout the entire pandemic. And we're talking through March of 2019, all the way through the years and every single campaign was successful. That's when we started building our... To moving to our studio space during the project. We're a little crazy, but you have to be, right? You have to. We just talk to the guys, we're like, how are we out of this workout? We're like, well, there's no one to tell us no. And somehow that just works. We just believe like, all right, let's jump and God's got us, man. I will figure it out. We got a lot of faith and we definitely have a lot of faith. We're like, I feel like when you have integrity and you have good intentions and you have a good idea, like you just sometimes have to signal to the universe, all right, here we go. Yeah, we also rock. We hold each other accountable a lot. Like we hold each other accountable, like business partners. You know, we're married to each other, but if there's something that needs to get done or something that is area on a little side on the gray area, we're like, no, no, no. Let's get this right. This is how we've always operated and we keep each other in check. And at the end of the day, it's almost clear as day on how important it was to stay straight and keep that integrity. I'm rooting for you guys. I'm a big fan. Thank you. Thank you guys. Appreciate it. Appreciate it. Thanks for this water. This is great. If you made it this far, I bet you loved the episode. So you should join our YouTube channel membership for only $2.99 a month. This gets you access to one, the whole unabridged conversation. Two, you get the episodes on Monday, one day earlier. Three, you get two additional entries to our giveaways. Check out our Instagram to see what we've given away. And four, you get access to seasons one through three. That's over 100 episodes of wisdom and life-changing advice. What are you waiting for? Join.