When it comes to the future of education, Steven Wolfe Pereira fancies himself a prognosticator. It’s a title he’s earned rightfully, having set his sights on reforming ed-tech all the way back in 2016 when he formed Encantos, a direct-to-consumer creator platform that helps kids learn. In this episode, we sit down with the co-founder and CEO to discuss how he disrupted the fragmented world of kids’ apps by bringing video, audio, books and games together in one place; why entertainment had never been truly factored into ed-tech previously; and why getting learning right is so important for the future of the workforce. He also muses on his experiences growing up bilingual and putting connection with multicultural audiences at the center of business.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Good Company is a production of I Heart Radio. It's
very a false economy that you cannot have something be
both entertainment and education and deliver it through technology. Hi,
I'm Michael Casson. Welcome to Good Company, where I'll explore
how marketing, media, entertainment and tech are intersecting, transforming our
(00:24):
lives and the way we do business at a breakneck speed.
I'll be joined by some of the greatest business minds
at strongest leaders who will share how they build companies
from the ground up or transform them from the inside out.
My bed is you'll pick up a lesson or two
along the way. It's all good. It's a great pleasure
(00:44):
today to welcome to Good Company. A very long time
friend and a partner and somebody that I have enormous
respect for, and that is Stephen Wolfe Pereira, the CEO
and co founder of Encantos, a directive consumer creator plat
form that helps kids. Thank you so much, Miguel. It's
(01:04):
great to be here and obviously big fans of thanks
for having us. So, Stephen, it'd be great to kind
of walk our audience through your background, you know in
you co founded in Kantos, So give us, A little
walk down the s w P story, a little walk
down memory Lane. Look, I feel, you know, like I
(01:25):
was born to build this company, and it's really taking
kind of all of my experiences across all those industries
and kind of channeling it all into Encantos. But a
Dominican American kid born and raised in Mount Vernon, New York.
My mother came to Washington Heights in the sixties, so
back when there were very few Dominicans there. It was
(01:46):
largely a Jewish neighborhood. Actually, Ronnie went to school in
Washington Nights at Barnard's School for Girls in Washington Heights.
I mean she was there in a hundred seventy thirty
when they came after all the unrest with a three
here and that a republic. And my father was a
New Yorker, you know, bord and raised in the Bronx
and both my parents were teachers. So I feel like
(02:07):
education it's always droven into you know, kind of any
immigrant family, but it's always the thing that no one
could ever take away from you. And you know, kind
of not really knowing a lot about, you know, kind
of the educational system in the US. But I eventually
ended up going to Toughs for undergrad I majored in
econdic development, and I was fortunate to get an internship
(02:29):
with this program called Sponsors for Educational Opportunity, which was,
you know, at the time, you know, the largest source
of diversity on Wall Street for summer interns. And thanks
to that program that exposed me to finance, I got, um,
you know, very early on working on technology, media and telecom.
So I ended up working at this, you know, startup
called the Blackstone Group. I ended up working at Smith Barney, uh,
(02:54):
and then I did Latin American private equity and it
was all in kind of the telecom space. And then
in ninety nine I got recruited by this sort of
startup that came out of m I t called AM Technologies,
and that was really kind of my first real for
rate working at a tech company. And I've been in
tech for over twenty years since, and it's always been
tech and something. So when I was at I was
(03:16):
doing uh, you know, kind of technology and data analytics,
and eventually I got kind of explosed to this whole
marketing world. Eventually got recruited to Publicis, where we definitely
worked a lot together I was running the Walmart media
business and all of the multicultural media business, and I
did that for about four years, and then I went
back into tech. I was the CMO for Data Logics,
(03:37):
which got acquired by Oracle. I ended up helping to
launch the Oracle Data Cloud. And then I was the
CMO for new Star, which was a public technology company.
And then finally I was the CMO for a data
and what this company called Podcast. But along the way,
unfortunately both my parents had passed. My father died in
eleven and my mother ended up passing the year after
(03:58):
my son was born in twenty six team. And it
was really around that time that you just kind of
realized that life is short. What are you gonna really
make your mark? Howither to have impact? And then ultimately,
what are my kids going to learn in this twenty
first century? Especially having worked in tech for over twenty years,
you know, this is the AI era and anything that
(04:19):
can be automated well be So I really started doing
a lot of research around twenty first century skills and
that kind of led us to this idea that if
we could build a creator platform where we get the
best creators from around the world to help kids learn
twenty ft century skills. That would be something really innovative.
And that's how we form enc and Stephen in a
(04:39):
pre COVID world because you were having these conversations and
I certainly took notice and invested with you pre COVID.
Full disclosure to our listeners, I am a proud and
happy investor in Encounters, but it was a pre COVID world.
What were some of the indicators that you saw that
told you we were actually ripe for this disruption and
(05:01):
e learning before we realized it was an imperative. Yeah.
So so we actually formed the company officially in ten
and we set it up, you know, with purpose at
the core. From the beginning. We set it up not
just as a B corporate, actually has a public benefit corporation.
And the whole idea was always to kind of figure out,
how can we, you know, reimagine education through entertainment and technology,
(05:22):
because when you think about it, how the kids learn best,
They learn best through story, They learn invest with characters,
and you know, kind of the idea of storytelling, which
I know is near and dear to your heart. You know,
we all learned through stories, but we just didn't really
see a lot being done UM where you know, kind
of the d tech community probably looked down on entertainment,
if we're being honest, Um entertainment didn't want to do
(05:45):
anything really in education because you know, that was you know,
probably not the right place to be. And I just
thought that those things it's almost like a red herring.
It's it's very a false economy that you cannot have
something be both entertainment and education and deliver it through technology.
And so by fusing those three things together, we really
thought that you could take a page out of what
(06:05):
all the great platforms are doing. You know, you saw
what YouTube was up to, You saw all these different
ways to go direct to consumer. And our whole philosophy
was not just about you know, what's happening you know
kind of in the classroom, and think about what's happening
in the living room. That's where you know, parents are
the first teacher. So we wanted to have something that
was going to be kind of supplemental, something that would
be enrichment at home. Well, your timing was extraordinary because again,
(06:30):
who knew that we would have the last eighteen months
where so much of this needed to be reimagined. Can
you talk about the curated mix that you've launched on
the app a bit steven, because I just think if
people understand the audio, the video, the interactive games, the
books all living in a different way and in a
(06:53):
different format, and just talk about that. I mean, I
think it's so interesting where you've taken the concept of
an contos Yeah. Well, I mean think about just from
your own personal experience, Like you have limited real estate
on your iPhone right like on your device, and no
parent wants to have you know, a thousand different kid
(07:14):
apps that just do one single thing. So the idea is,
how do you really kind of fuse together all the
functionality already have it be in one place. So think
of video and audio and books and games in one app.
That was kind of where we started. You know. It's
it's interesting, Stephen. I've got a business philosophy that you've
(07:34):
just underscored, and that business philosophy is any time you
find an opportunity to use the three following words in
a sentence in the right order, there's goodness that will come.
And those three words are fragmentation, consolidation, and efficiency. If
you can find any industry that is fragmented, if you
(07:56):
can figure out a way to consolidate it and make
it more a fficient. Somebody will do well either spiritually financially.
All believes you can. You can take a lot of boxes.
And you just really articulated that. You said, this is
a fragmented approach to education. Here's a place to consolidate
(08:17):
it and make it more efficient for the for the
end user. That's a win. Just just there. Well, and
and now take that same concept and mirror it. Because
what we just described was the demand side of our platform.
So that is the consumer side, which is really the
(08:38):
kids and the parents. Think about now the supply side.
You have fragmented demand with kids and families and all
the different options that they want, you know, kind of
a one stop shop. But now think about that for
the creators and think about all the people around the
world that want to help kids learn. And this is
(08:58):
really where my cope under Susie, who you've met. She
is a world fast creative. You know, Venezuelan American, started
her own creative agency which was one of the top
five in the country. Sold it. So she's a second
time entrepreneur, but she was really our first creator, or
as we call our creators the first story teacher because
we believe in using the power of storytelling and fusing
(09:20):
it with education um and we really think that this
kinspt of the story teacher is catching on. And so
if you can think of Susie as almost our m
v P. She had a story world that she wanted
to bring to life, which was our first story World,
k Fegles, and that is now the number one bilingual
preschool brand. Emmy nominated. It's one, you know, multiple Kids
(09:41):
Screen Awards for Best Digital Preschool Theories. But that was
what we kind of incubated with with her as the creator,
and so we went down the line, what are all
the things that a creator wants. They want to own
their i P. They want to be able to find
it an audience, they want to be able to have
data and understanding how the audience is engaging with the
right P. They want to get paid and so understanding
(10:03):
if we could build out a creator stack that is
truly designed to help kids learn. I feel like that
was the insight of this fragmented supply and fragmented demand
on one platform, and that truly is the power of
the Enconverss platform and what we're building so Stephen, let
me switch gears. But for you, it's not a gear switch.
(10:23):
For you, it's a core throughout your career, throughout the
whole time I've known you, and I know the industry
looks at you this way in a very positive light.
The power and the importance of a multicultural perspective is critical,
certainly in our industry right now. It is at the center,
(10:43):
and we're looking at the necessity for everybody to open
the aperture on their media investment strategy across a multicultural opportunity.
And we hear these words BIPAC and the like. That
is right at the center of the sort of cultural
zeitgeist today, but also business imperative. It's not just a feeling,
(11:06):
it's not just a nice to do. It is essential.
It is core to everybody's thinking. What or who you know?
It's kind of that old question that somebody said you
always ask a singer what was the song and who
was the artist that inspired you to become a singer? Stephen,
I would say to you, who was the person who?
(11:28):
What was the song? What was the artist who? Who
brought other than your own experience from an immigrant perspective?
What was the thing that said to you, this is
cored of my being, this is cored of my business,
this is cored of what I want to do in
this world. I think it's arounmpoordant question. I mean, look,
it's the kind of thing where you can't fake it,
you know, like my mom was obviously since passed, but
(11:51):
if you met my mother, she had a very thick accent.
You know, she would not call me Stephen. It was
called at thieving, you know, because um, you know that
that's the way you know, Dominicans will pronounce the s.
But the reality is I lived in this bicultural, bilingual world.
You know, we spoke Spanish at home, and you know,
outside we spoke English. And I didn't know anything, so
(12:12):
did I. We spoke Yiddish at home and English outside.
So I have the same experience, absolutely, And I feel
like that is part of the richness of you know,
kind of not just diversity, you know, kind of of
race or ethnicity. It's it's diversity of culture, of experiences.
And I didn't know that I was quote unquote different
until you kind of get into these school environments or
(12:35):
you know, kind of other kids and oh, I guess
no one else speaks Spanish at home, or you don't
have that kind of experience going to different countries. And
it was probably not until I got to college and
I really realized that this was a superpower. And so
I got this incredible opportunity to do this internship through
s c O Against Seizing Every Opportunity is what it's
called now s c O USA dot Org, the r
(12:57):
L and they are now the largest source of diversity
on Wall Street with over five thousand alumni and anyone
you know that's in a position of power influence of
color on the street did SEO. Like the highest ranking
black woman on Wall Street, Carla Harris, who's the vice
chair at Morgan Stanley, She did the program in two right,
and I started on the board for a decade with
Carla and all these other folks. So I would say
(13:19):
that what inspired me was really s c O. And
I did the program. It was a summer Internet blacks
and you know, to be clear, there was no black
at Blackstone in four right. Um, it was just very
interesting that this whole kind of diversity conversation we've been
having it, at least I have for twenty five years,
and we really haven't moved the needle. And so I
(13:40):
think we're at a point where people are now demanding
representation and you're seeing it across every industry. And now,
obviously in the wake of all the tumult from last year,
you know, the murder George Floyd, Black Lives Matter, you
see folks really saying, hey, we need to see this
representation and it's a business imperative. So I'm gonna ask
another question. And this is one of the things, Stephen,
that you have become treasured for in our industry and famous,
(14:05):
but treasured first and I and I say that with purpose.
And that's the kind of a spotlight series that you've
created on your own on Facebook that really focuses and
celebrates Black Asian Latin executives who are driving big results
and calling them out and giving them that spotlight, giving
them that focus. And I think it's from the standpoint
(14:26):
of a message both congratulating those individuals, but broadcasting with
the bully pulpit that you've created for yourself in that
spotlight series, the importance of having that representation at the
executive level. And here's the results. By the way, you're
basically saying to the world, here's Sally, and Sally is
(14:48):
is of Asian descent or Hispanic or black. And look
at this focusing on the importance of doing what one
must do, but actually rendering really good results as a
result of doing what what you need to be doing. Anyway, Absolutely,
I mean, look, We've had this conversation, you know, over
(15:10):
a decade ago when I was working on the Walmart business. Right, Literally,
this is math, this is just data. The top twenty
d m a s in the country today are all
multicultural majorities. Right. You can't launch a product and not
know how to connect with multicultural audiences. You know, foreign gandos.
You know over fifty percent of kids in America are diverse,
(15:31):
and you know, there is just this thinking that, oh,
we can't find the talent, of the talent doesn't exist.
And so it just got to a point where, you know,
I've been kind of on this journey for you know,
twenty plus years, and I've now worked in finance, I've
worked in tech, I've worked in media, entertainment, advertising marketing.
(15:52):
So my kind of cross section across different industry is just,
I think, very unique. And I know that the talent
is out there, and so I think in the wake
of Black Lives Matter UM and the murder George Floyd.
It was just like this idea of like wow, like
don't tell me you can't find the talent. Look at
all this amazing talent. It just became organic where I
(16:14):
was just hey, you know here and these are all
folks that we know. And again you have been, you know,
obviously a champion and kind of uh an uplifter or
of talent. And I know it's always been important for medialy,
but you know, maybe other companies or other folks are
there executing the C suite. They may not know these people.
And it really comes down to your network. And so
it's not you know a bad thing like if you
(16:37):
grew up in you know, you came up through you know,
maybe business school or you worked in an industry and
you just haven't been exposed to kind of diverse talent.
I get that, But at the same time, you know,
the talent is out there. And I think that whole
Spotlight series was were you meant to just shine a
light on the talent that we know are out there
and they're ready to serve. It's brilliant and the results
are are extraordinary, both for building no harm in this
(16:59):
building your brand but actually building on your shoulders the
brands of others, and that's an important thing to do.
Um Stephen, I always like to kind of wind a
good company chat with the prediction question, based on what
you're seeing to date, what does the learning and education
(17:19):
space look like for you for us five years from now,
three years from now, pick a number. I know it's
always difficult to prognosticate with certainty, but you obviously prognosticated
in when you started on Kantos and look where we
are today, and I said we And so in one
(17:39):
what do you think happens in Yeah, no, look I
feel you're seeing now just from the standpoint of education,
was not a law school year. It was the beginning
of a law school decade. And so the stats are
just really you know, alarming kids. Kid A twelve did
not have internet connectivity during the past twelve months. The
(18:02):
percentage of kids that are three to four years old
that were enrolled in school fell over fifty and you
see the enrollment in nursery schools in kindergartens down by
So you're seeing this incredible impact on kind of kids
and that is actually certainly a red flag for the
future of America when you think about the future of work.
(18:24):
In addition, you were starting to see teachers actually drop
out of the profession. So teachers said that they are
considering leaving or retiring from their current position, and you're
now seeing like, where are these folks gonna go? So
on the one hand, you're seeing this crisis and education,
and I think the pandemic. You know, it took a
pandemic to make attach a priority, to make everyone's kind
(18:47):
of put a spot on and what the hell are
kids learning? But I truly believe that there's going to
be a huge opportunity where, you know, people are gonna
take education more into their own hands. They're gonna be
looking for more resources, They're going to start to just
like you said about the fragmentation, You're gonna see the
ability for folks to really kind of do a bespoke
version of how their kids are going to learn at home,
(19:09):
and they're gonna look for trusted brands. And so if
you think about the two biggest parts of our GDP,
healthcare and education are two of the biggest, and you're
seeing every single technology company trying to figure out how
do we start to get involved in these two industries,
and so I think it's only a matter of time
before every company starts to figure out how are we
involved in education? How do you start to train the
(19:30):
future workforce? And I feel like the whole idea of
the you know kind of degree, you're gonna see micro degrees,
you're gonna see credentials, you're gonna see certifications. I just
feel like the future of education is going to look
a lot different from what does today. Stephen, knowing you've
got your hand, as we say, on the tiller of
helping shape inform that for the kids makes me both
(19:54):
as a friend, as a partner, but as a citizen,
if you will, you know, my grandkid are the ones
I'm focused on now personally for education, and I'm watching
it and seeing how different it is for them. I
know we're in good hands within Kantos and with Stephen
Wilf Ferrera. So, Stephen, it's a great pleasure. I'm glad
we had a chance to have some good company today.
(20:16):
I know our listeners will will be smiling. Thank you,
Thank you, Michael. We're never gonna have to have you
become a creator on our platform as well, because I
know kids would actually learn a ton from you, So
let's have you become a story teacher as well. I'd
be happy to do it. I'll do it in Spanish, Yiddish, English,
whatever you want. Here you go, Stephen Wolf, thank you
(20:37):
making us. I'm Michael Casson, Thanks for listening to Good Company.
Good Company is a production of I Heart Radio Special
Thanks to Lena Peterson, Chief Brand Officer and Managing Director
Immediately for her vision I'm Good Company, and to Jen Seely,
Vice President Marketing Communications Immediately for programming amazing talent and
(20:58):
content I
Good Company is a production of I Heart Radio. It's
very a false economy that you cannot have something be
both entertainment and education and deliver it through technology. Hi,
I'm Michael Casson. Welcome to Good Company, where I'll explore
how marketing, media, entertainment and tech are intersecting, transforming our
(00:24):
lives and the way we do business at a breakneck speed.
I'll be joined by some of the greatest business minds
at strongest leaders who will share how they build companies
from the ground up or transform them from the inside out.
My bed is you'll pick up a lesson or two
along the way. It's all good. It's a great pleasure
(00:44):
today to welcome to Good Company. A very long time
friend and a partner and somebody that I have enormous
respect for, and that is Stephen Wolfe Pereira, the CEO
and co founder of Encantos, a directive consumer creator plat
form that helps kids. Thank you so much, Miguel. It's
(01:04):
great to be here and obviously big fans of thanks
for having us. So, Stephen, it'd be great to kind
of walk our audience through your background, you know in
you co founded in Kantos, So give us, A little
walk down the s w P story, a little walk
down memory Lane. Look, I feel, you know, like I
(01:25):
was born to build this company, and it's really taking
kind of all of my experiences across all those industries
and kind of channeling it all into Encantos. But a
Dominican American kid born and raised in Mount Vernon, New York.
My mother came to Washington Heights in the sixties, so
back when there were very few Dominicans there. It was
(01:46):
largely a Jewish neighborhood. Actually, Ronnie went to school in
Washington Nights at Barnard's School for Girls in Washington Heights.
I mean she was there in a hundred seventy thirty
when they came after all the unrest with a three
here and that a republic. And my father was a
New Yorker, you know, bord and raised in the Bronx
and both my parents were teachers. So I feel like
(02:07):
education it's always droven into you know, kind of any
immigrant family, but it's always the thing that no one
could ever take away from you. And you know, kind
of not really knowing a lot about, you know, kind
of the educational system in the US. But I eventually
ended up going to Toughs for undergrad I majored in
econdic development, and I was fortunate to get an internship
(02:29):
with this program called Sponsors for Educational Opportunity, which was,
you know, at the time, you know, the largest source
of diversity on Wall Street for summer interns. And thanks
to that program that exposed me to finance, I got, um,
you know, very early on working on technology, media and telecom.
So I ended up working at this, you know, startup
called the Blackstone Group. I ended up working at Smith Barney, uh,
(02:54):
and then I did Latin American private equity and it
was all in kind of the telecom space. And then
in ninety nine I got recruited by this sort of
startup that came out of m I t called AM Technologies,
and that was really kind of my first real for
rate working at a tech company. And I've been in
tech for over twenty years since, and it's always been
tech and something. So when I was at I was
(03:16):
doing uh, you know, kind of technology and data analytics,
and eventually I got kind of explosed to this whole
marketing world. Eventually got recruited to Publicis, where we definitely
worked a lot together I was running the Walmart media
business and all of the multicultural media business, and I
did that for about four years, and then I went
back into tech. I was the CMO for Data Logics,
(03:37):
which got acquired by Oracle. I ended up helping to
launch the Oracle Data Cloud. And then I was the
CMO for new Star, which was a public technology company.
And then finally I was the CMO for a data
and what this company called Podcast. But along the way,
unfortunately both my parents had passed. My father died in
eleven and my mother ended up passing the year after
(03:58):
my son was born in twenty six team. And it
was really around that time that you just kind of
realized that life is short. What are you gonna really
make your mark? Howither to have impact? And then ultimately,
what are my kids going to learn in this twenty
first century? Especially having worked in tech for over twenty years,
you know, this is the AI era and anything that
(04:19):
can be automated well be So I really started doing
a lot of research around twenty first century skills and
that kind of led us to this idea that if
we could build a creator platform where we get the
best creators from around the world to help kids learn
twenty ft century skills. That would be something really innovative.
And that's how we form enc and Stephen in a
(04:39):
pre COVID world because you were having these conversations and
I certainly took notice and invested with you pre COVID.
Full disclosure to our listeners, I am a proud and
happy investor in Encounters, but it was a pre COVID world.
What were some of the indicators that you saw that
told you we were actually ripe for this disruption and
(05:01):
e learning before we realized it was an imperative. Yeah.
So so we actually formed the company officially in ten
and we set it up, you know, with purpose at
the core. From the beginning. We set it up not
just as a B corporate, actually has a public benefit corporation.
And the whole idea was always to kind of figure out,
how can we, you know, reimagine education through entertainment and technology,
(05:22):
because when you think about it, how the kids learn best,
They learn best through story, They learn invest with characters,
and you know, kind of the idea of storytelling, which
I know is near and dear to your heart. You know,
we all learned through stories, but we just didn't really
see a lot being done UM where you know, kind
of the d tech community probably looked down on entertainment,
if we're being honest, Um entertainment didn't want to do
(05:45):
anything really in education because you know, that was you know,
probably not the right place to be. And I just
thought that those things it's almost like a red herring.
It's it's very a false economy that you cannot have
something be both entertainment and education and deliver it through technology.
And so by fusing those three things together, we really
thought that you could take a page out of what
(06:05):
all the great platforms are doing. You know, you saw
what YouTube was up to, You saw all these different
ways to go direct to consumer. And our whole philosophy
was not just about you know, what's happening you know
kind of in the classroom, and think about what's happening
in the living room. That's where you know, parents are
the first teacher. So we wanted to have something that
was going to be kind of supplemental, something that would
be enrichment at home. Well, your timing was extraordinary because again,
(06:30):
who knew that we would have the last eighteen months
where so much of this needed to be reimagined. Can
you talk about the curated mix that you've launched on
the app a bit steven, because I just think if
people understand the audio, the video, the interactive games, the
books all living in a different way and in a
(06:53):
different format, and just talk about that. I mean, I
think it's so interesting where you've taken the concept of
an contos Yeah. Well, I mean think about just from
your own personal experience, Like you have limited real estate
on your iPhone right like on your device, and no
parent wants to have you know, a thousand different kid
(07:14):
apps that just do one single thing. So the idea is,
how do you really kind of fuse together all the
functionality already have it be in one place. So think
of video and audio and books and games in one app.
That was kind of where we started. You know. It's
it's interesting, Stephen. I've got a business philosophy that you've
(07:34):
just underscored, and that business philosophy is any time you
find an opportunity to use the three following words in
a sentence in the right order, there's goodness that will come.
And those three words are fragmentation, consolidation, and efficiency. If
you can find any industry that is fragmented, if you
(07:56):
can figure out a way to consolidate it and make
it more a fficient. Somebody will do well either spiritually financially.
All believes you can. You can take a lot of boxes.
And you just really articulated that. You said, this is
a fragmented approach to education. Here's a place to consolidate
(08:17):
it and make it more efficient for the for the
end user. That's a win. Just just there. Well, and
and now take that same concept and mirror it. Because
what we just described was the demand side of our platform.
So that is the consumer side, which is really the
(08:38):
kids and the parents. Think about now the supply side.
You have fragmented demand with kids and families and all
the different options that they want, you know, kind of
a one stop shop. But now think about that for
the creators and think about all the people around the
world that want to help kids learn. And this is
(08:58):
really where my cope under Susie, who you've met. She
is a world fast creative. You know, Venezuelan American, started
her own creative agency which was one of the top
five in the country. Sold it. So she's a second
time entrepreneur, but she was really our first creator, or
as we call our creators the first story teacher because
we believe in using the power of storytelling and fusing
(09:20):
it with education um and we really think that this
kinspt of the story teacher is catching on. And so
if you can think of Susie as almost our m
v P. She had a story world that she wanted
to bring to life, which was our first story World,
k Fegles, and that is now the number one bilingual
preschool brand. Emmy nominated. It's one, you know, multiple Kids
(09:41):
Screen Awards for Best Digital Preschool Theories. But that was
what we kind of incubated with with her as the creator,
and so we went down the line, what are all
the things that a creator wants. They want to own
their i P. They want to be able to find
it an audience, they want to be able to have
data and understanding how the audience is engaging with the
right P. They want to get paid and so understanding
(10:03):
if we could build out a creator stack that is
truly designed to help kids learn. I feel like that
was the insight of this fragmented supply and fragmented demand
on one platform, and that truly is the power of
the Enconverss platform and what we're building so Stephen, let
me switch gears. But for you, it's not a gear switch.
(10:23):
For you, it's a core throughout your career, throughout the
whole time I've known you, and I know the industry
looks at you this way in a very positive light.
The power and the importance of a multicultural perspective is critical,
certainly in our industry right now. It is at the center,
(10:43):
and we're looking at the necessity for everybody to open
the aperture on their media investment strategy across a multicultural opportunity.
And we hear these words BIPAC and the like. That
is right at the center of the sort of cultural
zeitgeist today, but also business imperative. It's not just a feeling,
(11:06):
it's not just a nice to do. It is essential.
It is core to everybody's thinking. What or who you know?
It's kind of that old question that somebody said you
always ask a singer what was the song and who
was the artist that inspired you to become a singer? Stephen,
I would say to you, who was the person who?
(11:28):
What was the song? What was the artist who? Who
brought other than your own experience from an immigrant perspective?
What was the thing that said to you, this is
cored of my being, this is cored of my business,
this is cored of what I want to do in
this world. I think it's arounmpoordant question. I mean, look,
it's the kind of thing where you can't fake it,
you know, like my mom was obviously since passed, but
(11:51):
if you met my mother, she had a very thick accent.
You know, she would not call me Stephen. It was
called at thieving, you know, because um, you know that
that's the way you know, Dominicans will pronounce the s.
But the reality is I lived in this bicultural, bilingual world.
You know, we spoke Spanish at home, and you know,
outside we spoke English. And I didn't know anything, so
(12:12):
did I. We spoke Yiddish at home and English outside.
So I have the same experience, absolutely, And I feel
like that is part of the richness of you know,
kind of not just diversity, you know, kind of of
race or ethnicity. It's it's diversity of culture, of experiences.
And I didn't know that I was quote unquote different
until you kind of get into these school environments or
(12:35):
you know, kind of other kids and oh, I guess
no one else speaks Spanish at home, or you don't
have that kind of experience going to different countries. And
it was probably not until I got to college and
I really realized that this was a superpower. And so
I got this incredible opportunity to do this internship through
s c O Against Seizing Every Opportunity is what it's
called now s c O USA dot Org, the r
(12:57):
L and they are now the largest source of diversity
on Wall Street with over five thousand alumni and anyone
you know that's in a position of power influence of
color on the street did SEO. Like the highest ranking
black woman on Wall Street, Carla Harris, who's the vice
chair at Morgan Stanley, She did the program in two right,
and I started on the board for a decade with
Carla and all these other folks. So I would say
(13:19):
that what inspired me was really s c O. And
I did the program. It was a summer Internet blacks
and you know, to be clear, there was no black
at Blackstone in four right. Um, it was just very
interesting that this whole kind of diversity conversation we've been
having it, at least I have for twenty five years,
and we really haven't moved the needle. And so I
(13:40):
think we're at a point where people are now demanding
representation and you're seeing it across every industry. And now,
obviously in the wake of all the tumult from last year,
you know, the murder George Floyd, Black Lives Matter, you
see folks really saying, hey, we need to see this
representation and it's a business imperative. So I'm gonna ask
another question. And this is one of the things, Stephen,
that you have become treasured for in our industry and famous,
(14:05):
but treasured first and I and I say that with purpose.
And that's the kind of a spotlight series that you've
created on your own on Facebook that really focuses and
celebrates Black Asian Latin executives who are driving big results
and calling them out and giving them that spotlight, giving
them that focus. And I think it's from the standpoint
(14:26):
of a message both congratulating those individuals, but broadcasting with
the bully pulpit that you've created for yourself in that
spotlight series, the importance of having that representation at the
executive level. And here's the results. By the way, you're
basically saying to the world, here's Sally, and Sally is
(14:48):
is of Asian descent or Hispanic or black. And look
at this focusing on the importance of doing what one
must do, but actually rendering really good results as a
result of doing what what you need to be doing. Anyway, Absolutely,
I mean, look, We've had this conversation, you know, over
(15:10):
a decade ago when I was working on the Walmart business. Right, Literally,
this is math, this is just data. The top twenty
d m a s in the country today are all
multicultural majorities. Right. You can't launch a product and not
know how to connect with multicultural audiences. You know, foreign gandos.
You know over fifty percent of kids in America are diverse,
(15:31):
and you know, there is just this thinking that, oh,
we can't find the talent, of the talent doesn't exist.
And so it just got to a point where, you know,
I've been kind of on this journey for you know,
twenty plus years, and I've now worked in finance, I've
worked in tech, I've worked in media, entertainment, advertising marketing.
(15:52):
So my kind of cross section across different industry is just,
I think, very unique. And I know that the talent
is out there, and so I think in the wake
of Black Lives Matter UM and the murder George Floyd.
It was just like this idea of like wow, like
don't tell me you can't find the talent. Look at
all this amazing talent. It just became organic where I
(16:14):
was just hey, you know here and these are all
folks that we know. And again you have been, you know,
obviously a champion and kind of uh an uplifter or
of talent. And I know it's always been important for medialy,
but you know, maybe other companies or other folks are
there executing the C suite. They may not know these people.
And it really comes down to your network. And so
it's not you know a bad thing like if you
(16:37):
grew up in you know, you came up through you know,
maybe business school or you worked in an industry and
you just haven't been exposed to kind of diverse talent.
I get that, But at the same time, you know,
the talent is out there. And I think that whole
Spotlight series was were you meant to just shine a
light on the talent that we know are out there
and they're ready to serve. It's brilliant and the results
are are extraordinary, both for building no harm in this
(16:59):
building your brand but actually building on your shoulders the
brands of others, and that's an important thing to do.
Um Stephen, I always like to kind of wind a
good company chat with the prediction question, based on what
you're seeing to date, what does the learning and education
(17:19):
space look like for you for us five years from now,
three years from now, pick a number. I know it's
always difficult to prognosticate with certainty, but you obviously prognosticated
in when you started on Kantos and look where we
are today, and I said we And so in one
(17:39):
what do you think happens in Yeah, no, look I
feel you're seeing now just from the standpoint of education,
was not a law school year. It was the beginning
of a law school decade. And so the stats are
just really you know, alarming kids. Kid A twelve did
not have internet connectivity during the past twelve months. The
(18:02):
percentage of kids that are three to four years old
that were enrolled in school fell over fifty and you
see the enrollment in nursery schools in kindergartens down by
So you're seeing this incredible impact on kind of kids
and that is actually certainly a red flag for the
future of America when you think about the future of work.
(18:24):
In addition, you were starting to see teachers actually drop
out of the profession. So teachers said that they are
considering leaving or retiring from their current position, and you're
now seeing like, where are these folks gonna go? So
on the one hand, you're seeing this crisis and education,
and I think the pandemic. You know, it took a
pandemic to make attach a priority, to make everyone's kind
(18:47):
of put a spot on and what the hell are
kids learning? But I truly believe that there's going to
be a huge opportunity where, you know, people are gonna
take education more into their own hands. They're gonna be
looking for more resources, They're going to start to just
like you said about the fragmentation, You're gonna see the
ability for folks to really kind of do a bespoke
version of how their kids are going to learn at home,
(19:09):
and they're gonna look for trusted brands. And so if
you think about the two biggest parts of our GDP,
healthcare and education are two of the biggest, and you're
seeing every single technology company trying to figure out how
do we start to get involved in these two industries,
and so I think it's only a matter of time
before every company starts to figure out how are we
involved in education? How do you start to train the
(19:30):
future workforce? And I feel like the whole idea of
the you know kind of degree, you're gonna see micro degrees,
you're gonna see credentials, you're gonna see certifications. I just
feel like the future of education is going to look
a lot different from what does today. Stephen, knowing you've
got your hand, as we say, on the tiller of
helping shape inform that for the kids makes me both
(19:54):
as a friend, as a partner, but as a citizen,
if you will, you know, my grandkid are the ones
I'm focused on now personally for education, and I'm watching
it and seeing how different it is for them. I
know we're in good hands within Kantos and with Stephen
Wilf Ferrera. So, Stephen, it's a great pleasure. I'm glad
we had a chance to have some good company today.
(20:16):
I know our listeners will will be smiling. Thank you,
Thank you, Michael. We're never gonna have to have you
become a creator on our platform as well, because I
know kids would actually learn a ton from you, So
let's have you become a story teacher as well. I'd
be happy to do it. I'll do it in Spanish, Yiddish, English,
whatever you want. Here you go, Stephen Wolf, thank you
(20:37):
making us. I'm Michael Casson, Thanks for listening to Good Company.
Good Company is a production of I Heart Radio Special
Thanks to Lena Peterson, Chief Brand Officer and Managing Director
Immediately for her vision I'm Good Company, and to Jen Seely,
Vice President Marketing Communications Immediately for programming amazing talent and
(20:58):
content I
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