May 2, 2022 • 20 mins
Liz Giorgi is a two-time media entrepreneur who challenges the norm. She is Co-Founder and CEO of Soona, a same-day photo and video studio designed to help brands get professional content for less than the price of stock. Previously, she started Mighteor, a production company that was one of the first in the country to provide online video strategy to brands as large as Facebook and U.S. Bank. Giorgi is an Emmy award winner, advocate for women in business, and recognized by Forbes 30 Under 30.
Chapter Summaries
- 0:42 - Introducing Liz
- 4:54 - Creating Soona
- 8:14 - Solving a Problem
- 12:01 - Virtual Photo Shoot Tour
- 15:54 - Dream to IPO
- 17:47 - Big Mistakes & Big Dreams
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Key Takeaways
- We both just said to each other, there's something undeniable about how much more impact we could have, and we took the leap and started working on selling my first business. We applied to Techstars, which is a technology accelerator. We were accepted to Techstars Boulder. And as the ball kept rolling down the hill, we launched our product in the world. And you know, I'm incredibly proud of that decision, but boy, oh boy, it was scary.
- We've really decided to turn everything on its head and say, we want it to be as easy as anything else that you do online and take away all these extra decisions that distract businesses from being able to just focus on what matters the most, which is making their product look its best.
- And so I went about that process, very naive, but learned very quickly that it's very much about convincing people that your version of the future is going to be real.
- We believe we're building the fastest and most affordable way to create professional content online.
- We have seen data that says that as much as 97% of the purchase decision comes down to a picture. And so it is really the most important asset. I like to say, it's the equivalent of making a photographic first impression for every single one of your product.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Intro (00:07):
Hello, and welcome to Million Dollar Monday.
I'm your host, Greg Muzzillobringing you real successful
people with real useful advicefor people with big dreams.
I understand and big dreams.
I turned an investment of$200and a lot of great advice from
some really successful peopleinto my big dream Proforma.
(00:31):
That today is a half billiondollar company.
Greg Muzzillo (00:42):
Well, we have a fascinating guest today who
describes herself as a mediaentrepreneur and general badass.
And, she is currently theco-founder and CEO of a company
called Soona.
I am excited to visit with LizGiorgi, Liz.
(01:02):
Thanks for joining me.
Liz Giorgi (01:04):
Thank you for having me.
I'm so excited to be here.
Greg Muzzillo (01:06):
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
I love your story.
So let's start at the beginning.
Just tell us a little bit aboutthe growing up years or your
educational years, where did youlearn your general interest in
business itself?
And then what I wanna hear istake us through, where did you
eventually learn your desire toown your own business?
Liz Giorgi (01:28):
Well, I like to say that I was born into business.
I grew up in Northern Minnesotaand the reason that we lived in
Northern Minnesota is that mygrandparents owned a canoe
outfitter that serviced theboundary waters canoe area,
which is the national parkbetween Northern Minnesota and
the Canadian border.
And we would take people oncanoe expeditions and rent
canoes as they decided to go ontheir own vacations and the
(01:51):
boundary waters.
And my grandfather had thatbusiness for 25 years.
And I grew up in the back of theshop meeting customers and
sweeping the front stoop andjust being generally part of the
day to day.
Right.
And it was a really formativeexperience.
One of the things that yourealize growing up in a family
that has a business is that abusiness can both be a community
(02:12):
builder and something thatreally helps to create the
identity of the people who arerunning it.
You know, so you go back toNorthern Minnesota.
There is nobody who doesn't knowabout my grandfather's Canoe
outfit.
So it's definitely buildscommunity around it.
But the second thing that Ilearned is that some businesses
can be hugely influential forthe community and not be very
(02:33):
profitable.
Uh, that business was not wildlysuccessful by any means because
it was very seasonal.
And so in the winter we soldChristmas trees and I learned a
lot about hustling and grindingand doing really hard things in
order to be able to survive andsupport your family.
And naturally I thought, well,this seems really hard.
(02:54):
I can't imagine possibly doingthis for the rest of my life.
And so I studied in college, Istudied Broadcast television.
I wanted to be a rich and famousnews anchor.
Um, that was my dream was to beBarbara Walters and that at the
time really suited my ambitions.
I love production.
I still love production.
It's something that I built mybusinesses around.
(03:15):
But you know, the thing about itis that you start to absorb
business if you are born intobusiness.
I think by sheer force of theuniverse, you know, when my
grandfather passed in 2012, Iliterally went, uh, came home
from the trip to, to be therefor my grandfather's funeral and
(03:37):
realized, well, this tellcareers now are where I have to
start a business.
The Baton has been passed.
It was really just natural forme to decide to start my first
business.
And so in 2013, I started myfirst business.
It was called Mightier, veryproud of that business.
I bootstrapped that business andwe were a production company
that serviced companies withtheir video ads.
And we worked with the biggestbrands in the world, old brands,
(03:59):
like General Mills and WellsFargo and Facebook.
And it was an incredibleexperience.
It was my version of getting anMBA, uh, was actually starting
the business, learning thebusiness inside and out.
And I'm always amazed by howthose foundational lessons that
I learned around paying yourtaxes and how you hire someone.
(04:21):
Uh, they still resonate with menow today where I've got 7,000
customers and a hundredemployees at my company today.
It's a totally different world.
Greg Muzzillo (04:31):
I tell people I have a very expensive MBA,
right.
And so do you right with all ofthe mistakes I made and of
course the things that we'vedone right we're still talking,
all right.
So take us from Mightier toSoona, tell us how you, uh, why
you wanted to transition into adifferent kind of an
organization and how youtransitioned into a different
(04:53):
kind of business.
Liz Giorgi (04:55):
I know that it's going to sound kind of silly,
but I kind of felt like I had nochoice.
I was on a vacation in 2018 withmy director of animation Hailey.
At my first company, we went toPalm Springs together to hike in
Joshua tree and just take sometime off.
And we spent most of thatvacation talking about how we
(05:17):
were saying no to far morecustomers than we were saying
yes to, and how there was moretechnology in the production
process that there were no toolsthat made it easy for someone to
plan a photo shoot.
If you wanted to participate ina photo shoot, you had to do it
inside of a studio.
You couldn't do it online.
And we became kind of obsessedwith this conversation.
(05:39):
It just never stopped happening.
We got back from that trip andevery weekend and every free
moment that we had, we wouldspend time kind of working
through, well, what would thissoftware look like?
And how would we build it?
And talking to people who couldhelp us build it.
And by the end of 2018, Haileyand I had a prototype for our
(06:00):
virtual photo shoot platform, itactually wasn't great, but it
worked, it made itpossible for someone to take a
picture on a camera and withinfive seconds for it to show up
in your browser in real time foryou to review and give feedback
on.
And so at the end of that year,end of 2018, we went on another
trip to California and we said,boy, are we gonna do this?
(06:22):
Are we gonna sell our successfulfirst company and go after this
interesting thing that we'vebeen building kind of as a
hobby.
And I think we both just said toeach other, there's something
undeniable about how much moreimpact we could have with this
business.
Yeah.
And, uh, kind of took the leapat the beginning of 2019.
(06:44):
We, uh, started working onselling my first business.
We applied to Techstars, whichis a technology accelerator.
We were accepted to TechstarsBoulder.
And as the ball kept rollingdown the hill, by the end of
2019, we launched our product inthe world.
And you know, I'm incrediblyproud of that decision, but boy,
(07:06):
oh boy, it was scary.
Greg Muzzillo (07:08):
Oh yeah, yeah, yeah.
But you had already taken a hugeleap in starting your own
business, but that was workingand it was paying the bills and
it was doing well.
It grew to, uh, what did youtell me?
4 million a year.
Liz Giorgi (07:21):
Yeah.
I mean, my first business was,was a life changing experience.
Yeah.
I went from, you know, makingmaybe 20,$30,000 a year as a
freelance editor to, you know,being able to set my family up
for life.
It was yes, completely lifechanging gave me the capital.
I needed to build the initialprototypes of Soona.
(07:42):
I put a half a million dollarsof my own money into building
the first prototype for Soona.
And that's why I often say it'slike, I have two kids and one
went off to college.
Uh, my first business had tograduate into a, another
business to service another needand to do a different job than
what it did for me.
And now I've got this newbusiness that is the new child
(08:03):
that needs to be raised andtaken care of,
Greg Muzzillo (08:07):
But a big leap because you were doing very well
in that business.
And uh, many people chew offtheir left arm to do as well as
you were doing with that.
All right.
What was the problem you alreadyexplained it to me, but explain
to our audience, the problem indoing photo shoots, all of the
steps that are involved and howSoona has solved that problem,
Liz Giorgi (08:29):
Creating content for the internet.
It turns out is a slow, painful,and expensive process for
brands.
If you are not usings, you haveto find a photographer for you
might go online and book them ona site or ask your friends on
Facebook.
If they know a professionalphotographer, once you find a
photographer, then you have tofind a studio.
(08:49):
And so you'll book a studio formaybe a thousand dollars or more
a day.
Then you've gotta rent theequipment and find the props and
decide what shots you wanna takeand come up with your creative
concepts.
And this whole process takesmonths and can literally cost up
to$50,000.
That's what the average projectcosts at my first company.
(09:09):
With Soona, we've really decidedto turn everything on its head
and say, we wanted to be as easyas anything else you do online
and take away all these extradecisions that distract
businesses from being able tojust focus on what matters the
most, which is making theirproduct look its best.
Greg Muzzillo (09:25):
So I know you had two fundraising rounds.
You wanna tell us about howthose came about because you
truly bootstrapped the businesswith a significant some of your
own money.
How and when did the twofundraising rounds happen?
Liz Giorgi (09:41):
Well, coming out of Techstars, you know, you go
through a Techstars acceleratorprogram or maybe Y Combinator
500 startups.
There's a lot of differentaccelerator programs, but most
of these accelerator programsare designed around how can you
do more faster?
And one of the ways you can domore faster is actually having
the capital to build yourproduct as quickly as possible.
So coming out of Techstars, weknew that we were gonna raise
(10:04):
venture capital in order tocontinue to build out the
software platform that we hadstarted building.
And I really came about theprocess, very naive.
I had worked with businessbankers primarily in my first
business, you know, using debtcapital is a way to finance our
growth and make strategicdecisions.
But what I found is that there'sa lot of analogous parts to
(10:24):
venture capital.
It's a just bit more chaotic.
So, you know, you still have tobuild a relationship with an
investor, build an relationshipwith a fund, but they, maybe
aren't looking at businessfinancials so much as they're
just looking at.
Do I believe that this is apossible big business?
Do I believe that customers loveit?
You know, they're reallyanalyzing your business based on
market realities versus thesimple numbers in your business.
(10:48):
And so I went about thatprocess, very naive, but learned
very quickly that it's very muchabout convincing people that
your version of the future isgoing to be real.
And I've been really fortunatethat I've been able to work with
funds like starting lineventures in Chicago and mastic
ventures here in Colorado, aswell as union square ventures in
New York, which, who recentlyled my series a and they all
(11:11):
really are bought into thebelief that enabling easier
e-commerce, which is what we dohere at Soona.
And the photography side ofeCommerce is a big opportunity.
And part of the future of howwe'll do business,
Greg Muzzillo (11:23):
I told you've raised almost 15 million, I
think, right.
Is that right?
Liz Giorgi (11:27):
A little over 15 million?
Greg Muzzillo (11:28):
Is it public?
Is it public?
What your current valuation wasin your series?
A or you don't wanna talk aboutthat?
Liz Giorgi (11:33):
No, it's not public.
And, and that's mostly becausewe, we wanna make sure that we
keep what we can keep in ourcontrol in our control
Greg Muzzillo (11:41):
Absolutely.
I, and I think that's a delicatebalance for a bootstrapper to
say, when do I need to cut upthis pie?
So that at the end of the day,my piece is still worth more
than the whole pie would'vebeen.
If I'd held onto the wholething, it is a delicate balance.
I know you're gonna be able toshow us maybe sharing your
(12:02):
screen or something.
Exactly what some of the work isthat you do so that we can, so
our audience can understand it.
Liz Giorgi (12:10):
Yeah.
Why don't I give you a tour ofwhat a worked photo shoot is,
and actually explain how thislooks for our end, user.
Greg Muzzillo (12:17):
Great.
Liz Giorgi (12:18):
A couple key things to just express before I share
my screen, the first is thatanytime a student, a customer
needs a photo, they're gonnabook a photo shoot online.
So they're gonna go to soona.coAnd they're gonna create their
photo shoot.
Now, why might they need createa photo shoot?
Well, just think of all thethings you purchase online,
whether it's gonna be your lunchon Uber eats, or maybe a new
(12:39):
outfit on Nordstrom, there is aphoto for every single one of
those purchases.
Every one of those transactionsis powered by a photo.
What Soona does is we providethose photos to the brands.
We help create those photos forthem.
And so what I'm about to showyou is a virtual photo shoot,
which allows our customers toparticipate in their photo shoot
in real time and power whatultimately is the visual part of
(13:01):
their eCommerce store?
So let's get right into it.
I'm gonna start by showing youjust a few of the examples of
photo shoots that are happeningright now.
And let's go ahead and take alook at this pumpkin themed
photo shoot that is currentlyoccurring.
So this is live in the moment.
The customer is able to see eachof these photos within five
(13:22):
seconds of the photographer,shuttering in our studio spaces.
We have studios in Minneapolis,Denver, and Austin, where we
service these photo shoots.
And the customer is able to workwith these photos in a
completely manual manner,meaning they're able to make
favorites that they can sharewith their teams so far.
These are their favorites today.
They can see what thephotographer's favorite images
(13:43):
are from this shoot.
And they can give feedback inreal time here in the chat where
we can actually sneak a peek andsee how this photo shoot is
going.
It looks like they wanna havesome falling leaves on each, on
each of these products.
And so that's what they're gonnawork on.
Now.
They can also combine thesephotos into gifs.
So here's an example of how thecustomer was able to combine
(14:04):
these photos and create thisadorable little gif, that they
can purchase right now on theplatform.
One of the best parts of Soonais that these photos are
entirely alacarte.
So as I mentioned before, havingto plan a photo shoot and put a
lot of money up front is a hugecost, but actually this customer
will pay$39 for each one ofthese photos,$93 for each one of
(14:25):
those gifs or video clips.
And we'll deliver them in 24hours.
We believe we're building thefastest and most affordable way
to create professional contentonline.
Greg Muzzillo (14:35):
Yeah, fascinating.
Um, and I guess I never reallythought about how do all of
those pictures end up online,but, and I'll tell you a little
secret why I know you are doingthe right thing because when I
go on DoorDash to order food,and if I happen to go to a, um,
a restaurant or a provider thatdoesn't have good pictures, I
(14:58):
go, I bail out and I go try tofind somebody, cuz I don't know,
what does this look like?
So many times when you're tryingto order sushi, or you know, uh,
different things without apicture I'm not ordering, I even
know from my own experience, theimportance of a picture in
making sales happen.
Liz Giorgi (15:16):
So we have seen data from the national retailers
association that says that asmuch as 97% of the purchase
decision comes down to apicture.
And so it is amen.
It is really the most importantasset.
I like to say, it's theequivalent of making a
photographic first impress forevery single one of your
products.
Greg Muzzillo (15:33):
Yeah.
I love it.
All right.
I I'm really intrigued by you.
Uh, you're a fascinating personand I think you're building an
amazing company that hard toknow how huge the upside is.
So that's, that's very exciting.
Um, I know you shared with usone of your goals and uh, you
wanna go ahead and share witheverybody cuz I love it.
Liz Giorgi (15:54):
Yeah.
One of the things I reallybelieve in, especially being a
female founder is that we needmore examples of success and
I've been so fortunate that mybusinesses have been successful.
You know, my first business, Iremember reading the statistic
that less than 1% of women ownbusinesses will ever make more
than a million dollars in a yearthat is outstanding and
(16:14):
outlandish at the same time.
And when you look at the amountof venture capital, that's been
raised by female founders so farin 2021 only 2.2% of all venture
dollars have been given tofemale founders.
And so I really see part of myjourney as being a journey of
showing people that it ispossible that women teams can
actually build exceptional andgiant businesses that can be
(16:36):
very successful.
And so now the goal that I'mputting out into the world and
sharing with people is that I'mtruly looking forward to the day
when Soona IPOs.
I believe that Soona will be abusiness that IPOs.
And the reason that I wanna IPOis because I know that it will
be a massive wealth generatingevent for the amazing people
that have gone on this journeywith me, other women leaders
(17:00):
that have joined me on buildingthis business and a fun fact is
that, you know, my co-founderHailey and I, we met on
Halloween.
It was actually at a Halloweenparty that we met.
Oh,
Greg Muzzillo (17:10):
This is making sense now.
Yes.
Liz Giorgi (17:12):
So my personal ambition is to IPO on Halloween,
wearing our favorite costumes toreally just show the world, uh,
that I love it.
Two women can do impossiblethings.
Greg Muzzillo (17:22):
I love it.
I love it.
All right.
Um, you're very inspiring personand just listening to you, I can
feel the energy and I have nodoubt you're gonna achieve all
of that.
And more as we close our timetogether first, tell us one or
two of the biggest mistakes youmade along the way and what the
lessons were from them.
Liz Giorgi (17:44):
I think the two biggest mistakes that I can
point to are, first of all,really understand how to make a
business legally and howto do it okay.
The right way.
Uh, because it will cost you alot of money to do it the wrong
way.
And that's everything frommaking sure that you're filing
in the appropriate states andthat you're paying your
unemployment and you're doingthe things that actually make it
(18:06):
possible for you, a business toflourish.
But my second massive mistakewas really underestimating how
much power I have in setting thetone of our culture.
You know, how I treat people,gives people permission to treat
others the same way or you know,really mirror my behavior.
And so every single day now,based on some of the mistakes
(18:27):
I've been when maybe I was tooshort or too impatient or didn't
have enough empathy, I've reallytried to look at my leadership
as an opportunity to showeveryone else how to treat each
other.
And so that was a massivelearning for me,
Greg Muzzillo (18:41):
You know?
And I don't think it's because Ihave the same problem and I have
struggled sometimes with thesame problem.
And it's never really, becauseanybody wants to be unkind.
It's just that we're in a hurryto get whatever we want done
done.
And yet, uh, it, sometimes it,it, that's just not the
emotionally intelligent route togo.
So, uh, it is a very importantlesson alright but more
(19:04):
importantly because you're doinga lot of things, right.
Liz tell us about a couple ofthe huge successes that you've
had so far in building thisbusiness.
And the lessons learned fromthem.
Liz Giorgi (19:16):
The successes that I'm most proud of are the day
when I found out that 50% of thecreatives on our platform were
women.
Uh, that is something I'mexceptionally proud of.
Commercial photographers, only9% that make a living are
actually women.
And so the fact that 50 50 aremen and women is something that
I'm exceptionally proud of.
Another massive success though,is that we opened additional
(19:39):
capacity in our Austin studio inthe middle of a pandemic.
Uh, last year we were able toadd another 3000 square feet of
photography space and we'regonna continue to add more space
this year.
We're about to open a facilitythat's 20,000 thousand square
feet.
Uh, and I can't wait to openthat facility at the end of this
year.
And I think another success forme at the end of the day is
(20:01):
really just being able to livemy values in this business.
I really believe that when youmeet the people who work at
Soona or when you encounterSoona as a customer, that you
can tell that there's a greatdeal of integrity in what we do
here.
And that feels like it reallywas hard one, but very
important,
Greg Muzzillo (20:21):
Hugely important.
Liz, you are an amazing youngwoman, an amazing entrepreneur,
an amazing general badass.
And I really appreciate our timetogether.
Thank you very much, Liz.
Liz Giorgi (20:33):
Thank you.
Have a wonderful day.
Hello, and welcome to Million Dollar Monday.
I'm your host, Greg Muzzillobringing you real successful
people with real useful advicefor people with big dreams.
I understand and big dreams.
I turned an investment of$200and a lot of great advice from
some really successful peopleinto my big dream Proforma.
(00:31):
That today is a half billiondollar company.
Greg Muzzillo (00:42):
Well, we have a fascinating guest today who
describes herself as a mediaentrepreneur and general badass.
And, she is currently theco-founder and CEO of a company
called Soona.
I am excited to visit with LizGiorgi, Liz.
(01:02):
Thanks for joining me.
Liz Giorgi (01:04):
Thank you for having me.
I'm so excited to be here.
Greg Muzzillo (01:06):
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
I love your story.
So let's start at the beginning.
Just tell us a little bit aboutthe growing up years or your
educational years, where did youlearn your general interest in
business itself?
And then what I wanna hear istake us through, where did you
eventually learn your desire toown your own business?
Liz Giorgi (01:28):
Well, I like to say that I was born into business.
I grew up in Northern Minnesotaand the reason that we lived in
Northern Minnesota is that mygrandparents owned a canoe
outfitter that serviced theboundary waters canoe area,
which is the national parkbetween Northern Minnesota and
the Canadian border.
And we would take people oncanoe expeditions and rent
canoes as they decided to go ontheir own vacations and the
(01:51):
boundary waters.
And my grandfather had thatbusiness for 25 years.
And I grew up in the back of theshop meeting customers and
sweeping the front stoop andjust being generally part of the
day to day.
Right.
And it was a really formativeexperience.
One of the things that yourealize growing up in a family
that has a business is that abusiness can both be a community
(02:12):
builder and something thatreally helps to create the
identity of the people who arerunning it.
You know, so you go back toNorthern Minnesota.
There is nobody who doesn't knowabout my grandfather's Canoe
outfit.
So it's definitely buildscommunity around it.
But the second thing that Ilearned is that some businesses
can be hugely influential forthe community and not be very
(02:33):
profitable.
Uh, that business was not wildlysuccessful by any means because
it was very seasonal.
And so in the winter we soldChristmas trees and I learned a
lot about hustling and grindingand doing really hard things in
order to be able to survive andsupport your family.
And naturally I thought, well,this seems really hard.
(02:54):
I can't imagine possibly doingthis for the rest of my life.
And so I studied in college, Istudied Broadcast television.
I wanted to be a rich and famousnews anchor.
Um, that was my dream was to beBarbara Walters and that at the
time really suited my ambitions.
I love production.
I still love production.
It's something that I built mybusinesses around.
(03:15):
But you know, the thing about itis that you start to absorb
business if you are born intobusiness.
I think by sheer force of theuniverse, you know, when my
grandfather passed in 2012, Iliterally went, uh, came home
from the trip to, to be therefor my grandfather's funeral and
(03:37):
realized, well, this tellcareers now are where I have to
start a business.
The Baton has been passed.
It was really just natural forme to decide to start my first
business.
And so in 2013, I started myfirst business.
It was called Mightier, veryproud of that business.
I bootstrapped that business andwe were a production company
that serviced companies withtheir video ads.
And we worked with the biggestbrands in the world, old brands,
(03:59):
like General Mills and WellsFargo and Facebook.
And it was an incredibleexperience.
It was my version of getting anMBA, uh, was actually starting
the business, learning thebusiness inside and out.
And I'm always amazed by howthose foundational lessons that
I learned around paying yourtaxes and how you hire someone.
(04:21):
Uh, they still resonate with menow today where I've got 7,000
customers and a hundredemployees at my company today.
It's a totally different world.
Greg Muzzillo (04:31):
I tell people I have a very expensive MBA,
right.
And so do you right with all ofthe mistakes I made and of
course the things that we'vedone right we're still talking,
all right.
So take us from Mightier toSoona, tell us how you, uh, why
you wanted to transition into adifferent kind of an
organization and how youtransitioned into a different
(04:53):
kind of business.
Liz Giorgi (04:55):
I know that it's going to sound kind of silly,
but I kind of felt like I had nochoice.
I was on a vacation in 2018 withmy director of animation Hailey.
At my first company, we went toPalm Springs together to hike in
Joshua tree and just take sometime off.
And we spent most of thatvacation talking about how we
(05:17):
were saying no to far morecustomers than we were saying
yes to, and how there was moretechnology in the production
process that there were no toolsthat made it easy for someone to
plan a photo shoot.
If you wanted to participate ina photo shoot, you had to do it
inside of a studio.
You couldn't do it online.
And we became kind of obsessedwith this conversation.
(05:39):
It just never stopped happening.
We got back from that trip andevery weekend and every free
moment that we had, we wouldspend time kind of working
through, well, what would thissoftware look like?
And how would we build it?
And talking to people who couldhelp us build it.
And by the end of 2018, Haileyand I had a prototype for our
(06:00):
virtual photo shoot platform, itactually wasn't great, but it
worked
picture on a camera and withinfive seconds for it to show up
in your browser in real time foryou to review and give feedback
on.
And so at the end of that year,end of 2018, we went on another
trip to California and we said,boy, are we gonna do this?
(06:22):
Are we gonna sell our successfulfirst company and go after this
interesting thing that we'vebeen building kind of as a
hobby.
And I think we both just said toeach other, there's something
undeniable about how much moreimpact we could have with this
business.
Yeah.
And, uh, kind of took the leapat the beginning of 2019.
(06:44):
We, uh, started working onselling my first business.
We applied to Techstars, whichis a technology accelerator.
We were accepted to TechstarsBoulder.
And as the ball kept rollingdown the hill, by the end of
2019, we launched our product inthe world.
And you know, I'm incrediblyproud of that decision, but boy,
(07:06):
oh boy, it was scary.
Greg Muzzillo (07:08):
Oh yeah, yeah, yeah.
But you had already taken a hugeleap in starting your own
business, but that was workingand it was paying the bills and
it was doing well.
It grew to, uh, what did youtell me?
4 million a year.
Liz Giorgi (07:21):
Yeah.
I mean, my first business was,was a life changing experience.
Yeah.
I went from, you know, makingmaybe 20,$30,000 a year as a
freelance editor to, you know,being able to set my family up
for life.
It was yes, completely lifechanging gave me the capital.
I needed to build the initialprototypes of Soona.
(07:42):
I put a half a million dollarsof my own money into building
the first prototype for Soona.
And that's why I often say it'slike, I have two kids and one
went off to college.
Uh, my first business had tograduate into a, another
business to service another needand to do a different job than
what it did for me.
And now I've got this newbusiness that is the new child
(08:03):
that needs to be raised andtaken care of,
Greg Muzzillo (08:07):
But a big leap because you were doing very well
in that business.
And uh, many people chew offtheir left arm to do as well as
you were doing with that.
All right.
What was the problem you alreadyexplained it to me, but explain
to our audience, the problem indoing photo shoots, all of the
steps that are involved and howSoona has solved that problem,
Liz Giorgi (08:29):
Creating content for the internet.
It turns out is a slow, painful,and expensive process for
brands.
If you are not usings, you haveto find a photographer for you
might go online and book them ona site or ask your friends on
Facebook.
If they know a professionalphotographer, once you find a
photographer, then you have tofind a studio.
(08:49):
And so you'll book a studio formaybe a thousand dollars or more
a day.
Then you've gotta rent theequipment and find the props and
decide what shots you wanna takeand come up with your creative
concepts.
And this whole process takesmonths and can literally cost up
to$50,000.
That's what the average projectcosts at my first company.
(09:09):
With Soona, we've really decidedto turn everything on its head
and say, we wanted to be as easyas anything else you do online
and take away all these extradecisions that distract
businesses from being able tojust focus on what matters the
most, which is making theirproduct look its best.
Greg Muzzillo (09:25):
So I know you had two fundraising rounds.
You wanna tell us about howthose came about because you
truly bootstrapped the businesswith a significant some of your
own money.
How and when did the twofundraising rounds happen?
Liz Giorgi (09:41):
Well, coming out of Techstars, you know, you go
through a Techstars acceleratorprogram or maybe Y Combinator
500 startups.
There's a lot of differentaccelerator programs, but most
of these accelerator programsare designed around how can you
do more faster?
And one of the ways you can domore faster is actually having
the capital to build yourproduct as quickly as possible.
So coming out of Techstars, weknew that we were gonna raise
(10:04):
venture capital in order tocontinue to build out the
software platform that we hadstarted building.
And I really came about theprocess, very naive.
I had worked with businessbankers primarily in my first
business, you know, using debtcapital is a way to finance our
growth and make strategicdecisions.
But what I found is that there'sa lot of analogous parts to
(10:24):
venture capital.
It's a just bit more chaotic.
So, you know, you still have tobuild a relationship with an
investor, build an relationshipwith a fund, but they, maybe
aren't looking at businessfinancials so much as they're
just looking at.
Do I believe that this is apossible big business?
Do I believe that customers loveit?
You know, they're reallyanalyzing your business based on
market realities versus thesimple numbers in your business.
(10:48):
And so I went about thatprocess, very naive, but learned
very quickly that it's very muchabout convincing people that
your version of the future isgoing to be real.
And I've been really fortunatethat I've been able to work with
funds like starting lineventures in Chicago and mastic
ventures here in Colorado, aswell as union square ventures in
New York, which, who recentlyled my series a and they all
(11:11):
really are bought into thebelief that enabling easier
e-commerce, which is what we dohere at Soona.
And the photography side ofeCommerce is a big opportunity.
And part of the future of howwe'll do business,
Greg Muzzillo (11:23):
I told you've raised almost 15 million, I
think, right.
Is that right?
Liz Giorgi (11:27):
A little over 15 million?
Greg Muzzillo (11:28):
Is it public?
Is it public?
What your current valuation wasin your series?
A or you don't wanna talk aboutthat?
Liz Giorgi (11:33):
No, it's not public.
And, and that's mostly becausewe, we wanna make sure that we
keep what we can keep in ourcontrol in our control
Greg Muzzillo (11:41):
I, and I think that's a delicatebalance for a bootstrapper to
say, when do I need to cut upthis pie?
So that at the end of the day,my piece is still worth more
than the whole pie would'vebeen.
If I'd held onto the wholething, it is a delicate balance.
I know you're gonna be able toshow us maybe sharing your
(12:02):
screen or something.
Exactly what some of the work isthat you do so that we can, so
our audience can understand it.
Liz Giorgi (12:10):
Yeah.
Why don't I give you a tour ofwhat a worked photo shoot is,
and actually explain how thislooks for our end, user.
Greg Muzzillo (12:17):
Great.
Liz Giorgi (12:18):
A couple key things to just express before I share
my screen, the first is thatanytime a student, a customer
needs a photo, they're gonnabook a photo shoot online.
So they're gonna go to soona.coAnd they're gonna create their
photo shoot.
Now, why might they need createa photo shoot?
Well, just think of all thethings you purchase online,
whether it's gonna be your lunchon Uber eats, or maybe a new
(12:39):
outfit on Nordstrom, there is aphoto for every single one of
those purchases.
Every one of those transactionsis powered by a photo.
What Soona does is we providethose photos to the brands.
We help create those photos forthem.
And so what I'm about to showyou is a virtual photo shoot,
which allows our customers toparticipate in their photo shoot
in real time and power whatultimately is the visual part of
(13:01):
their eCommerce store?
So let's get right into it.
I'm gonna start by showing youjust a few of the examples of
photo shoots that are happeningright now.
And let's go ahead and take alook at this pumpkin themed
photo shoot that is currentlyoccurring.
So this is live in the moment.
The customer is able to see eachof these photos within five
(13:22):
seconds of the photographer,shuttering in our studio spaces.
We have studios in Minneapolis,Denver, and Austin, where we
service these photo shoots.
And the customer is able to workwith these photos in a
completely manual manner,meaning they're able to make
favorites that they can sharewith their teams so far.
These are their favorites today.
They can see what thephotographer's favorite images
(13:43):
are from this shoot.
And they can give feedback inreal time here in the chat where
we can actually sneak a peek andsee how this photo shoot is
going.
It looks like they wanna havesome falling leaves on each, on
each of these products.
And so that's what they're gonnawork on.
Now.
They can also combine thesephotos into gifs.
So here's an example of how thecustomer was able to combine
(14:04):
these photos and create thisadorable little gif, that they
can purchase right now on theplatform.
One of the best parts of Soonais that these photos are
entirely alacarte.
So as I mentioned before, havingto plan a photo shoot and put a
lot of money up front is a hugecost, but actually this customer
will pay$39 for each one ofthese photos,$93 for each one of
(14:25):
those gifs or video clips.
And we'll deliver them in 24hours.
We believe we're building thefastest and most affordable way
to create professional contentonline.
Greg Muzzillo (14:35):
Yeah, fascinating.
Um, and I guess I never reallythought about how do all of
those pictures end up online,but, and I'll tell you a little
secret why I know you are doingthe right thing because when I
go on DoorDash to order food,and if I happen to go to a, um,
a restaurant or a provider thatdoesn't have good pictures, I
(14:58):
go, I bail out and I go try tofind somebody, cuz I don't know,
what does this look like?
So many times when you're tryingto order sushi, or you know, uh,
different things without apicture I'm not ordering, I even
know from my own experience, theimportance of a picture in
making sales happen.
Liz Giorgi (15:16):
So we have seen data from the national retailers
association that says that asmuch as 97% of the purchase
decision comes down to apicture.
And so it is amen.
It is really the most importantasset.
I like to say, it's theequivalent of making a
photographic first impress forevery single one of your
products.
Greg Muzzillo (15:33):
Yeah.
I love it.
All right.
I I'm really intrigued by you.
Uh, you're a fascinating personand I think you're building an
amazing company that hard toknow how huge the upside is.
So that's, that's very exciting.
Um, I know you shared with usone of your goals and uh, you
wanna go ahead and share witheverybody cuz I love it.
Liz Giorgi (15:54):
Yeah.
One of the things I reallybelieve in, especially being a
female founder is that we needmore examples of success and
I've been so fortunate that mybusinesses have been successful.
You know, my first business, Iremember reading the statistic
that less than 1% of women ownbusinesses will ever make more
than a million dollars in a yearthat is outstanding and
(16:14):
outlandish at the same time.
And when you look at the amountof venture capital, that's been
raised by female founders so farin 2021 only 2.2% of all venture
dollars have been given tofemale founders.
And so I really see part of myjourney as being a journey of
showing people that it ispossible that women teams can
actually build exceptional andgiant businesses that can be
(16:36):
very successful.
And so now the goal that I'mputting out into the world and
sharing with people is that I'mtruly looking forward to the day
when Soona IPOs.
I believe that Soona will be abusiness that IPOs.
And the reason that I wanna IPOis because I know that it will
be a massive wealth generatingevent for the amazing people
that have gone on this journeywith me, other women leaders
(17:00):
that have joined me on buildingthis business and a fun fact is
that, you know, my co-founderHailey and I, we met on
Halloween.
It was actually at a Halloweenparty that we met.
Oh,
Greg Muzzillo (17:10):
This is making sense now.
Yes.
Liz Giorgi (17:12):
So my personal ambition is to IPO on Halloween,
wearing our favorite costumes toreally just show the world, uh,
that I love it.
Two women can do impossiblethings.
Greg Muzzillo (17:22):
I love it.
I love it.
All right.
Um, you're very inspiring personand just listening to you, I can
feel the energy and I have nodoubt you're gonna achieve all
of that.
And more as we close our timetogether first, tell us one or
two of the biggest mistakes youmade along the way and what the
lessons were from them.
Liz Giorgi (17:44):
I think the two biggest mistakes that I can
point to are, first of all,really understand how to make a
business legally
The right way.
Uh, because it will cost you alot of money to do it the wrong
way.
And that's everything frommaking sure that you're filing
in the appropriate states andthat you're paying your
unemployment and you're doingthe things that actually make it
(18:06):
possible for you, a business toflourish.
But my second massive mistakewas really underestimating how
much power I have in setting thetone of our culture.
You know, how I treat people,gives people permission to treat
others the same way or you know,really mirror my behavior.
And so every single day now,based on some of the mistakes
(18:27):
I've been when maybe I was tooshort or too impatient or didn't
have enough empathy, I've reallytried to look at my leadership
as an opportunity to showeveryone else how to treat each
other.
And so that was a massivelearning for me,
Greg Muzzillo (18:41):
You know?
And I don't think it's because Ihave the same problem and I have
struggled sometimes with thesame problem.
And it's never really, becauseanybody wants to be unkind.
It's just that we're in a hurryto get whatever we want done
done.
And yet, uh, it, sometimes it,it, that's just not the
emotionally intelligent route togo.
So, uh, it is a very importantlesson alright but more
(19:04):
importantly because you're doinga lot of things, right.
Liz tell us about a couple ofthe huge successes that you've
had so far in building thisbusiness.
And the lessons learned fromthem.
Liz Giorgi (19:16):
The successes that I'm most proud of are the day
when I found out that 50% of thecreatives on our platform were
women.
Uh, that is something I'mexceptionally proud of.
Commercial photographers, only9% that make a living are
actually women.
And so the fact that 50 50 aremen and women is something that
I'm exceptionally proud of.
Another massive success though,is that we opened additional
(19:39):
capacity in our Austin studio inthe middle of a pandemic.
Uh, last year we were able toadd another 3000 square feet of
photography space and we'regonna continue to add more space
this year.
We're about to open a facilitythat's 20,000 thousand square
feet.
Uh, and I can't wait to openthat facility at the end of this
year.
And I think another success forme at the end of the day is
(20:01):
really just being able to livemy values in this business.
I really believe that when youmeet the people who work at
Soona or when you encounterSoona as a customer, that you
can tell that there's a greatdeal of integrity in what we do
here.
And that feels like it reallywas hard one, but very
important,
Greg Muzzillo (20:21):
Hugely important.
Liz, you are an amazing youngwoman, an amazing entrepreneur,
an amazing general badass.
And I really appreciate our timetogether.
Thank you very much, Liz.
Liz Giorgi (20:33):
Thank you.
Have a wonderful day.
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