April 13, 2022 • 35 mins
Agenda:
- Executive Stand up!
Takeaways:
- Reach out to Lifetime about a movie deal related to the Product Manager / Developer GDPR Love Story
- Create a fake Twitter account for an African dictator and use it to convince John to stop illegal logging and perhaps start a revolution
- Create new landing page to take money and data from couch buyers in new markets… it’s a growth strategy
As always, follow us on Twitter @StartupRecorded!
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Ben (00:07):
welcome to this startup is being recorded.
This recording is improvisedfiction.
Similarities between it and thereal world are entirely
intentional.
Now enjoy the recording.
Calathea is played by RobynStegman.
Robyn is a digital campaignmanager for ocean Conservancy
(00:28):
and is a comedian mostly foundat Highwire improv.
You can find her on all thesocial medias.
And she does mean all at rsteggythank you for listening.
Kate (00:36):
All right.
Uh, Hey everybody, I'm happyWednesday.
Let's get this going just toanother standup.
It's obviously been, um, aninteresting week since the all
hands and you know, some of thecompany's shifts, but I, I think
we're doing all right.
Um, oh, let's do intros
Matt (00:57):
want it quick.
Uh, it's not just anotherstandup I've got, I've got good
dudes.
Uh, great news.
Eric (01:03):
oh, okay.
All right.
Matt (01:04):
have a little bit.
Let's see.
Yeah, you're right.
Introductions.
Kate (01:07):
yeah.
Uh, you want to go first
Matt (01:09):
Oh, sure.
Um, my name is Matt,matt.yachts.
Uh, that's my website where youcan find out more about me and
I'm the CTO here at.
Calathea (01:17):
I am I am the chief creatives are here at six.
Eric (01:23):
Carter, chief product officer here.
Kate (01:25):
and Kate uh, chief of staff here is.
Um, okay, well, I don't want towait.
Matt (01:33):
quick toast.
Eric (01:34):
oh, wow.
Matt (01:35):
yeah, sorry.
I, uh, I just came fromtoasting, so I've, I've got a
beer.
I don't know if anybody else.
Um,
Kate (01:43):
Got some tea.
Matt (01:45):
oh, I forgot to say what, uh, right.
Well, uh, Eric, you, you know,and congrats to both of us.
So, uh, as you all know, we'vestill been hashing out GDPR, uh,
issues and what we're going todo about them.
Uh, Laura's on my team has beenparticularly, uh, insistent that
(02:05):
we go deep and we do everythingwe can, uh, yeah.
David, uh, from Eric's team has,uh, been a little bit more
pragmatic and I appreciate hispatience, but, uh, and, uh, just
to be clear, we haven't solvedany of that.
We're, they're still hashingthat out, but what they have
done is put a ring on it.
Uh, so congratulations to Larsand David.
(02:29):
Yeah.
Kate (02:30):
they're engaged.
Matt (02:33):
Yeah, Lars, Lars from dev and David from product, uh, they
haven't set a date.
Like it's still very tenuous,uh, in that sense, but, uh,
they've told their families likeit's it's happening.
Um,
Calathea (02:47):
That was so quick.
Kate (02:49):
They hate each other, like two months
Matt (02:52):
I they've been spending a lot of time together.
So like, when you say quick, Imean, they've really.
Got the sense of each other at
Eric (03:00):
Yeah.
The calendar time was short,but.
Relationship time.
Calathea (03:05):
that
Matt (03:05):
just want to raise a glass
Calathea (03:08):
Yes.
Oh my God.
I mean, I love enemies to loversromance stories.
They are honestly just the bestand I'm so happy for them.
Matt (03:18):
it really feels storybook.
Like, uh, you know, just like,oh, what a whirlwind?
Um, I, oh, I wanted to add.
They have, they havecollectively used our, uh, our
legal time for the month.
Um, just getting all the pre-nupstuff done and, uh, you know,
working.
Yeah.
Kate (03:38):
we can't use our lawyers for personal reasons.
Matt (03:42):
told them that, but it was already, it's kind of like, uh,
you know, ask forgiveness, notpermission thing.
So like it's, they won't do itagain.
Uh, we've told.
Uh, in no uncertain terms, uh,if, if there is like a divorce
on the way or something that,that this is not for that.
Um, but it's done.
So,
Eric (03:59):
It was very clever actually, because, you know, D
David is a German citizen.
So he was able to kind of put itunder the guise of GDPR.
Um,
Kate (04:10):
Oh,
Eric (04:11):
it was, it was, I, you know, I was mad, but I kind of
just respect,
Matt (04:14):
that's very clever.
The two of them are very
Eric (04:17):
There are good team.
Calathea (04:18):
Well,
Kate (04:18):
looking at.
Calathea (04:19):
I wish them the best and maybe if they want to make
it up for us, um, you know, wehave ever since, um, the TV spot
that shall not be named, beenreally thinking about how we can
partner on some like TVprogramming, um, some like
branded content and.
Honestly, I think I coulddefinitely sell that love story
(04:42):
to lifetime or, you know, one ofthose networks.
So, you know, if they wanted tomake it up, maybe if they just
gave us their story rights fortheir love story, I think we
could like really have a reallygood, some good CIT content, you
know?
Matt (04:58):
Califia that's so good.
Yeah.
I'll uh, I'll talk to Lars.
Um, but I've, I feel like how isthere, how is that going to be a
no.
Calathea (05:07):
Yeah.
I mean, I would only want tohonor their story, you know, and
it, and it happened right hereand, you know, there's so much
couch content.
You can put into a love story.
I mean, from engagement to thefirst time you, you know, meet
each other
Matt (05:26):
Yeah, I just, I'm thinking of titles, like in, in the
marketplace for love, uh, startstartup my heart, like yeah.
Calathea (05:35):
Yeah.
I really liked that.
And we could probably like usethat in our ads if it does
really well, you know, a cutelittle
Matt (05:43):
oh, and I mean, promotional consideration
provided by obviously ourcouches will be in the
production.
Calathea (05:48):
right.
A hundred percent.
So yeah, I mean, I would, Iwould love to make that store.
Kate (05:54):
you know, what's interesting is like it in the
invoice from the lawyer, which Ishould have looked at, but
didn't until just now, I mean,he lists off multiple things.
Done, I think to help build thisfor work hours.
They've said that they're usingall of our couches and their
ceremony.
Um, they actually planned to getmarried in the lobby.
(06:16):
Um, they, I didn't
Matt (06:20):
Yeah, that's part of why
Kate (06:21):
right.
A romantic
Matt (06:22):
there's no date yet?
Um, like, I don't know,obviously a lot of that stuff
has to get run by UK.
Um
Kate (06:30):
right.
And our office manager,
Matt (06:32):
yeah, so I, uh, I told them that's a, maybe on all
that, obviously they've clearedit with legal, but, yeah,
there's, there's still openquestions.
Calathea (06:43):
I mean, if they are, if they want to have it here, I
mean, we could even turn thewedding into a beautiful
experience, you know, like tapeit, like have, if they're
willing to wait for a littlebit, maybe they can get married
after the lifetime special,after we've like really built up
their story.
It could be alive of then, youknow,
Matt (07:02):
be, uh, like the last thing filmed for the life to,
you know, they always do one ofthose like cut twos.
So after, after the love story,uh, the, the climax.
Um, you know, whatever, uh, thenwe cut two months later and we
see, you know, the real them.
Cause I doubt they would wantto, you think they would want to
(07:22):
play themselves in a lifetime?
Calathea (07:25):
I don't think they have to play themselves.
I think that it, you know,usually at the end of those
things, they like cut to thereal people or show who they
really are.
I think we could do that.
Or again, after it comes out andwe drum up support, we just have
another live special where wehave their marriage.
We have them talk about it, getquestions from the audience.
Kate (07:44):
So
Calathea (07:45):
We could even like raffle off, you know, an
opportunity to be a weddingguest.
Kate (07:51):
Wait.
I also just realized.
If they get married, David willbecome a citizen, which means
his visa slot opens up trees orget higher, finally bring on
another international higher
Eric (08:05):
wow.
Kate (08:06):
wow.
Eric (08:06):
as a huge impact.
Calathea (08:08):
oh, well, this is very exciting in many ways.
Matt (08:11):
Yeah.
Hey, uh, congrats Larson, David,and, uh, cheers to us.
All of us.
Cause uh, yeah, big news.
Good
Kate (08:18):
if any, other of our four.
For an employees are looking toget hitched to an American
citizen.
Let's work on that.
Let's make that a goal.
Matt (08:29):
Wow.
Kate (08:31):
Yeah.
Okay.
Great update.
who has to go next?
My mine is not so good.
I don't know if we want to easeinto it.
Matt (08:41):
okay.
I would rather hear it.
Uh, now, otherwise I'm gonna do.
Eric (08:46):
Yeah, I'm
Calathea (08:47):
would agree.
My mind is already going to adark place.
It naturally veers there.
Kate (08:52):
sure.
Sure.
So, you know, I mentioned lastweek, um, how we're chopping
down forests in Iowa that usedto be, you know, national
territory and,
Calathea (09:02):
yeah.
Yeah.
I thought we were very clearabout our horse binder policy of
this, that like, we know thatthis is something John really
wants, but certain members ofour office would rather not
think about it.
Kate (09:14):
Yeah, that's true.
Um, I just, I guess I'm justbringing it up to you all,
because we discovered that wehad misinterpreted a few of the,
uh, employee safety laws inIowa.
Um, and so we owe thoseemployees like a lot of hazard
pay, like a lot, uh, and.
(09:37):
We also, weren't supposed tojust like buy tools from home
Depot to cut down trees.
Apparently there's like prettyspecific tools.
Like the lumber industry uses tochop down trees,
Eric (09:49):
Um,
Kate (09:49):
which we didn't have.
Um,
Matt (09:51):
like regulatory capture.
If I've ever heard.
Kate (09:55):
fair.
Um, I mean, I will admit, Idon't think our contractors
chose like the best tools.
They went for a pretty likerudimentary.
What's been approach.
Matt (10:06):
if you're going to home Depot with a budget mindset,
you're going to walk away withsome flimsy.
Calathea (10:11):
Yeah.
Kate (10:13):
Um, which may have worked out in our favor because we
didn't actually chop down verymany trees, um, and apparently
hazard pay us per tree.
So we don't owe that much.
Uh, but we are definitely on thestate government's radar.
Yeah.
And
Calathea (10:32):
are we closing down that program?
Cause that seems like a win forus, honestly.
I mean,
Matt (10:38):
Good news kind of
Calathea (10:39):
we've proven to John that this is just not
logistically in the right veinfor us.
We don't have to cut down oldgrowth trees anymore.
Kate (10:47):
Yeah.
Yeah, no, I think John hasdefinitely got the message that
Iowa is not the right place todo this.
Calathea (10:53):
Oh, I, that was not the message.
I was
Matt (10:55):
yeah, no, I definitely heard him say there are 49
states.
And that's before you get intoterritory's.
Oh boy.
Kate (11:03):
yeah.
See, that's the thing he'sactually, he wants us to go
international.
Calathea (11:10):
No.
Oh no.
Oh, come on.
Kate (11:14):
yeah.
He said that there are, thereare some countries that the way
he put it.
Their democracy is a sham, whichmakes it
Calathea (11:27):
Yeah.
Matt (11:28):
come on
Kate (11:31):
I don't know how he gets connected with like dictators of
small countries, but he does.
Matt (11:36):
because he parties.
Calathea (11:38):
Yeah.
I mean,
Matt (11:40):
John loves to party and he loves to flaunt it.
And they like, it's just reallyimpressive.
Dictators want to be, you know,catered to, and he makes them
feel special.
Calathea (11:51):
Yeah.
And he just has a beautifulyacht.
I mean, it's just, it's, it'struly, truly fantastic, you
know?
Kate (12:00):
yeah, we were chopping down some trees and, um, in
Africa.
Matt (12:05):
Oh, he didn't say it like that.
Diddy.
Calathea (12:09):
Yeah.
Matt (12:10):
in Africa?
Calathea (12:11):
Yeah,
Matt (12:12):
Africa's a whole continent.
Kate (12:14):
it's true.
Let me, let me look it up.
He gave me, um, he gave me likea kind of series of information
that could probably figure outwhich one, uh, oh dear.
Eric (12:28):
the more we, the more we look at this, the worse it gets.
Kate (12:31):
I know.
I feel like I shouldn't even beGoogling.
Calathea (12:34):
This feels really bad.
Kate (12:37):
Oh, symbolic Bob way.
No.
Calathea (12:41):
There's so many issues with this.
I just, at some point I feellike we need to have a
conversation with John that likethese kind of, we're just too
small of a company to havepractices like this.
You know, it's very difficultfor a company this small to hide
the amount of.
(13:01):
Honestly, a endangered specieskilling, you know, uh,
activities that we are takingpart of now.
Matt (13:10):
of couches here, but like there, there's not a lot of rug
for us to sweep stuff under,
Eric (13:15):
right.
Calathea (13:18):
Yeah.
I'm
Matt (13:19):
Kate, to the extent that you have to sign the checks for
this.
Could we just not, could we justnot with the logging in unknown
African country?
Kate (13:29):
sure.
Yeah.
I mean, it's really, we can'tuse checks because of some of
the, um, practices the us has,was sending money to these
countries.
So he
Matt (13:39):
Oh, so they're on, they're on lists.
They're on, on lists ofcountries that we're not allowed
to do business with.
Calathea (13:47):
So you were saying we're also going against
American Che sanctions.
Matt (13:50):
great.
Good.
Kate (13:53):
he just Matt, he said, if you could look into some of the
crypto currencies that you thinkare most stable to send over,
Matt (14:02):
Um, listen,
Kate (14:05):
the idea of creating our own crypto, but I said, that's
probably not.
Eric (14:09):
Not for at least four more years.
Matt (14:12):
thank you for saying that.
I, yeah.
Oh, I didn't think today wouldbe the day that I would finally
hear that I've, I've beenwaiting for that shoe to drop.
Uh, let's hope that, that hedoesn't think of that again for
a while.
I mean, the, the answer, uh, Idon't know.
I'll, I'll draft an email, butlike Kate, the answer is going
to be no, like I'm going to putthe brakes on this as hard as I
(14:34):
can.
We can't go against statedepartment mandates, uh, and,
and launder money through anycoin, uh, and, and log in
contested countries to getconflict.
Calathea (14:48):
Yeah, I totally agree.
I mean, I think, you know, we'vecrossed this slide many of
times, and again, like we justdon't have the brand, you know,
credibility at this moment todeal with a hit as serious as
that.
Kate (15:05):
Yeah.
Okay.
Well the last request,
Matt (15:09):
Oh, sorry.
Kate (15:09):
I just need to pass on what he said.
You know, I feel like it's myduty.
Um, He did say Califia that?
Um, one of these dictatorssocial media accounts has been
deactivated, so he was hopingyou could maybe help him find a
workaround, um, so that he couldget back on Twitter.
Calathea (15:27):
absolutely not.
Um, one we've gone over this.
Um, I'm not becoming bestfriends with Jack Dorsey.
Um, He doesn't even run Twitteranymore.
That's not how you get youraccount reactivated.
If he could like stop setting upmeetings between me and Jack
(15:48):
Dorsey would be really great.
Um, I don't, I don't have thepower over Twitter to do any of
those regulatory things, youknow?
Um, I know that I got a bluecheck really early, but like
that's a totally different askthan asking.
Um, to have a dictator, hisaccount reinstated, and maybe
(16:12):
that dictator should just lookwithin himself and see if, and
think about whether or notTwitter's the right market, you
know, for him.
Um, Because I would say, youknow, if you're going to work
against democracy and undermineyour own people and solder them
by the millions that maybe apublic place like Twitter is not
(16:34):
the place for him, but, youknow, there's, there's a lot of
back channel, social mediaplatforms where people like
that, um, find it very effectiveto, you know, rally a public
that supports.
Uh, Monster's a harsh word, butI think, you know where we're
going here.
Eric (16:55):
counterpoint?
Califia um, I agree witheverything you've said, however,
John doesn't know, you don'thave that.
Can, can we just create aTwitter account that appears to
be said, dictators account DM,DM John, say supply chain
(17:16):
issues.
The deal is off.
And then just delete theaccount.
Calathea (17:21):
I like this.
I like this idea a lot.
Yeah.
I think this is really great.
Matt (17:25):
that sounds.
Kate (17:27):
Yeah.
I mean, that's
Eric (17:29):
special.
He'll feel like he got like a,like a brief interaction over
Twitter, but really, no, it'sjust, just.
Calathea (17:35):
Eric.
I think this is really, this issuper smart.
Um, and honestly, you know, Iknow that he doesn't really
communicate much with this saddictator.
So if we can,
Matt (17:50):
promises at parties, which he holds like once every few
years.
So it's not, it's not like he'sgot a direct message.
Thread will certainly not onTwitter.
It's not like he's got a textmessage thread going or
anything.
Eric (18:02):
sure.
I'm sure he does.
Matt (18:03):
Yeah.
Calathea (18:04):
I think with a Twitter account and, um, some deep fake
zoom calls, we can honestly takeover the identity in John's mind
of this dictator.
And it might actually get us apretty good in for issues like
this.
Matt (18:19):
know, and
Kate (18:19):
Yeah.
Matt (18:20):
not necessarily just in John's mind, right?
I mean, this is a public accounton Twitter.
Maybe there's some good to bedone here.
I don't, I don't want tospeculate too deeply, but you
know, publicly undermining a,uh, a brutal dictatorship could
(18:43):
be.
Kate (18:44):
You know, we have a lot of videos from the we watch week,
Eric (18:49):
oh, that's right.
Kate (18:50):
really see who it is.
We could probably edit those upa little bit and boom.
Matt (19:02):
um, this is a big challenge for your team.
Califia what do you think?
Calathea (19:05):
I mean, I've trained my entire life to do work like
this, you know, I never thoughtI'd get back into doing this
kind of deep PSYOPs andinfluencing elections this
match.
But yeah, I mean, I I'd bewilling to take on a little side
project, you know, just for fun,just to inspire the old days.
(19:25):
That would be fun.
Eric (19:28):
Yeah, we've got a couple of people who worked at some
video startups before cominghere.
So I'm happy to lend you peoplefor halftime if needed.
Calathea (19:36):
Oh, that would be, that would be really great.
Yeah.
And I'm sure I can find some,you know, groups down on the
ground who can really be ournice little, like a street crew
and really help, you know,ferment a dissatisfaction with
the dictator and.
Matt (19:53):
And get with me and I'll, uh, I'll make sure we've got
some secure VPN set up, uh, withthose folks
Calathea (19:59):
Yeah.
Matt (19:59):
that they, they have clean internet in and out.
And then we've got local IPS,uh, for when we finally need to
do posts.
Kate (20:06):
Let's just start over scope this.
I think we could probably timebox taking down a dictator to
like two weeks, three
Calathea (20:13):
I, it will be really small.
I mean, for me, I'll just put insome extra time outside of, you
know, work on this, you know,it's been a while since I was
part of a coup and it's kind ofcool to see if that old playbook
works and you know how to up.
Eric (20:30):
And if it, if it goes well, we can invest a greater
proportion of our time afterseries a,
Calathea (20:36):
Yeah, yeah, of course this is, I think this is way
down the line in terms of likewhat we want to do again, we're
so small of an organization thatthe need to topple governments
is something that we won't needto do for, you know, at least
another five years.
Matt (20:50):
for any businessperson.
Calathea (20:52):
Right?
Yeah.
Kate (20:54):
okay.
Well, I've taken up so muchtime.
I feel like I've stand up.
Kathy or Eric, do you want to gonext?
Eric (21:02):
well, we're on the topic of series a, um, you know, as,
as we've been tracking ourmonthly active user metrics,
we're getting pretty close tothe threshold.
We need to, to check that oneoff.
Um, so, um, I, I did have someof the UX designers and the
product teams redirect focus fora few weeks because.
(21:23):
Roger, um, you know, you know,the investor's kid, um, he sent
several support emails sayingthat he was not happy with the
new color scheme after werebranded a set.
He didn't like that there wasany meta blue in the, you know,
Kate (21:41):
um,
Eric (21:41):
in the interface, you know, gen alpha.
He's very, very passionate aboutthese things.
I respect it.
So we did have the team design,a full white label, uh, using
green and gold.
Elementary school colors.
Um, we've released it to him,uh, and he's, he's actually been
sending those, those linksaround and it's been a 6% bump
(22:05):
in monthly active users over thelast three days.
So, um,
Matt (22:09):
Wow.
Eric (22:10):
really surprising, but we, we may want to, to talk to the
rest of the kids and do this foreverybody, for every investor's
kid.
Matt (22:19):
Yeah.
That's really interesting.
Yeah, no, I wondered what wasgoing on with you when y'all
started putting together Rogersbuild.
Uh,
Eric (22:27):
Yeah,
Matt (22:30):
really cool.
Uh, everything about the app isthe same, right?
It's just the color scheme that.
Eric (22:36):
w w we default to the child size couches, but other
than that, it's the.
Matt (22:40):
Great.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Loving me.
Kate (22:44):
sounds good.
I guess of Califia writes off onthe color scheme, green and
gold.
Calathea (22:49):
Yeah.
I mean, it's not necessarilywhat I would have chosen, but,
um, I think we can work it intoour color palette, existing
color palette, and just make itseem like in the universe, but
not our main colors.
Eric (23:07):
Yeah, I think this is going to have to be something we
have to tackle at earlier than Iexpected, but as we grow, you
know, customer requests andwhite labels and, you know,
onsite and on on-premdeployments may, may become a
thing.
Um, so, you know, it's, it's,it's complexity.
Matt (23:24):
I mean, we're so close.
Like that closed series a isit's a F it's a flavor on my
tongue.
Eric (23:31):
It's right there.
Matt (23:31):
Uh, I almost feel.
Eric (23:33):
snowball.
Matt (23:34):
I, uh, I do have, uh, uh, an update on our metrics and,
um, Facebook finally, finally issending us their couch,
marketplace traffic.
So all, all posts on Facebookmarketplace.
Uh, yeah, I mean, we, wehandshake that deal.
It feels like years ago now.
And we put, we put ink on paper.
(23:54):
It feels like months ago now.
And finally they flipped theswitch.
So any marketplace posts thathas to do with.
Comes to us, it's ours.
Um, the only major issue is theydidn't put any geo-fencing on
it.
So like we serve, we serve ourmarkets, uh, and the, the rest
of these posts are currentlygoing into essentially, you
(24:17):
know, uh, a garbage can, um,there's, you know, folks in any
place we don't serve.
Uh, we got nothing for them.
So.
Kate (24:24):
only serve like five cities in the U S.
Matt (24:27):
no, you see the problem gate.
So, um, yeah, I don't, I don'tknow.
That's that's, uh, honestly,that's Facebook's problem.
Um, our, our agreement said, uh,you know, for our markets,
Kate (24:39):
Did it, or did John change that?
Matt (24:45):
good question.
I remember discussing that ouragreement should limit traffic
to only the cities where we havemarkets, uh, Believed that
Facebook would go for thatbecause it allows them to
essentially keep most of theworld, uh, while we only get our
few cities.
Um, I should revisit that.
(25:06):
Well, do we have any ideas forthis?
Like I'm, I'm happy to just letthese keep hitting the trashcan.
Calathea (25:12):
I mean, honestly, I do think that if there, you know,
we're getting that traffic, weshould at least like put
together a really quick splashpage.
That's something like comingsoon to you or something that
gets them to give us all oftheir information for when we do
expand into new areas, you know?
Matt (25:30):
the market research that you know, is very expensive to
do.
And right now we've got it forfree.
Calathea (25:35):
Right.
And then we could just basicallylike throw them back to the old
Facebook marketplace, butbasically make them go through a
portal where they have to giveus information in order to go
back.
Yeah.
Kate (25:46):
Yeah.
Maybe in that flow, we couldalso ask them to help donate to
bugs.
Be again, see if we can get
Eric (25:53):
oh.
Kate (25:53):
some free.
Calathea (25:55):
Yeah.
Yeah.
I think, I think maybe we, weshould really think about how we
create this like really funsplash page.
It's a little bit likeinteractive gets people
involved, gets them to get usinformation, maybe a little bit
of money and then shoots himback out where they were.
Matt (26:14):
I love it.
All right.
So we're building a new funnel.
Uh, basically just to get alittle bit information, a little
bit of cash, get people hooked.
Calathea (26:23):
I mean, it would look like we have incredible growth
into a bunch of new markets whenreally we're just, you know,
basically replicating one smallpart of the system.
And we could also, I mean,really brand our couches that we
send out as a premium experienceand maybe have banners for
people to sign up, to bealerted.
(26:45):
Perhaps give us a little bit ofmoney to be the first, to know
when that premium service comesto them.
Matt (26:52):
Has anybody ever crowdfunded a franchise?
Calathea (26:56):
Oh,
Eric (26:57):
That's compelling.
Calathea (26:58):
know, but that is a really interesting,
Matt (27:00):
Like, like citizens of Phoenix, you love moving
couches, but you want them tonot be so used.
So, you know, give us a thousandbucks and that'll go towards
opening a real office here.
Eric (27:12):
we could
Calathea (27:13):
could really bring bugs, be in and have like bring
bugs, be to your town, you know?
Kate (27:18):
Uh, Citizens?
Eric (27:22):
United now.
Kate (27:26):
No, I don't.
Yeah.
I don't think citizens United,but I will say that was one of
our ideas for like our, uh, ourcompany soccer team, you know,
citizens United, um, still don'tknow if it should go with it,
but anyway,
Matt (27:44):
We'll need, we still need five more.
Kate (27:47):
That's true.
We have eight need five.
Um,
Matt (27:51):
it's just, I mean, that's a minimum.
Like we, you know, that's not,that's a tiring game.
We need a deeper.
Kate (27:56):
yeah, yeah.
Uh, anyway, um, Califia I thinkyou're the only one who hasn't
gone.
So do you have, uh, any updatesfor.
Calathea (28:06):
Yeah, I just have a really, uh, small kind of update
is our team is realizing thatwith more and more people using
things like Siri and Google playand, or, you know, whatever the
Google name does or Alexa andthose kinds of things that we
really need to.
Matt (28:22):
Google.
Calathea (28:23):
I think this is just Google.
They really need to get creativeon that.
Matt (28:27):
You can say like Siri, Alexa, these, it sounded like
individuals.
And for Google, you say, okay,Google.
Calathea (28:32):
Even Microsoft has Cortana, you know, like really
good names, but, but Google, uh,it's just it's um, yeah, it's
distasteful.
Um, but anyway, as we are morepeople accessing the internet
through the voice, we'rethinking about how to build a
voice component out to our.
You know, website, and obviouslythis is something that we'd be
(28:55):
working with product on, butbefore we really go down that
capability, we just want to seewhat kind of look I will not
look but sound and field wereally want for what sits sounds
like.
So right now we're kind of goingthrough a lot of different voice
actors, uh, to really try tohammer down what the real brand
(29:19):
is for CIT.
You guys probably would haveprobably noticed that we have
Zach Braff in the office, um,
Matt (29:27):
that was him.
Calathea (29:28):
Yeah, that was him.
Um, he was very, he was verylovely to just sit down and try
a bunch of different voices, um,with us.
Um, we are considering him asthe voice of CIT, uh, and we
really just wanted to see whatkind of range he would offer us.
Matt (29:45):
How did it go?
Like, yeah.
Calathea (29:48):
It wouldn't well, you know, I'm, I'm not sure we're a
hundred percent ready to pullthe trigger on him, you know?
Yeah.
There's, you know, we reallywanted him to have a bigger
range.
So if we wanted, you know,something a little different
down the road, it would be, youknow, he would be able to grow
(30:11):
with us and we just didn't feellike he, you know, he gives us
sack BRAF, but is he reallygonna give us whatever that 2.0
experiences?
And, and maybe it's not even ahuman voice, uh, maybe it is.
Yeah.
It could be an animal, you know?
Um, it could be, uh, uh,something mechanical, you know,
(30:34):
it could be the voice of thewind.
Like we just have, there's a lotof different options for that.
Kate (30:38):
Could you like a very God-like voice?
You know, so it
Calathea (30:43):
We did, we did consider like a Morgan Freeman
kind of thing, but we felt like,you know, so many people go with
that.
James Earl Jones, Morgan Freemankind of thing.
We wanted something that soundeda little bit more unique.
Matt (30:54):
we even afford them?
Like I assume that they're,
Calathea (30:57):
Oh no, definitely not.
Yeah.
I mean, we really lucked in bycontracting with Zach Braff
before he got a couple of moviedeals and people like, you know,
his career is up on the epic ed.
Matt (31:08):
Um,
Calathea (31:10):
able to like get him in at a really low point.
Kate (31:13):
Yeah.
I, I know that, like, we getreally good deals when we work
with celebrities who are goingthrough some sort of, you know,
public shaming.
I feel like maybe post series a,we can get away from that
strategy, you know, not justtake the canceled celebrities,
but some of the others
Calathea (31:33):
yeah.
I mean, I definitely think thatthat would be.
know, nice.
I do like that.
They bring a little edginess toour brand that, um, that they
breed, you know, that having acanceled celebrity really
brings.
And it just, it depends on thecancellation, you know what it's
for?
Kate (31:53):
Do we have a name yet for what our voice will be?
Calathea (31:58):
don't actually, you know, I was thinking kind of
Google, but we haven't reallyfigured that out.
I mean, the obvious choice isBugsby and to have that be, you
know, him
Matt (32:07):
now that bugs me is emancipated.
Eric (32:10):
Do we have the voice rights?
Matt (32:12):
for that.
Calathea (32:12):
Yeah.
Let's not forget what happenedin Iowa with his city council
campaign.
Um, you know, I will be honest,we are thinking about moving
away from Bugsby as a mascot andreally thinking about, um, new
avenues to go down.
Eric (32:29):
Oh my goodness.
Kate (32:29):
Um,
Calathea (32:30):
it's not, it's not official.
We haven't decided obviously,um, you know, uh, but yeah.
Matt (32:37):
you're having to go through that.
Califia.
Eric (32:39):
Uh,
Matt (32:40):
heavy.
Calathea (32:41):
Yeah, it's really difficult.
He's become a real brand briskand, you know, I have to
separate my love for him as hisprogeneter with.
Uh, my job to protect the brandof this company.
And that's just put me in somereally difficult times.
Kate (33:00):
I went through the same thing with the mantis shrimp.
I don't know if you've noticedthey're not here anymore, but
Matt (33:06):
I wonder.
Kate (33:07):
it wasn't safe for them or for us anymore.
Um, apparently I got some sortof genetically modified.
Anyway, just trying to beempathetic.
Eric (33:20):
we're really growing up.
Kate (33:21):
Yeah,
Calathea (33:22):
is that what's the hole in the wall is in the break
room.
Kate (33:27):
yeah.
Yeah.
They, they jump apparently inthis version and are quite
powerful.
Matt (33:36):
Yeah, I mean, meant to shrimper, powerful.
Like that's they punch, theypunch it.
Supersonic speeds.
They create quantum physicseffects in the water.
Calathea (33:45):
Yeah.
Kate (33:46):
true.
It's true.
Um, we thought that concretewalls would, would hold the
back, but that's no, there's,there are some, I guess
foundation issues I should say,on the operations team office.
So we may be relocating.
Eric (34:01):
oh, wow.
Kate (34:02):
but for now we're all just trained in earthquake proofing.
If, if we see the wall move, wedon't how to evacuate quickly.
Matt (34:09):
Oh, wow.
Well, I hope
Calathea (34:10):
oh, wow.
Yeah.
Matt (34:14):
hair.
Mantis shrimp.
Kate (34:16):
That's the saddest part.
But anyway, um, okay.
I guess we're good on standupthen.
Matt (34:27):
Yeah, I guess.
Kate (34:29):
Good meeting folks.
All right.
I will see you all soon and I'llstop this recording.
Ben (34:36):
This meeting has ended.
To subscribe to this startup isbeing recorded.
Go to the podcast player of yourchoice and tap a button that
likely says subscribe.
More content is on Twitter atstartup recorded, or shoot us an
email with ideas, feedback, oryour personal startup horror
story.
At hello@startuprecorded.com.
Kate is played by ValerieGarrison.
(34:57):
Valerie is a health tech productmanager and regularly plays with
the improv troupe letters tochicken online.
You can find her on Twitter atthevalgarris eric has played by
Barry wright Barry is a productmanager at Spotify and a
co-founder of Highwire Improv.
Find him by his name onLinkedIn, where he holds regular
office hours or athighwireimprov.com.
Matt is played by Marty Mcguire.
(35:18):
Marty is a senior web engineerand improviser in New York city.
You can find Marty's comedy codeand cats on his website at M M G
dot R E.
welcome to this startup is being recorded.
This recording is improvisedfiction.
Similarities between it and thereal world are entirely
intentional.
Now enjoy the recording.
Calathea is played by RobynStegman.
Robyn is a digital campaignmanager for ocean Conservancy
(00:28):
and is a comedian mostly foundat Highwire improv.
You can find her on all thesocial medias.
And she does mean all at rsteggythank you for listening.
Kate (00:36):
All right.
Uh, Hey everybody, I'm happyWednesday.
Let's get this going just toanother standup.
It's obviously been, um, aninteresting week since the all
hands and you know, some of thecompany's shifts, but I, I think
we're doing all right.
Um, oh, let's do intros
Matt (00:57):
want it quick.
Uh, it's not just anotherstandup I've got, I've got good
dudes.
Uh, great news.
Eric (01:03):
oh, okay.
All right.
Matt (01:04):
have a little bit.
Let's see.
Yeah, you're right.
Introductions.
Kate (01:07):
yeah.
Uh, you want to go first
Matt (01:09):
Oh, sure.
Um, my name is Matt,matt.yachts.
Uh, that's my website where youcan find out more about me and
I'm the CTO here at.
Calathea (01:17):
I am I am the chief creatives are here at six.
Eric (01:23):
Carter, chief product officer here.
Kate (01:25):
and Kate uh, chief of staff here is.
Um, okay, well, I don't want towait.
Matt (01:33):
quick toast.
Eric (01:34):
oh, wow.
Matt (01:35):
yeah, sorry.
I, uh, I just came fromtoasting, so I've, I've got a
beer.
I don't know if anybody else.
Um,
Kate (01:43):
Got some tea.
Matt (01:45):
oh, I forgot to say what, uh, right.
Well, uh, Eric, you, you know,and congrats to both of us.
So, uh, as you all know, we'vestill been hashing out GDPR, uh,
issues and what we're going todo about them.
Uh, Laura's on my team has beenparticularly, uh, insistent that
(02:05):
we go deep and we do everythingwe can, uh, yeah.
David, uh, from Eric's team has,uh, been a little bit more
pragmatic and I appreciate hispatience, but, uh, and, uh, just
to be clear, we haven't solvedany of that.
We're, they're still hashingthat out, but what they have
done is put a ring on it.
Uh, so congratulations to Larsand David.
(02:29):
Yeah.
Kate (02:30):
they're engaged.
Matt (02:33):
Yeah, Lars, Lars from dev and David from product, uh, they
haven't set a date.
Like it's still very tenuous,uh, in that sense, but, uh,
they've told their families likeit's it's happening.
Um,
Calathea (02:47):
That was so quick.
Kate (02:49):
They hate each other, like two months
Matt (02:52):
I they've been spending a lot of time together.
So like, when you say quick, Imean, they've really.
Got the sense of each other at
Eric (03:00):
Yeah.
The calendar time was short,but.
Relationship time.
Calathea (03:05):
that
Matt (03:05):
just want to raise a glass
Calathea (03:08):
Yes.
Oh my God.
I mean, I love enemies to loversromance stories.
They are honestly just the bestand I'm so happy for them.
Matt (03:18):
it really feels storybook.
Like, uh, you know, just like,oh, what a whirlwind?
Um, I, oh, I wanted to add.
They have, they havecollectively used our, uh, our
legal time for the month.
Um, just getting all the pre-nupstuff done and, uh, you know,
working.
Yeah.
Kate (03:38):
we can't use our lawyers for personal reasons.
Matt (03:42):
told them that, but it was already, it's kind of like, uh,
you know, ask forgiveness, notpermission thing.
So like it's, they won't do itagain.
Uh, we've told.
Uh, in no uncertain terms, uh,if, if there is like a divorce
on the way or something that,that this is not for that.
Um, but it's done.
So,
Eric (03:59):
It was very clever actually, because, you know, D
David is a German citizen.
So he was able to kind of put itunder the guise of GDPR.
Um,
Kate (04:10):
Oh,
Eric (04:11):
it was, it was, I, you know, I was mad, but I kind of
just respect,
Matt (04:14):
that's very clever.
The two of them are very
Eric (04:17):
There are good team.
Calathea (04:18):
Well,
Kate (04:18):
looking at.
Calathea (04:19):
I wish them the best and maybe if they want to make
it up for us, um, you know, wehave ever since, um, the TV spot
that shall not be named, beenreally thinking about how we can
partner on some like TVprogramming, um, some like
branded content and.
Honestly, I think I coulddefinitely sell that love story
(04:42):
to lifetime or, you know, one ofthose networks.
So, you know, if they wanted tomake it up, maybe if they just
gave us their story rights fortheir love story, I think we
could like really have a reallygood, some good CIT content, you
know?
Matt (04:58):
Califia that's so good.
Yeah.
I'll uh, I'll talk to Lars.
Um, but I've, I feel like how isthere, how is that going to be a
no.
Calathea (05:07):
Yeah.
I mean, I would only want tohonor their story, you know, and
it, and it happened right hereand, you know, there's so much
couch content.
You can put into a love story.
I mean, from engagement to thefirst time you, you know, meet
each other
Matt (05:26):
Yeah, I just, I'm thinking of titles, like in, in the
marketplace for love, uh, startstartup my heart, like yeah.
Calathea (05:35):
Yeah.
I really liked that.
And we could probably like usethat in our ads if it does
really well, you know, a cutelittle
Matt (05:43):
oh, and I mean, promotional consideration
provided by obviously ourcouches will be in the
production.
Calathea (05:48):
right.
A hundred percent.
So yeah, I mean, I would, Iwould love to make that store.
Kate (05:54):
you know, what's interesting is like it in the
invoice from the lawyer, which Ishould have looked at, but
didn't until just now, I mean,he lists off multiple things.
Done, I think to help build thisfor work hours.
They've said that they're usingall of our couches and their
ceremony.
Um, they actually planned to getmarried in the lobby.
(06:16):
Um, they, I didn't
Matt (06:20):
Yeah, that's part of why
Kate (06:21):
right.
A romantic
Matt (06:22):
there's no date yet?
Um, like, I don't know,obviously a lot of that stuff
has to get run by UK.
Um
Kate (06:30):
right.
And our office manager,
Matt (06:32):
yeah, so I, uh, I told them that's a, maybe on all
that, obviously they've clearedit with legal, but, yeah,
there's, there's still openquestions.
Calathea (06:43):
I mean, if they are, if they want to have it here, I
mean, we could even turn thewedding into a beautiful
experience, you know, like tapeit, like have, if they're
willing to wait for a littlebit, maybe they can get married
after the lifetime special,after we've like really built up
their story.
It could be alive of then, youknow,
Matt (07:02):
be, uh, like the last thing filmed for the life to,
you know, they always do one ofthose like cut twos.
So after, after the love story,uh, the, the climax.
Um, you know, whatever, uh, thenwe cut two months later and we
see, you know, the real them.
Cause I doubt they would wantto, you think they would want to
(07:22):
play themselves in a lifetime?
Calathea (07:25):
I don't think they have to play themselves.
I think that it, you know,usually at the end of those
things, they like cut to thereal people or show who they
really are.
I think we could do that.
Or again, after it comes out andwe drum up support, we just have
another live special where wehave their marriage.
We have them talk about it, getquestions from the audience.
Kate (07:44):
So
Calathea (07:45):
We could even like raffle off, you know, an
opportunity to be a weddingguest.
Kate (07:51):
Wait.
I also just realized.
If they get married, David willbecome a citizen, which means
his visa slot opens up trees orget higher, finally bring on
another international higher
Eric (08:05):
wow.
Kate (08:06):
wow.
Eric (08:06):
as a huge impact.
Calathea (08:08):
oh, well, this is very exciting in many ways.
Matt (08:11):
Yeah.
Hey, uh, congrats Larson, David,and, uh, cheers to us.
All of us.
Cause uh, yeah, big news.
Good
Kate (08:18):
if any, other of our four.
For an employees are looking toget hitched to an American
citizen.
Let's work on that.
Let's make that a goal.
Matt (08:29):
Wow.
Kate (08:31):
Yeah.
Okay.
Great update.
who has to go next?
My mine is not so good.
I don't know if we want to easeinto it.
Matt (08:41):
okay.
I would rather hear it.
Uh, now, otherwise I'm gonna do.
Eric (08:46):
Yeah, I'm
Calathea (08:47):
would agree.
My mind is already going to adark place.
It naturally veers there.
Kate (08:52):
sure.
Sure.
So, you know, I mentioned lastweek, um, how we're chopping
down forests in Iowa that usedto be, you know, national
territory and,
Calathea (09:02):
yeah.
Yeah.
I thought we were very clearabout our horse binder policy of
this, that like, we know thatthis is something John really
wants, but certain members ofour office would rather not
think about it.
Kate (09:14):
Yeah, that's true.
Um, I just, I guess I'm justbringing it up to you all,
because we discovered that wehad misinterpreted a few of the,
uh, employee safety laws inIowa.
Um, and so we owe thoseemployees like a lot of hazard
pay, like a lot, uh, and.
(09:37):
We also, weren't supposed tojust like buy tools from home
Depot to cut down trees.
Apparently there's like prettyspecific tools.
Like the lumber industry uses tochop down trees,
Eric (09:49):
Um,
Kate (09:49):
which we didn't have.
Um,
Matt (09:51):
like regulatory capture.
If I've ever heard.
Kate (09:55):
fair.
Um, I mean, I will admit, Idon't think our contractors
chose like the best tools.
They went for a pretty likerudimentary.
What's been approach.
Matt (10:06):
if you're going to home Depot with a budget mindset,
you're going to walk away withsome flimsy.
Calathea (10:11):
Yeah.
Kate (10:13):
Um, which may have worked out in our favor because we
didn't actually chop down verymany trees, um, and apparently
hazard pay us per tree.
So we don't owe that much.
Uh, but we are definitely on thestate government's radar.
Yeah.
And
Calathea (10:32):
are we closing down that program?
Cause that seems like a win forus, honestly.
I mean,
Matt (10:38):
Good news kind of
Calathea (10:39):
we've proven to John that this is just not
logistically in the right veinfor us.
We don't have to cut down oldgrowth trees anymore.
Kate (10:47):
Yeah.
Yeah, no, I think John hasdefinitely got the message that
Iowa is not the right place todo this.
Calathea (10:53):
Oh, I, that was not the message.
I was
Matt (10:55):
yeah, no, I definitely heard him say there are 49
states.
And that's before you get intoterritory's.
Oh boy.
Kate (11:03):
yeah.
See, that's the thing he'sactually, he wants us to go
international.
Calathea (11:10):
No.
Oh no.
Oh, come on.
Kate (11:14):
yeah.
He said that there are, thereare some countries that the way
he put it.
Their democracy is a sham, whichmakes it
Calathea (11:27):
Yeah.
Matt (11:28):
come on
Kate (11:31):
I don't know how he gets connected with like dictators of
small countries, but he does.
Matt (11:36):
because he parties.
Calathea (11:38):
Yeah.
I mean,
Matt (11:40):
John loves to party and he loves to flaunt it.
And they like, it's just reallyimpressive.
Dictators want to be, you know,catered to, and he makes them
feel special.
Calathea (11:51):
Yeah.
And he just has a beautifulyacht.
I mean, it's just, it's, it'struly, truly fantastic, you
know?
Kate (12:00):
yeah, we were chopping down some trees and, um, in
Africa.
Matt (12:05):
Oh, he didn't say it like that.
Diddy.
Calathea (12:09):
Yeah.
Matt (12:10):
in Africa?
Calathea (12:11):
Yeah,
Matt (12:12):
Africa's a whole continent.
Kate (12:14):
it's true.
Let me, let me look it up.
He gave me, um, he gave me likea kind of series of information
that could probably figure outwhich one, uh, oh dear.
Eric (12:28):
the more we, the more we look at this, the worse it gets.
Kate (12:31):
I know.
I feel like I shouldn't even beGoogling.
Calathea (12:34):
This feels really bad.
Kate (12:37):
Oh, symbolic Bob way.
No.
Calathea (12:41):
There's so many issues with this.
I just, at some point I feellike we need to have a
conversation with John that likethese kind of, we're just too
small of a company to havepractices like this.
You know, it's very difficultfor a company this small to hide
the amount of.
(13:01):
Honestly, a endangered specieskilling, you know, uh,
activities that we are takingpart of now.
Matt (13:10):
of couches here, but like there, there's not a lot of rug
for us to sweep stuff under,
Eric (13:15):
right.
Calathea (13:18):
Yeah.
I'm
Matt (13:19):
Kate, to the extent that you have to sign the checks for
this.
Could we just not, could we justnot with the logging in unknown
African country?
Kate (13:29):
sure.
Yeah.
I mean, it's really, we can'tuse checks because of some of
the, um, practices the us has,was sending money to these
countries.
So he
Matt (13:39):
Oh, so they're on, they're on lists.
They're on, on lists ofcountries that we're not allowed
to do business with.
Calathea (13:47):
So you were saying we're also going against
American Che sanctions.
Matt (13:50):
great.
Good.
Kate (13:53):
he just Matt, he said, if you could look into some of the
crypto currencies that you thinkare most stable to send over,
Matt (14:02):
Um, listen,
Kate (14:05):
the idea of creating our own crypto, but I said, that's
probably not.
Eric (14:09):
Not for at least four more years.
Matt (14:12):
thank you for saying that.
I, yeah.
Oh, I didn't think today wouldbe the day that I would finally
hear that I've, I've beenwaiting for that shoe to drop.
Uh, let's hope that, that hedoesn't think of that again for
a while.
I mean, the, the answer, uh, Idon't know.
I'll, I'll draft an email, butlike Kate, the answer is going
to be no, like I'm going to putthe brakes on this as hard as I
(14:34):
can.
We can't go against statedepartment mandates, uh, and,
and launder money through anycoin, uh, and, and log in
contested countries to getconflict.
Calathea (14:48):
Yeah, I totally agree.
I mean, I think, you know, we'vecrossed this slide many of
times, and again, like we justdon't have the brand, you know,
credibility at this moment todeal with a hit as serious as
that.
Kate (15:05):
Yeah.
Okay.
Well the last request,
Matt (15:09):
Oh, sorry.
Kate (15:09):
I just need to pass on what he said.
You know, I feel like it's myduty.
Um, He did say Califia that?
Um, one of these dictatorssocial media accounts has been
deactivated, so he was hopingyou could maybe help him find a
workaround, um, so that he couldget back on Twitter.
Calathea (15:27):
absolutely not.
Um, one we've gone over this.
Um, I'm not becoming bestfriends with Jack Dorsey.
Um, He doesn't even run Twitteranymore.
That's not how you get youraccount reactivated.
If he could like stop setting upmeetings between me and Jack
(15:48):
Dorsey would be really great.
Um, I don't, I don't have thepower over Twitter to do any of
those regulatory things, youknow?
Um, I know that I got a bluecheck really early, but like
that's a totally different askthan asking.
Um, to have a dictator, hisaccount reinstated, and maybe
(16:12):
that dictator should just lookwithin himself and see if, and
think about whether or notTwitter's the right market, you
know, for him.
Um, Because I would say, youknow, if you're going to work
against democracy and undermineyour own people and solder them
by the millions that maybe apublic place like Twitter is not
(16:34):
the place for him, but, youknow, there's, there's a lot of
back channel, social mediaplatforms where people like
that, um, find it very effectiveto, you know, rally a public
that supports.
Uh, Monster's a harsh word, butI think, you know where we're
going here.
Eric (16:55):
counterpoint?
Califia um, I agree witheverything you've said, however,
John doesn't know, you don'thave that.
Can, can we just create aTwitter account that appears to
be said, dictators account DM,DM John, say supply chain
(17:16):
issues.
The deal is off.
And then just delete theaccount.
Calathea (17:21):
I like this.
I like this idea a lot.
Yeah.
I think this is really great.
Matt (17:25):
that sounds.
Kate (17:27):
Yeah.
I mean, that's
Eric (17:29):
special.
He'll feel like he got like a,like a brief interaction over
Twitter, but really, no, it'sjust, just.
Calathea (17:35):
Eric.
I think this is really, this issuper smart.
Um, and honestly, you know, Iknow that he doesn't really
communicate much with this saddictator.
So if we can,
Matt (17:50):
promises at parties, which he holds like once every few
years.
So it's not, it's not like he'sgot a direct message.
Thread will certainly not onTwitter.
It's not like he's got a textmessage thread going or
anything.
Eric (18:02):
sure.
I'm sure he does.
Matt (18:03):
Yeah.
Calathea (18:04):
I think with a Twitter account and, um, some deep fake
zoom calls, we can honestly takeover the identity in John's mind
of this dictator.
And it might actually get us apretty good in for issues like
this.
Matt (18:19):
know, and
Kate (18:19):
Yeah.
Matt (18:20):
not necessarily just in John's mind, right?
I mean, this is a public accounton Twitter.
Maybe there's some good to bedone here.
I don't, I don't want tospeculate too deeply, but you
know, publicly undermining a,uh, a brutal dictatorship could
(18:43):
be.
Kate (18:44):
You know, we have a lot of videos from the we watch week,
Eric (18:49):
oh, that's right.
Kate (18:50):
really see who it is.
We could probably edit those upa little bit and boom.
Matt (19:02):
um, this is a big challenge for your team.
Califia what do you think?
Calathea (19:05):
I mean, I've trained my entire life to do work like
this, you know, I never thoughtI'd get back into doing this
kind of deep PSYOPs andinfluencing elections this
match.
But yeah, I mean, I I'd bewilling to take on a little side
project, you know, just for fun,just to inspire the old days.
(19:25):
That would be fun.
Eric (19:28):
Yeah, we've got a couple of people who worked at some
video startups before cominghere.
So I'm happy to lend you peoplefor halftime if needed.
Calathea (19:36):
Oh, that would be, that would be really great.
Yeah.
And I'm sure I can find some,you know, groups down on the
ground who can really be ournice little, like a street crew
and really help, you know,ferment a dissatisfaction with
the dictator and.
Matt (19:53):
And get with me and I'll, uh, I'll make sure we've got
some secure VPN set up, uh, withthose folks
Calathea (19:59):
Yeah.
Matt (19:59):
that they, they have clean internet in and out.
And then we've got local IPS,uh, for when we finally need to
do posts.
Kate (20:06):
Let's just start over scope this.
I think we could probably timebox taking down a dictator to
like two weeks, three
Calathea (20:13):
I, it will be really small.
I mean, for me, I'll just put insome extra time outside of, you
know, work on this, you know,it's been a while since I was
part of a coup and it's kind ofcool to see if that old playbook
works and you know how to up.
Eric (20:30):
And if it, if it goes well, we can invest a greater
proportion of our time afterseries a,
Calathea (20:36):
Yeah, yeah, of course this is, I think this is way
down the line in terms of likewhat we want to do again, we're
so small of an organization thatthe need to topple governments
is something that we won't needto do for, you know, at least
another five years.
Matt (20:50):
for any businessperson.
Calathea (20:52):
Right?
Yeah.
Kate (20:54):
okay.
Well, I've taken up so muchtime.
I feel like I've stand up.
Kathy or Eric, do you want to gonext?
Eric (21:02):
well, we're on the topic of series a, um, you know, as,
as we've been tracking ourmonthly active user metrics,
we're getting pretty close tothe threshold.
We need to, to check that oneoff.
Um, so, um, I, I did have someof the UX designers and the
product teams redirect focus fora few weeks because.
(21:23):
Roger, um, you know, you know,the investor's kid, um, he sent
several support emails sayingthat he was not happy with the
new color scheme after werebranded a set.
He didn't like that there wasany meta blue in the, you know,
Kate (21:41):
um,
Eric (21:41):
in the interface, you know, gen alpha.
He's very, very passionate aboutthese things.
I respect it.
So we did have the team design,a full white label, uh, using
green and gold.
Elementary school colors.
Um, we've released it to him,uh, and he's, he's actually been
sending those, those linksaround and it's been a 6% bump
(22:05):
in monthly active users over thelast three days.
So, um,
Matt (22:09):
Wow.
Eric (22:10):
really surprising, but we, we may want to, to talk to the
rest of the kids and do this foreverybody, for every investor's
kid.
Matt (22:19):
Yeah.
That's really interesting.
Yeah, no, I wondered what wasgoing on with you when y'all
started putting together Rogersbuild.
Uh,
Eric (22:27):
Yeah,
Matt (22:30):
really cool.
Uh, everything about the app isthe same, right?
It's just the color scheme that.
Eric (22:36):
w w we default to the child size couches, but other
than that, it's the.
Matt (22:40):
Great.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Loving me.
Kate (22:44):
sounds good.
I guess of Califia writes off onthe color scheme, green and
gold.
Calathea (22:49):
Yeah.
I mean, it's not necessarilywhat I would have chosen, but,
um, I think we can work it intoour color palette, existing
color palette, and just make itseem like in the universe, but
not our main colors.
Eric (23:07):
Yeah, I think this is going to have to be something we
have to tackle at earlier than Iexpected, but as we grow, you
know, customer requests andwhite labels and, you know,
onsite and on on-premdeployments may, may become a
thing.
Um, so, you know, it's, it's,it's complexity.
Matt (23:24):
I mean, we're so close.
Like that closed series a isit's a F it's a flavor on my
tongue.
Eric (23:31):
It's right there.
Matt (23:31):
Uh, I almost feel.
Eric (23:33):
snowball.
Matt (23:34):
I, uh, I do have, uh, uh, an update on our metrics and,
um, Facebook finally, finally issending us their couch,
marketplace traffic.
So all, all posts on Facebookmarketplace.
Uh, yeah, I mean, we, wehandshake that deal.
It feels like years ago now.
And we put, we put ink on paper.
(23:54):
It feels like months ago now.
And finally they flipped theswitch.
So any marketplace posts thathas to do with.
Comes to us, it's ours.
Um, the only major issue is theydidn't put any geo-fencing on
it.
So like we serve, we serve ourmarkets, uh, and the, the rest
of these posts are currentlygoing into essentially, you
(24:17):
know, uh, a garbage can, um,there's, you know, folks in any
place we don't serve.
Uh, we got nothing for them.
So.
Kate (24:24):
only serve like five cities in the U S.
Matt (24:27):
no, you see the problem gate.
So, um, yeah, I don't, I don'tknow.
That's that's, uh, honestly,that's Facebook's problem.
Um, our, our agreement said, uh,you know, for our markets,
Kate (24:39):
Did it, or did John change that?
Matt (24:45):
good question.
I remember discussing that ouragreement should limit traffic
to only the cities where we havemarkets, uh, Believed that
Facebook would go for thatbecause it allows them to
essentially keep most of theworld, uh, while we only get our
few cities.
Um, I should revisit that.
(25:06):
Well, do we have any ideas forthis?
Like I'm, I'm happy to just letthese keep hitting the trashcan.
Calathea (25:12):
I mean, honestly, I do think that if there, you know,
we're getting that traffic, weshould at least like put
together a really quick splashpage.
That's something like comingsoon to you or something that
gets them to give us all oftheir information for when we do
expand into new areas, you know?
Matt (25:30):
the market research that you know, is very expensive to
do.
And right now we've got it forfree.
Calathea (25:35):
Right.
And then we could just basicallylike throw them back to the old
Facebook marketplace, butbasically make them go through a
portal where they have to giveus information in order to go
back.
Yeah.
Kate (25:46):
Yeah.
Maybe in that flow, we couldalso ask them to help donate to
bugs.
Be again, see if we can get
Eric (25:53):
oh.
Kate (25:53):
some free.
Calathea (25:55):
Yeah.
Yeah.
I think, I think maybe we, weshould really think about how we
create this like really funsplash page.
It's a little bit likeinteractive gets people
involved, gets them to get usinformation, maybe a little bit
of money and then shoots himback out where they were.
Matt (26:14):
I love it.
All right.
So we're building a new funnel.
Uh, basically just to get alittle bit information, a little
bit of cash, get people hooked.
Calathea (26:23):
I mean, it would look like we have incredible growth
into a bunch of new markets whenreally we're just, you know,
basically replicating one smallpart of the system.
And we could also, I mean,really brand our couches that we
send out as a premium experienceand maybe have banners for
people to sign up, to bealerted.
(26:45):
Perhaps give us a little bit ofmoney to be the first, to know
when that premium service comesto them.
Matt (26:52):
Has anybody ever crowdfunded a franchise?
Calathea (26:56):
Oh,
Eric (26:57):
That's compelling.
Calathea (26:58):
know, but that is a really interesting,
Matt (27:00):
Like, like citizens of Phoenix, you love moving
couches, but you want them tonot be so used.
So, you know, give us a thousandbucks and that'll go towards
opening a real office here.
Eric (27:12):
we could
Calathea (27:13):
could really bring bugs, be in and have like bring
bugs, be to your town, you know?
Kate (27:18):
Uh, Citizens?
Eric (27:22):
United now.
Kate (27:26):
No, I don't.
Yeah.
I don't think citizens United,but I will say that was one of
our ideas for like our, uh, ourcompany soccer team, you know,
citizens United, um, still don'tknow if it should go with it,
but anyway,
Matt (27:44):
We'll need, we still need five more.
Kate (27:47):
That's true.
We have eight need five.
Um,
Matt (27:51):
it's just, I mean, that's a minimum.
Like we, you know, that's not,that's a tiring game.
We need a deeper.
Kate (27:56):
yeah, yeah.
Uh, anyway, um, Califia I thinkyou're the only one who hasn't
gone.
So do you have, uh, any updatesfor.
Calathea (28:06):
Yeah, I just have a really, uh, small kind of update
is our team is realizing thatwith more and more people using
things like Siri and Google playand, or, you know, whatever the
Google name does or Alexa andthose kinds of things that we
really need to.
Matt (28:22):
Google.
Calathea (28:23):
I think this is just Google.
They really need to get creativeon that.
Matt (28:27):
You can say like Siri, Alexa, these, it sounded like
individuals.
And for Google, you say, okay,Google.
Calathea (28:32):
Even Microsoft has Cortana, you know, like really
good names, but, but Google, uh,it's just it's um, yeah, it's
distasteful.
Um, but anyway, as we are morepeople accessing the internet
through the voice, we'rethinking about how to build a
voice component out to our.
You know, website, and obviouslythis is something that we'd be
(28:55):
working with product on, butbefore we really go down that
capability, we just want to seewhat kind of look I will not
look but sound and field wereally want for what sits sounds
like.
So right now we're kind of goingthrough a lot of different voice
actors, uh, to really try tohammer down what the real brand
(29:19):
is for CIT.
You guys probably would haveprobably noticed that we have
Zach Braff in the office, um,
Matt (29:27):
that was him.
Calathea (29:28):
Yeah, that was him.
Um, he was very, he was verylovely to just sit down and try
a bunch of different voices, um,with us.
Um, we are considering him asthe voice of CIT, uh, and we
really just wanted to see whatkind of range he would offer us.
Matt (29:45):
How did it go?
Like, yeah.
Calathea (29:48):
It wouldn't well, you know, I'm, I'm not sure we're a
hundred percent ready to pullthe trigger on him, you know?
Yeah.
There's, you know, we reallywanted him to have a bigger
range.
So if we wanted, you know,something a little different
down the road, it would be, youknow, he would be able to grow
(30:11):
with us and we just didn't feellike he, you know, he gives us
sack BRAF, but is he reallygonna give us whatever that 2.0
experiences?
And, and maybe it's not even ahuman voice, uh, maybe it is.
Yeah.
It could be an animal, you know?
Um, it could be, uh, uh,something mechanical, you know,
(30:34):
it could be the voice of thewind.
Like we just have, there's a lotof different options for that.
Kate (30:38):
Could you like a very God-like voice?
You know, so it
Calathea (30:43):
We did, we did consider like a Morgan Freeman
kind of thing, but we felt like,you know, so many people go with
that.
James Earl Jones, Morgan Freemankind of thing.
We wanted something that soundeda little bit more unique.
Matt (30:54):
we even afford them?
Like I assume that they're,
Calathea (30:57):
Oh no, definitely not.
Yeah.
I mean, we really lucked in bycontracting with Zach Braff
before he got a couple of moviedeals and people like, you know,
his career is up on the epic ed.
Matt (31:08):
Um,
Calathea (31:10):
able to like get him in at a really low point.
Kate (31:13):
Yeah.
I, I know that, like, we getreally good deals when we work
with celebrities who are goingthrough some sort of, you know,
public shaming.
I feel like maybe post series a,we can get away from that
strategy, you know, not justtake the canceled celebrities,
but some of the others
Calathea (31:33):
yeah.
I mean, I definitely think thatthat would be.
know, nice.
I do like that.
They bring a little edginess toour brand that, um, that they
breed, you know, that having acanceled celebrity really
brings.
And it just, it depends on thecancellation, you know what it's
for?
Kate (31:53):
Do we have a name yet for what our voice will be?
Calathea (31:58):
don't actually, you know, I was thinking kind of
Google, but we haven't reallyfigured that out.
I mean, the obvious choice isBugsby and to have that be, you
know, him
Matt (32:07):
now that bugs me is emancipated.
Eric (32:10):
Do we have the voice rights?
Matt (32:12):
for that.
Calathea (32:12):
Yeah.
Let's not forget what happenedin Iowa with his city council
campaign.
Um, you know, I will be honest,we are thinking about moving
away from Bugsby as a mascot andreally thinking about, um, new
avenues to go down.
Eric (32:29):
Oh my goodness.
Kate (32:29):
Um,
Calathea (32:30):
it's not, it's not official.
We haven't decided obviously,um, you know, uh, but yeah.
Matt (32:37):
you're having to go through that.
Califia.
Eric (32:39):
Uh,
Matt (32:40):
heavy.
Calathea (32:41):
Yeah, it's really difficult.
He's become a real brand briskand, you know, I have to
separate my love for him as hisprogeneter with.
Uh, my job to protect the brandof this company.
And that's just put me in somereally difficult times.
Kate (33:00):
I went through the same thing with the mantis shrimp.
I don't know if you've noticedthey're not here anymore, but
Matt (33:06):
I wonder.
Kate (33:07):
it wasn't safe for them or for us anymore.
Um, apparently I got some sortof genetically modified.
Anyway, just trying to beempathetic.
Eric (33:20):
we're really growing up.
Kate (33:21):
Yeah,
Calathea (33:22):
is that what's the hole in the wall is in the break
room.
Kate (33:27):
yeah.
Yeah.
They, they jump apparently inthis version and are quite
powerful.
Matt (33:36):
Yeah, I mean, meant to shrimper, powerful.
Like that's they punch, theypunch it.
Supersonic speeds.
They create quantum physicseffects in the water.
Calathea (33:45):
Yeah.
Kate (33:46):
true.
It's true.
Um, we thought that concretewalls would, would hold the
back, but that's no, there's,there are some, I guess
foundation issues I should say,on the operations team office.
So we may be relocating.
Eric (34:01):
oh, wow.
Kate (34:02):
but for now we're all just trained in earthquake proofing.
If, if we see the wall move, wedon't how to evacuate quickly.
Matt (34:09):
Oh, wow.
Well, I hope
Calathea (34:10):
oh, wow.
Yeah.
Matt (34:14):
hair.
Mantis shrimp.
Kate (34:16):
That's the saddest part.
But anyway, um, okay.
I guess we're good on standupthen.
Matt (34:27):
Yeah, I guess.
Kate (34:29):
Good meeting folks.
All right.
I will see you all soon and I'llstop this recording.
Ben (34:36):
This meeting has ended.
To subscribe to this startup isbeing recorded.
Go to the podcast player of yourchoice and tap a button that
likely says subscribe.
More content is on Twitter atstartup recorded, or shoot us an
email with ideas, feedback, oryour personal startup horror
story.
At hello@startuprecorded.com.
Kate is played by ValerieGarrison.
(34:57):
Valerie is a health tech productmanager and regularly plays with
the improv troupe letters tochicken online.
You can find her on Twitter atthevalgarris eric has played by
Barry wright Barry is a productmanager at Spotify and a
co-founder of Highwire Improv.
Find him by his name onLinkedIn, where he holds regular
office hours or athighwireimprov.com.
Matt is played by Marty Mcguire.
(35:18):
Marty is a senior web engineerand improviser in New York city.
You can find Marty's comedy codeand cats on his website at M M G
dot R E.
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