Leo's Lemonade (Lorde, Emails, Fundraising)
Postcard 35
G’day mates!
Greetings from Melbourne! I feel like I traded my sexy Sydney red Ferrari for a solid but rugged jeep. Melbourne is cooler, duller, but arguably has more “personality”.
On the Agenda
(Personal) Meet My Heros 🦸♂️
(Biz Update) Meet My Co-Founders
(Biz Update) Leaked Emails 😱
(Biz Update) Product Slide Deck
(Q&A) Kings & King-Makers
1. Meet My Heroes 🦸♂️
Lorde. Stunning. Authentic. Innovative performer. She makes being vulnerable cool— whether it’s feeling like a failure or panicking in her hotel room before the show. My favorite line: “… the moment when someone looked at me and said ‘who the f*** do you think you are— what are you doing’ and I said: I am exactly who I told you I was … I am exactly what you signed up for… (cheers 👏🎊) and I will continue to be that until I die .. because that’s what it’s all about…” Her speech and dance are on my YouTube.
Martin Shkreli. Unapologetically himself. All business students must watch his Forbes interview. Watch it here.
Building a Billion-Dollar Business Series 📺🍿
Leo is “Building a Billion-Dollar Business”® while doing his “One Year of Travel, New Year New Me”®. He is currently founding a technology startup which he hopes will be the largest in the world. Follow along!
Table of Contents
Disclaimer: My goofiness and public persona are a part of me that I will never change. I’m very accountable when it comes to people, objectives and money. I believe in professionalism in business and strive to act on it in my day-to-day.
2. Meet My Co-Founders
Since I will be talking about my co-founders in my “Building a Billion-Dollar Business”® series, I might as well introduce you to them now.
Meet Gidon. Big personality. You’ll see it the second you meet him. Originally from Amsterdam, he’s currently in Buenos Aires studying Spanish. He’s level B2 and hopes to advance to C1 before he leaves.
G loves going on first dates. Never on second ones. Why? Because it’s fun for him. Me— I’d rather stay at home and read books. In fact— When I was a kid, I used to go to the library and check out 20-25 books at a time. A week later, I was back for more.
He and I couldn’t be more different, yet we are the same. What do I mean?
People tell you things. They tell you to have more friends. They tell you to be more extroverted. They tell you to go on more dates (and hookups). G was the first person who said “F*** that. Don’t do that. Be yourself. Never change who you are.” Hearing those words from him really changed my perspective.
G makes millions of dollars a year and works only 2 hours a day. I can confirm because I was by his side for 2 whole weeks and never saw him work. That’s not to say he never has 12-hour days, but he taught me that anything is possible.
Meet Tal. He’s my other co-founder and one of the sweetest people you’ll ever meet. If Gidon is the “father figure”, then Tal would be the “mother figure”. He’s from Israel and currently residing at our company HQ in Madrid.
T has incredible empathy. He’s currently looking for his breakaway moment— pursuing full-time acting. Did you know— he was almost cast as Rio in the popular show Money Heist? He was second-in-line 🥲. Now he’s auditioning to be cast in the next season of Elite. Maybe you’ll see him on 📺?
G & T are both sales-guys. They love to take a product or idea and bring it to a lot of people. This gives them a ton of energy. Me? I’m more product-minded. But I realize that eventually I’ll need somebody to sell the things I’m making. So I tell T: “Hey listen. I don’t need you. Not right now.” Although T understands this— this has actually been quite hard for him to accept. You see, for him things are binary. Either he goes 100% at it or 0%. And for years, he’s never had to rely on anyone but himself and Gidon. Now is the first time he’s had to put his trust in someone else (me) 🥺.
We have what Isabel calls “soul-level connections”. We talk about what’s on our minds first, then we catch up. As a result, our calls are quick, efficient, and energy-boosting.
Fact: Delka Talents was started as an excuse for G & T to work together. Peers is an (ongoing) excuse for us to work together.
Last thing I’ll say is this:
G & T are hungry for more. They’ve started to realize that connections can only take you so far. To reach the next level (ie. Billions), you need to build a tech company. That’s where the wealth is.
The adage: “Ideas are sh*t; execution is what matters” is true. You can’t sell an idea for a billion dollars. “At some point, you gotta actually make the stuff”. Google isn’t just an idea. They have a whole suite of products + killer engineering + a research factory behind them.
But happiness first. Always. That’s why Tal’s pursuing acting. That’s why I’m traveling the world. We never compromise on personal happiness. After all, if we’re not enjoying what we’re doing, then why do it?
Two weeks I’ll be in Japan. Did you know we (Delka Talents) work with creators in Japan? Maybe T will set me up with something. Perhaps a little tour with one of our creators. Or a box of Japanese snacks sent to my doorstep. That would be fun.
3. Leaked Emails 😱
Some dude said: "The only business writing worth reading are leaked emails."
I disagree, but I thought I'd share anyway as I think the following e-mail will be insightful for y’all.
Context: We’ve been working with a designer on a trial basis for the last two weeks. We were very pleased with his work and would like to continue with him. However, he charges $6k/mo which is currently out of our budget.
Tip: Adapt to your teammates’ working styles. G & T — They don’t like to read or write. That’s O.K — so I rarely send them writing. This is the first email I've sent in over two weeks.
As an entrepreneur, you face significant resource constraints. In fact, that’s part of the fun.
To secure funding, I proposed 3 options:
Raise money (from Angels or VC)
Consideration: Do we want a 10% equity dilution?
Get a 2nd job
Consideration: Siphons time + energy away from me.
Transfer from Delka Talents
Consideration: They have their own budget.
I was told that 3 is not an option and that even Jeff Bezos (Amazon) raises outside investment to finance new ventures. Why? Because of investor connections. You pay for domain expertise and they also help you with strategic relationships. G proposed we set a date. Let’s say one month from now. If we don’t raise money by then, then I can take on a 2nd job, which G will help me find.
Takeaway: Shift focus towards fundraising.
Two questions immediately come to mind:
How much do we raise?
At what valuation?
Q1: How much do we raise?
3 Months for MVP - 1 Designer x $7k/mo x 2mo = $14k - 2 Developers x $10k/mo x 3mo = $60k - 3 Co-Founders x $2.5k/mo x 3mo = $22.5k + 50% Buffer = $144.7k So I think it's fair to say we'll raise $200k.
Q2: At what valuation?
Based on the fact that we also have Delka Talents, we estimate $10M is a reasonable (pre-money) valuation. So if we raise $200k, we’d be giving away 2% of our company.
Our philosophy is simple. We delight the people who work with us and we reward the investors who believe in us. Really, that’s all.
4. Product Slide Deck
We’ll be sending this deck to investors along with our Investment deck. This presentation will also be used to onboard new members to the team.
Slide 01: Title
Q: Why do people buy tickets to sports games? The view is garbage. You can watch it on higher resolution on TV at home.
A: The energy. The crowd. The roars. You interact with other people. Players feed off the energy of the fans, and fans feed off the energy of each other.
Slide 02: Delka Talents vs Peers
FAQ: What's the difference between Delka Talents and Peers?
1. Literally: Delka Talents is an influencer-marketing agency. Peers is a technology platform.
2. Our Mission Statements: Delka Talents connects creators with brands. Peers connects creators with fans.
Slide 03: Go-to-Market Strategy
Case Study:
MySpace was one of the most successful companies of all time. (Fact: More people used MySpace than Google). Now it's dead, but during its day it was great. Let's rewind the clock... MySpace launched in August 2003. Within 1 month, they had 1M active users. How?? Previously, Tom and Chris (Founders) ran an internet-marketing agency called eUniverse. eUniverse had 20 million email subscribers. They used their list to spread the word. It worked. Within 1 month, they had 1M users. Within 9 months, they had 5M.
We will use Delka Talents to launch Peers.
Run promotions with our influencers
Onboard our creators onto the platform
Delka Talents Influencer Stats (Source):
122M+ YouTube Subscribers
17B+ YouTube Views
65M+ Instagram Followers
50M+ TikTok Followers
6B+ TikTok Monthly Likes
Over the last 3.5 years, Delka Talents has built long-term relationships with the largest influencers in the world. We have also built strategic relationships with potential acquirers such as YouTube. Gidon (our co-founder) is personally friends with the founders of Patreon and Linktree.
Slide 04: Surface-Level Problem
After interviewing hundreds of creators, we noticed a problem...
The YouTube comments section sucks.
1. It's spam. Bots copy and post the same messages across different videos. It's inauthentic.
2. You have no idea who your fans are. You click on a profile and you have no information about the person behind it. It's useless.
There is no engagement between creator and audience.
If that's not enough, ..
Here's MrBeast, the largest creator on YouTube (134M subscribers), directly addressing our problem. Link (13:08 - 15:30)
Slide 05: (Under the Iceberg) Problem
What's really going on?
Financial
Existing platforms do not support a healthy creator monetization ecosystem. Creators resort to turning elsewhere to pursue their passions.
Relationships
Creators are not able to develop authentic relationships with their fans. Community is the #1 thing for creators.
Slide 06: Transition
You're in your room. Alone. Watching the World Cup on your TV. You're lonely and depressed.
Slide 07: Peers
Enter Peers.
Peers is a virtual fan stadium.
Our 15-second vision of the platfrom can be found here.
Slide 08: Pillars
Fan Community
Problem: I don't know who my fans are.
How well do our competitors address this problem?
Peers (Excellent), Discord (Mediocre), Reddit (Mediocre), Twitch (Poor), YouTube Comments (Poor), Patreon (Poor), OnlyFans (Poor)
Direct Creator-to-Fan Relationship
Problem: I can't build meaningful relationships with my fans.
How well do our competitors address this problem?
Peers (Excellent), Patreon (Poor), OnlyFans (Poor), Reddit (Poor), YouTube Comments (Poor)
Creator Monetization
Problem: I can't make money on the platform.
How well do our competitors address this problem?
Peers (Excellent), OnlyFans (Good), Patreon (Decent), YouTube (Decent), TikTok (Poor), Instagram (Poor)
Slide 09: Transition
Features bridge the gap between problem and solution.
Slide 10: Features
Core Features
Creator Communities
Reddit communities are centered around topic. Peers communities are centered around people. Communities will be enabled by default.
Fan Profile
Detailed Profile (Picture, Bio, Post History, Previous Interactions)
Active Comments Section
Look at Reddit. You never look at a top comment and say "This is irrelevant." We want to recreate a "fan stadium" environment.
Additional Features
Paid Subscriptions, Short-Form Video, Long-Form Video, Polls, Giveaways, Digital Coins, Badges, Verified Creators, Paid vs Free Posts, Targeted Visibility (Toggle), Paid Comments, Paywalls, Paid DMs / Tipping, Close Friends (Instagram), Fan Leaderboard
Slide 11: Closing
We're always looking for passionate people to join us.
👉 Contact me at leo@delkatalents.com 👈
5. Q&A
Q1: Why do I do this?
Two reasons. Fun and loyalty. "Building a Billion-Dollar Business" is fun. I wake up every day and it’s play. And it gives me a sense of purpose— and a nice catchphrase I can tell other people. Number two is the people I work with. I like them. A lot. And they like me back. What else can you possibly ask for?
Q2: Why are you an “HR-first” company?
Multiple reasons. Longevity is #1 or #2. Let’s say Peers doesn’t work out. Right? 99% of startups fail. But if we have the right people, then we try again. And again. And again and again and again and again and again and again. And again. Or do something else. There really are no limits.
Q3: What’s in a title?
A title is often smoke and mirrors. Especially at later-stage companies— a CEO comes with a lot of boring responsibilities. Why trade operational flexibility for a title? That would be the dumbest move ever. You'd rather be the king-maker than the king:
Q4: What’s one thing you learned?
People tend to charge what they’re worth. Is it possible to hire a great developer with $0? Yes, but it’s challenging. Relationship-building is probably your best bet— but that’s a long-term game that must be offset with time-to-market. Plus, if you really care about the people you work with (which we do), then wouldn’t you want them to be generously rewarded?
Q5: What’s been your biggest challenge?
Managing timezones is a bit tricky. I’m in Australia. G’s in Buenos Aires. Our calls are either at 9am or 9pm. No in-between. I’m also working with people from LA, New York, Austin, India, Poland, Malaysia, and more. To complicate things, America recently had its Daylight Savings shift. Europe will soon follow. Most other countries don’t move their clocks. I installed a widget to help me out:
Q6: Would you hire this guy?
What do you say? Should I 📞 him? Let's make this interactive 😃
That’s a wrap! Here are a few things you can do to help me make “Building a Billion-Dollar Business”® the best series ever!
Browse the Directory. I’m putting the full series here. Bear with me, I’m updating the pages as I go 😃.
Ask me questions 🙏 Reply to this email or leave them in the comments below and if I like them, then I’ll feature you in my next edition!
Have a great week!
Leo A
I'm fascinated by the level of your transparency. You've described the unique benefits of your product idea. What stops another company with the capital you are currently looking for from picking up on this idea and rolling it out? I ask because I have a few business ideas myself I'd like to develop at some point, but have always heard of the danger of someone else stealing your idea and getting there first. Would love to hear your thinking behind sharing your process so openly.
I like a good bezos reference. Reminded me of how obsessed he was with the customer and their needs.
Btw thanks for the personal note Leo. Inspired me to get back on here again.