Ep 42 - One-of-A-Kind Events with Co-Founders Celeste Durve and Kelsi Kitchener of Viper

0:00I have two guests on the podcast today, Celeste Derv and Kelsey Kitchener. They've been featured in a bunch of publications like Forbes and Business Insider for starting their experiential talent agency at ages 20 and 24. Their business is called Viper, and it's about making amazing experiences, whether you're at the VIP area at SoFi Stadium, a launch party by Kanye West, or a corporate event from Apple, making these amazing experiences even better and one of a kind. Kelsey and Celeste are seven years into building their business, navigating pandemics, a recession, and the changing expectations of younger consumers.

0:40Yes, even though they're in their 20s, Celeste and Kelsey, they need to think about folks 10 years younger than them and what they expect out of an event. Some really cool business building and marketing lessons here, such as measuring the ROI of a party, some really creative ways to make parties and experiences better, A-B testing, creating company culture. Viper now has 150 folks in the payroll and a really fun anecdote about getting a cold call from Kanye West's CFO. You're going to like this episode. Enjoy.

1:14Welcome to the High EQ Marketer. I'm John Busby. This show is about learning from the best and most interesting marketers in the world, which are, not a coincidence, highly emotionally intelligent. If you'd like inspiration, lessons, war stories from startups or Fortune 500 companies, that's why we're here. So let's go.

1:36Hi, Celeste. Hi, Kelsey. How are you? Good to see you. Hi. Thank you for having us. We're excited to be here. Yeah, of course. I'm pumped to talk to you. Let's start out, actually, if you could describe your business, Viper by KCH. Yes, Viper by KCH is the technical name, but we just go by Viper, Viper Girls now. But we're an experiential talent agency. So what that means is we work in the world of events, nightlife and live experiences. And we're an all-female team of about 150 girls based in LA. And we come in and we do anything that is guest experience. So we check your guests in at a party.

2:15We are your cocktail servers, your brand ambassadors, your promo models. You can cast the girls to appear in your music video or on your brand campaign. So anything that is related to how a brand or an artist connects to their fans and that intermediate, that liaison space is what we do. And you have what I would call a dream client list. Kim Kardashian, Apple, Billie Eilish, et cetera, for these high-end or bespoke experiences. How the heck did this all start for you? Take me back to the moment where you felt like you could start a business. And I don't know, for me, a lot of times when I'm around a celebrity, it's not like I'm around them all the time, but there's almost like a confidence issue of wanting to approach someone or pitch my business.

3:10Anyway, tell me how it all started. Oh, wow. So we actually just celebrated our seventh birthday yesterday. So a little over seven years ago, Celeste and I were interning for a production company based in Los Angeles. And because of our personalities and our work ethic, we were always just put at the front door. we were charismatic and were able to handle very fast paced situations. So when we were interning, we were always kind of put wherever, but mainly the front door. And this one event in particular, Celeste had been on site for about 12 hours. I had shown up. I didn't even know she was working the event.

3:53And we ran into each other, like walking out at the very end. And she goes, wait, did you attend this or were you working? I was like, no, I was walking guests in. And she goes, I was letting guests in. How is it that we were just a few feet away from one another and it's so unorganized that we're not even able to know that the other person's here? I said, yeah, this was a disaster. So she called me the next day. She's like, hey, I have this idea. And she's like, what if we bring our own friends and we just streamline that front of house check and process for events. And I was like, yeah, that sounds cool.

4:32She's like, you know, we could, she's like, we could charge a little extra and for like the behind the scenes work that we do, but it wasn't really, it was not like the idea of a company. Well, then we sat down with a coach, um, Celeste in particular sat down with like one of our clients or that is now our clients. And he gave us some pointers and then we started getting called more and more and more. And we're like, wait, we actually have something here. This is kind of cool. So then the next step is, I think we borrowed a little, a tiny, tiny bit of money from our parents that we had to pay back immediately.

5:06And we went and met with a lawyer and we incorporated. So it was really from just one disastrous event that this idea was born. Well, so many businesses, and it's such a cool story. So many businesses are started by recognizing a problem, which you clearly did. There was an event that you were working that was totally unorganized. You felt like you could improve it. And now you've scaled. You said you have more than 100 teammates, 100 employees. And what do you feel like you do better than anyone else? And then as you've scaled and really starting your first business probably, or your first business at scale, what have been some of the unexpected challenges along the way.

5:51Yeah, I would say one thing that we do better than anyone else, and I think that this is the reason we continue to get called is we have an incredible team. Kelsey and I spend a lot of time as leaders building our team up and making sure that they take ownership of the brand. We put a lot of time into company culture so that when the girls are on site with clients and with events, they take so much ownership and they do such a good job that the product really does speak for itself. As we've scaled the business, you know, like Kel said, we started as just doing the door and now we have tons of different services.

6:23Now we have a partnership with SoFi Stadium and, you know, a bunch of bigger partnerships, but Kel and I can't physically be everywhere at once. So it's really important that our girls are able to represent us on site and keep our clients coming back. So something we take a lot of pride in is our company culture. We take care of them. They take care of us. That's kind of like the system that we've built. And I'd say our team is by far unparalleled. We actually, we had a six week partnership with Carl Lagerfeld for the at the Grove, he did a pop up store. And they did the exact same pop up in New York at the same time with a different agency.

6:59And our team doubled the sales versus the New York team. And I think it's just because our you know, we're so good to them. And then they're so happy to be there that we just it kind of all works together. But as far challenges. We've had all of them. We have had every single challenge you could have. First off, Kelsey and I both come from single moms and we both come from very humble beginnings. My mom's an immigrant and Kelsey actually grew up in Reno. I grew up in LA, but we never had extra money to spare. So there's no investor here. There's no, we weren't getting credit cards and loans. We had no extra capital.

7:39So I mean, that alone is very challenging. We wanted to make sure the girls were competitively paid because that's important to our business model and it's important to us and our mission. But for years that came at the expense of us taking salaries, we held down side jobs to make our rent so that we could take the money from the business, invest it back and pay the girls well. So capital was a very challenging thing for us. COVID was very challenging for us came out of COVID hit a recession you know we've continued to scale the brand in really unique ways and right now we're actually in the middle of another pivot and another expansion um but that was really hard you know and we were young when we started I think initially I was 20 Kels would have been 22 23 so imagine walking into a world of nightlife and events being like, hi, I'm 20.

8:29Take me seriously. That was challenging too. So yeah, as far as what challenges did we have? Every single one. Let me ask you a couple of follow-up questions there. I'm particularly interested in the company culture sort of leadership ethos. How do you establish that when someone comes on board? Do you have formal training or is there online materials or is stuff happening in person or do you have leaders on your team that you delegate to? What's the process by which everyone feels like they're part of Viper? So I believe it really does come from our management team. Our management team is incredible.

9:13Like I bow down to them. They are phenomenal girls. Like one, they're also young and they have really kind of come up with us and their belief in what we have created and what we are continuing to create is just like probably fuels me the most. Um, they are definitely the ones that like set the tone for the other girls who want to become Viper girls. So we, you know, Celeste and I kind of oversee everything. And then we have our management team who they're really on the ground and like, you know, one-on-one with all these girls. Um, I think it really starts with our hiring, um, destiny who handles all of our hiring and bringing on new talent.

10:02She is incredible. And she's very, very strict. Like there's a lot of, she, she critiques everything, but it's because when you are the first impression for Apple, for Elon Musk, for SoFi stadium, these are major, major clients that our reputation's on the line. So she goes through and has a list of things of like, these are the marks you got to hit. And if you don't, it's okay. It's just, this isn't the right job for you. So I would say that like company culture and like how girls are brought on really starts with our management team. Yeah, that's such a cool story. And I also want to ask a follow-up about talking about sort of bootstrapping the business, not taking on, you know, venture money or anything like that.

10:52When you've come and you've gotten a lot of your early business and maybe still from word of mouth, have you paid for any marketing or have you thought about any marketing investments yourself or are you growing totally organically through word of out? So we've always just grown organically through word of mouth. You know, we've looked into paid marketing, but in the world of events, like there's like, there's like big websites, I won't name them, but like, there's like big websites you can pay and, you know, they push you out. But the thing is like, they're very expensive and there's not like a necessary guaranteed ROI.

11:30So we haven't done it that way. What we have done is really like showcase our product and let the product speak for itself. And you know, Kelsey and I, before we used to take a spend a lot of time taking clients out. I mean, we would pretty much spend every day and night, just back to back meetings, dinners, we don't do it as much anymore, just because we've kind of grown up a little bit. And we can't physically be at nightclubs all the time anymore. That would be impossible and exhausting. But right now, we really now rely on like our girls to then go be the girls who do the word of mouth. So I think potentially in the future, we will use some marketing.

12:07I mean, right now we use minor things, Google ads, Facebook ads, but it's very minimal. Like we don't spend a lot of money there at all. And honestly, I will say this too, it's kind of a blessing and a curse, you know, because we were the celebrity go-to, it almost helped us that we didn't do marketing. Because with the world of celebrities, it's like, if you know, you know, you know, so we would get I remember I was literally in the car driving to get a coffee. And I get a random call. And I'm like, Hello, and the guy's like, Hi, I'm so I got your number from so and so I'm the CFO at Yeezy. And I want to book you for all the Kanye West listening parties.

12:46This was when he was dropping like kids see ghosts and all of these albums back to back. And it almost worked in our favor that we weren't like everywhere, because these like celebrity managers and celebrity executives were like, oh, that's the team we need to use. It's boutique, it's whatever. So now we're expanding. We probably will explore it, but we've never really done it up until now. Well, I think if you don't need to, don't do it. Yeah. When you were right before you said that I was thinking like, if you know, you know. I want to ask about actually the process of throwing an event or creating an event.

13:32You know, we were talking off air before hitting record about Coachella, it's next weekend or it's coming up soon. If I'm thinking about creating an event, what are some of the key gotchas to think about? Because a lot of this audience might control marketing for a corporate event or some type of brand event. What are sort of like the top things that you want to know from someone like me when I'm trying to create an event? Yeah. So when Celeste and I come in to consult for anyone on an event that, you know, whether it be big or small, the things that we really, really hit home on, because we believe that like, when you go to event, you are taking time out of your day to like be in the presence of other people.

14:24So you want to have a good time. And my biggest thing is the, the, for at least you want to have an experience. So from the second you arrive, obviously you want to check in with the Viper girls, but even from then it's the, how the music's curated lighting and really the people you want to have a room full of people. And so something that we started to offer was Viper ambiance and we offer, um, atmosphere models and the Viper ambiance team can come in, fill, help fill the room of like these beautiful women that are charismatic. They're fun. And they They elevate the space just by the energy that they add to it.

15:05So that was something that we noticed. We're like, what makes an event fun? Yeah, it can be the most beautiful event in the world. But if you're not enjoying yourself with the people that you're surrounding, you know, you're surrounded with, then you're like, okay, I just want to go home. I can go home and be cozy. So that was something that we started to offer was the Viper Ambience team to come in and be like, hey, they're here to really elevate the event, the energy event, to make sure that your guests are having fun from the second that they check in with a Viper girl, but then also inside when they're just mingling with the Viper girls.

15:39And they don't even know that they are Viper girls. They're just there to just add space to be a beautiful face in the room. How do your clients, I guess they're measuring their success in some way via happiness, how they feel, the reactions they get from others. If and when clients ask, how do I measure the ROI or how do I help sort of choose the right choices to make for a party? What do you advise them? So it depends on the service that they're hiring us for. For example, our partnership with SoFi Stadium. So we do everything from we hired, we recruited, we hired, we trained the staff that's in there.

16:22It's our Viper team at the VIP lounge, which is on the field. So this is like their celebrities, their VIPs, all of that. So everything from the management in there, and then your bottle servers, your hosts, and then Kelsey and I are, we also consult for the stadium directly. They're going to notice that difference in, okay, first of all, you guys have the, you know, the friendliest staff that is actually catering to my guests who are in here, my VIPs, they're happy to be here. You'll also notice that the girls start to know all your VIPs by name, when they come back, you'll notice that your sales are going up because the girls are great servers.

16:57You'll notice that you're not having missing money at the end of the day, because girls can't figure out the POS system. It's because we have a system for everything where everything's organized. And then you'll start getting like extra things. The girls will be like, Hey, we should get, you know, can we put all the girls in uniforms to make sure this is uniform in the stadiums? Like, wow, great idea. And they'll go the extra mile, you know, and we've also brought things to the stadium. We're like, what if we created this? What if we created, you know, a certain drink just for the guests that come in here?

17:28What if we pushed some press in here? You know, Kelsey and I bring press into the stadium all the time. And then now the stadium's in variety and now the stadium's in so-and-so because we've used our connections. We sell tables. So now their table sales are going up, you know, just from our Viper network. So there's tons of ways to measure the ROI and also just by, of course, the consumer happiness. Like we get guests all the time that are like, oh my God, the Viber experience is crazy. Like they have so much fun. Um, because for them, like being treated nicely and having servers and hosts who are just happy to be there and happy to, you know, be serving you makes a big difference.

18:08I know for me, like there's nothing worse than when I go to a restaurant and the hostess is like so rude or in a bad mood because there's an energy transfer, you know, any room you're in, there's an energy in that space. So it's so important and it completely changes the dynamic in a room when your staff is happy to be there. You'll spend more money, you know, all of that. And for, and with the Grove example that I gave you earlier, like they quite literally, they sent us an email. They were like, you guys doubled the sales that this other agency did in New York. Like that's crazy, you know, and that's a bit of a different ROI.

18:42That's, we managed inventory really well. We staffed really well. We recruited really well. We did a great training. We also did content for them. You know, we had a photographer come in, we had a videographer come in, we put it on social media. So there's a lot of moving parts, you know, and I think that sometimes people look at Viper and they're like, Oh, the girls do the door. I'm like, yeah, but it's a lot more than that. You know, you're getting a real ROI here. Well, that's a, that's a great segue because, um, you've launched your own podcast and I think you, chose a very deliberate name, which is smart is sexy.

19:15Talk about why you chose that name and how you think about your company's brand and how you scale your business. It feels like it's in some way a reaction to, oh, Viper does the door. That's how I would think about it. Yeah. So when we chose the name, something at the time, something Celeste and I were so passionate about, we were seeing a huge rise in OnlyFans. And that was something that was not necessarily alarming, but I in particular was just like, wow, we're seeing a lot of girls, you know, they're kind of like selling themselves based off their looks. And I'm like, wouldn't it be so incredible if all of these same girls were also like, wait, but I have something to say.

20:01And I'm actually highly intelligent and can carry on a conversation. And I can talk about raising money for a company or what's going on in the world, like, you know, economically or within our, within politics. And we wanted to have a platform where we could talk about, you know, more important issues and like self-awareness rather than just, Oh, like, look at how beautiful I am. Cause we see that so much. There's nothing wrong with it by any means, but we, we really felt passionate about like, you know, influencing a younger generation to feel like, wait, I can, I can look a certain way, but then I can also be really, really smart.

20:40I don't have to be one or the other. You can be both things. And, you know, to us, sexiness means something different to every single person. So we really wanted to like hit home on like, Hey, being smart is really, really cool. It's sexy. It's like, that is currency being smart and sexy. That's a home run for people. So we really just wanted to influence a younger generation to feel like, wow, when they listen to the podcast, Smart is Sexy, they take something that we've said and they're like, I'm going to implement this in my day-to-day life and be sexier for it. No, no question. And Celeste, you were suggesting before that you're thinking about pivoting or maybe going in new directions.

21:23I don't know if there's anything you want to share. Is it different cities, different companies, different services? What are you thinking about? What's the future? We're actually very excited to talk about this because it is brand new for us. But so, you know, with first of all, post COVID, COVID changed a lot for the events industry, the nightlife industry. It completely changed the way people go out. Secondly, social media changed the way people go out. You know, one, this younger generation, they're not going out as much because their validation is not coming from going out and meeting people.

21:55It's coming from TikTok and YouTube and social media likes. And that's also where they're meeting people. That's how they're finding work. That's how they're making money. Like it's all social media based. So then we see companies with traditional marketing budgets that used to go spend a ton of money in events and get live impressions are now putting that money towards content because like, I can get a bigger, you know, my, they're getting a much wider range of impressions and they don't necessarily need to spend as much in live events. So we're super excited to be announcing Viper casting and Viper UGC.

22:28So with Viper casting, you can cast any of our girls for your brand campaign, your music video, literally anything, a live audience, anything that you're going to film. And then with Viper UGC, which is our user generated content, you can just hire the girls to make content for you. So you can pick one of our girls and have her film a video and send it in and you can use it for your brand. And we're super excited. We just partnered with this production company that is also a TikTok partner. And as they get, they basically get, they like go out for bids from TikTok directly. And then they come to us for the talent.

23:02So it's brand new. We haven't even like put it on Instagram yet. So it's, you guys are the first to know, but we are so excited about this. This also is significantly easier for us to scale. Because right now Viper does have a presence in Miami, in New York and in Vegas, but But it's a little bit more difficult to scale that portion of what we do because the girls are vetted and you do have to train them. And then you want to keep them on site. And we do have equipment that comes out. We have iPads and tech and stuff like that. So scaling UGC and modeling with the presence that we already have should be a lot easier for us.

23:41So we are so excited about that. That's amazing. And so if someone wants to, wants to book a Viper girl, how do they do that? Do they go to your site or how do they reach out or how will they once it's officially launched? So once it's officially launched, we will be putting things up on the site, but realistically, like how everyone reaches out is just, they can literally head to the site and send us a quick email that our email contact emails and everything's on there. we'll be figuring out a way, like as we're right now, we're in like the process of like figuring out the best way to like kind of put all of this talent in one place.

24:20So clients and anyone who wants to bring on a Viper girl is able to go on and be like, Oh, this is all, this is their entire roster that they have. Amazing. This is what I can kind of see before I even do any of the hiring. So we're working on all that right now. It's been very, very fun. It's been different. And like the pivot is really exciting because I think, you know, like Celeste said earlier, the way the world is changing, we, even though like we may not love it, we all have to adapt and evolve with it. So, and that's what we're doing. Viper started off as finding something that didn't really exist before as like a full team.

24:57And we'll continue to find the ways in which like we can put ourselves and like more like niche areas. So this is really, really fun. It's exciting. The expansion is limitless, quite literally, because we with UGC and casting, like the girls have to be in a certain location, especially with UGC. Like the girls can be anywhere creating content for these brands and they get to then, you know, make a TikTok or do something that they're feeling passionate about. And then they can go to class if you're in college or, oh, if you're a nurse, then you can go ahead to your next shift. This is giving women also the opportunity to have another stream of income coming in other than just what their career path is.

25:43Kelsey, Celeste, I'm so excited to see how it goes. And congrats on the upcoming launch and the growth of your business. Great to talk to you today. Thank you. Thank you for having us. We honestly had a great time. Yeah, this was really fun.