The Creator Equity Partnership Model, Billboards Are Back And Nat's Brand Win

0:00This episode of Female Founder World is presented by Omnisend. Hi everyone, welcome back to Female Founder World. I'm Jasmine, I'm the host of the show. Hi guys, I'm Natalie. I'm a team member at Female Founder World and also the founder of Beach Street Swim. Hi, I'm Paige. I'm one of the co-founders of Benny and lucky to be a contributor here at Female Founder World as well. We're all back. I feel like it's been, what, three weeks? Two weeks? How long since we've all been on the show? Too long. too long i'm so excited the gang is back the band the gang is back everyone's back in europe i did not go to europe actually speaking about europe can we actually kick off with can and the fact that oh my gosh yeah perhaps they've just discovered that there are b2b influences for the first time because i don't know i don't know for people who don't know what um can is it's basically this big media and advertising event that happens in the south of france every year it goes for a week the brands spend like big big budgets brands like adobe the social media platforms all the big agencies are there like everyone is there but it's usually very insidery and very gatekept and it is it was kind of like you know fashion week was only the editors and then the creators started coming and that happened a long time ago and now fashion is dominated by influencers and creators cam was just this event that still remained totally industry gatekept influencers did not really get invitations and creators didn't go and then for some reason this year I don't know if the organizers have just realized that creators exist or what's going on because everyone is there and from what I've heard from b2b creators people were just like emailing the brands that sponsor them on social and saying can I come this year once they heard that everyone was going and you know everyone's getting flown first class to the south of France I want to go so bad.

1:51If anyone's listening, please, I'll post anything. I would love to. I did see, so last year, like my like God tier influencers, like Tanks, Jake Shane, Robin Del Monte, they were all there. I haven't seen a ton of creators there yet, but you're right, Jasmine. I feel like a lot of these like worky creators, I need to get into my algorithm, but a lot of brand founders I've seen and I've been asked many times or like I was over the last few weeks like will you be at can i'm like that is flattering absolutely i will not but maybe i've seen a lot of brands well we should do a little female founder world pop up we should actually this is i'll be in your mind you're reading my mind yeah i'll hold it down yeah twist my arm there's actual actual topics that we really want to get into on the show but before we do Natalie what guys I have a such a good story about this weekend if you haven't seen Bethany Frankel is wearing my swimsuits in France insane wow so great little segue there but oh my god I was just sidebarring with page right before you popped on Jasmine I was just so shocked I was at a pop-up for my brand and the pop-ups were going like well but I wasn't like you know slinging bikini wait in Montauk in Montauk yeah the pop-up was gorgeous by the way it was so much fun like it was a great pop-up I was really happy and then all of a sudden they got the notification about that and my whole family was like celebrating and it's funny because it's like she posted one thing we were going crazy she posted another thing we were going crazy and it's like I don't know four days later and she's just still posting in this bikini and it's just hilarious like I love how she just keeps on going like she's really on one she's enjoying herself she looks amazing and the ironic part which I feel like so many founders will relate to is it's the only style we didn't restock with our restock because it was our least popular style and go figure like we're getting our restock this week and like this one style is the only thing we don't have oh my so So it's great.

3:59She says she converts and she truly does, I can attest. So it's been super exciting. And like, she just looks amazing. So that makes me really happy. How did she find you? there's a girl from my high school shout out alex and i've worked with her through content for a couple of years now and when we work together we've just really like hit it off and she does so many side quests and i believe working with bethany is a recent endeavor more of like a side hustle and it was news to me i didn't even know she was working with her and alex had bought a couple of bathing she bought one and then she bought another then she bought another because she just loved them and she was like I think Bethany would love your one piece and I that's our hero product so far so I was like of course I'll give you one if you want to give it to her but as many people know when that happens you never really know like you're throwing something into the ether you don't really know if they're ever gonna wear it let alone if they're even gonna like it and I kind of forgot about it wasn't really getting my hopes up and she ended up wearing and styling this piece that was kind of an afterthought to send her and my friend Alex she has I mean Bethany has a massive team I was telling Paige in our group chat people pack for her people know what she's gonna post she kind of went rogue and packed this uh swimsuit my friend didn't know so she was like I was shocked when she posted and then like tagged so I don't know it's been kind of crazy amazing congrats well thanks guys we love this it's amazing truly anyone I feel like like on social if you're wanting to watch a brand be built in real time like this is like so classic female founder world story I'm loving following along beach street it is that is so true thank you guys for the support okay first thing we want to talk about guys billboards and out of home what's happening that do you want to take this one yeah this is something that I've just noticed so much lately and I don't know if it's just because I've had my head buried in the algorithm and I'm feeling like it's so cluttered or if it's just because it's something new and fresh but I'm curious what people listening to this think and what you guys think about this too.

6:01I just feel like after 15, almost 20 years of just feed heavy marketing, digital launches, it's, it's noise to me. And when I see wheat pasting, I see a billboard, even an interactive billboard. If you guys haven't seen this yet, Tower 28 recently did one and I found it to be so unique and it just caught my eye rather than a digital launcher, a digital, um, like a digital billboard even we see people using AI to create those all the time but yeah I think that this physical marketing is sidestepping that competition and the noise online I've also found with a little bit of research that it doesn't always necessarily have to be super expensive like it can be cheaper than an online campaign but whoever's walking around in like a high traffic area especially in Brooklyn especially in New York City it's a really good way to just think about how you want to do marketing in a different environment.

6:57And I think this also lends itself to some consumer mindset shift. There's psychology behind it. It kind of legitimizes your brand. We talk about returning to in real life events post-COVID and just like the analog experience of mail, of things that you can touch and feel and walk by. So I don't know. I'm curious what you guys think about this if it's something that we'll see more of or or not yeah I find this so interesting because I agree I've seen more brands do it and I've become more and more curious about this revival of the out of home ad so the tower 28 thing that you mentioned is really cool basically they had an interactive campaign where you could could you like I think a press a button yeah and it was like the sos spray their rescue spray one of their face products and the billboard the tagline said this billboard will save your skin.

7:50So those interactive campaigns, I think, are really, really smart. But it's also about the billboard itself is a content opportunity, isn't it? It's something that you can send people to go and interact with. I do think in the age of when people partner with creators as well, when you're trying to find a way to really integrate them into a campaign and get them excited and get their community excited, there's still something about the exclusive feeling or that I've made it feeling of having like a big billboard in an iconic space. Like if you can have even 30 seconds of our time in like Times Square or whatever, if you can do that and you can have the founders there for that moment, that's a viral content opportunity.

8:29And that really works. Or if you can have a creator and say, we're going to, as part of this campaign, you're going to be on a billboard in Times Square. Like they're going to go and post about that because it's an exciting milestone career moment for them and so I do think that there are really smart ways to take the in real life activation and bring it online as well. I think it may be cheaper to even have talent with a lesser fee with the promise that it'll be on a billboard or there'll be ad space in Times Square for example because as a creator myself that wants me to want to work with the brand or like want to do content organically yeah we've done exactly that I think we stumbled into it like very organically so we've done now one white posting campaign in New York like kind of everywhere all over Soho one billboard like still billboard for about a month in Soho and a Times Square billboard campaign and I would think like these are you know we're spending six figures on all of this and we're really not if you guys listen to the end maybe I will feature my billboard guy as our smart swap I want to gatekeep him but they're so good and exactly that has like played out we've been able to negotiate way lower rates with creators and really just like feel like we're all a part of this like big win like for us like a big billboard in Soho was like so pinch me and for the creator like they went and posted about it all the time and we got way more content than we originally negotiated we got lower rates which was awesome but I think there's like that pattern breaking that you guys are talking about of like like billboards are cool and like sexy in a way that an ad just is not anymore and I'm loving it I want everyone to do them but then I'm like oh my god all of my New York inventory is gonna be taken up but it's been really really like money well well spent there's a couple great examples that I know retailers love it too so symbiotica if you guys know they do like those like vitamin sachets and pouches they did a billboard in Minnesota which is HQ for Target around their Target launch and they had like this like interactive three not interactive but 3D billboard down a wall downtown that was like the pouches kind of like down the wall which the billboard itself was amazing content opportunity I'm sure it was really affordable compared to New York doing it in Minnesota but I know from our experience with retailers like they are so tickled and like excited if you're going to be doing a billboard that's like shouting from the rooftop literally go buy this at Walmart whatever um it's such a win you guys are sleeping on billboards I did a campaign with a like baby food company called La Puree and this was quite recently and I don't really do a lot of partnerships on my own account I do them through female founder what if I do partnerships but I like the founder she's in the community and she said oh we're also going to do a billboard and it'll be a photo of you and your baby and you and your mom and I was like amazing mom like my family doesn't totally understand what I do my mom does my dad doesn't but if you're on a billboard you can be like hey mom and dad like this is what I do and I do think there's an element of like actually legitimizing I think a lot of the time if you're a creator and you do this like ephemeral thing on the internet actually having that physical manifestation on a billboard makes it just so much more exciting I agree form recently did something like that oh yeah the um workout company by sammy clark and sammy spalter i know sammy yeah sammy clark and sammy spalter and they had some sort of launch and that moment of them all standing in front in times square is just takes up more space in my memory than whatever the launch was digitally because they did like a whole digital piece to it but i loved the content surrounding that so for me like i'm i'm talking about it right now like i just i remember that what does it cost page oh it's so runs the gamut so my guy is really wonderful and I will share that rec I won't gatekeep it because we're in the group chat but I'll wait till the end of the show so like a white posting or weed pasting whatever you want to say campaign like that will run us like maybe eight thousand dollars but we've done like big like big everywhere you could do way less but what's interesting about weed pasting I didn't realize this when we were last doing a campaign our wonderful out of home guy was like just so you know like this could get covered up in 10 minutes it could be up for a week like you literally don't know um so that is one thing on we pacing it's the cheapest but you have like no predictability but it's so cute for content like I would still do it again because I just think it's so cute um and you probably could do like as little as two posters do you buy the the inventory the real estate or is it literally like you are just wild posting wherever there's a certain space in New York and it's like a free for all yeah I think it is really a free for all but they have like their roots it was actually funny when I was so we didn't put it up obviously there's you know people that do it but we go for our content moment and we were doing this before our um holiday launch at Target and while we were putting ours up there was like another team kind of like 10 minutes behind us like covering them up and we met the team it was fine they left some and like they were so nice but we met the team and they actually I don't know if you remember this Natalie because they were everywhere in New York they did all of Sophie Povett's white posting all over New York and they do them this team and I got their phone number I don't work with them I still work with my guy but um they do them higher they do them really really high up so they're not getting covered so I think it's like these like kind of typical spot that you'll do it and we got to pick like what our like route we wanted to do it was actually really fun it was like a scavenger hunt like we had like you know like a pin drop everywhere and I would I would do it again but that's just one thing to know if you're expecting you know I'm gonna put them up and then my talent will come the next day like it probably won't even be there the next day interesting okay I want to talk about the next topic now and this is one that you brought to the chat page around Tara Bosch Snackish and the creator equity model talk us through this what's happening yes this is so fun to get to talk about like publicly so tara bosch is the founder of smart suites she started it when she was like 22 years old sold it for almost 400 million dollars like three years later which is insane she was the first like low sugar candy if you guys aren't familiar with smart suites you need to try it it's so good um so she's been an advisor for benny for years now and she's wonderful and she shared with us probably a year and a half ago that she was working on a new business so I've known about this for so long and I have not been able to tell anyone but it's like popping off now I think just like I was saying for Beach Street and like I totally mean that Natalie it's such a case study this is such a case study Tara's new business on like check check check how a second time founder would do it and you can watch it happen in real time so they officially launched it's called Snackish last week it's like similar to what she did with candy, but with chips.

15:39So it's, you know, the indulgence of chips, but it has protein and fiber and lower calorie, like no junk, great stuff. Obviously, because of her exit with SmartSweet, she's able to self-fund it now. And because she's holding on to so much equity, she's been doing a really interesting job bringing on a ton of creators as equity partners. and they've been announcing it on social as, oh my gosh, I think co-owners, which I really like. Like we've done similar in the past. So we have one right now, we're working on bringing in a few more, but we've got one creator that is like a co, you know, creative directory vibe with Benny.

16:21And I don't remember how we publicly like announced her. And I think we'll do it again under this verbiage because I think this co-owner, like when you're on the inside, there's so many terms that we could use as brand founders but as a true just consumer of whoever's creator content co-owner just really makes sense and clicks but it's gone so viral I feel like they're obviously I'm watching this with a microscope but they are getting so much content like I think they're basically sold out of Target now they launched nationally with Target in the US Whole Foods in Canada I saw um this like the co-owner announcement with the creator Kat Stickler is that her name?

17:01Yeah. I like her. And I saw that she kind of announced like, oh, I'm a co-owner of this, you know, snack company and talk through it. And then you kind of pop this into the chat. And it's interesting because I am seeing a lot of conversation at the moment about this idea of creators having equity and creators being investors in brands. And I know that the investor platform Invest with Chero, which is a way to connect with early stage investors as a brand. they now have a um chief creator officer not creative creator and it's nadia okamoto the founder of august she's like a big influencer herself as well and basically the they're bring they're connecting brands and creators under this equity model i think it's very very interesting do you know what how you structure something like this or like what you give away like if nat wanted to go and do this now how do you go and approach a creator and what are they expecting back and how do you make sure that they're delivering and not just you know taking the equity and never posting about you totally it's such a hard thing and I'm curious what you guys think I think this is one of the many hard things of building a business literally from zero so this was something that we wanted to do at Benny pre-launch like we wanted to do essentially what Snackish has done so launch with all these creators as partners but when you're like a nobody 23 year old on a zoom call with this creator they're like that sounds really nice but no offense your equity like literally means nothing to me like why would I take a bet on you and it's beyond even investors I think for creators it's obviously like a bit of reputational risk for them as well so we had many conversations pre-launched with Benny and I was just like this is not gonna you know be fruitful maybe we could bring some people in but unless people are like so excited a lot of people wanted equity and then we're paying them a ton and I was just like this isn't working out um but now we've been able to bring in people that we work with like either in campaigns or we've worked with them for a while or they just know the brand at this point like we exist so I don't know like pre-launch unless you're a Tara Bosch I just don't know people you can do it I know people could do it I think Natalie you're at a really fun spot if you would ever want to do that with Beach Street because now you're like a viral brand.

19:17You've got your like carrot of really exciting press, but it's like the sky's the limit for Beach Street. You know, I think it's like a really fun moment to pitch that kind of thing. You think Bethany wants equity? Yeah. Why not? She converts. Yeah. No, for real. I have been saying this for years. I remember 2023, I asked my brother who's in the finance world, how can I leverage being a creator in terms of equity and being an investor in that way. And he's like, I don't really know if like a lot of people do that, but I could totally see that being a thing. And I'm actually surprised it's not more of a thing.

19:55And since that moment, I have seen a lot of conversations. I can't tell you how many people have actually asked me about it who are like scared to dip their toes in angel investing maybe, but have so much expertise in content and would rather maybe have a bit of equity rather than get paid for brand deals. so I think this is just only the beginning we're gonna see this all the time and I'm really curious how it should how it will be structured I do think that the one thing is that they have to be so totally obsessed with the brand yeah rather than like here are the deliverables here's what you have to do this is what you have to post they have to just ride or die for this product long before that conversation comes into play but I think we're gonna see so much of this I also think it needs to be really buttoned up around like what the expectations are like the language you know uh with snackish they obviously agreed that the language would be co-owner rather than investor or partner or something like that and then exactly what the expectations are and like some kind of vesting schedule because just I can see I know what it's like often to work with creators and you're like I've paid you money for this and it hasn't happened and you know I can just imagine if you'd given away a piece of equity and that relationship didn't work out but I saw um one brand do this in a really interesting way and that is an Aussie brand called tbh you guys follow rach wild you would I think she's like yes yes yeah so she started um a company called booth booth I don't know but honestly it's so good I use it like my hair is so thick now it works it's a what is it it's a scalp oh the serum yeah it works I just thought it would be I thought it was going to be marketing hype but genuinely like I have all of this new hair anyway but she partnered with a creator called Indie Clinton and for the launch I think they came on as just a paid kind of partnership and then she's become a co-owner in the business now because I think she was genuinely she like proved herself through that launch period and then once that relationship was de-risked I think then they brought her in as an equity partner to continue fronting the brand and from what I can see that seems to have worked really really well but that's a great blueprint for people to look into it's it's definitely interesting and I feel like you guys have definitely seen this firsthand I know Natalie would have and Jasmine you had as well dodging the management when you're trying to have a conversation not about a campaign is really really hard so that's something that we found really hard so I think like you said Jasmine when you've got that personal relationship like now it's just someone that you're texting or someone that you can connect with without that gatekeeper what we have found as well anyone could totally do this like big groups like CAA WME talent agencies will have a total equity only like division that I'm sure they'll chat with anyone um so if you find that contact online that's a nice kind of way in if you're really you know gung-ho and finding the right partner I believe Mesa did that for Behave right yeah she went that route yeah let's have a really quick update about the fundraising landscape.

23:01I've spoken on our Instagram stories, the female founder of Instagram stories and asked folks like, what do you want us to chat about on the group chat show this week and laid out all of these options. And a lot of people came back saying they wanted to get an update on the fundraising landscape and where things are at. Paige, I know that you're fundraising at the moment. And so you're probably speaking with a lot of other business owners and brands that are fundraising. So I am curious about what you're hearing and where things are at for early stage brands. Yeah, it is tough out there. It is crazy.

23:32I'm sure it always is tough out there. And it's so funny. So we kind of kicked off a fundraise, I would say, like March, April. And it's going well, but we had such high expectations. And, you know, Benny is not like to the moon, but we're a proven business, multimillion in revenue, really bootstrapped. And like we have our, you know, we've got the traction. that I think would make a fundraise really easy. And pre-fundraise, we talked to so many founders that had recently fundraised and they were like, this will take you like a month. Like it's gonna be so good and so easy. And nothing ever is.

24:08Like it is every bit what I thought it would be. And it's fine, but I do think the investor kind of climate is in such a weird spot. I think it's a few things. And I know you guys have so many thoughts on this, But from really across the board, any founder that I'm talking to right now, like this is our first real formal fundraise. But everyone that I'm talking to right now is saying this is like the hardest time they've ever done it. And I really want to hear your thoughts. But one more thing before I pass the mic, I was just in the Female Founder World group chat, chatting with someone in there on like how they wanted to fund their launch.

24:44And I think that's such a common FAQ for female founder world. Founders is like, should I raise money to start my business? And I hate to be like such a pessimist, but I just don't think you can raise money to start your business, to be honest. Like, I don't know who's investing in pre-launch companies anymore. And I don't think it's maybe there are people and correct me if I'm wrong, but it feels almost predatory at this point for investors to be doing that. I don't think it would be a very like mutually beneficial situation or, you know, equity exchange. But the good news is there's so many grants, loans.

25:23I found angels and high net worths are always really great. So those pieces like are kind of the caveat outside of a true VC fundaries. But to any founders that are like, I need to raise XYZ before I launch. Like, I think maybe now is the time that you find other options. Just don't let that be the thing to stop you from starting because there are other options that you'll probably be really glad you didn't fundraise. That's my soapbox. I think people are really quick to jump to the fundraising piece and forget that there are a lot of scrappy options. We talk about them all the time. And it's funny because I am now in the founder world and we're totally bootstrapped.

26:04But a lot of my founder friends have been saying this for the past year, maybe even year and a half and I hadn't really like noticed it firsthand and I don't know just like living in this world I've I've started to notice it and because of that I feel like a lot of people are selling earlier than they had ever anticipated before and Paige I think you mentioned in our group chat like that was a conversation that you had um just because like how many times are we going to go back and fundraise until we sell if it's going to keep going like this but the one thing I will say for any early stage founders that are know this route is something they want to explore there's never a wrong time to start building the relationships like the earlier the better so use this maybe downtime to just build true genuine relationships that you can you know hopefully build on in the future you know I am all about making those smart swaps in your business that reduce friction and reduce your costs right now the smartest swap you can make is moving to OmniSend.

27:03OmniSend is this email and SMS marketing platform that is super, super easy to use. And they've just dropped their SMS pricing. So you can now send a marketing SMS for a fraction of a cent. It's literally seven tenths of a cent to send a marketing SMS with OmniSend. Plus they will migrate you onto the platform from whatever email and SMS marketing tool you're using right now for free within five days when you sign up to a paid plan. we have a special offer for our female founder world community if you use the code ffw35 you will get 35 % off trying out omnisend you can head to the link in the show notes or just go to omnisend.com and check out the platform for yourself okay should we do our swaps who wants to kick off page i'm eager to hear yours so so his name is hunter but his company is called the supper club and they do all kinds of out of home.

27:57They're amazing, really good rates. Just like such a treat to work with. They work with all the brands you love. Benny, obviously. They work with Saws is how I got connected to them. Lots of cool brands, but I will literally just email Hunter and be like, hi, I'm working with this creator. She wants a billboard this week at XYZ and he will find it for me and it will be a great rate and he's just the best. So if you're like, how do I even get started with billboards? because I'd met with so many of like the big, like I don't even know, the big companies. He's a treat. So the separate club. Mine is social media related.

28:33I was using repurpose.io when there was the scare that TikTok was going to be deleted and I had literally everything on there. So you can create an account and anything that you are posting, let's say on TikTok, for example, you can syndicate to Reels or Shorts or vice versa and you can program it exactly how you want to, even if you have more than one account. So you can also actually, I believe, download everything and save it to your drive. I don't know, there's a lot to play around with there. But if you're one of those people that's like, oh, our TikToks do super well. I wish we just had time to post them on Instagram if you're a brand.

29:08Even I've used it, I mainly use it for my personal content. Yeah, it's like worth checking out. Mine, it feels basic now that I'm thinking about it, But my spot this week is listening to biographies and autobiographies. And there are a couple specifically that I want to recommend. But the reason why I want to recommend this is because I am so sick of consuming junk that people have just put five seconds in at some ephemeral thoughts they've had. And then I'm watching it on TikTok and it's infiltrating the way that I think and my worldview. you and I'm just trying to be way more mindful about my content diet and I want to think about inputting things into my brain that are that people have spent months or years producing like these big biographies and autobiographical works and there are two that I really like I listen to them on audible I'm not reading them but the first one that I love and I've listened to this a couple of times and I just listened to it again because he died in January, in May.

30:13It's Call Me Ted. It's the Ted Turner autobiography and he is also the voice and he's like a real character. Like he has a lot of, I don't know, he's a very charismatic guy and so listening to his voice tell his life story is just so inspiring and interesting and captivating and he's the person who started CNN and he also started the UN Foundation. He was one of the, I don't know, I guess like early philanthropists. He was a billionaire and he donated a billion dollars to start the UN Foundation and then encouraged Bill Gates to become this big philanthropist and a lot of other wealthy people at the time, super wealthy people at the time.

31:03And now I'm listening to Titans. it's not an autobiography it's a biography so it's written by you know someone else and it's called Titan it's by Ron Chernow and it's the story of John D Rockefeller and that is I'm going to read both of those really great like I'm loving loving that I'm about halfway through and I think it's like helpful to listen to these life story like this it can help kind of contextualize I think we can feel so rushed when you're like scrolling and seeing these quick wins everyone's sharing on like TikTok and Instagram and LinkedIn and I just find it helpful to zoom out and see these people tell their story as like a full life and like what do you want your full life to look like and what does winning and achievement look like in the context of 80 years or 70 years or 100 years or however however long and it's um it's been helpful as I've been thinking about okay I want to do be more intentional with what I'm building and have a more long-term view and listening to these stories about absolute titans has been helpful in doing that.

32:05Does that make sense? I love it. Yeah, I'm obsessed. All right, everyone, that's the show. We'll see you next week. Bye. Thanks.