The Woman Investing $60M Into Creators On Finding The Next Mr. Beast, The Future of Influencers, and Venture Capital

24:15I won't name names, but she has an amazing community. She is probably doing like a million or just shy of a million in advertising revenue. And because she's so deep in this vertical, she's like, there's a huge problem here that I'm hearing from both the supply and the demand of this vertical and like I want to go build a company around it and like I kind of have like the starts of an idea of that company and like what it could be but like I want to just test yeah and so for her it would be going to like build a team both for content and this company and just like really making a go at this idea the scariest thing for slow ventures is that I feel like you guys are investing in a lot of first-time founders which traditionally Silicon Valley has liked to stay away from because second-time founders just have a better shot at the opportunity You don't know your unknowns, right?

25:02So how do you guys think about first-time founders or first-time creator entrepreneurs and like your involvement in mentorship and guidance? Yeah. Well, so we do seed investing for, you know what I mean? Like we've done seed investing for a decade. Can you find seed investing for people that don't know what that is? Yeah. So it's really, really early stage investing. Usually your first round of raising outside capital. But you're making money as a business? Not necessarily. Okay. Like we've funded so many entrepreneurs where it's basically a person and an idea. Okay. We want to be usually the first money in or like very early.

25:32Yeah. Oftentimes they're first time founders. Yeah. And I think like what we've gotten really, really good at is identifying some of these same properties or dynamics in people where you're like, okay, they have it. You know, whether that's a creator or whether it's a founder or whether they're a creator entrepreneur or whatever, like that's what we do. You said something like they have it. And that was one of the questions from the community when I told people you were coming on is that they were like, how does she define if they have the it factor? So to sum it up like super succinctly, it's like – it's almost like do they have the charisma of one of these like visionary CEOs or creators?

26:12Kind of we were talking about earlier of like, can you bring people along for the journey? Can you get them bought in? Whether that's like watching your content, telling the story, like communicating like a narrative, right? Yeah. Like it's kind of this like charisma level. And then I think the second piece is like, are you so irrationally obsessed with whatever you're doing? Yeah. And like, it's kind of like defies logic a little bit. Yeah. It's just like very positive delusion. Yeah. In like the best way possible. I think you just described me to a T. I was like, you literally transformed your living room.

26:45I'm like, yeah. It's like, like even like my like latest Bottega bag that you can't get rid of. Like I put HSR on it. I was like, I am HSR. Like I would get a tattoo at this point. Yes, yes. But it's hard to describe this. And again, I think that goes back to the why, right? It's like those people that are delusionally obsessed with what they do because they have something bigger than themselves. And I often find like people coming to me being like, I don't, I want to create content, but like, I'm not really sure. And I'm just like, what are you obsessed with? Like, what are you obsessed with solving problems around?

27:14And I think that is for anybody who's listening that wants to be an entrepreneur or a creator. It's like, you actually have to find a problem and I can open up my book and I love doing this with HSR, but my problem that I felt my whole life was like, I could not be authentically myself at work. Like I was having to hide the consumer self of like wanting to be beautiful, wanting to post bikini selfies, wanting to talk about my relationship. The thing that makes me a good consumer is in my opinion, actually what makes me a great investor, what makes me great at my job. And I always felt this sense of judgment and this sense of like, I won't be taken seriously because of the sound of my voice, or if I wear this outfit, or I won't be taken seriously if I date this person or talk about this on my social media.

27:58And so, you know, getting a breast augmentation and like talking about that online. And then the next video talking about angel investing, I think it's shocking for people, but really it's like, it's so much bigger than me. It's, it's truly for the woman who like, I can name so many women I've worked with that have said to me, like, I couldn't find my voice before you worked with me because I was so afraid of, like, speaking up in meetings or, like, being perceived the wrong way. And now I feel like I can try to be myself. And so for me, it's like HSR can live on without me because it's not about me.

28:31It's not me trying to be famous. It's me trying to empower women to, like, be able to talk about surgery or their relationship or their siblings or whatever it is they're going through in their actual life. Whatever it is, whether it's like, you know, what you just described or a hobbyist category, like it could be anything. Yeah. There's just this level, yeah, of obsession is like kind of what we look for. When you find a creator that you're obsessed with, walk us through. And for people that don't know, diligence. Diligence is what you do when you find something that you're interested in. You want to invest in it, whether it's a person or a company.

29:07On the creator side, I can assume that diligence looks very different when you're investing into somebody. So when you find somebody that you're obsessed with, what type of diligence are you doing to get to a deal where you invest capital into their holding company? Surprisingly, it's not so dissimilar from seed investing. Okay. Or like in seed, the things that matter are the person and the market, right? Like, is this interesting? What are the competitive dynamics? How are they as a founder? Their why, right? Like what makes them so uniquely, like what is their like unique insight and to go do this thing.

29:41So all of that also exists in creator investing where it's like, it's obviously about the person. You can do some category analysis. The thing that's different is the community. And so we actually spend a lot of time understanding who are the super fans? Why are they super fans? Like how does this person show up in their life, right? Like what role does this person play? And you can just, you can learn a lot by like talking to the customers. Let's talk about a specific situation that actually happened to me when I was on the brand side. So I'm so interested in your take on this. So I was helping a brand of mine bring in a creator that was going to be doing like a licensing deal plus like an event and a few social posts.

30:21And they were going to get equity in exchange for that plus like a$25 ,000 fee to show up in an event. This creator had like 4 million followers and looked online like she had great engagement. There aren't like the creator tools that exist today four years ago when I did this, but it was wild to me that four people showed up at a pop-up for an Instagram influencer with 4 million followers. Like that is the stuff that is either just like the anomaly or is just so incredibly hard to value community on. Like how do you guys think about numbers? That is crazy. I can tell you another situation. This is serious tea, but I worked for a celebrity, more of like a traditional music artist.

31:03We did a deal with an activewear brand and she sold seven pairs of leggings. The activewear brand literally wanted to kill me. She didn't sell any of the sports bras, seven pairs of leggings. Yeah. Well, look, I think we have the benefit of data, right? Like you can actually see – and I don't know if you did this back, you know, four years or not. But like you can see what they've sold, right? Like you can see where they've converted. A lot of these creators too are now throwing events. You can literally see who's showing up in person and how many people and what they're paying to do so. Like I went to a conference, which is honestly now like an industry event for a very specific creator.

31:47And he had like 1 ,200 people there. Oh, my God. For like$3 ,000 a pop. like is this brian johnson no but i love brian johnson okay no like and it's funny enough like no one would ever have heard of this person like no one in our world would like know who this person is okay and we like you know we're on the phone with him we're i was like you know great event blah blah thanks for having me and he's like good news like i pre-sold the same amount for next year i'm like tuesday on nbc jimmy fallon and bozemast john host the highly anticipated new competition I hired 10 creatives from all walks of life.

32:23They will be battling it out to see who can impress the world's biggest brands. This is a huge opportunity. This is the battle for the next big idea. This is not play play. We're spending millions of dollars. I'm so excited to embark on this adventure with all of you. Make the best idea win! On Brand with Jimmy Fallon. Series premiere Tuesday on NBC.

32:46When did making plans get this complicated? It's time to streamline with WhatsApp, the secure messaging app that brings the whole group together. Use polls to settle dinner plans. Send event invites and pin messages so no one forgets mom's 60th. And never miss a meme or milestone. All protected with end-to-end encryption. It's time for WhatsApp. Message privately with everyone. Learn more at whatsapp.com. Holy shit. Sometimes I feel like being on the creator side now too, it's like you don't even believe it really for yourself because there was actually somebody that messaged me yesterday and was like oh my god I'm such a fan of yours and like I watched all your videos like every single day for the last like three years and it's just like interesting to hear it sometimes because you're like why like I don't get it like it's so amazing have you ever like asked them like I think yeah it's a very similar answer to like why I'm doing it it's like I feel like I can be myself and like I can actually be a girl's girl in a corporate environment and in a startup world that will make me succeed.

33:50Yeah. And I can be myself. Yeah. And I think that is like, do you find that working with all men, like it's hard to be yourself sometimes? I mean, slow is a quirky place. Slow is different, yeah. In other environments for sure. But it's so funny that you bring this up because I was thinking about this the other day of like there's, I'm just like formulating different like whys, like why people attach. and one of them for sure is like I see myself in the person so like think about like Martha Stewart like she gave all of these women like basically validation to be like being a housewife is like freaking rad and like it is super important and it's very real and like you should it should be taken seriously and like gave credence to this community of women and I think that like a lot of what we hear from fans of creators are just like I see myself in this person and like they in return like almost see me yeah and it's like really interesting so it's just it's very very powerful it's so interesting that you say that because to be super vulnerable like I think for so long like I was on the girl boss train of like I want to be this like independent I think I had grown up in a situation where I knew like financial independence was always very important to me as a female.

35:04And then, you know, until I met Courtney, I was like so focused on my career. And like, there was never a person that I really would consider having to sacrifice for in terms of like those kind of duties of being like a housewife or whatever. And so one of the things that I think every creator goes through as they evolve is like that iteration with their audience. And I think for me now, you know, it's funny, I joke like being Courtney's girlfriend, it's like a full-time job, which it is. And like, I think for me, one of the key messages that I want to have for women is I think there's like those leaders in society that are like the girl boss.

35:37Like this is like you being independent. And like my worst nightmare I talked about on the last podcast episode is like waking up at 40 alone and being like, I prioritize my entire career for everything else that I want in my life, which is like a family and a relationship and a partnership. And I think where I want HSR to evolve to is like, you can still be a boss and still be independent and creative and, you know, very intelligent and also be a great partner and like also have a home life and not to keep bringing up Mr. Beast, but I listened to his podcast with Diary of a CEO yesterday and he talked about his, you know, partner and, um, Stephen said, how do you make it work with traveling 200 days a year, being obsessed with your life, being obsessed with your job?

36:22And he says very simply, you know, I've, it's very hard to find an independent, intelligent woman that sacrifices and like works around my schedule. Yeah. And I think old Maggie would have been like, so adverse to that, like that is the anti female empowerment. And now I actually feel like that is kind of my life in a way. And it was like very scary to go through that change of like, even introducing Courtney on my channels and like showing people like, I have a whole other job, which is like to be his girlfriend and wife and like a VC wag of sorts, if you will. Have you seen other creators like struggle with that evolution of like they start somewhere and then they are like evolving their life as they would because they're people, right?

37:04We don't say the same. I think it's actually a great thing for creators because what happens is you kind of weed out the tourists, right? Like in a way when you evolve, which by the way is like also just to be like commercial about it, like gives you so much more opportunity to like do cool shit for sure and like you know tap into other parts of your life and whatever um and that's also the beauty of creators it's like your surface area of opportunity is just so much greater yeah because you're a dynamic person with lots of interests but it does like you know if someone follows you for one very specific thing and you evolve away from that and kind of you know you're gonna end up with the people who just care about you right like the true super fan so i actually think it's like an amazing moment to be like this is my like you know core circle of people and that's like who you want anyway yeah you know it's so funny that you say that because when I first started creating content and my biggest piece of advice for anybody that wants to be a creator is I wanted to feel like you were at dinner with me so like if you and I were at dinner like we just did at lunch like it's like we're talking about relationships we're talking about surgery we're talking about business we're talking about moving like it is a dynamic conversation the blessing to that is that you get your true fans which I feel like I now have I wouldn't even call them fans I'd say it's like true relationships with the community.

38:17But the negative is like, you don't grow quickly, but you guys are only investing into creators that actually are not these mass audiences, right? They're more niche. A hundred percent. And I think like, again, it gives you, we would so much rather invest behind someone that has like deep, deep, like deep well of relationships with their community versus someone who's like super mass and it's all about numbers and scale and growth and blah, blah, blah. Like, it's just not, I think, where, like, the most interesting stuff is coming anymore. And so we would so much rather, you know, have a creator where their fans love everything that they do and, like, engage with every touch point they put out versus someone who's just, like, headline number, I'm growing at this rate, and, like, just focus on growth.

39:03Well, and I think that's actually, like, you guys are really solving a problem because that's something I struggled with. I would say, like, more than a year ago, it was this really big struggle of brands coming to me and being like, here's our budget. And it's like a value of how many followers I have. And I was like, I can convert. I'll give you an example with a technology that we actually use in our own company. I was a creator for them off of one video. They had$250 ,000 of software sales. And let's just say that the deal for that video was going to be like five grand. And it's like, you just made$250 ,000 of ARR off of a$5 ,000 investment into a media property.

39:44And so one of the biggest struggles that we had was like, we knew our value because we had that niche audience and like, we were never able to get the brand deal to be at a place where it was like valuing us to where we were providing value. And I think that's where you guys come in is like to those creators that are like that niche focus that like have that conversion because the audience trusts them. Well, it's just, it's all about incentives, right? Like brands have a very short term incentive, right? And it's like a measured ROI that, you know, that marketer or that CMO is going to get, you know, in their performance review in three weeks, like we'll be judged on that.

40:22And I think we take a very longer term point of view. I mean, like our fund structure is 10 plus years. Like, yeah, this is a long term, like, you go slow to go fast type of thing. And I think like, we just have a very different incentive structure. Yeah. So a creator wants to pitch you after listening to this episode, they're like, I have a niche audience, I have 30 ,000 followers, I want to take on a million dollars to do X, Y, and Z projects. How are they positioning themselves? What information do they need to provide you? Like, what are they doing to get your attention and to actually get a conversation going with you?

40:57I would focus on the vertical, why you're like uniquely suited for that specific vertical, why you're the authority of high credibility in it. And then talk about your community, being like, I've done X, Y, and Z, and this is why people love me. And like, I own this little niche in this corner of the world. And like, oh, by the way, guys, it's actually huge. Yeah. And here's the opportunity I see. And like, these are the types of businesses I want to go build. And are they putting like to be super tactical? Are they doing like a pitch deck like they were a company? We do get pitch decks, which is very different from like two years ago where like the idea of a creator having a pitch deck and like some of these, I'm like, these are amazing.

41:34Like where'd you guys get these? AI. Is there like a consultant out there? Is this like a killer pitch deck? Some have pitch decks, some don't. And then we also do this thing where like, you know, we'll meet amazing creators and like sometimes they just need a like whiteboard session and like, you know, and just be like, who are you? Like, what do you care about? What are you really good at? And like, what do you want to bring to the world? And like, well, we can sometimes sit down with creators and do that sort of thing. And almost like not co-create a business plan, but just like help them think through some of the opportunity set.

42:09Especially for creators where we know they are like first rate in whatever they do and whatever vertical and like have such an amazing opportunity ahead of them. They just need, they like need some of the language, you know, like talk about it. And they also need just like the bandwidth and support. I think that's one of the hardest things about when you're raising money, whether it's a startup or whether it's a creator, it's like, it's such a distraction from the core business. And one of the things that's uniquely hard about being a creator is like, you are the bottleneck, right? Like you are the face.

42:35So specifically when it relates to content, like you can't hire a fill in for that. Right. So I think for the time that it takes for people to get to that point where like, they're even getting an investment like what is the time frame that you get pitched that you're like okay now we're ready to make an investment so it's not such a distraction for the creator it totally depends it's like all over the map I mean we've we've had relationships with creators for years before we've invested which like sometimes is the best because they should get to like know them on a personal level like see what they're about versus like going super fast but look I think like if a creator comes to us with like a super tight pitch like we can move really fast.

43:14It's just a question of like how ready they are and how convicted we are and, you know, the circumstances are right. When you're ready to go through, I guess, like investment committee, which essentially like a meeting where all of the partners that have a vote can essentially say whether they want the investment to go through or not. You guys raised from some pretty reputable names in the US, basically. Do you have to go to them on approvals or can you just walk people through the relationship with them or what even raising from them was like? from a bunch of institutions, but just to name some names.

43:42So MIT, University of Michigan, they're amazing partners and they're partners in other slow funds too. And so just folks like that. And basically like we pitched them the idea and some of the LPs we pitched were like, there's no way I can convince my like old white haired committee of like what this is and what you're talking about. And other people were like, look, like I see this happening at home or like, you know i follow accounts or have certain interests for like you know they get it and then i think others were interested more on like this is maybe a little bit technical but more of like an asset allocation level of like okay we have a lot of you know seed technology exposure and this is something that's totally different and so for them it's more like a diversification play but basically they are like our long-term capital partners and so we don't have to get approval from per deal per creator no but we keep like we send quarterly letters and we have our annual meeting with them and kind of keep them keep in the loop i actually emailed all of them last week and just to say thank you and all that stuff and i was like everyone please send me your favorite creators because you get the like really interesting leads wait can you share any of the ones that came through some there's a really funny one around like maritime like captains on boats like just really funny wow yeah or like actually a big one there's a lot of like dungeon and dragons fans and like tabletop role play and like magic the gathering and like those types of things um which is very nerdy that is such a different world than hsr but i love it um i'm trying to make some of the other really funny ones a lot of like um uh like hobby like you know or like you know i'm really into macroeconomics or i follow these podcasters or these people it's so funny because people don't know that where vcs or investors get their money from is like these old white haired, mostly men that are deploying capital.

45:35And it's so interesting because through the grapevine, I heard that obviously Kim Kardashian just stepped down from her private equity fund as a general partner. And I think she's moved into an advisor role. She still has some involvement, but like Chris was totally wiped off of the website. And I heard through the grapevine that it's because they were really struggling to raise a large size private equity fund, which is a lot more capital than like a venture capital fund because the endowments and institutions, LPs were not actually okay with Kim being like a day-to-day general partner of the fund.

46:09Do you feel like there is still that pushback as a majority theme from those institutions or LPs that like creators are just still not the future? I think that probably has to do with more with focus, right? She has a million different things going on. And so I think as an allocator, as an LP, you're like, how much time are you actually spending on this fund versus Skims versus everything else you have going on? Which again, which is why we believe so deeply in this holding company model. Because you erase that question. You're like, just go do - Imagine you could just invest in Kim Kardashian.

46:45A hundred percent. Yeah. And it's really empowering for the creator. And so I think more than not believing the creator economy, I think it was just a focus question. would be my guess. Do you have thoughts on Kim Kardashian's new announcement with Skims? Crazy, right? Yeah. What do you think? One, I think it's really cool. And I think, obviously, she's transcended beyond a creator, right? She's a full celebrity and she's a huge name. But it's an amazing moment, I think. It's a big, big deal. I think so too. I mentioned earlier, I don't think Skims is truly a creator brand, which is false in a way because, of course, it started as a creator brand.

47:21It will always be a creator brand. But I think it's just reached such mass scale that like, you don't think about like to know it as being a creator brand, but that was actually started by an influencer who noticed her own pain problem and built a billion dollar business being able to build affiliates. Like that is, I think what everyone sitting in these chairs wants, whether I'm on the creator or the investor side, it's like you invest into a idea and a person with the hope that that transcends them. Yep. It is a lot harder to do, I feel like, as a creator brand. Do you feel like there are certain times where it's like, this is the time to distance yourself from your founder?

47:59Or do you still feel like, again, like Feastables is so tied to Mr. Beast and like Kim is still so tied to Skims? I think it comes down to just make a good product. Like it's just, it's, it sounds so simple, but I think like that is the ultimate way you transcend. And by the way, it's the way like founders transcend their business. That is, I think, the ultimate way to do it versus about being, oh, we reached a certain scale or now is the right time. It's like, if you just make a killer business, whatever it is, people should, maybe in the beginning they're buying it and they're trying it because of you, but the repeat purchases and the marginal next customer will come because it's just an amazing product.

48:38It's so funny that you say that because I can remember, so January of 2024, we're in 2025, right? Yeah. My sister had come on to the business five months prior. She was formerly the CFO of Mejuri, so built like a pretty large business and was very used to like recurring revenue and models and was like so not used to the startup world. And honestly, like at the beginning of 2024, like nothing was really booked yet. Like there was a few things where like advertising revenue was going to come in and a little bit affiliate. And my sister was like freaking out. Like we are doomed. Like how are we going to have like cashflow and everyone knows cash is king.

49:12Businesses go to die. And HSR is a business. Like that is what I think sometimes people forget. And it was so funny because I remember like every single meeting for two months, I said, I'm not going to freak out. Let me focus on content. Like let me do what I can do and it will come. And we grew our revenue by like over 200 % last year because I was like, I know if I put out great content, everything else will fall into place. But I think that's so hard when you're not used to, like, you have to have this ability if you want to be an entrepreneur or a creator to just like stupidly believe in yourself.

49:50This is back to the delusion point. It's like you have to have this like suspended reality, right? Of like what you can go do. It's unbelievable. But you surround yourself with people who think that all the time. Like, what does that do to your psyche? I should probably unpack this in a therapy session. It's just inspiring. Like I think it's one of these things where you can kind of just like do stuff and like see what happens. And there's this – Sam in particular. So Sam is one of the GPs at Slow and who I'm working with on the creator fund and honestly was like really his brainchild. But like one of his like guiding principles is just like – can I curse on this?

50:29Yeah. Just like fuck around and find out. I love that. Like he just like tries stuff. and like sometimes it works sometimes it doesn't and I think like you just like don't be so precious you know what I mean like there are certain things that you can just glean from some of these entrepreneurs where you're just like okay like let's just try it and see what happens you fuck around and find out and find out is that slow ventures official slogan it's his official slogan say it one more time fuck around and find out so do you work mostly with men then um yes we have a bunch of women on our team okay um but mostly with men what is the structure of slow ventures like how many people and yeah oh my gosh we probably have like we've been on a hiring spree okay so we now have maybe like 14 people okay um but we have three funds so we have our core seed fund um which is like 800 million so it's our most recent fund fund five and opera opt to our opportunity fund too is 325 and it's basically like 60 40 between the two okay um and so our seed fund but in total we manage like almost a billion okay um so those are from like prior funds too so you said you're on a hiring spree and you're the first female venture capitalist investor that i've had on the show and i get so many questions of like how do i get a job in bc i want to be you when i'm five years down in my career how does somebody that's applying for a job at SLO as like on the venture capital side, how do they stand out and get a role to work underneath you or somebody at SLO?

51:58It's so timely. We're opening up a job application for my fund. I'm so excited. We're going to hire an associate. Amazing. Wait, you heard it here first. If you want to be one of the first people to invest in creators out of a 60. You should put it in like your show notes. Yeah. We'll put the link. Yeah. I actually just put together the application with my team, but like we just like out of the box thinkers. Like the application is very odd. Like we ask some weird questions. Like what's an example? Give HSR a head start. I'm trying to recall like one of the weirder questions, but it's a lot of like.

52:31Raise the rudders. Raise the sails. Raise the sails. Captain, an unidentified ship is approaching. Over. Roger. Wait, is that an enterprise sales solution? Reach sales professionals, not professional sailors. With LinkedIn ads, you can target the right people by industry, job title, and more. Start converting your B2B audience today. Spend$250 on your first campaign and get a free$250 credit for the next one. Get started today at linkedin.com slash campaign. Terms and conditions apply. The Jack Welch Management Institute at Strayer University helps you go from I know the way to I've arrived with our top 10 ranked online MBA.

53:10Gain skills you can learn today and apply tomorrow. Get ready to go from make it happen to made it happen. And keep striving. Visit Strayer.edu slash Jack Welch MBA to learn more. Strayer University is certified to operate in Virginia by Shev and as many campuses, including at 2121 15th Street North in Arlington, Virginia. Like, here's like the last question on it. Give me the most compelling argument. actually last two questions is give me the most compelling argument why the next billion dollar creator business will be founded in los angeles and then the next one is give me the most compelling reason why it will not be founded in los angeles and i think there's like a very specific like thought pattern that should go into it that we're looking for um i'm trying to think of another one oh we're like what do you think of mark zuckerberg wow i want your thoughts on mark zuckerberg or like but do you think that people are going to get super political with that they could yeah they totally could.

54:05I mean, I think it's like, we just, we just want to hear how people think and like, if they're critical thinkers. But do you want, I love that, like, because we just need more of that in today's world. Like, do you want people around the table that all think the same way at slow? Or like, even if somebody had a completely different political opinion, that wouldn't impact you bringing them on or not? No, we just want people who can like work really hard, think critically, try stuff, challenge each other, challenge each other. And for honestly, for creator investing too, it's kind of like in consumer investing where like the interest set and graph is so wide where like it's amazing so I work with this guy Billy Parks who came over from the turning group he's awesome he is a totally different interest set than I do like he knows about sports and yeah camping and outdoor stuff and but he wouldn't know the first thing about skink you know I mean yeah that we care about so it's actually really good to have a diverse like group of people around the table um just because you can be like really smart and have like high coverage wait your episode's gonna come out next week so it's pretty close to like the day that we're filming.

55:03Can we do something like on the application? If someone listened to it on HSR, can we say something? Okay. So if you're listening and you're going to apply to the associate role at Slow Ventures Creator Fund, which you would be the first investor to invest in an institution-backed$60 million creator fund, put down that you came from HSR. You can put in the first question because it's like, tell us about yourself. And I think it's a video recording. Oh, love that. It's this cool platform. Sam actually built it. It's called like standard aptitude and it basically his whole thing is like we need a better way to just screen for amazing talent can i tell you a really funny story about that yeah so when i worked at the second startup that i worked at so salesforce freshly and then doses doses had like a crazy hiring process they used force brand to first screen you then it was like they wanted you to come from like an apple a tesla like my first boss i reported she was the former president of north america tesla my second boss was the cmo of burton snowboards that's how i learned everything that I know.

56:02However, I came from like somewhat of an unknown named company, Freshie. It's like a Canadian company. So nobody in the U S had heard of it. Didn't go to an Ivy league school, like didn't have any of the credentials. And I remember they gave me a question towards the end of my interview process that was like, make us$50 million in our first year of sales and launching Canada's federal market. And I spent like all weekend putting together this deck. Once I got hired, they were like, now go do it. Um, and I remember like maybe a year into working there. I was at Art Basel with the CEO at the time.

56:32And he looks at me and he's like, I was going to pass on you because you didn't go to Tesla. You didn't come from Tesla. You didn't come from Apple. You didn't come like we hired like head of customer experience at Apple. Like she actually left Dosis, went back to Apple because like she just missed it so much. But like that was the, the, what's the word I'm looking for? That was like the, the pedigree, the pedigree of the person that we were hiring. And I didn't have that. And I always felt like they had missed out on such creative thinkers because they weren't going after this like out of the box, creative, scrappy, like get shit done.

57:05And you miss those people that are like, they don't fit the mold. Totally. It's so hard to screen for that. And it's really like, this is something we think about a lot at Slow, whether it's founders we invest in, creators we invest in, or people we bring on. Like, I just think the most interesting people are on the fringe. Like doing weird stuff that like no one else is really talking about. Like part of the whole thesis on creators is like we hear about the same 10 creators over and over and over again. But it's like there is this huge long tail of people. Like this guy who was describing that like no one would ever know but has like, you know, a conference of 1 ,200 people.

57:43Like I am just trying to find those types of people. Yeah. Like who are the weirdos who are just like crushing it in their little universe and are just like – but like brilliant and super talented. and like how do we find more of those people yeah in all dimensions when you are one of those people the thing that took me a long time and as somebody who like has worked really hard and always done like the best for everyone else that I could when I finally started being myself and like got those breakthroughs of like identifying a niche I realized like you can't be liked by everybody and that was really hard for me I think like mental health in the creator economy is going to be extremely important moving forward because I'll just admit it right now.

58:24Like I got sent a Reddit of me even three days ago. And it's like somebody saying like, I've listened to her podcast. She's such a know-it-all. She's like cuts people off. And like, and it's like, okay, I'm trying to do something to like empower women in a way where like, I'm having to be like, what is seed investing? What is this? Because like, it's not talked about for our community. Right. It's like, I want the girlies that are listening to this to walk away with like, I learned about Megan's skincare routine as much as like I learned about how to become her in five years and like deploy capital and understand what like semantic means.

58:53I don't even know how to say it still, but like, do you know what I'm saying? Like that is like who I'm doing it for, but trying to be liked as you're doing that is impossible. It's never going to, yeah. What do you think about the mental health of creators? I think, I think you're spot on in terms of like it just being a very, it's a very fragile thing. But again, I think it's like not too dissimilar from founders. It's not. Right? Where like - Think about like Emily Weiss's like shit that she was put through in the media. Totally. Yeah. I mean, you just have, there's oftentimes it's the first time you're doing it, right?

59:25Like you're responsible for people's livelihoods that work for you. Yeah. It's a tremendous amount of pressure. The highs are incredibly high. I mean, you know this, the highs are so high, the lows are so low. So I think like just surrounding yourself with people who can do. Do I have my next business idea is mental health for creators? It's not crazy. It's really not crazy. Okay. I have a few more questions. These are going to be a little bit more rapid fire, but you can take as long as you want to answer them. Let's just start with your skincare routine. Okay. So I use a lot of Asian skincare, interestingly.

59:54There's this company called Hada Labo. It's basically Japan's like Neutrogena. Oh. So it's really potent hyaluronic acid. Okay. And so I've become obsessed with it over the past couple of years. So that's the only thing that you use on your skin? Well, I'm like CeraVe. Okay. I like like did the whole biology thing, but it's so strong. I like don't do it anymore. Do you do any lasers or anything like that? Okay. No, but I'm curious about it. Okay. I'll do a whole podcast on that in addition to my breast augmentation. Okay. These are some of the questions around like just for creators listening.

1:00:23What is the best tips and tricks that you have for team structure? Like first hires or like ways to structure your team? I think it's just like find people that fill your gaps. And I think it's like very different for different people. platforms mothership you guys where are you guys spending time what platforms do you think are the next things things to stay away from we like youtube yeah i mean i think it's the type of thing where like most roads lead back to youtube where if you get your start on tiktok or instagram like generally serious creators who want to like build a real business out of it end up on youtube just because the monetization is great yeah but like podcasting is really interesting yeah there some interesting pockets on Twitter and like Substack.

1:01:05Interesting. And then I think depending... Yeah. What do you think about Substack writers? It's very culty, like, which I think is a great signal where some Substack writers are like, have like diehard fans. And generally it's a way smaller community and super tight knit. And I think it's harder to potentially like go into other realms, but if you can crack it, it's great. And then the other thing I'd say is it really depends on the category. Like a lot of the most successful parenting creators are on Instagram. Because if you think about like busy moms are not really watching like 10 minute YouTube videos.

1:01:36Yeah. Actually, one of my questions was like AI. Like where do you think that the future of creators is going with AI? People are freaked out.

1:01:45There's kind of like two things happening at once. One is that I think it's really, really, really empowering for creators. Like I think we're going to see you can just do so much more with so fewer resources yeah and this is true for like small businesses or businesses generally um so that's great and then the other thing honestly in a world where like if you like really fast forward and you're just like inundated with content like what really matters is storytelling and like human connection i think creators are like uniquely positioned there um so i think like they're actually positioned decently well in the future of just like endless content.

1:02:19You don't think that AI robots and human generated creators will replace like the creator connection? We'll see. I don't know. I think like people just crave human interaction. I agree. And like maybe in-person events become more important and like it's kind of a way to like validate like you're real and a true fan and the whole thing. But like I just think people want that. Yeah. Like I can tell you from my experience, like for a lot of like last year was a really big figuring it out year for us. And when I think we ended the year with like these two massive events and I got to see the community in real life, like just the power of that connection I had with people.

1:02:56It was like people, I recognize their names. I recognize their usernames. I recognize their profile pictures. They're like coming up and telling me like one example is a huge, huge company that everybody would know. I'm not going to like say who it is, but the chief people officer was at the event and she comes up to me and she gives me a necklace and she's like, I've been following you for years. I'm giving you this necklace. because I also called off my engagement and I, it said worthy on it. And she was like, I literally bought this for you because I just want you to know, like I'm married.

1:03:23I'm having my first baby. Like it will happen for you. And I was like, neither, like nobody knows. Like I actually have like a boyfriend who's here, but it was like just this connection that I felt like you can't buy, you can't fake community. And in real life events for me was like, oh, this is real. Like this is a thing that people want and crave. And that's why I just and very bullish on like humans will always crave that and I don't think AI will be able to replace that and by the way I think in a world where there's so much synthetic content like fast forward people are going to want it more yeah and like they're going to put a huge premium on it yeah I think like yeah I think creators are actually decently well positioned what's your birthday uh November 29th so you're a Sagittarius that's why I love you why I like don't know about astrological science oh my god okay move to LA and you'll know about them in a week but like sadges they're just adventurous they're fun they like adventure they're spontaneous they're very loyal like i love a sadge because i am a planner okay but like i really enjoy spontaneity and i also just enjoy enthusiasm and people that like are down for a good time yeah which we've been talking for a long time i'm like not the most adventurous but i do like enthusiasm

1:04:40that is gonna be one of the clips i am not the most adventures but i do like enthusiasm um megan like i could literally talk to you all day keep going we have talked we just everyone knows we've talked for an hour and a half before the podcast and we had lunch and we had lunch um i think we're definitely enough to have you back on once you get a few more investments but um thank you so much for coming on this was so much fun everyone that's listening thank you for being a part of HSR. It's like being able to put women in this seat to talk about what you're doing is like the most empowering thing for me.

1:05:14And just giving women a voice and a seat at the table, like it's just exactly what HSR's world is supposed to be created around. So thank you for sharing your story. And if you're listening and you want to rate, review and subscribe, I am the worst self promoter, but please do it. It really helps the show. And I can't wait to see you guys next week. Love you. Thanks Maggie. Bye.