20VC: From Penniless Printing Shop Offices to Public Company and One of the Largest Entertainment Companies: The Story of LADbible | The Future of Content & Social Media | US vs Europe: Is Europe F****** with Solly Solomou

26:37Without thinking about, is this person going to gel with that other person to left of them or to the right of them? I'm really taking all of those elements into account Because when you're creating a team, one great individual, for sure, can make a massive difference. But when you've got a team who are working together and trust each other and create something amazing together, that's something else. So for me, putting more emphasis on taking a little bit more time with hiring, being clear on what the culture is, and also accepting that maybe that person with that additional experience or that additional technical skill set is probably not the right person on the basis that they under index on the cultural fit and therefore they're going to create chaos.

27:23So I think from my perspective that learning over time on understanding who we are and what we are and what kind of person works in our businesses probably the thing that I've got wrong a couple of times, well lots of times. When did you realize you hired too fast and how do you correct for that? The pandemic as many talk about is the classic one you went on a hiring spree Yeah, we went on a hiring spree time that was difficult to measure cultural fit I've heard this before I would dwell on this one because Jason the discord was like we went from 200 to a thousand in the pandemic I was like whoa I Put out a tweet this morning that I'm getting a lot of unit love and hate for I said honestly We all just chat shit about culture the only thing that matters about culture is that you have momentum.

28:09You're moving forward and you're successful. I've never met a really successful company with a shit culture. Ravallute is a great example of that. It's not a fluffy culture, but the company is humming. The IPO is in sight, and the culture is on fire. You can have, oh, a lovely culture and the company is going to shit, I don't think so. I think that's it. What you've talked about there, my definition of culture, what we hold of high importance is people that want to grow and evolve. We often talk about whether it's the mountain and the further up you go, the lower the altitude, the less oxygen the harder it gets.

28:42Where we want to go is from, let's say, the quarter of the way up the mountain and guess far as we can to the top and to the pinnacle of the mountain as we possibly can. For us going from quarter of the way up the mountain to as close as we can get to that pinnacle is going to take some serious work and we're going to need people that are ambitious, hungry, want to grow every year their job is not the same. Every year that has gone on, my job has been different, whether that's being a private business, going to a public business to have in an American element to our business, to growing to 500 from 100, each element of our business and the evolution of it has meant that my job has been different.

29:23And we need people that want to embrace that, that are excited by that. But I think values are important and I think everyone gets them wrong because you have to be four against values. Our values is direct is never rude. If I sit down and say, sorry, this is shit, you can't go, oh, that took me so much time and I really feel hurt that you don't. It's never rude. We're all here to win. We're all here to grow. Some people disagree that direct can be too rude. Another one is longer hours leads to more success. The harder you work, you just don't like more likely to be successful. Some people disagree with that too.

29:53Oh, you're more strategic if you have more time off bullshit. all this stuff. I think that's a massive problem, which is like people create values that no one can disagree with. Hit me with a value. Coming back to trust. Do you trust when you pass the ball to that person? They're going to do their part to deliver what they need to. If you trust that and know they're going to do that, that's one aspect to it. The other is, can I be open with you and you take that in the right way? Can I trust you to take that in the right way? and then have an open conversation on how we work together to make that thing better or improve it or change it or whatever it might be.

30:31For me, that trust element is so important. Do you really think we can? We live in such a woke, left culture. Well, you can't say anything without upsetting someone. Yeah, well, I think that's why the US expansion fee is going to go very well. He's going to go very well. It's the perfect environment. Do you worry about that as a leader though? Like constantly upsetting someone? We're a professional outfit. To get to where we need to go, we need to have high standards. And if those standards are not met, we need to address them and change it. So another element of something that I hold of high value is excellence.

31:07Whether that's for the audience who are our customers or a client here are our customers. We have over 500 million followers now, across Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, YouTube. we generate over 3 ,000 views every second, and in order to produce that, you need to be living and breathing and understanding that audience. To really nail that and grow an audience base of that size and scale, 500 million people over half of UK adults consuming what we do on a monthly basis, two thirds of 18 to 34s in the UK, you have to operate with excellence. When you mention size and scale of audience and then also the excellence of the team, I think to a constant dilemma that I think about which is to a word you said earlier, you said democratization.

31:54And I think about this a lot because I see your Sam Seulux, if anyone who doesn't know he's like, you know, real kind of bodybuilder style, huge, very amateur camera in corner on iPhone, no captions, no beautiful visuals, no nothing. And then there's, you know, we have amazing visuals, amazing video teams, much bigger and much more so, but are we in a world of democratised content where Sam Sula can put a phone up and do what he does, or are we actually in a less democratised world, which is more players like us win because of resources, skills, teams? I think there's different circumstances that require different elements of that, so we recently worked with Tesco, brilliant, brilliant clip of Father Christmas picking up his meal deal at Tesco really quick fire behind the camera Works perfectly and has absolutely flown.

32:47That's a way in which you can weave brands into culture in a way That doesn't necessarily need to be Ridiculous production value TV advert and I think AI is going to be so interesting on this when some Altman came over to the UK He demoed their version of video creation, the ability to pop into chat GPT, a visual and a video that you may want to create, and it is mind -blown where things are going. So for us in an entertainment business, you can imagine a world where we're creating movies and because of that democratization and the access to technology, using an embracing technology like that.

33:29The cost of creating a movie where maybe 25 % 30 % of it is AI generated or assisted. I'm worried that AI will create an infinite supply of content. What happens, obviously if you are an economist, which I'm not for sure, but as a venture investor, I proclaim to be one, it reduces price. Infinite supply will also mean discovery is inherently more challenging. I am worried what happens to discovery in a world of infinite content supply. I'm an optimist. So I'm excited you are not British I'm genuinely excited by the movement forwarding technology with the introduction of the lights of AI Allowing you more time for the creative process.

34:10So there's some things like desk research that I've just become way easier sub editing language translation. I mean some of the tools that are available on dubbing. Oh, yeah, Nathan We actually turn one of our as our sports shows because you know sports show and we turned it with the Australian cricket captain into Hindi They got over 200 ,000 views in a day, which was I thought pretty impressive. Yeah. And I think that's it. I think if you're willing to adapt and embrace it, it's an opportunity. If you're wanting to go against the title, I mean, the world has never changed on that basis. Anyone who has lent into change, I think Meta reports something like $30 billion into AI.

34:47The list goes on in terms of those other players. They were making their big bet in the Metaverse and other areas. What a pivot that is. What do we think is crazy today? It will be like, yeah, sure. But I always think back to like, you know, putting your credit card online. Never do that now, obviously. I never find my husband or wife online. Now, obviously, one and two. What is, do you think, crazy today that will be very standard? Mobile phones. They're going to be this clunky item that we carry around right now. And look back on and go, why did we hold that thing? Why did we do that? We're going to have wearables that are going to make it way more seamless.

35:27So it's not even anything other than extension of things that you'd normally wear, as we're seeing with watches, as we'll see with glasses, maybe 10, 15, 20 years. That's what we may be looking at as wearables become more advanced as you're able to put more process in power into smaller things. I believe that the phone will become something that we look at as a clunky item and look back at, why did we ever do that? I want to go to the IPO. This is an incredibly special moment. The dream of an entrepreneur is to take your business public. Why did you decide to take the business public when you did?

36:04It's coming up to three years in a couple of weeks time, which was a bizarre experience. We were meant to go to the London Stock Exchange and for the whole pandemic, madness that was going on, we couldn't do that. So I remember sitting on the sofa with my wife and little boy ringing the bell on the sofa on this Zoom. It was madness. Not the experience you think. However, in terms of the reasons why we did that, we believed in the opportunity of the US growing our business out there. So we have over a hundred million audience members out in the states and we know that we've done the hard bit. It's done about establishing the business and growing out there and accelerating that.

36:49We believe by being a list of business, having the additional firepower, the paper and the status, it would enable us to accelerate us forward to growing and expanding the business and so far in terms of the Betch's acquisition and also having that firepower and the options and the PLC status, it's definitely given us a leg forward in terms of going after what we believe we can be. How much money did you raise in the IPO? In total, around 120 million. You have 100 million audience members in the US. Why not list in the US? That could be an option in the future as we grow and build our US business.

37:30A dual listing might be the way to go, but we need to build on the success of what we've started with the Betcher's business and our organic business out there and really continue to build, expand and grow that. And as we do have a bigger US business, it may start to make more sense to us to have a dual listing and look at what that might look like. How has being a London listed business been? I know a couple and they say it's bluntly very very hard. Yeah. Talking from personal experience, it was a big learning curve on going from being a private company to being a list of business, having a set of stakeholders that think and want information in a certain way whilst also running your business.

38:16So, adapting to that and learning and growing and understanding how to manage that was a whole learning curve in itself. I'm hungry and ambitious, I enjoy learning. So for me, there was points in which I was challenging. However, the learning curve has been amazing. I would never look back and take any of that away. So, from that experience of going through it, it's been fascinating. Certainly, the benefits that I mentioned before have been brilliant. So, do you think pension and fund support the UK public market like they should do. I had a great chat with Julia Hoggut, CEO of the London Stock Exchange, and she's got some interesting plans.

38:56Those plans are going to take time, but I believe some of the steps that they're putting in place certainly revitalise and rebuild some of that UK investment that maybe isn't there right now, and that is going into US markets and other places. However, I believe the steps have been taken to revitalise. What's the most exciting step? Again, it comes back to it. It's that investment back into the UK market. There's a huge amount that is setting ISIS, that is setting low return pension funds that could be utilized to grow at high rates, but also stimulate and encourage more innovation and more businesses in the UK market.

39:35Here's Tom, that joins us. He is a solid, brilliant public company CEO. Love your advice on what I can do to stimulate growth in the UK economy. What would you say to him? I think we really need to embrace tech in a big way here in the UK and here a bit further. How could we do that? We need to look at the environment and we need to think about why is it that businesses consider moving to the US versus being here in the UK and think about how we can replicate certain elements of it to compete. And there are lots of pros of the UK markets, the stability, the structure, and all of the disciplines that come with the UK market.

40:14However, we probably need to look at the way in which it can evolve. Mentorship. Do you think the best thing is when a building in London? Ten years ago, I mean, when I started, and it was like transfer wise, it was monze, it was revenue, and actually there was a series of financial regulatory, not loopholes, but freedoms that meant that London was a great place to build a Fenteb business. And we've seen the fruits of that. Fantastic. Now, I do not think the developers or great founders want to build businesses in London. And I would like to be changed by my own answer. I think when you start a business, and this is just my personal experience, location isn't even on the mind, it's just survival or moving forward.

40:52So I think we could do more to help along that journey here in the UK. However, I still think it's a fantastic place to grow business. and so many entrepreneurs who have been successful and so many emerging entrepreneurs who have been given opportunity to grow and build. Would they be bigger in the states? Well, you're talking a 300 million population country versus 70 million here. A market that in some ways is nearly five to eight times the size here in the UK. So you do have more opportunity in a place like the States. However, we have been the home of some really successful businesses, whether it's something like Dyson.

41:34And you look at a business like Dyson and the innovation and the products that they've created and the brand globally is phenomenal. Before we do a quick fight, you just have to touch on platforms. TV. We spoke before about kind of like 70 % I think of internet advertising. Water advertising is now online. Is TV dead? TV has its place. I guess it depends what you categorize is that I'm a massive believer in connected TV and the likes of YouTube, Netflix, Amazon Prime, all of these different subscriptions that we have and we've all got too many. I believe that that's the future and where things are going and I don't think that's going to be news to anyone.

42:11Audiences on traditional TV are reducing down. Behaviours are changing where even when you are watching a TV show, whether it is on a traditional broadcasting channel, it's on a Netflix or an Amazon Prime. You're still joulescreening. I don't know how many times I get told off when I'm watching, I showed my wife Jess, I'm just there scrolling on my phone. It's just a habit that we've created. In some ways, whether you're watching sport or whether you're watching some sort of series that you want to connect with with your friends, and you're in WhatsApp, and you're talking about it, and you're talking about a score, or you're talking about something that happened, or whatever it may be, it does enhance that experience.

42:52So I believe that behavior is a change in traditional TV, newspapers, magazines, etc. The number of speed for themselves. That market has gone from being 70, 80 % of the market down to 20 % digital is changing the game. And for a player like Cuzz, that has a huge amount of attention and eyeballs across that young adult demographic. That's a great thing. And for those businesses that adapt, again, that's a great thing. Should take the top of your band. It can be another big question. I feel like there's quite a lot of political questions. Political underneath that. So I think TikTok is a great product.

43:31Great product is just the stickiness of the feed and the understanding of you and serving you content that you love. The inspiration of shops really smart. That is something that I'm fascinated by. In the next five years or less, it's expected to be a one trillion market. the TikTok shop social commerce world overall is expected to be a one trillion market. In China, it's already massive, absolutely massive, but I know so many people now, millennials and Gen Z audience bases who are buying from TikTok shop. It's a really interesting time where to create is an opportunity to monetize through affiliates across TikTok shop.

44:16So one of the things that they've been able to nail is not just selling directly to consumer, they are selling two consumer via creators. So their whole thing, they want to be the next Amazon. I was speaking to a friend of mine who's over at Snap and he was saying, those guys are two steps ahead. They want to take on Amazon and they are paving the way. From my perspective, they are someone you cannot ignore from the quality of the product and what they have on there, but also the innovation through shop and other aspects of that. And I see us showing up in ways around entertainment across that.

44:52I see TikTok shop being a part of our ecosystem and how we play in that in the future. And we've done some experimentation and we can see that being a part of our ecosystem and how it could evolve. That was a very elegant weaving around the actual question of should TikTok be banned. You know, from a product perspective, no. I believe that to China and data. From a product perspective, it's moving things forward. And I'm looking at it through that lens. In terms of is it being abused and the data and information? It's way above my head. I don't know. Do you mind your children having it? So taking it back to my youth now, I was thinking, the minute you tell me you can't do it, I'll find it in a way.

45:31I'm getting it to me. I mean, VPNs weren't a thing back then, but I mean, I am finding a way to get it. So I think that needs to be carefully managed and my kids are two and four. So I think I've got the best years to come where I have to manage that kind of. Would you let your kids have social? I would, yeah. I'm obviously aware of the pros and the amazing things that can come from that. But also the cons, you know, bullying some of the things that you can get access to, but this was no different to when we had dial up. You know, I mean, I remember sitting on the computer and I think my parents are on the phone and I was shouting down the stick, can you get off the, I'm trying to do my MSN and all this kind of stuff, but the stuff that you could access and things that could have been said across MSN, it's no different.

46:17But I think back to this kind of making sure that we're thinking about an environment and how to make it safe is really important. I think people demonize social in the way that a diet can be demonized. So if you're on my TikTok Instagram e -name, there's protein recipes, there's inspirational talks from Tony Robbins and that under bottom and great thinkers. There's baby videos, I think baby videos are hilarious. I have curated a feed that's really happy and inspiring I learn. And just like you can have carrots or don't us, you can curate your own feed or diet. And respectfully, it's up to you.

46:49You're an adult with responsibilities. Completely. And I love to see what your top 10 towels are. I've seen this. What girls think your Instagram is and then what it really is. and what it really is is like protein recipes, you know, sure, a workout routines. Completely. Yeah. Yeah. I'm probably too old now, but like snap for our generation is like, he uses snap. Yeah. What do you see with snap given your purview? Yeah, I mean, they are huge amongst the younger demographic is it's the number one messaging platform. I'm so sorry for word messaging for like a camera or photo messaging? Yeah, like their version of WhatsApp.

47:32They have WhatsApp, but it's also, I message it's their version and that whole disappearing, that privacy element of it, what Snapchat offer is massive for them. It's also the maps. I don't know if you've been on the maps and you can see where all of your friends are in the world on the maps if you've got it turned on. Like there's so many cool features in Snap and they've got some brilliant technology, brilliant innovation. they've always been innovators and quite often you've seen obviously they've been taking some features from other platforms and other platforms have taken features from them but snap have been brilliant innovators I believe snap is an interesting place over the next five to ten years whether it can compete with the TikToks and the matters at this scale I mean these players are huge and we've seen what they've done in AI we've seen what they're doing in e -commerce and these kind of bets that they're making.

48:24They are massive. So I believe it will be a place for innovation, a place for young adults, in particular Gen Z, and we'll see how they connect to a gen alpha. It's an interesting product. If you would have buy and short one of the incumbent social platforms, who would you buy and who would you short? So you've got Instagram, you've got YouTube, you've got TikTok, or WhatsApp, you've got a Facebook. I would say TikTok, I would buy, matter, I would buy on their big bets that they've made. Yeah, those would probably be the two. And you're sure I would sure, can we sure X? It isn't. No, we could ensure X because...

49:03No way! I mean, you go against Elon. So as a product that will evolve and the whole AI product, he's creating and all these other aspects, it'd be hard not to... to back him on that front as a platform, as it is now, I believe it needs to evolve. And as a marketing platform, again, I think it needs to evolve. Listen, dude, I want to move to a quick fly. I say a short statement. None of them are politically leading or like dangerously difficult to navigate. So what do you believe that most around you disbelieve? I believe probably that the impossible is possible. Sometimes I'm sure there's certain things that I say, such as us moving up the mountain, in, getting as close as we can to some of the biggest companies in the world.

49:49I'm sure there's lots of people that probably doubt that. I'm sure there will be lots of people that would probably question the ambition early doors on where we wanted to be and where we are now. So I may hope less optimist in that sense around ambition and what can be done and what humans can do in a chief. So I think maybe that is probably the one sometimes. I do have to check myself, make sure I have the right people around on that from. But what's the hardest thing about being CEO of LabBible? I'd say it's the constant change in evolution. Every year is a new job. It's a new job. I'm understanding how to navigate the US market.

50:28I'm understanding how to navigate a public environment. However, I enjoy that change. I enjoy the variation. I love challenge. And one of these people where if I wasn't in LabBible Group, I'd be trying to climb Mount Everest or Kilimanjaro or something like that. I just need a challenge. For me, La Bible group fuels that. It fuels that challenge. It tests me. It pushes me. It challenges me. But I enjoy that. The heaviest things in life are not iron or gold, but unmade decisions. What unmade decision rests on your mind most? It's a fantastic quote, you're right. Unmade decisions. There's so much emphasis on the importance of making the right decisions in our jobs, you just have to sometimes make a decision.

51:15That is sometimes the paralysis that you can end up where you take too long to make a decision, you aim for perfection, but sometimes you just need to go with the decision, back it, make it quickly, trush you gut, trush you intuition and go for it. And the moment's I regret is not listening to that intuition and leaving it too long, questioning myself too much. So that connection of intuition, gut feel, and making a decision on it generally is a thing that I constantly check and balance myself. What have you changed your mind on the last 12 months? Being a dad is the best thing ever and it can also be the most humbling thing ever.

51:52I guess going from someone who my daughter loves and is obsessed with is a two year old to being someone who she feels, who I feel she hates. And the ups and downs of that roller coaster where you love, you absolutely love this human more than anything. And that experience of the ups and downs of that is mind blowing. I guess taking it outside of business, it's that up and down of being a dad having something then outside of business that humbles you in different ways. That's something that is an emotional rollercoaster in itself, but a very special thing. What's your favorite consumer brand? And why?

52:40Favorite consumer brand? I mean, Apple. I think Apple has to be up there. Let me expand it. I go Apple, Nike, Disney. These kind of businesses. Do you think Nike's lost? No. I think he's a very, very special brand. And I believe it's lost its way and sometimes businesses do. and we work with them, they want to understand Gen Z in a better way and we're working with them on that basis. But I do not, I think it's got too much heritage, too much equity in the brand that is built. You think back to the Michael Jordan advertisement, whatever it may be, but Apple's special. If you look at brand products, the way they've expanded their product, the quality of what they do, that's special.

53:21So for me, I'd probably say Apple, but bunch the others in there too. You can be CEO of any other company for a day. What company you see of? I'd probably say Disney. I'd want to see Inside Disney coming back to Entertainment Powerhouse. Disney have achieved that status and they've managed to evolve from this animation TV show to Disneyland to Disney Plus to Marvel to Pixar to some of the greatest movies experiences that you can possibly experience and the whole feeling that comes off the back of that. So I would like to be inside there to see that magic and how it all takes and go back into the history of what I know and see how it looks underneath the bonnet.

54:07That for me would be a fascinating company. What character trait are you kind of ashamed of, shy of, embarrassed of, that also makes you really quite successful. I am extremely goal focused. I can really lock in on a goal. Everything else moves out the way. The great thing about that is being able to lock into that goal, home in, and go for it. The downsides of that is you miss things on the periphery sometimes. So it's good and bad and I have to check and balance myself on that basis. But I would say that's probably the two sides of the coin to that one. Final one for you. What question are you never asked by employees, by anyone?

54:48Could be a public journalist, could be public marketingists, that you're like, I don't know why no one asked me this. What's it like being a dad and a CEO? No one asked you, huh? No. What is it like being a dad and a CEO? Well, how does being a dad make you a better CEO? Before I had Alfie, I was first boy, I would roll the dice on every decision. put it on the table, no problem. Having Alfie made me think about things very differently that it's more than just me and Jess, it's me Jess and this little human who's dependent on us and what we do and every action that we take, whether it's a mannerism or word that we say they're taking it in and they can replicate it all the way through to safety and making sure they have a life that you want them to have.

55:40And I would guess in terms of the biggest thing for me is pushing me to be a better role model. It makes me think about who I am, how I show up, and I often look at it through the lens of, how would I feel if Alfie did that? So I would say that role model piece and thinking about my actions a little bit more is the good thing from it. Solly, this has gone from inspirational to politically charged, which she did very well on, to inspiring at the end there. Thank you so much for putting up with my kind of meandering pause and this has been fantastic. Amazing, thank you very much, Harry. Really appreciate you having me on.

56:17I mean, I want to say a huge thank you first to Solly for giving up the time. But also for the friendship, Solly has become a dear friend since we met about a year ago or so, and I'm so grateful for the conversations we have for the discussion stay. If you want to check out the episode you can find it on YouTube by searching for 20VC, that's 20VC on YouTube. But before we leave you today, Secureframe empowers businesses to build trust with customers by simplifying information security and compliance through AI and automation. Thousands of fast -growing businesses including NASDAQ, Angel List, Doodle and Coda, trust Secureframe to expedite their compliance journey for global security and privacy standards, such as SOC2 and ISO 27001.

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