Pitch Please

00:05.50
mike_flywheel
What's up everybody. It's Mike we're back on the pitch please podcast today. We're talking to will from fan stories. They're a platform that enables content creators and streamers to further monetize their audiences in innovative ways. Um, that's my pitch I'm sure his is going to be much better. Let's jump into it will tell us a little bit about yourself.

00:24.86
Will Jourdain
Hi Thank you, everyone? So yeah, so thank you Mike for the the amazing intro. Thank you for inviting me here. This is truly an honor. Um, so yeah so I'm I'm the founder of a platform called fan series I'm a non-technical founder that never wrote a line of code. In his life I'm a serial and truck entrepreneur I'm a go getter and you know when I want something I just make it happen somehow you know and that's that's why I am I think can be funny as well. Really.

00:55.53
mike_flywheel
Oh your internet just froze.

01:03.74
Will Jourdain
Um, I'm ah I'm at the office. The internet is like should being credible here. Um, are we good.

01:10.54
mike_flywheel
Let's see if it comes back.

01:18.86
Will Jourdain
Um, Mike can you hear me.

01:26.29
Will Jourdain
Hello Mike

01:44.33
Will Jourdain
Um, a.

01:56.79
Will Jourdain
Um, might yo Mike.

02:39.85
mike_flywheel
Oh you're back? Yeah yeah I was weird it like froze and then it just you dropped out.

02:45.00
Will Jourdain
I think I'm back I Hope can you hear me.

02:53.54
Will Jourdain
Um, yeah, and it's weird because here the internet should be pretty incredible. Um, it's not our own internet. But.

02:57.85
mike_flywheel
Okay, we'll we'll try it out. We'll try it one more time we'll start break for the back from the top and then and then dive in again. So give me one sec. It's clipping a little bit at the top end. It's like um, almost too loud.

03:03.79
Will Jourdain
Yeah, yeah.

03:09.13
Will Jourdain
Um, do is my audio good.

03:15.62
mike_flywheel
Your your audio coming in.

03:20.60
Will Jourdain
Where is it coming in. Let me just take a look I think it's my ad phone there I Click call settings on the right, but it doesn't open in nothing. Yeah I think we'll have to do it that way. Ah I don't have.

03:32.50
mike_flywheel
Yeah, okay, that's fine. It'll be fine. The biggest thing is like you don't really have to talk loud. It's picking up super clear. So if you just talk normal. It's it's coming in totally fine. Okay, and we'll do this.

03:39.52
Will Jourdain
Anything else.

03:44.94
Will Jourdain
Um, got it.

03:52.65
mike_flywheel
What's up everybody. It's Mike back on the pitch please podcast today. We've got will from fan stories a platform that enables content creators and streamers to further monetize their audiences in innovative ways. That's my pitch his is gonna be way better. Let's jump into it will tell us a little bit about yourself.

04:13.30
Will Jourdain
Hey, hey thank you? Thank you? everyone. Thank you Mike for inviting me to this incredible opportunity. Um, you know I'm glad to be here I'm will I founded fan stories a couple of years ago you know it's a platform that helps content creators monetize. We now have over a million users on the platform 3000 creators we raised a pre-seed of 600000. We're about to raise 3000000 and yeah, I'm a non-technical founder I don't know how to write a line of code which I think a lot of people can learn from this and. You know I'm a go getter could be a little a little bit funny. And yeah, that's that's that's why I am I think.

04:50.48
mike_flywheel
That's awesome. Well I Want to learn a whole bunch of what sort of got you here. This is obviously an interesting space and I'm sure very topical because content creators streamers a huge topic right now people looking for ways to continue to find new niches to monetize so we will talk about that. But let's learn a little bit about what got you here. So You know you you mentioned before you're a serial entrepreneur you sort of been in this space. But what are some of the things that maybe shaped your journey or your story as an individual becoming a non-technical cofounder. A fan stories tell us a little bit about you know your past and your history.

05:25.91
Will Jourdain
Um, yeah, yeah, so since since honestly, my first job was when I actually when I was eighteen years old I started to work as a club promoter. And I was paid $5 per head so every time I got someone into the club I was receiving $5 so since my true beginning I was really tied to ah the results. Which means if I want to get paid I need to bring results that was since day one. Um. And so you know it was tough but eventually I started to kind of like like this model because obviously you're free. You can get to do whatever you want right? You you have like more flexibility with your time and in my you know my promotion business when I was like promoting clubs. Then I started to sell I was eighteen years old man but I started to sell Selfie sticks as well. So every time someone got into the club or let's say the the venues are the event I was selling selfie stick to these folk as well. So instead of making $5 then I was making twenty bucks on my clients. Um, and that was my first first experience and and then after that I just constantly had opportunities of like entrepreneurial journeys and didn't succeed all of them most of them failed. But yeah, that's kind of like where I got got started.

06:53.38
mike_flywheel
I think that's interesting because even in that first element you know you were you were kind of driven by results. But you looked for this innovative way to further find new opportunities to create monetization even at an early age. Um.

07:00.27
Will Jourdain
Yeah.

07:07.99
mike_flywheel
Successes are good and it sounds like you're on some success path now. But let's talk about maybe one of those like failure moments. What was like 1 of those businesses. Um that you know you were working on that didn't succeed and what was sort of your biggest takeaway from that and how did it shape you know, maybe what you're thinking about now and in fan stories. Yeah.

07:09.31
Will Jourdain
Um, yes.

07:25.31
Will Jourdain
Um, yeah, yeah, so so around 23 years old I started with some of my friends and partners a company that installed solar panels on homes. In Canada and I did a lot of research on it and I thought that I had the right numbers I thought that I came up with the right formula for calculating the energy savings etc. So then we started to sell those solar panels to homes. Um. And we we got really successful ah selling those solar panels. But once the solar panels were installed. Ah, we didn't get successful at this point because the savings were not accurate. People were not saving as much money as we were kind of like promising. And in a mat so you know in a matter of weeks. We sold like you know 500 solar panels really quickly and when the sun was coming up then and the savings was kind of like coming in. Clients were like oh my god we got scaned this was not supposed to happen and at that time I was young I we didn't have the right calculation. We didn't have the right knowledge we thought that we could do it by ourself and suddenly the company ended. But I learned 2 things from this experience.

08:52.54
Will Jourdain
Number 1 um, you know before actually getting behind a product yourself, you need to make sure that you have the right data and that you work with the right people that's going to give you the right answers. Because if you have the wrong answers you can go a long way with the wrong answers. But it's the wrong path. Not the right? It's not the right ah road and number 2 what I learned is you need to love what you do obviously I realized at some point that I was not liking it. It was. Boring. It was not my type of like energy solar and I loved it. I didn't like it and these are the 2 learnings from from this and then fan stories.

09:31.32
mike_flywheel
Yeah, that seems yeah I was going to say that sounds like a big flip you know going from like high energy club promoting talking to people socializing with people to selling. Energy saving through solar panels is a pretty widespread and I see fan stories maybe see it being somewhere in the middle there. So I see how that might be a better fit but very good. Um, very good learnings. What do you think like Drew you to the entrepreneurship you talked earlier about like the freedom of it.

09:49.60
Will Jourdain
Um, yeah.

10:00.80
mike_flywheel
Ah, you talked a little bit about your own drive and desire to see and be results driven and and seeing that do you think it was one of those 2 things or was there someone that you know you looked up to that was entrepreneurial or that inspired you down this path.

10:08.30
Will Jourdain
Yeah.

10:18.80
Will Jourdain
Yeah, so my father in Law. Ah, basically the one who raised me so a big percentage of who I am comes from my father-in law which you know I met since I was three years old then I grew with him. He kind of thought me all of his good. Ah, you know his positive sides and he had he still have a company with over nine hundred employees in Quebec so it's it's still a small company but it's still not ah, it's still so significant. Um, and he's the president. So.

10:40.32
mike_flywheel
Wow.

10:55.83
Will Jourdain
Obviously ah president owner so obviously and founder So Obviously I met I've learned from this a lot but I always got like really impressed, incredibly impressed by this and I think this is where I got the this is where I got hungry enough. To grow to build and you know to to be part of something that is much bigger than than me.

11:18.20
mike_flywheel
That's cool. It's interesting. How many people's you know Journeys and inspiration were shaped very early on by seeing someone next to them or close to them. Not always be successful. There's obviously a very successful story but just put in that. Effort and energy and seeing them build something and create something is super powerful. So let's talk about maybe? um, we'll talk about the pitch of fan stories in a second but you know you were selling some solar panels and and somewhere from there. You arrived on.

11:34.54
Will Jourdain
Yeah. Yeah.

11:50.90
mike_flywheel
Fan stories. So we'll talk about the pitch and then we'll talk about the product but what sort of shaped your journey to then create fan stories was there like some moments in your life that started to shape something that became clear that this was the path you needed to go on.

11:58.84
Will Jourdain
That e.

12:07.68
Will Jourdain
Yeah, so it's kind of like um I'll give you an example when I was at ah school like around 15 years old 1718 I always look up the people that were really popular at school. So I'll give you an example, the people who sit on the backe of this cool bus for me I wanted to be on the backse of of this school bus. They're the cool guy. They're the cool people I wanted to be among the nice. The nice people and who are the coolest people in today's society most of them are content creators. Most of them. They will create content on Youtube they will be streamers. Um, you know, ah some of them like or dislike but still ends rotate of this world I love him some people don't but just to give you a few example content creators are becoming the coolest, the the kids on the backseat of the bus. I want to be with them and um I also wanted to start to be part of the start of journey because like you Mike I've I've been watching dragons dance for years I can watch this endlessly. Um. I wanted to be part of this and then we kind of saw an opportunity in monetization which means like when we when we read somewhere that the average theater make you know somewhere but about like $12000 a year full time. Um, it doesn't make sense right? So we kind of like.

13:38.75
Will Jourdain
Got got it through like how can we help traders monetize. How can we build something that will help them grow help them monetize help them own their audience obviously and fanies was born and there was a lot of um roadblocks along the way. But yeah.

13:52.00
mike_flywheel
Yeah, cool I'm excited to jump in then so let's start off with the best part of the show will your pitch. Please tell us about fan stories give us the pitch and then we're gonna dive into it.

14:05.66
Will Jourdain
For sure bro so transferries is a platform that allows content creators to monetize own their audience and communicate with their audiences in a much better way right? So creators can set up a page make money from subscription. Make money from paid messages I'll give you an example on fanies if you want to try to talk to the rock or like a really famous creator. The chances of you getting a reply are zero because they don't have the incentive and they don't make you know they don't have the incentive or the time. On fan stories. You can pay to message a creator you can pay to message a celebrity the celebrity to creator makes revenue from it and then the the fan or the the users will get ah and a reply obviously and we're ah we're building a lot of incredible tools that we build. We'll be releasing ah in in the next couple of months. And so far it's so good right? The company started from 0 in about a year we're about to make a million in sales this year from so it's pretty incredible growth. Ah we have 3000 creators over 150000 monthly active users on the. Platform and this is under a year right? So it's kind of like pretty incredible I'd say.

15:22.68
mike_flywheel
That's incredible. I'm so excited to learn more. Um, this area I know a little bit about but probably not anywhere near as deep as you and the listeners might be all over the spectrum. Can you tell us a little bit about this industry like.

15:34.70
Will Jourdain
So yeah.

15:37.29
mike_flywheel
Content creating how people are monetizing today and I guess that'll evolve into a little bit of like some of the gaps you see. But obviously there's there's lots of platforms where people are posting content. There's lots of ways to monetize but teach us a little bit about that industry content creation and monetization.

15:48.80
Will Jourdain
Um, yeah.

15:56.49
Will Jourdain
Yeah, so the biggest revenue stream for creators comes from brand collaborations. So so a best example Nike that wants to advertise their shoe. It will pay Michael maybe not Michael Jordan but they will pay I think it their competitors. Ah but they will pay ah a celebrity or creator to wear the shoe do a video and and etc this is on the larger scale but on the smaller scale. Let's say a smaller creator they can have like beauty. Cosmetic you know gym sh shark the the company Jim Shark that was born 100 % off content creator's advertisement. No ads just creators gym shard which is incredible. Um, but obviously the issue with. Brand collaboration is that they are all 1 ne-time deals you know I come to you I want to sell this mouse I'll pay you a thousand dollars to try it do a review and that's it then I'm gone the experience for creators. It says they they always have to search for these deals. They always have to search for these opportunities. And it's it's almost impossible to grow a business. A really big business if you don't have some sort of stability or customers that returns constantly and this is the big issue that we tried to solve with subscription.

17:23.10
Will Jourdain
Because subscription allows to have predictable revenue if you have let's say 500 people paying $15 a month next month you can predict what you're going to meet what you are which you will which will sorry which you're going to be making next month and if you can predict you can then invest you can use that money you can play with it. You can invest you can hire. You can buy a house right? You can do a lot of stuff at just one time fees cannot and yeah.

17:48.50
mike_flywheel
That that makes sense so a lot of the the money creators are making or from these brand deals now. Obviously there's other platforms like Twitch and and only fans and there's other versions of. And only fans by the way. Everyone only fans is for other content as well. The point is just gated access to content and just so people don't know where this okay yeah.

18:05.52
Will Jourdain
Um, yeah picture.

18:10.10
Will Jourdain
Um, yeah, we're still competitors. They still compete. Obviously we're not in the adult sector. But only fans they have a similar platform that could do the job for any other creator. They can just change the name repurpose.

18:26.73
mike_flywheel
Got it? Okay so this is a similar concept to those or like what about like Twitch. Um I know there's some video game streaming platforms as well is that also competitive or similar. Okay.

18:27.84
Will Jourdain
And then Boom they're in the industry right? so.

18:41.49
Will Jourdain
Um, only twist subscription the subscription model from twitch to be competitor.

18:43.53
mike_flywheel
Got it but you still have like some unique elements in yours. So let's let's talk about that who's like your primary audience. Do you do you focus on the creator or the end user who's who's sort of buying fan stories today.

18:53.39
Will Jourdain
Yeah, um.

19:04.12
Will Jourdain
Um, yeah, so there's there's there's multiple there's multiple targets I would say in the beginning of fanory. So the the past year the biggest issue that we had is that we were not competing feature wise we were underneath. Competitors in terms of features. So at that point like our strategy was like there's no way we will convince someone on Patreon which is a a huge competitor or other platforms to try answeries because they're 10 times better. So we focus on creators that.

19:28.79
mike_flywheel
Um.

19:40.51
Will Jourdain
Were lacking on monetization which means they didn't have a link treee they didn't have like um you know they didn't have like a platform for monetization. Ah they were. They were literallyly lacking and crying for something like we did. That's our biggest focus that it was our biggest focus. Now that we have like much better tech behind the platform. Um, and that the platform is really unique compared to a lot of other players then we can try to move on to creators that are already doing subscriptions so people that are on Twitch subscription. Um, maybe in subscription on Instagram is we have better tech that are platform for this type of of of monetization. So yeah, that's kind of like yeah.

20:21.48
mike_flywheel
I Want to learn about some of those features but I want to jump back to something you said earlier. So you said you're a non technicalchnical cofounder and you know this sounds like it's pretty tech intensive. You're talking about new Feature releases remaining competitive with some fairly large brands.

20:34.50
Will Jourdain
Yeah.

20:38.28
mike_flywheel
How did you break through here and how did you actually build the platform of fan stories.

20:47.18
Will Jourdain
Um, yeah I think that's the biggest takeaway from this this adventure is that when you want something deep enough you can achieve it even though you don't have the knowledge right? I didn't go to college I didn't have university. I don't go out to write a line of code code but yet I'm the Ceo of a high tech technology technological company hydri. You know, high growth tech startup I don't and I don't even read the code I don't know anything about that. Um, what I did. Is that obviously in the beginning when you're ah young, the trickiest part would be to prove that you can do it. That's kind of like the trick because you don't have anything to prove it like you've never done it. You've never been there so I kind of like went to. My friends couple of friends I raised their first friends and family ah $100000 and the $100000 was actually money to prove that I can't do it and by proving that I can do it means building an Mvp. That's the proof it's not the proof of concept but it's the proof that I am serious you know once you have that Mvp you can use that tool to recruit the best teams in the world. Maybe the best people to join your vision and then I got to a point where we didn't have any programmer. We had an Mvp but we needed a team.

22:19.70
Will Jourdain
Ah, not just 1 person but a team to build. Um this this thing and I met my partner Shao ah Shau and he which is incredible guy. Um, he invested in the company now we we have all these resources working on a company like 5 developers full-time that works on fan Storie that are are paid and covered by his race resources. That's kind of part of like the initial ah deal. But. I start you know basically I looked for the people that could do the job that I couldn't.

22:51.20
mike_flywheel
Got it so you rounded out your team's skill set you focused on what you're good at your initial part was pitching the investment in yourself and people believing in what you could go do and you did it and you brought it to a certain point Now you've grown your team.

23:04.57
Will Jourdain
Um, yeah, yeah.

23:06.79
mike_flywheel
Let's talk about these features. So what are some of the the capabilities that you're able to talk about if you're not and there's some secrets us in there. Don't tell us. But what are some of these features or capabilities that you know make fan stories unique or stand out now that you're able to go after some creators that might be using other platforms.

23:13.81
Will Jourdain
Um, yeah, yeah, yeah.

23:26.74
Will Jourdain
Yeah, so so yeah so I think um, ah so we have ah so we have an Ai replica. So what? So we have an ai technology that can take care of answering messages for the creators. And what we have identified is that even though people pay on sensories to message of creators. The creators. They do not have the time to reply because they're flooded with Dms like this is a huge issue for creators like they receive. Thousands of the eggs on Instagram thousands of vs on tiktok thousands on Youtube Facebook has flooded the email list is flooded then they have let's say fanciaries. They're flooded on fanies. It's like it's overwhelming. Um, but again, this is like alpha stage. It's not even better. We're still. Gathering some data so this is why I'm not really selling on that point yet because we don't have data. We don't have data to prove that it's working um, but what we believe and this is what we are currently trying to ah to prove we believe that the fans um are looking for.

24:17.15
mike_flywheel
Erna.

24:35.91
Will Jourdain
2 things of companionship and entertainment and we believe that obviously some fans would want to have authenticity which means the creator reply but we believe that there there is a percentage of the fan base that they will they would accept. And they would see benefit in having the experience of talking with their favorite celebrity place. Let's say if I were to ask the rock for a fitness routine to me. It would be cool to get a fitness routine from the rock. Obviously the rock cannot do a fitness routine. But the Ai can and um, that's kind of like where we are trying to evolve and see if this is a use case that we should push further.

25:20.30
mike_flywheel
That's cool. So you're kind of exploring hey there's this path whered they could if they're someone's paying the right amount they could reply directly but there's a whole aspect of people that maybe are paying a little bit less that know that they're going to get not highly customized. Content but still entertainment value like you're talking about So That's pretty Cool. So beyond that tell me a little bit about about the platform. Do you pay to follow these you know creators and influencers do pay just to message them. Do you pay for? How does the gating of that work and is this.

25:45.80
Will Jourdain
Um, yeah.

25:55.92
mike_flywheel
You know I'm a little bit newer to this space but does this live on top of Instagram and Tiktok does it live separate. It's like another app. How does that sort of work.

26:09.80
Will Jourdain
Yeah, so it's a link that the creators put in their bio right? and um on that link. There's multiple option to monetize but let's say the biggest one would be if you want to see content of the creator you have. Whether to follow the creator for free to see free content and by following the creator for free to creators build. Let's say a list of fans that they can then communicate better because we have feature where creators can send. Messages they can notify creators when they release new posts they can notify creators when they launch a new video on Youtube so they kind of like build this audience. They aggregate the audience from all the platforms to one where they own it because on Youtube if.

26:50.28
mike_flywheel
Me.

26:57.82
Will Jourdain
Let's say Youtube is not really liking your pitch or Youtube doesn't like the way you talk they will ban you and then you lost everything Tiktok does the same thing on fanies. You aggregate your fans to 1 place you own that audience but you can communicate with them. The other The other part is you can subscribe a monthly fee. Let's say ten fifteen dollars a month to get access to exclusive content. You know being behind the scenes of your life. Ah, you know that those goodies or you can pay to message a grid.

27:28.40
mike_flywheel
That's Cool. So It's got the gating owner I think that was really interesting piece which is like pivoting the ownership of your fan base I've never really quite heard it put that way I'm sure someone's referenced it. But as owning your fan base. Um, so you can monetize on these other paths and they can view and watch. But you're creating a different vehicle to communicate and build that bridge to um to your fan base. So It sounds like the problem you're solving is a few one is ownership of the fan base.

27:53.54
Will Jourdain
Um, yes.

27:59.51
mike_flywheel
Second is monetization and then you're actually starting to diversify and create new forms of monetization and efficiency because you're saying you know you can monetize through messaging and then there's this other subset where maybe you're going to make it more efficient where fans maybe pay a little bit less.

28:11.16
Will Jourdain
Yeah.

28:17.93
mike_flywheel
But understand that they're maybe not getting a custom ah response from will they're getting something that's more entertainment value and people pay for entertainment value right? They they pay for skins for their armor in in a video game. They pay for like a new color in a car in a video game.

28:31.14
Will Jourdain
Um, yeah.

28:34.73
mike_flywheel
So there's ah, there's a threshold of entertainment value cost and there's another threshold of I want to pay for something premium like you know like Cameo I guess and then you're kind of monetizing giving creators power to monetize in other ways, What kind of creator are you focused on like.

28:37.87
Will Jourdain
Um, yeah.

28:44.85
Will Jourdain
Yeah, yeah.

28:51.35
mike_flywheel
Um, podcaster am I The type of creator is it like video and visual creators brand creation like a whole brand or mostly for individual creators who's who's sort of your primary audience here.

28:55.75
Will Jourdain
Um, yes.

29:06.84
Will Jourdain
Yeah, so there's multiple things that we look for number one is we look for creators that show signs that they want to do this for ah fulltime that being a content creator is their goal and they want to do this full time. They're not just a seasoned creator taking pictures on the beach. Right? Ah, they're really and usually these things we will see this like they will have like say a Discord channel or they will have like a podcast or they will have like a Youtube or they they will have multiple things that showcase. Okay, this one is really trying to achieve something. Um, that's the number one then we look audiences. We need to have there. There should be a minimum of 100000 fans not fans but like let's say 100000 followers otherwise they're not yet to the point where they should monetize they're more to the point where they should think about building the audience right building better content. You know, unless you you write. It's kind of like there's multiple tiers right? If you start you have 5000 followers. It's not even worth thinking. Monetization. It's like you have to work you have to work your content get better content grow the audience. And once you grow the audience for a certain point now. It's kind of time like how can I monetize this we want to take them where they are yeah sorry Mike.

30:19.45
mike_flywheel
No, no, just going to say yeah you you were talking about audience size now is that audience following on like a Tiktok or an Instagram because I know like subscribers on Youtube maybe is a different threshold or maybe that so like you're saying no matter what platform about 100000 sort of the Mark.

30:38.97
Will Jourdain
Um, 100000 instagram then I would say one hundred Thousand Instagram tiktok is a little bit more because Tiktok. It's really easy to get followers and I I have a theory on this because I'm not so sure it's all real I think numbers are inflated by the Tiktok.

30:39.00
mike_flywheel
Okay.

30:50.90
mike_flywheel
Yeah.

30:58.85
Will Jourdain
Team as well. But again, that's another story and that Youtube it could be really really, really, really small because Youtube is the most valuable followers if you if you acquire followers on Youtube this is you know at 1000 followers on Youtube is worth 50000 on Instagram um.

31:10.92
mike_flywheel
Now. Okay, so then I should definitely tell my my friend who's way more popular than this podcast. His thing is cars a saing and he gets like reposted by a bunch of things I think he's got like 50000 subs on Youtube.

31:16.68
Will Jourdain
Just to give you an idea.

31:28.75
mike_flywheel
Yeah, yeah, so it sounds like he's He's pretty interesting person way more interesting than me sometimes I get to hang out with them and you know call my friend but I'll make sure he checks no fan stories and it sounds like it's the right fit for someone like him but not yet like someone like me maybe eventually maybe eventually I'll get up there. Yeah exactly.

31:31.11
Will Jourdain
Um, on Youtube.

31:47.55
Will Jourdain
Um, and then chili. Yeah for sure we we we all have to start somewhere. Yeah.

31:48.64
mike_flywheel
Yep! And for now we're having fun along the way and I'm I'm learning about new categories. So you talked a bit about your competitors. Um, tell me a little bit about like your journey so far like you know you you were you came on this call. We've had to move it it a few times. But. Because of me a bit because you but but when you told me why I got really excited so tell me about some of these recent milestones that you've been having at fan story some of these amazing moments of of energy that you've you've sort of just had in the recent few weeks

32:21.67
Will Jourdain
Yeah, so um, so it's been three months that the the team is working on tons of new feature like ah version 2 of the AiReplicas ah ah you know content recommend content recommendation engine. We've been working on new profile designs. We've been working on our our own linked tree kind of like pages like fries. They have a link tree that they can just use ah for free. We've been working on a free tier where you can just follow for free. We've been working on. Ah, um, again, new designs on some pages improve ui improve ux we've been working on the wait 1 board creators more quickly as well. Ah, removing all of the barriers to entry like providing information that would kind of like make them fall off. Onboarding. It's big like a really huge release. We got it released. The team got it released and last week and what made me really happy is that usually when we release new feature. We kind of like break everything like development is like you release something you break things. And we almost broke nothing which is which which was really incredible. That's one part so that's why I was really busy and the other one is we have our biggest months in terms of revenue biggest months in terms of user acquisition. Biggest months in terms of every numbers is the biggest. So.

33:51.77
mike_flywheel
That's amazing. Well congratulations I'm happy to push podcasts out for moments like that. Um, what's been like your most memorable moment on this journey is it this recent one or is there something else in the creation and development of fan stories to where you are today.

33:54.28
Will Jourdain
Yes.

33:59.78
Will Jourdain
Um, that's it.

34:06.38
mike_flywheel
That sort of like Springs to your mind is like the most favored or memorable.

34:14.32
Will Jourdain
I would say every milestone that we achieve is getting more memorable and I kind of not forget the other ones but I'm I'm always looking forward I don't really look backward that that much. Um, but I would say last week was ah was meant for celebration. Um I did celebrate a little and but yeah,, let's let's put it that way but then memorable I would say I think the most memorable is yet to come.

34:43.16
mike_flywheel
I like that I like that forward-looking view. What about the hardest or most challenging part and if you can pair that with advice that's always useful I know you talked about some great advice from your you know your solar Panel Panel business. Um, but what's been like the hardest part of this journey so far and if you've got some advice to help others that may be facing a similar thing.

35:08.91
Will Jourdain
Yeah, so there there was there was 2 events that ah that was complicated, not complicated but hard number 1 is my so I started the company with a friend. And eventually we had to separate because there was some um you know there was some reason between the 2 of us that we needed to take part ways that that was pretty tough I would say um because obviously it created a lot of doubt in the company and. Doubt and the mission doubts in myself doubts and you know a lot of stuff but you know we passed through this. that's one of that's one of the hardest part I would say the second hardest part was when my. Ah, first develop so when we ran ran out of the money the 100000 that we raise friends and family when we once we ran out a bit. Um we had I'm not saying a shitty platform but it was not incredible. Trust me, it was like pretty bad. Um. And we started to onboard users users didn't want us to. They didn't want the platform. It was pretty like it was not that incredible and at that point I was.

36:30.17
Will Jourdain
Left with no developers to fix bug no money to hire developers. No nothing just an Mtp and this is where I needed to find my my partner shao that's now part of at the team which I'm really grateful to be with him today. Um. But yeah, ah what I learned from this is that you know I think when you have some what I learned from this and I'm still struggling with this today is that when something is pressing enough or when something is urgent enough which means if you will buy. If. You don't do it use this as fuel to do it and you should and and and sometimes and that's that's what I'm I'm learning right now because I'll give you an example right now we're trying to raise a seed realm. But I'm not in the position where if I don't raise my seed round I'm going to die at that point, let's say a couple of years ago if I didn't have a tech team I'm going to die. So it was like do or that I need this It's incredible. And this created energy. It. It was like focus energy I need to find someone and it was all I did this is the only thing I did until I reach that goal and for let's say raising a seed round when I'm and what I'm kind of starting to realize is that I need to put myself in a position.

37:59.31
Will Jourdain
Mentally where if I don't raise I'm dying and maybe this could help in many business situation where if you can put yourself in bad situation. You'll achieve the goal.

38:10.11
mike_flywheel
Yes, it sounds like the pressure of the the do or die moments in a business create this focus. Um and deliberateness to how you spend your time and energy and when faced with those moments to be extremely resilient. And breakthrough because I think both of those moments that you mentioned many businesses might just close the doors you know co-founders parting Ways. It's not fatal like there can be reasons that that makes sense for both of the co-founders to go down different paths and everyone can still achieve.

38:33.47
Will Jourdain
Are.

38:40.19
Will Jourdain
No.

38:46.20
mike_flywheel
Success. Um, there's moments where you're you know, drained on cash. Maybe people don't love your product yet. But you've got something and you're onto something and you need to push through and you need to just go ask for help and so I really love those those aspects of your story.

38:52.19
Will Jourdain
Are.

39:02.77
mike_flywheel
Actually ah 1 question that came to mind because I want to talk about this raise and the the funding. But if anyone's listening and they are wanting to get into your your fundraising round. They're going to ask the same question which is how do you? How do you in fan stories make money.

39:02.88
Will Jourdain
Fisher. Yeah.

39:20.61
Will Jourdain
Yeah, so so obviously it's ah it's a subscription model which is one of the best model in the world if you ask me? Um, so we make money by taking 20% of the revenue from the creators and and that's the That's the that's our main revenue stream and obviously there's multiple other things that we can do along the way. But right now this is um, we need to match like we need to build this first.

39:46.38
mike_flywheel
That's good. That's amazing. So your your power metrics around number of influencers on the platform are creators on the platform number of fans that are those 2 metrics growing are just helping prop you up. Is there a milestone um, you know six or twelve months out from like a top line creators.

39:56.44
Will Jourdain
Um, yeah.

40:00.16
Will Jourdain
Um, yeah.

40:03.61
mike_flywheel
Or users that you're chasing with this round.

40:10.66
Will Jourdain
Yeah, so 3000000 will be used to grow the gmv to 20000000 that's that's the that's the goal. Ah and we will build a team that's going to be able to acquire between.

40:12.51
mike_flywheel
Wow, That's that's amazing. Yeah.

40:26.40
Will Jourdain
You know between 44 to 150 new creators per week. Um, and if we can't achieve that then we believe that in a matter of 2 years the gnv will be 20000000

40:27.16
mike_flywheel
Quantum.

40:35.94
mike_flywheel
That's amazing. So and what's the timing of this round and if people are interested to you know, get in touch to learn a little bit more where should they go and and yeah, what's the timing of of your this raise.

40:48.16
Will Jourdain
Yeah, so so obviously we're profiting so it's not like like I said it's not a do or die situation. It's not like if we don't raise we're're going to die but we want to accelerate things. Obviously ah, we are in a competitive market and we think that we have something incredible and that's going to change the world for creators and we want to be. You know we want to grow quicker. But yeah, so the timeline is about I would say if we can raise you know between 20 ah, you know somewhere around mid to end 2024 that would be a great goal for me and um, and yeah I was oh yeah, it's forty eight months

41:26.63
mike_flywheel
Um, awesome.

41:31.88
Will Jourdain
So the the fund will be ah you will be got will be giving us forty eight months runway to goal gmp yeah to 20000000

41:37.54
mike_flywheel
That's amazing and so if you're a listener who wants to either sign up as a creator if you just want to follow the journey. Um, or you're interested in investing where can people find out more about fan stories. Yeah.

41:52.33
mike_flywheel
Yeah, well, we'll add show notes. We'll add show notes as well.

41:53.14
Will Jourdain
Yeah, so um, probably I'm going to leave I don't know if you're going to add that in the in the bio but there's going to have my Linkedin. On the on the notes. Um I can leave my email address as well. So you can shoot me an email I'd be happy to ah to discuss me I just love meeting. You know. new new founders you entrepreneurs I look here like you Mike I just like I think it's incredible to to hear stories and I'd love to hear your stories as well. Next time. So.

42:20.48
mike_flywheel
yeah yeah I appreciate and maybe we'll we'll do it when I come to to Montreal next um, we'll ah we'll sit down and and chat and now learn a bit more even about how how to become a more successful creator from a master in this space if others are looking as well. It's fanstories.tv

42:29.14
Will Jourdain
Um, yeah.

42:37.71
Will Jourdain
Um, yeah.

42:39.68
mike_flywheel
Tried.com I tried ca but it's Tv so make sure that you get that right? We'll put that in the show notes as well. Um, will thank you so much for teaching me about this space. Yeah, thank you for your coaching and advice around being a better creator and continuing to grow this podcast at the kickoff there. I wrote down a whole bunch of notes and hopefully they translate to some success and and continue to growth. But either way this podcast has just been about meeting amazing founders like yourself learning about this breadth of cool things happening in the canadian ecosystem with canadian founders which I love because sometimes they just don't get enough spotlight.

42:57.96
Will Jourdain
Fish. Ah.

43:15.21
mike_flywheel
Um, any closing words on your part will before we wrap up today.

43:19.99
mike_flywheel
Believe in your dream I Love it. Thanks again for joining will that was will from fan stories If you're a content creator. You're a streamer you should check them out if you're looking to you know, take an investment bet into into fan stories and grow with them. You can check them out as well.

43:20.32
Will Jourdain
Believe in your dream.

43:36.97
mike_flywheel
Ah, thanks again and well and have a great really good day. Everybody.

43:42.19
Will Jourdain
Thank you! My friend. Thank you everyone.