Pitch Please

It's Mike here from the pitch, please. Podcast today. I'm joined by two special guests. They're also sisters. We've got Elmira and Dilya from Mavuus.

I'm gonna hand it over to each of you to give yourselves a quick introduction of what your role is at Mavuus. Um And maybe tell us a little bit about yourselves. Uh Thank you so much for having us really fun. This is my official, I think the third podcast. I've never done it with my sister. This is extra special. So I'm, I'm the CEO and co-founder of Mavuus.

I've been, I'm a marketer. My background is in marketing. I've been in marketing for over 15 years, mostly working in tech, mostly working in company companies. I work for I T company. So I have a full good holistic understanding of how technology works. And when it comes to marketing, I would say I'm a generalist in nature. But if I were to work for a bigger robust marketing team, I'd probably be on demand team. And lately I've been into creative storytelling in terms of developing my personal brand and delivering that uh human to human connection through sharing my entrepreneurial journey with the world, which I am become a fan of. And now I've been preaching that to all other marketers and I'm gonna let Elmira say hi, hi guys, I'm Elmira.

I'm um also coo and the co-founder of and I'm actually Dilya's sister and a partner. So I am also a marketer. And by chance, we both ended up by in a marketing career and I've been working for over 17 years standing from different companies mainly though in tech as well to be in tech for the last 10 years. It's been an interesting career, beautiful journey, but I'm so now ready for the entrepreneurship, which we just right now, they evolving honestly in nature. I'm actually a marketing, I would say like I'm um call to action marketer, the one that actually brings conversions actually works on the campaigns that I believe in that truly can work and bring you results. That's been my kind of moral throughout all my career. So I'm excited to be here, Mike.

Thank you for having us. No problem. And I'm, I have to ask, although I feel like I've sort of heard it in both of what you were saying it sounds like Mira, you like data and it sounds like Delia, you like telling stories. But how did you determine or was it just a natural fit? Who's CEO versus coo? Was this like a rock paper scissors? Was it super simple?

I would say I also love data, but I also love storytelling. I think. Do you want me to take it on? I think originally the need for Mavis originated in my mind. And I think that's just how like I brought the idea very raw idea to El Mirror. And then since then, we've been developing the whole thing together to think just naturally because it started in my head. It was just like a, a natural. That's good. You have to do, check it out. Mavis, how did you come up with the name?

We'll talk about the business. So if there's like elements about the business and how it works and what it is like, we'll get to those after. But I'm always curious of like how people arrived at the name of their company and, and maybe we should spell it out for people too. So it's Ma V U us. Um How did you come up with Mavis? I can take this one.

Yeah, it's been like, honestly, like some time we chose the name and we worked with a beautiful consultant who helped us through that as well. And we um it was kind of like different, different versions was very very creative, but we really believe in the made up names. This name is actually made up of two words, it maven, which is the expert and then us. So it's connecting experts. So it just made sense for us that we're connecting experts together between in Mark. Um That's how we came up with this name. Super cool. And in this consultant that you worked with is like their specialization in coming up with names, like was it an agency or just someone you knew?

Obviously we'll talk a little bit about your business. So maybe that's by extension, how you knew of this person. But yeah, how did you find this person? She's a freelance consultant that was actually my first boss in a marketing career and we've been working with her since when it comes to like marketing communications and like coming up with new visuals and branding and creative like word smiting, I would say she's the best. Her name is Sandy Chambers. And yeah, when it comes to like creative, she's my most favorite person to work with. So again, if anybody ever made a recommendation, a great creative marketing consultant, Sandy, just so many seeds to your business idea. I love it. It's funny because there's a, there's a, there's a company, one of the earlier on ones, their name, they went through a bit of a rebrand and to do that they hired, I guess the same agency I didn't even know this was a thing, but they hired the agency that also named it like the bacon from Wendy's. And so I guess there's whole businesses because you scribble down names, you move letters around, you spell words weird. And sometimes that process is really hard for people. So people definitely do some have something that they've always thought of. And so it's always cool to hear, hear the stories.

Now you're both backgrounds in marketing. Now you're both full time founders and entrepreneurs. Did you always think you would be founders and entrepreneurs of a startup or a business like this? And do you have, I know you've talked about the fact that you were at some, some larger companies before? But do you have like entrepreneurial ventures that you've had previously in your life or is this like the first one? This is the first one for both of us? Did we Mira can speak for herself? But did I always want to be an entrepreneur?

I always had an idea that I might want to try something on my own. And the truth is I always thought maybe like marketing consulting just because of marketing. But I also like, it wasn't, no, it wasn't my goal. Like I would say five years years ago, I was on a very strong path of, you know, going into a marketing leader becoming that CMO but then at some point, I was honest with myself and just knowing and experiencing how the corporate culture usually works and just all the political drama and like we all know how that is. I was just honest with myself and I've decided that I, that's not gonna be my path. I don't want to grow into a CMO and work for like a large company which just, I think it would make me happy because I would be so fulfilled and proud of myself. But it wouldn't make like my soul happy.

I wouldn't be a happy being, but made it the goal just to work for myself at some point. But they didn't have an idea what that would be. But the funny thing with the universe, how it works is that once you like, set your mind on something, it will give you an idea eventually and like literally like a little bit time passes by, I get an idea for me was when the whole journey starts evolving. So for me, it was kind of like a natural evolution. First, I decided that, hey, I don't wanna work for a company, I wanna work for myself at some point not knowing what I want to do. And then naturally I got an idea from me this coming out of nowhere and I will want to hear about that nowhere because it had to have come from somewhere. But I'm gonna, we're gonna come back. But what, what about you?

No, for me, it was actually the opposite. Like I've been always not the opposite. But I've been always wanting to be in just the corporate world, but I've been going for that P P and C more roles and I've achieved that the P at some point. Yeah, the step next step would be CMO probably. But um I was just, it, like, it was a really sudden change for me. I would say that it's who like, inspired me a little bit but it was like for the last two years, something just changed for me and I was in a good company and everything and it just something just internally changed for me.

You know, when I knew that that's it. Like this is something I wanna do on my own right now. And uh when the idea came along, this was like, just a confirmation. Um So yeah, it wasn't like that for like many years. It was just always corporate and that's when I announced it to my company, they just left and it was for everyone. It was kind of a shock because I was always this corporate lady.

So, yeah, it's, I guess the life evolves you and you just thought suddenly you were really interested in something else. And now like, I'm fully loving the entrepreneurship. So, so Delia is not just your sister, she's a great sales person as well. It seems apparently maybe let's talk about that a little bit. You never expected to be an entrepreneur, never mind with family.

How is that is there ups downs pros cons, like if there's other people thinking, you know, I think one of the hardest parts of starting something is oftentimes finding people you trust. So maybe that'll play into this. But then there's also, you know, people that will say you shouldn't mix work and family or business and family. So I'm sure it's a big question on people's minds. So I'd love your honest thoughts respectively on, on how it is and what are the goods and the bads or things that people should consider.

Yeah, we hear it quite a bit like, don't mix business and family. And I think it honestly, I can't say that's not true. I think it honestly depends on your natural dynamic with your family and but your sibling, in my case, in our case, like it's not a risk and it will never the relationship just because of the nature of our relationship from the beginning. Like we're such a tight knit family and there's so much trust and there is like we're so close and um there's so much integrity in our relationship that starting to work on me and starting to develop business to together was never gonna put that at risk. Is how is it different from like a regular, let's say, just a coworker or working with anyone else? I would say a lot more, just a lot more open and a lot more you don't hold back.

For example, if like, with your coworker, you don't like something, you're gonna be very diplomatic about how you deliver feedback because she's my sister and like, unfortunately sometimes I still treat her as my sister. So like the feedback or like whatever is just like a lot more immediate, a lot more open, a lot more, a lot less diplomatic, which I think in a way helps because we kind of discuss the problem on the spot with your feelings and sometimes things get heated because again, we're sisters. But at the same time, there's no holding back, there's no like organ stealing this way for a couple of weeks and didn't know how, how to deliver it. Just a typical state, how it is with poor workers because it's your sister. It's kind of like pop up on the spot, it's more heated. But I think a lot more effective in a way that like was all being the immediacy of the feedback is like, helps you move forward faster over time.

Sorry to interrupt you. No. And I would say that it's also has helped us to improve our relationship overall. You know, it's actually helped us to like because of this, you said, like, things that came up, we started like communicating better. We started to be more open and to set on the spot and then you think that we never call back and we also, you know, it just somehow easier even started in our relationship with sisters as well. So it's interestingly worked perfectly for us.

And, um, but again, delay is right. Like, it started from a very solid relationship, which is all family had and my sister and I had always as, we're like best friends as well and I think that's what probably, like, helped us big time too. Super cool. Is there any, um, any element of something that you think people should ask themselves before getting started in a business with family? I think it's just, um, kind of like, what are your relationship currently at? Right. Like, if, um, let's say, do you trust that person?

Like, I mean, we know many examples where people don't even trust your sister or brother or whatever. Right. So, it's, uh, what are you at in your relationship if you don't feel that you have a, a good, like, kind of like, ok relationship but not the best relationship and whatever those reasons are, I don't think you should go into the business with that person. It doesn't matter if it's a friend, if it's a stranger or it's, it's, but especially families can get heated even more so, and I've heard many stories where the family didn't work in the business. So, but I think it's all started from the, that initial relationship was not the best for sure.

Any other thoughts do that. No, I would absolutely agree. All right. Hard, hard question. Who's the smarter sister? Don't answer that? Actually. We, we don't want a live debate.

You're both in like, the marketing and brand space and obviously that inspired, well, I guess we'll find out, but I think that inspired some elements of Mavis. Is there a company that either of you sort of like, look up to? And if so, which company is that and why, why did you look up to them? Yeah, I'll take this one first. It's actually, I'm looking up very much to alcohol or why do I look up to it? Because for me, first of all, I've read the bio of the Jobs and, and then I also know kind of the story and for me, it was always that he believed in product no matter what happened through his journey and how many fails he had, he still believed that he can build something very innovative people. So that's like the vision, you know, that he had like, and the belief he had like really inspires me. And secondly, that they just the product innovation that they had over the years. And again, somebody like a lot of people told him that this is, that's not gonna work and you're trying to create some something that nobody need will need ever. And there's so many already companies out there doing this and he still believed in it and she still believed in innovation. And for me that's really inspiring, you never should stop in what you believe. And to see that idea and where you are right now. So that's what for me, the, the company that inspires me.

Yeah, it's a good one. I like, I don't have like a specific company company that I like, look up to and their problem. But what I typically admire in companies is the type of leadership that they create where there's a lot of li liberty for employees to do their job without necessarily like conforming to the 9 to 5 type or being online or I don't know, like taking days off or whatever, I guess I also got spoiled a bit because I've been in tech and it's a lot more laid back in tech in companies that I worked for. But it's, they always like, I always look up to the type of leadership that yeah, like nurtures the um the liberty for their employees to have enough freedom to work, but also thrive with creativity, thrive in their personal lives, et cetera. Because honestly, like in my humble opinion, like the culture that nurtures like 9 to 5, you know, 23 week vacation. To me, it's hard to thrive with any kind of creativity there, with any kind of like creative work or create a lot of joy. So, yeah, these are the types of leaderships I look up to.

Well, I'm excited to see if elements of what you admire has made its way or will continue to make its way into Mavis. So maybe let's talk about Mavis a little bit before we do your best pitch, please. I been waiting for this. We're practicing for six months now, essentially, uh what Mavis is, Mavis is a freelance marketplace for marketers or businesses to find best quality providers based on personal recommendation.

The truth is we all know there are existing freelance market places like outworks of the world, but they tend to lead with quantity versus quality. And we haven't been in marketing for many years. Always kind of tend to rely on our in our network to seek those best quality providers and to validate our idea. Initially, we also conducted primary research and 74% of marketers said that they always, they struggle with finding good quality providers and they always go back to their network to ask for recommendation. And interestingly enough, the service providers on the other hand, also said that the best quality leads come from recommend recommendations or they're in our network and they don't really have a lot of success with the, with the outworks of the world and the type of leads they get are really low quality. So it just seems like it seemed like the stars were aligning and the need came from the pain points came from our own day to day needs being marketers ourselves. So it kind of came from our own experience.

We validated that with the further marketing audience and it got validated. So that's how the original idea for Navis was born and that's what Mavis is today. Basically, the biggest difference is is the personal recommendations. It finding talent through your inner network, which in truth, these conversations are happening every day and doing channel emails, texting. So neighbors just enabled that platform to do that in an easier, faster, more efficient way. It's a super human centered approach to the marketplace around talent. Um It sounds like it didn't just start out of thin air. It started out of out of some pains that maybe you were dealing with.

Can you maybe talk to me a little bit about and share, what were some of those frustrations and what was the tipping point and sort of when that light bulb ignited around this could be a company and we should start this company. I have a story probably will like evolve in this as well. We, I've had a really bad story a few years ago at my job where, you know, I was a p of marketing and I, we basically, we needed a new provider for the exhibit booth, like large exhibit booth, one of the biggest shows. And we, with my events manager, we found this lady online even though we thought there was other companies that we knew that were on her recommendation list on her testimonial list. Sorry, no recommendation, testimonial list. And we just went for it.

We kind of like, you know, talked and she was amazing on the phone she met with us in a person, um, and turned out to be the my biggest nightmare in my career. Um, because she, um, she just deceived us so much. I still have goosebumps right now. I'm talking about it. She deceived us so much.

She delivered a very poor, poor job. It was a horrible, like looking boot like she like it was late with services, everything. It was the largest show that everyone was just, you know, like our company, like a lot of the leaders were there from our company, et cetera. So it is a really bad experience where my reputation was shooken, shaken, you know, like, and um, and we, we not only just had a poor job, but we also lost money when she overcharged us many times. They can, we ended up like dealing with lawyers and et cetera. So it was a very bad, a crazy story and that was just actually happening right beside we, like when we were thinking of, we actually, I think we're coming up with Mavis and I think maybe even at that time, I was telling Delia, you know, somewhere and we always come and we crying to each other about things, you know, and I was like, just how bad is happening. And I think that's approximately when Delia came up with this idea because we like, and like, basically had this bad experience, at least from my side, you can take off this one. Yeah, definitely. Like, I don't have a story that is as bad, but I've also been burned by providers just finding them online on existing marketplaces and it does put your reputation at stake, right? Because you're delivering a project and here is your provider. So random provider you found, uh, is, uh, not delivering it, like puts you like sort of a risk, right? Like your reputation, is it risk? And because, and I would always exchange contact with each other since the beginning.

We've been in marketing. It was just basically we exchange contact with other marketers too. So why can't we just create this network where marketers and businesses kind of get together a community per se and just exchange their favorite providers because they are hard to find. So that's essentially how the spark, the light bulb. Yeah, either good sparks, light bulbs above any, anything that provides your source of fuel.

I it's interesting because as you talk through it, we talked earlier how foundational the trust in your relationship as sisters was to becoming co-founders together and how people at the center of these items and how you've had poor experiences built on and lack of understanding people. And so it's cool how those two things have sort of come together, that human connection is truly at the center of what you're building. Um I want to learn a little bit about the types, you know, you're talking about businesses, you're talking about marketers, maybe help me understand the sides of the marketplace. The types of companies like, is this, like for large companies like Microsoft or Apple? Is it for smaller companies? Are the marketers? All independent consultants? Talk to me a little bit about those audiences and it'd be even good to understand the types of marketing services because it's so wide. Like, what could you find on, on Mavis?

Let's, let's talk to through that a little bit. Yeah, totally. It's easier for me to start with the types of services. So it's basically freelancers and service providers slash vendors that are in a marketing sphere. So anything that a market marketer would need day to day. So starting with developers, designers, videographers, content writers, social media managers, marketing consultants, legion consultants, less specialists have anything to do with the marketing fear.

That's what Mavis is all about. And these are the type of talent that you would find out there. S C O specialist P PC specialist, et cetera, et cetera, right? When it comes to the different like audiences for Mavis. So in a perfect world, there are clients on there which are either marketers or businesses who are looking for, you know, specialists for their marketing needs.

They need an S E O consultant, they need a marketing consultant whatsoever. And then on the other hand, there are the service providers, they provide services, right? They're usually they could be freelancers, they could be agencies. So it kind of varies the type of the type of organizations they are and in terms of the clients, are they smaller businesses versus larger organizations? I would say today we are getting more requests from organizations of smaller sizes where the marketing team is not too robust, I would say five people and under, but because we're so five people are under marketing teams or five people are under business. Marketing, marketing businesses, like smaller, like sub 305 100 employee type businesses.

Yes, exactly and smaller. Yeah, I guess I'm looking at the marketing teams how robust they are. But because we're so early in our journeys, we are always uh still obviously developing the product road map and trying to add like more value to the platform to create more engagement. So is that gonna change? And is that audience going to evolve eventually and maybe will get into the more results of the world where like a huge robust marketing team leverages Navis.

I just don't have an answer to this question at this point. But today, I would say it's the like the the smaller marketing organizations that are leveraging Navis, what would you say? And the size of the companies, I would say small to medium size, some not large. Definitely. But yeah, it's all about marketing teams who like either have like one person or you know, or sometimes even businesses who don't have marketing. They just like, OK, I need a consultant or I need someone for now and then, you know, so it's uh yeah, small to medium size. It's got it. Can you, can you teach me a little bit about how the business, maybe not the business, but I guess your, is it a platform like how does this actually work? How do you do these referrals or personal recommendations?

Talk, talk me through that because it sounds like that's a really core element because the problem that you're solving versus I'll say their name, but they're not getting free advertising at work. Someone like that, the problem you're solving is that you're not saying that's not valid. You're saying it's more valid when it comes from a trusted referral. And so I'd love to understand a little bit more about how this trusted referral system works uh on, on Mavis. Yeah, absolutely. So people ask us like, do you vet vendors yourself? Like is it vetted by neighbors? So today, the way that it works, it's not vetted by me, but by us, it, it basically the recommendation is as good as your network or neighbors. So created the circle of 10 people that you think you trust and um you take their word for it that the quality of recommendations you're getting. So basically, yeah, as good as your inner circle. And today, the way that it works, essentially you create a profile, there's going to be some recommended contact on there that you could potentially know, maybe through like the first connection or if you log in with Gmail, et cetera, it's gonna recommend to people that you could potentially know. And then we encourage users to invite either their peer marketers or their favorite providers to join.

Maybe so they could recommend them and the benefit for those providers that you know, they could get more business out of me this through the, through their existing clients. So that's kind of essentially how it works. The I can be transparent.

The challenge is because it's based on the network, the value of the network is the actual network. So you're just kind of need to get over the hump of, you know, growing the network where you join and you actually like know a few people. That's when the true nature of me this is gonna start picking up and like delivering its true value and that's what it was for and that something that we are working on in developing those strategies on how to grow the network versus just growing the user base. Yeah, and I would wanna say that it's just if you compare again without work with someone like where? Yeah, there was like I said before, like even that provider, I mentioned about one where we saw some kind of a testimonial written by some name we didn't really know. So you don't know the names right here.

You actually can see the person's name, you can actually see the person's like who it is. You can connect with them on this, on this platform and if you have any questions and some the person will respond to et cetera. So it's kind of like, you know, more trusting where you actually can see who wrote it and you know, potentially you can talk to that person. So I think that's how it stand out. Yeah, it's good because I was gonna ask about, you know, reviews and testimonials or obviously on all these platforms, but a component here is, it's not just a name and a post, you're actually bringing a connectedness to those individuals. Now, do you, is this like connected in with I'm hearing like tones of linkedin almost are the two connected or is it similar or is it like linkedin is embedded within what you do or the dream is to do that?

Talk to me a little bit about how you build up more than a name and a profile to really go beyond basic testimonial. There is definitely a parallel to linkedin because it's the network, right? Like linkedin is the biggest professional, obviously. And uh somebody actually told me like if they were to describe me the it would be like up work and linkedin had a baby and that would be because there's a component of the network and there is the marketplace, right? So they were or two, it's a hybrid between the two, which is I think is a perfect explanation is it integrated with linkedin. It's not integrated with linkedin today. And that's something that we are potentially looking at.

Again, I don't know the technical capabilities, but that's something we could potentially bring to me that just to help with that like network growth. Yeah, double sided marketplaces are always challenging. I think part of it is because it's always chicken and egg. Are you going after the egg first or the chicken first? I don't know which one is which in the scenario. But I guess is your, is your goal as you build this out to go after the marketers first, the suppliers, I guess, or the businesses um or is the strategy somehow different? Yeah. So today, it's obviously well obvious to me, it's not truly that we are getting more interest from the service providers, like I would say the user basis today, 60 40 60% service providers. And it's not true because they're the ones who want to get more business. So they're more keen to join the network and you know, try it out, created their profile. But for us, we want to keep a balance of uh getting that but also inviting enough marketers. So they would actually, so we provide the recommendations for the providers and they would bring in their providers. Because again, if we just grow the user base with the service providers, we just become another existing freelance marketplace. So we have to be mindful of and keeping in mind that marketers are equally or maybe probably more important for us to bring in and to bring in their recommended talent. And people actually will willing to do that like when they truly like someone, that's what we observed. And actually that goes back to the part that I think you ask about the overall recommendation people when you people like, you know how you put something at it on paper work or somewhere where you just put your name and maybe like first initial or something here is actually the full name. And so people actually would never do, some would never put a recommendation if they don't truly believe in that person.

It's interesting, they only put the recommendation when they truly had a good experience. So and that's how like, you know, we believe that it is and people know that and everyone knows that. And um so you kind of would be naturally trusting that the recommendation from someone like actually wrote their name beside, you know, um and I would say strategically overall, like we already mentioned, but we kind of trying to really strengthen the network right now as because, you know, it's really important for us in terms of the people knowing each other, but also like that, they see like, you know, people kind of connect together and also the vendors know like together with the marketers or businesses, et cetera. So I think that's the that's what naturally evolving into, like tidying up the network first and then evolving into more user. And it makes sense and, and there's obviously a network effect to it, the more businesses use people from there that would be more recommendations. And I, I do like that, like, because you're referring others, you have incentive to grow the network a little bit, which, which is really cool. And I think you've talked a little bit about um how you differentiate versus competitors through all of that. Where or how do you make money or eventually make money?

I know these things at the beginning are a little bit tough. But how does, how does Mavis make money or where do you make money in the, in the entire flow of this? And yeah. So today, the model is, and again, it, it might change because we're so early. But today it's subscription based and there is a premium option to that subscription for service providers to amplify their exposure, potentially get more business and more we need. So that's where we need. We monetize and we're on subscription based for the service providers, for the businesses seeking great service providers. It's free. Today. I always say today things change.

You never know when this podcast will be released and when someone's going to listen to it. Uh what uh so what stage are you at in the journey? You know, we kind of like a little bit about eventually you'll make money. These things are a journey. Where would you say you're at, in, in the journey? Like if you're open to sharing it, how many users or do you have user goals that you're targeting towards like a number in the near future? True. What's that sort of look like? So today, we're over just over 250 users. And as I said, like roughly 60% of service providers, 40% are marketers.

I would say where we are in the next six months is we have a, well, I think we have a really good product road map where we have a lot of plans to keep evolving Nevis and to keep adding a lot more features to add more value to the platform. Because today, as you can imagine, it's quite utilitarian meaning like you only kind of go there if you need a service provider, there's a lot more because starting to be a community of marketers and the like of the marketing sphere, right of the marketing world, we are adding things like monthly coffee chats where we get together with these professionals and discuss like latest and greatest topics. We're adding a lot more, just additional things to the platform that will create a lot more, not only value but a lot more engagement and stickiness to that community. So we're embracing the community effect of the of the Mavis platform. So that's where the next six months look like it's evolving the product I think, which will naturally hopefully increase the engagement and sickness of the platform it all. And we're grateful that we, we have like a like a probably about 20% 2025.

Like, I think it's natural to have a very engaged users who are already who like, truly, like, you know, talk to us and people that even they knew some people, new people who like joined as well and they also active and you know, the feedback we get and things that we learn and et cetera and it's just so invaluable, like it's so like, you know, you're just so grateful for that. So and yeah, so which we have this belief that it's going to evolve, learn more because just based on all this like totally and is this available? I mean, two questions actually, one, it sounds like it's a, a web platform, right? Like it's not an app, it's, it's a web platform. OK. And obviously digital, the world is your oyster. But is there a specific region country that you're focused on or is this National International? We're we're sort of the scope of where and how your clients and service providers?

Yeah, because it's digital, it's obviously global, but because of the network effect, right, we are based out of Toronto, Canada. So naturally there is a little bit more heavier gathering from, from Canada and also from U SI would say, I would say 40 30 to 40% of probably us just because Elmira and I naturally work with a lot of service providers and other peer marketers from the US as well. So the heavier, heavier, I guess footprint today is, is in North America for sure. But that doesn't limit anyone to join from overseas because it's a based platform actually.

Maybe this is interesting. Is it generally individuals that join or can agencies also join this network? And if so what size agency, I guess? Right? Like one person, five people, 50 people. How did that sort of navigate itself?

Oh, it's open to like mainly I would say to individuals today and but I actually been asked like a couple of times, I have many conversations with new potential users and some agencies are that question like, you know, can I sign up a few people and definitely you can like separately. Um but sometimes again, on our plan to create something, maybe even for enterprise version or something where it's gonna be for a few people using it to get etcetera. But for now it's one by one got it because agencies could even potentially be a customer and maybe a provider at the same time. So it is an interesting there is a lot of crossover for sure.

What's been your start, the positives. What's been like your favorite part so far of building Mavis? Is there like a memorable experience or like a story that you want to share of something that like is very memorable, exciting energizing for either of you. Well, I'll start to guess for this one for me personally, it was the first launch event that we had in October 2022. It was a story that, you know, I'm a big believer in events and when I told Delia, we need to do like a flash about it, Delia was like, who's going to come to an event with so new, you know, whatever. And I'm like, I think you're not right.

Have a good exposure on linkedin. I told her right away very bluntly, you're just not right because you believe it open communication. Yeah. And um she's like, OK, OK. And we found a beautiful gallery for that and we went for it.

We had an amazing sign up, you know, like we had almost like, well, the registrations wise, we had almost 200 people registered. But we got about what I don't know, I think about 80 people in on the event at, at a but what it also did, it actually did the the whole campaign ended up being a campaign not just leaving people put in a tent and come, it actually turned out as a good promotional campaign as well. For me, it was like exposure, the brand awareness was so large and people were just loving and like texting us saying so I cannot attend but like this, like, I'm gonna sign up and we got like a really good sign up at that time as well. So it was a great way to do it. But also like that, that just creates this beautiful, warm memory of like the on the launch and how like you got the validation right away. And also like how, I mean, I would suggest it to any company who launches because that's that, that create that awareness, that becomes that campaign as well. That's special. What about yourself, Delia?

I would say it's not a specific point in time, but I always get like the fuzzies, we're getting a lot of kudos on our branding and the way we're sharing our story on linkedin, our visual branding, our pink really stands out from the rest of the, the B to B tag. This is the way we're sharing our entrepreneurship journey. We've decided to go the route of like the more personal branding where we shared by step about me. But also we're sharing our challenges. We're being really transparent, we're being really open about it.

It's kind of like the good, the bad and the ugly and we like constantly, which again gives me the fuzzies constantly get like kudos and like, oh you guys are doing such a good job with your branding. It always stands out like good solid foundation or, you know, like brand identity. And as a marketer, it's not only a huge compliment to me, my own company and it's very different from any of the, I guess, brand development and any of like the types of communications I've done for the companies that I've worked for. Hence the difference between doing marketing for another company versus doing marketing for yourself. Obviously, you're at liberty to do whatever. Sometimes you can go with your own intuition, which works honestly most of the time. And I always say that I wish for every marketer at some point to do some sort of marketing or some sort of like brand development for, for their own baby for their own thing because it's just so different.

I think it's funny because you said this earlier and, and if you are a marketer or if you're not a marketer, I think it's super important regardless for people to work on their own personal brand. It's funny and I share this story because recently it's come up at work. If you follow me on linkedin, my personal brand is very different, maybe in a good way or bad way than probably most of my other peers that work at Microsoft. Most people will take the regular headlines and Microsoft articles and share them. And I do too. But occasionally and you usually pay attention when I do share those because 98% of my other content is actually just me and it's, and, and it is interesting and so we're actually having a conversation around it um with some teams, but there's a lot of time and energy in figuring out how to bring your personal brand, which depending everyone has their own style. But for me, it's like bringing your authentic things that interest you. So people truly know what interests you and follow that. So when you share something like, well, the things that this person normally talks about are interesting, so I'll pay attention. So when I do post one thing or two things about Microsoft, there's intentionality to it.

I'm not just sort of parenting, everyone has their own style, but I think if you're a marketer, everyone should experience the opportunity to do branding. And if you haven't at least start with your own personal brand and I would echo both of you are doing an amazing job of that from the, the short time period that I've been following you both on linkedin. I'm taking lots of notes. Trust me. I'm not going to use the pink.

I don't think it fits for me. It's not like my authentic self. I love it. Um But I've been taking, I've been taking lots of notes.

What about the hardest part or like a challenging memory because it's definitely not all rainbows. We all know that what's like a stand out challenge um or hardship over the, you know, launch of Mavis that, you know, stands up for either of you. Yeah. And again for me, it's not something that happened once it's actually like to this day and I feel like probably, I don't know, for the rest of the journey. I don't know. I only know the journey so far.

It's the willingness to self motivate yourself every day where um every day is not as you said, like rainbows and sunshine. Sometimes it truly feels like it might not work or constantly questioning yourself. Am I brave enough? Am I smart enough? Am I strategic enough? Am I as good as these other successful entrepreneurs or doubting yourself? But maybe you have what it takes to do this and that like willingness to overcome that every day where maybe things are just not looking so good today or not so promising, you get a rejection and you get like critical feedback on your platform.

It's the willingness to still move forward and to try to change that building, to try to change that mindset that no, I am smart. No, I do have what it takes. I'm just as good just as those other successful entrepreneurs. I have the vision. I have a goal that I'm going after and that building needs to just move forward every day with the mindset that yes, I can and I don't, it's not easy. Yeah, it's your own internal struggles that you have to kind of push past yourself. Yeah. Yeah, for me. Well, it was, it's a little bit in the past right now, but I was the biggest thing it was because I just left my full time job with two months ago under two months ago, a month and a half ago. And it was a very good role in a big company for me. It was just interesting enough that it was the challenge. It is everything good, I'm comfortable.

I am, you know, paying, paid good money and, um, you know, have a good respect, like it was purely good, you know, position and that situation and just the, the hard part, part part was to believe that I, you know, like to trust that this is what I need to do right now because it's calling me and I know that if I don't do this, I'm not going to give it a chance. So, and someone actually mentioned to me six months ago saying, are you still working in your job? And I said, yes, I am. And they said, well, one day you will realize either go two ft or you cannot go 11 ft there, one ft there, right? So I was like, no, but then you realize it later. And then for me, it was the hardest part to, to build that trust in that it's gonna be, you know, I'm gonna believe in myself.

I know it's, and I know that I believe in this, in my, in this business idea. So like I do trust that, that it's going to evolve like it probably might change and et cetera, but I do believe it and it took me some time. But honestly, a month and a half when I made that decision, it was so far, it was a amazing decision that I made. And even though I still love the company that I work for and et cetera, but like I'm evolving so much within this month and a half, I've been doing things that I truly follow that. I, I that was the right way to, to, you know, trust yourself, trust the things. But it was really hard and I know there are people out there who would like, still not do that because they just don't trust that yet and et cetera. So it's the hardest part to trust that.

Well, congrats on being brave enough to, to take the leap. It's funny as I sit here and I, like, I haven't done a podcast with two sisters that were family building a startup, but it's funny to equally see like some contrast and even how you both are approaching it that are complimentary skills. Like even in your answers, you know, Delia, you've got themes, you have themes of things that you know, inspire you. Mira has got specific examples and those two things need to actually come together, right? You'll have like a very spec I, I don't know if you guys noticed it but those like, like a bit of visionary themes and some specifics and, and I think it's cool. It's a very contrasting behavior that I'm sure you both.

Well, whether you realize it or not, I was just, yeah, I guess that's part of what I'm supposed to do a podcast. Do either of you have like advice for other people's, you know, you shared some good highlights, themes and specific examples, some hardships. Do you have like some closing advice for anyone looking to start a startup that you think? Absolutely. Sure. For me, what I've been sharing and what I'm learning and I have learned throughout this short journey so far is that I think whatever your idea is and whatever your like dream is, start taking action steps towards that. Because the truth is you're not gonna be able to see step three.

When you're still standing on, step one, you have to be able to see it from step two. And it's great to have all this like vision and go to market strategy and do as much of like research and again, like create that long term, again, like vision or whatever that may be. But the truth is things evolve and you are not gonna be able to foresee every single little details and things sometimes pivot. So as much as you want to create like a, you know, a great way, well, research strategy or in a plan and you want to execute it perfectly, that's all great. Absolutely do that. But start taking action steps towards your dream and your idea because again, like you're never going to be able to predict what step 10 looks like if you're still standing ground zero. So, um again, plan, plan plan, but also start taking steps, start moving. What would be my advice? And for me, I'm gonna kind of in, in addition to Delia and it's kind of, that's just my previous point about a trust. So, you know, like if you actually have some idea and you and I'm a big believer in energy, how do you feel about that idea? Right? Doesn't give you like this beautiful feeling like that.

It's exciting feeling how it feels in your body. How like, you know, overall, if you have goosebumps when you think of it and et cetera, like trust that and that you need to make that step towards that idea. And so, and and obviously, the the step has to be made as I mentioned. But I think if you're still like, you know, like not sure about it, check with how you feel about it and if you feel amazing about it, please proceed, please trust. And again, even if you don't see it in the steps, just that trusting that feeling in you will help a lot. So that's my suggestion.

Now, as closing thoughts, I want to make sure that we can direct people to Mavis. So if people are either interested in signing up as a service provider or they're interested in signing up to find service providers, um where should they think about getting started, they can just visit mes dot com. And again, me is ma U us dot com and that's our website and you can like register from on there and learn more about me et cetera. I would also encourage people to connect with us on linkedin, which I'm sure my can share through his promotional things because that's where we share. Like again, as I said, not only things about me but our, our journey being first time entrepreneurs and what we're facing like the good, the bad and the ugly our stories. So I would really encourage people to contact us on there as well.

Well, thank you both for coming on today. I had an amazing time learning and my first podcast with two digital people and both of them being sisters. This is a really cool learning experience for myself. Thank you for spending the time sharing a little bit about Mavis your own journeys, the highlights and lowlights or struggles along the way. Any closing thoughts on your side?

No, not on my end. I, this was really fun again, this was my first podcast doing with my sister. I claimed Mira. Congratulations. You did great with me. So thank you. This was a really fun opportunity for me.

No, I have to say thank you. Honestly, man, this is really good and this is actually my first podcast. So that's I, I love that. And you know, that was just a very genuine conversation and yeah, I enjoyed doing it. So I'm looking forward to more of this thing together. Perfect. As, as long as you have fun, that's the entire point of the podcast. So thanks again for joining everyone who listened in. We'll make sure to catch you on the next episode of pitch, please. Thanks again. You've been listening to the pitch, please pitch pitch. Please hosted by Mike Thibodeaux. Tune in for regular episodes and show notes at pitch, please dot C A and make sure to give us a follow on your favorite podcast platform. Pitch, please. A Blue Max podcast is hosted by Michael Thibodeaux and does not constitute a recommendation for any organization, product or service. For more pitch, please content subscribe where you get your podcasts and visit Blue Max dot I O to join us on Discord.