02:06:35 · Marcus Milione, John Coogan
[02:06:35] S4: Like I like putting outfit outfits together. [02:06:38] S0: Yeah. Yeah. And then was growth like linear? Was there was there a key turning point? A lot of times like with my YouTube I started a YouTube channel during COVID, very similar story. And for the first year it was like a thousand views and then I cracked cracked the code on one video, correct structure and it started it went I think it got 60,000 views which was like an insane takeoff by comparison to the thousand views that I was averaging. And I credit that a lot too. I had the editing dialed. I had the script out. But I really got like the structure and the title and the thumbnail all, like, packaged up so it, like, could fly. And I'm wondering, like, what the what the process was like for growing on on TikTok and Instagram.
02:07:18 · Marcus Milione, Jordi Hays, S2
[02:07:18] S4: I mean, I kind of viewed it as a reps game. Yeah. I told myself, at least on, like, the short form video stuff since I had no background in it, I was like, I'll just do three videos a day for three hundred sixty five straight days. And by that point, you know, you start to see you get feedback from, like, the analytics. And so after a certain point, you're like, okay, well, this did well here. Let me like, you know, try some variation of this next time. But really, yeah, it was just like a reps game. I would try any sort of video style, but a lot of it was just talking. And I think at that time, there was a lot of like it was still a dancing app, right? Like people were just doing dances, and I wasn't doing dances. I was trying to just provide some form of value to the viewer. And you see it a lot more now, but at that time, it was kind of like not as prevalent. Yeah. I think it [02:08:08] S1: I think of you I mean, think of you as like the the a new generation of like founder led company which there was like, you know, great companies have almost always been, well, every company started by a founder. But but you're like the first generation that was just like hyper online. You're in public. You're [02:08:29] S2: you're building your personal brand.
02:08:29 · S2, Jordi Hays, Immad Akhund, John Coogan
[02:08:29] S2: you're building your personal brand. [02:08:32] S1: You're building your personal brand as well as like, you know, are following along building the company. Also like your own journey as like an athlete and doing those things together and just having this like hyper presence where historically a founder, even if they were pretty online, they might pop up and do like an interview every few months and people would be able to tune in there. Or they might post like post a little, you know, somewhat actively on Instagram but it wasn't like three video three like medium form videos a day for a year kind [02:09:03] S5: of thing. [02:09:04] S1: And I just feel like that built so much momentum because there was, like, multiple things to latch on. People could latch on to, like, how are you how's your how's your actual running going? Like Mhmm. I I, you know, remember video after video where you're, like, pushing yourself super super hard. And then there's also like some people can latch on to the business side, which you're like giving people behind the scenes and really making people feel like a part of building that which has ultimately led to where you're at right now. You had this drop this week that I hit you up yesterday. Must have been extremely chaotic. You guys sold out so quickly that you were you were going back through like trying to identify like bought, like people that were botting it to resell. Yeah. Yeah. [02:09:47] S0: Take us
02:09:47 · John Coogan, Jordi Hays, Marcus Milione
[02:09:47] S0: Take us [02:09:48] S1: take us through but like before we get there Yeah. Like kind of the key moments along the journey. You start out, you're just making videos. At what point were you like, oh, I can quit my like when did you quit your job? [02:09:58] S0: I gotta make some money this. [02:10:00] S4: Yeah. So it was like month eight of kind of after we started. It started January 2021, and then by month eight, we had kind of had four large releases under under my belt, and it was starting to become too much to try to juggle between real work and not like letting anything like slack there because obviously that paid the bills. But I remember talking to my dad and trying to figure out, okay, what's, you know, a good exit plan? And so we came up with like a revenue number that we would hit over the next three months. And if we hit that, then you know what? We're gonna take the jump and and quit our job. And so then very next release, we hit it in like five minutes. And I remember I remember being at home and being like, well Yeah. [02:10:51] S0: I guess we're just gonna [02:10:53] S1: Well, that was nerve wracking quitting, right? Because it was a drops based approach and so Yes. You have super spiky revenue so it's, you know, you're thinking like, okay, well, if this drop goes well and this drop goes well and this drop goes [02:11:05] S0: well doesn't feel like a paycheck every two weeks. [02:11:06] S1: Yeah. Doesn't Yeah. Doesn't feel like it's streaming in.
02:11:06 · Jordi Hays, Marcus Milione
[02:11:06] S1: Yeah. Doesn't Yeah. Doesn't feel like it's streaming in. [02:11:09] S4: No. I mean, you're also you're betting the farm like the entire time. Every single drop, I would just run the bank account to $0 on production and hope that it went I guess at any point, like, it could have blown up in my face and gone to zero. [02:11:23] S1: Yeah. So that that happens. What what when when you when you're looking back, what was the next like significant moment? You're like, okay, this seems like a real business people like what we're doing [02:11:35] S4: I would say that that following Christmas, like that December, so twelve months in, we had like the largest release of of the company's history. It was like going into Christmas season and holiday season, and we released. And I remember being like so blown away by the number on the screen, but then also realizing like, okay, all this inventory is in my parents' garage, and we have to ship all this out as fast [02:12:00] S1: as possible. [02:12:01] S4: Yeah. So I need all hands on deck. I've got like I've got my brother, my sister, my mom, my dad, like everybody is there packing, and I'm like, this is going to take us two days. It's like no problem. And it took us like six days of packing every day, like through Christmas. Might have ruined Christmas, I'm not even sure. But it was so new. Everyone was so excited that like, I mean, obviously toward the end we were definitely getting on each other, but it was so new and exciting for everybody that, yeah. It kinda just it was a blur.
02:12:01 · Marcus Milione, Jordi Hays, Immad Akhund
[02:12:01] S4: Yeah. So I need all hands on deck. I've got like I've got my brother, my sister, my mom, my dad, like everybody is there packing, and I'm like, this is going to take us two days. It's like no problem. And it took us like six days of packing every day, like through Christmas. Might have ruined Christmas, I'm not even sure. But it was so new. Everyone was so excited that like, I mean, obviously toward the end we were definitely getting on each other, but it was so new and exciting for everybody that, yeah. It kinda just it was a blur. [02:12:34] S1: And then and then this whole time, like running is blowing up. Running got running got cool. You you clearly thought it was cool before you started the brand, but I think a lot of people realized that maybe it was cool, you know, around 2022. Is that like when it when you felt like it was really becoming part of popular culture in in a bigger way? [02:12:57] S4: It was I mean, yeah, it was really becoming part of my life then too. I think I probably started in '21, and then really picked up and wanted to start racing racing. [02:13:06] S1: What were you running from? [02:13:09] S4: Honestly, a lot of different things probably, [02:13:11] S5: now that I [02:13:12] S4: think about it. But Yeah. I mean, like it started like everybody else. You sign up for a half marathon, you're like, okay, I gotta train and I'm gonna give myself a time goal. Then like anything else, it's a sickness and then it just gets worse and worse.