00:18:08 · Steven Schwartz, Guillaume Moubeche
[00:18:08] S0: Yeah. That's right. We we... I mean, a lot of people want us to be a white label product, but we're not. And I think that it's important to us that we're building a network, and building a platform that is beyond just some basic SaaS that you can do with AI now. So that's not our goal, and you do know you're on Whop. We have a lot of embedded components, right? So you can embed chat, you can embed checkout, you can embed wallets on your own website, your own mobile app, but people complain a lot about the lack of customization on the branding, and we're not really changing that. So that's that's... And people maybe don't always know their their... Hey. I I actually... Mean, yeah. I I don't know. I think people do know. They should know. They they... We don't let the customization happen on purpose. [00:18:58] S1: And is it, like, something that you're tracking, like, the amount of people using Whop and the correlation with the sign up? So typically, I was talking with the founder of Intercom like this, And for them, you know, like having this powered by Intercom or, you know, what was with Hotmail back in the days or these kind of things, drove them like a huge amount of customers, and they can actually tie the growth with new customer versus the amount that it it brings. Is that something you're tracking also?
00:19:32 · Steven Schwartz
[00:19:32] S0: Or Yes. Totally. I mean, on average, each business brings about 10 to 20 users with them, and we we have powered by Whop on the bottom of every single component, and, you know, our site gets tens of millions of hits a month now, and that is definitely because of of the lack of desire. People have been asking, hey, we can you guys sell us domains? We wanna host our stuff on domain. But it's like, then go build your own website. Like, that's not what we offer. So, and then we did the embedded components because we recognize the importance of having your own iOS app, own website. But the components are are all connected. So if you're chatting with somebody on one of these platforms, and then you go back to to Whop, then it's all gonna be the chats from all the different platforms you've you've been interfacing with. And we think that the Internet economy is very connected, so if you're gonna be you're gonna be earning money on one platform, do you really wanna re onboard yourself and have to fill in all of your details again when you go to the next one? Definitely not. So, yeah, it's a it's a frequent topic.
00:20:35 · Guillaume Moubeche, Steven Schwartz
[00:20:35] S1: A lot of people actually have tried, you know, with the the faster checkout, like, to to make it work. I think there were a company called Fast Nutris, if you remember them. Mhmm. I do remember them. Yeah. So is it something you're trying to push also? So when someone has entered, like, all their details on the Whop platform and they come back, all the details can be entered, like, a lot faster, like, with a one click checkout or something like this? [00:20:57] S0: We have that now, and it... It's awesome. You can you can pay with stored stored pay methods. If you make money on the platform, you can use that to pay. It's it's awesome. [00:21:08] S1: And I'm guessing, like... Because I was talking with with the CRO, Antoine Lennell, at Revolut, and essentially, like, what he was telling me is because they have, like, credit card payments, and also, like, the platform, essentially, when you make a transaction and you you hand... You have both the credit card and the platform, the the fee is equal to zero. Yes. So on your case, I'm assuming it's similar if it's like a a Whop customer who basically got money and they they build their business and they wanna buy something on the Whop ecosystem, the the transaction will cost zero. Is that correct? [00:21:47] S0: That is correct. [00:21:49] S1: That's nice. [00:21:49] S0: It is nice. Yeah. Yeah. It's a it's a great thing because, I mean, who wants to... Nobody wants everything to be cost a little bit more. It's it's... Everyone saves money, both the buyer and the seller.
00:21:49 · Steven Schwartz, Guillaume Moubeche
[00:21:49] S0: It is nice. Yeah. Yeah. It's a it's a great thing because, I mean, who wants to... Nobody wants everything to be cost a little bit more. It's it's... Everyone saves money, both the buyer and the seller. [00:21:59] S1: What do you feel is, like, your moat? [00:22:02] S0: We we try to make sure that the... I mean, we... No. People... Consumers and businesses and people now, like, they they want things fast, easy, and cheap. And if things can remain that way, then you'll build a long term business. I think that the idea of, mean, you know, maybe for a while there is, you could build a really strong moat by locking people into this, locking people into that. But I I don't think that's a negative way to look at it, versus saying, how can we make this existing user's life easier? And we can do that by looking at what they do today and figure out the pain points. And a lot of times, it involves those users having to go to other platforms. So when we see that, we try to bring in the functionality that they're missing to the platform. And that makes their life easier because nobody wants to use more than one platform to accomplish the same thing. And I think over time, our moat is is very much that. So we have everything in one place, and you you really don't need to to juggle multiple platforms at one time.
00:23:06 · Guillaume Moubeche, Steven Schwartz
[00:23:06] S1: Nice. Yeah. I think the the platform play is literally, like, the best because you want to have the the whole ecosystem. Building up on that, one of the challenges we faced at some point for us whenever we want to kind of, like, build our platform was either we build it ourselves or we acquire companies. So we've acquired, like, a few companies. Is that something you look at also? Like, do you ask yourself, should we buy or build it? Because I'm assuming, like, you're... We're in New York. Company is working really well, but talent is also like a scarce asset, and someone who's built something in a great way can be a great addition. So is it something you've already considered, or you want to keep everything in house? [00:23:48] S0: Yeah. 70% of our team had former businesses before they joined Whop. So we make a lot of acquisitions, and we don't always announce them. But... And the last one we announced was a fraud fighting company that had raised venture money, and the people behind it are very smart, and they've done the same thing before. They're very high agency. They're they're former founders. You know? So that's the the most talented people. So we we do make acquisitions, and it's a great way for, like you said, first and foremost, talent. I mean, the most talented people are high agency. They're obsessed with what they do. They're super curious. And oftentimes, not always, but but you're you're gonna find this in in teams that have built zero one products, especially on the engineering and and design front.
00:23:48 · Steven Schwartz, Guillaume Moubeche
[00:23:48] S0: Yeah. 70% of our team had former businesses before they joined Whop. So we make a lot of acquisitions, and we don't always announce them. But... And the last one we announced was a fraud fighting company that had raised venture money, and the people behind it are very smart, and they've done the same thing before. They're very high agency. They're they're former founders. You know? So that's the the most talented people. So we we do make acquisitions, and it's a great way for, like you said, first and foremost, talent. I mean, the most talented people are high agency. They're obsessed with what they do. They're super curious. And oftentimes, not always, but but you're you're gonna find this in in teams that have built zero one products, especially on the engineering and and design front. [00:24:37] S1: How do you make sure they stay for the long run?