#980 Marc Roberts & Michael Simkins On Building A Global Luxury Brand

Marc Roberts & Michael Simkins are Co-Owners Of E11even Nightclub. They are on a path to bring global expansion to the E11even brand In this conversation, we discuss how they built the most profitable per square foot nightclub, creating a global brand name, licensing their brand, E11even residencies, being the first nightclub to accept Bitcoin and Crypto, and their new NFT-based membership. ======================= Exodus is leading the world out of the traditional financial system by building beautiful and user-friendly blockchain products. With its focus on design and user experience, Exodus has become one of the most popular and loved cryptocurrency apps. It’s supported on both desktop and mobile, allowing you to sync your wallet across multiple devices so you can have access to your funds anywhere. You can instantly exchange around 100 different cryptocurrencies straight from your wallet. Interactive charts let you view an asset’s price history and your portfolio’s performance over time. And maybe the best part, Exodus is integrated with the Trezor hardware wallet - making advanced security easy for everyone. Visit exodus.com/pomp for your free download or search Exodus on the App Store or Playstore. ======================= Today’s episode is sponsored by Abra. Based in California and backed by top VC firms, Abra is an all-in-one simple, secure app that allows you to trade over 110 cryptocurrencies, get 0% interest loans using your crypto as collateral and earn interest with up to 14% APY on stablecoins and 8.15% APY on Bitcoin. Join nearly 2 million users by downloading Abra from the Google Play or Apple App store. If you download the app today, you will get $15 in free crypto once you fund your account. You came, you invested — now conquer. ======================= DeFi Technologies represents what’s next in the digital economy -- providing simplified, trusted access to crypto, decentralized finance and Web 3.0 investment opportunities. Institutions and investors can gain diversified, secure, compliant, and easily tradable access to a diversified set of industry-leading equity products and protocols, through a single stock purchase on a regulated exchange. Currently listed on U. S. (OTC: DEFTF) and Canadian (NEO:DEFI) exchanges. For more information or to subscribe to receive company updates and financial information, visit our website at http://defi.tech =======================

Speaker names marked ? are inferred from speaking time and the show’s known hosts — they are not voice-verified.

• 0:02Anthony Pompliano?

  What's up everyone, this is Anthony Pompliano. Most of you know me as Pomp. You're listening to the Pomp Podcast, simply the best podcast out there. Now let's kick this thing off. Mark Roberts and Mike Simpkins are both co-owners of Eleven Nightclub and they are on a path to bring global expansion to the Eleven brand. In this conversation, we talk about how they built the single most profitable per square foot nightclub in the entire world, what they're doing to actually use licensing of their IP, and then how they think about their brand new membership program. I really enjoyed this conversation with both Mike and Mark. I hope you enjoy it as well. Before we get into this episode though, I first want to talk about our sponsors. Today's episode is brought to you by Exodus, the world's leading desktop, mobile and hardware crypto wallet. They offer beautiful, user-friendly blockchain products

• 0:47Anthony Pompliano?

  that sync across all of your devices, making it easier to send, receive and exchange over 150 or more crypto assets in one place. And with world-class customer service available to you 24/7, Exodus always has your back. But the fun doesn't stop with staking and trading. They recently launched a new NFT marketplace where you can buy and sell your favorite NFTs on the Solana Network. By partnering with the popular NFT platform, Magic Eden, they're offering the Full Monty Unverified Collections, with more added every single day. Ready to check it out for yourself? Run, don't walk. Over to exodus.com/pomp for your free download today. Again, if you want the world's leading desktop, mobile and hardware crypto wallet, go to exodus.com/pomp

• 1:29Anthony Pompliano?

  today. Today's episode is sponsored by Abra. They're based in California and they're backed by top VC firms. Abra is an all-in-one, simple, secure app that allows you to trade over 110 cryptocurrencies, get 0% interest loans using your crypto as collateral, and earn interest with up to 13% APY on stablecoins and 7.15% APY on Bitcoin. You can join nearly 2 million users by downloading Abra from the Google Play or Apple App Store. If you download the app today, you will get $15 in free crypto once you fund your account. You came, you invested, now conquer. Abra, conquer crypto. Go check it out today. This episode is brought to you by DeFi Technologies. DeFi Technologies represents what's next in the digital economy.

• 2:14Anthony Pompliano?

  They're providing simplified, trusted access to crypto, decentralized finance, and Web 3 investment opportunities. Institutions and investors can gain diversified, secure, compliant, and easily tradable access to a diversified set of industry-leading equity products and protocols through a single-stock purchase on a regulated exchange. DeFi Technologies is currently listed on the U.S. Exchange at DEF TF Stock Ticker and the Canadian NIO Exchange at DEFI. For more information or to subscribe to receive company updates and financial information, visit their website at defi.tech. I'm really excited about what these guys are doing. I've become an advisor to the business, and I highly suggest you go check them out. Go to their website at defi.tech today.

• 2:58Speaker 01

  Anthony Pompliano runs Pomp Investments. All views of him and the guests on his podcast are solely their opinions and do not reflect the opinions of Pomp Investments. You should not treat any opinion expressed by Pomp or his guests as a specific inducement to make a particular investment or follow a particular strategy, but only as an expression of his personal opinion. This podcast is for informational purposes only.

• 3:22Anthony Pompliano?

  All right, guys. Bang, bang. I've got a very, very, very special two guests today. For some of you that don't know, Eleven is a nightclub and a brand based in Miami. It is, my understanding, the single most profitable nightclub per square foot in the world. And I just happen to have two of the owners here, Mike and Mark. How are you guys?

• 3:48Speaker 02

  Doing great. Thanks, Pom, for having us.

• 3:50Anthony Pompliano?

  I'm very excited. Mark's been on the podcast before. Mike has not been on the podcast yet.

• 3:55Anthony Pompliano?

  I think the best place to start is trying to get people to understand the global ambition that you all have. So we can start with the nightclub and kind of walk people through like, what does that business look like? How do you guys make money? And like, how do you grow something into becoming a staple of Miami, which is pretty well-known for its nightlife? Like, how do you kind of break through that noise and build that brand?

• 4:22Speaker 02

  So, so Mark and I have been partners for the last 11 years, actually. And we're both commercial real estate investors and developers. And we bought the property upon which Eleven is located. Initially, we planned on leasing the property, but there was so much demand, we looked at each other and said, God, everyone in the world wants it, like, why don't we partner? So we found the best nightlife operator, in our opinion, Dennis Tagori, and he is the third partner in the Eleven brand and Eleven business. And we explored different options for the site, because it had really good entitlements. You had 24-hour district in the middle of downtown Miami, which Miami's a late-night place, people like to go out.

• 5:07Speaker 02

  Other clubs had the last call at 4:30, we're just getting going over there. So, uh, so we were presented with three different options, one that was a really nice club, one that was spectacular, and one that was through the roof. And Mark and I, who always like to do things over the top and spectacular beyond belief, chose the most ambitious plan and invested a lot of money. Everyone said we were crazy, we were gonna lose our shirts on the project, and then nothing was happening in downtown Miami. But we saw something different. We saw the trucks that were going through there were gonna be moved to the tunnel going to the port, saw a lot of development, and Project Mark is a part of it, Miami World

• 5:52Speaker 02

  Center, getting restarted over there. And we were big believers in different neighborhoods in Miami emerging. So we thought that in the years to come, Miami would actually be more exciting than Miami Beach in a lot of ways. So we took the plunge, we went big in the build-out, and at first, it did well. And it steadily grew since 2014 to become the most profitable nightclub per square foot in the world. So it's exciting.

• 6:24Anthony Pompliano?

  What cost more money, to buy the land or do the build-out?

• 6:27Speaker 02

  The build-out cost more money. And the land actually was about $3 million more, but Mark pulled a good little trick right before, uh...

• 6:36Anthony Pompliano?

  What was the trick?

• 6:38Speaker 03

  Well, before we went, uh, we went on contract in August of 2012. And that was one year everybody was saying, you know, you have to sell everything by the end of the year, capital gains are going up, capital gains are going up.

• 6:53Anthony Pompliano?

  They're still saying that.

• 6:54Speaker 03

  Exactly. Uh, so we, we set a closing for March. But I, something inside me knew, by the way, the, the guy that went on contract with, he was not well, he was not well, healthy wise. I didn't even think he'd make it to the closing, which he didn't. But some, somebody in his crew would figure out that they'd want to close before the end of the year. So lo and behold, about December, beginning of December, we got the call. Say, could you guys close up by the end of the year? I said, we're supposed to close in March. Uh, yeah, I'm sure, yeah, we could close, uh, yeah, um, you could take five million off the price.

• 7:31Anthony Pompliano?

  Ah, little trade.

• 7:33Speaker 03

  Yeah, yeah, we, so we, we negotiated, we got a, almost a $3 million discount.

• 7:38Anthony Pompliano?

  That's pretty good.

• 7:38Speaker 03

  On, on the land, which was, uh, was proven to be fantastic. Uh, and, and if you take what the land value is today, uh, and, and what the, uh, value of the club is, you know, there may be, uh, you know, the club is still worth more.

• 7:54Anthony Pompliano?

  Yeah.

• 7:55Speaker 03

  As a business, but the land's been a great investment and the club's been a great investment. So it was, Michael and I are very proud of both, actually, because as you know, we're landowners and we own a lot of land in the neighborhood as well.

• 8:05Anthony Pompliano?

  Yeah. When you guys build the club, you have, say, you have a partner, uh, I'll call them an operating partner, uh, um, for, for the intensity of this conversation. Why has it been so successful? Is it the brand? Is it, uh, the best musicians? Is it, uh, you guys are great at Instagram marketing? Like, what drives people there and keeps them coming back?

• 8:27Speaker 02

  I would say, and, and Mark maybe has a slightly different opinion, but we always started with a philosophy of treating every single customer like a VIP. Most nightclubs, they treat you like crap generally. So you have to buy your way to status, buy your way to, to, uh, you know, with a table where they treat you good. We've always had a different philosophy. You come in, they say, welcome home. We never use the term VIP because everybody at the club, we consider VIP. So a lot of different factors probably play into it, but I think our attitude towards our customers, our attitude towards our staff and the people that work with us, like during COVID, we paid everyone

• 9:10Speaker 02

  the whole time. I mean, we were losing our shirts over there writing checks. We started, look, I hope this doesn't keep, I hope the governor and the mayor lets us open up and they had that 12 o'clock curfew with all the rest of the state was open. It was really frustrating, but we were paying everyone. And I think that general attitude that all three of us have, that our customers and the team and the staff are really what make the place special, you know, is kind of the secret ingredient in my opinion. What do you think, Mark?

• 9:38Speaker 03

  Well, first off, Mike and I don't operate clubs. We're real estate developers, we're businessmen, we're entrepreneurs. Like anything else you do in life, you know, the people you surround yourself with are key. So a key is we, everybody wanted to partner with us. And Mike and I came to the conclusion after interviewing everybody that the best partner for us would be Dennis Degoree. And Dennis is incredible operator. And this club has opened 24 hours when we first opened, seven days a week. So I think it's a combination of Dennis's incredible ability to manage a club and the visionary that he was and what the club would be coupled with and supplemented by Michael and I having the same

• 10:18Speaker 03

  vision. And then you take our talents and his talents and the combined talents is what made it is today, whether it was, you know, financial clout, networking clout, celebrity clout, PR clout, operational clout, it just all was in sync and everything was working to precision. And I think that the combination of us three, you could really split it up into a third and each one of us together collectively, I think without one, without the other, it couldn't have happened. Let's put it that way.

• 10:52Anthony Pompliano?

  Yeah. When you think of the club, my last question there is just like, how do you make money in the club? Is it just people pay to come in and then you basically are break even on everything else and it's all door sales? Is it you're making money on the alcohol? Is there other things? Like where does the actual revenue break down? And if you had to pick the best line of revenue and then like the worst line of revenue inside of a club like this, what would you say?

• 11:17Speaker 02

  The best line of revenue is alcohol and champagne sales. Um, you know, champagne sales could be 75% profit margin and alcohol could be in excess of 90% profit margin. Also, the, the door fee is in a sense 100% profit margin minus the cost of operating.

• 11:39Speaker 02

  In food, I would say we, we serve food, uh, the whole time we're open. That's probably

• 11:45Anthony Pompliano?

  The lowest margin.

• 11:45Speaker 02

  The lowest margin.

• 11:47Anthony Pompliano?

  Yeah.

• 11:48Speaker 02

  But overall, you know, uh, put all together, it works out really well.

• 11:53Anthony Pompliano?

  Yeah. Mark, one of the things that you told me that, uh, just blew my mind was how many variations of revenue as well. You have one of the hats on, right? So selling a lot of hats.

• 12:03Speaker 03

  We don't talk about all of them though.

• 12:05Anthony Pompliano?

  Right? Like

• 12:06Speaker 03

  I told you some in confidence. We don't talk about all of them.

• 12:08Anthony Pompliano?

  What's the craziest one that you can say?

• 12:12Speaker 03

  I can't say.

• 12:15Anthony Pompliano?

  But in, in terms of the ways that you guys make money inside of the club that maybe people wouldn't expect or wouldn't think, right? Cause I think alcohol sales is like, uh, duh, no brainer. The door fee, no brainer. Like what else that people maybe isn't so intuitive to them?

• 12:29Speaker 03

  Well, just the minimums on the tables. Like for instance, you know, F1, everything's supply and demand in the world, right? There's only a finite amount of tables and there was so many people that wanted them. So the minimums that we got were, were, were, were sky high. Cause if F1, Ultra, the, the Art Basel, there's so many great things that go on in Miami now. It's really almost every week, there's something different and some are more popular than the next, but almost every weekend, there's huge demand to go inside of it. It's not, it's only 13,500 square feet. So there's such demand for people to want to participate because it's just a great experience. You know, it's clean, fun. You know, everybody's a good time. Everybody knows they're going to get

• 13:12Speaker 03

  respected. Everybody knows that, you know, everybody's there to just have a good time and always there to disrespect each other. Never have had a fight in the place. There's no drugs at all, you know, at all. I mean, we have no zero tolerance on anything. So, you know, people, I think that it's just overall, people know that they come there, they're going to get respected. They get first class service and really going to get value on their money, whether it's a crazy weekend or a weekend with nothing going on. So I think the overall enjoyment, like for instance, Cirque du Soleil shows.

• 13:43Speaker 03

  We put on there, it costs us millions of dollars a year. Don't have to do them. I'm sure we're still popping out. People would still come. But we give back to the customers. You know, we, we make hunchiest decision that, uh, let's keep these shows going. Let's give back to the people. Like we're gonna do with our 11 NFTs that we're gonna be talking about a little bit. You know, Michael's philosophy, my philosophy, Dennis's philosophy is, okay, every penny we take in is going back to the NFT holders. We're not taking a nickel out of it. We want to keep giving them experiences. So that people say, when you deal with 11, you're dealing with value. What you deal with, with, with Michael, Mark and Dennis, boy, those guys give you more than you bargained for. That's our goal, right? If there's anything that we really do for a living.

• 14:21Speaker 02

  And I would say just another revenue source that will dovetail into kind of the brand expansion is what we do with the hats. So we sell millions of dollars a year at the hats, mainly at the club. Um, that really got us thinking that, you know, people are resonating with this brand. It's giving them a feeling, something that they want to kind of flex, take back with them. And that it's really more than a nightclub. It's a lifestyle brand, which kind of got us, you know, into these other verticals with 11.

• 14:50Anthony Pompliano?

  So you have this brand. It became, I think globally recognized, right? I see people talking about it. People know the club, all this. Uh, we've got a bottle of the 11 vodka here, which I think is one of many different products that you guys have realized. If we take this brand and we put it with products that people want, we have the opportunity to build very serious, very valuable businesses there. So using maybe the vodka as an example, what is the ambition? Like what is the plan to take the brand and then use that to build these other businesses?

• 15:21Speaker 02

  Yeah. So the, the vodka in particular, uh, my wife's the CEO of 11 vodka. She's done an amazing job of building out a team and growing it pretty rapidly. It's been around for about a year and a half. It's distributed by Southern Glaciers. It's in 1,500 accounts, the state of Florida. Every Total Wine, ABC, the best restaurant since I was in Florida. She has a founder of Deep Eddies as her COO. The head of marketing for Grey Goose of 12 years as her chief marketing officer. And they're getting ready to go to California and Kentucky as the next two states, uh, also with Southern Glaciers as the distributor. So.

• 16:00Speaker 02

  The vodka won amazing awards. San Francisco is the best in class for vodka over there. And so it's really first class, doing really great. And the goal there is that same kind of brand feeling that it's the life of the party. You know, the kind of mentality of work hard, play hard, that I think permeates throughout the brand. Don't judge us, live your best life. All those things are embodied in the vodka, in the nightclub. And, you know, that has a separate team, very close to us, of course, the people.

• 16:41Speaker 02

  And, you know, it's amazing to see the growth that they're having.

• 16:46Anthony Pompliano?

  You know who the number one salesman of 11 vodka is? He's sitting right next to you.

• 16:50Speaker 02

  He's amazing.

• 16:51Anthony Pompliano?

  Every time I've gone to a restaurant, he always reminds them, he goes, when people ask for vodka, you give them 11 vodka, right? And I always look at him like, that's the greatest sales pitch of all time. Every time they see Mark, they think, hey, I better be giving people 11 vodka.

• 17:04Speaker 02

  He's rearranged more bars than I think bar managers at these.

• 17:09Anthony Pompliano?

  Where does that come from in terms of your understanding of how to interact, obviously, with people who are going to in some ways be, you know, the face of or the interaction point with the brand? But also like this relentlessness of making sure they know, hey, I care about this. You should care about it, too.

• 17:29Speaker 03

  Well, actually, ever since I was probably a kid, I've been relentless. I've never been a scholar or anything, but I've always could outwork anybody. I've always been relentless. Hard work, relentlessness wins the day, in my opinion. You have to have a few brain cells, but, you know, I'll take relentless and hard work any day over the smartest kid in the room. I've had a lot of smartest kid in the room, so I think work for Michael and I now.

• 17:54Anthony Pompliano?

  Probably, right? That's exactly what happens.

• 17:56Speaker 03

  But to me, it's logical. I mean, if you're gonna go into a restaurant, you know, I'm known for going out to dinner every night. And, you know, we've been to plenty of dinners. If I'm gonna spend my money, they're gonna serve my vodka. And you're gonna only serve my vodka, okay? Because we work hard and, you know, we support their business. Why, in a world, would they not wanna support our business?

• 18:15Anthony Pompliano?

  True.

• 18:16Speaker 03

  And, and, and people at the table, they're my friends. Why wouldn't they support the business? Like, why would they drink any other vodka? Why would they drink any other vodka? And especially if we're in Miami. Like, why wouldn't you support a local-made vodka? It's, it's local. We're all in this together in Miami, right? We're all trying to grow Miami together. We're all trying to, you know, help each other out. Like, I don't even understand why a restaurant wouldn't.

• 18:39Anthony Pompliano?

  You're a horrible salesman, so bad.

• 18:44Anthony Pompliano?

  I mean, you just got it down perfect.

• 18:46Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 18:46Anthony Pompliano?

  Uh, speaking of taking the brand, obviously vodka is, uh, one area. But you guys also have been all over the news because you've taken the Eleven brand and now you're building out the Eleven residences, which is, uh, in close proximity to the club. Obviously, it's the same brand. Talk to me about that idea. And like, it's one thing to sell hats. It's another thing to do some vodka, right? You're kinda moving up the complexity curve, if you will. Building a, you know, whatever, tens of stories of residence, uh, is a whole different ballgame. So what was the idea there?

• 19:19Speaker 03

  Well, actually, it's two 65-story towers, uh, next to each other, connect, uh, directly across the street from the club. And we've sold, uh, in about seven months, over a billion dollars' worth of condos, and which we're very proud of. And I'll let Michael in to rest.

• 19:39Speaker 02

  It's, uh, no, that, that's the high level, but one of them functions as a hotel. So that was putting together a whole program. We got Deepak Chopra has a 20,000-foot spa. Everyone's like, "Eleven has Deepak Chopra?" I'm like, "Yeah, we got Deepak Chopra." What else do you expect?

• 19:56Anthony Pompliano?

  How do you do that? Like, you just call him up and you're like, "Yeah, you wanna do a spa?"

• 19:59Speaker 02

  It's, uh, that is...

• 20:02Speaker 02

  They're looking to expand. I think the timing was good that they have new management running Deepak Chopra. They were looking to expand the concept. So, and they want it to be in Miami.

• 20:12Speaker 03

  And also, I mean, in all fairness, we do have the wealthiest clientele in the country.

• 20:17Speaker 02

  Mm-hmm.

• 20:17Speaker 03

  People come to Eleven are very wealthy, very successful. They spend a lot of money. And I think that anybody, and that's the reason we're blowing up the brand so big, because people know our customers and our clients are happy and love everything we do. Everybody's trying to associate themselves with our clients. And that's why the brand has become so successful.

• 20:37Anthony Pompliano?

  Why everyone's a VIP?

• 20:38Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 20:38Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 20:39Speaker 03

  I mean, seriously speaking, and that's the reason we're able to sell condos and sell for big money. And everybody's excited about it. And we've gone to other verticals. And Michael and Dennis have strategized. And we've recently hired a intellectual property CEO. It's incredible. Michael could tell you more about that. He's great at describing things like that. But I think that's the real key, that people.

• 21:07Anthony Pompliano?

  So go build a whole business under the Eleven brand.

• 21:09Speaker 03

  Yeah, people want our clientele.

• 21:10Anthony Pompliano?

  All around intellectual property.

• 21:11Speaker 03

  Yeah, seriously.

• 21:12Speaker 02

  Yeah. Just to finish the hotel really quick, there's going to be two of the top restaurant groups in the country that are operating amazing concepts there. There's a total of eight bars and restaurants. It's basically cosmopolitan in the middle of downtown Miami, designed by Avrico, Seeger Suarez, really a best-in-class, it's a very high-end building that sold out for over $1,200 a foot in the middle of downtown with other new product that was selling at $700 a foot. So we achieved almost double of what comparable locations were getting, just because we put together the best package and we did it high-end. So, super excited about that. I think for sure, there are going to be other Eleven hotels.

• 21:55Speaker 02

  Um, almost in any major football NFL city in the United States could have an 11 hotel. We have big ambitions for the hotel. But as Mark said, in doing that, we said, you know, um, we, we have a lot of interest for licensing and consumer products, whether it's apparel or other products. We said, you know, we're busy, we're doing real estate, we're, we're working with Dennis, looking for other club locations. We really need someone to come in who's an expert in branding and licensing, who's done it. And we hired a search firm and we met a lot of great people and we ended up hiring a woman, Kathy Glosser, who's really an amazing, uh, woman who led Donald Trump's, um,

• 22:40Speaker 02

  branding and licensing division for 12 years. She, she started it for him and when he won the Republican nomination, she said, you know, I'm gonna go, uh, do something else and it kind of ended at that point. Um, and she's had her own consulting firm, so she's coming in and really looking to expand globally. We'll have a big focus on hotels globally and also different consumer products, licensing, licensing those for the brand. And us and Dennis will look for nightclub locations. You know, Mark and I are real estate guys, we'll still continue developing the Park West neighborhood in downtown Miami, which some people call District 11 with everything we got going on there.

• 23:23Speaker 02

  So it's, it's, uh, exciting.

• 23:26Anthony Pompliano?

  When you think of, uh, that business, you mentioned other club locations, hotels, et cetera. Like, is it just game on now globally? It's how do we take the 11 brand and get it in a thoughtful and high quality way, but get it as big and as far and as wide as possible?

• 23:42Speaker 02

  Yeah, I would say from my perspective, the hotels have more location potential with a product. The nightclub, just by the nature of the cost structure of the Cirque du Soleil shows and having Drake and Travis Scott, you really need to be able to do $50 million plus in revenue to kind of make it be what we want it.

• 24:03Anthony Pompliano?

  It's like three or four cities in America.

• 24:05Speaker 02

  That's it. It's Vegas, New York, Miami. I mean, those are the three that could support an 11, but globally there's more. And we're looking for others, but hotels, there could be a lot more hotels. So, yeah, we're looking, we're looking to do it all.

• 24:18Speaker 03

  Yeah, 11 will become a multi-billion dollar brand.

• 24:23Anthony Pompliano?

  I have no doubt of that.

• 24:24Speaker 03

  Yeah, it's so to that end, we definitely are proud and we're very proud of the 11 NFTs that we're right now currently minting and Michael could give you more information on that as well.

• 24:41Anthony Pompliano?

  When you think of these, so if you think of you built the club, you then go and I'll call it global expansion of the brand, IP licensing, all this. To me, what you guys are doing with the 11 NFTs, it's basically, it sounds like selling a membership.

• 24:56Speaker 02

  That's, that's how we describe it.

• 24:58Anthony Pompliano?

  Okay, so describe a little bit in terms of like, what is the thought process in doing this? And I think the context of like, we already have something that works really well. We've got the highest grossing, you know, most profitable club per square foot in the world. Now residences, vodka, hats, licensing, okay. Why sell memberships? What is the, the thought process and advantage?

• 25:20Speaker 03

  Well, Michael's spearheading all that on that level. Do a great job, I might add. But my off the cuff is, you know, we pioneer, we're pioneers. That's what we pride ourselves on. That's what we do. And we pioneered, we're the first club to take crypto. We're the first development to take crypto for pre-development. So we like being the first, first movers. We're the first mover that did a lot of things, if you really think about it. So naturally, we tried, okay, how can we pioneer in what this new world's gonna be? Well, NFTs are out there, we're talking NFTs. So we said, how can we make the best NFT to give value back to our fans, let's say, clients, fans? And we strategized and Michael can now tell you how we're gonna do that.

• 26:06Speaker 02

  Yeah, so, so we are, in addition to those things with the business, with really being first movers in web three with crypto accepting it, we bought Board Ape number 11 as well, and we use them as a mascot across our brands. But we also personally invest in crypto. I know Mark always asks you what's happening with Bitcoin and where's it going? So we are big believers in digital assets. And, you know, we saw the evolution of NFTs go from collectible PFP projects to utility and community and access and membership. And we really said, you know what, we're

• 26:50Speaker 02

  Always have been at the forefront of web three for in real life business. It's a riskier move for us to go this membership route via NFT. Because if we charge annual dues, we could shut it off at any time. You know, there's more, people don't have an expectation of a profit from it. They're more open to pay the annual dues that may be $5,000 than they are to buy an NFT that may last a lifetime that costs $5,000 because the mentality, I guess, of an initial product. But we said, you know, we never do the easy thing. We do what we feel like makes the most sense.

• 27:32Speaker 02

  And we think that as a brand, we need to be thinking where the world's going. And we think the world's going more digital and that connection to the community, you know, taking our customers and making them stakeholders, being able to deliver them value, both in the experiences that we could offer and hopefully with different airdrops and and other things. We're not going to be so laser focused on the floor price, but we hope the floor price goes up for our community, certainly. And we're planning on offering tremendous benefits or utility that when we look at other NFT projects, we really feel like we're offering more utility

• 28:17Speaker 02

  than any other NFT project.

• 28:19Anthony Pompliano?

  So the idea basically is you sell this membership and people will be able to get into the club. They'll be able to get into some of these other facilities. They may get access to special events, do all these different things. And I think what's really interesting about this is I recently heard an individual, I won't name, but is very well known as an NFT artist. And he said, like, I meet people all the time and they're like, I'm super into NFTs. He's like, that's such like a weird comment, right? And he's like, because an NFT is basically just like a webpage. Like, it's just a technology form factor, right? And nobody runs around and is like, I'm really into webpages. Instead, what they do is they talk about like, hey, I really like Google because it answers my questions. I really like.

• 28:59Anthony Pompliano?

  Amazon because it allows me to buy things like the technology of webpages allows you to do things. And what it sounds like to me is you guys basically understand that and you're saying, hey, we want to give a membership experience to all this clientele that we have. And we could do it with a couple of different technology form factors. We just think this one has advantages over other things. So we're going to pursue that.

• 29:22Speaker 02

  Yeah, no, absolutely. Yeah. And it's interesting comment on the NFT fans. I think people like making money from NFTs and trading around NFTs. But we are, we have that factor. The price will fluctuate. It's on OpenSea. It looks very rare. But it has this in real life utility. A lot of NFT projects start on the web, web three, and then try to do in real life events or think, you know, we start at the opposite. We're really the first successful in real life business to go the membership route during via NFT. And we were going to offer all those in real life benefits.

• 30:03Speaker 02

  We're also going to do the traditional web three stuff like a private Discord server. It will be an alpha group. You know, this is only 1,111. We have some of the most dynamic business people, web three investors, celebrities, athletes. So it's an incredible group of people that if you could, right now, you can mint the NFT for three Ethereum and be part of a community with these people that we see tremendous value in that. And also, we have a lot more ambition for other products with 11 crypto. And it will serve this Genesis collection will serve as a web pass, a mint pass, pardon me, into everything we do in the future. So we're applying the web

• 30:48Speaker 02

  three NFT things that have been successful. And we're layering all these in real life benefits that only we could offer and unique to our club and our future ventures. And we think it's a really compelling NFT for people. And, you know, we're really excited to start this journey and planning on being in it for decades.

• 31:10Anthony Pompliano?

  Yeah. I want to ask each one of you. I wish I could ask each of you when you, the other one wasn't here. So I could get too unfiltered. Andrew, will you ask Mark first, then I ask you?

• 31:20Anthony Pompliano?

  When people look at 11, 10 years from now, what do you want them to say? That's the coolest club I've ever been to? That's the best brand in the world? Like, what is the thing a decade from now? You're like, yeah, we nailed exactly what we wanted.

• 31:34Speaker 03

  Value.

• 31:36Anthony Pompliano?

  Value?

• 31:36Speaker 03

  Value. 11 delivers value. High end, first class value. We, when we deal with 11, we know we're getting value, but we know we're getting first class. We know we're getting the best of everything. And, you know, we had trust. Those are guys we could trust. Those guys deliver. They say they're gonna do it, they do it. And beyond. That's why the second tower is called 11 Beyond.

• 32:05Speaker 02

  Like, what would you say? I would say, in 10 years, people say, wow, they're really continue being at the forefront of pop culture, understanding art and entertainment, and kind of where the world is going. And, you know, kind of provide experiences around current pop culture. I think 11 for 2022 is kind of the most, you know, current venue representative. And we're continue to want to innovate and push the boundaries. And I think, you know, that's, that's part of our DNA and what we plan on keep doing.

• 32:43Anthony Pompliano?

  Yeah. When, when you guys think about the clientele, today, it's some of the wealthiest people, athletes, musicians, celebrities, the whole nine yards. Can you ever execute what I'll call like the Tesla strategy? So you start out with the sports car, and then they move downstream. And eventually, they want to have an affordable sedan that anyone could buy.

• 33:04Anthony Pompliano?

  Can a brand conduct the global expansion? And eventually, you can move from the wealthy celebrity that audience down? And maybe is that part of what some of this is in terms of global expansion?

• 33:17Speaker 02

  Yeah, I would just say, this is one example here. 1999 at Total Wines. It's got this amazing light that they have a patent pending, comes on everyone, lights up on the. Bottom, you have a party, have you got a party at your house or your best friend's event? But this is accessible. I mean, it's the same price as Tito's, tastes a lot better, bottle looks more beautiful, made with organic corn. So I think that we are looking at products that apply to more people and not be so exclusive, which we're not. At the nightclub, you could come and spend a hundred dollars, or you could come and spend twenty five thousand dollars.

• 34:00Anthony Pompliano?

  What is, in your guys' opinion, what do you think the average somebody spends is? If the average person walks in the door, do we know what that number is? Are you allowed to say?

• 34:08Speaker 02

  No, we, it's on the, you know, there is an average number. It's definitely not a No, no, no. The average is a couple hundred dollars probably, per person. But it's skewed, where certainly there's, there's some people who've spent six figures over there.

• 34:25Anthony Pompliano?

  Anyone ever dropped a million bucks?

• 34:28Speaker 02

  Very close.

• 34:31Anthony Pompliano?

  Close?

• 34:32Speaker 02

  Yeah. During Bitcoin conference last year, someone, someone spent close to a million dollars in singles and threw them in the air. It took two hours for them to throw the singles in the air.

• 34:44Anthony Pompliano?

  So during the Bitcoin conference, somebody who came for the Bitcoin conference, showed up to eleven, the single most profitable nightclub per square foot in the world, spent almost a million dollars to convert, whether it was cash or Bitcoin. Use Bitcoin. They converted almost a million dollars of Bitcoin into singles and then turned around and spent for two hours, literally throwing singles on the floor at the club.

• 35:06Speaker 02

  Yeah, up in the air. Yep.

• 35:08Speaker 03

  We love that guy.

• 35:12Speaker 02

  He could have bought a condo across the street. I think he bought a condo across the street too, so.

• 35:16Anthony Pompliano?

  I think I know who this person is, actually.

• 35:20Anthony Pompliano?

  When you see something like that, like, how do you keep that person coming back? Like, obviously, a million dollars is like an insane amount of money for most people to think about going to the club and doing something like that. Is it just because like, that's a penny to that individual, right? And you're like, oh, they'll be back because literally it didn't matter to them? Or are there things that you could do to kind of cultivate the relationships with those types of clientele that come in?

• 35:44Speaker 02

  Yeah, I think the experience is different every night. Certainly with the main performer, whether it's a Tiesto, it's One Vibe, or if it's a Cardi B, it's a completely different. The people that are there, so they're getting a different experience. Every night at 11 involves a little bit. There's consistencies, but there's evolution. But then there's other products and lifestyle that we could provide these people to. And generally, you know, Mark ends up taking them out to dinner once or twice a week. So it's cultivating them that way.

• 36:16Anthony Pompliano?

  Do you go out to dinner every night? I don't know how he does it.

• 36:18Speaker 02

  I go out to dinner a lot, but it's with my wife and kids most nights.

• 36:24Anthony Pompliano?

  I don't know how Mark does it, but you are a machine, my friend.

• 36:28Speaker 03

  Hey, listen, you can't build a network sitting at home.

• 36:31Anthony Pompliano?

  That is probably one of the most truthful things I've ever heard. It is, it is very true. Where can we send people to find you guys on the internet, find out more about 11?

• 36:39Speaker 02

  So, right now, 11 Captain's Club is going. So 11captainclub.io, visit Open Seas. Tomorrow's the public sale. We kind of spread out the mint with the friends and family, a third, the allow list, a third, we wanted to keep for the public. So there's about 300 left tomorrow that we're reserving. Those will be sold out, and then you could go to Open Seas, visit that, and visit the club, go to our sales center, even though I think we may be sold out of condos, but,

• 37:13Speaker 02

  social media.

• 37:14Anthony Pompliano?

  My last question, just to get your guys' reaction live, is are we ever going to see an 11 Airlines?

• 37:21Speaker 02

  I think it was 11 cruise ship before an 11.

• 37:23Anthony Pompliano?

  11 cruise ship. All right. That's fine. I just think of a high end experience. Have you ever seen, in the Bitcoin community, there's these photos that circulate on Twitter a lot of what plane food looked like in the 1970s? And they're basically bringing out steak and lobster and, you know, they got a whole spread, like all this stuff. And so the meme is, they took this from us. Right now, they give you a bag of peanuts. And so when I think of like, the high end experience, right? It's like, hey, how do we bring back the 1970s airplane food, which basically was the highest level of culinary.

• 38:01Speaker 03

  There's some food for thought.

• 38:02Speaker 02

  You know, I don't think we've ever thought of that. If we do.

• 38:05Speaker 03

  Cathy, where's the Cathy on that one?

• 38:06Speaker 02

  We got a Cathy, we'll have to do a pom section. If we ever do an airline, we gotta give you credit over there.

• 38:11Anthony Pompliano?

  I just want to ride on the plane. If you guys are serving steak and lobster, count me in for a couple of flights.

• 38:16Speaker 02

  Absolutely.

• 38:16Anthony Pompliano?

  But I think that's, but that is the whole thing, right? It's like, you guys have the brand. And if you're able to move into some of these other sectors, like, why not?

• 38:23Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 38:24Anthony Pompliano?

  All right. Well, listen, thank you guys so much for doing this. I think people obviously very much enjoy the club. But as you guys continue to build out the brand globally, I think that you're going to just continue to accumulate a bigger and bigger clientele community. And there's a lot of people in the business world, I think, who just are watching this play out. And they're like, man, this is just blocking and taxing the execution of a strategy that is, is pretty cool to watch. So thanks so much.

• 38:46Speaker 02

  No, thank you so much. Thanks for having us, Pom.

• 38:49Anthony Pompliano?

  Thanks so much for listening to today's episode. I really hope you guys enjoyed this one. Make sure you subscribe on Apple, Spotify, or your favorite podcast player. And if you're looking to try to transition to get a new job in the Bitcoin or crypto industry, we've got you covered. Head over to pomscryptocourse.com. We've developed a curriculum with the top teams across the industry. It's a three week intensive training program with over 50 events packed into that three week time period. Go to pomscryptocourse.com to learn more and I'll meet you guys for the next episode.