How Lucy Guo Is Building A Creator Empire with Shaq, Kygo & Olivia Dunne | Passes

Lucy Guo is a prominent entrepreneur and investor, known for her role as a co-founder of various technology startups. She gained recognition as one of the early employees at the artificial intelligence startup, Scale AI. We recorded this episode live from Lucy's new studio in Los Angeles! In this conversation, we discuss building in the creator economy, signing huge names, building a creator HQ in LA, biggest misconceptions, raising $50M in 2 yrs, ditching web3, and competitive fintech & data strategy. Molly on X: https://x.com/MollySOShea Lucy on X: https://x.com/lucy_guo Follow Sourcery for the latest updates! https://www.sourcery.vc/ TIMESTAMPS: 0:00 - Welcome Lucy To Sourcery! 2:20 - Future Of Consumer Social 6:15 - How To Become The 1% Of Creators 9:00 - Lucy's Studio In Los Angeles, The Next Gen Of Agencies 12:00 - Lucy's Goal For Passes 15:00 - Working With Shaq, Kygo & Olivia Dunne - Any Dream Creators? 18:20 - Strategizing Brand Activation 21:45 - Regrets From Moving On From Web3? 24:00 - Misconceptions Of Passes 27:00 - LA Psychics 29:00 - Raising $50M In 2 Years - Fundraising Strategy 31:00 - Lucy's Long Term Goals #podcast #investing #venturecapital #entrepreneur #startup

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

• 0:00Molly O'Shea?

  Well, Lucy, congratulations on moving to LA and this fabulous space.

• 0:05Speaker 01

  Thank you. I'm hoping you're enjoying the podcast studio. We actually just opened it up. I think this might be like the second or third podcast we filmed in here. So, um, thanks for being here.

• 0:14Molly O'Shea?

  We're breaking it in. Um, you guys can't see this, but we're actually in a shipping container and it's, it's massive. It's huge. This space is quite large. I don't know. It's gotta be like 20,000 square feet.

• 0:26Speaker 01

  Um, this space is around 20,000 square feet.

• 0:28Molly O'Shea?

  Okay, easy. I'm pretty good at that. Yeah. Okay, great. Um, well, okay. So what brought you to LA? You were just in Miami for quite some time and you kind of made your name known in Miami. So why the shift to LA and building out this big studio space for creators?

• 0:47Speaker 01

  Yeah. So I mean, I think I very quickly realized that, um, the creator economy is a very relationship driven business. Um, and obviously, you know, I want to give myself the best advantage possible when building this company. Um, and there's just like LA is the hub for creators, right? I think it's very similar to like, if you were building an AI company in SF versus New York, like New York might be number two, and I think Miami is number two in the creator economy. But it makes sense to be in a spot of like where you're going to have the most advantage possible. Um, and I mean, like, I want this company to be the next unicorn, uh, that I built. So I decided to pack up and move to LA.

• 1:22Molly O'Shea?

  Honestly, spot on. I, I actually was at a dinner the other week. This is just what happens when you're in LA. You get invited to dinners and sometimes they're at celebrities' houses in the hills. Um, being in VC, some celebrities have their funds and it's kind of just a natural thing. So the other week I was actually at Carter Reams and Paris Hilton's house and they were hosting a dinner.

• 1:45Speaker 01

  I was supposed to be at that dinner.

• 1:46Molly O'Shea?

  You should have, oh my gosh.

• 1:47Speaker 01

  Yeah, I got the invite, but I didn't see it on WhatsApp and I was like, oh, oops. But he, uh, yeah.

• 1:52Molly O'Shea?

  Well, you should have came and we'll pick up the conversation from that here.

• 1:56Speaker 01

  FOMO.

• 1:57Molly O'Shea?

  So Ted Livingston, the former founder of Kik, actually led the conversation. And he was talking about what the next evolution of consumer social would be. We all went around the table. It was full of creators. It was full of founders, investors, some crypto people. So we got a diverse set of opinions and I'm curious from your perspective, being boots on the ground in the creator space. What do you think consumer social is going to end up like? Are we going to be VR? Are we going to be in real life? Where do we go?

• 2:28Speaker 01

  I mean, I'm very biased, but I think the future of consumer social is what we're building right now. Because right now creators are finding that they don't like the algorithm because it's so unpredictable. And that brand deals are just really disappearing. So creators are really trying to figure out a way to like make money full time. I think we saw this during the pandemic where creators realized that their income was more unstable than they had initially thought. And they had started seeking their fans to like essentially support them. Which is when like Patreon really blew up, right? They reset a $4 billion valuation. OnlyFans blew up, et cetera. And I just saw an opening in the market for as like direct fan to creator interactions.

• 3:11Speaker 01

  So creators can make a living and like really be an entrepreneur. So here I am building passes and I hope we are the future of the creator economy.

• 3:18Molly O'Shea?

  What are the main channels that most of your creators are building off of?

• 3:22Speaker 01

  Yeah, so I would say the main channels that creators are making money off of right now are subscription, DMs, live streaming, and our marketplace where they can sell both like physical and digital merchandise. So digital being anything from like a custom video request, very similar to Cameo, all the way to like selling their own custom hoodies.

• 3:40Molly O'Shea?

  Right. Another large story that's happening alongside this shift in the creator space is also big legacy media. So big legacy media is kind of crumbling pretty fast. Large outlets are being taken down and some of these, let's say like anchors and media people, they're going direct and they're decentralizing themselves and becoming their own platform. Do you see a world in which you take on some of these players? Do you think the impact of legacy media is is going to be much more than we would ever assume of its crumbling? Where do you see the shift of legacy media to consumer coming?

• 4:22Speaker 01

  Yeah, I definitely think that a few things are happening. So journalists are realizing that they can make more on their own, which is why there's so many companies really that are popping off for these journalists to be able to exit the legacy media and essentially be their own reporter, right? I think that during COVID also, a lot of trust in legacy media really did disappear. I would say like half of Americans feel like the media spread a lot of misinformation on COVID. And it's very debatable if that's true or not, but that is the perception of America nowadays. You can even see this on Twitter, right? Where like people are saying, okay, like Twitter is the better source of truth versus legacy media, again, very debatable. But because this is the perception nowadays, I think that legacy media is disappearing.

• 5:06Speaker 01

  And really, it is the consumer that's trying to like get the real news. So like I would say like either crowdsourced news or people that used to be at these legacy media companies are branching off to be able to like provide the real truth.

• 5:19Molly O'Shea?

  Right.

• 5:19Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 5:20Molly O'Shea?

  And what do you think the biggest challenges will be for those individuals shifting over to being their own platform?

• 5:27Speaker 01

  Yeah, so I would say that for those that have an audience that trusts them, the biggest issue will just be converting them. I actually don't think that's a very large issue. I would say for those who like worked for legacy media and like don't have an audience and that legacy media was one that like America doesn't trust, it's going to be very hard to gain the trust of Americans to want to subscribe to them. I think that like in general content and like actually putting out good news is how you gain trust and gain that subscriber fanbase. So it will just take a little bit of time for those people to like really be able to like write on their own and write what they want to write. And eventually, like, you know, the audience comes.

• 6:09Molly O'Shea?

  That's in the top 1% of the market, which typically is the percentage of the market that makes the most money. With passes, you're you're helping out creators from like all ends of the spectrum. So what what does it take to make it to the 1%? And how are you helping emerging creators get to that place?

• 6:30Speaker 01

  Yeah, so I think that content is king in this when it comes to making it to the top 1%, both on passes and on outside platforms. If you look at like the creators that are doing the best, they're typically posting every single day on passes, but also every single day on Instagram reels and TikTok. I would say that Instagram reels and TikTok are probably the best for discovery. So if you're posting one reel a day or one TikTok a day, you really only need like one hit, for example, to suddenly go viral and then you gain a bunch of new followers, which a percentage will convert into super fans and then you can monetize off them with passes. I would say like, we actually try to predict creator earnings based off of like how much they're putting out on Instagram reels and TikTok and we weigh that more.

• 7:12Speaker 01

  Because we know that they're constantly gaining new subscribers, which means that even if their old subscribers churn, it's not as a big of a deal. And we see that the creators that are putting out daily content are actually making more month over month versus if you're not someone that posts content, like you might get a wave of subscribers at first, but you know, they churn and then that sucks.

• 7:32Molly O'Shea?

  Right, yeah. Are you able to share how much some of your top creators are making?

• 7:37Speaker 01

  Yeah, we have creators make close to half a mill a month.

• 7:41Molly O'Shea?

  Wow, half a mill a month, okay. And what is the typical range?

• 7:46Speaker 01

  I mean, like we have creators, I would say that creators that make $5,000 a month or more, we typically have like 100% retention on. But the range really just depends on how much content they're putting out, how many existing subscribers they have, etc. And we really help creators, like we have a success team that helps them like organize photo shoots and we have an in-house photographer, videographer to be able to just shoot creators whenever they want. We have a green room inside the office. So whenever creators want to get more content, they can just come in here and do it, which makes it super seamless, which is nice because a lot of times like, you know, creators just don't shoot more content because of the logistics. But we also, our creator success team tells our creators like, hey, these are like the trends happening right now.

• 8:31Speaker 01

  You guys should create Instagram reels and TikToks around these trends, which is again helpful because oftentimes a creator, like especially a new creator, won't really know what the current trends are, or like the trending songs that they should be adding on to their videos, etc. So we also help them grow their outside platforms so they end up doing better on passes.

• 8:47Molly O'Shea?

  Would you say that other platforms give that much white glove service to their clients or customers or creators? Or is this kind of a novel idea where, you know, you are building out this huge facility here? You have all these different rooms. You even mentioned that you're going to add a music production studio. So i- is this a novel novelty and like, kind of like a perk for these new creators? How do you think about that and versus maybe more legacy agencies?

• 9:17Speaker 01

  Yeah, I would say that I do think it's a perk for creators. Um, I don't really know any other creator economies, um, companies that have their own creator space with, you know, a podcast room that creators can use at any point in time. Um, an in-house photographer, videographer, green room, music recording studio, et cetera. Um, but there might exist out there and I just don't know about it.

• 9:34Molly O'Shea?

  Yeah, well, you're considerably a next gen talent agency. I do know that you have also received investment from Michael Ovis's Crossbeam Ventures. He's founder of CAA. Um, so maybe you've seen more closely the differentiation between traditional talent agencies like we have in LA. We're just surrounded by it, um, versus something next gen, which you're building. It's much more close to like the TikTok scene, the YouTubers and more, uh, early talent. So what is the difference between the two and can they mutually exist?

• 10:11Speaker 01

  I do think they can mutually exist. Um, I think that, um, the more deals creators get, the better it is for the entire economy. Um, I think a difference that has been in the past is that oftentimes talent agencies or talent managers would ask creators to sign exclusivity deals where, um, they could really only work with them, which isn't great. Or they would sign deals where, um, even if the creator found a brand deal on their own, um, they would still owe a percentage to the agency or to the manager. Um, I do think that this is disappearing now that there's so many avenues for creators to make, um, money and like find brand deals. Um, we definitely have had an issue where creators didn't want to tell their managers or their agents how much they're earning on passes because they would have to pay 20% to them, even though they weren't even involved in passes.

• 10:53Molly O'Shea?

  Wow.

• 10:53Speaker 01

  Um, yeah, like we have had creators that have told us they were photo Shopping, their earnings essentially are, you know, going into like inspect browser and like changing the numbers. Because they didn't want to, they didn't feel like they're like managers or agents deserve that 20%, which they don't. Like, I think that like in the future, it's gonna be like whoever brings the deal might get a percentage. In terms of like how we're different, I think that like we are so pro creator. Like, we care about like the long term of them and building like passes as a business, right? And like helping these creators build generational wealth.

• 11:26Speaker 01

  And I've seen like good managers that like really think this way about their creators too, where they're like, hey, you should take an equity deal, for example, because even though it's less cash upfront, this is good for you. Even though the like manager or agent isn't getting equity themselves versus we've seen like very cash hungry agents and managers. Because usually in contract, traditionally, they get like 20%, let's say, of what the creator slash is being offered. And everyone really likes upfront capital in Hollywood.

• 11:57Molly O'Shea?

  I guess going off of that and what these traditional agencies offer. What is your end goal? Is your end goal to be one of these very large agencies? What does the billion dollar passes look like to you?

• 12:11Speaker 01

  I mean, I think the billion dollar passes is that, well, to be quite frank, like if we're being very blunt, like I think we will reach like a billion dollars doing nothing more except to getting new creators. But obviously, like we have bigger ambitions than that, right? So for us, it's like, how do we create generational wealth for these creators? Like, the most common question I get asked is how do I turn passes income into passes equity? Which is very interesting because we have created a lot of accredited investors.

• 12:40Speaker 01

  A lot of creators are making six figures a month. You can imagine there's some pretty interesting things we can do there in terms of like fintech products. But then also, we have more monetization data than like really any other platform. Like from other platforms, you can see like how many likes someone's getting, how many comments, etc. But you don't really see the like conversion rate in terms of like who is willing to buy something based off of your posts. Versus we get the brick conversion of creators like fans on Instagram to passes. We can see like. Like what percentage converts, we can see like their spending power. Like, um, do these creators have fans that are willing to spend like $500 a month? Or is it closer to $20 a month? Or is it closer to $5,000 a month? Like some creators, um, their most popular subscription tier is actually their most expensive subscription tier,

• 13:24Speaker 01

  which is like 500 a month. Versus like other creators, you know, like most of their fans are just paying $5 a month. But like this becomes like very interesting data. We can see what they're buying, what they're interested in. And really figure out a product that makes sense that they can sell to their fans.

• 13:41Molly O'Shea?

  Let's get into that because I remember when we were talking about it, you said that you guys aggregate the most amount of data for your creators. So what exactly does passes look like under the hood? Like, what are the inner workings? What are, what is the creator signing up for? What kind of dashboard do they get? Real time analytics and that kind of thing in order to help navigate them through creating even better content or being ahead of the trend and that kind of thing.

• 14:06Speaker 01

  Yes, I would say our secret sauce is our CRM system. So, um, when you send out mass DMs, for example, you can see the open rate, the conversion rate, know like what content that, uh, fans are buying the most essentially, what captions are converting the best, et cetera, and really optimize your future content to that along with like reusing your most popular pieces of content. You can see how much each fan has spent, um, one day like most recently spent, um, the like price points that they're willing to buy content at, et cetera, um, which is super interesting as well. And then like we also offer like very similar data, um, in your like merchandise store. So it's like, okay, cool. Like what pieces of clothing are converting the best, what designs, et cetera.

• 14:49Speaker 01

  Um, and we are currently building in like, I would call it smart pricing. So we can really tell you like how much you should be charging to be making the most money on your content.

• 14:59Molly O'Shea?

  You've been able to get some really big names so far. So you have Olivia Dunn, Shaq, Kygo, Emma Norton. Do you have any dream people that you want under the passes platform? Like what is the dream influencer creator?

• 15:16Speaker 01

  Yeah, so I would say the dream influencer creator for us is someone that has a super fan base. What we've actually noticed is that the creators that make the most money on passes are actually not ones with millions of followers. It's closer to like 100K to a million followers. And they're so random. Like, one of our top creators is a dental hygienist. We have another that like lives on a farm and feeds farm animals for a living. And they're making six figures a month. It's crazy. If I were to go with like the most obvious celebrity, it'd probably be Taylor Swift, because everyone's absolutely obsessed with her. They're like stalking her every like move, right? Like, I would say creators with an internet paparazzi, essentially.

• 15:55Speaker 01

  So another obvious one in the influencing would probably be like PokéMane. And we know PokéMane would do well, just because cosplay is like one of our, it's like larger niches in terms of revenue. And we have a lot of like lookalike creators that are pulling some big numbers that we think she would be able to match.

• 16:12Molly O'Shea?

  So it's not the typical TikTok girly?

• 16:16Speaker 01

  I like the TikTok girlies do make a lot, too. I think everyone has a way to monetize. They just need to figure out like what content resonates the most with their fans.

• 16:27Molly O'Shea?

  Given that you've been able to acquire a wide range of talent, like that's a really diverse set of people. How have you managed to build out your network through passes and get these different kinds of talent? What is, what does the process look like? Is, is there a process? Or is it just totally abstract?

• 16:48Speaker 01

  Yeah, so I mean, I would say it's a mix of both. Like, it's a relationships-driven business, but also a data-driven business. So on the like data side, to get our leads list, we basically scraped the internet everywhere, like Reddit, forums, etc., to find which creators had superfan communities. Because if you have a superfan community, they probably, you know, like made a Discord about you, a Telegram about you, a Reddit about you. Then we applied data science based off of like what we currently have with our creators. And we're constantly changing this model, like quite literally weekly, to try to determine how much they can make. And then for everyone that makes above $5,000 a month, we assign them to our AEs. Because $5,000 a month seems to be the sweet spot where we have 100% retention. So then they just go out

• 17:31Speaker 01

  and attempt to like cold outreach them. Obviously, warm relationships do the best. So I've just, you know, been out and about in the creator community. I've made friends with a lot of creators.

• 17:44Speaker 01

  Sometimes I just ask for an intro. Um, usually you get the intro and then they have a manager. So you get bumped to the manager anyway. And then I also know a lot of managers and managers are typically friends with other managers. So it hasn't been too hard, like getting to the creator directly. Um, but definitely I would say like scraping the internet is probably the best source for um finding the qualified leads.

• 18:05Molly O'Shea?

  So you are known for your parties and events. Um, passes has thrown some big things. You've had big activations. I just saw that you guys did an event at the Jake Paul fight with better. How have you like? How have you managed to strategize at least brand activations and getting creators together and creating this flywheel of like hype and coolness?

• 18:27Speaker 01

  Yeah, so we try to not do big parties very often because then it loses its like, you know, magic to it um and the hype. But uh I've honestly given my marketing team like zero dollars. So a lot of um pretty much all our parties come out to break even or like net positive. Um, which is nice and we can just do this based off of parties that like I've thrown by myself. I remember like our first party that like we actually tried to get sponsors for. It was because I had thrown a birthday party that I paid for by myself. And um we had insane guests, like insane musical performances, etc. And just based off of that, sponsors are willing to come in and do our next party. So every single party gets better um because we have more money to put into it, which is awesome.

• 19:12Speaker 01

  Uh, and then, yeah, like we just invite our creator friends. Like usually you have special guest DJs and that is enough to bring people out. Um, I think that because we don't throw a bad party or we haven't thrown a bad party, um, people are just willing to show up like they beg to show up. Um, we've had people offer to pay like 10 grand for to come. And they're not on the guest list.

• 19:35Molly O'Shea?

  Would you say that the lines for your parties are very long?

• 19:38Speaker 01

  We try to not have lines um in terms like we want to like efficient security.

• 19:44Molly O'Shea?

  Right.

• 19:45Speaker 01

  Um, a check in process, but they Like, sometimes we mess up there on logistics, right? And it becomes long. Like, there was definitely in a party where a very, very famous person, I can't say, was stuck outside for forty minutes and then ended up leaving.

• 19:58Molly O'Shea?

  Oh, no.

• 19:59Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 20:00Molly O'Shea?

  Oh, my gosh. So, besides that, like, I do know that you throw some, like, serious activations for the creators and it's on a weekly basis, right? So, how does that work? And how do you manage, like, helping them create a larger brand and make sure that they're doing things and are being engaged? What do those smaller activations look like? And how do you keep up the cadence?

• 20:23Speaker 01

  Yeah, so for smaller activations, because it's a relationship-driven business, we want to make sure that, like, every single week, we're at least taking care of, like, a subset of our creators. So, for example, this week happens to be the F1, so we're inviting a bunch of creators to the F1 with us. And again, it's really nice that they're creators because we're able to get them free hotels, free flights, and free tickets, not on company dollar. But it's also like, they don't have the relationships. Like, a lot of these creators don't have the relationships to be able to do that on their own because they are like, you know, the creators with less than a million followers that might live in Alabama, for example. And they're just not plugged into the LA scene like we are.

• 21:02Molly O'Shea?

  Right.

• 21:02Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 21:02Molly O'Shea?

  Right. And those kinds of events really elevate their brand and what they're associated with. So then, you know, you get more followers, you get more paid subscribers and that kind of thing.

• 21:13Speaker 01

  Exactly. And then other activations you try to do are always just like group dinners, so then they can get to know us better. We try to do collaborative photo shoots because the number one way to gain new followers is to collaborate with someone. Because you guys just, you know, your followers intermingle and then they become fans of both of you guys. I think there's like a common misconception where like if a fan, like a fan spends on one creator and it moves to another creator, they spend less on like the previous one. But we've seen that they just end up spending like double.

• 21:43Molly O'Shea?

  So when passes was originally created, it was a web three company. Since then, you've shifted off of it, but crypto is back and it's booming. Do you have any regrets about that? Why did you move away from web three? And tell me about the like, the delicate balance between that and like incentives of being on the platform.

• 22:02Speaker 01

  Yeah, so I would say I'm still like very bullish on web three. And I've always said this, like even after we took away web three. To me, it just makes sense, like interoperability. If you have, you're a super fan on passes, like you should be able to go on Ticketmaster, connect your wallet, see like the NFT and get a discount, right? Like that just kind of makes sense. But we noticed that creators have a huge distrust in web three. And we were losing out on a lot of creators, like they weren't willing to join passes because we were web three. And hopefully at the end of the day, like creator acquisition is like a number one priority for us. So we removed our web three components in order to continue to recruit creators. I don't have any regrets about it. Web three is still not really popping off.

• 22:44Speaker 01

  And if it does, I think that like, I'd want to wait until it's like societally accepted. And like actually accepted, not just like a phase, right? Before we reintegrate it back in, like we listen to our creators feedback. And until all our creators say like, we want web three on the platform, we're not going to prematurely do it. That being said, creators love making money. So we are looking into adding like crypto payments. So people that, you know, like fans have more ways to be able to spend more money on creators. Cause it's a win win for everyone then. And then we are thinking about crypto payouts as well, just because a lot of creators, like they want money instantly.

• 23:25Speaker 01

  And right now we do have to charge an extra percentage if they want instant payouts, because banks charge us an extra percentage. If we do instant payouts versus it'd be much cheaper for the creator to get instant payouts via crypto. So for creators that do want their money in crypto, we are looking at other solutions.

• 23:42Molly O'Shea?

  This might be a change in the subject, but. What are the biggest misconceptions that you faced while building out passes? Is there like a narrative that you've been fighting against? What like, what have you been trying to hold accountable to? And like really strengthen so people don't miss like there's no misconception around the the brand?

• 24:04Speaker 01

  Yeah, I think that the main misconception around a brand is people think that you have to be a hot girl or a hot guy to like make tons of money on passes. Or that like you're doing like nude content on passes to be able to make money. But I'm like, that's just the biggest misconception because we actually don't allow for any nudity. Um, if you try to upload uh something, it will get taken down and flagged. And it's actually like the filters are maybe a little bit too strict. For example, um, we had a lot of creators have issues because they were doing like cosplay outfits and bodysuits. And then that would get taken down, even though they were completely covered from head to toe. People of like all different niches are making money, right? Like it's not just hot guys, hot girls. So um, that's been a misconception that we have been fighting. Um, a lot of our creators will make money literally just doing like a neck up selfies and they're still making like a hundred thousand a month.

• 24:49Speaker 01

  Like, don't know what to tell everyone. But we are working with like podcasters, musicians, athletes, et cetera. Like we have universities signed to us and we're working with their NIL programs and developing our own NIL fund with the university. So there's so many different ways to make money on passes. And uh, I think that like the message out there is just like, we let you be you and you can make money the way you want to make money. And that's why passes is built with so much flexibility on the different feature sets we have. Like some people are going to make money off of live streaming. Other people are going to make money off of merchandise or one on one calls. But uh, there's like an abundance of ways to monetize and every creator is different.

• 25:26Molly O'Shea?

  Are there any white spaces in the market that you think should be tapped into? Like you've seen it all, you're exposed to it all. Where where do you think is like the most underrated part of the creator economy?

• 25:37Speaker 01

  Yeah, so I think like two white spaces that I'm interested in are obviously NIL. It's brand new. It's the first time that like college athletes are able to monetize off of NIL. And the market is absolutely huge. Like, the amount of money spent on college sports is insane. And I actually think that in the future, college sports will be bigger than professional leagues. So I'm super excited about that and like really figuring out how to crack the code. Other than that, maybe this is an LA thing. I spend a lot of money on astrologers and psychics. I don't even believe in astrology, but still, out of curiosity and for fun, I do believe in psychics, though. And I'm like, I think that our platform is like perfect for this sort of thing. Like, we do have astrologers on the platform that make a lot of money.

• 26:21Speaker 01

  And we do have psychics on the platform that make a lot of money. We just haven't really tapped into it yet.

• 26:26Molly O'Shea?

  Oh, that's so interesting. You know, I also find myself guilty. I feel like I walk like across the street or buy like psychic shops all the time. Or like Reiki, and I'm like, you know what? I think they're gonna tell me something today.

• 26:40Speaker 01

  So my favorite thing is because I like walking into psychic shops because they don't have a chance to like Google me. They don't have my phone number. They don't have my name. So then anything they say needs to be like from their abilities. And if it's like hyper accurate, where it's so specific to me. And I've had things that are very, very specific to me, to the point where it's like, oh, I see you just signed a bunch of contracts for a new business that you're starting. That was like, like a psychic that I walked into told me that the day I like sent out the term sheets or like the safes for like investors to wire. I mean, I was like, that's crazy.

• 27:18Molly O'Shea?

  That's crazy, like highly intuitive, highly intuitive.

• 27:21Speaker 01

  That was something that's just like, it doesn't apply to everyone.

• 27:23Molly O'Shea?

  No, it doesn't. What they do get me on, and I will be a sucker for it one day, is like upcharging me or selling me on like a $500 candle.

• 27:32Speaker 01

  Exactly. So that's what I hate about LA psychics. So like psychics, I think that psychics are real. They give you a hyper accurate readings, at least the good ones, right? And then they're like, oh, but like you need to fix your shock res. Or, oh, but you have a bad spirit following you. It'll be $10,000 to fix. And because they gave you. This like hyper accurate reading, you feel the need to spend more money. But those psychics are, I, I, I think they're bad people personally. So like the psychics that I use are always ones that like don't upcharge at all. Because they're not trying to get more out of me.

• 28:02Molly O'Shea?

  Yeah, I've, I've almost made it to a demon cleansing retreat before.

• 28:07Speaker 01

  It makes you feel better. My friend and I, we literally did not think psychics were real. It was the first time we went to a psychic and this was actually the day I like, you know, sent out the safes to my investors. We walked out a week later, having spent like 15 grand each.

• 28:19Molly O'Shea?

  Okay, new market. We're gonna go after this. This is great. We're both like victims of it. It's definitely viable.

• 28:26Speaker 01

  And the way people find psychics is they literally Google like psychics near me, right? That or referrals, which is perfect for a platform like passes because we could just dominate SEO for psychics in like, like psychics in LA, right? Like we could dominate SEO for that and like just provide a list of good psychics that you can book on a platform and have like one-on-one calls with over the platform. Like there's no need to share your phone number. There's no need to share like a Zoom, etc. Like you're much more anonymous on our platform, which is kind of cool.

• 28:56Speaker 01

  Or yeah, like we, there, there's just so many ways to dominate and like get people to find it.

• 29:01Molly O'Shea?

  I love it. I love it. So you have raised about $50 million in two years. That's a lot of money. That's very fast. And you're also growing really fast. What has your fundraising strategy been like to date? Like, how have you kept up with all of this and been able to continue to raise in a very competitive market?

• 29:20Speaker 01

  Yeah. So I generally think that I like fundraising when I'm at the advantage. So getting preempted is my favorite way to fundraise. I would say the seed round wasn't really preempted. It was more so like I had an idea and I was running a venture fund. So I had to ask my LPs for permission to be able to do this. And then my LPs were just like, let us put in a check. And I like, I had to do right by my LPs. So I obviously let them put in the checks first and also gave a little bit of equity to the fund. And that ended up just over subscribing very quickly, like no name, no deck. It was a literally a text message fundraiser, which is pretty wild. And then the series A was preempted.

• 29:57Speaker 01

  Uh, the numbers were just absolutely phenomenal. And I've like, obviously, you know, in venture, I saw how my other investments were growing and I knew that I had something very special on hand. So I just sent out an investor update, like end of year, and every single one started contacting me. You know, I got a term sheet like within two days, I think of that investor update. Use that to cause FOMO and fundraise. Uh, the key to like fundraising well is just causing FOMO.

• 30:22Molly O'Shea?

  We feel it. VCs definitely feel the FOMO. That's how the whole system works. What were the numbers?

• 30:29Speaker 01

  I don't think I can share anymore, but they were very good, like in the multimillions after our first 12 months.

• 30:38Molly O'Shea?

  Phenomenal. Okay, not bad. I can see that. Um, as we look back on your career, you're very well accomplished. You were a Thiel Fellow, Forbes 30 Under 30. You helped found Scale AI and then you went on to found Back End Capital, HF Zero. You're now founding Passes. What are your long-term goals and are you going to continue building?

• 31:03Speaker 01

  I mean, my long-term goal right now, um, depends what you call long-term, but like for the next decade, I obviously want Passes to go public. So working very, very hard on that. Uh, I think long, long-term, I've always had this dream to start a nonprofit, um, combating human trafficking. And, um, I go back and forth on whether it makes sense for like me to do it or whether I should just do what I'm good at, which is making money and donating to it. Because I think a lot of people like decide they want to start nonprofit, but they don't really know how to do it, right? But they do it out of ego versus like, um, other people realize, oh, like this person might be doing it better than me. Like I should just donate. So I'm going back and forth on that, but like how I would want to do it is probably like use technology to help combat it.

• 31:48Speaker 01

  Like I read a story about how someone created a very simple website where you just submit pictures of like hotel rooms. And they ended up collecting millions of images of hotel rooms and the police were able to use this like backtrack and find out which hotels like people were trafficked in. Uh, which is very cool and so simple. And I bet there's like a million other ideas that can be done, um, to help combat it.

• 32:09Molly O'Shea?

  Wow. Yeah. I've never, never heard of the technology approach to combating that. I've definitely seen the posters in bathrooms and airports.

• 32:18Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 32:18Molly O'Shea?

  But I don't know how that works. That would be really interesting.

• 32:21Speaker 01

  Yeah, there was a human trafficking case um very recently in LAX. Uh I think like a week ago.

• 32:27Molly O'Shea?

  Oh, my gosh.

• 32:27Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 32:28Molly O'Shea?

  Wow.

• 32:28Speaker 01

  Yep.

• 32:29Molly O'Shea?

  Okay.

• 32:30Speaker 01

  And it was in the same terminal that a girl that was not connected to the case happened to disappear at. Still haven't found her.

• 32:38Molly O'Shea?

  Wow. Okay, well, we'll get you there like.

• 32:41Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 32:41Molly O'Shea?

  That would be a great mission. Um and a really good long term goal for sure.

• 32:45Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 32:45Molly O'Shea?

  Um, I can understand the complexities of like, do I manage this? Do I have someone else manage this? How does this really work? Um, given that you're super busy, you're busy all the time, you know, it's real hard to get you scheduled. And you also do berries twice a day. You have multiple businesses going on. You're investing, you're doing things. How do you keep up this energy?

• 33:09Speaker 01

  Um, I really do think berries is like how I keep up a lot of energy. Um, you know, I start my day with two Celsius's, which is very concerning. I don't think anyone should actually do it. I've actually been told by a very large shareholder of Celsius not to drink that much Celsius. Um, but anyways, uh, I don't know, like I start, like I wake up and I might be kind of sleepy, whatever. By the time I enter the like berries red room though. Um, and like I usually enter, you know, it's six fifteen AM. Exactly.

• 33:33Molly O'Shea?

  Yeah.

• 33:33Speaker 01

  Just like the music, the lights, uh, the adrenaline and like the energy of everyone around me wakes me up. Um, I think that I like feel energies um and like, I mean, even this office, right? Like all my employees energies are very contagious and it brings me excitement. Um, I also just think like I'm very lucky. I think I was born naturally, like genetically, really. My parents would wake up at five AM every single day. And sleep at like one AM. So they also never really got much sleep. So in my head, I'm like, it must be genetic.

• 34:03Molly O'Shea?

  Yeah, and you're utilizing it pretty well.

• 34:05Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 34:05Molly O'Shea?

  So why not? That's great. So you have like a really good routine, you're health oriented, you're productive, you're focused. What are your twenty twenty five goals?

• 34:16Speaker 01

  I mean, I would say your 2025 goals is continue to nail down creators. I want to crack NIL in 2025. Um, so we'll see if we like figure out how it works exactly or like how we can monetize it best. Uh, and then I'm really excited about like the fintech products that we're building. Um, which, you know, should be done Q1 2025, but we'll see. Uh, I think that like I, the fintech part is probably the thing I've been most excited about since starting this company. So I'm excited that we're finally getting there.

• 34:44Molly O'Shea?

  Fantastic. Well, Lucy, it was a pleasure to have you on. This was such a fun conversation and I'm bullish on psychics. So I hope you figure that out.

• 34:53Speaker 01

  Thank you. I also hope I figure that out.

• 34:56Molly O'Shea?

  Thank you.

• 34:56Speaker 01

  Thank you.