(upbeat music) - Today on Going Public, with the Reg A offerings open,
Trebel isn't wasting a minute getting in front of investors. - It's for the audience, we want them and you to be part of us. - Oh, and did I mention they are starting with a billionaire? - [Man] I've been told
his nickname is The King. - While Drockton, Tony Drockton,
is risking life and limb to deliver Hammitt's investor
message to the masses. - I'll take this over looking
at spreadsheets any day. - [Woman] And branding
expert, Jeff Hoffman is joining Going Public as a
mentor to help these companies scale and navigate the ins and outs of being a public company. - There are things you gotta do right, or you'll never get to that scale. - This is Going Public. (upbeat music) Okay, so before we get to these companies, let's get some very important
legal issues out in the open. Going Public is for
entertainment purposes, and at no time do the company sponsors, nor any participants
provide investment advice, endorsement, analysis, or recommendations with respect to securities. On Going Public, you're going
to hear from four companies that are giving you an opportunity to invest through an
exemption from registration with the SEC called Regulation A. These offerings have not gone through a registration process with the SEC and do not have the investor
protection that it provides. And it should be noted that just because the show
was called Going Public, there is no guarantee that any company will in fact, go public or
ever listed on an exchange like NASDAQ for example. Bottom line, you need to
know the risks going in. The companies have all
filed an offering circular with the SEC, that you
should read carefully, including the section
called, "Risk factors," because these are speculative
and illiquid offerings, and you can lose some
or all of your money. And Going Public makes no
assurances or guarantees that any potential investor commitment or strategies discussed will
result in company's success. Another thing you need to
know is that Going Public is operated by Crush Capital, and Crush Capital is being compensated by the companies featured on this show. And some of our mentors have interest in the companies as well. These relationships mean that there could be a conflict of interest between the investors, Crush Capital, the companies featured, and
the mentors on the show. We detail all these potential conflicts on the Going Public
website at goingpublic.com. (upbeat music) - I love pitching investors at
Trebel, it's what I live for. - Treble is an app that
allows users to search, preview, download, and play offline the music that they're passionate about. - That's a pretty good upside. - Bob loves to close the
deal, he loves the hunt. He takes that as a huge challenge. When you tell Bob, "No," what
he hears is sell me more. - So today is our pitch with a billionaire by the name of Chris Burch. For those of you don't know,
Chris Burch is the co-founder of the Tory Burch
clothing and retail line. And he is a prolific angel investor at Burch Creative Capital,
over 60 investments. I've been told his nickname is The King. (upbeat music) - I'm Chris Burch, I build my own company. So I love to create, I love to invest in entrepreneurs and new businesses. The most fun is when we
invest in great people that have a vision. I think the reason I've been successful is a little bit from my childhood, and I was an F student, a bed wetter, a kid that really
struggled with everything. And I learned through that process of ADD, of listening and listening well. I go at and investment as an
emotional partner with them. It's about their childhood, it's about how they were brought up, but it's about what their
vision is and their tenacity, it's about to kill me. So where are you guys from? - We're from Los Angeles. - And you guys have
been partners how long? - Three and a half years now? - Four years.
- Yeah, yeah four years. - Rock and roll first job out of college. What did you guys do before this? - This is my fourth company.
- Oh, wow. - But I'm an engineer by
training, a coder, right? So the first company was highly technical, joined five guys, grew it to 420 people and we actually took it public. It was a lot of fun, we
ended up selling the company. So I cashed in some white chips and started another company after that. So Chris, is a fashion
guy, he knows fashion, but I also know that he's
invested in tech companies. One thing that he doesn't
have in his portfolio in the tech space is music tech. - Could you got a great personality for being an engineer, man? - Well, I had to get a transplant. (indistinct) You have a pretty good
personality for an engineer. I wasn't sure whether to thank him or not. - Are you guys in the
music business before? I have a lot of people
in the music business, - We have not. - How did you get the deals with. - They saw the opportunity, right? All I have to do is say,
we're going after the people who are not paying for music
or unlikely to pay for music, we're expanding the size
of the market for you. So you're gonna talk
to your label, France. And they're going to tell you. - They can't believe you did it. - It takes two years on average. - Are you raising money now? Or are you going public or
you, what are you doing? You're just here to hang with me? - So, we have a goal, a milestone
that we're trying to hit. We're trying to get to
15,666,666 users, right? About 3.6 million to get there. A Reg A is $25 million offering
which we're very confident that we're gonna raise some of it. What we could use though as a boost, but you can name other
people you bring in, you can do a press release. You can do it press release
say, you guys are in. - You're actually pitching me hard, too. You're pitching me hard. - When working with angel investors, you've gotta wait to see
the sparkle in their eye. And when you see that
you go for the close, it's for the audience, we want
them and you to be part of. All of you got some of the same terms. - So you won't let me
in, in the early round, but you want me to go in now? - But you haven't said yes. - But I'll only say yes
if I have the people that I know in the music
business, take a quick look at it. I'll talk to them all,
and I'll get to the thing. I'll get back to you, and
it'll be here absolutely. - When he said he was gonna
check with his friends that was like, grab Gary cell-phone, call anyone in the music industry, we'll partners with these guys, and Chris, you should make an investment. I was hoping he would have made that call right in front of us. - You guys are dynamic. - Thank you. - I'll give you a fist pump,
I'll give you a high five, but more importantly, it's
gonna be called the check-out. And the check-out. - What is it? What is the checkout? - The checkout is, give me a hug, man. - Absolutely.
- Thanks guys. - It went great, I think
Chris is interested. And at one point he hugged Bob. - I love that guy, probably
the most unorthodox, I mean that we've ever had. - I think he's gonna invest, but until the money is in
the bank, we don't know. - And the pitching has started. This is one of the
exciting parts of Reg A. As with all the companies,
on Going Public, you don't have to be a wealthy investor or a billionaire to get involved. All right, let's take a quick look at how the investment process works. First, head over to goingpublic.com. Here, you can learn more
about the companies, and importantly, read
the offering circulars before you click to invest. On the investment sites,
just add your email, fill in some basic contact information. You must check the box to confirm
you've read and understand the section called, "Risk factors." Don't panic, they do require
your Social Security Number and some financial information. However, it's all kept
private and required to verify your identity
and investment level. On your screen, you'll see
a dropdown for Accredited and Non-accredited investors. You need to satisfy certain conditions to be considered accredited. For example, someone with
a net worth over a million or certain financial
professionals with certifications or credentials could be
considered accredited. With a Reg A, both accredited
and non-accredited investors have the opportunity to invest. All right, you're almost there. Now type in how many shares
you want, your payment info. Then just click to invest to
begin your investment process. - You look so much
better, just don't look. (upbeat music) - We're making a video
for our Reg A fundraising. - James Bond. - Today we want to bring
the energy of Hammitt. Every James Bond movie starts
with excitement and fun. Let's be different. Let's bring that energy to
this capital raising video. (upbeat music) - This is completely different
from any investor video that you've ever seen. It's just a really fun and creative way to show with our all about. (upbeat music) - Tony loves doing film. - Whenever I'm carrying my Hammitt bag, it's the money shot. - [Man] We're good, opposite. - CEO and assistant to Tony. - We have somebody who's
envisioned the creative, and I'm the guy behind who
makes sure that vision happens, that we keep on plan and we keep growing, and we're able to scale. - You're really starting to take a look at how can we
not just reward our early fans and our current, but
how can they participate in what's gonna happen? Which is really exciting
over the next five years. And crowdfunding just made sense. I mean, we're on the cutting edge. It's exciting to be doing
something different. I really think empowers the
fans that already love it. (upbeat music) I'll take this over looking
at spreadsheets any day. - If there's one thing I've
learned about Tony and Hammitt, it's that they do things their way, which apparently includes a stunt team, and a tuxedo for their investor video. Head over to invest.hammitt.com to learn more about their Reg A Offering, and to see the final video of Double Tony. Okay, let's switch gears a little bit. These founders are on a journey
to raise money under Reg A, but success is about more
than just raising money. It's about scaling up and
operation, the marketing, and the brand, and that's
exactly why we're bringing in some very successful mentors
to help them on their journey, and share firsthand experience on how to successfully scale a company. Today, we're starting
off our mentor sessions with one of the best in the business. - Hey, how's it going?
- Come on, dude. - I suck at this, all right. - That's good, that's good. I'm excited to sit down with Jeff. - We got them to LA. - I know, I know all the way
across the country, right? - I'm Jeff Hoffman. I am a mentor on Season
One here of Going Public. I've been part of quite
a number of startups, Priceline.com, Booking.com, uBid.com. So I've been building companies long time. - What's so great about
Jeff is he has this genuine kinda salt of the Earth approach. Yet he comes from this place
of just massive experience and tenure, he's like a walking MBA. Every time he talks, I want to take notes. - Today, I serve as the Chairman of the Global Entrepreneurship Network, where we work with businesses
being launched and scaled in 190 different countries. So when Todd and Darren called me and told me about the
concept of this show, I absolutely loved that idea. - I think the biggest
opportunity for companies raising capital under Reg A+ is they have to understand the mindsets of the retail investor. It's not the product, it's
not 200K to 10 million to 20 million, those are
all secondary data points for the average investor. It's the why. - That's what we're
hoping to accomplish here is getting to the reality of
who these people are forging this emotional connection between the viewer and the
founders of these companies. - That authenticity is
really, really important, especially in an investor pitch. Going Public, whether it's a Reg A+, whether it's an IPO, or whether
it's just massive growth takes a set of things you gotta do right, or you'll never get to that scale. - Okay, I want you to get ready
because class is in session. Jeff is giving these
founders and you, the viewer, invaluable lessons in
branding of business, landing your messaging for investors, and what it takes to be a successful publicly traded company. - The downside of going public is it completely changes your life. - Scrutiny is heavy, the first
thing people do is they say, isn't there already one of those. - Jeff's bringing his wisdom. - When you go public, you
have a legal responsibility to manage the money of
public shareholders. - Then applying those key
lessons for each company. - So let's talk about Hammitt. They have some work to do on building out a more well-rounded team. Proven has a problem with
branding and messaging to shape their brand
around so it stands out. - So whether you are a potential investor, entrepreneur or like me, who
just really likes this stuff, there's something for everyone. - So we're headed to meet
with our mentor, Jeff Hoffman, a very seasoned entrepreneur and CEO. It is a bit of a nerve-wracking meeting because he's seen a lot, he knows a lot. We're gonna have to see what
kinds of issues he brings up, and how we could rise to the occasion. - I wanna start by saying
it hasn't been that long since you launched Proven, and you're doing an
absolutely amazing job. - Proven creates skincare that fits you because it's personalized to you based on data and technology. - When we start to talk about scale, and especially when we started
to talk about going public, and the scrutiny you're gonna
have, there's a few areas that we really wanna work on. So I wanna start by talking
about product positioning, because it is so important in the market. If you had to give me
one, and only one reason somebody should pick Proven, what is it? - It is personalized and tailored
to you and what you need. - Okay. - It gives you an opportunity to have a lifetime personalized skincare. - All of those benefits are important, but the truth in sales is that people have one resounding reason
when they pick a product. - You know we did do a
customer interview exercise, where we talked to 30 customers, and then we surveyed another 800, and they actually stay Proven customers because they love the
simplicity of Proven. - Okay, that was really important, what you just said, because
that's not really the look and feel of your website right now. If people said it's so much
simpler than anything else, then we have to push that harder. - Okay. - We have to say your skincare regimen has never been this simple. Branding is critically important. For companies to really scale, they have to start getting customers that they didn't spend
any money marketing. In order to achieve that,
you have to build brand. If you wanna build your
brand, here is step one. You need to find out what is the question that you are the answer to? What are people sitting
on their couch right now, turning to their friend and
saying, man, where can I bland? You want everybody to say, "Oh, you need to contact
those people," that's brand. You have acquired a customer
you spent no money on. Proven has a problem with
branding and messaging about finding the line between scientific and emotional skincare is a very emotional human experience. But part of the reason they're so good is because they're scientists. So we've got branding
and messaging work to do to find the perfect
blend of science and care and emotion to shape their
brand around so it stands out. By the way, everybody
loves your packaging. They liked the box you send it in. But here's what I noticed,
when I get the product, nothing in there actually says what you did to make this,
why is this custom for me? I actually had somebody say, "I filled out all those
questions and they just said, send her the old person packet." She actually said, "I'm not sure why this was custom for me." - I think that's really a messaging gap. - It is a messaging gap. - Because there's so much data, I guess we don't do a good
enough job of communicating analysis on the backend
that we do for each person based on more than 47 factors about them. - Let's create something. It can just be a little
thing in there that tells me this mix was specifically created for you because of your high UV,
your low, all those things. Let's just print something so
they look at it and they say, "Well, they really heard me." That is what I told them. - What Jeff is getting at
is the fact that science and personalization is
our key differentiation. We have to bring that out more. - We have to go from the science angle, and embrace some emotional
touch on what the science angle could do for our skin. - I have a question about
execution because I think this messaging discussion is so key. What is actually the right process to arrive at the right word? - I actually have a process,
I do that for a living. So I have a process that is called creating a corporate vocabulary. So we will schedule that exercise. I will walk you through
it, and when we're done, we will come out with your
corporate vocabulary for Proven. - It's paramount for us because we're going through a
branding exercise right now. - Who are you doing that with? - We're working with a
branding agency in New York called Reflex, they actually branded some major, major icons in
the beauty skincare space. (upbeat music) - Hello? - Hi. - This reflects meeting is
to define our brand image. One thing we really need to do well is the entire consumer experience. And right now, our brand
image is not yet very strong. - Here's an example of the web design that we've gone through so far. Here's your current design on the left, and then what we've been doing. - I really liked the larger
size of the headlines here because it just breaks
things up a little bit more. So my name is Georgia Healey. I'm Head of Brand Marketing
at Proven Skincare. I've joined very recently
after 11 years at Unilever, which is, one of the world's largest beauty and personal care
companies in the world. Here at Proven, one of my main
goals is to take our brand from good to great. The right side is
extremely clean and simple, but I think one of the reasons that Ming wanted to hire you guys, was that she didn't wanna
go with the same agency that all the startups they use, right? They wanted something that
feels a bit more luxurious and this feels more like
everyone else to me. - I think the feeling that we really love for our customers to have
is, "Oh, this is about me. Like this is a brand that
knows me, understands me. And this is made for me." I think the question we have the answer is what kind of information can we share so that they feel that way. We are very judicious
in deciding to invest in this branding effort. We finally have the right pieces to do something like this successfully. So I feel very fortunate about that too. - Ming, Amy, Georgia. I love seeing the woman at
the heart of this company taking charge to really build their brand. I can't wait to see the
new direction, new assets, and what it means for the
next phase of the company. (upbeat music) - Gentlemen, I am so excited
to have you guys here today. Well, the first thing we're
gonna focus on is messaging. 'Cause you guys have a
couple of different reasons why people should care about you. - I would agree, NexGenT is an IT academy. We built our company around this kind of premise
of zero to engineer. Getting people IT
training and landing them into a career within
months instead of years. - So I wanna start by asking
you guys this question. What is the one line sentence that makes me wanna come to you guys? I'll take a crack at this. - You can re-skill in a tech career in four months versus four
years without the college debt. - I don't love re-skill,
I like power verbs, verbs that I get, that
I know what they mean. Do I have to have been an engineer? How deep of an engineer? What level of experience
do I have to have? - Zero.
- Yeah, zero. - Okay, so that's what
re-skill doesn't do. Re means, I gotta have some skill. This is for engineers, re-skilling. - All right. - We're talking about scaling here, right? So we have to convince a public market that we know who our customer is. And people need to believe
that you're gonna keep growing, and growing means people
need to believe that among all the choices, lots
of people are gonna pick you. So what's the proposition
that catches my attention? (upbeat music) When you're pitching
to the broader public, you have to have a story
that's consumer-friendly. If you can't explain your story in short, simple layman's
terms that everyone says, "Oh, I get it." Why would anybody buy your product? Why is your company gonna grow? What's different about you? The story has to be a friendly story, and it has to be presented
in a consumer-friendly, concise, powerful way
that you have one liners that they say, "Oh, I totally get that." I wanna switch gears into another area. I'm being really honest
with you guys, right? That's already how our
relationship started off. When you take a company public,
what everybody wants to know is your projections look great, Jeff, but I wanna be convinced
you guys can deliver. If you guys are putting
a lot of personal time into building a bricks and mortar school that serves 100 students, they
want you to spend your time building the online business that serves thousands of students. - Right. - So pretend I'm that investor
who is saying to you guys, "Are you focusing on the scalable stuff? Are you spending some time
on a really cool project that doesn't scale." - So in the venture capitalist world, they want you to just raise
a lot of money and scale, super aggressively and
brick and mortar is scary 'cause there's a lot of
costs associated with that. But for us, it's not
about the profit margin. For us, it's about the student experience, whether it's in-person or
online, it doesn't matter. We want to serve all
modalities and learn from that, to create the best user
experience possible. - I am telling you, when you are talking
to the public markets, they are going to say
whether you like it or not, they should focus on the
scalable online business, not the in-room class. What you haven't done
is drawn a necessity. Guys, I want you to
reposition the whole thing. I wouldn't even call it a physical class, or a bricks and mortar building. I would say we're
creating a design facility where we create our online classes because then people totally get it. Why do you need this? Because it's where we build
the world's greatest classes. We test them with live students
so we can talk to them, see the interaction. Then we launch them out into
the scalable online business, theme that better, their
narrative has got to focus more on online scalability and less on talking about those
physical facilities. And they're not there yet. I know that's not what you wanted to hear, but here's the good news. I'm not taking your building away, which I thought I was going to, at the beginning of this meeting. - I'm super-excited that Jeff
actually came around and said, "Hey, I was gonna get rid of
your campus as an advice." But you know, we've met
halfway and we're excited that we're keeping our campus. - Let's talk about NGT Academy. I got very concerned at the beginning when they were so excited about
building bricks and mortar, no one wants to invest in
a bricks and mortar school post pandemic, when
everything went virtual, I'm worried about it. - The bottom line though, for me always is the people running
the business and their mission. And I'm aligned with it, who wouldn't wanna work at Amazon? Who wouldn't wanna work at Facebook? Who wouldn't wanna work at all of these great tech companies. That's the message that
I think is lacking, and I think if they get
this injection of capital, they should apply that to marketing. - I completely agree with the messaging. They need to pitch better why them, and I don't think we're there yet. - And for Proven, the thing I think is really gonna be an issue
moving forward, authenticity. Ming is very polished,
Amy is very polished, but when we get a little bit
of authenticity for Ming, that's when I start to
lean in and I'm like, where do I sign? - I think the founders that
successfully raise capital in equity, crowdfunding,
communicate their vision, their mission, and their values. And that's different than Amy and Ming going into institutional investors. And there it's about
retention, subscription. All of these LTV.
- LTV. - All of these hardcore business terms. - Here's something that's hard
for people like Ming to hear. Maybe you shouldn't give the pitch. It is possible that Ming is
great for institutional pitches, but someone else at that company should give the retail pitch. The Click 2 Invest story
is a much more human story. That's what the retail
investor actually does care about your mission. They've got to learn to tell that story all the almonds are on the table. They're just not put together yet. - Okay, we're still just
getting started here on Going Public. In the coming weeks,
you'll get the inside look at each issuing company's Reg A Offering, and their path to raising money
and growing their businesses from invaluable mentor sessions, to high pressure investor pitches, to the growing pains
of scaling a business. This is the journey of Reg A. On the next episode of Going Public, Jeff Hoffman continues his mentorship work with two more Reg A companies. - Brand's job is to get people to say, wait, what you sound like
you're running for office, dude. - [Woman] NGT heads East, looking for their shot out
of familiar investment. - We wanna change a million lives by 2030. It keeps me up at night. - [Woman] And Proven heads West in search of new expansion opportunities. - So excited, and it's really
going to put us on the map. - [Woman] I'll see you
next time on Going Public.