Latest / The Inspired Stories Podcast / The Celebrity Brand Revolution: Bilal Mekkaoui's OuiCollab Global Expansion

Transcript

The Celebrity Brand Revolution: Bilal Mekkaoui's OuiCollab Global Expansion · The Inspired Stories Podcast

0:04
Welcome to another edition of the Inspired Stories podcast,
0:08
where leaders share their experiences so we can learn from
0:11
their successes and be inspired by how they've overcome
0:14
adversity. My name is Anthony Codispodi and
0:17
today's guest is Bilal Makawi, Co Founder and Managing Partner
0:21
at We Collab, a celebrity backed brand venture studio that pairs
0:26
the right stars with the consumer categories we are
0:29
excited about. With over 24 years of experience
0:33
in the tech and consumer space, Bilal has a passion for creating
0:37
and scaling innovative and impactful businesses that
0:40
leverage the power and influence of celebrities and influencers.
0:44
They have a vision to create a plug and play platform to
0:47
efficiently launch and support a broad portfolio of celebrity
0:51
brands. They identify and source
0:53
celebrities in their network who have a hunger and a fit to
0:57
launch a brand and they match with high priority consumer
1:01
categories that match their profile.
1:03
Now before we get into all that good stuff, today's episode is
1:06
brought to you by my company, Add Back benefits Agency, where
1:09
we offer very specific and unique employee benefits that
1:13
are both great for your team and fiscally optimized for your
1:16
bottom line. One recent client was able to
1:18
add over $900 per employee per year in extra cash flow by
1:22
implementing one of our innovative programs.
1:24
Results vary for each company and some organizations may not
1:27
be eligible. To find out if your company
1:29
qualifies, contact us today at AD Back benefits.com.
1:33
All right, back to our guest today, the founder of WE Collab,
1:36
Bilal Makawi. I appreciate you making the time
1:38
to Share your story today. Thank you for having me.
1:42
So we're going to get into in a moment how this is kind of a
1:47
good timing for this interview because you're kind of launching
1:50
A rebrand. But before we get there, I want
1:54
to talk a little bit about your background first.
1:57
What initially sparked your interest in entrepreneurship and
2:01
technology below? It's a good question.
2:05
I mean, I think along the way, you know, you, you get into
2:10
doing certain things, you graduate, you, you kind of look
2:13
at your ideal kind of job of what you want to get into.
2:16
And that was investment banking at the time.
2:19
And you kind of go through the whole process while you're
2:21
working for other firms and figure out what do you really
2:26
want to do yourself And and do you want to be that entrepreneur
2:29
or do you want to continue within the field of what you got
2:32
into and spent? You know, kind of I I did 12
2:35
years of investment banking. I still have friends who are
2:39
still in the same bank that we started out in in late 99 two
2:42
thousand and there are others who kind of spun off and did
2:46
other things. So I think kind of what led me
2:48
to my interest in entrepreneurship, I think is
2:51
just kind of working with different entrepreneurs.
2:54
So I wasn't, Hey, I graduated and became an entrepreneur.
2:57
It's, it's more kind of going through the cycle of, of
3:01
different times through your career, which led you eventually
3:04
to where you are today and you look back and, and you say, hey,
3:07
it all made sense. Now technology again, I was very
3:11
interested in tech. I started off my career doing
3:14
investment banking, focused on tech.
3:17
So kind of my whole career progression has always had a
3:19
tech kind of component and focus.
3:21
It's just been in different kind of industries, but still tech
3:25
focus, if that makes sense. My calling wasn't always, Hey,
3:29
I, I was born to be an entrepreneur and it was like,
3:32
Hey, let me get into investment banking.
3:34
I really want to learn this and, and be an investment banker and
3:37
then kind of did that and that kind of LED.
3:39
What's the next step? And you know.
3:42
And one of those steps along the way was at a company called
3:45
Rocket Internet. He worked there for a few years
3:47
starting in 2012. So I understand they incubate
3:51
and develop Internet based businesses.
3:53
Did that stop there sort of, you know, as managing director kind
3:57
of push your interest in entrepreneurship?
4:02
Yeah. I mean Rocket, that's, that's a
4:03
great question, Anthony, because Rocket was a propeller in terms
4:09
of, hey, I did investment banking for 12 years and I, I
4:12
worked within different parts of the investment bank, right.
4:15
But Rocket was a very interesting company as well.
4:18
And having joined, that was also a milestone and kind of opened
4:22
my eyes into Rocket at some point had 50 companies within
4:27
its portfolio that it incubated. So it was great to end up
4:32
working with all these different founders and kind of look at how
4:35
these different founders build their companies.
4:38
But to kind of be very clear, Rocket was original incubator.
4:42
It was Rocket's idea. It came up with an idea.
4:45
It kind of put all the key components and launch these
4:48
businesses again. Rocket, funnily enough, was
4:51
dubbed as the Robin Hood of the Internet when I had first
4:54
joined. What that meant was the founders
4:57
of Rocket were three German brothers called the Samer
4:59
brothers. They took companies that were
5:01
successful in the US and just replicated them all over the
5:04
world except for the US and China.
5:06
So again, it's not that they come, they came up with the
5:09
original idea as well. They took a company that did
5:12
very well in the US and said, hey, this company is not present
5:16
in Europe, it's not present in Germany or it's not in Brazil.
5:20
Why don't we replicate the model and create that company in these
5:24
different countries with the hope eventually that the company
5:29
that became very big in the US to come and acquire them.
5:32
But then the model changed with time where you know through time
5:36
and it's a very, I think that's even another session just to
5:39
talk about Rocket. But the idea is, you know, this
5:42
company I had joined in 2012 and we raised 3 billion of private
5:46
capital between 2012 and 2014. We IP owed Rocket for 6.7
5:51
billion IPO. We IPO D another Rocket
5:56
portfolio company which was called Zealando within the same
5:59
week at around 7.2 billion. And then various other entities
6:04
that from Rocket such as HelloFresh, which you know in
6:07
the US. So HelloFresh was one of the
6:09
only businesses that they created in Europe, and then they
6:11
took it over to the US and that IPO, that business was around 12
6:15
billion. So yeah, I'm, I'm digressing
6:19
away. But the interesting part of a
6:21
trocat is I was exposed to so much in a very short period of
6:25
time and you kind of saw a whole change in terms of the whole
6:30
landscape, in terms of how things were being done.
6:34
Does that model still work today?
6:36
This idea of let's look at something that's being, you
6:39
know, been real successful and sort of a start up capital of
6:42
the world, if you will, in the US and let's replicate it other
6:45
places with the goal of sort of that start, that founding
6:49
company in the US wanting to acquire them.
6:52
Yeah, I, I think that still exists today, meaning there's
6:55
still companies that set up in the US and they obviously just
6:58
focus on the US market at the beginning because it is one of
7:01
the biggest markets, right. Like in terms of, hey, I have a
7:03
350 million population 1 taxation one depending what
7:08
you're launching. So there are other countries
7:10
that look to the US and say, OK, wow, this has done well.
7:14
This is a great idea for me to learn, whether it's in Africa or
7:17
Southeast Asia and, and they, you know, end up doing that.
7:20
Now, that's not to say in these individual companies, people
7:25
come up with their own ideas that probably are not there in
7:27
the US, but just in general, you still have that.
7:31
But the difference is before you had one Incubator 1 venture that
7:37
actually created so many of these and became such a huge
7:40
beast, which I don't think there are that type of businesses
7:45
today, if that makes sense. It does.
7:48
OK, so when did the sort of flicker of an idea to start your
7:53
own pun come about? It came about, listen, I, I did
7:58
investment banking 12 years, moved to Rocket, was there
8:01
between 2012 and 2015 and did so much in the space of three years
8:06
that then we IPO that business. I ended up joining another big
8:11
tech business called Delivery Hero and idea joining there was
8:15
also something else which was great in terms of, you know, I
8:18
was part of a firm which was Rocket that had 50 companies in
8:23
the portfolio and you had exposure to so many different
8:25
things. And then I moved to work on one
8:28
company which was a marketplace food delivery business similar
8:31
to Grubhub and Seamless in the US, but they were based out of
8:34
Berlin. But what's interesting is they
8:35
were operational in 65 different countries, almost under
8:39
different brand names. So it was great to work within
8:42
one company and then kind of get the other side right.
8:45
Like you're not dealing with 50 different companies, you're
8:47
dealing with one product, one type.
8:50
So, and then we also, you know, my, my role was there to get the
8:53
company ready for an IPO, which is IPO for 4.7 billion in 2017.
8:59
And the idea there came up like, Hey, I've been doing this now
9:03
for the last, let's say, you know, 1516 years at working at
9:07
other institutions and grading, getting all that experience.
9:10
Now is the time to do my own thing.
9:12
And it came about with meeting my then Co founder and kind of,
9:16
hey, our, our skill sets compliment each other.
9:20
And how about we do this? And we went after creating an
9:23
early stage consumer retail tech firm, which was based out of New
9:28
York. And then the idea again is it's
9:30
it's kind of more having ownership that this is your own
9:33
baby that you're creating. And after that came the
9:36
incubator, which was a celebrity LED incubator, talent incubator,
9:41
which again was a progression of what we had just done within the
9:45
tech fund to take this to the next level.
9:48
OK. Before we dive more into that,
9:51
tell me, what was the name of the company that you were
9:53
focused on a single product to taking to IPO?
9:57
It it's called delivery Hero. Delivery Hero.
9:59
OK. And so I'm curious, as you made
10:02
that transition from rocket to delivery Hero, was there a sense
10:08
of relief that now, hey, I can focus on a single product?
10:11
Or was there more a sense of like, a little bit of boredom?
10:16
Like, oh man, I love being involved in so many different
10:19
things and now it's just a single thing.
10:21
It's it's, it's, it's, it's very good question.
10:24
I got introduced to delivery Hero through one of the main
10:27
investors in Rocket, who was an investor in delivery Hero and
10:31
kind of saw what I did with Rocket and thought it would be
10:34
great for me to add that value add delivery Hero and end up
10:38
introducing me to the founder of delivery Hero.
10:41
And we ended up kind of agreeing and, and I moved.
10:44
It was great at the beginning to say, hey, now rather than, you
10:48
know, having your hands into a big pot with so many different
10:53
kind of offerings and different teams.
10:55
And it's like, wow, now I'm part of one team.
10:58
And then but you're right, I think a year and a half in I was
11:02
like, OK, I think it's great to learn this, but this is a bit
11:07
boring in terms of you're just focusing on one now.
11:10
And I think it's different if you had created this, your baby
11:14
yourself, which I later got to do, which it's, it's your baby,
11:18
it's your ownership as opposed to I came and joined the firm
11:21
and now I'm really just focusing on one, one company.
11:25
But yes, at the beginning it was very exciting.
11:28
You're learning something new and then kind of that wears off.
11:32
Like many things, the novelty wears off and it's you may, you
11:35
have to make that decision. Is this right for me?
11:38
Or is it time to do something else?
11:41
And again, I was at that opportunity that the company was
11:44
doing very well. It was about to IPO and a huge
11:47
IPOI had two huge IP OS under my belt.
11:50
It's like now is the time to kind of move on and create your
11:53
own baby per SE. And so you go off to create your
11:58
own baby. We are joby right?
12:02
Or joby capital. And then it's.
12:03
It was Joby. It was Joby Capital, which was a
12:07
consumer retail tech fund invest in pre Series A consumer retail
12:11
tech businesses and and that kind of moved into hey, because
12:18
you are not like I've looked at the tech businesses and then
12:20
you're investing again in other people's businesses, correct.
12:24
So we raised quite a lot of money and part of that money we
12:28
invested in early stage businesses.
12:31
So it wasn't businesses that were, you know, it was
12:33
businesses that were making a couple of million in revenue.
12:36
But the projection is that these grow and it felt again you're
12:40
part of something where we sat on the board and really help
12:43
these companies to the next level.
12:46
But again, you didn't create it, you weren't part of the
12:50
initiation. You came added value with
12:54
obviously your background in terms of what you've learned and
12:57
the money that you're giving to take them to the next level,
13:00
which was interesting. It was interesting, it was fun.
13:04
And that came also with a lot of headache because you ended up
13:07
investing in businesses like in within the VC space, right?
13:10
You invest in a lot of companies and you'd hope if you do very
13:14
well and some are not, but also for someone who just started his
13:18
first VC fund, you wanted all of them to do well and and you felt
13:22
like, you know, we weren't doing 100 companies we invested in
13:24
6:00 to 8:00 at the beginning. And again, they felt like these
13:28
are going to define your career, these six and eight, but then
13:33
your definition of defining your career is is based on someone
13:37
else executing their vision rather than your vision.
13:43
So then you learn something else like, hey, this is great, but
13:48
maybe I don't want to be that person where I'm relying on all
13:52
of these people and all I'm doing is giving capital.
13:54
And my advice every three months or whenever they needed it is I
13:57
want to have a much more hands on approach or I want to create
14:02
things. And that's kind of anything what
14:03
led to the next, next thing. The next thing is kind of what
14:07
you're referring to as the accelerator.
14:09
So, yeah, the next thing was the Venture Studio.
14:11
So that again came about. So everything, if you look back,
14:15
everything happened for a reason like the progression in terms of
14:18
investment banking to Rocket, Rocket to Delivery Hero,
14:22
Delivery Hero, Joby Capital, part of Joby Capital, because we
14:26
were an early stage consumer retail tech fund, we started
14:30
getting approached by celebrity LED businesses, I would say in
14:33
the US, right? Either they were raising money
14:37
or, or they wanted, you know, something.
14:40
And that's really when we first looked at it like, wow, these
14:43
type of businesses, you know, there's some businesses which we
14:47
had seen where, you know, one was going through a down round
14:50
of 800 million. It was the Onus company, it was
14:52
Jessica Alba's company, which is a great company.
14:55
You know, that started off in 2013.
14:58
And when we looked at it in 2018, it's in the space of five
15:02
years, this business was worth 800 million, right?
15:05
And again, there are a lot of businesses to get to that value.
15:09
You're around for like 1520 years, right?
15:12
Like kind of building that was one.
15:14
And then there's a few others that we had looked at or landed
15:17
on our desk. Hey, like, hey, are you
15:19
interested to invest on this or this is on the market?
15:22
And again, they were at one was raising 100 million, like a 650
15:26
valuation. And you're like, again, shit,
15:28
this company was set up in 2015 and you're like, oh, wow, Like
15:33
it was too late to invest in these businesses because even if
15:36
you gave them 10 million. And again, I'm going back to the
15:38
investment thing where I'm sitting and deploying money from
15:41
a fund. There is no strategic input.
15:44
You'd be lucky if they picked up the phone to call you back.
15:47
It's like they're doing you the favour to let you in at that
15:50
number with the number you're putting right.
15:52
So I think the idea post that was like, hey, I want to see if
15:57
this is a space I want to get into.
15:58
And it made total sense. It made total sense in terms of
16:01
you're minimizing marketing cost to establish a brand in a very
16:05
short period of time. Hence the celebrities following
16:08
or talents following is what you're using to establish a
16:13
route, right? What in other instances, because
16:16
of the tech fund we invested in all these businesses, they had
16:20
spent so much money acquiring customers to get to a certain
16:24
point is that you realize, wow, this is a no brainer if you can
16:29
minimize that in a very short period of time and also get
16:33
exposure because there's a celebrity name.
16:36
And what I mean by that, the celebrity name is in because
16:38
they are in the front cover of People magazine and, and what
16:41
have you, they're on Jimmy Kimmel, they're on Ellen,
16:44
they're on all of these different things, promoting
16:47
their other stuff. This makes a lot of sense.
16:49
And that's, but before making that leap, the decision was,
16:54
hey, can I actually really add value?
16:56
Like with my what I've learned with what I've done, the idea
16:59
you want to test it out. So we invested in a celebrity
17:03
LED business that came to us that was seeking investment.
17:06
It was very early on. This was early 2019.
17:09
What's the business? It was called In Bloom by Kate
17:12
Hudson. So Kate Hudson is a very
17:14
interesting person in terms of has created a company called
17:18
Fabletics. It's in the health and Wellness
17:20
space. Fabletics is equivalent to
17:23
Lululemon that launched by Kate Hudson.
17:26
It's a company that I think now does 900 million in revenue.
17:29
It's also present here in London.
17:31
It's present in the US but what's interesting is, you know,
17:34
again, you looked at a business that she had created in the
17:37
health and Wellness space. Apparel did very well.
17:40
They were creating another brand called In Bloom, which is an
17:43
additive business in powder format.
17:45
To us made sense because it still fits under the same, you
17:49
know, kind of health and Wellness space.
17:51
She's authentic for that. So we invested in it and the
17:55
idea was, you know, from an investment point of view, you
17:58
know, it's great because are you going to get your return or not?
18:01
But it's also do I want to get into this space?
18:04
Am I going to add value? And so that's really where it
18:08
came about. And and like how that was
18:10
progressing and said, you know what, especially from my Rocket
18:14
Internet experience, then I had another Co founder, Ryan, whose
18:18
background has also kind of been in consultancy and stuff like
18:22
that. Like, you know, and we worked on
18:24
the fun together and said, Hey, you know what, this actually
18:29
does make a lot of sense. Now.
18:31
Let's you know, it was, you know, we were three partners
18:34
back then and let's look at creating this venture studio.
18:38
And the idea was, let's create it where we're the Co founders.
18:42
And then, you know, and the idea early 2020 when we created it
18:47
was I'll go out on the West Coast and meet with the studios
18:51
and try to get the Ceas and the WM ES of the world, you know
18:55
what I mean? Like to start getting access to
18:56
talent because it's not like I had a, you know, a, a celebrity
19:00
fund or anything like that. But what happened then is COVID
19:04
happened. So the idea of, you know, when
19:08
things started getting a bit slightly better, I would say in
19:11
April, you know, we have done all that work is we still
19:15
couldn't travel. We like to get meetings was now
19:17
impossible. Do we park that and, you know,
19:20
kind of focus on something else we were thinking?
19:22
About let me, let me just pause here for a second.
19:24
So just to kind of recap sort of the progression of the idea and
19:28
then I want to hear kind of how you guys navigated this early
19:31
COVID space. So you know, you started this
19:34
fund, you were investing in these other companies, but you
19:38
didn't have the operational control that you were accustomed
19:40
to. And so that felt a little, OK,
19:44
what, what can we do that's better or different?
19:46
And so you, you wanted to kind of, you know, be more involved
19:50
from an operational standpoint. And you saw that these celebrity
19:54
backed or celebrity LED brands that were affiliated with a
19:58
celebrity, they had this growth hack that was built in.
20:01
Basically, it's like you can leapfrog a lot of that customer
20:04
acquisition cost that slows down a lot of early stage companies
20:08
because they just kind of create their own buzz.
20:11
And so you're like, OK, this is interesting.
20:13
Can we sort of bring this idea of, you know, what we understand
20:16
in terms of bringing money to the table, what we understand
20:18
from an operational perspective and, you know, incorporate this
20:22
element of celebrity and see can we move forward with this model?
20:26
So you wanted to test it out with the Kate Hudson, Brandon,
20:29
you did. You liked where it was going.
20:31
OK. So now we're kind of up to April
20:33
of 2020 and you're like, OK, we want to get access to the
20:36
talent. We kind of have like these other
20:38
pieces in place. And then, OK, Phyllis said.
20:41
What? What happens from here?
20:43
So what happened from here is the only access I have to a real
20:46
celebrity is an actress called Courtney Cox.
20:49
So Courtney, you know, who has a very huge career in terms in the
20:55
past, my best friend is her best friend.
20:58
So I knew Courtney socially in terms of whenever I was out in
21:01
LA, there was a few times I was invited to her house in Malibu.
21:05
So I knew her then and spent time at her place.
21:08
I wouldn't say we were super close friends.
21:10
She was always so hospitable and kind of seeing her and getting
21:13
to see how she operated like in terms of in these settings and
21:18
said, you know what, this is a perfect time to because I had
21:23
that was my real access to a celebrity.
21:25
And because I've seen kind of like learning, spending more
21:28
time with her and learning more about her is that it would be
21:30
great to build a company with her.
21:32
So the whole idea came about, Hey, you know, contacting
21:35
Courtney and saying, Hey, I have an idea.
21:37
I would love to discuss it with you because I'd love to build a
21:40
company with you and kind of went into the whole reasons
21:44
like, you know, your vision now is this kind of you know, the
21:47
legacy play is to build your own brand and your company.
21:50
And I see you being great at it. And you'd be a perfect kind of
21:54
Co founder and partner and kind of went into why her and why now
21:59
and why it all makes sense. And then kind of went, went into
22:02
from knowing her and spending some time with her and, and kind
22:05
of what is really the market that you want to get into and
22:09
what brand do you want to build? Like there's a lot of dense
22:11
science that goes in. What is the total addressable
22:13
market? What does that look like?
22:15
Minimum repeat, sorry, minimum returns, maximum repeats.
22:19
A very high margin business. She's all about her aesthetics.
22:23
She's OCD in real life. She was OCD as Monica, as her
22:26
character. Authenticity couldn't be more
22:28
real. And you know, she and that's
22:31
kind of what went into Hey, we would love to sign to create a,
22:35
a home brand with you and rather and own the whole home.
22:38
But the idea at the beginning, when you're launching a direct
22:41
to consumer business, you're not going to be selling chairs and
22:43
lamps and and all of these things.
22:45
It has to be home fragrance, right?
22:48
So that's really kind of the whole, and I think she loved the
22:51
idea in terms of kind of, hey, like, yes, I've been wanting to
22:55
build my own company and this is the perfect time to do it.
22:59
And, and kind of everything aligned, all the stars aligned.
23:02
And then we ended up negotiating, you know, with her
23:05
managers over the next three months, kind of what the deal
23:09
looks like and how it's going to work where she's a, you know, a
23:12
complete owner and Co founder and, and all of that.
23:15
What's expected from us, what's expected from her?
23:18
And then kind of going around and saying, who is we have kind
23:22
of, you know, the platform to provide a, you know, the things
23:26
you need very similar to what Rocket was about.
23:29
You had kind of these experts in terms of whether it was HR,
23:33
tech, finance, all of these things.
23:36
But then we hired the day-to-day CE OS/CO founders who needed to
23:41
have experience in that specific sector.
23:44
And the idea as you go around and saying who is the right
23:46
person to on board to help you build the vision and the company
23:51
you want, you can try to build it yourself, right?
23:54
But you also have to be smart in terms of identifying.
23:57
I need everyone who has a specific kind of advantage of
24:01
putting them together. And that's why this is really
24:03
going to make sense to to succeed.
24:06
So Sarah Yankee. So Sarah Yankee was the choice.
24:12
He ran APNL of 100 million at L'Oreal.
24:14
She spent her time in fragrance very hungry young and that was
24:18
the idea. And we got Sarah and kind of,
24:21
you know, introduced her to Courtney and and they got along
24:24
and we put the whole thing together.
24:26
And then we went through the phase of what are the products
24:31
we're going to create and what are we going to go?
24:34
Like we already had an idea what is our three-year kind of thing
24:37
to market. We were going to start off with
24:39
scented candles and then move into the other things.
24:42
And then we realized during COVID, you had a few other
24:44
celebrities, even though they hadn't launched them at the time
24:48
when we came up with the idea. But during that process, you had
24:51
celebrities who launched their own candles.
24:53
And it's like, hey, we're not just going to be another candle.
24:57
Like we. And then, you know, Sarah did a
24:59
bit of work and the team had discussed like, you know, kind
25:02
of what is the next thing? She went out and came back and
25:04
said, actually, you know, cleaning products.
25:07
We do scented elevated with Courtney like kind of really
25:10
being on top of everything, getting the right nose to get
25:13
the right fragrances. We also have ACC fragrance,
25:17
which is Courtney's own scent that she's always created on her
25:20
own. Anyways is her perfume that we
25:22
ended up creating some of these products.
25:24
So yeah, we, we created 24 different SKU's at launch where
25:30
we ended up launching January 26th, 2022.
25:33
We had hand soap, dish soap, surface cleaner, room spray
25:36
candle in four different scents. But what's interesting, she was
25:39
on Ellen on the day of launch and she gifted Ellen a homecourt
25:43
set and you know, the rest is history.
25:45
We kind of, that was kind of the exposure people.
25:48
We sold out that day in terms of at least what we were.
25:51
And then it was the tail end of COVID.
25:54
So we also had obviously supply chain issues, but we still
25:56
managed to restock, restock a few months later.
26:00
And the business has been doubling since, which is great.
26:03
We're three years in profitable this year.
26:07
So it's, it's all, you know, gone in the, in the direction,
26:11
but it's a testament of having the right team, the right
26:15
people, the right, you know, all of these things.
26:17
And along the way, we've had ups and downs like any company, but
26:21
it's kind of ironing those things out from a, you know,
26:24
product delays from lack of certain ingredients because
26:28
there were still supply chain issues even a year and a half
26:30
later, you couldn't get a fragrance in some of the sense.
26:34
So we were out of stock in some businesses.
26:37
Sorry I'm rambling on, but I'm I'm getting excited to tell you
26:40
about like the whole way of creating.
26:42
These now this is this is great. Your your enthusiasm is
26:45
infectious and and the name of the brand with Courtney Cox is
26:48
called Homecourt, right? Homecourt.
26:50
Yeah, yeah. OK.
26:51
And so you talked about wanting to sort of own the home space,
26:55
but you're not going to start out with chairs and lamps and
26:58
that kind of thing. Why start with the fragrance
27:01
category? Is it just, you know, sort of
27:03
better margins helps you guys kind of get your footing that
27:05
way or it was the thought? It's like I told you, you need
27:09
to look at what is the total addressable market.
27:11
It needs to be over a certain value.
27:13
So let's say home fragrance is over 10 billion or or a higher
27:16
number. And again, I I need to create a
27:18
very high margin products and high margin in fragrance are,
27:23
are, are a higher kind of percentage, right.
27:25
And again, thinking of maximum repeat.
27:29
So if I was to sell a lamb, which again is heavy, it's like,
27:32
how do you get, you know, and some people might not like the
27:35
lamb, they will return it. And the design of Courtney, I'm
27:38
sure also is going to be so beautiful and great.
27:40
I'm not sure from a cost perspective, we're going to be
27:42
able to get a lamb that costs you $50 or you know, kind of
27:46
$100.00. So again, you need to be mindful
27:49
in terms of the consumer you are launching on Instagram, meaning
27:52
you're using that following to also buy and you need to be
27:55
mindful. And Courtney was always very,
27:58
you know, specific that she's, you know, she cares a lot about
28:02
her following and she wanted her following to have access to
28:05
whatever she's creating. So again, we went into home
28:09
fragrance because it was a market to go after because
28:12
meaning even during COVID, you looked around in terms of the
28:16
cleaning products because you spent much more time at home.
28:19
And that's again testament to Courtney, you know, identifying
28:22
these things in Sarah where the cleaning products and stuff like
28:26
that were very old school. You put them under your kitchen
28:28
shelf. Could you create something
28:30
that's beautiful looking and things and it's not super
28:33
expensive and smells great, right?
28:35
So again, you have to identify what you're about your niche and
28:40
then does it and test it if it's going to work or not.
28:43
And so you found certain things were definitely working.
28:46
You guys sell out on the first day, like I think you said that
28:49
the business has been doubling, you know, each year since then.
28:52
What did you learn that surprised you?
28:56
Maybe it was a little unexpected, like, oh, let's not
28:58
do that again, or let's make sure we do this that we didn't
29:01
do before. Yeah, I, it's, it's catch 22,
29:05
right? Like we could have probably
29:06
delayed our launch a bit later because hey, we wanted to have
29:11
much more SKU's meaning. But it's, it's like you have to
29:15
think about you raise a certain amount of money to create this
29:18
company and time is ticking, right?
29:20
On a monthly basis, you actually have expenses and there's a
29:24
certain time frame that you need to launch.
29:26
And so when we launched it, we thought it was the perfect.
29:29
And I mean, looking back in hindsight, it was the time to
29:33
launch. Like everything, I really stick
29:36
by this. Everything happens for a reason.
29:38
So, you know, you learn things. You know, again, you had some
29:42
bottles that ended up and they were defective and the defective
29:47
rate was higher. And it's like even though you
29:50
had someone on site who checked these bottles, they still ended
29:53
up. But you're a very young brand,
29:55
right? You're literally just starting
29:57
off and you're going to experience a lot of mishaps and
30:01
a lot of things that are going to come your way.
30:03
It's how do you tackle these and keep your head together and not
30:07
freak out, which some of us, you know, have a tendency, hey,
30:11
like, oh, this is not working. And you know, you have to keep
30:14
your calm. And that's what a good team is
30:17
because you support each other where everyone has a certain,
30:22
you know, kind of bring something to the table.
30:25
That's what makes a great team. And so then tell us about the
30:28
other brand that you're doing. Oh, Norman.
30:31
So, yeah, I mean, oh, Norman came about in terms of listen,
30:34
we launch, we we spent once we had kind of put all of this
30:38
together and we were in the production phase that takes a
30:41
while, right, in terms to launch Homecourt which was between 21
30:45
and January 22. So the next one is that we
30:48
wanted to create our next kind of also talent LED, having lived
30:53
in New York and, you know, got a therapist and a pet.
30:56
And it was the emotional attachment that I ended up
30:59
having with my pet and the amount of money I spent on my
31:03
pet and kind of, you know, with the team in terms of, hey, this
31:06
is a great category, It's underserved that there's no
31:09
talent LED celebrity type pet business.
31:12
You know, there's been a lot done in alcohol and there's been
31:15
a lot done in beauty. And our point is, let's go after
31:19
categories that are underserved or there isn't really you're not
31:23
jumping in and competing. And then also purposeful.
31:27
You want to create brands that you know, there's a certain
31:29
thing, whether it's sustainability, whether you're
31:31
giving back, like if it's pets, pet shelter, how do I help these
31:36
pets? Like you know, so there's always
31:37
an quite a bit of thinking. So the idea there between, you
31:42
know, me and the team as well, you know, Ryan and few others in
31:45
terms of let's do a lot of work on the pet market.
31:47
How big is the pet market? It's 600 billion market.
31:51
There's were 84,000,000 pets in the US in some instances, 2 pets
31:55
in every household. So the idea, I mean, I lived in
31:59
a building in New York. When I moved into this building,
32:02
I didn't speak to anyone once I got my pet.
32:04
It's like, you realize 90% of the building had pets.
32:07
So you kind of like pick things up yourself, right?
32:10
Like what's missing, What's out there?
32:12
So we did a lot of work on pets. We went around, did a survey
32:16
across the US and does this make sense?
32:19
And you know, and then kind of tried to see who is the right
32:24
person that we want to build this with so.
32:30
You started with the idea in mind.
32:32
This is the space we want to get into.
32:34
Validate the space. There's a need here.
32:36
We can go after this now. How do you find the right
32:39
celebrity partner? How do you find the right
32:41
celebrity partner who also cares a lot about this, who who's been
32:45
dreaming about creating their own company, you know, is?
32:47
That kind of alignment that important though, can can you
32:50
just put like a, you know, a good looking popular celebrity's
32:53
face on it and it's going to work.
32:56
You can and it could work and could not, but I don't think
32:59
that's our choice. Our choice in today's world,
33:01
authenticity is key. Meaning you need to pick the
33:04
right person, even though like you pick the right person.
33:09
Pick as in like it's like marriage, right?
33:11
Identify who the right partner is and that you're going to
33:13
build this with the idea. We've been very lucky, but both
33:18
with Kourtney and Kaylee is they're so heavy and heavily
33:21
invested in terms of this is their vision and what they've
33:23
always wanted to build and do that we are lucky in that aspect
33:27
as opposed to get just someone and say push it.
33:29
And, and we ended up speaking to different people with all
33:33
honesty and, and people who did really care about their pets and
33:36
like took lots of pictures with their pets, but the authenticity
33:40
wasn't there, meaning it didn't feel quite right or their
33:43
managers would be like, Hey, you know, they don't want to, you
33:47
know, they're, they're interested obviously in their
33:49
own career, whatever they're doing.
33:51
So the focus is on there and that we cannot be posting lots
33:55
of things with with dogs like and then you're kind of that
33:58
takes away in terms of what we're really trying to create
34:01
here right long term. So what was it about Kaley Cuoco
34:04
from Big Bang Theory that felt authentic and right?
34:08
Oh my God, I remember I, I was in Dubai travelling on a work
34:11
trip and I got a call and it was like 11 in the evening over
34:14
there in Dubai and I got on a call with her and the team and I
34:18
literally got off the call and I was like, she's the one like, I
34:22
don't know what tell you her energy again on the phone, but
34:25
and it's like she knew, like she didn't understand, you know,
34:29
kind of for pets, why do they still have these cones?
34:31
And in terms of when they take their medication, like the way
34:34
they spit it out and like why hasn't anyone thought about this
34:37
and that? And then I got to learn after
34:40
that even it's like, hey, she has a pet farm and she has 100
34:43
adopted animals on the pet farm. She's such a great big animal
34:47
lover. And then she has 6 adopted pets
34:49
from pet shelter. And then, you know, and then it
34:51
just got even more. I mean, as soon as I got on the
34:54
phone, off the phone, I would say I'm like, Oh my God, she's
34:57
the one. But then you learned all the
34:59
other stuff, which was even more amazing.
35:02
But I do have to say Courtney did call it out because, you
35:07
know, Courtney was our first one.
35:08
And then I approached Courtney to tell her, hey, we we want to
35:11
create a pet brand business and we're thinking about XYZ And she
35:15
said I think Kaylee would be a perfect person.
35:17
Oh, so that's how you got the introduction?
35:19
We, we didn't get the introduction then because kind
35:22
of we needed to do more work. Time had passed and different,
35:25
you know, we had different businesses.
35:27
And then Courtney's managers, who are also Kaylee's managers,
35:31
kept saying, hey, you need to speak to Kaylee if you're
35:33
thinking about pet brands. And time passed.
35:36
And then when we ended up speaking to Kaylee, I actually
35:38
told Courtney, you actually did call it, right?
35:40
And that's why I also like Courtney sits on our Advisory
35:43
Board as our first company that we've created it with her is to
35:47
kind of also validate in terms of what we do, but also because
35:51
she also really is very good at this.
35:53
And also, you know, her network, whether it's in the music world
35:57
or in the celebrity world, she can call out in terms of who are
36:00
the right talents and the right products.
36:04
Again, can continue to be a perhaps a conduit for you to
36:07
some of these as you develop new brands.
36:09
Yeah, as we develop new brands and then going back to Katie
36:11
again, sorry, like, yeah, the connection was there.
36:15
It's quite important for you to form some form of like, hey,
36:19
this is not, you know, it is a job at the end of the day, but
36:23
you're built. These are like your babies,
36:24
meaning you're creating something from zero and you want
36:29
to make sure you know the people who are invested are also
36:33
invested for the right reasons. And again here we went through
36:37
the same process in terms we did this.
36:40
Then who is our right kind of CEO, Co founder?
36:44
And then again, we we were very lucky in terms of ended up
36:47
meeting Katie Hunt. Actually, my colleague Ryan
36:51
reached out to her through a LinkedIn, I think even though we
36:54
had spoken to other potential of people.
36:57
And then we got on the phone with her and again also it felt
37:00
very right and kind of put it all together and.
37:04
So there's a third brand now with Katie Hunt.
37:07
No Katie Hunt in terms of being the CEO's Co founder of O Norman
37:12
right. So you it's like you have
37:14
Courtney Sarah, we have Katie and Katie and the team and and
37:19
both teams have done a phenomenal job.
37:21
You know, they, you help bring it all to life, you put
37:25
everything together and then they need to, you know, kind of
37:28
live on there and then you know, it's, it's their baby as well to
37:31
grow it to the next level, right?
37:33
So, and you create your and each one creates their own team now.
37:37
So our, our value add is obviously, you know, at the
37:40
beginning we're very well and very involved on a weekly basis
37:44
every few days. Then it becomes, you know, once
37:47
The thing is launched and you know, you step back a bit for
37:50
them to have that breathing space.
37:53
But the idea is that you're always there, you're on the
37:55
board, you're you're helping hand rather than every week, it
37:59
becomes every two weeks and it's every month, but still very
38:02
heavily involved. Like with O Norman, we have a
38:04
weekly call with the with the team who are who are great.
38:07
And you have to give it to these teams for creating these
38:11
successful businesses, right? Like, you know, you're
38:14
entrusting them, you're just trying to give them everything,
38:17
right? But also they end up facing a
38:19
lot of challenges and and some things they need to figure out
38:22
on their own and other things they need your help on.
38:26
So do you feel like you validated the concept with these
38:29
two companies? I I think we did, I believe we
38:33
did. At the end of the day, it's not
38:36
just about, you know, the bottom line and what the number is like
38:39
from an investor point of view that's great.
38:41
But it's like we have two successful brands out there in
38:45
the space of the last four or five years, like in the space of
38:48
the last three years, right? OK, we started it in 20, late
38:51
2020, early 2021. We launched homecore in 22.
38:55
We launched O Norman October 23. And these are very well
39:00
recognized. Like an O Norman, you're on
39:02
Chuy's, you're in pet care RX. It's it's, it's like a lot of
39:05
traction in the space of such a short period of time.
39:07
Amazon, you know, Kaylee was the lead celebrity on Amazon Prime.
39:11
So yes, I mean you couldn't be more prouder of these business.
39:18
Again, there's different types of celebrity LED businesses.
39:20
You have the Fenty beauties of the world in the skins and you
39:24
know kind of good American and there's some very big businesses
39:28
out there and have done extremely well.
39:31
But I also do believe there are some that we never get to hear
39:34
about which haven't done so well right.
39:36
So it's kind of and it's again, you don't know what the reasons
39:40
like you get thrown so much at you.
39:42
It's just like, how do you manage to survive?
39:44
Is is the miracle in this thing? So with where you are today
39:49
below, do you feel like, hey, we've got these two great
39:52
brands, we really just want to focus on growing these and, and
39:55
maximizing the reach that we can or are you looking towards brand
40:01
#3 brand #4 is it time for that yet?
40:04
Yeah, I mean, it's it's time for me from a founder perspective,
40:07
and that's a whole point about, you know, kind of rebranding and
40:10
creating this the company we collab like we went from Joby
40:14
brands to we collab where now, hey, I would like to continue
40:18
building the US franchise, obviously with the right talent
40:21
and with the right group, but also to take this international
40:25
in terms of there's other countries internationally where,
40:28
hey, similar again to what I learned from Rocket, right, take
40:32
that model. India is a huge market in terms
40:35
of my eyes, in terms of hey, India, you have Bollywood, you
40:39
have all these celebrities or talents, yet the brand equity of
40:44
those is probably what was in the US 20 years ago.
40:47
It's it's kind of what are the brand deals they're getting to
40:49
promote yet not creating their own businesses.
40:52
Everyone tends to look to the US in some shape or form.
40:56
And then I think celebrities all over the world have also learned
40:59
the game. Like, hey, look what they've
41:01
done in the US. Like look at these businesses
41:04
have turned into billion dollar businesses.
41:06
Why can't we do it? So again, it's identifying
41:09
whether it's the Middle East or India, where you have a large
41:14
population in terms from influence or celebrity or talent
41:18
that you could probably take advantage of.
41:21
So the idea is to continue building the US franchise, but
41:25
also, hey, I would like to also create some strong companies in
41:30
other parts of the world. So why change the name?
41:32
What's behind the rebrand? The the rebrand is it's a good
41:36
question. Joby brands was, you know, the
41:39
stories was founded by my other Co founders and kind of each one
41:43
has gone to do different things in in terms of either focusing
41:47
on one business or creating something of their own.
41:50
So the we collab is is just again, the the we as in OUI from
41:56
a branding perspective, to me, it's a great 1 and in terms of
42:00
kind of my surname, the end of the surname.
42:03
But we as in French, we collaborate, we build, we
42:06
innovate. But using the OUI part, it's
42:10
great from I think a branding perspective.
42:12
And then again, it's not just about brands.
42:16
While if you look at kind of having Adobe brands name, you
42:19
think just predominantly, hey, it's a brand, I'm just creating
42:22
a brand. You are creating brands.
42:24
But the brands could be could be an AI venture using it that that
42:29
the ethos behind it is you're still using talent to establish
42:32
something, but not necessarily you're creating ACPG type
42:35
product that you're just trying to sell and put in your hands.
42:39
It could be potentially other things to again evolve with how
42:42
the market is going. So as you look to expand into
42:48
other markets, take the same concept and use in India, Middle
42:52
East you mentioned, do you, do you think that's going to be
42:57
hard to connect with the talent there?
42:59
I think you, you kind of, I mean, in a way it was, it was
43:02
very, you know, serendipitous that you had this connection to
43:05
Courtney, especially at the start of COVID where you
43:08
couldn't take meetings like you normally would.
43:10
How are you going to get into that talent space and these
43:13
other markets? Very good question.
43:16
Listen, I think having a homecourt and a Norman under
43:20
your belt in terms of being one of the Co founders does help.
43:23
And I keep going back to these are very well recognized famous
43:28
people in other parts of the world, right?
43:30
So they don't just they transcend globally.
43:33
So at least as a case study that works.
43:36
Middle East and India, again, kind of like I have the
43:40
connections. Like don't forget.
43:41
I mean, I'm Lebanese originally. I grew up in London, worked in
43:44
the US, but generally have worked in many different places
43:48
within the rocket. Like I literally was living in a
43:51
suitcase for those three years. So it's kind of identify your
43:56
niche. What are you good at?
43:57
So getting talent in the Middle East again, you get introduced
44:00
to really, you know, strong people who let's say there's,
44:05
there's a lady that I've, I've got to know over the last six
44:08
months and she's amazing. She has, I wouldn't say she has
44:11
a talent agency. She does.
44:13
He does a very good job in identifying who are the right
44:16
creators and talents and connect them to the right brands.
44:21
And the idea is this is what she does.
44:23
But getting to know her, it's like rather than we just connect
44:26
them, are there the right talents where we can build
44:28
companies with them? India again is something that
44:33
came about where like, listen, I don't have, like you said, I
44:37
don't have access to Bollywood. I, I, one of my best friends is
44:40
Indian and is also very well connected.
44:41
But funnily enough, we just signed something in India and it
44:45
came about with an athlete who's very well known and his daughter
44:52
used to be in London and she's an influencer.
44:55
She has an 8 million following and again, got introduced to her
44:58
and you know, again through a, a network of introductions and
45:04
realized, wow, she's amazing to build something with.
45:06
She's someone who has a nutritional background, did a
45:09
master's here in London, UCL, has gone back to India and is
45:13
really behind the foundation of her dad, who's a famous
45:16
cricketer and herself and her family.
45:19
And you're like, wow, I'd love to build a health and Wellness
45:22
business with her in some shape or form.
45:24
So again, like I sometimes the stars align differently in, in
45:28
terms of different things. That doesn't mean I would like
45:32
to stop doing stuff in the US, not at all.
45:34
But again, it is a crowded market in the US, meaning, you
45:38
know, every day we see some other celebrity trying to launch
45:42
something, which is great. But it's like, how do I carve
45:45
out? I don't want to be this person
45:47
in terms of, you know, doing anything or taking anything just
45:50
for the sake of it. I don't want to be able to
45:52
choose the ones that I care about in terms from a product
45:55
perspective and some things that, you know, resonate with
45:58
what I care about and what they care about and, and then
46:01
therefore, if it works, great. So how do you best leverage
46:07
someone's celebrity? You know, talk about Courtney
46:09
going on Ellen. You know, I think about other
46:13
celebrities, they're making posts on TikTok and Instagram.
46:16
But from the experiences that you've had now over the last few
46:19
years working with with two great celebs, what's the best
46:23
way to kind of put that to use? I think that goes back to them,
46:28
meaning it goes back to them how much do they want to use their
46:33
their friends in terms of creating.
46:34
But I'm not talking about those two specifically.
46:37
Just take generally celebrities themselves are the new
46:40
entrepreneurs per SE, right? Like before, I think if you look
46:44
on this kind of a holistic approach, you know, they were
46:47
very good at their job and they did their job very well and they
46:50
did great income. And maybe they invested in real
46:52
estate or whatever, or invested in other businesses that we'd
46:54
never heard about and also made money or lost money.
46:57
But I think now celebrities have gotten hold in terms of how this
47:01
actually really works. You know, social, there's a
47:05
social following. And before celebrities, in order
47:08
to have direct access to their fans, came through either the
47:11
billboards or the magazines or kind of the shows.
47:13
But Instagram and social media changed that where they now have
47:17
access to that following all day long and they can curate
47:21
whatever they want. So think of them as their own
47:23
publishers. So meaning they they are their
47:27
own publishers of their own game and they become very good
47:29
entrepreneurs. Like if we looked at some of
47:31
these Casa Amigos Aviation, Jed the Road in terms of Selena
47:38
Gomez's brand, like there's so many who are these are
47:41
multibillion dollar companies, right?
47:43
So, and they're leveraging their friends to a certain degree.
47:47
You cannot get into a business and say I will only do this if
47:49
you contact your friends. It's it's a choice about the
47:53
celebrity result. How close are they?
47:56
You know, with, with Courtney, we had her and Ed Sheeran do the
48:00
1st anniversary for homecourt and he was on her lawn and they
48:03
sang, you know, happy anniversary, which was great.
48:07
We had Robert Downey junior who got sent a gift and on his own
48:11
ended up like, you know, this wasn't like, hey, Courtney, tell
48:13
me, can you post something for me?
48:15
And he did this amazing like thing for homecourt.
48:18
So it's again all authentic. And you know, Kaylee did the
48:22
same thing with Ellen. She sent her something.
48:24
Ellen had sent her something and they both posted for each other.
48:27
So it goes back to, I think the celebrity, it's not part of the
48:32
celebrities are also very careful, right?
48:34
Like you're not gonna, you're creating a company with them and
48:37
it's very clear what they're doing and what you're doing and
48:39
what everyone's doing. You know what I mean?
48:41
It's not part of the game. Hey, I expect you to, you know,
48:44
contact your friends and your friends to post about it.
48:47
Like there's a, it sure doesn't hurt.
48:50
It sure doesn't hurt. It sure doesn't hurt.
48:53
So we've talked a lot about number of successes in your
48:56
career, current ongoing successful projects that you're
49:00
working on. I want to shift gears and talk
49:03
about a serious challenge that you had to overcome at some
49:06
point, whether that's personal or professional.
49:09
How'd you get through it and what did you learn Well.
49:11
I mean, I, I cannot tell you one, there's so many in terms of
49:16
challenges and what I mean by like life throws at you
49:20
honestly, sometimes, sometimes everything is going smoothly and
49:23
then something just unexpectedly, right?
49:26
Like I don't even want to name them all because in all honesty,
49:30
it's like there's been quite a lot on the personal side.
49:34
I think listen, you know, you also have your own life to deal
49:38
with. You have family, you have your
49:39
friends, and sometimes things happen there.
49:42
I lost my dad at some point, which played a big part also in
49:46
terms of, you know, kind of the grief where you're doing your
49:50
job and you're building these things, but you're also having
49:52
to deal with your own grief. But you also have teams relying
49:55
on you and you have things and it's and that grief, sometimes
49:58
you don't literally deal with it on day one, but a year later,
50:03
you're eventually going to have to deal with it and it eats away
50:06
like so many things, you know what I mean?
50:08
But that's part of the process. So that I think is a hard one.
50:12
Or someone in your family gets really sick and you also have to
50:15
take care of them. Or someone even on your team
50:17
gets sick and you have to be there because it's not like,
50:20
hey, you know, it's like, how do you support them?
50:23
How do you? So there's always what you
50:25
learn, I guess through life. And I don't want to be
50:27
philosophical is like life throws so much stuff at you.
50:30
In all honesty. It's and everyone tells you how
50:33
you deal with it, yes, but it's not you deal with it.
50:37
You have to get on with it. Otherwise, you know, it's kind
50:40
of like you cannot continue. You have to deal with it.
50:43
But I think it's easier said than done.
50:46
Like, hey, you have to deal with it.
50:47
People deal with it in different ways.
50:49
Like sometimes I think, wow, this is, Oh my God, that's like
50:53
my career's done. Or Oh my God, I've disappointed
50:56
this person. Or Oh my, my God, I made the
50:59
mistake. Like, you know, like I screwed
51:01
up in something and it was never my intention to screwing up
51:04
because I forgot to include something in a, in a contract,
51:09
right? Or whatever it is.
51:10
And you have to deal with it and you have to lean into the
51:14
support that you have around you, whatever that support is.
51:18
You also have to take time for yourself and know this is not
51:22
the end. But you know, honestly, like I
51:24
think that's like this will pass that I love the saying this too
51:27
shall pass and it does. But in the heart of it, it feels
51:31
like it's the end. It's like everything crumbling
51:34
down and you just have to kind of, you know, breathe and swim
51:38
and get there. Sorry, I know it's abroad
51:40
because I cannot pinpoint to 1 I can tell you.
51:45
Yeah. Let me kind of narrow in on what
51:47
I heard You mention there, you know, the loss of your father,
51:49
which, you know, had to have been really trying, very
51:53
traumatic. And, you know, you probably did
51:55
some grieving in that moment. But I also heard you say that I
51:59
didn't fully grieve. It kind of like sat there with
52:02
me and kind of ate away at me for a while.
52:04
And in that particular instance, kind of when and how did you get
52:08
to a point where you're like, man, I got AI got something
52:11
stuck in here. I got to I got to deal with it.
52:12
I got to process this more. I think a year in what I mean by
52:17
that, I, I kind of shut off in terms of it happened.
52:22
I was young. I was, you know, kind of 30
52:24
years old and my dad was 64 and we, we, you know, he got sick.
52:28
He was in the US on a trip, got sick and was in hospital for
52:31
three months. So the idea was I think
52:33
afterwards, you know, at the beginning is like get to the
52:36
funeral, do the funeral. And then hey, like I remember
52:40
with my grandfather, I kind of mourned for 40 days where I
52:43
didn't go out. Like whatever it is.
52:45
Like I would obviously go out, but not in a social setting.
52:48
While with my dad, I think a few weeks later, I was at friends
52:51
and having dinner and it's like you kind of shut it away in
52:54
terms of, and I think a year later, like if we continue like
52:58
this, like literally I would have run my life to the ground
53:02
mentally, emotionally, and it just wasn't sustainable.
53:07
And even then, I think going to a therapist and discussing kind
53:11
of what happened when I found out my dad got into hospital and
53:14
post that. I'll give you an example.
53:17
I used to love watching ER. I couldn't watch ER after my dad
53:22
passed away. As soon as it was on TVI felt
53:24
this thing in my throat. I would get up, leave the room.
53:27
And I think afterwards, obviously when I went and I just
53:29
went through everything that had happened, how it affected me and
53:32
people, you know, have different effect.
53:35
That simplest example, I'll tell you after that, then watching ER
53:39
on television was different as opposed to I could watch it, as
53:43
opposed to I needed to get out of the room, I needed to change
53:45
the channel. Again, this is something I think
53:49
everyone goes through, meaning you know, someone close to you
53:53
that passes away or that you you witness someone unfortunately
53:56
going through, you know, a health thing and you have your
54:00
own responsibilities, meaning you have them as your
54:03
responsibility. But the other responsibilities
54:06
is if you have people relying on you or your funding businesses,
54:10
you need to go out and raise money Like that doesn't stop
54:13
like you might. You might unfortunately not give
54:16
be giving it you 100%, but I don't know, like it might like
54:19
you still have to do it. You still have to pick up
54:21
yourself in the morning and force yourself to go to the
54:24
meeting and in the meeting before you're like about to
54:26
crumble. And then you go in and you shut
54:28
down South. And that's one example.
54:31
Like there's been other examples at work where, you know, one
54:35
company we invested in which we put a large amount of money into
54:38
it and really thought it was going to do so well.
54:41
And everything on paper said that.
54:43
And then even they had a great account.
54:46
And then there was a change in the account that they had where
54:48
there was a new management team that came in and they literally
54:51
decided not to use them anymore, even though they hired 60 people
54:55
for that account, which was signed.
54:58
And then you realize, wow, like literally everything I, I put
55:03
it, even though I had done all the right work and ticked all
55:07
the boxes. Look what just happened.
55:11
And you have to think about the company itself where the founder
55:15
is about to like have a heart attack or like kind of and you
55:18
have to pick them up. And then you have to think about
55:20
your investors who lost a large chunk of their investment.
55:23
And it's your career. So there's, I mean that's one of
55:27
the other particular. Moment, Not only are you dealing
55:30
with your own grief and your own stress and your own regret,
55:34
you're having to help all those people around you who have been
55:38
affected by this cyclone that hit out of nowhere.
55:41
Exactly, And it's it's full circle because it's happened to
55:44
me in other instances where now in my own businesses and
55:47
sometimes things don't. And then you have someone on
55:51
your team say, hey, it's going to be fine.
55:53
We're going to get through it. And then you learn these things
55:55
to become that person as well. Either you are that person and
55:58
you lose it in that instant of craziness or you get to see it
56:03
in other people. Like I've learned also things
56:05
from my other Co founders or my other colleagues or you know
56:09
what I mean, which you know, I might be older or I might have
56:12
more experience. I still learn some very
56:14
interesting facts and I say, well, thank you for actually
56:17
teaching me that. Now, Bilal, I've just got one
56:21
more question for you. But before I ask it, I want to
56:23
do 2 things. First of all, I want to invite
56:26
all the listeners to go ahead and hit the follow button on
56:28
their favorite podcast app. We've had a really great
56:31
interview here and today with Bilal from We Collab talking
56:35
about, you know, his connections to the celebrities and how that
56:38
really adds fuel to the fire of growing a brand.
56:42
And you want to make sure you get more of these these great
56:44
interviews. But below I also want to let
56:46
people know the best way to either get in touch with you to
56:49
follow your story, those of the brands that you're involved
56:52
with, people who are listening today, they're like, yeah, I
56:54
want more. I want to I want to keep track
56:56
of what's going on there. What?
56:57
Would that be I mean, LinkedIn is always usually probably a
57:01
good place my e-mail. I'm happy to share my e-mail
57:04
privately. If, if, if you think sure.
57:07
And if your followers want to get in touch.
57:11
And yeah, I mean in terms of, and then we have the website and
57:14
all of these things to see the future ones.
57:16
And I just think from a LinkedIn perspective, you get to these.
57:19
But I'm happy to also speak to people, you know, they have
57:23
certain questions within their own kind of career or path or
57:26
whatever that's come across which.
57:28
Website should point. Sorry, which website should we
57:32
point them to for now? Is it we collab?
57:34
It's we collab, yes. It's that will launch in two
57:37
weeks. OK.
57:38
By the time this up and running, it'll be yeah.
57:41
Yeah, so we collab. We OUICO double LAD.
57:47
Great. And we'll include links to your
57:49
e-mail as well as your LinkedIn profile in the show notes.
57:53
But last question I have for you below.
57:55
I want to stay in touch. This was a great conversation.
57:58
A year from now, you're celebrating something.
58:00
What is that something? What are we celebrating
58:03
together? I think celebrating is listen
58:06
first is that it sounds corny, but you're actually content and
58:11
happy with where you are. It sounds stupid, but because
58:14
you go through so many ups and downs and tries and the last
58:18
couple of years have been also a bit, you know, like markets have
58:21
taken a different turn. The world is going crazy.
58:24
And it's like, listen, we should be very lucky in, in terms of we
58:27
have a roof over our head and, you know, being around people
58:30
you love. So I think celebrating without
58:33
the corniness, but it's true. Like at least you have to be
58:35
grateful to that. I think from my business
58:37
perspective is that to continue seeing the brands we build doing
58:42
extremely well. And, and everyone, you know, is,
58:45
is putting everything that they want and need.
58:47
And I'm very proud of what they've done.
58:49
And for me, it's like to kind of continue replicating, building
58:53
or creating these great brands with the right people
58:56
internationally or even furthermore in the US is for me
58:59
to look back and say, hey, well, I launched something in India,
59:02
I'm launching something in the Middle East.
59:04
There's another one in the US coming.
59:06
That's kind of, you know, what I would like to look back at and
59:10
say, hey, these two that we've created have done great and
59:14
continue to grow and you know, you know, make everyone, make
59:17
all of us proud. But I would like, at least from
59:19
my personal perspective, to at least internationally also been
59:24
able to do something. So the first part of your
59:26
answer, I, I think really hits on something important, this
59:31
idea of being content and happy, right?
59:33
Like enjoying sort of the moment in the space and the place that
59:36
you're in now. And it in my experience, and
59:39
tell me this, if this is true for you, it's challenging to
59:42
find that balance where you're both happy and content with
59:46
where you are in the present moment, while still having that
59:49
drive to do and create and achieve more.
59:52
Have you stumbled across anything that's kind of helped
59:55
you sit on both sides of that fence?
1:00:00
I've stumbled upon where sometimes things get really bad,
1:00:04
meaning like bad unexpectedly, like, you know, And it's like,
1:00:08
hey, I, I need to make these things good.
1:00:13
I mean, I don't know how to explain it.
1:00:14
I mean, being on both sides. What's helped me specifically is
1:00:18
taking that time where I work out in the morning or I take
1:00:21
that time to myself to kind of really set the day so that no
1:00:25
matter what happens that I have that time where I've kind of
1:00:28
given my own space to really start kicking off my day again.
1:00:35
Podcast. I love some podcasts that I
1:00:37
listen to in terms of that. Also, it's great to hear other
1:00:40
people's stories. Like now I'm going to be
1:00:42
listening to your podcast a lot, but it's also, you know, there's
1:00:45
a few podcasts out there that I in the past have listened to
1:00:50
like Acquired and Diary of Physio.
1:00:52
I think it gives a perspective to people of how very successful
1:00:57
people or even not just the average person has gone through.
1:01:01
And I think it's always great to listen to these stories reading,
1:01:05
you know, everyone keeps telling you reading and then to do all
1:01:08
of these things and work and find time to read and like you
1:01:11
like you need to find your niche of what what works for you.
1:01:15
There's a great book called, you know, Big Magic, which I thought
1:01:19
also helps, or The Art of Creativity, maybe for yourself.
1:01:24
It just varies, I think, right? It's kind of carving out what
1:01:28
works for you and figuring that out.
1:01:31
I appreciate you sharing that Bilal Makawi from WE Collab.
1:01:35
I want to be the first one to thank you for sharing both your
1:01:38
time and your story with us today.
1:01:39
I really appreciate it. Anthony, thank you very much.
1:01:42
This was great. Folks, that's a wrap on another
1:01:45
episode of the Inspired Stories podcast.
1:01:47
Thanks for learning about this today.