SPEAK.STUDIO captures, organizes and monetizes voice through an AI-driven blockchain engine. Its end-to-end mobile app and website empowers content creators 8-80 years old to MAKE both podcasts and money through in-app purchases.  Its intuitive LISTEN mode enables bookmarking, highlighting, sorting and sharing those curations. SPEAK.STUDIO has generated more than $35K in ad revenue via its 2021 Vogue’s Best Podcast Award (We Have Note) along with revenue from clients including Meta Inc. and Disney. 

• HELP WANTED:

  • Warm introductions to Bus Dev and NFT mentor.

  • Warm introductions around SPEAK.LIVE. It’s going very well but I want more. 

• HIGHLIGHTS:

  • Accepted into 2022 Wisconsin Early Stage Symposium Elevator Pitch Olympics. Working on 90 second elevator pitch

  • SPEAK user email list continues to grow. Building list for new users. 

  • Successful first meeting with GAN’s R&D team to discuss offering {Insert Product Name Here} as a GAN Perk page to drive users without (spending?)marketing/outreach dollars. 

  • Season 1 Episode 1 of All American: Jim Thorpe released. Great feedback. Final episode of series culminates on U.S. National Native American Heritage Day.

  • Engaged financing producer on “blueprint” doc podcast about Toussaint Louverture a general and prominent leader of the Haitian Revolution. Goal is to engage  up to $400k in financing for podcast, t to develop a streaming series about Toussaint’s life based on original material.

  • Our internal design firm was engaged to create an “end card” for producer of Apple TV plus series premiering in spring. This is an in-road to podcast companion series for his series.

  • We’ve refined/evolved our strategy around this next funding push to include more non-dilutive funding. Based on gener8tor lunch and learn AWS accelerator and gBETA GAN invitation, we’ve added this to our strategy.  Big thanks to Nick Mischler for surfacing this, and many other incredibly helpful POVs.

  • SYSTEM: We’re refining client notes and feedback mechanism for audio and video.

• LOWLIGHTS:

  • Sponsorship deal with Red Bay Coffee for All American delayed 7-12 days. That’s a short term loss, but the opportunity I saw/took was to engage sponsor in conversation about a deeper creative collaboration that includes, website takeover, joint company social channel collaboration on original content. Additionally, owner of company is considering sponsorship of a second show. 

We’re using this project as a pilot system for our limited-run podcast series ad revenue structure ( Pre, mid, and post roll sponsorships and  Premier Sponsor(owns entire show). This is for a 6 episode limited run show and Red Bay Coffee fits the All American brand perfectly. 

• PRODUCT:

  • .ORIGINALS: All American: Jim Thorpe, and We Have Notes (partial list).

  • .IP -  IRS CI, 

  • .REMOTE STUDIO - Our audio and video hardware sales and rental division

  • .LIVE - 

  • .ENTERPRISE -  Meta Inc. 

  • .Branded: Branded content for companies, brands and individuals

  • .Apparel: Apparel line supporting All American: Jim Thorpe podcast subject themes and more, to coincide with launch. Donate profit to one of two non profit organizations supporting Indigenous People. 

  • Our PR machine is coming along. More info soon on this. 

• KPIs/CORE METRICS:

  • The pre-beta SPEAK app is  71 percent done. Need additional UX but Make/Listen is working. Sign up with two step authentication and app+web continuity works.  Bug fixes and feature additions constantly.

  • 25% month/month revenue growth across all divisions combined.

  • 25% month/month new user growth.

  • Launch of SPEAK LIVE and show revenue. 

  • NFT engine development. Goal is to mint 2 new NFTs weekly on average.

• BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT:

NOTABLE DEALS:

• Nothing this week.

PIPELINE:

• DEVELOPING: Potential partnership with gener8tor OnRamp

• Ben Tubuo, producer/finance has follow up meeting with Disney/Onyx to broker formal relationship to support their shows with possible companion series. 

• 3 Podcast/video projects with Summit School District.

• Currently in NOLA to do a “look and consult” on deal with National Minority Supplier Development Counsel to provide SPEAK.LIVE to all conferences. That’s both SEAAS and hopefully SaaS for audio and video storage and searchable library. 

• Preliminary discussion with accounting/finance. Will model new SPEAK divisions and use as a pilot project with her.

• Hiring:

  • VP of sales/exec production (working title) for SPEAK.LIVE. Final interview in Chicago. Working on terms. 

  • Head of Content hiring (Ben Tubuo) advancing.

• Financing:

  • SPEAK is “homeostatic”. SPEAK is combo bootstrapped and funded by work for clients. Money goes to payroll, overhead,  R+D, software, content, bus dev and brand dev.  

  • Self-funded. Burn rate is $1k/month ish.  

  • Income from Meta podcast paying payroll, and overhead. Rest into R&D and reserves. 

• Press:

  • None

• Kudos:

  • Mentors Al Cornish, Nick Mischler,  Jan Oneill, and  Marta Karlov, were just fantastic in the mentor swarm. I’m very excited about the “what” and the “why” of what Al is building/working on and have hopes to learn more and explore collaborations. Had the pleasure of meeting with Nick before mentor swarm to continue, what I hope is a long relationship. We jumped on a quick 15 minute post-mentor swarm call and went deep. Jan Oneill had great insights into, among other things, Angel v. VC. Thrilled to continue the conversation with her. Marta had great insight into systems and culture at the perfect time in the life of SPEAK.

• I received fantastic help and invaluable insights from Mfoniso Ekong on the executive summary. It has come such a long way with his and Molly Dill, and Nichole’s expertise! 

• Travis Stegemoller had great legal advice and POV. I’ve already shard with team and will follow up on some important c-corp questions. 

• Salli Martyniak continues to give great notes, insights and support, this time in an in-person 1:1. 

• Nichole Crust continues to elevate me, SPEAK, my cohorts and gBETA. She is simply fantastic. She continues to provide great insights and introductions to additional mentors and support (see above).  

• Worked in the gener8tor space in StartingBlock, which is a very cool space. Thanks Nichole, gener8tor, ULGM, and of course,  StartingBlock!

 SPEAK.STUDIO captures, organizes and monetizes voice through an AI-driven NFT engine. SPEAK.STUDIO’s end-to-end mobile app and website empowers content creators to make money through a micro-transaction fee and micro-subscription service. SPEAK.STUDIO has generated more than $35K in revenue from ad dollars via its 2021 Vogue’s Best Podcast We Have Note) and corporate, government and educational clients including Meta Inc. and Disney. (*Credit+big props to Molly Dill+Nichole Crust for the great work on helping me with this shiny new e.s. overview)

• HELP WANTED:

  • Warm introductions to Bus Dev and NFT mentor.

  • Warm introductions around SPEAK.LIVE. It’s going very well but I want more. 

• HIGHLIGHTS:

  • Connected with the founder of Latin American Live event/production company re: .ORIGINALS with part of his Latin American celebrity slate, doing pilot project with .LIVE and possible collab on a Latin Jazz documentary. Will do break out meetings on all projects with the most promising short term project being  his Women’s History Month Latino focused event where we can deploy SPEAK.LIVE. More on this soon. 

  • Sponsorship agreement in principle on podcast All American: Jim Thorpe.  So this is great. And exploring Premiere partner status  across all podcasts, and are exploring partnership agreement brokering  distribution of SPEAK mailer ads in national coffee roasters mail order business. Launch Party at his facilities.. Building out podcast studio and deeper collab with them, as they grow their businesses and more.

  • All American: Jim Thorpe T shirts, expansive website, with interactivity and partnership. Earned media in coming weeks. Final episode of series culminates on U.S. National Native American Heritage Day

  • IRS CI podcast series - in development. Premieres in weeks preceding tax day 2023.  Pursuing sponsorship dollars from TurboTax or Hewlett Packard

  • Launch B2C SPEAK App+Website with virtual kickoff SPEAK CONNECT 1 during Black History Month 2023, coming into shape. New shows as well.

• LOWLIGHTS:

  • Mobile app dev not coming along as fast as I would like.

• PRODUCT:

  • .ORIGINALS: All American: Jim Thorpe, and We Have Notes.

  • .IP First production meeting for IRS CI phase 1.

  • .REMOTE STUDIO - Our audio and video hardware sales and rental division

  • .LIVE - 

  • .ENTERPRISE podcasting continues to build  

  • .Branded: Branded content for companies, brands and individuals

  • .Apparel: Apparel line supporting All American: Jim Thorpe podcast subject themes and more, to coincide with launch. Donate profit to one of two non profit organizations supporting Indigenous People. 

  • Our PR machine is coming along. More info soon on this. 

• KPIs/CORE METRICS:

  • The pre-beta SPEAK app is  70 percent done. Need additional UX but Make/Listen is working. Sign up with two step authentication and app+web continuity works.  Bug fixes and feature additions constantly.

  • 25% month/month revenue growth across all divisions combined.

  • 25% month/month new user growth.

  • Launch of SPEAK LIVE and show revenue. 

  • NFT engine development. Goal is to mint 2 new NFTs weekly on average.

• BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT:

NOTABLE DEALS:

• Approached lead on-camera talent at horse racing league to develop “Official Podcast Partner”. Building stage 2 deck and advancing conversation.

• Building out our Ad deck: The two most interesting statistics for the show is 59,000 plays 863 followers 3200 unique listeners across all media platforms. A good start for a really fun show. We Have Notes. Social Media 

PIPELINE:

• DEVELOPING: Potential partnership with gener8tor OnRamp

• (STILL) Disney, possible enterprise podcast for Disney brands. Targeting Onyx. Project is developing with Ben Tubuo formerly of Disney, who we’re considering bringing in house. This is a good pilot project for him. Still developing.  

• Pursuing long term partnership with National Minority Supplier Development Counsel and new Meta Inc. divisions, to provide SPEAK.LIVE to all conferences. That’s both SEAAS and hopefully Saas for audio and video storage and searchable library. 

• Prelim discussion with accounting/finance. Will model new SPEAK divisions and use as a pilot project with her.

• Hiring:

  • VP of sales for SPEAK.LIVE.  Conducted third interview (remote) with seasoned live event producer for production and business development roles. She comes with experience in both bus dev and production, has surfaced at least two actionable ideas and comes with bus dev connections. Final decision on her this week. 

  • Head of Content hiring might happen soon. 

• Financing:

  • SPEAK is “homeostatic”. SPEAK is combo bootstrapped and funded by work for clients. Money goes to payroll, overhead,  R+D, software, content, bus dev and brand dev.  

  • Self funded. Burn rate is $1k/month ish.  

  • Income from Meta podcast paying payroll, and overhead. Rest into R&D and reserves. 

• Press:

  • None

• Kudos:

  • Mentors Katie Rice and Brian Saetre were both fantastic in the mentor swarm. Mentor Lisa Matsuyama was incredibly helpful and gracious in offering further support with my pitch deck and app UX. Mentor Charlie Von Simson and Andrew Clark were great with legal around AI and startup marketing.

  • Got some great insights around AWS EdStart and Gov Tech from three folks from AWS.

• Nichole Crust continues to elevate me, SPEAK, my cohorts and gBETA. She is simply fantastic. She continues to provide great insights and introductions to additional mentors and support (see above). 

Big ups to Nichole for the invite to the Bucks game. Fun time and good meeting good people. And Bucks won home opener. 

Looking at Giannis et al down there, and knowing my three pointer is as solid as ever, I find myself thinking I could come off the bench and give solid minutes during playoff time:)

Nice time at game continuing relationship with 2 of my cohort as well. Great to see them be successful 

 SPEAK.STUDIO captures, organizes and monetizes voice through an AI-driven NFT engine. SPEAK.STUDIO’s end-to-end mobile app and website empowers content creators to make money through a micro-transaction fee and micro-subscription service. SPEAK.STUDIO has generated more than $35K in revenue from ad dollars via its 2021 Vogue’s Best Podcast We Have Note) and corporate, government and educational clients including Meta Inc. and Disney. (*Credit+big props to Maggie Dill+Nichole Crust for the great work on helping me with this shiny new e.s. overview)

• HELP WANTED:

  • Warm introductions to Bus Dev and NFT mentor.

  • Warm introductions around SPEAK.LIVE. It’s going very well but I want more. 

• HIGHLIGHTS:

  • This week we’re most excited about the release of hybrid documentary podcast series  All American: Jim Thorpe, The Greatest Athlete Of All Time. Premiering on October 18, to coincide with the start of NBA season when 6 major U.S. sports are in season. 

  • Recorded first half of Building Black podcast with cultural zeitgeist and African American monthly marketplace Black On The Block. Second half in coming days. 

• LOWLIGHTS:

  • Meeting with potential SPEAK.LIVE, ORIGINALS,.BRANDED  and.AD partner/client pushed to Tuesday.

• PRODUCT:

  • .ORIGINALS: Episode 1 of All American: Jim Thorpe.

  • .IP First production meeting for IRS CI phase 1.

  • .REMOTE STUDIO - Our audio and video hardware sales and rental division

  • .LIVE

  • .ENTERPRISE podcasting continues to build  

  • .Branded: Branded content for companies, brands and individuals

  • .Apparel: Apparel line supporting All American: Jim Thorpe podcast subject themes and more, to coincide with launch. Donate profit to one of two non profit organizations supporting Indigenous People. 

  • Our PR machine is coming along. More info soon on this. 

• KPIs/CORE METRICS:

  • The pre-beta SPEAK app is coming along. Bug fixes and feature adds. 

  • 25% month/month revenue growth across all divisions combined.

  • 25% month/month new user growth.

  • Launch of SPEAK LIVE and show revenue. 

  • NFT engine development. 2x per week new minting.

• BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT:

NOTABLE DEALS:

• No notable deals/partnerships this week. 

• Summit School District DEI Podcast series in Colorado should close within the next 3 days.

• Building out our Ad deck: The two most interesting statistics for the show is 59,000 plays 863 followers 3200 unique listeners across all media platforms. A good start for a really fun show. We Have Notes. Social Media 

PIPELINE:

• DEVELOPING: Potential partnership with gener8tor OnRamp

• We’re courting ad dollars and sponsorship around .ORIGINALS All American: Jim Thorpe. Cautiously optimistic about sponsorship around that.

• Engaging conversation with on-camera talent/producer for horse racing TV network, for potential sponsorship and partnership opportunities.

• Disney, possible enterprise podcast for Disney brands. Targeting Onyx. Project is developing with Ben Tubuo formerly of Disney, who we’re considering bringing in house. This is a good pilot project for him. 

• Pursuing long term partnership with NMSDC to provide SPEAK.LIVE to all conferences. That’s both SEAAS and hopefully SAAS for audio and video storage and searchable library. 

• Hiring:

  • VP of sales for SPEAK.LIVE.  Second in-person interview in Chicago with seasoned live event producer for production and business development roles. 

  • Head of Content hiring might happen soon. 

• Financing:

  • SPEAK is “homeostatic”. Money in from revenue and me. Money out to R+D, software, content, bus dev and brand dev.  

  • Self funded. Burn rate is $1k/month ish.  

  • Income from Meta podcast paying payroll, and overhead. Rest into R&D and reserves. 

• Press:

  • Pending 

• Kudos:

  • Molly Dill came with the great insights,  kind/constructive POV, and ye olde red marker(which I love) on SPEAK’s Executive Summary. She helped clarify and elevate our overview.  Am thrilled, excited and very grateful for her time, talents and work. (See new and improved e.s.  overview above). #writingisrewriting #useofironichashtagsforhumor

  • Had a great Zoommeeting with Maggie Blickerman @gener8tor to explore possible synergy between gener8tor OnRamp + SPEAK.LIVE. Second meeting with Maggie and team incipient. Super excited! Thanks again Torian B and Nichole Crust for insight and intro. 

  • Excited to have spoken with mentors at this week’s gBeta Mentor Swarm. A cluster of good ideas came out of that, and sincerely appreciative of all mentors including IP attorney and entrepreneur Jeff Glazer, who had great insights about the NFT of it all; Business Coach Ellie Millam, who’s “quick insights” (that I’’m now coining “sprintsights”...yeah, it’s a stretch) were exciting and “good space creating”. Look forward to connecting with founder of AtlusLearn network Dan Guerra Jr. in the coming days. .

  • Immediately actionable mentor moves made with serial founder Noon Eggenberger, who had incredibly good insights and enthusiasm about the NFT of our business (and flagged that we didn’t include that little tidbit into our “bio), and the openness to continuing the conversation. Very much looking forward to connecting with Noon and his mental health CRM startup, that’s much needed in the world. Loved speaking with Salli Martyniak.  Her enthusiasm for SPEAK was only outweighed by her grace in offering to connect us to folks who might or might not want to invest. (I tend to be very conservative about sharing, let alone entertaining these kinds of exciting things until they’re real, but sharing here as I heard that’s what we’re supposed to do.) More on this soon, maybe.

  • Nichole Crust is the best and incredibly kind to receive all of my emails, texts, Zooms, Meets, and phone calls with depth, grace and a smile. She provided great insights and introductions to additional mentors and support (see above)

  • Had great conversation with startup business affairs lead/entertainment attorney (a dual threat/unicorn) who gave me insights into her business structure. A similar organizing principle to how I built SPEAK, so good stuff. More from her.

 SPEAK.STUDIO Captures, Codifies and Monetizes Voice through an AI-driven NFT engine. SPEAK.STUDIO’s end-to-end Make/Monetize/Listen mobile app and website will empower a diversity of new and seasoned content creators to amplify and monetize their voice through a micro-transaction/micro-subscription service.

SPEAK.STUDIO’s gained traction off ad dollars SPEAK.ORIGINAL’s 2021 Vogue’s Best Podcasts (We Have Notes) and other revenue from companies including Meta Inc., Disney, Black Enterprise, Summit School District, Georgia Power, Wunder Health and more, totalling over $30k.  SPEAK’s pre-beta Make/Listen/Gift mobile app. SPEAK is a VC-ready c-corp, QNBV status pending. 

• HELP WANTED:

  • Warm introductions to .gov

  • Warm introductions around SPEAK.LIVE. It’s going well but I want more. 

• HIGHLIGHTS:

  • This week we’re most proud of being accepted into the gBETA Accelerator Fall 2022 cohort. This is a 7-week program where we receive mentorship, education, networking, and an opportunity to pitch at the gener8tor Showcase. 

  • Additionally, we started a new enterprise podcast series on Data Analytics at Meta Inc.  This work services a new division of Meta Inc. which deepens our relationship within the company. I received mildly envious questions and accolades from our main client, who wants to explore her own podcast within Meta. 

  • The good, non-easy, non-trivial work of our NFT engine and AI modeling. Slow(ish) but steady.

• LOWLIGHTS:

  • Was hoping to make a last minute run on contract for SPEAK.LIVE at NMSDC, but we got to the client a little late in their cycle. Upside is we’re attending NMSDC and will consult on future events, in hopes of landing a contract.  

• PRODUCT:

  • .ORIGINALS: we’ve wrapped production on the podcast trailer for All American: Jim Thorpe, The Greatest Athlete Of All Time, and are releasing on Oct. 10, to coincide with Indigenous People’s Day. We’re pegging the release of the premiere of this hybrid doc series on October 18, to coincide with the start of NBA season when all 5 major U.S. sports are in season. 

  • .IP *Exclusive rights to IRS CI, awarded by the IRS kicks off with pre-prod on our IRS CI series. 

  • .REMOTE STUDIO - Our audio and video hardware sales and rental division

  • .LIVE is launching out of beta in earnest this week.

  • .ENTERPRISE podcasting continues to build  

  • .Apparel: Apparel line supporting All American: Jim Thorpe podcast subject themes and more, to coincide with launch. Donate profit to one of two non profit organizations supporting Indigenous People.

• KPIs/CORE METRICS:

  • The pre-beta SPEAK app is coming along. Bug fixes and feature adds. 

  • 25% month/month revenue growth. 

  • 25% month/month new user growth.

  • NFT engine development. 2x per week new minting.

• BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT:

NOTABLE DEALS:

• Did you close any notable deals / partnerships?  What opportunities are in the pipeline?

• No notable deals/partnerships this week. 

• Meta Inc. Supplier Diversity use of SPEAK.LIVE is in play for coming weeks. Summit School District DEI Podcast series in Colorado should close within the next 10 days.

PIPELINE:

• We’re courting ad dollars and sponsorship around .ORIGINALS All American: Jim Thorpe. Cautiously optimistic about sponsorship around that.

• Disney, possible enterprise podcast for Freeform, or other Disney brands.

• Pursuing long term partnership with NMSDC to provide SPEAK.LIVE to all conferences. That’s both SEAAS (Service as a Service, and I yes, yes I made that up, I think??) and hopefully SAAS for audio and video storage and searchable library. 

• Hiring:

  • No key hires or fires this week. Current high level position is VP of sales for SPEAK.LIVE, our corporate live event audio/podcast content division and have a non-posted final interview on Tuesday. 

• Financing:

  • SPEAK is “homeostatic”. Money in from revenue and me. Money out to R+D, software, content, bus dev and brand dev.  

  • Self funded. Burn rate is $1k/month ish.  

• Press:

  • Up to this point SPEAK and our content creators  have had mentions in Vogue as part of their Top Podcasts of 2021, Good Day PA, and an array of podcasts, websites, blogs, and more. Here’s a short list:

Vogue's best podcasts of 2021

https://www.amyimpellizzeri.com/​​

https://www.abc27.com/good-day-pa/author-spotlight-amy-impellizzeri-5/

https://www.instagram.com/wehavenotes/

https://ms-my.facebook.com/speakdotstudio/videos/open-the-window-a-new-suspenseful-serial-podcast-from-best-selling-author-kelly-/1405711309845348/

• Kudos:

  • Excited to have spoken with mentors at this week’s gBeta Mentor Swarm. A cluster of good ideas came out of that, and sincerely appreciative of all mentors including Kathleen Falk and her passionate support of our .GOV push, Garrison Gowens who gave great insights and suggestions into our business model, Elizabeth Caven’s interest and suggestions around my pitch and the NFTs of it all. Cant’ wait for more from them! 

  • We’re taking immediate action on a connection being made by week 1 mentor Alison Dodge, who offered to connect us to a client who’s working in the space, in hopes of collaboration, and also animating on an idea from week 1 mentor Torian Blackburn who suggested we reach out to Maggie Blickerman @gener8tor to explore possible synergy between gener8tor OnRamp + SPEAK.LIVE. I’m excited that Maggie and I are connecting this Thursday. 

  • Just thinking Nichole Crust is the best and incredibly kind to receive all of my emails, texts, Zooms, Meets, and phone calls with depth, grace and a smile.

  • Had a great conversation with client-turned advisor, and might-be collaborator Keba Konte of Red Bay Coffee about economics around HR and fundraising.