Latest / The Steve Harvey Morning Show / Created innovative employment service and has raised $45 million in Venture Capital, Shannon Denton.

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Created innovative employment service and has raised $45 million in Venture Capital, Shannon Denton. · The Steve Harvey Morning Show

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  Speaker 1: Let's get this show started. My guess is the co
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  Speaker 1: founder of Ripple. He's built successful businesses, launched and sold startups,
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  Speaker 1: and raised over forty five million in venture capital please
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  Speaker 1: Welcome to Money Making Conversation Masterclass. Shannon Denton. How are
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  Speaker 1: you doing, sir?
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  Speaker 2: I'm doing great, Rashawn, Thanks for having me.
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  Speaker 1: You know, I got to start with the name of
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  Speaker 1: the business. How did where were you sitting when you
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  Speaker 1: thought that was the name that should build your fortune own?
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  Speaker 2: First of all, just so the audience, it's rippled with
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  Speaker 2: the W. So it's wripp La, And hey, we love
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  Speaker 2: the name. You know. We were sitting down, me and
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  Speaker 2: my two of the co founders, right and we thought
• 2:50
  Speaker 2: of the you know, just thinking of words. You know
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  Speaker 2: how it is today, Rashawn, it's kind of hard to
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  Speaker 2: find a unique name. All right, names are taken. But yeah,
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  Speaker 2: with Ripple, it was like we saw, you know, the
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  Speaker 2: visual of in the water of water movement and kind
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  Speaker 2: of the ripple effect of making a positive shift in
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  Speaker 2: the way things were done and happening. And we happen
• 3:11
  Speaker 2: to be looking around the internet and the URL was available,
• 3:15
  Speaker 2: which is always super important today you want to make
• 3:17
  Speaker 2: sure people can find you online. And so it just
• 3:20
  Speaker 2: kind of stuck and we thought it was very flexible.
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  Speaker 2: You could do a lot of cool things with from
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  Speaker 2: a brand perspective, you know, Waves and motion and stuff
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  Speaker 2: like that. So we really love that name.
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  Speaker 1: Well, you know, it's important that people who are listening
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  Speaker 1: to the show understand that a name is a part
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  Speaker 1: of your brand and the brand has a story. And
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  Speaker 1: like my company name is thirty eight fifteen Media three
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  Speaker 1: eight one five Media, and the four digits are from
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  Speaker 1: the home that I grew up on as I grew
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  Speaker 1: up in as a kid. I grew up with six
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  Speaker 1: sisters and two six sisters and two brothers and my
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  Speaker 1: parents and we lived in a two bedroom shotgun house
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  Speaker 1: and the numbers on that house was thirty eight fifteen,
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  Speaker 1: And so that's my backstory on It allows me to
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  Speaker 1: understand where I came from and how I've been able
• 4:01
  Speaker 1: to overcome the odds to be the person I am today.
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  Speaker 1: So that's why I appreciate you taking the time and
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  Speaker 1: also conveying the rationale as to why you named your
• 4:10
  Speaker 1: company Ripple. And then you said, Jean, that's what the
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  Speaker 1: w W I BP ELI.
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  Speaker 2: Everybody gets aid the spelling correct and supporting absolutely.
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  Speaker 1: And you know the thing about it, when I when
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  Speaker 1: I got an opportunity to you know, I get a
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  Speaker 1: lot of guests information sent to me on a daily,
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  Speaker 1: sometimes weekly. Basis. What really old me in the direction
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  Speaker 1: of I want to interview you, Shannon, was the whole
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  Speaker 1: talk of venture capitalists, because I really don't know what
• 4:41
  Speaker 1: that is. It's been a very popular term the last
• 4:44
  Speaker 1: fifteen years, especially the last ten years. What exactly is
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  Speaker 1: a venture capitalist?
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, so venture capital companies invest in early stage startups,
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  Speaker 2: a lot of technology companies like Ripple, So we have
• 5:00
  Speaker 2: a software that we've created, and you know, they're looking
• 5:03
  Speaker 2: to invest early right and into high growth companies and
• 5:08
  Speaker 2: they're looking to hopefully make really good returns on some
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  Speaker 2: of those companies. So it's a high risk game. So
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  Speaker 2: a venture capital firm that may invest in, you know,
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  Speaker 2: fifty one hundred companies and as long as maybe even
• 5:22
  Speaker 2: you know, fifteen percent of those twenty percent of those
• 5:25
  Speaker 2: companies do well, then they end up making a return.
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  Speaker 2: And so it's a it's probably the riskiest type of
• 5:31
  Speaker 2: investment vehicle. But yeah, so as a startup, you know
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  Speaker 2: when Ripple we started at about five years ago, and
• 5:37
  Speaker 2: we we went out and pitched a lot of venture
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  Speaker 2: capital firms and said, hey, this is a business plan
• 5:42
  Speaker 2: we have, this is what we're trying to build, this
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  Speaker 2: is the experience we have as a team when we
• 5:48
  Speaker 2: started it, and we love to take some investment from
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  Speaker 2: you so that we can actually do this without and
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  Speaker 2: go fast. And so that's kind of what venture capital is.
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  Speaker 2: And you know, it can it's it can be a fun,
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  Speaker 2: fast paced world of in venture capital. It can also
• 6:01
  Speaker 2: be stressful and challenging sometimes too. But yeah, so that's
• 6:07
  Speaker 2: kind of what the venture capital the BC world is
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  Speaker 2: all about.
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  Speaker 1: No, when you talk about the venture capital, you know,
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  Speaker 1: because you're always talking about sean, I know, you go
• 6:16
  Speaker 1: to a bank, you know, you borrow money. It's tied
• 6:19
  Speaker 1: to an interest rate, but you basically keep one hundred
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  Speaker 1: percent of your brand i'd like to believe, or your assets,
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  Speaker 1: you know, unless you don't pay back the loan, then
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  Speaker 1: they come and looking for it. When you do that
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  Speaker 1: from a venture capital standpoint, how does that work? Is
• 6:35
  Speaker 1: it a loan with interest? Do they take a percentage
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  Speaker 1: of your company?
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  Speaker 2: How does that? Yeah? There you go. Yeah, so you're
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  Speaker 2: basically giving up a percentage of your company. And so
• 6:45
  Speaker 2: once you decide to get a venture capital firm or
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  Speaker 2: individual to invest venture in your company, you're basically saying, hey,
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  Speaker 2: here's a chunk of my company, and you agree upon evaluation.
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  Speaker 2: So if any if anybody, any of your audiences watched
• 7:00
  Speaker 2: Shark Tank, right, it works kind of similar to that,
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  Speaker 2: And you're basically saying, you know, I'll give up twenty
• 7:05
  Speaker 2: percent of the company for a few hundred thousand dollars
• 7:08
  Speaker 2: what have you, and that all the math all works
• 7:11
  Speaker 2: out towards you know, stock, and so you figure out
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  Speaker 2: how much stock the founders keep, how much stock the
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  Speaker 2: venture capital investors keep. And at the end of the day,
• 7:20
  Speaker 2: though it's absolutely they take a percentage ownership of your company,
• 7:23
  Speaker 2: and of course they want you to do well because
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  Speaker 2: they own a percent. So the more you grow, the
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  Speaker 2: more your company's worth, they reap the benefits as well
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  Speaker 2: as the you as an entrepreneur does as well.
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  Speaker 1: Right, And you know, this is a two part interview,
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  Speaker 1: And I'd always like to really get a clear understanding, Shannon,
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  Speaker 1: of what you're doing because so many people, you know,
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  Speaker 1: you know, my audience is sixty percent African American and
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  Speaker 1: white and the rest is other. You know, it breaks
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  Speaker 1: down and so as a large audience, part of my
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  Speaker 1: audience struggle with bank loan, struggle with trying to find
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  Speaker 1: financing and things of that nature. And so how does
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  Speaker 1: one like you said, we shout, I put together presentation
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  Speaker 1: and I went and said, now with venture capital individuals
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  Speaker 1: or companies, and I pitched, how are you able to
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  Speaker 1: make these meetings happen? And how are we able to
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  Speaker 1: find these people who could potentially invest in your company?
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, so, fortunately for myself, so I'm I'm an I'm
• 8:23
  Speaker 2: an old entrepreneur. I had I had a run for
• 8:30
  Speaker 2: our businesses. Now they want businesses I started, but I
• 8:33
  Speaker 2: kind of had been in management and stuff like that.
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  Speaker 2: And you know, there's there's incubators and accelerators and programs
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  Speaker 2: for entrepreneurs that want to get involved in startups. So
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  Speaker 2: my company is actually based out of Atlanta and there's
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  Speaker 2: an organization and accelerator there called the at d C
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  Speaker 2: Advanced Technology Development Center, which is actually associated with Georgia Tech.
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  Speaker 2: And so me and my two co founders joined that program,
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  Speaker 2: and based upon that program, we got introduced to potential
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  Speaker 2: venture capital investors. And so they had somebody that formed
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  Speaker 2: the network for us, and you know, we send around
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  Speaker 2: an email and a deck of what we're trying to do,
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  Speaker 2: and we were able to get meetings and so obviously
• 9:17
  Speaker 2: because we were experienced. It really helped. But I would
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  Speaker 2: encourage the listeners who are interested in starting a company
• 9:23
  Speaker 2: or entrepreneurialism. There's definitely in the major cities there's accelerators,
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  Speaker 2: there's incubators, and there's educational programs that can help you
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  Speaker 2: build a community and network that is essential, you know,
• 9:36
  Speaker 2: to raise money, to raise venture capital money. And so
• 9:39
  Speaker 2: that was very important to us that we became part
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  Speaker 2: of that at DC, that accelerator that I mentioned, and
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  Speaker 2: it gave us a lot of new avenues to meet
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  Speaker 2: different types of people and get and eventually raise the
• 9:49
  Speaker 2: venture capital money.
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  Speaker 1: Wow. I appreciate that because you know, we all walk
• 9:55
  Speaker 1: around light life loss it seems, and we complained and
• 9:59
  Speaker 1: sometimes we just need to write amount of information. And again,
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  Speaker 1: Shannon will tell you this not did not happen overnight.
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  Speaker 1: Like you said, I'm a for shure, I'm an old entrepreneur.
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  Speaker 1: I've I've been in the game for a minute, which
• 10:10
  Speaker 1: means that if you think you just run in here
• 10:13
  Speaker 1: with a fresh idea and somebody's going to buy it
• 10:15
  Speaker 1: up top with no background or no work history, well
• 10:19
  Speaker 1: you might be frustrated because, like he said, people are
• 10:22
  Speaker 1: investing in you because they want to return They just
• 10:26
  Speaker 1: want to donate their money to your cause they want
• 10:28
  Speaker 1: to get their money back in more and it's called
• 10:30
  Speaker 1: an investment. Now, Ripple, we talked about the name and
• 10:33
  Speaker 1: how you the name came about with your other co founders.
• 10:37
  Speaker 1: Tell us what exactly Ripple is.
• 10:40
  Speaker 2: Yeah, so we call ourselves a talent marketplace, and so
• 10:46
  Speaker 2: what we do is we connect independent freelancers to jobs
• 10:51
  Speaker 2: or gigs, and so a lot of people have heard obviously,
• 10:55
  Speaker 2: people are familiar with DoorDash, people are familiar with Uber,
• 10:58
  Speaker 2: all the different gigs economy type platforms. We actually connect
• 11:03
  Speaker 2: a lot of writers, designers, developers with big companies that
• 11:08
  Speaker 2: are looking to hire freelancers on demand. So, if you're
• 11:11
  Speaker 2: a developer, you're a writer, and you kind of want
• 11:15
  Speaker 2: either extra income on the side, maybe you have a job,
• 11:18
  Speaker 2: or you want to pursue a really flexible lifestyle of
• 11:22
  Speaker 2: you know, being independent, almost like being a free agent.
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  Speaker 2: And you sign up on Ripple and we introduce you
• 11:28
  Speaker 2: and connect you to jobs and you can take on
• 11:31
  Speaker 2: that work and we handle all the payment. We pay
• 11:34
  Speaker 2: you weekly as if you were an employee of Ripple,
• 11:37
  Speaker 2: and we will help you find work So those are
• 11:40
  Speaker 2: the two hardest things when you're kind of an entrepreneur
• 11:43
  Speaker 2: and you want to kind of be on your own.
• 11:44
  Speaker 2: The hardest things are how do I find the jobs
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  Speaker 2: and keep an income coming in? And the second is
• 11:50
  Speaker 2: I want to make sure I get paid on time
• 11:52
  Speaker 2: and get a check. And so we do both of
• 11:54
  Speaker 2: those things, and we have a software platform that you
• 11:57
  Speaker 2: sign up on and that you register for and then
• 12:00
  Speaker 2: we kind of take care of the rest.
• 12:02
  Speaker 1: Wow, now I'm talking to. One of the co founders
• 12:04
  Speaker 1: of Ripple was Shannon Denton. He built a successful business
• 12:07
  Speaker 1: Many and launched Many and soul Many. The company he
• 12:10
  Speaker 1: has right now is a is a marketing on demand
• 12:13
  Speaker 1: platform that offers private marketplace of vettic talent. Now again,
• 12:18
  Speaker 1: got to have a resume, got to come in with experience,
• 12:20
  Speaker 1: got to have background. Just can't show up and go hey,
• 12:23
  Speaker 1: I'm talented and get frustrated when they tell you no.
• 12:26
  Speaker 1: That's the word vettic means. And software to manage freelancers
• 12:30
  Speaker 1: and the relationships all in one place.
• 12:34
  Speaker 2: Now.
• 12:34
  Speaker 1: The first time I ever heard the word gig was
• 12:37
  Speaker 1: doing the pandemic. You know, I was like, what's because
• 12:41
  Speaker 1: there was an issue We're trying to pay them during
• 12:44
  Speaker 1: a COVID moment. Can you explain to everybody what exactly
• 12:48
  Speaker 1: that name that term means, because I get it. I'd
• 12:51
  Speaker 1: never heard of it, and I realized, you know, sir Sehan,
• 12:53
  Speaker 1: you are that person. Okay, you are free. But I
• 12:56
  Speaker 1: never associated because I call myself a producer, I call
• 12:59
  Speaker 1: myself a writer. I'll call myself a manager, but I
• 13:02
  Speaker 1: never associated it with that term. Please are going a
• 13:05
  Speaker 1: little bit more detail exactly what that title means?
• 13:08
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean the term gig actually came a little
• 13:11
  Speaker 2: bit pre pandemic, but it absolutely took off, you're right,
• 13:14
  Speaker 2: during COVID. And so it really a gig meant like
• 13:19
  Speaker 2: get a job, sort of a temporary job that you
• 13:21
  Speaker 2: kind of crank out and get die. And so the
• 13:23
  Speaker 2: term gig and so basically it was like, hey, I
• 13:26
  Speaker 2: do gigwork. You know, I may drive an uber, I
• 13:30
  Speaker 2: may do door dash, I may work, you know, do
• 13:33
  Speaker 2: shopping for Shopify, for any instacart, for any of those
• 13:36
  Speaker 2: types of companies, and so those are called gigs, right,
• 13:39
  Speaker 2: and then it became known as a gig worker. And
• 13:42
  Speaker 2: so you know, in the freelancing world. Now we talked
• 13:45
  Speaker 2: more today about the freelance economy, and so freelance economy
• 13:49
  Speaker 2: is really more about you're actually doing those types of
• 13:53
  Speaker 2: jobs or assignments for big corporations, and so these are
• 13:57
  Speaker 2: these are like professional type assignments that you know, you
• 14:01
  Speaker 2: you're maybe doing some copywriting for a big company, maybe
• 14:05
  Speaker 2: you're doing some graphic design, maybe you're developing software and
• 14:09
  Speaker 2: so as a freelancer. But in general Rashan, I mean
• 14:12
  Speaker 2: they kind of mean all the same thing. I'm a
• 14:14
  Speaker 2: gig worker, I'm a freelancer. The other term you'll see
• 14:17
  Speaker 2: out there is I'm an independent talent, meaning I don't
• 14:20
  Speaker 2: have a full time job. I'm kind of pursuing. You know,
• 14:22
  Speaker 2: you're kind of a free agent. You kind of look
• 14:24
  Speaker 2: for jobs and you kind of as symbol you do
• 14:27
  Speaker 2: those jobs based upon what comes your way. And so
• 14:30
  Speaker 2: there's a lot of people very successful now that are
• 14:34
  Speaker 2: that are earning a really good income by doing you know,
• 14:38
  Speaker 2: independent work, gigs, freelance work, and they're able to get
• 14:41
  Speaker 2: enough of those jobs to where they actually make more
• 14:43
  Speaker 2: money than if they had a full time job.
• 14:45
  Speaker 3: Please don't go anywhere. We'll be right back with more
• 14:48
  Speaker 3: money making conversations. Masterclass. Welcome back to the Money Making
• 15:00
  Speaker 3: Conversations masterclass hosted by Rashan McDonald.
• 15:06
  Speaker 2: And so that's what this is all about.
• 15:07
  Speaker 1: And they control their schedule. You know, it's really interesting,
• 15:10
  Speaker 1: you know, which which is really really awesome because of
• 15:13
  Speaker 1: the world that you know, I've lived a life of
• 15:16
  Speaker 1: high end drama when it when I say that means
• 15:18
  Speaker 1: they're stress and it's tied to uh. You know, you
• 15:22
  Speaker 1: can say it's consistent, but you need to when the
• 15:25
  Speaker 1: one thing you can it may not be true, but
• 15:28
  Speaker 1: if you work a forty our week job, there's a
• 15:29
  Speaker 1: degree of consistency there. Maybe when you're doing independent thoughts,
• 15:34
  Speaker 1: but that freedom can't bring drama too. But it's good
• 15:38
  Speaker 1: drama because you're controlling your your point of view. Now,
• 15:42
  Speaker 1: when I was talking to you about the pandemic, it
• 15:46
  Speaker 1: was really interesting. The gig worker who I knew nothing about,
• 15:50
  Speaker 1: or the freelancers who I really knew about, Shannon, but
• 15:53
  Speaker 1: I didn't understand the value they had with a company
• 15:55
  Speaker 1: like mine. It changed my whole philosophy, realizing that you know, well,
• 16:00
  Speaker 1: shall you have you know, you'll have EBB and flows
• 16:03
  Speaker 1: in your business model. Sometimes you do a large gig
• 16:07
  Speaker 1: and sometimes you need you get a contract, maybe a
• 16:10
  Speaker 1: three month contract or a month contract. And I was
• 16:13
  Speaker 1: doing that old philosophy or hiring full time people at
• 16:17
  Speaker 1: times they were just sitting around the office, and so
• 16:19
  Speaker 1: try that's where the independent worker has value, correct.
• 16:23
  Speaker 2: No doubt so well said. So basically think from a
• 16:27
  Speaker 2: company perspective. So if you're really hiring freelancers, you only
• 16:33
  Speaker 2: hire for the work you need to get done, to
• 16:35
  Speaker 2: get done when you need it. So you may need
• 16:37
  Speaker 2: some work done for the next three weeks. The freelancer
• 16:40
  Speaker 2: can kind of crank it out and you may not
• 16:42
  Speaker 2: need that type of work done for another couple of months,
• 16:44
  Speaker 2: and so there's no wasted money, is the way to
• 16:47
  Speaker 2: think about it. So companies really are embracing it and
• 16:49
  Speaker 2: they love it because you can kind of lay out,
• 16:52
  Speaker 2: here's all the different stuff I need to get done.
• 16:54
  Speaker 2: I can use a platform like Ripple to go find
• 16:57
  Speaker 2: the freelancers to do that, and I don't have to,
• 17:00
  Speaker 2: you know, pay as much full time salary costs to
• 17:04
  Speaker 2: a big, huge group of employees. So that's a huge
• 17:07
  Speaker 2: the flexibility, the cost savings, and the speed at which
• 17:11
  Speaker 2: you can move. You know, hiring freelancers is the rationale
• 17:15
  Speaker 2: that companies are really embracing this new world and the
• 17:18
  Speaker 2: freelance economy.
• 17:19
  Speaker 1: Wow, thank you for that update. When we come back,
• 17:22
  Speaker 1: we will continue this conversation with Shannon Denton, one of
• 17:25
  Speaker 1: the founders of Ripple. As you can see, it's it's
• 17:28
  Speaker 1: not AI, but it's the way of being able to
• 17:31
  Speaker 1: fill your job responsibility, a job needs, sometimes long term,
• 17:35
  Speaker 1: sometimes temporarily. I'm speaking to the one of the co
• 17:38
  Speaker 1: founders a Ripple, a company that's changing the game as
• 17:41
  Speaker 1: far as independent freelancers.
• 17:43
  Speaker 2: UH.
• 17:43
  Speaker 1: The company fiells companies long term and temporary needs.
• 17:47
  Speaker 2: UH.
• 17:47
  Speaker 1: Co founder's name, co founder's name is Shannon Denton. How
• 17:50
  Speaker 1: can they reach you or what is the website that
• 17:52
  Speaker 1: they should go to? Shannon?
• 17:55
  Speaker 2: Yeah, so www dot ripples dot com again with the
• 17:59
  Speaker 2: w w R IL and just go out there and
• 18:02
  Speaker 2: if you're interested in freelance opportunities, there's a place that
• 18:05
  Speaker 2: you can apply. And if you're a client looking to
• 18:08
  Speaker 2: hire freelancers, you can easily sign up for a demo
• 18:12
  Speaker 2: and we'll jump on a on a video call with
• 18:14
  Speaker 2: you and show you our platform.
• 18:17
  Speaker 1: When you were thinking about this, you know, it's always
• 18:19
  Speaker 1: where did that idea pop up? From you know, you know,
• 18:22
  Speaker 1: was this a long term idea that kind of like
• 18:25
  Speaker 1: manifested itself or it was like you know that will
• 18:29
  Speaker 1: slogan a lightbulb above your head. How did this idea
• 18:33
  Speaker 1: come about?
• 18:34
  Speaker 2: Yeah, great question, So it actually came so my two
• 18:39
  Speaker 2: co founders and myself we were working together at a
• 18:42
  Speaker 2: company called Razorfish, which was a pretty well known let's
• 18:45
  Speaker 2: called a digital agency. So we were doing a lot
• 18:47
  Speaker 2: of work for big companies and we were we kept
• 18:51
  Speaker 2: hearing from our clients this is this is always a
• 18:53
  Speaker 2: great way to start a company, as if you keep
• 18:55
  Speaker 2: hearing the same thing from somebody over and over and
• 18:57
  Speaker 2: you're like, that must really be a problem to focus on.
• 19:00
  Speaker 2: So what they were, what our clients were telling us is, hey,
• 19:04
  Speaker 2: we would love a way to be able to tap
• 19:07
  Speaker 2: into on demand talent or people a lot easier and
• 19:12
  Speaker 2: faster than what we've ever been able to do before.
• 19:15
  Speaker 2: And so they kind of were using it, you know,
• 19:17
  Speaker 2: parallels of what has happened in e commerce, you know,
• 19:21
  Speaker 2: Amazon dot Com. They knew about Uber and they're like,
• 19:24
  Speaker 2: how come it's not that easy to go find some
• 19:27
  Speaker 2: talent to do a project for us? Why couldn't we
• 19:30
  Speaker 2: why couldn't we have a platform that did that for us?
• 19:33
  Speaker 2: And so we just kept hearing it from our clients
• 19:36
  Speaker 2: that there had to be a better, easier, faster way,
• 19:38
  Speaker 2: cheaper way, and so we put our heads together and said, hey,
• 19:41
  Speaker 2: let's create something really amazing here. And that's how the
• 19:44
  Speaker 2: idea came about.
• 19:45
  Speaker 1: Wow, a courageous idea because you know, you know, a
• 19:49
  Speaker 1: dream is always good to have, but planning it and
• 19:53
  Speaker 1: executing it is the reality that we all fall off
• 19:57
  Speaker 1: through the clift on.
• 19:58
  Speaker 2: You know.
• 19:59
  Speaker 1: So when you started this idea, Shannon, this idea of
• 20:03
  Speaker 1: creating Ripple with your other two co founders, did you
• 20:06
  Speaker 1: start with a certain a job type or you said,
• 20:13
  Speaker 1: do you say that we're going to go with these
• 20:15
  Speaker 1: four categories of job? How did you stand to be
• 20:17
  Speaker 1: a model? What was that model?
• 20:20
  Speaker 2: Yeah? So the model, I mean, we were fortunate in
• 20:23
  Speaker 2: that we had some good contacts and so we were
• 20:26
  Speaker 2: able to build it around a couple of early customers.
• 20:30
  Speaker 2: And so we started out doing mainly you know, website design, okay,
• 20:34
  Speaker 2: and building websites for companies, and we were able to
• 20:38
  Speaker 2: win a few clients and that helped honestly fund the
• 20:42
  Speaker 2: early stage of the company because we had actual paying customers,
• 20:46
  Speaker 2: which is kind of the which is amazing, and that's
• 20:49
  Speaker 2: not always the case with startups. But we had a
• 20:52
  Speaker 2: pain customer and we actually started building the product, and
• 20:55
  Speaker 2: then we got venture capital money about eight to ten
• 20:58
  Speaker 2: months after that. We actually had some customers, we had
• 21:02
  Speaker 2: some revenue coming in, some dollars in the door, and
• 21:05
  Speaker 2: we had a little bit of a product that was
• 21:07
  Speaker 2: built through that customer, through a couple of customers that
• 21:10
  Speaker 2: hired us early stage. And so that's kind of how
• 21:13
  Speaker 2: we and we did focus on a good question. I
• 21:16
  Speaker 2: mean a lot of cases when you're building a startup,
• 21:18
  Speaker 2: you want to kind of narrow your focus to get
• 21:20
  Speaker 2: going and to and to create something that kind of
• 21:24
  Speaker 2: gets traction early, and so it may you may have
• 21:27
  Speaker 2: to kind of start smaller than your big, huge vision
• 21:31
  Speaker 2: and then and then grow the vision over time incrementally.
• 21:34
  Speaker 2: Is a very common, you know, model that you want
• 21:37
  Speaker 2: to follow and building a startup.
• 21:39
  Speaker 1: Okay, the question I'm sure everybody is asking what separates
• 21:42
  Speaker 1: you from other job related firms like an indeed, what
• 21:48
  Speaker 1: what's the difference?
• 21:50
  Speaker 2: Yeah, So I think for us it's we're what's called
• 21:54
  Speaker 2: category focus. So all we really do is marketing type positions,
• 22:00
  Speaker 2: and we really we really make the CMO and the
• 22:03
  Speaker 2: marketing organization love us because if you go on our
• 22:06
  Speaker 2: platform and you're looking to hire on demand talent, the
• 22:10
  Speaker 2: language we speak, you know, we kind of the platform
• 22:13
  Speaker 2: and the software kind of just it speaks so intimately
• 22:18
  Speaker 2: to the marketing team and they in all the different
• 22:20
  Speaker 2: job titles and the types of projects. It matches the
• 22:23
  Speaker 2: way they think and how they speak. And so when
• 22:26
  Speaker 2: you're building a startup like that, being experts in a
• 22:29
  Speaker 2: certain area is super important. And that's how we've been
• 22:32
  Speaker 2: able to compete really well against some of the bigger
• 22:36
  Speaker 2: players that have been out there longer. So we've been
• 22:37
  Speaker 2: taking business from them ever since we started, and it's
• 22:41
  Speaker 2: really because we kind of have that expertise in the
• 22:44
  Speaker 2: category and we know it cold and you know it's
• 22:47
  Speaker 2: been it's been instrumental to our momentum in the market.
• 22:50
  Speaker 1: Well, Shannon, I'll be honest with you, the philosophy that
• 22:53
  Speaker 1: you're preaching, they speak preaching to the gospel mess me.
• 22:59
  Speaker 1: You know, I I one time had eleven full time employees.
• 23:03
  Speaker 1: All my offices will failed with people I couldn't even
• 23:06
  Speaker 1: justify it. I had to give them busy work, you know,
• 23:08
  Speaker 1: to try to justify why I was paying these individuals.
• 23:12
  Speaker 1: And then when I cut it down to like six,
• 23:16
  Speaker 1: then all of a sudden, when I needed independence like
• 23:20
  Speaker 1: you like your company provides, then it became smart business model.
• 23:24
  Speaker 1: You know, the revenue made sense. I wasn't trapped at
• 23:28
  Speaker 1: every fifth and twentieth. I had a payroll, had to deliver. Now,
• 23:32
  Speaker 1: when you start talking about independence, you know what's working
• 23:36
  Speaker 1: well in the freelancer economy and what needs to be
• 23:39
  Speaker 1: worked on.
• 23:41
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I think in general, I think it's working pretty well.
• 23:45
  Speaker 2: So the data says that both the clients that hire
• 23:48
  Speaker 2: freelancers and the freelancers are satisfied. It's just, you know,
• 23:52
  Speaker 2: fully unlock the growth potential. There's a few things. I
• 23:56
  Speaker 2: think just the onboarding is always important. So if you
• 24:00
  Speaker 2: get hired as a freelancer, you want to have a
• 24:02
  Speaker 2: really clear definition of you know what you need to
• 24:06
  Speaker 2: be able to do your deliverables, what what expectations you
• 24:10
  Speaker 2: know you need to hit to keep your client happy.
• 24:13
  Speaker 2: And so I think just encouraging just a little bit
• 24:16
  Speaker 2: more clarity and getting that a little bit more professional
• 24:20
  Speaker 2: is something that we talk a lot about with our
• 24:21
  Speaker 2: clients and our freelancers, so that everybody's on the same page.
• 24:25
  Speaker 2: You know that. You know that may not sound amazingly cool,
• 24:27
  Speaker 2: but communication and expectation setting everybody being clear, it's it's
• 24:33
  Speaker 2: super important, and I think in the world of freelancing
• 24:36
  Speaker 2: it hasn't been quite as clear as when you're hiring
• 24:39
  Speaker 2: somebody full time for a job. And so we're trying
• 24:42
  Speaker 2: to make sure that the clarity is really there for
• 24:44
  Speaker 2: both sides when the projects starts.
• 24:47
  Speaker 1: As we wrap up the interview, I want to ask
• 24:49
  Speaker 1: I think a key question would be, Okay, when someone
• 24:52
  Speaker 1: comes to Riple, I'm talking about I'm an employer, I'm
• 24:54
  Speaker 1: a company. Are you locked to like a two month
• 24:58
  Speaker 1: contract or a ninety day time contract on six month contract?
• 25:01
  Speaker 1: How does that work?
• 25:03
  Speaker 2: No? Absolutely? Now that's one thing is one of the
• 25:05
  Speaker 2: things about freelancing super flexible. So first of all, you know,
• 25:10
  Speaker 2: we we have jobs that are a day a week,
• 25:15
  Speaker 2: several months, two years, so the jobs can be basically
• 25:20
  Speaker 2: any link you can imagine and so and then if
• 25:23
  Speaker 2: you know the way it works also is that if
• 25:26
  Speaker 2: it's not a right fit for either side, maybe you
• 25:28
  Speaker 2: get started to work a few days. Then you know,
• 25:31
  Speaker 2: it doesn't happen very often, but we can you know,
• 25:34
  Speaker 2: the freelancer or the company says hey, I'd like to
• 25:37
  Speaker 2: try somebody else out. Then you know that's built into
• 25:40
  Speaker 2: our model where you can kind of swap out and
• 25:42
  Speaker 2: that kind of love.
• 25:44
  Speaker 1: Yeah, you know that's important because, like I said, when
• 25:47
  Speaker 1: I was coming up in the college and the temporary
• 25:49
  Speaker 1: employment opportunities or independent worker opportunities were important to me
• 25:53
  Speaker 1: because it allowed me to work with different companies and
• 25:55
  Speaker 1: find out different personalities and find out where I wanted
• 25:58
  Speaker 1: to work, you know, was really important. What you're offering
• 26:01
  Speaker 1: now in the gig community, the independent community, the freelance
• 26:05
  Speaker 1: community is available. And Ripple the way you out there,
• 26:08
  Speaker 1: as you say, with the water, the movement, the calmness,
• 26:11
  Speaker 1: the sudden change that can change a personal life. That's
• 26:14
  Speaker 1: what you're doing with Ripple. And as we close out,
• 26:17
  Speaker 1: can you tell us the opportunities of how we can
• 26:20
  Speaker 1: reach out and touch you.
• 26:22
  Speaker 2: Yeah. And I first just want to emphasize Rashaun, you
• 26:25
  Speaker 2: opened it up by talking about you know, living the
• 26:28
  Speaker 2: dream and pursuing dreams. I mean, I think that's what
• 26:31
  Speaker 2: we're all about as well. And it's you know, it's
• 26:34
  Speaker 2: fun to be a freelancer, it's fun to be a
• 26:35
  Speaker 2: free agent. But I love your message on you got
• 26:39
  Speaker 2: to you gotta want it, and you got to be
• 26:40
  Speaker 2: good at something and you know you got to execute
• 26:43
  Speaker 2: as well. But I just want to I just want
• 26:46
  Speaker 2: to reiterate the message you kicked off this podcast with it.
• 26:49
  Speaker 2: I thought it was great. And again, just I'm on LinkedIn.
• 26:53
  Speaker 2: You can find me Shannon Detton on LinkedIn, send me
• 26:56
  Speaker 2: a message or visit our website and would love to
• 26:59
  Speaker 2: have conversation with anyone about Ripple Well, let.
• 27:03
  Speaker 1: Me tell you what are you? A seasonal guide to me?
• 27:05
  Speaker 1: You'll be talking to me again in the fall, my friend,
• 27:08
  Speaker 1: because I'm about trying to get people non traditional or
• 27:11
  Speaker 1: traditional ways of finding employment. You are a starmaker and
• 27:15
  Speaker 1: I appreciate you taking the time and an employer employer,
• 27:19
  Speaker 1: and this work works for me because a lot of
• 27:22
  Speaker 1: people out there trying to maybe in frustrating not finding
• 27:25
  Speaker 1: employment opportunities. This is a very very comfortable way of
• 27:28
  Speaker 1: pursuing it. And again, thank you Shannon for coming on
• 27:31
  Speaker 1: my show and telling us about your job assist freelance
• 27:36
  Speaker 1: gig independent thinking way of controlling your life and building
• 27:40
  Speaker 1: your dreams. That's what Ripple dot com does. Thank you
• 27:42
  Speaker 1: for coming to my show.
• 27:44
  Speaker 3: I appreciate you man, all right, thank you for joining
• 27:46
  Speaker 3: us for this edition of Money Making Conversations Masterclass. Money
• 27:50
  Speaker 3: Making Conversations Masterclass with rough Shan McDonald is produced by
• 27:55
  Speaker 3: thirty eight to fifteen Media Inc. More information about thirty
• 27:58
  Speaker 3: eight to fifteen Media Inc. Is available at thirty eight
• 28:01
  Speaker 3: fifteen media dot com. And always remember to lead with
• 28:05
  Speaker 3: your gifts