E11 - The Great Rebranding

If you're interested in the visuals for this episode, check them out on our Twitter @StartupRecorded

Agenda:

• Review proposal from Creative for new names - start saying goodbye to Meta Market!

Takeaways:

• Consider the name ideas… must decide on something soon.
• Reconsider partnerships with dating apps
• Kate to read all the updated contracts NCIS sent over
• Thea to reach out to the typeface contractor and work through their unique pricing, perhaps while at sea

Transcript

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Ben 0:00

for this episode, you might want to see some visuals. You can find them on our Twitter at startup recorded. welcome to this startup is being recorded. This recording is improvised fiction. Similarities between it and the real world are entirely intentional. Now enjoy the recording.

Kate 0:27

Okay. Our recording is on. Thea. It's so great to have you back. Uh, I feel like the new year really kicks off today. So we have a exciting meeting today. We're finally going to see the results of the creative team's work of our new name. Um, I guess for anyone who's jumping into this meeting without context, uh, we are called market, but you know, that name has, is being bought from us by Facebook. So. Kind of traded in a way, I would say it's sort of like a barter deal, but, uh, anyway. Yeah. So let's just quickly introduce ourselves and then jump right in. Um,

Thea 1:10

I can start. Yeah, I'm I will be presenting the creative today because I am the chief creative czar of Metro market. Uh, soon to be dead named.

Kate 1:23

dead name. Yeah. I'm Kate Blanchet. I'm the chief of staff. I work under John. I should say that he plan to watch this recording, um, is what he told me. So will make sure to send it to him. He, he did say he has his projector set up in his game room. So I assume that's for this, but yeah, he's, he's not coming, but I'll

Thea 1:45

I did share some of these ideas and full disclosure to John, um, when he came for the campaign when in Des Moines, for the couch. So yeah, we he's seen a couple of these ideas.

Eric 2:01

great.

Matt 2:03

I can't believe you got to see John at how, how did he look?

Thea 2:07

He seemed, you know, he was John, you know, very standoffish. I mean, he was there, he big, you know, gave the couches, acceptance speech. And then I turned around right when the balloon stropped and keep with God.

Matt 2:26

yeah.

Thea 2:28

So I'm glad I cornered him in the green room and locked the door for, know, 20 minutes to just get some feedback and, know, have my peace with him. But, uh, you know, he seems fine and healthy and non-existent.

Kate 2:47

I'm so glad to hear he's healthy now. Um,

Matt 2:51

well, probably healthy for John, right.

Thea 2:54

Yeah, I mean, yes, exactly. He, you know, was making the attempt of drinking a green smoothie in the morning and like that's so different than his normal diet of, you know, Doritos and pizza rolls and a combination and kind of a cereal format.

Kate 3:14

right.

Matt 3:15

uh, anyway, we should, uh, I guess carry

Thea 3:16

Yeah.

Matt 3:17

my name is, uh, Matt, matt.yachts. And, uh, that's also my domain where you can learn more about me. the CTO here at, uh, the company soon to no longer be named.

Eric 3:28

Yep. Uh, and I am Eric Joyce Carter, uh, chief products, officer of. Companies formerly known as Metta market. That's still, still currently, soon.

Matt 3:40

yeah, yeah. Really excited today.

Eric 3:43

Yeah.

Matt 3:44

Kelsey, I know your team has been really hard at work clocking a lot of hours for this one. And uh, it's just kind of exciting and like, I don't know who.

Thea 3:55

Yeah. I mean, I am so excited to be back as most of, you know, you know, I just spent the past of weeks on a holiday slash baby moon to prep for this, just so I could feel really refreshed. And like, I'm kind of seeing these ideas for the first time myself to, you know, so think. They have come from my brain. I'm just saying that I either have refreshed and like I'm seeing them with new eyes and I'm in a new light. So really excited. I am going to share these with you.

Kate 4:32

Yeah,

Thea 4:33

right.

Kate 4:33

we, got the big screen set up for this.

Thea 4:37

Yeah. So.

Matt 4:38

yeah. Okay.

Thea 4:40

I know groundbreaking so big. And it's honestly, one we really tried to simmer down. know, we literally put a couch, a part of a couch into a. Crock-Pot and we let it simmer for a little bit while we all watched it and kind of like rift ideas off of while we were taking in that kind of exhaust. Um, and this is what came out of it. it is pronounced CIT, uh, just like everybody does on a couch, but really brings imbues kind of a fresh way to look at a word that we see every day.

Matt 5:24

Wow.

Kate 5:25

yeah.

Matt 5:26

Yeah. I'm noticing some stuff here. Um, are those, are those pedals, are they, do they actually represent couch cushions? Uh, almost feels a little plant, like.

Thea 5:36

So they are, they represent like two cushions of a couch. So really more of a love seat. We could add a third one, you know, there, depending on how big, and we don't know the future. I mean, sometime, someday, like most people will have sectionals for six seats. And so we can really scale this design based on what our consumers are really going for.

Kate 5:59

yeah. See, I just worry that SYT will come out site or see it. Or

Eric 6:08

was going to bring this up too. I was kind of excited that it might be seat. Um, we could kind of hold on to seat at the table as part of our vision.

Matt 6:17

it. I, I hate to be this person. I'm sure this came up in creative, but you know, it's, it's one letter off from, well, from shit. Like we could just add an Asian there. I feel like that's just going to be a really easy dig, uh, from our detractors.

Thea 6:39

Yes, but, you know, they would have to deal with the shit S H Y T actual toilet paper brand, you know? Um,

Matt 6:49

that's true.

Thea 6:50

yes, they could come at us, but also they'd be doing copyright and Frenchman. It kind of makes it easy for us to, uh, get them trapped respect.

Matt 7:00

how does that trademark, uh, have we talked with their trademark people? Because we are very close. Like both products are used in a seated position. We both have like strong seating by.

Thea 7:12

Yeah. I mean, that is honestly a really good point. Um, if we were to go down this road, we would have to kind of sit down with that company. I know their creative director really well, and we could, think, hash it out a couple of days at sea.

Matt 7:26

I just loved it though. When you said like sit

Eric 7:28

yeah.

Matt 7:29

kind of heard it in the

Thea 7:30

Yeah.

Matt 7:32

like, we're a, we're a verb, right? If we're CIT.

Kate 7:36

So if this was our name, would we all be centered? Cities CIT

Thea 7:44

I

Eric 7:45

Citizens?

Kate 7:46

citizen.

Thea 7:47

especially with our recent win in Des Moines. Citizens feels so.

Eric 7:57

Well,

Kate 7:57

how

Eric 7:58

wow.

Thea 7:58

I, we have more,

Eric 8:00

Yeah. How many are there? Wow.

Thea 8:02

um, this is an X one, um, so fast, a really combines, obviously our focus on couches at the moment without tying us to couches, uh, as strongly as. Did, by, by having it almost like the arrow in the FedEx logo, you know, it's part of it, but you don't really see it until you, until you like really stare at it for awhile and it adds fast. So it really builds on Kate's work, you know, really in getting out our, and making sure our sofas get to people fast. Um, so it really talks not only about what we do, but also the movement of that this company.

Kate 8:47

uh, sorry, what was the, the arrow FedEx? Is there something I'm missing and so far?

Thea 8:53

Well it's so far.

Matt 8:56

or so, so fuzz, I was reading a sofas

Thea 8:59

Yeah. Yeah So like sofas. Or sofa, but so fast would be the name.

Kate 9:07

you know, I, I kind of like it because I have been eyeing an office property on sofa street, down in Ellicott city. So this would be kind of like our address and our new.

Matt 9:23

wow.

Thea 9:25

Yeah. So you know, another idea there's going to be more creativity coming at you. So I'll just go to the next one. Another very simple version lounge. Uh, we really thought when we thought about lounge, we went. We liked it. Cause it was not only something you do on a couch similar to sit, but it is also a place where people come together. you think about the wake, you felt at a lounge, it's like happy, it's chill, it's connected. And so we felt like lounge, not only conveyed what people do with our product, but also our values as a company.

Matt 10:10

Yeah, that's an interesting one. Something about this, uh, this layout I F I feel like I've read this magazine. Is this a magazine type? Or was that just, I'm not super well-versed in design, but this just kind of pops for me.

Thea 10:26

Yeah. I mean, it isn't a magazine child, but, um, magazine, but it is, um, done in that kind of style to really, we went with like a dictionary look for this. And I should say to that, like, you know, creative, we put in design elements with the name to kind of make it pop, but. We're not set on having this design this word, but for this one, as you can see, we really wanted it to look like, uh, somebody had highlighted it in a dictionary because it is such, we want people to really think the meaning of the word.

Kate 11:03

Oh, you know, the highlight is so interesting because I thought the yellow box was us looking down on a yellow sofa.

Thea 11:13

That is interesting.

Matt 11:15

Okay.

Kate 11:15

Yeah.

Thea 11:17

when you look at the name, if we added another, another long letter, like lounge jet, it would

Matt 11:25

Um,

Thea 11:26

form a sofa.

Matt 11:29

Hmm. Right. You can see it. Yeah. There's a, there's a little bit too much arm rest on this sofa, but otherwise I see it. Uh, yeah.

Thea 11:38

more of a fainting couch right now, you know, I think you could, I

Matt 11:44

it's just in the living room of one of those people that puts too many pillows on the edge and they've really just padded it out too far.

Thea 11:52

I mean, we will definitely do our custom typeface for this, so we can also play with the spacing of the letter so we could keep lounge, but we make a really extended E kind of short defy the G

Kate 12:04

Got it.

Thea 12:05

good, good food.

Kate 12:07

yeah. Speaking of which we probably should talk about the rates that the custom typeface contractor is sending. They're getting a little bit Um, guess I don't understand why they have to charge per.

Thea 12:22

they're I mean, each letter will have its own intrinsic meaning to it, know?

Matt 12:30

There's also a lot of work that goes into making a typeface that we can use both in print and the formats associated with that. And they've been great about sending us, uh, you know, web ready fonts and, uh, working to make sure that they're hosting that all for us. And, uh, we're not, you know, eating that bandwidth. Um, from a technical standpoint, like they're definitely carrying some weight. I don't know what the numbers look like.

Kate 12:54

Yeah, no, they they've started charging us by size too. So if we could stick to like the 32 12 that'd be great.

Thea 13:05

Okay. I mean, Once we get, once we hammer what, see how many this down, let me know. I know the design director there, and I'm sure that there's nothing of this that can't be solved after a couple of days at sea.

Kate 13:19

Okay.

Eric 13:20

well, sorry, sorry. Kela Theo. Do you mean CES or at sea? Like on the.

Thea 13:27

Um, on the ocean. Yeah, yeah, actually, um, um, yeah, I, I don't know if I told you guys this, but, uh, as part of my baby moon, I was sailing and just realized that so much of life can be worked out on a boat. Like, I feel like my with my son slash bugs be really honestly, Improved when I realized what it was like to be trapped at sea in the Arctic. And, um, I'm just bringing that into.

Kate 14:00

last.

Thea 14:01

Yeah. Yeah. I, I stopped into Moines, obviously to, you know, deal with the couch when, and then, uh, chartered a sea plane to take me up to the Arctic circle. So I could out at sea without a paddle, um, on a boat to really what that was like. And just came back a changed woman. Like, can I say.

Matt 14:25

my gosh. Well, very glad you made it.

Thea 14:29

Yeah, thank you. And, but Kate, you will notice as part of that experience, I have built in a pretty robust sailing budget into marketing budget this year.

Kate 14:40

Okay, let's keep going.

Thea 14:44

let's continue. All right. So this next one, uh, we talked about, you know, what are the values of a couch that you really want and comfy kept coming up as you know, but we don't want to be comfy here. Comfy speaks of without movement without direction, you know, something that's safe and we don't want to be necessarily safe. So we wanted something that. Comfy, but also stellar. And so that's where comes in complete.

Matt 15:19

It's like comfy plus like on fleek.

Thea 15:23

Yeah. Complete.

Matt 15:25

man.

Thea 15:27

It is. Yes. But I, I think, you know, are. Design and language elements that transcend time, know, that are just like, you might not use them every day, but you kind of understand what they intrinsically feel like. And we feel like fleek is one of those that you might not know what the references, but it sounds, you know, something a little bit more debonair.

Matt 15:54

I'm just worried about like the original meme was also like kind of an appropriation, uh, especially the way it was. Uh, let's just say taken white culture online, although that's not where it started. Uh, I just worried about that for, for us. I know it's, there's some distance of time there it's safe, but, uh, could we get some blowback?

Thea 16:19

Matt. That's a really good point. I think that, I think I like the spirit of this, but you bring up really good points about the word. And so maybe one of the things that creative can do is really back and figure out a different word to represent this feeling.

Kate 16:38

other thing I just, this font that, oh, kind of looks like a U I don't know if the font and the

Matt 16:47

Oh,

Kate 16:48

together.

Matt 16:49

hadn't, I hadn't noticed.

Thea 16:53

Yes, Kate I'm, I'm not shocked. You notice that, you know, uh, given how much

Kate 17:00

This has

Thea 17:00

energy you have head tough.

Kate 17:02

No.

Thea 17:04

Um, but yes, uh you're right. That could be something pretty dangerous. So, right. Uh, we will ceremonially burn com fleek, uh, and. Continue on, and now this is a crazy one, but, uh, we, you know, one thing that was brought up is like, we already have the very strong Bugsby brand. if we just did like a bug Spiess place or some reference of bugs, be kind of like a Craigslist kind of thing. know, like he's already this very lovable, you know, person, and we could just build on the bugs boot brand versus trying to create two brands.

Eric 17:43

Oh, it's hard to say no to that.

Matt 17:45

Yeah. It's tough though, to think about bugs, be like involved in my own furniture. Like I, I think a Bugsby as like a Narnia esque representation of what it's like to live in a world where furniture and fantasy are one. And I think bringing that over into an app and I can, I can push a button and like, imagine Bugsby driving a van to bring a couch to me. I don't know. It takes away some of them. Yeah.

Thea 18:16

I totally understand that it's a little bit blahzay for the bug speed brand and I can see, you know, how that could hurt us in the end. I also think that like, know, uh, this is something that we haven't really ran by bug SPI and we don't know how he's gonna feel. And let's also say that, you know, with any, when you link your brand to. Any sort of living and breathing thing, uh, you really run the reputational risk of bugs me is really great and great for our brand now, but we don't know who bikes beasts going to grow up to be in the future.

Matt 18:50

That is, so this is why is parenting Califia

Thea 18:54

Thank you.

Matt 18:56

I feel like just for a moment I had this worry of like, is what we do not cool enough for Bugsby and I think the answer is yes. And so I can only imagine what you've been going through with the last week, since.

Thea 19:09

yeah, it is, it is really difficult to really think about my role as fostering the next generation, you know? Um, and what that really means.

Kate 19:21

wait, it's bugs. We going to have like children or something.

Thea 19:24

I mean, that is up to bikes B I don't, you know, really get into his life plans. And I think he's, he's really too young to really be considering that. But, you know, if that's something that's in his future, I totally support it. Let's, let's move away from Bugsby. Uh, this is the next one, Trump, uh, we thought about making like more of a luxury one, just to see if that was something that felt S for a brand. You know, if we wanted to do something that felt a little more glitz and glamor, uh, we a lot of research actually into famous chairs and couches, uh, Versailles actually was one of. Biggest innovators in chair design. And so we thought about doing something around, you know, Versailles or around like Kings and, you know, it's just very difficult in this time to talk about monarchies. Uh, you know, it's not, it's not as popular, so we ended up just taking the Frenchness of it. And so this is the French word for throat. Um, and so we thought this could be like a fun way and we've like thrown it really elevates what a chair or a couch could be.

Matt 20:43

well, yeah, I feel like I can almost smell the cigar smoke coming off of this. Like this is this, this is a brand that at least thinks it's very Luxe.

Eric 20:56

and I like that the journey, you know, to take as we, as we try and reshape global trade, I mean, Versailles. Monarchy was supposed a stop along the way. We've kind of moved past it. We've got the good luxury elements of it, but maybe left some of the other stuff behind we've left the age behind that's there's a lot of, a lot of, a lot of through lines there.

Thea 21:21

Yeah.

Matt 21:22

wondering what this is going to do. Not that, you know, we have any French city rollouts coming up, but like the French in particular have a relationship with monarchy that we may not want to take.

Eric 21:37

That will affect the year four roadmap.

Thea 21:39

It's true. And I do like, you know, like a crown, want us to just try this on? I don't think that this is at the end, what we're going to go for, but I want us to really expand our idea of like what this logo and brand could be. So I wanted to think to. Push us, because I think, you know, the other ones, like I said, they've been comfy, they've been loungy. They've been, you know, really, um, familiar. And so just what it is. See, looked like let's try on what if our brand was something aloof and exclusive

Matt 22:10

know, one thing we haven't talked about the Metta market name was great because it gave us the opportunity to say, obviously we're doing multiple things. Uh, and, uh, I feel like one thing we're in danger of is locking ourselves into one thing. Uh, maybe we could pick multiple ones of these and, uh, you know, we've talked about chairs, they're just couches for one, could be, uh, could be, we do a, a niche, like a throne section of the app. That's a, Hey, forget a couch for your friends and family. This is for you. This is your.

Thea 22:45

I like that. I like having an exclusive part of the website that only certain people can unlock. You know, it's very good.

Matt 22:52

interesting.

Kate 22:54

Yeah, I mean, we kind of had something like that for a time. Um, it was kind of on accident when we only supported that one upscale. Uh, browser safari version. Um, and there was only people who had hadn't updated their computers for three years that could use it.

Eric 23:12

oh yeah.

Kate 23:14

this does feel different than that.

Thea 23:18

Yeah.

Matt 23:18

Yeah, I bet there's not a lot of overlap between those two specifics.

Kate 23:23

No.

Thea 23:26

All right. So we're, gonna think about it. Um,

Matt 23:30

what else? we got?

Thea 23:32

So this is our next one. So we really wanted to go out of the box with this one. Like what if we just threw. Couches. Okay. It's in the box literally, but figuratively. We wanted to break the box and think about like, did we want to do? So we thought about assess who is the Greek God, a building and furniture. And we thought, Ooh, that's great, but we don't want to be really on the nose. So we just shortened it to Estis thought this is a good one. That's just something totally different. But also. It's a God who forges things. And so it really gives us a really big brand malleability, you know, like he's the God of fire and building any sort of thing you want, you know, and gold foraging. I mean, the possibilities are endless.

Matt 24:20

Yeah. Um, I have two, two things here. Sorry, Kate. Um, I just want to check something to be sure.

Kate 24:28

Yeah. Yeah. I was just going to ask that about there's really a Greek God of furniture.

Thea 24:35

That was like one of his minor duties, you know, he had key, he did a lot,

Matt 24:41

The first thing, uh, that I wanted to check, I verified this is. The Estis rocket brand. I was thinking of that spelled with an E S um, they, there are close, but I think obviously we do different things. this is another one letter away. if you drop an R in there, I don't know if anybody else noticed that.

Kate 25:06

I was thinking about adding a T

Eric 25:10

Rest us

Matt 25:10

see what you're going there.

Eric 25:12

rest us is good.

Matt 25:14

Are you going to rest us would, would be good. I was, uh, it was referring to two Astros kind of like the female reproductive cycle term.

Thea 25:22

Oh, I see.

Kate 25:24

mm.

Thea 25:26

Yeah. I don't actually think that's a problem. I mean, we could use a lot more, um, femininity and, um, you know, life into our brains.

Matt 25:38

Yeah.

Kate 25:40

Yeah, we, we have made at one of our goals to try to even out our demographics, you know, for some reason, a lot of men buy couches from us.

Thea 25:51

And if you think about that time period, it's a time in which a woman is open to implantation, know, and this is us being open to new ideas and new, new bounds and, you know, uh, new opportunities.

Matt 26:07

I'm just worried about us coming back around to some of the app tie-ins that we have rejected in the past, um, things. You know, grinder and, and other hookup apps. Um,

Kate 26:21

Or, or trying to market to women while they're on their period, because you know, they're super emotional and interested in purchasing things.

Thea 26:29

That was a. A fault on my part. Um, you know, I, but I still think, um, you know, that partnership with the period tracker app led to a lot of sales.

Kate 26:45

dead.

Matt 26:47

it was a, it was a very thoroughly learned. And do you know when a startup gets one of those? We're grateful.

Thea 26:54

That's right. All right. Um, only have a couple more, I'll just go this wide our boats out of the POCs wide. Yeah, I know. I know it is a very shocking, as a non, um, so the Sanskrit word for chair is awesome and we were just kind of. Beth at our mantra as we were like trying to suss out like what we wanted this to be. And so like we, as the creative team were just like Austin on Austin, on Austin, on, then it's just like really formed into ass Anon. And I know having a course word in your name, it can be very scary, but I think we see, we're seeing a lot of like really daring brands, you know, use curse word. In their, in their marketing. Can, you know, like how many. Brands you see, you'd like to, know, I don't know, like the fuck up or, you know, I'm S like as fuck is like such a, you know, sexy as fuck, you know, couches, fuck, whatever, like those, those have been, you know, more into it. So I think it, it is definitely risky. Again, this is one that we put in to really push you. But we also think that obviously asks refers to the, but that is where couches said kind of, um, felt, well, it gave us two things. One, it kind of felt like, uh, we, like, we were so addicted to couches, you know, like we had. Get into, you know, we had to like get into like an AA K program, but we also felt like non, the internet is really about being able to meet new people that you wouldn't in your social circles. So like also a non in the sense that like we're building these points of relationships between strangers.

Eric 28:54

yeah, this feels like maybe we could do this for like a web three offshoot, a decentralized network. It could be this, but I dunno, it feels, really, it feels, you know, it's, it's bold, but I can't see the reach. Uh, you know, I can't see. I can't say keeping de Moines this.

Matt 29:16

That is true. We ran on some strong family value stuff.

Kate 29:21

I know

Matt 29:22

Like really strong

Kate 29:24

the fundamentalist Christians for Metta market Facebook group, I don't know how they would respond to.

Thea 29:30

I hear that. I'm, I'm just saying sometimes we wanna market to the people that we want, you know, and, um, is one that might, you know, get us into new markets.

Kate 29:43

That is true.

Matt 29:44

Yeah. I mean, this, this has me, uh, circling back around again to. Maybe we were too hasty with some of these potential partnerships and, uh, I

Eric 29:56

man, true.

Matt 29:57

sounds like it would go right in with a combination, uh, hookup matchmaking app and, uh, furniture delivery and pick up in cleaning.

Thea 30:08

I mean as, as the rep from Grindr has reminded us many times before 80% of their hookups happen on couches.

Matt 30:17

Yeah, well, you know, if we don't end up using it and maybe, maybe.

Thea 30:22

Yeah. Great.

Kate 30:23

Yeah,

Thea 30:24

that's true.

Eric 30:26

license it. Yeah.

Thea 30:28

Yeah. Um, this last one I just put in there, um, just again, as an idea, um, one was really born out of a particularly dark time. Um, this is. Holly ITAs phallus Memorial, uh, that being the Latin word for bald Eagle. And I just thought if we wanted to lead a, to our

Eric 30:57

Uh,

Thea 30:58

heart wrenching failure as an organization to protect bald Eagles, um, we could like really honor, um, our follaide Fred.

Eric 31:15

wow.

Matt 31:16

I, um, I really love where your heart is at on this one. Um, pretty sure this would be a strong admission of guilt, which our lawyers have advised not to do. Uh, anything like, um, us, it is very.

Kate 31:33

do not believe that we are guilty. I still honestly think those Instagram pictures of the Eagle on the couch are damning evidence against, uh, that gets that owner.

Thea 31:47

know I just be still comes in my dreams to me. It's just, it's bit of,

Kate 31:52

a doctor for that.

Thea 31:54

oh, please. It's been a really rough time. Okay. Like was basically a boat with that Eagle by a tire trip in the Arctic. It was just sitting there, like me to a atone for my sins. I'm sorry, I just threw this one in there just as like a thought. Uh, cause it's definitely the only thing I buy by these days.

Kate 32:17

okay.

Eric 32:17

I'm glad you got it on paper.

Thea 32:19

Thank you. I appreciate that. Um, yeah. So, um, I just want to all for some of those ideas. Obviously we don't have to decide today. You really want to, I want you guys to really ruminate on all of these. I just have one more.

Matt 32:37

Oh, great. Wow.

Thea 32:40

Kate did you think I would not find out about ed C I S do you think I would not find out about the fact that my son is working with bark? Habbad

Kate 32:54

I thought I knew you'd find out. I thought you'd be happy. You know, um, bugs beat bugs me needs to make us money. Okay. And this is a way to do it.

Thea 33:08

I put this as a logo idea. That's the dead don't sit because I've been ruminating my murderous thoughts for a while, you know? And it is true. If you think about it, the deadly laid down, they don't sit, they just don't have the muscles to actually sit up.

Kate 33:26

I mean,

Matt 33:26

true. They can be posed in a seated position, but

Eric 33:30

really

Matt 33:30

not.

Thea 33:32

Right. They're not

Eric 33:33

Oh.

Thea 33:33

themselves. Um, but also because I'm, I have had a long standing grudge with mark Haman since I was a teenager at the entertainment industry at

Kate 33:48

I don't know that. I

Thea 33:49

I will destroy and see yes from the inside.

Kate 33:57

wait, wait, wait, wait. No, no, no. Th this bugs me appearance in Antaeus has to go, well, it has to go well.

Thea 34:05

It will go well, we'll go well for

Eric 34:07

Well, what happened to

Thea 34:09

for Califia.

Eric 34:10

happened to Bugsby is his own person, his own entity. You've got to let bugs be go Califia you cannot push her grudge through.

Thea 34:19

I know he wants to do this, and I know this is his dream, but I have to protect him. can't let mark. Clabby little hands up. My bore precious boy.

Eric 34:31

bugs me is 22. He can handle himself.

Matt 34:36

I think of myself at 22, I was I

Eric 34:38

that's true.

Matt 34:41

that said, mean, legally now that emancipated as his own person, there's not a whole lot we can do. they're paying handsomely for the appearance.

Kate 34:53

Yeah. And we get most of that. I mean, the

Matt 34:57

I'm

Kate 34:57

bit goes to lawyers, but

Matt 34:59

I know. Like, he just became his own person. And as his mother, this has gotta be really hard for you.

Thea 35:07

It's really hard.

Kate 35:09

set or anything to do. You.

Thea 35:12

Of course I went on set.

Kate 35:15

Uh, why did you go on set

Thea 35:19

Did you really think that I was at the Arctic this past week? Do you know how difficult it is to get to the Arctic this past week?

Matt 35:28

Sounds very callous.

Kate 35:30

to the architect where you at all week?

Thea 35:33

Yes, it was the Arctic of my soul.

Kate 35:39

I thought when they messaged me and sent all those emails about the contract changes that, I don't know, they sent it to the wrong person.

Thea 35:48

Why do you think. I so keep to negotiate things at C I reasonably solid its effect.

Kate 35:57

wait. So you were at sea, you just weren't in the area.

Eric 36:01

That was it and see.

Thea 36:04

and CIS, I was there. and I was negotiating for bugs be okay. And sometimes when there's negotiations go wrong, you go out on a boat with mark.

Eric 36:20

you were at sea

Thea 36:22

Yeah. Obviously they feel that LA LA is at the sea. Okay. I can do both.

Eric 36:29

isn't that where see asses nothing vague.

Matt 36:32

That's Vegas. That's Vegas.

Thea 36:33

Yeah.

Eric 36:35

so much.

Kate 36:36

Okay, well, let's review all that together. Um, I hope mark. Hammond's okay. I mean, I'm glad you're okay.

Thea 36:46

He knows what.

Matt 36:49

can I just say I'm a little bit obsessed with this, the dead

Eric 36:51

yeah, we've got.

Matt 36:54

It's really like of all of those fitness brands that were coming for us on Twitter thinking they were so clever. feel like it's important to remember, like, Hey, you push yourself so hard, you just, like you were saying about me and my Peloton, like, uh, you got to rest, you have to take breaks dead don't sit. So sit while you're alive.

Kate 37:17

I feel like all the logos about death than life. And I don't know if that's exactly where we want to go. I feel the same way about the French monarchy thing, but,

Matt 37:28

Yeah, there's the, do you know if there's a brand identity and then there's an ad campaign?

Thea 37:32

And blood red is already in our brand kit. So wouldn't have to change a lot of the colors for this.

Kate 37:39

Okay. Well, w we have so much to think about, um, I'm we got through everything. Um,

Thea 37:48

I think you're right. I think this is the logo. mean, I've always said the best creativity is out of the darkness of my soul and

Kate 37:57

your

Eric 37:57

forcing rumination.

Matt 37:59

E yeah. What sleep.

Kate 38:03

Yeah.

Matt 38:04

dreamless Eagleford.

Kate 38:06

I'll give you some of my meds yet. You really should use them. We're at a good place. We're at a good place. This is further than we were half an hour ago. Um, I think, I think we should adjourn, you know, bull, you can send these out to everyone via email, I assume. And we'll review.

Thea 38:28

Yeah, we can all think of. Thank Y this is the right one.

Matt 38:34

okay. It's Thea. Thank you so much

Eric 38:37

Yeah, this. is

Matt 38:38

you to

Eric 38:38

amazing.

Kate 38:40

Okay.

Thea 38:40

I said Nana.

Kate 38:42

oh, did you just say as asinine?

Thea 38:45

I said, uh, yeah. So the mantra that we were coming up with.

Kate 38:50

sure. I also think maybe it's not a good idea for us to keep that mantra. Let's just say that oddly, around the office, I've noticed the creative team doing that and just kind of overlooked it the last few days. Um, Okay. I'll stop the recording and we'll come back to.

Ben 39:09

This meeting has ended. To subscribe to this startup is being recorded. Go to the podcast player of your choice and tap a button that likely says subscribe. More content is on Twitter at startup recorded, or shoot us an email with ideas, feedback, or your personal startup horror story. At hello@startuprecorded.com. Kate is played by Valerie Garrison. Valerie is a health tech product manager and regularly plays with the improv troupe letters to chicken online. You can find her on Twitter at thevalgarris eric has played by Barry wright Barry is a product manager at Spotify and a co-founder of Highwire Improv. Find him by his name on LinkedIn, where he holds regular office hours or at highwireimprov.com Matt is played by Martin Mcguire. Marty is a senior web engineer and improviser in New York city. You can find Marty's comedy code and cats on his website at M M G dot R E. Calathea is played by Robyn Stegman. Robyn is a digital campaign manager for ocean Conservancy and is a comedian mostly found at Highwire improv. You can find her on all the social medias. And she does mean all at rsteggy thank you for listening.