trusting myself and not listening to sort of the wisdom of conventional thinkers. Um, being very anti, um, or even is going as far as saying to be repulsed by what I was told was the rules of how, um, I had to engage a particular system or, um, industry and listening to my gut and doing what I thought was best.I mean, there's way too many Thio. There's so many so many people that played major roles on and so many. I think the biggest one was probably, um, interacting with the entertainer Jay Z ah at an early age. And him and his two partners, Damon Dash and Karim Burke, sort of recognized, um, an acumen to run businesses and and manage businesses, but also having the creative vision to, um, kind of color outside the lines. And they had purchased a consulting company that I was running in Philadelphia, kind of during and after business school. And they, um, took a chance on me and made me a partner and the co CEO of Rockefeller Records and Rock Brands. And I was able to through that relationship, travel all over the world. And it's sort of, uh, made me fall in love with fashion, entertainment and, um, and a lot of different other aspects that a za consultant I wasn't, um I wasn't exposed. Thio

we started off as a za media platform exclusively, um, understanding that there was an underserved market for youth and urban consumers. Um, urban Just meaning, um, people living in large metropolis is, um that were very interested in outdoor lifestyle and culture, but and and we're also used to media like G Q and Vogue and Hype Beast and and kind of similar mawr, progressive media platforms, channels and in the outdoor space. It was very, very conservative and very conventional. And so we started initially thinking that we would be the bridge between, um between urban and outdoor. And that was six years ago. And over the last, uh, two years, we started to drastically evolve the product to where the offering to involve, um, the development of different collaborations and fashion products and gear products. We also are getting ready to launch another brand right now called Fish Thing, which is dedicated on a dedicated lifestyle brand for angling for fishing. Um, and that's all based around us having access to our own data and reading those tea leaves if you will, um, that we saw the opportunity Thio serve and, you know, kind of a hole in the marketplace of, um, the same approach that we took for starting vanished media. We realized that we could do the same thing, um, for fishing. And we're doing the same thing now with a technology which is being developed and another, uh, Siris of products under the name Vanish like wearable products. Um, which will be out later this year but focused on winter 21.

Well, in the beginning, I mean, it's it's difficult, because when I started this one, I was So, um, I was Ah, I was a senior partner, like a cameras. And I had at the same time I had launched, um, with Adidas, I had developed their their innovation platform, Dida's future craft. And so I was operating on such a, uh, mhm a large global level, Um, that startups at that point become yeah, a different a different ballgame than if you're doing them as a student or you're kind of in experienced, um, doing it the, um kind of have to figure out how to hold my camera. Sorry, um, that I was wrapping up these two projects with, like, a and Adidas. And I was having a conversation with a gentleman named Aaron Levante, a colleague of mine that had started the agenda trade show in Los Angeles. And he's he's basically he created the center of the global streetwear industry, and we he and I have been talking about how there there was more and more, um, more and more influence and interaction from traditional outdoor brands inside of his space. And we were just kind of predicting how that would increase drastically. And we just made the decision. I made the decision to kind of start vanishes a passion project, and I No. So it started very organically. There was no business plan. There was no which, which I'm a relentless and ferocious planner and strategist. But this was just this organic love where I wanted to do something because it didn't exist in the marketplace and I wanted it. I really want it. The product that we offer now, I wanted it to exist, and it didn't, um and so we just It was more about putting the brand into the market place than it was, um, funding, like putting a business plan together that required that was required for a round of capitalization, which didn't happen. I I self funded, um, the venture for, uh, to date. So, um, it's a different set of circumstances. It's I would never recommend that. But I would also never recommend somebody not pursuing adventure based on the sort of conventional wisdom that you put a fully fleshed out business plan together and you're going to business school. Um, this is exactly how you do it. This is how it's been done. You're reviewing dozens of case studies and listening to success stories of how you know Warby Parker became Warby Parker. Or, you know, Twitter became Twitter or whatnot. And it's There's just this something that is often not talk, which is just You have to do it. You just have to jump. Um, you can't over think it. The first steps are, um, taking a very lean, agile approach and just getting the product or the idea of the product the brand into the marketplace and watching the market's reaction to it and then adjusting accordingly. There's too many people that never get off the ground. Um, get in idea off the ground because they're scared to pull the trigger. Or they did not check all of the boxes that they learned in business school that need to be checked thio that need to be checked to before a product to be launched or are what not when I'm when I'm talking the younger entrepreneurs I'm like, Look, if you have the brand and you can just put together a good identity and a good message and you can get it into the marketplace, um you know, do that. You don't need any money to do that. You just need passion, um, and and and then move accordingly. Um, you know, you don't have to If it's, uh, if the idea, especially, is a lifestyle driven idea, it's better to have that brand in the market place than it is to have the perfect business plan. Um, especially for things like media and entertainment and fashion.