The Twenty Minute VC (20VC): Venture Capital | Startup Funding | The Pitch
00:34:46 · Harry Stebbings, Matteo Franceschetti
[00:34:46] S1: What do you think people don't consider about consumer brand enough? [00:34:49] S0: The brand, particularly, I think, in Silicon Valley. I think in Silicon Valley, we understand really well building the best product, but I think we underestimate the importance of brand. Then a great brand with a shitty product goes nowhere. So first is product, but then you need to be able to build a brand that is aspirational and can command a certain price. [00:35:09] S1: Charles Leclerc is a phenomenal talent, for those that don't know, in the racing world, one of the best. How does that come to be? You get a DM from Charles saying, I love Eight Sleep, do you wanna sponsor me? How does that come to be?
00:35:09 · Harry Stebbings, Matteo Franceschetti
[00:35:09] S1: Charles Leclerc is a phenomenal talent, for those that don't know, in the racing world, one of the best. How does that come to be? You get a DM from Charles saying, I love Eight Sleep, do you wanna sponsor me? How does that come to be? [00:35:21] S0: Yeah. Well, it's pretty incredible, the story. So we got connected. So Charles already had our product for two years before we met, and we didn't even know. And that is the best way, obviously, for us to start the relationship. Then I'm an F1 and motorsport obsessed fan. Like, obsessed. I know everything since when kids racing go karts. So I knew about Charles six, seven years before he got into F1. And three years before F1, he was racing two years before he was racing in F2. And at the time, I reach out to his team in F2, and I say, I'm a huge Charles fan. I think you will make it big. Is there any way where Eight Sleep can sponsor him? But at the time, Eight Sleep was very tiny, and so we couldn't find any real deal. But when I met Charles, I still had the email, where I was not going back and forth with his team, and I wanted to sponsor him before he even made it to F1, not to Ferrari, before F1. And then I shared with him our vision, our medical vision. He really cares about that, and he's actually really into AI. He's incredible. Super sharp guy, super into AI. And we had dinner together, I think it was the Wednesday of the GP in Miami. And before the end of the dinner, we said, We're work together. And the deal, since then, was done in a matter of days. [00:36:34] S1: Can I ask how much did it cost?
00:36:34 · Harry Stebbings, Matteo Franceschetti
[00:36:34] S1: Can I ask how much did it cost? [00:36:36] S0: No, I'll say I No, you can't. Can't What I can tell you is that Charles invested in Eight Sleep. I was honestly, first, really happy because he was one of my heroes, but second, I think that proves what I was telling you, smart he is also as an entrepreneur and a businessman. [00:36:54] S1: Can I ask you, I think a lot more celebrities and athletes are obviously trying to be investors and wanting to invest today than ever before? What would be your biggest advice to other founders on how to get them and how to get the most out of them as a founder of a company? [00:37:07] S0: Well, we made a lot of mistakes with that too. And now it's probably four or five years that we invest in sport, because obviously we have charts, but we were sponsoring the UAE team with Pogacar. Pogacar was installing our product every single night at each hotel of each stage of the Tour de France since last year, and we didn't even know. He won last year, and then he won this year. So they reach out after the first year and say, Look, Pogacchar did everything on his own. We bought the product, now everybody in the team wants it. Can we do something together? So we sponsor the UAE team this year. And then we are in padel with Arturo Coello and Federico Cingottos, who are number one and number three in the world. We are in tennis, where we sponsor a lot of coaches, including the coach of Sabalinka and many others. And there's a lot of top, top athletes that use our product. It's not public.
00:37:07 · Matteo Franceschetti, Harry Stebbings
[00:37:07] S0: Well, we made a lot of mistakes with that too. And now it's probably four or five years that we invest in sport, because obviously we have charts, but we were sponsoring the UAE team with Pogacar. Pogacar was installing our product every single night at each hotel of each stage of the Tour de France since last year, and we didn't even know. He won last year, and then he won this year. So they reach out after the first year and say, Look, Pogacchar did everything on his own. We bought the product, now everybody in the team wants it. Can we do something together? So we sponsor the UAE team this year. And then we are in padel with Arturo Coello and Federico Cingottos, who are number one and number three in the world. We are in tennis, where we sponsor a lot of coaches, including the coach of Sabalinka and many others. And there's a lot of top, top athletes that use our product. It's not public. [00:37:55] S1: But what would you advise founders on lessons from how to get great talent? And then it can be celebrity investors too, pop stars, DJs, you name it, and how to get the most out of them, or do they just not have value?
00:37:55 · Harry Stebbings, Matteo Franceschetti
[00:37:55] S1: But what would you advise founders on lessons from how to get great talent? And then it can be celebrity investors too, pop stars, DJs, you name it, and how to get the most out of them, or do they just not have value? [00:38:05] S0: Well, there's two conditions for any deal now. First, they need to use the product. If they already use it, they bought it on their own, perfect, now we can talk about not doing a deal. If not, they need to try it, and then we wanna hear the feedback. They need to know their product, otherwise it's just a pure business transaction, and I don't like it. Second, I want to have a direct relationship with them. Usually, sometimes managers, they don't want that, and they want to try to be in the middle. But if I don't have the direct relationship with the athlete, we're not going to do the deal, because then it's just a financial deal, and at this point, we don't care. I want to be connected to the athlete. I want to know that they love our product, and if they don't, it's fine, but then the relationship will never work, particularly in a product like ours, where these people, the biggest value they do is just by talking to their friends about how good our product is. They really need to be both in. If they just have a stake in our company because they put a few million dollars, you don't go anywhere.
00:38:05 · Matteo Franceschetti, Harry Stebbings
[00:38:05] S0: Well, there's two conditions for any deal now. First, they need to use the product. If they already use it, they bought it on their own, perfect, now we can talk about not doing a deal. If not, they need to try it, and then we wanna hear the feedback. They need to know their product, otherwise it's just a pure business transaction, and I don't like it. Second, I want to have a direct relationship with them. Usually, sometimes managers, they don't want that, and they want to try to be in the middle. But if I don't have the direct relationship with the athlete, we're not going to do the deal, because then it's just a financial deal, and at this point, we don't care. I want to be connected to the athlete. I want to know that they love our product, and if they don't, it's fine, but then the relationship will never work, particularly in a product like ours, where these people, the biggest value they do is just by talking to their friends about how good our product is. They really need to be both in. If they just have a stake in our company because they put a few million dollars, you don't go anywhere. [00:38:58] S1: Who would you most like to have on the cap table who you don't have? Probably... Do you have Cristiano Ronaldo? No. He would be amazing. If you've seen pictures of him training, like, I'm a straight man. My God, this guy's body is incredible. Looked at it, then I looked at myself, and it just felt like, Oh, dear Harry.