Aaron DeBevoise On Building A $1.7 Billion Business By Empowering YouTube Creators

Aaron DeBevoise took his first two companies full cycle through an exit. He’s now building something even bigger, with a startup that has already been valued at $1.7B. His latest venture, Spotter, has acquired funding from top-tier investors like HighPost Capital, Access Industries, Crossbeam Venture Partners, and GPS Investment Partners.

In this episode, you will learn:

• The future for online content creators
• Working smart versus harder
• Scaling your team at the right pace

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About Aaron DeBevoise:

Aaron DeBevoise serves as Chairman, CEO, and Founder at Network of One, the leading data science and technology company discovering, valuing, and investing in digital content at scale. Over the last two years, the company has built the largest cross-platform database measuring human behavior specific to video, audio, and images.

Network of One currently tracks over 1 trillion data points measuring human intent of over 2 billion annual uniques. Network of One’s technology platform is focused on predicting the viewership of any digital asset, and as a result, the company expects to invest over $300 million over the next 12 months to empower content creators.

DeBevoise is a recognized industry leader and pioneer in the next generation of digital content. As an entrepreneur and founder of multiple venture-backed technology companies, his expertise spans across content creation, digital marketing, predictive analytics, big data systems, data visualization, and business intelligence.

Prior to Network of One, for over eight years, DeBevoise was Co-Founder and EVP of Network Programming at Machinima, the original Multi-Channel Network with over 3 billion monthly views and 250 million monthly unique visitors. Additionally, DeBevoise co-founded StyleHaul in 2010, the largest global fashion and style community of content creators, which in 2014 was acquired by RTL Group, the European TV and radio conglomerate, for $200 million.

Prior, DeBevoise spent five years at JPMorgan Entertainment Industries Group, where he leveraged large data sets and predictive analytics to deploy nearly $7 billion of deficit financing for independent production companies creating films such as “The Dark Knight” and “Superman.”

DeBevoise graduated Magna Cum Laude and Phi Beta Kappa from Williams College with a B.A. in Economics. He currently resides in Los Angeles with his wife and two children.

Connect with Aaron DeBevoise:

• Crunchbase
• LinkedIn
• Twitter

Read the Full Transcription of the Interview:

Alejandro Cremades: All righty hello everyone and welcome to the dealmakerr show. So today. We have a very exciting founder. He has founded multiple companies gone through all the different cycles building scaling financing even exiting to of them. So I think that we’re gonna be learning quite a bit so without far ado let’s welcome our guests today Aaron david boys welcome to the show. Hey.

Aaron DeBevoise: Oh thank you so much Alejandro I’m really excited to talk to your audience and you.

Alejandro Cremades: So ah, originally a born and raised in New York City so give us a little of a walk through memory lane. How was life growing up.

Aaron DeBevoise: Yeah I mean I actually grew up in ah westchester county outside of New York City in a suburb which was really a fantastic place to grow up public schools are really good. It gave me a lot of opportunity to play a lot of sports and and try new things I think most importantly. My household environment when I was growing up was really focused on kind of learning about what was happening in and around the world. Um, we talked around the dinner table all the time. Um, and really my whole family was a family of entrepreneurs. So I got to hear all these great stories about. You know, starting companies things that went wrong things that went right and it got me so excited that even as a kid I had started a couple businesses that just gave me this bug of of building new things and and and kind of relating data to how to build new things just through the idea of learning about history. Um, and seeing how right decisions went right? and what went wrong. So I loved really my environment.

Alejandro Cremades: And in fact, I mean you went on to study Economics. So Would you say that that was kind of like influenced by what you were seeing around in your family because in your family I mean obviously you had the entrepreneurial. Um you know, mindset and Spirit. So. Give us a little fun insight into what you saw and what did you grow up with I mean who around you was building and scaling stuff.

Aaron DeBevoise: Yeah, so it was kind of it was all my family that was very into talking about um, new businesses and especially in the entertainment and media space. But specifically my uncle um Alan Debavos ah was a really big influence for me because he was actually out in Los Angeles starting new companies and in fact, even when I was in college studying economics I went and joined his company. Um for for ah what they call winter break. Ah ah, kind of 1 ne month um, opportunity to go do what you wanted to do um and just seeing all of the ups and downs and how things were okay when things were down and and when things were really great. You had to really consider to make sure that ah your team was in great shape and so forth it was. It was a really great experience and so. Going and studying economics for me was really this combination of math data science and history that allowed you to kind of learn hey what kind of decision making would you do in certain search situations based on everything you know and what you would expect. Ah. The outcomes to be but then having to realize that those outcomes might be different for all sorts of variable reasons.

Alejandro Cremades: Now in your case I mean you had the bug already planted. So why did you go to J P Morgan to corporate America.

Aaron DeBevoise: Yeah, it’s funny. Um I actually had started a business in college and went through two or three years of just building out that business and I think that I was feeling like I needed to have a certain level of training around finance and data that I thought Jpmorgan would deliver me. Um, what I learned at Jpmorgan was that working really hard ah is is really important and and that work ethic that I have I was able to kind of stay up all night and do big projects I don’t think it was the most productive and and ah best approach long term but it really taught me grit. Um, and then actually within Jpmorgan there was a team that focused on film finance and that to me was back right? to my roots where entertainment mixed with data mixed with being able to kind of fund something and invest in something that was not so tangible. Um, but ended up being a movie that you could go out and see and I just think that was super exciting. So I actually really enjoyed my gp morgan experience in the film finance division because it was so unique. So.

Alejandro Cremades: So then tell us how do you end up realizing that the corporate was not for you and and it’s time you know to go at it and start something.

Aaron DeBevoise: Yeah I mean I knew from the day that I started in corporate that I wasn’t going to be long for it. Um, and frankly back to my uncle he had been updating me on the businesses as he was thinking about and he had and I was I did 2 things 1 is. Really wanted to learn more about how movies were being made outside of just financing it. So I actually started a documentary film business that focused on action action sports and it taught me just one how hard it is and 2 a lot of empathy for people that. I didn’t really even think about before when I was doing financing for films right? So the editors and the directors and this and just all the positions and how hard they are so it gave me a lot of perspective and then two after that my uncle and I just started decided to start a company called machinema which was. Really focused on kind of how are we going to disrupt cable by using platforms like Youtube the way that cable disrupted broadcast so that would be in more like kind of niche programming but on a much more scalable basis because it was global. Um, and so we started that that business which was focused on. Creating content for gamers on Youtube which was not too dissimilar to like Mtv creating music videos for for fans of music and so that’s that’s how I decided to make sure I actually left gp morgan in 2005 I guess it was.

Aaron DeBevoise: And and went off on my bench.

Alejandro Cremades: Now now with Machima I mean you definitely experience the full cycle. You guys ended up selling the company to um, a Warner Brothers I mean really amazing. A outcome not to such ah such an incredible um ah recognize brand. So. What was I mean what kind of disability did you get at that point from that entire I mean what that marathon looks like not like full disibility into all the different cycles from beginning all the way to the finish line.

Aaron DeBevoise: Yeah, it’s such a great way to describe it as a marathon. Um I think one of the things that obviously I went through a marathon it was it was I guess almost of ah over twelve years right um that it took to sell the company and. The experience of even deciding and making sure you’re focused on the right area of not being distracted by too many shiny objects as as I would call it right? where there’s a lot of directions your company can go in but you’ve really got to make that decision of going in a specific direction where you’re going to be the master of that. That domain. Um that was a really important decision for us to say hey we are on Youtube we’re going to build the biggest brand for gamers highly focused and we knew we could do a lot if we were highly focused but it did take the kind of you know, typical so more stories that you would expect. I mean 200 and plus pitches to get our first series. Our series a financing and then every financing thereafter was nope it was. It was a little bit easier but it wasn’t ever easy. Um, bringing you know going from 5 people in a room to 250 people and managing those people we even had a situation where. People that worked at machine but actually wanted to be talent on Youtube and so they were stuck between decisions of like staying with us during this fast growth period or going off on their own and we had to convince them that we were the right path. Um, and so I think for me it was it was a marathon for sure had really great.

Aaron DeBevoise: You know moments and had really difficult moments. Um, and it was hard to leave the company after after that long but the beauty of building these companies is that you get to see a lot of insights that other people don’t get to see and so you can spark a lot of new ideas that maybe that led to kind of what I’m doing. You know today and and other things that I’ve done. So.

Alejandro Cremades: So then let’s let’s talk about the next one then style hall. So at what point you know style hall comes knocking and and what were you guys doing there.

Aaron DeBevoise: Yeah, no, it’s kind of ah it’s almost like an unbelievable story in how simple the idea came to me with is that I was I was hanging out at the beach with my wife and I was reading an article in The New York Times about how there were 100,000 haulers on Youtube I had no idea what a holer was and it was basically the idea of women shopping and then bringing back the clothes and showing multiple ways of wearing a specific scarf or multiple ways to. Ah, use address and all sorts of things and I go wow that’s kind of similar to what gamers are doing at Machinema I mean gamers were showing off their gameplay. Why wouldn’t there be a totally new brand out there not too dissimilar to like maybe bravo on on cable. Why isn’t that existing on Youtube why isn’t that more organized. Um, so we started style hall to go out and and create content and and help content creators who are focused on fashion and beauty and I didn’t actually I wasn’t the Ceo I co-founded it with um, the. Ultimately, the ceot Stephanie Horpazesky who did an amazing job building that brand down and that was sold within 4 years um to an Rtl and was a really big success. Um, given kind of how fast it happened. So.

Alejandro Cremades: So now entering Spotter. So why? Obviously as they say once an entrepreneur entrepreneur Always an entrepreneur. So How was the idea of spotter you know, realized how did it come about and and then how did you go about. Bringing it to life.

Aaron DeBevoise: Yeah, it’s it’s it’s a really interesting story because there were these kind of aha moments that happened early on that you think oh wow it sparked this idea and we’re going to move really fast and then it takes a long time to to take an aha moment. So just to give you the example. I was still working at machinema when I when I saw that we knew that Youtube had changed to algorithm to focus more on engagement versus viewership and what that meant was that a lot of creators were were creating what we call episodic content but not episodic in the nature that we all experience like episode one two and 3 but in a specific category. They were creating. Let’s call it baking right? They were doing recipe one 2 and 3 and people were able to go kind of get lost in that viewership versus kind of clicking so many different videos they would end up getting stuck in a rabbit hall of viewership because they’re going I want to see the next recipe I want to see the next. You know, entertainment video music video. Um so we started I started to see patterns in the content and I had a specific video called countersrie for kids which was a gaming video that had been doing 300000 views around 300000 views every month for like three or four years with no marketing. And when I saw that I said wow I’m not even sure that the gamer understands that they have that video that continues to create cash flow for these creators and 1 of the big problems that creators were facing from the year that I joined building businesses on Youtube which was 2006 was they really.

Aaron DeBevoise: Weren’t able to invest in themselves and grow their businesses Youtube was trying to solve the problem of hey how do I get creators to realize they can do this as a full-time job or how do I quit my job at literally olive garden or something like that and start to be and be a full-time creator youtube did a really good job at that. But I knew that if we have predictable cash flow streams a company like spotter could start to provide more capital than just quitting your job and making it buy but this capital that would actually allow you to scale very very quickly with the resources that were obviously obvious. In terms of your needs. So this is things as simple as your first editor right? your first line producer. Um, your first writer. Um, all these things that creators were doing all on their own and it was very hard to scale. So um, that was the kind of the beginning of spotter.

Alejandro Cremades: So then what were the what happened next? What were the early days like of sputter.

Aaron DeBevoise: Yeah, um, so again, you know it was like the early days of Machinema another 200 plus meetings to to go try raise raise money and capital for the company and and ah mostly knows. Because no one really understood Youtube the way I did and and that’s what makes starting company is really difficult right? Your vision is supposed to be new, unique, nothing that anyone’s ever done before and yet you have this kind of inside knowledge that you know it’s true and that’s what allowed me to keep you know going forward I just knew. There was ah there was a way to make this happen. Um, it wasn’t a hope. It wasn’t a kind of a necessarily a dream. It was. It was just like ah acceptance that I knew that I could do it? Um, and so in the early days. Ah, the first four or five years of spotter which wasn’t even called spotter was really data gathering. Back to kind of my roots of how do I prove to people that that content on Youtube is predictable enough where we could provide financing to creators by by licensing their their catalogs. Um, and so the first days were really really hard. To exult I was not a data scientist by trade. But I became a really like obsessed individual around data I got great lessons from ah from 2 guy Jeff Jonas who was the head of Ibm Context computing and he came in and really taught me about kind of false negatives and.

Aaron DeBevoise: False positives and making sure the data is really causal. Not not just correlated. Um and it was really fun because you got to see the inner workings of Youtube and we had to find all the videos on Youtube to go even study them but fast forward once we proved it out in 2019. We raised our series a. Which was a small round I mean it was maybe $15,000,000 and but we had raised some debt as well and that was the beginning of us trying to go out and and help creators and give creators money which at first kind of part of a crazy story is that it was like creators didn’t. Know what to do with the money they didn’t even know what so like their libraries are worth It’s like someone asking you to sell your house and no one had ever sold a house before so that was like in the early days really hard we had to we had to educate our customer base that hey here’s how to think about the assets that you own. And here’s how you’re going to be able to use the money and once we were able to do that it it really took off from from there.

Alejandro Cremades: Because just to double click there so that the people that are listening understand it like what ended up being the business model of spotter. How do you guys make money.

Aaron DeBevoise: Yeah, so spotter. The idea was is not too dissimilar to what’s happened in the music industry when there’s predictable cash flow streams from content that you’ve created in the past that there’s a financial opportunity for someone to provide you cash now. Versus waiting for years and years and years to collect that cash. So the concept for for Youtube creators was really interesting because unlike musicians who even if they got a huge windfall of cash. They can’t really increase the level of production at which they release records too fast. Whereas Youtube creators could literally go from what Ava calls 0 to 1 and one and beyond like I said hiring their first editor will increase their output significantly. You know hiring analytics and and people would really help them understand what’s the next thing to do. Um, so the business model was that hey we would come in and buy out the revenue stream of your back catalog or your existing videos so that you can go invest in your future and your future videos would ultimately be 100 % yours right? that you were going to take all the upside of this and of this investment. And then at first it was a very transactional relationship. It was one and done here’s the money. But what creators found was that when they did the investment they were growing 3 to 4 times faster than they would have if they didn’t do the investment and so twelve months later they come back and we do another deal.

Aaron DeBevoise: For the new content that they created and then they would go out and create more content and take all the benefit of that content and became much more of a partnership with creators where now we’re providing analytics to Creators. We’re providing community to creators. Um, so we’re really rooted in data which is very helpful. Creators and the business model is with Creators. We don’t actually charge for any of the services we do. We will make money because you’re Successful. You will always make more money than us and we’ll make money on the back catalog because you’re growing and you’re growing because we’ve provided you help. So.

Alejandro Cremades: Got it Now you guys have raised a over a billion dollars I mean that’s a lot of money So one I guess obviously this is like indifference in in a different structure where you have the equity side and then also the dead side. So can you walk us through.

Aaron DeBevoise: Yeah.

Alejandro Cremades: How has been the experience raising all that money and then also why you have that different structure on the equity and Dev side for a company like this.

Aaron DeBevoise: Yeah, um, so it comes from my background and when I was doing film finance I actually was doing debt financing and then obviously with the startups it was doing equity financing and you wanted to look at a world where if there was predictable cash flow streams the key to predictable cash flow streams on a. On a platform like Youtube where there’s a lot of volatility is that you want to buy as many cash flow streams as possible to diversify. So it’s not too dissimilar to like portfolio dynamics on buying stocks right? You don’t want to buy 1 you want to buy an index or something like that right? unless you had really specific information. And so for us to do that when we raised $15000000 in our series. A that wasn’t enough money for us to feel comfortable that we would be able to bet on the right assets right? So we had to say hey is there another instrument that would allow us to do a lot more than buy a lot more than $15000000 and when debt was was brought in the idea was hey we would put up some of the equity on each transaction and the debt would put up some of the money so it’s it’s not too similar to your house right? and therefore you can buy more um and so we raised a $50,000,000 debt facility at the time in the series a and we were able to deploy $60,000,000 and we had some really good wins and we had some really interesting losses covid had just happened our first channel that we ever bought was a travel channel to about going to vegas and then covid hit and there’s no one going to Vegas and so it was a complete disaster in terms of our predictions but we had had bought.

Aaron DeBevoise: Ah, bunch of other assets that one of them was a travel channel around more experiential travel right? So going to Africa and going to all different tours of types of places that were almost like where you would want to go after covid rather than where you were going on that weekend and that did really well. So. The the investors started to see these dynamics of portfolio really working and then it was all about well imagine you were had all of Youtube you would be in good shape. So how much of Youtube and how many creators can we so provide financing for well it’s endless. Right? So let’s do as much as we possibly can because the more we buy the safer we’re going to get um and the more and when we can buy a lot. It actually allows us to pay each creator more money because any individual asset is so risky that. We could never afford to give them as much as we can give them and we knew we were going to have a portfolio of $500000000 um, and so what that led to was us continuously proving the model our series b was a $20,000,000 round right? and then our series c was a $200,000,000 round so series b was about a year after our series a series c was a year after our our series b it took nine months of diligence because people really had to get you know to understand this asset class that no one understood and and the debt provider went along with us that whole time.

Aaron DeBevoise: Um, and then now we did a series d in January of this year with Softbank and we had a one point five billion dollars valuation and raised $200000000 um, so we’ve raised 400 and whatever that is four hundred and thirty million dollars of equity. Um, and. About we have a five hundred and thirty million dollars debt facility so it’s really well.

Alejandro Cremades: Now, let me let let let’s talk about rip resilience for for for a little bit here. So I know that you know you guys have gone you know like you you’ve gone through the ups and downs a iron and in and you. Went all the way up to experience you know having you know a bunch of people and then all of a sudden having to reduce to 4 people and now you know here you are again, you know over a hundred people already. So what happened there like what happened from. Going up to going down to going up again and and and who did you need to be in those circumstances so that you were able to really become and be effective in front of whatever you had in front of you.

Aaron DeBevoise: Yeah, you know these like you said earlier on these are marathon jobs right? The starting companies and you really don’t know what’s what’s ahead. There are outside factors. There are factors that you might have missed that I’ve missed so beginning. The beginning was really much was really about gathering data and and then using that data to go out and experiment and try to acquire assets improve to people that there is a business model here. Um, that took a really long time a lot longer than I ever thought I mean finding every video on Youtube sounds sounds like a lot. But it’s also like you think oh you can go on a whiteboard and and talk about categories. So oh there must be olympic sports videos and that’s swimming and so forth. It’s impossible to do a whiteboard of all the categories. Ah on Youtube it’s you know, 8100000000 the categories. Um, and so it was a lot of exploration. The beginning was hey I think in the next quarter in the next half year I can do x and you would find out it would take you a full year or a year and a half to do that. Um, so it was really hard to manage you know how many people you’re supposed to have how many can you afford, especially when you’re not generating revenue yet. Um, and so we got all the way up to a point where we were buying individual videos on Youtube and we needed a huge organization to go out and reach out to people. Um, so we had 75 people and ultimately that we weren’t able to so to figure out the formula early on.

Aaron DeBevoise: That gave us enough profit to so to actually um, you know support that kind of system and so I was I got to a point where I was working in the office every ah every day and every night I was actually sleeping in the office. Um, thinking that that that putting all my energy. Would be the solution because I had been trained to do that in investment banking really saying hey if I just put more time into it and more effort I’m gonna I’m gonna win. Um and that turned out to not be true. It was actually exhausting I wasn’t thinking as clearly as I am obviously today. Um, and. So it took a reset for us to look at the numbers. Ah accept the things that didn’t work. Um, still believe obviously based on the data that hey this should work and this will work so it was bat rooted in data and rooted in this mission to help creators. If we can help creators by giving them capital and knowledge and they can go out and change the world with their audiences. It was a really fulfilling opportunity for us right? Um, and so I think that that idea that we could help people a lot of people through creators and. Also it was rooted in data made it really simple for people to still believe right? and so I was able to bring more people on with that message right? of hey you don’t have to just believe in this brand building exercise. There’s some data here that would help you understand it and you’re going to help people.

Aaron DeBevoise: In a really significant way. Um, and so when we and then we when we went back into hiring more people I was much more methodical about it I went much slower. Um I know we’re at 125 people today. But you know the the series a and the series b were I think we were at ah. 11 people just at the end of 2021 right? So the first 2 years we we really didn’t scale on people. We worked really hard but I had made sure that one I I never slept in the office ever again. I stayed clear too I started to really invest in myself around.

Alejandro Cremades: Wow.

Aaron DeBevoise: Having coaching and getting people’s outside perspective just the way I did when I was a kid with my uncle and others I was hearing other people’s stories and I was bringing that to my to my journey. Um, and so yeah, we fast forward with that kind of methodical approach continuing to prove believing in the. In the um in the ah and the value that we were handing up that we were giving to creators we were able to get here and and doing really well.

Alejandro Cremades: Now let me ask you this imagine if you were to go to sleep tonight and you wake up in a world where the vision of spotter is fully realized what does that world look like.

Aaron DeBevoise: Yeah, that world is really exciting. Um I mean it said that he obviously I dream about all the time the fully the the full vision of spotter is where we’re not just capital for creators. But we’re the knowledge that allows creators. To succeed and that’s across many platforms and across many different types of businesses. We’re starting with Youtube because it’s where a lot of creators make a lot of money. Um and other platforms don’t really provide that but 10 years from now I don’t think there’s any reason why we wouldn’t look back and go. We’ve deployed. Ah, half a trillion dollars to creators and help them through their journey whether they were starting off as just a brand new full-time creator and had no people all the way to what we call enterprise creators who have multiple businesses that are driving revenue to them which allows them to. Have freedom in their creativity and and ah and change the world. So we talk about change the world a lot. Um, and the reason we talk about it is because we don’t believe creators fully understand or appreciate that they are changing the world. A lot of people when you say that go. Oh have you helped a lot of climate change or poverty or all these really important initiatives and what we say is there’s a creator that that we invested in that was was doing photography and grew his channel to 10000000 subscribers and ultimately changed his programming.

Aaron DeBevoise: To be family oriented with him and his daughter and it was so powerful to see that strong relationship between a father and a daughter for 10000000 subscribers or more to be seeing that on a daily basis can actually really change the world. Right? And I think that when I would talk to that creator they’re going well I should give to charity and I can get I’m going. No no, no like you are doing the job of of influencing um families and daughters and fathers and so forth to be better right? Other people do it through. Like 1 channel wants to say hey I want to make the world smile. So it’s a comedy channel and and that is people are happi or you’re going to have a better world and so that to me is that the full vision is not only if we provided capital but we’ve provided the data and insights the communal knowledge that we have about how creators invest their money and. Impact the world to then be funding. You know millions of creators. Um across many different types of medium. Um and and really thriving with them. Um, so yeah, super exciting vision.

Alejandro Cremades: So imagine if I was to put you into a time machine and I bring you back in time and perhaps I bring you back in time to that moment where you were still studying economics. You know, thinking about a world where you could do a business of your own you know, having that. Inspiration from your family but if you could go back in time and really sit that you know younger salvan and tell that younger Aaron 1 piece of advice before launching a business. What would that be on why given what you know now.

Aaron DeBevoise: Yeah, no, it’s it’s a great question and there’s so much advice I would give to my younger self um but the 1 piece of advice that I would definitely give to my younger self is the idea that a highly focused vision is not a limited a limiting idea. Right? that you don’t need to have a huge grand vision of men of many different businesses to be hugely successful. Actually the hyper focuscus that you put into a business allows you to innovate within inside that business in so many ways. So for example, there’s no way I would think to. Provide more than capital to creators if I was trying to provide capital to every single creator in the world right now right? because there would be so complex the system that all I could be thinking about was financing meanwhile now that I’m so focused on Youtube creators I’m actually realizing that. Bringing Youtube creators helps them learn together and actually leads to more business for us providing them data and analytics is something that we would never invest in without realizing that wait a second if we can help creators grow with our capital. They’ll work more often with us. Um. So it’s that combination and I think that one other thing I would say to to my you know young self is I used to think that I had a mind I have a mind that probably is very similar to other entrepreneurs and that you kind of but I call like future trip or play multi multidimensional chess right? where you’re going hey. What’s the worst scenario that could.

Aaron DeBevoise: Could happen. What’s the best scenario that can happen right? What’s the other scenarios that can happen and I used to think of it as very taxing a thought process but what I realized is that you know when I was doing that as a kid versus doing it now. Um now it actually prepares me for all the situations I might I might face. And not have to be overwhelmed by those situations because I’ve already kind of thought through hey how would I behave if if things didn’t go well today or this month or this year um and especially in a time like this where you’re going. There’s so much so many different factors that I I actually sit and think through those things. Hey if the economy gets worse if I have to let go of my employees if I have how do I keep those employees if the economy gets worse. Um that it’s prepared me to some ways like ah ah, um, there’s a mountain climber that wants that. Um oh Jimmy Chin um who’s the director of freesola was saying hey going through all those scenarios when you go up in the mountain and realizing what your perceived risks are and your real risks are differentiating between those 2 things is a really powerful instrument. Um, so anyway I would say to my young self you know. Realize that your superpower is your ability to think through a lot of scenarios and don’t be overwhelmed by them actually embrace that that process. Um and stay focused.

Alejandro Cremades: Wow I love it. So Aaron for the people that are listening. What is the best way for them to reach out and say hi.

Aaron DeBevoise: Yeah, you can definitely reach us at contact at spotter dot l a for email and then also at spotter.com our spotter.dot.la both both places and if you’re a creator, you definitely want to hit connect with us. Um. We were immediately available for you and then obviously for anyone else we’ll we’ll get back to you given the right department and so forth. So.

Alejandro Cremades: Amazing! Well Aaron thank you so much for being on the deal maker show today. It has been an honor to have you with us.

Aaron DeBevoise: Oh thank you so much. It was really a pleasure and I’m I’m excited that we got to speak.

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