- Duration: 13 min
- Platform: meet
- Source: Read.ai 01J807VWH9395P6BN3NBMC8XZY (https://app.read.ai/analytics/meetings/01J807VWH9395P6BN3NBMC8XZY)
Transcript
[Max Palmer]: I’m in New York. Where are you? [Sobanan Narenthiran]: London. Awesome. I saw Great. [Max Palmer]: So I’m on max. I’m how chief of staff. I usually handle most of these megaphone calls for him I’d how you heard about us and and why you’re interested. [Sobanan Narenthiran]: Yeah, of course. Um, so how about you guys because I’m following I’m not gonna pitch his name, but hooks podcast or podcast newsletter and, um, I just did social media since the startup house days. So like before when he first started startup house, I love the idea and stuff, but, um, yeah, that’s, I discovered it, but yeah. [Max Palmer]: Awesome. And why are you interested in using megaphone? [Sobanan Narenthiran]: So purely because, um, currently. Like we have budget and I’m spending a lot of time making, like writing my own content, writing content for the organization. Other people in the organization spend a lot of time writing and it’s like, um, you know, We know like, you know, how to use GPT, Gemini, PropEngineering, all that. Like I’ve created GPT models for myself and it’s like, um, more around just figuring out, I guess what the offer is. Cause I think I love what the content style that you guys do. I love the way you’re able to grow quite organically as well. So it’s just, yeah, figuring out what you can do for us and whether it’s worth the budget or time investment or whether we look at sort of hiring internally. [UNKNOWN_SPEAKER]: Gotcha. [Max Palmer]: So, um, do you have a understanding of how Megaphone works? [Sobanan Narenthiran]: I have no understanding. I literally feel in a form on the back of a newsletter, so yeah. [Max Palmer]: Okay, no worries. So Megaphone is a creator engagement marketplace. So essentially we have creators who are influencers in a variety of different niches, who have tens of thousands to hundreds of thousands of followers. And then we have users who are people like yourself who are looking to grow their either personal accounts on Twitter, LinkedIn, or their company accounts. And the users will post content on Twitter or LinkedIn and we will route that content to creators that are in your niche. And then those creators will engage with that post so that it gets amplified in the algorithm. So that’s how it works in a nutshell. I’m not sure, I have a feeling you might’ve filled out a form for our gross writing service. [Sobanan Narenthiran]: I filled it out for you. It was like several so you had like stop advising ghostwriting and then one other so, um again didn’t know how this worked but like Okay, so generally like so it’s not like the pod type methodology, right? Like, you know, like the whole thing with pods on linkedin where like you have a group of like a Kind of like a more influential careers and less influential careers sort of like interacting with one another to grow each other’s accounts Is it that type of methodology or like is it more sophisticated than that? [Max Palmer]: Yeah, so essentially these creators are engaging with your with your content, and that’s going to boost your post on Twitter or LinkedIn. So these are big creators with tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands of followers. They’re in a variety of different niches. We would connect your posts with the creators that are within your niche and that are online at the time you’re posting. And then they’ll comment something relevant on your post, and you’ll give them context for what you them to comment. And then that’ll help boost your posts in the algorithm. It will, you know, show your posts to a lot more people. And, and it’s, it’s, you know, when reputable people in your niche are, are engaging with your content, it’s a good sign to Twitter and LinkedIn. [Sobanan Narenthiran]: Okay, interesting. And then what type, because I saw like the cheapest package is like right? Like $1,900. [Max Palmer]: So yeah, so that’s the, I’m realizing now that you’ve We call for our ghostwriting service and not for a megaphone. So those are kind of two different things. The ghostwriting service is a full-on ghostwriting service where we provide a writer for you. You provide us guidance for what type of content you want written. And then it’s a monthly rate, and you have basically a full-time writer for any type of content. Some people use the writer to, you know, help them write newsletter content or, or blog content. Um, so yeah, I, that’s, that’s a, that’s a different service. A lot of, you know, some people use both megaphone and our ghostwriting service. Um, but, um, uh, yeah. So are you interested in, in potentially using our ghostwriting service? [Sobanan Narenthiran]: Yes. Okay. If I’m dying to say, I’ll give you some background on the business. And I think you can maybe get an idea of what the fit looks like, So we deliver government contracts for upskilling people from underserved communities into careers or businesses in technology. Now, I took over the organization in December, January this year, and it’s like, yeah, so we have these large government contracts, corporate partnerships with the big four, large management consultancies, IBM, et cetera. And obviously our work is social impact, driven right, purpose driven at its heart ultimately but like what we’re like sort of recognising is like there’s very little of that in the space of the creator economy like you know you get like the Mr Beast type mindset of like philanthropy or I don’t know what you want to call it but like you know that philanthropic approach to creators or creator economy stuff whereas like what we’re looking at is like we’re almost bridging that gap between like the vast majority of society, things like AI, content creation etc. Now like again sort coming back to it is actually my background is like I was like me and my best mate run the business and like we went to prison together when we were like 21 years old for a conspiracy to supply cannabis and it’s like we’ve got very marketable stories and very like easy, he said what’s helped us on LinkedIn like that’s the first time I’ve ever tried to grow a social media platform but what I’m realizing is the time it takes versus the return on investment of just um purely a financial sense is the thing that I’m like um you know having to prioritize every other areas of the business compared to like posting on my personal LinkedIn. But, um, I guess it’s just like figuring out, cause I think there’s loads of things you guys probably offer from what I’m reading on the newsletter that are like useful, but it’s just like, I guess, figuring out what makes sense for us. Um, yeah, as a big, like we only turn over, we’ll turn over like half a million this year. So it’s not like, you know, we’re turning over millions of pounds, but like the longer, not even the longer term, I’d say like within a year we want to be that, um, you know, create a business. Like what are, Um, I can’t say his name, Michael’s business looks like, but like with a purely social impact focus. So we’re not focusing on startups, Silicon Valley, none of that, but purely focused on empowering the most underserved individuals in society. And almost like, yeah, like a bit of a different model right now. It’s marketable. It’s like none of those things. It’s just more like, yeah, I guess it’s like finding creative ways that we can work with people. Cause like we are like, you’re the first agency I’ve reached out to is first I’ve ever thought even like an agency is an option funnily enough, because I just. You know, your brain thinks, oh, let me just hire someone for that. As opposed to like, let me bring someone outside. Yeah. That’s it in a nutshell. And I know you probably won’t have, I don’t know whether you have any answers or being honest, but like, I just, I’m open to creative ways of working together, open to creative partnership ideas. Just something that fits for us. Cause I don’t know whether, like, if we needed a writer, I could find a writer and hire them internally or like even freelancers. And I think it’s just finding like, yeah, I guess finding a fit. Cause I mean, you guys definitely are appealing from that whole, like how you position yourselves on But yeah, hope that makes sense. [Max Palmer]: Yeah, I mean, it does. And it’s an awesome mission you guys have. [Sobanan Narenthiran]: Yeah. Yeah. That’ll be helpful. Send me, um, uh, yeah, that would actually be helpful. And I’m just trying to think, like, I guess it’s like, yeah, I’m just trying to think of, I guess what makes sense, but no, that would be helpful if, um, you could send across the sort of like payment structure and stuff. And then, um, And yeah, if you think of any other ideas and sort of like any sort of alignment, yeah, I’m more than happy to have a conversation around that as well. Because I think we’re approaching a different market segment to, I guess, what traditionally creators have approached, which is like traditionally creators have done really high cost courses that are expensive to the end user, but at the same time delivering services that are at a price point that successful businesses can pay for, but the average Joe can’t. Whereas what we found is quite clever funding both public sector, as well as from the private sector to be able to then allow people to access a lot of this for free, but still for the margin to be like high enough to be worthwhile as a business, if that makes sense. So I guess it’s just like, yeah, we’re just trying to figure out how to make it sustainable over a long time. I think like the only thing is, is like, you know, like what you’re describing as a ghostwriter, like we have people on our programs who are like writers by background. They just been out of work for like years. Right. Because, you know, as the world changed from typewriters to computers, they just didn’t adapt. And, um, but like we could hire them internally for like 1.5 K a month. And that would be like enough for them to live. Like, do you know what I’m trying to say? It’s like balancing that social value angle of like, um, yeah, but yeah, no, feel free to send me the prices and happy to have a think about it. And then, um, yeah, happy to get back to you as well. Cool. Yeah. And I’ll add how to the email as well. [Max Palmer]: So he, he can, he can chime in and you can ask him any questions too. [Sobanan Narenthiran]: Yeah, of course. No, I think like, yeah. Um, yeah, that’d be really helpful. It’s been helpful having a conversation as well. Yeah. [Max Palmer]: Great. Cool. All right. We’ll be in touch over email. Thanks, man. [Sobanan Narenthiran]: No worries, man. Have a lovely day. You too. Bye bye.