Alessandro Biggi. He’s the CEO at Zooppa, the first open-source creative agency. Previously, he was the CEO and founder of a company called 20lines, an app to share leading short stories acquired by HarperCollins Publisher, in January 2016. He’s also worked for JP Morgan, The Boston Consulting Group, and as an adjunct professor in Venice.
Famous Five:
Favorite Book? – Zero to One What CEO do you follow? – Ricardo Donadon Favorite online tool? — Slack How many hours of sleep do you get?— 6 If you could let your 20-year old self, know one thing, what would it be? – Alessandro wished he would have studied some hard skills like engineering
Time Stamped Show Notes:
00:46 – Nathan introduces Alessandro to the show 01:22 – Zooppa relies on technology to engage with over 400K creatives around the world 01:58 – Zooppa is like a marketplace, connecting creatives to people who need a project done 02:02 – Zooppa has 2 models in creating content 02:07 – First is the open model which is open to everyone to show their creativity 02:18 – The second one is the VIP which is only offered to top producers on the platform to participate and win the project 02:46 – Average project size depends on the creation needed 02:56 – An open model can go from $50K-150K 03:12 – Average can be $40K 03:18 – Zooppa was launched 10 years ago, in Italy 03:25 – Zooppa expanded to New York, Seattle, Venice, Milan and London 03:42 – Alessandro just joined Zooppa 1 month ago after selling 20lines 03:50 – Alessandro was also an investor in Zooppa 04:20 – Zooppa was founded by H-Farm’s founders 04:41 – Zooppa has raised around $8M 04:50 – Alessandro joined Zooppa after the last round 04:57 – There’s a plan to develop more revenue streams for Zooppa 05:21 – Zooppa’s vision is to inspire people use their creativity for a purpose 06:00 – Alessandro accepted Zooppa as a challenge 06:07 – Alessandro feels that there’s more that he can do 06:48 – Zooppa is now planning to distribute a big part of their equity to new and old employees 07:07 – Alessandro does other things aside from Zooppa like investing in a restaurant 07:36 – Alessandro’s first company was inspired by Zooppa 08:05 – Zooppa’s average total transaction volume is $4-5M 08:14 – Zooppa usually runs 50-60 projects a year 08:28 – Zooppa takes care all of the projects and campaigns 09:15 – Zooppa takes a percentage for every project 09:43 – It is 50% 10:09 – Zooppa just opened their New York office 10:15 – Zooppa still continues to expand 10:48 – Creatives can go to Zooppa’s website and see if there are projects that they can take on 11:17 – Zooppa works with big brands 11:39 – Zooppa has 25 people on the team 11:46 – Zooppa is cash-flow positive 12:00 – Zooppa currently focuses on sustaining themselves on their own 12:30 – Alessandro is now 29 and he was 27 and a half when he sold 20lines 12:50 – Alessandro was working at 20lines for a couple of years 13:02 – The publishing space is a hard space to be in 13:05 – The team decided that they’d grow better with a bigger group 13:10 – They had a talk with HarperCollins for about a year 13:33 – It was a soft landing 14:54 – The Famous Five
3 Key Points:
Don’t stick with a company where you don’t see growth happening—sell it and move on. You can always learn something from someone who is older much more experienced. If you can sustain your company on what you currently have, don’t raise a round.
Resources Mentioned:
The Top Inbox – The site Nathan uses to schedule emails to be sent later, set reminders in inbox, track opens, and follow-up with email sequences Hotjar – Gives Nathan a recording of what is happening on a website or where are people clicking and scrolling on the website Organifi – The juice was Nathan’s life saver during his trip in Southeast Asia Klipfolio – Track your business performance across all departments for FREE Acuity Scheduling – Nathan uses Acuity to schedule his podcast interviews and appointments Host Gator– The site Nathan uses to buy his domain names and hosting for the cheapest price possible Audible– Nathan uses Audible when he’s driving from Austin to San Antonio (1.5-hour drive) to listen to audio books Freshbooks – Nathan doesn’t waste time so he uses Freshbooks to send out invoices and collect his money. Get your free month NOWShow Notes provided by Mallard Creatives
