Justin Whitman | UMuseUs

Amplified CEO with Richard Stroupe

Guest: Justin Whitman - UMuseUs

Welcome to the Amplified CEO with VC and serial entrepreneur, Richard Stroupe with today's guest, Justin Whitman. He's the founder and CEO of UMuseUs, a social networking platform for musicians and music lovers. He also leads JWW Inc. advising fortune five hundreds, startups, and restaurant groups for more than 20 years.

[00:00:28] Richard Stroupe: Justin, good morning. 

[00:00:29] Justin Whitman: Good morning. 

How are you? 

[00:00:30] Richard Stroupe: Good, good. It's been, uh, it's been several weeks. 

[00:00:33] Justin Whitman: It 

has been. 

[00:00:33] Richard Stroupe: Yeah. It's been a minute. 

[00:00:34] Justin Whitman: It has been, 

[00:00:35] Richard Stroupe: yeah. How you been? 

[00:00:36] Justin Whitman: Yeah, I I, I've been good. Uh, just been busy. Um, just finished up one of my other clients in the Myrtle Beach area and mm-hmm. Heavily focused on my tech startup, uh, yet again.

[00:00:49] Richard Stroupe: Yeah. You've been very active on LinkedIn. 

[00:00:51] Justin Whitman: I have been, uh, I have made a very conscious decision to leave the stealth mode feel. Mm-hmm. And jump into a more, in your face awareness approach. 

[00:01:03] Richard Stroupe: Now, was that something you took away from the Elevate Conference a month ago? 

[00:01:09] Justin Whitman: Absolutely. There's, there were a lot of things that we talked about at Elevate and, and some of those things resonated with me in a way that made me feel like.

For me to get to the next level where I need to be. Mm-hmm. And where I actually coach my clients to go. Sometimes when it's your own project, you have horse blinders. Right. Um, it really opened up some stuff that made me realize that I need to push forward in a, in, in a different capacity to really pull myself out of the founder Right.

Mentality Yeah. And entrepreneur mentality into what would it be like running a billion dollar company. Yeah. So then that's my goal. 

[00:01:45] Richard Stroupe: That's awesome. Yeah. I've also noticed that Jack has been very active Yes. With his post. Yes. And so has Jennifer and Bridget. Yes. And, you know, a few other folks from the class.

It's great. 

[00:01:58] Justin Whitman: Absolutely. Yeah. And I 

try to follow all of them too. I mean, we still in Dallas. Yeah. In Dallas too. Dallas is, uh, uh, doing a fantastic job with his content as well. Yeah. Um, it's, it's fun being able to communicate with them and, and I think we're kind of a kindred spirit of being the first ever cohort, you know, in, in the Elevate CEO retreat.

We're always gonna have that kind of moniker that we can hold, like a badge of honor. 

[00:02:21] Richard Stroupe: Yeah. I'll, I'll be honest, I, I was not prepared, nor did I, um, ever believe how well that cohort would gel so quickly and, and so strongly, you know, everybody just came together immediately and we've been together. It's like we created a little group on LinkedIn and we just chitchat all the time and throw ideas and we keep up with one another.

Yeah. It's, 

it's, 

it's really cool. 

[00:02:47] Justin Whitman: I think it's, it's a nice way to have those individuals that you can reach out to that mm-hmm. Now have a better understanding of how to, they're either running their businesses or they've gotten confirmation on some of the things that they are doing, or they can reach out to each other and say, Hey, I got a question.

Right. Who else can you talk to? Sometimes when, when you're a founder, an entrepreneur, a CEO, it, it's a very lonely road. Road or it can be a very, uh, a. You know, steep, steep incline to kind of find help or answers or, or peers to talk to. This is fantastic. 

Yeah. You'll find out, like once you become a founder, there's only a few many people that you can talk to because a lot of folks, you have these, these ideas or complaints or just want to vet to somebody, they're like, what the hell are you talking about?

Yeah. Oh my God. If you're a founder, you're like, oh, oh my god. Yeah, I know exactly where you're at. 'cause I was there and this is kind of how I did to get over it. Yeah. But yeah, 

and you know, as, as a founder myself, prior to that, and, and even currently, I'm a consultant for private consultant, so Fortune 50, 100, 500 companies, mom and pop, restaurant, retail, hospitality and tech, and kind of a wide spectrum.

Right. Um, you know, you go in and you talk to 'em and you're like, you can talk to me because on top of everything else I do, I've always been entrepreneurial. I've always been a founder of something. Mm-hmm. So I've been a, a sounding board that they can rely on. But then there are times it's very difficult when you can spew the advice, you know, can you look in a mirror and take it back to yourself?

Mm-hmm. And that was what I really took away from our encounter mm-hmm. Was being able to look in the mirror and, and say, you need to listen to what you've been preaching. Right. Because it's extremely hard to do that. And I've appreciated our discussions that we've had offline too. I think, you know, the, the access that we all have to each other is just immensely helpful.

I've done, and, and I think I've told you this before, but I've done so many of these retreats or these events, uh, that have been put on by companies, uh, that have worked with groups like Sequoia and JP Morgan and others, and I've never walked away from them feeling rejuvenated and refreshed. Mm-hmm. You, you feel a little euphoric when you leave.

But nothing that really sent me home to handwriting notes. Mm-hmm. And just thinking about things in a different process. After I left your event, I just felt different. Mm-hmm. I just felt more prepared. It doesn't give you a magic playbook to run and go raise money, but Right. You just feel more zeroed in and focused.

Yeah. Did you feel kind of depressed a couple days after the event? 

Yeah, I mean, it was, it was weird. Like there were a couple times I woke up and I was like, man, I wonder what everybody's doing. I really, I kind of, I kind of wanna see, I just wanna reach out to everybody and say hello and, and, and it's good to kind of see that the event now is gonna be a few more days.

It, it's now two and a half days. 

Yeah. We added in a half day to it. Yeah. Yeah. 

And that's fantastic. I think they'll appreciate that. I think having those, those two nights also mm-hmm. Will be, uh, instrumental for them moving forward. Yeah. 

I mean, leading up to the conference. You know, it was pretty amped up getting the material, getting the, the, the logistics extensive 

material.

You did a fantastic job of Well, yeah, yeah, yeah. It's, 

[00:06:05] Richard Stroupe: it's, it was, it was a team effort. Robust effort. Robust. Yeah. Yeah. And, but, but then when you're involved and you execute and you're, you know, integrating yourself with the, your peers and you exchanged so many positive ideas and, and, and the value and the thought, it was really, really great.

And of course, after it was all over, you're kind of like, oh God, now it's over. Yeah. And then you're like, now what? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. It's kind of like you wanted to 

[00:06:31] Justin Whitman: have another one planned. Yeah. You know, in two weeks there's another one, and in two weeks there's another one. And I think you'll get to that point where you're gonna have people wanting to roll through.

I mean, we've talked offline about the distances that people are reaching out to you that want to be involved in this. Um, yeah. 

[00:06:49] Richard Stroupe: Overseas people now are Yeah. Are asking to come. 

[00:06:52] Justin Whitman: Yeah. That's fantastic. Yeah. Uh, I know. I will say badge of honor is probably the easiest way to specify what it feels like right now, is I took a trip from Myrtle Beach, went up to Wilmington, went to a couple of events, uh, for tech, and got to meet some immensely talented individuals.

Mm-hmm. I told 'em that I had attended the, I'll call it the inaugural event. 

[00:07:15] Richard Stroupe: Yeah. 

[00:07:15] Justin Whitman: And they were like, oh. Oh, what was it like, oh, you met Richard. Like, uh, what was, what was going on with those? It, it's kind of like, it felt like a little of a, of a secret society. Yeah. Because I can only imagine the, the hundreds of submissions of people that submitted and, and what you probably painstakingly had to go through to get to the eight people that were allotted to be able to attend.

Mm-hmm. And I do feel fortunate. I think anybody else in the list feels the same way. I mean, we all spoke afterwards, you know, independently, and we also spoke about a lot of other things, and it's just, yeah. 

[00:07:51] Richard Stroupe: Well, that's what makes the. I guess the connection's more enriching is if you can pick some really interesting people Oh, yeah.

That, you know, they're gonna exchange ideas and you, you just kind of can tell that the connection will be made. It's great. Absolutely. 

[00:08:05] Justin Whitman: Absolutely. Yeah. It was, it was just a great experience all, all around. I, I, I appreciate it. I don't get to tell you that enough, but No, yeah. Just the connections and then also finding a kindred spirit in somebody, uh, that loves music as much as I do.

Especially metal. Right. Especially metal. And then, uh, you know, I don't think I've ever met another, another individual that then openly admitted I like Mosh Ping, and then I'm, I'm like, I don't know if I've ever met an investor or a VC that's ever said, they're like mosh pitting. Mm-hmm. So that was, uh, I was like, all right, kindred spirit.

This is brothers in arms type of thing. 

[00:08:43] Richard Stroupe: Do you remember your first mosh pit experience? 

[00:08:46] Justin Whitman: I do. Uh. I was at the nine 30 Club in DC mm-hmm. And I shouldn't have been allowed in Because you were what, too young, or? I was way too young. Yeah. I was way too young. My ID said I was much older than that. And, uh, I don't condone that at all.

But obviously, you know, I'm a little bit older and, uh, I remember going inside and I wanna say that was either the concert that GWAR was playing or another metal band. Oh my God. But they, they spew tons of stuff into the audience Yeah. When they perform. Yeah. So we're all just flailing around. And when you're mosh pitting, when you're younger, you don't really know what to do.

Mm-hmm. Like your arms are all over the place. Then you start seeing the professionals. Right. The ones who are coming in that are keeping it tight and bouncing around. 

[00:09:35] Richard Stroupe: Mm-hmm. 

[00:09:35] Justin Whitman: And it's not aggressive. It's just a release of energy. Right. Because the music gets you so amped up and then all of a sudden it was.

Stuff was just flying off the stage into the audience and I was freaking out. Yeah. And all my friends, they all knew about it. They just didn't wanna tell me. And they were all older. Yeah. So I just feel like I took, all of everything that was coming out was, was all over me. And when we're sitting in the car, they're like, it was a blast that I'm just covered in like fake.

I don't know what it was coming outta these, it was blood or whatever. It was. Obviously not, but it was part of the stage performance. But as a musician myself at the time, and we were in startup bands and playing local spots mm-hmm. That performance aspect of it just always sat with me. Right. Like, how do you leave them wanting more?

And then from that point on between metal and hip hop, uh, even some country and, and a ton of rock, it was just, you know, love at first sight, the performance aspect and getting into live venues were just a blast. Yeah. My 

[00:10:37] Richard Stroupe: speaking of hip hop, I know my, my son. He, he likes all kinds of music. Yeah. You know, hip hop and rock and progressive.

And, uh, he told me he went to a Playboy Cardi concert and there was a mosh pit there. I was like, are you kidding me? 

[00:10:51] Justin Whitman: I've noticed that even the younger generation hip hop is, is getting more and more into, you know, a, a multicultural approach. Yeah. And, uh, it's, it's pretty cool to see that, and that's kind of one of many reasons why UUs, us MiTek startup is so important to me is, you know, giving musicians and music lovers a stage that, for me, back then didn't exist.

Mm-hmm. And, and a platform and, and a, and a soapbox to stand on and shout from the mountaintops without being charged to join. Right. Yeah. So, yeah, I mean, it's just. Yeah. Now I wanna go to Mosh Pit. 

[00:11:28] Richard Stroupe: I know. 

[00:11:28] Justin Whitman: Well, we're gonna go, right? Yeah. I, I saw what you sent me. Yeah. Uh, I'm, I'm digging it. I'm digging it.

I'm already, I was already looking at like hotels. Yeah, yeah, right around there. Yeah. System of it down and corn. Uh, and corn East. East Rutherford, New Jersey. Yeah. New Jersey at MetLife. And then there's another one, uh, like, uh, it's in Chicago. In Chicago in September. Yeah. Yeah. 

[00:11:49] Richard Stroupe: We'll definitely hit one of those.

Yeah. We 

[00:11:50] Justin Whitman: have to. '

[00:11:51] Richard Stroupe: cause I mean, system's been touring all over Europe and you know, they hardly play any shows in the US but 

[00:11:55] Justin Whitman: Yeah. And it's just, I was just listening actually. Some of it in the car between aerials and other songs, it was just like, you know, gets you amped up, you're doing a podcast, you want to get like your energy up, press me ows.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. It helps. I listen to a ton of hip hop. I mean, I grew up on that music, so to be transitioned by my friends into playing rock and then getting into that kind of music and then mm-hmm. Having older friends that put me into the Beatles and Led Zeppelin and Jet Rat Toll and stuff like that.

I got like a very robust, rounded mm-hmm. You know, upbringing of music. Mm-hmm. So I can have fun anywhere. I mean, I think we talked about it between Wolf Trapp and others. 

[00:12:33] Richard Stroupe: Well, take us back to the beginning. So you, you are from West Virginia, right? 

[00:12:37] Justin Whitman: Um, well, I'm, I'm originally from, uh, DMV, the Northern Virginia area.

Okay. I lived in Fairfax County. Okay. Uh, Burke, Virginia Burke. Okay. Yep. That wonderfully playing. C dentist C my dentist is in Burke. Okay. Yeah. Yeah. I, I spent my entire adolescent and teens in Burke, Virginia. What high school did you go to? Uh, Robinson. Robinson, yeah. Okay. So we were D one school. Yeah. It was crazy.

'cause, you know, growing up I only knew elementary school mm-hmm. K through six and high school was seventh through 12th. Right. My kids get older. There's like four different schools. They all have to go now. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Um, but in Fairfax County, you know, the, it's such a melting pot mm-hmm. Of.

Government contracting and tech, and just an, an eclectic group of individuals that bring a lot of knowledge of, of different aspects. So I learned a lot with music and then the musicians I performed with, and this was even when I was little. Mm-hmm. 

[00:13:37] Richard Stroupe: You know, 

[00:13:38] Justin Whitman: my mom had me playing piano. My dad bought me my first guitar, uh, then my dad bought me my first Congo set, and I got it to Djembe.

And next thing I know, I'm playing like a dozen instruments. Mm-hmm. I can't read music at all. Uh, it just makes sense in my brain. So I pick up the instrument and start playing. I kind of know stuff. I had a fantastic guitar teacher mm-hmm. When I was in high school at Robinson, uh, Mr. McCarthy, um, he was patient with me.

I, you know, everybody wants to be in guitar class and just rock out and have a good time. Right. But he's like trying to teach structure and chords and I get it. It's sunk in. Mm-hmm. But I can't read cheap music. Mm-hmm. But because of his help, I can actually play along with stuff now, which is mm-hmm.

Fantastic. But mm-hmm. Yeah. Um, I had a, I had a blast there and eventually spent a lot of time in DC you know, the super cultural there. Have you been back lately? I have, uh, for quick visits. Mm-hmm. And it's crazy to see just the growth in that market. It's insane. It is. Yeah. It, it, it's insane. It's difficult on traffic, but mm-hmm.

It, it's just the, the largest county with the most server farms in Loudoun County. And I lived in Loudoun County too Yeah. For a while. Um, right down from the Redskins training facility. Mm-hmm. So it was, um, you know, I'm a diehard, well, you can't call 'em the Redskins anymore, but the Sure can. Yeah. That's how I know 'em, uh, Washington, A lot of people up there still call kids.

Oh yeah, yeah, yeah. A lot of the players were clients of mine. Yeah. So I got to help with their charity events. Ronaldo Wynn is, uh, just fantastic to my kids. Mm-hmm. And Philip Daniels and these other guys were just, you know, immensely. Important to me. 'cause they were like mentors in a different facet mm-hmm.

Of my life and everything I did in DC and in Northern Virginia and the dmv. Mm-hmm. I'm gonna say honestly, molded who I am now. Mm-hmm. Did you ever 

[00:15:32] Richard Stroupe: meet Darryl Green? 

[00:15:33] Justin Whitman: I did. He a cool guy. He, he is. I did stuff with the Washington Sports Alliance. Yeah. So I got, uh, picked up in a limo and there's Darryl Green the first time I met him.

Yeah. He said, I didn't know anybody was gonna be in the limo. He's 

[00:15:45] Richard Stroupe: such an energetic person. Like he's always smiling. Yes. Yeah. And he's 

[00:15:49] Justin Whitman: energy. Yeah. Energy. Like all the time. Yeah. Um, but yeah, I mean, just, I miss that area, but I don't miss the traffic and I definitely don't miss, uh, shoveling snow. 

[00:16:01] Richard Stroupe: Well, you wouldn't like it now because it's.

Insane. Yeah. 

[00:16:05] Justin Whitman: Yeah. I'm, I'm enjoying the transition. I eventually moved, uh, got married when I was young, um, and moved to West Virginia. Mm-hmm. And from there I was enjoying being away from people. Mm-hmm. Because as a consultant, you can travel anywhere. Right, right. You can work for anyone. And I could, you know, 90 minutes I could be in Northern Virginia, less than two hours.

I could be in DC It was great. 

[00:16:27] Richard Stroupe: How, where in West Virginia did you 

[00:16:28] Justin Whitman: go? I was right in the eastern panhandle in Berkeley County. Okay. Berkeley. So just on the outside of the actual city life going into Hedges. Okay. Um, I enjoyed it. I did. And, and it was, it was a massive change for me, uh, at the time. Uh, my wife's family lived out there.

Mm. Um, and then, you know, flash forward, uh, at the 20 year mark, uh, my wife and I separated. Mm-hmm. So I've been through a divorce. My kids are gonna be 21 and 23 this year. Mm-hmm. So I've, I've lived a very full life. Mm-hmm. And I decided that I needed a change and I moved down to Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, and I just wanted to be somewhere where there was stuff to do.

Yeah. Things happening. Opportunities. And I've really fallen in love with the coast. Mm-hmm. The, the Carolina Coasts. Uh, I, I've been up, I went to your place and that was gorgeous up there. Mm-hmm. Fantastically appointed by the way. Oh, thanks. Um, but you know, now it's, how do I bring my tech company to the Carolinas too, right.

Because it's still a West Virginia entity. I was the entrepreneur and resident up in the state of West Virginia with WVU and state agencies and um, now I'm just looking to relocate. Prove everybody wrong that you can. Yeah. 

[00:17:44] Richard Stroupe: So, so when did you move to Myrtle? A couple years ago. 

[00:17:46] Justin Whitman: Uh, I moved to Myrtle in 2024, beginning of 2024.

Okay. Yeah. So I've been down, uh, 18 months. 

[00:17:52] Richard Stroupe: Yeah, I think we talked about that. My mom and her husband, my stepdad, they lived down there for 20 years. Oh wow. Or maybe, yeah. Yeah. He was the, um, they lived near Charlotte, I guess it was Chesterfield County. Okay. And he was the county administrator there for a while.

Oh wow. And then they moved to Pickens, near Clemson. Mm-hmm. And he was the county administrator there. And then they ended up retiring and moved to Myrtle Beach. But it's was closer to, um. Conway. Okay. Like literally four or five miles down the road from Conway. That's how I am right now. But it's still kind of Myrtle Beach address.

Yes. Yeah. 

[00:18:32] Justin Whitman: I'm a Myrtle Beach address, but I live in Carolina Forest. Okay. And Carolina Forest feels like Loudoun County. Yeah, it does. It's the easiest way I can describe it. 

[00:18:41] Richard Stroupe: So many, I hate to call 'em cookie cutter, but they're like cookie cutter developments. Yes. Spread out all over Myrtle Beach. Yes. And I've talked to a lot of people and there seems to be, 'cause you know there's a lot of folks from the north moving to Myrtle Beach.

Correct. You can't not pass. A New York Yankees fan or something down in the Myrtle Beach area. Yeah, yeah. Um, yeah, but it's, it, it's good, you know, they're, they're nice. Yeah. But it's like, sometimes it gets overcrowded and Yes, I know there's people that are moving north into like Brunswick County, correct.

You know, down in the Chalo area, ocean aisle and, and Yeah. They're expanding out. 

[00:19:20] Justin Whitman: Yeah. Myrtle Beach is the fastest growing zip code in the last five years per the USPS. Right. So they're registering homes at an exponential rate. Yeah. And that's not even individuals that are moving to, to existing homes.

Mm-hmm. Um, there is that Northerner mentality and, uh, Myrtle Beach, and I was victim to being a Northerner for a hot minute. I was down there, uh, West Virginia, just any, just anybody that doesn't have a South Carolina license plate. Yeah. Yeah. Is a Northerner at this point. Yeah. I see. 

[00:19:50] Richard Stroupe: You still carry the West Virginia, uh, plate?

[00:19:52] Justin Whitman: I do. Right now, uh, just, I have so much invested in the state, but I am, uh, just trying to find my, find my home. Mm-hmm. So, so far it's Myrtle, but Wilmington's been, been doing a strong poll for me to bring my tech startup to Wilmington. I 

[00:20:07] Richard Stroupe: heard Jim Roberts is in constant contact with you. 

[00:20:10] Justin Whitman: He is, uh, between Jim Roberts and then the individuals at Myrtle, they, I, I feel the tug of war.

[00:20:17] Richard Stroupe: Is there a Jim Roberts at Myrtle Beach? 

[00:20:19] Justin Whitman: There's not a Jim Robertson, Myrtle Beach as much as there maybe should be or could be. Okay. Um, Myrtle Beach has a, a growing tech scene and, and that is something that intrigues me, is being able to step into an ecosystem. I'm not someone who's all about me. Mm-hmm.

I like to come in and help things grow. It's, it's, it's that consultant side of me. 

[00:20:41] Richard Stroupe: There was a gentleman that just submitted an application for cohort two for Myrtle Beach. 

[00:20:45] Justin Whitman: Oh, wow. 

[00:20:46] Richard Stroupe: Yeah. I'll have to give you Yeah. 

[00:20:47] Justin Whitman: We'll have to talk offline about that. Yeah. The, uh, but I think that there's, there's substantial individuals down there that really know what they're doing.

I think it's bringing 'em all together and the hub and, and Jenny at the Aspire Hub, uh, the HTC Aspire Hub is doing a fantastic job with it. Uh, now there's individuals that are coming out from California, like Peter Jordan. I think he's reached out to you Right. Um, with a wealth of knowledge that he's bringing Yeah.

To the market and what he wants to do from a venture studio standpoint. And the SCRA does a fantastic job of promoting stuff, but there's still a missing element for tech startups like mine and others that need that entry level capital or more mm-hmm. To get going. And I think once. Municipalities and counties start to see the impact.

Like Northern Virginia felt when tech started coming in there, when a OL really expanded out. Mm-hmm. They were like, oh, that tax money's fantastic. Right. What el what other tech wants to come here? We're, we're wide open now. Mm-hmm. And that's year round. You know, Myrtle Beach, 20 million people come through during the summertime.

Mm-hmm. And then it whittles back down to three, 400,000. And if you can bring in tech, I mean, you know this firsthand mm-hmm. That brings a tremendous amount of money into a market. Right. Yeah. And if you can just help be a portion of it mm-hmm. And be a proponent to change that gets me excited. Yeah. On top of finding funding for my own company, I wanna see growth.

Yeah. Wherever I go. Yeah. 

[00:22:13] Richard Stroupe: We had Heather mc Water here yesterday. She's fantastic. She's wonderful. And one of the things I learned from her experience and what she's doing is that it seems the, there's two major. Thrust on funding startups, not funding startups, but like just promoting startups. Correct.

There's this concept of blue economy, everything about the ocean. Mm-hmm. So could be growing oysters under the water in a more innovative way or controlling erosion, more sustainability. Um, so there's like ocean based businesses Hmm. Since they have access and, and the location so close. Yeah. And then there's this push on health technology.

Yeah. And I'm not sure if that's influenced by the bioscience industry out of Raleigh, uh, or perhaps North Carolina with their idea fund and, and some of their other initiatives I would agree on that are becoming more health conscious. But yeah. The one element I still hear missing is technology and tech.

And it's hard because like we're from Northern Virginia. Yeah. We know the government's up there and the agencies and there's a big cybersecurity and Absolutely. You know, there's always. Business ideas that are, are scaling out of government usage Yep. And moving more into the private sector. Um, how do we, how do we implement more technology based curriculum and ideas here?

[00:23:42] Justin Whitman: So when I went to West Virginia mm-hmm. Uh, I was fortunate enough to be on this, is this kind of a long, drawn out version of it. But I was fortunate enough to join Vantage Ventures. Uh, vantage Ventures was out of the WVU West Virginia University. Mm-hmm. It was from the John Chambers College of Business and Economics.

And John Chambers was the prior chairman and CEO of Cisco Systems. He went to WVU, so the school's named after him. Sarah Biller, uh, came from Boston. She was a West Virginian as well. Uh, huge proponent for tech and change in West Virginia. I watched her efforts firsthand how resilient and just. On it.

Mm-hmm. She was to get things going from, next thing you know, they're working with Elon on some stuff, the Berkshire Hathaway group, they have LG coming into the state. Mm-hmm. I mean, it wasn't just farming out, uh, what they had from the FBI facility and Noah, which is in Fairmont. Mm-hmm. Uh, just there was a ton that they were doing.

When I came into the program, I felt like I was placed on a soapbox mm-hmm. To kind of rah rah. Well, and nothing wrong with it because what we're building and what, what I'm hoping to build, able to put out to the world for them to love and appreciate and use and, and grow and on a global scale is a social platform.

So, you know, we're kind of a grown and sexy play, and I'm not. Curing cancer and other things like that. Mm-hmm. But music is a, is a universal language that everybody speaks. Mm-hmm. And it's an easy way to get people excited about stuff. Mm-hmm. I think knowing what I did in the state of West Virginia and where we got to by the time I left, we could do the same thing down here, but we need some people that have some grown and sexy ideas that capture headlines.

Mm-hmm. Jim Roberts is the first person to tell you he is a monster mm-hmm. When it comes to promoting Wilmington. Mm-hmm. Fantastic. Jenny in Myrtle Beach is stellar at promoting what they're doing down there, but state publications and other, other journals and online content needs to pick it up and run with it.

Mm-hmm. If they had something grown and sexy to be able to kind of promote that helps Yeah. Shine a little, a a, a big red bow on what's going on. Right. 

[00:26:02] Richard Stroupe: Well one of the things I think Virginia does really well is, uh, the governor. Has a tight relationship with technology CEOs and companies Yes. And the systems integrators.

So he protects his base. He, he understands that hey, there's a lot of IT workers that are supporting government contracting. Absolutely. And other things. And they promote, you know, tax incentives or other types of, of business opportunities. Mm-hmm. And this is where I believe North and South Carolina should invest more time and energy and capital.

Yeah. Is to invite some of these companies to open offices or even relocate their headquarters. 'cause one of the things I found attractive, you know, from a venture capital point of view is, you know, for example, if there's a company in Boston, there's a company in California, there's a company in Northern Virginia, and then there's a company in Wilmington.

Yeah. I can tell you. A hundred percent that the company in Wilmington has a lower operating cost. Absolutely. Because the salaries are different. Yep. Um, it's a different, um, cost index, probably a 

[00:27:12] Justin Whitman: happier, uh, lifestyle. 

[00:27:14] Richard Stroupe: It's, it's a happier, more, um, easygoing lifestyle. It's not as rigid. Yep. And I think that's the trade off.

Yeah. And Jim even talks about this sometimes. Yeah. It's, 'cause you know, people where we're from in Virginia, it's go, go, go. It's, yeah. It's high stress. You're in the pressure cooker all the time. They freaked out about the four 

[00:27:33] Justin Whitman: day work week 

[00:27:34] Richard Stroupe: Yeah. Mentality. Yeah. But we have six, six day work weeks. Yeah.

Like, we don't, we we take Sunday off. Yeah. You know, but mostly we work Monday through Saturday. Absolutely. And you have to Yeah. Especially if you're trying to build a startup. I'm stuck with 

[00:27:46] Justin Whitman: that mentality still. No matter where I go, I just, I can't turn that off. 

[00:27:49] Richard Stroupe: Yeah. But here, you know, there, there is, there is a, a lack.

Of that type of energy. Yeah. Yet when there's some companies that we have it, like I believe, you know, I'm not gonna not name drop, but there's, there's one for sure. Yeah. That are, is doing a really good job of Yeah. Energizing the base and making sure that we're all incentivized and giving them stock options.

Yeah. 

[00:28:12] Justin Whitman: And that's culture. Yeah. That's company culture. I think down here they have, they do have a, a slower pace and that might be a slight resistance to tech, uh, from certain individuals. And there's some individuals in the municipalities that I've met personally, you know, I've gone to these meetings, I've gone to the meetings with the city of Myrtle Beach.

I've gone to Horry County, which is that area I've gone to, to functions in Wilmington and other locations because I want to hear, you know, what they're thinking because I am that person trying to figure out where I'm gonna dump a, a tech startup's headquarters. Mm-hmm. You know, I'm thinking on large scale, I'm not, I'm not the 500.

You know, a thousand dollar founder, I'm the billion dollar plus CEO. Mm-hmm. You know, my, my sector that I'm going into is $250 billion globally mm-hmm. Between all the platforms. And if I can grab one or 2% of that, let's call it even a half a percent. Right. I'm instantly a unicorn. Right. And you would think any state would want me around and if people spend five plus hours or more on their devices on social Yeah.

You know, will be great. Plus, you know, I wanna do stuff with school and education and a bunch of other stuff. Mm-hmm. So I, I agree. I was, I spent a lot of time with Governor Jim Justice in West Virginia and his team, they were a huge proponent once they realized what tech actually did. Mm-hmm. So I completely agree and have, and have dealt with it firsthand.

When municipalities step up and the governing, you know, bodies of a state are involved mm-hmm. Change moves swiftly. Right. And government does not move swiftly. Right. We, we both know that. Yeah. Um, but you can get them moving in the right direction and then all of a sudden everybody in the market jumps online.

[00:29:56] Richard Stroupe: Mm-hmm. Yeah. Well, tell us about UMuseUs. Tell, tell us about the story. I know I don't wanna talk about your JJW company, but, 

[00:30:03] Justin Whitman: yeah. Yeah. So, UMuseUs originally started out as rock out the show.com. Okay. Uh, I was consulting for AOL at the time when AOL was relevant and, and I, I can say that now. Right? It's not too soon.

Yeah. Uh, but when they were relevant and, uh, Nextel was still around, we wanted to have a joint venture project together. Mm-hmm. And we were having a hard time figuring out what that would actually be. And I was watching American Idol. I'm a musician, right? So I was still playing with bands, touring. I had a label for a little bit, uh, kind of a jack of all trades at the time.

And all of a sudden I'm seeing the band in the background is like in the shadow. 

[00:30:44] Richard Stroupe: Mm-hmm. 

[00:30:44] Justin Whitman: And the singer is center stage and everybody loves the singer. That's fantastic. But the band's not getting any love. And I thought to myself, wouldn't it be great if the band got attention? So we came up with this televised conceptual idea mm-hmm.

For, called Rock Out the show, brought it to a OL and this is when a OL was at the, at the cusp of merging with Time Warner. Mm-hmm. Being acquired mm-hmm. Merger. But, uh, Mike Stanfield from from Nextel was all in. He's like, we'll throw money behind this thing. This will be great. This will, this will get us.

'cause they missed out on, you know, what was going on for the telephony rights that at and t got. Mm-hmm. At the time. Mm-hmm. So this was like their way of like getting in. Even though they knew in the background, we were in white room meetings for the merger with Sprint coming up. So everybody was going through mergers.

Right. And everybody also wanted to spend money and next thing you know, we had these deals on the table and everything sounded great. Both mergers kind of went into play at the same time. My deal's dead. So then I transitioned to rock out the show.com and created a music friend finder site and through processes and working really hard and really learning as I go because there's no blueprint back then.

Mm-hmm. Uh, we got to about a hundred thousand and I'll call them monthly active users. Maus. I don't really know what our daily active users were. We didn't have metrics back then like that. Mm-hmm. We were flying by the seat of our pants and this, this was where I cut my teeth Right on really learning. Um, we got a cease and desist letter from a very large entertainment company that, uh, handled a.

Artist, a musician where the phrase rock out the show was in one of her songs. Now this letter came through like six degrees of separation from attorneys, from different companies. But when we traced it back, we know where it came from. Mm-hmm. It was like, we want to be able to own the platform because that's in a direction we're going.

Mm-hmm. And I don't wanna say the company name, but it's, it's a massive place. And, you know, some people might travel to theme parks and, uh Right. It was, um, it was a lot and it was scary. And it's the first time when a founder's heart when you get your first, you know, your, your lawsuit. Yeah. And you're like, I'm not even making any money.

Like, I'm gonna have to pay this outta client money. Right. And, uh, so the option was we shut it down and we offloaded a lot of the users onto a different platform that was run by entities like Guitar Center and others, and they didn't feel a transition. Mm-hmm. But it was a music friend finder site, so that was great.

Um, kept watching what was going on, and we get to a point where I, I pulled it back off the shelf and decided. I need to go in on this. I'm, I'm watching still American Idol and all these shows. No one's giving love to the whole band. Mm-hmm. So UMuseUs came to fruition outta my frustration for not seeing musicians get a fair shake.

Mm-hmm. You know, Facebook used to have a tab on the side of their window that said music. Mm-hmm. They don't anymore. Mm-hmm. Uh, all these other platforms used to do it. Then everybody started going behind paywalls. If you want your band to get promoted, join our website. It's $25 a month. Starving artists is a real term because a lot of artists that love what they do can't even afford to promote themselves.

They rely on going to venues and functions. I want to give that voice, I wanna give the stage and the platform where they can't actually do it. Mm-hmm. So I've spent years, this is, it's 10 years in the making of an overnight success. Mm-hmm. Uh, but 10 years plus. Because every time I got far enough along, I shelved it and then took on a client and worked on this stuff.

'cause I was bootstrapping Right. The entire thing. And I've probably put $250,000 of my own money into it. Right. And I'm not a technical guy. I'm, I'm enough to be dangerous, but I can't sit and code. Mm-hmm. And there are things that I can't do. So I brought people in and I've acquired CTOs and I've had best friends that'll do it.

And then a o you know, Amazon comes along and offers 'em a, a massive six figure salary. Yeah. And, um, you can't turn that down. No. And, and, and I love 'em all. Yeah. And they got kids. Yeah. So, you know, it's, it's tough building a company when I was also heavily involved in consulting mm-hmm. Northern Virginia, the opportunities are, you know, exponential.

Right. And I'm really good at. Sliding in, you know, back then I didn't have the beard. It was, you know, clean face suits. Mm-hmm. You know, ties, now it's jeans and a t-shirt and a grown out beard, and I can't grow any hair anymore. So it's just bald. It's bald beard and pink shoes. That's how most people are, remember.

Look, it's a good look, man. Yeah, it works. It works. I'm recognizable, I guess when I come in, good or bad. Um, but UMuseUs is now a, a site that we're gonna be launching soon. That's for everyone from musicians to music lovers. So think Facebook and TikTok and Instagram rolled into all the best parts. Mm-hmm.

Without all the drama. Mm-hmm. Just focused. If you're a music lover, you can jump on that platform. You can find other individuals that love metal. But if you're a guitar player, a bassist. And then on top of it, I, I wanted to take it one step further. So we came up with a competition element where Richard really loves this drummer, this singer, this bass player, this guitarist, and maybe a fiddler.

Mm-hmm. You wanna make your own old school, Dave Matthews feel you put 'em all together in a band, uh, hit okay. And it spits out what they sound like. Mm-hmm. And then you float that through all of your social pages. Check out the band I just made on the background. We provide click tracks and the songs and the tempo and the BPMs that the artist follows to be able to actually be compressed into one song.

So next thing you know, let's say the top 15, 20 voted bands that everybody votes on, we fly 'em out, Myrtle Beach, wherever, and we do the ultimate battle of the bands. And they've never met each other. They have to figure out their style, their look, their sound, everything. They gotta get over their indifferences.

All on camera. Yeah. So, I mean, it's a vicious circle. Then we take those bands, put 'em on the road. So now it's online there. You should sell 

[00:36:49] Richard Stroupe: this idea to Netflix 'cause it sounds like an awesome Netflix series. 

[00:36:53] Justin Whitman: We, uh, we've talked to Fox, we've talked to a, b, C I've worked with the entities that, um, ran certain shows that are no longer on certain networks, but I would, I would 100% love to talk to Netflix knowing that they want live content.

Yeah. Now, uh, and this doesn't require stadiums. Yeah. I can do all of it on the website. Yeah. Which, which is where it should be. 

[00:37:20] Richard Stroupe: It kind of reminds me of the, that MMA series. Mm-hmm. Where, where you have a couple champions come in and they pick their team and Absolutely. End up talking smack to one another.

You might, that's what I want into total sparring fight. Yeah. Yeah. And the next thing you know, the, it's like whose teams wins kind 

[00:37:34] Justin Whitman: of thing. Yeah. I wanna get these bands into like, intimate venues that I had to do where I, yeah. I played for the cheeseburger and a beer. Yeah. You know, I was excited to get free food.

Right. And then you start doing shows and eventually get to the point where it's a $50,000 show and you're like, right, this was, I was lucky to even get fed before and now I'm getting this. So, like, there's a lot that goes with that. But yeah. Only way it's gonna happen is we, I have to go find investors now and, and it's, it's tough to find investors that don't want me to move.

So you've been bootstrapping up until now? I've been bootstrapping up until now and I'm at the 

[00:38:05] Richard Stroupe: continued bootstrap. 

[00:38:06] Justin Whitman: I'm gonna continue to bootstrap. But I'm at the point where bootstrapping is not gonna get us scaled up and ready to launch. You 

[00:38:15] Richard Stroupe: know? And I don't think that's talked enough, because now you hear a lot of people like, oh, it's the cheapest time ever to launch a company with, you know, web services and all this free software, software, vibe, coding, and all this.

Yeah. You can use AI to generate your websites and Yeah. But yeah, but it's, it, that's cool, right? Yes. But that's not where the magic happens. No. Customer acquisition. Yes. And traction. Yeah. Like it's still, it is taken much, much longer to gain a customer. Absolutely. And you have to monetize that and Yes. You know, you're paying time.

Yes. Right. Payroll. Yeah. Um, and every company I invest in, I, that's what we kind of sit on top of is the payroll because. If you look at that customer bleed, that's where you bleed. Yeah. That's where 

[00:38:59] Justin Whitman: you bleed. Yeah. And the the problem is, is yes. Can you go build a simplistic website with ai? Absolutely.

Mm-hmm. I help my clients do it all the time. Mm-hmm. Can you do a ton of your marketing and advertising through AI components? Absolutely. Jonathan Mast, uh, Austin Armstrong, these, these guys are leading the way with discussions on how those things, Austin's actually outta Durham, North Carolina. Mm-hmm. And he runs, uh, syllable, uh, dot io.

Mm-hmm. And fantastic platform. But when you're building something that requires literally exponential growth mm-hmm. Right. Where you just, you can grow without any constraints. It's the same thing Facebook and everything else uses. Mm-hmm. It's a different type of. Headache. You know, your, your AWS or your Google Cloud needs to, or CloudFlare needs to be just top tier.

Your terms and conditions, your privacy policies, your gdpr, your COPA compliance for kids under 13. Mm-hmm. A lot of these, their privacy. I mean, all of these things come into play and a plethora of other stuff. And these are all the hat. I mean, I should literally get a wall behind me. Yeah. That just has different hats and I take 'em off and now this is legal, you know, like this is advertising, this is marketing, but I do it all myself.

And I do have individuals that I work with, and these are individuals that have been with me for a while that I don't have to pay. Mm-hmm. They see the value in what's coming down the road, but I want to get 'em paid. I want to get 'em compensated. Mm-hmm. I don't need a heavy team. We can run lean. I would love to be the founder one day that does it all by himself and hits a billion.

Everybody keeps talking about this, this white whale. Right. This, there's, someone's gonna finally be the. That's not gonna be from a platform like this. Mm-hmm. It's gonna be from someone who probably comes up with a video game and launches it and then gets acquired. Yeah. By somebody, Zynga or whatever. But the one person unicorn, the one person, I mean, just 

[00:40:51] Richard Stroupe: using AI agents Yes.

But it's 

[00:40:53] Justin Whitman: not gonna be a deep Yeah, yeah. It's not gonna be a deep platform. Mm-hmm. For us, we're going deep with what we wanna offer. Mm-hmm. I want to get into schools and, and bring that music education component back. I mean, you, you see Ed Sheeran doing a fantastic job of that right now, where he paints and he sells his paintings.

Mm-hmm. And, and promotes that and uses that money to build a fund, campaigns and programs. I would love to be able to take profits mm-hmm. From U Mesas and open up a venture studio or something like that, that allows, you know, STEM students. And speaking of that. Like, I would love to just slam a, a capital A in stem, so it's steam everywhere you go.

'cause science, tech, technology, engineering and mathematics is great, right? Mm-hmm. But arts should be slammed into that. If I didn't have access to the arts when I was in elementary and high school mm-hmm. My, I know for a fact my math and my science grades wouldn't be where they are. Mm-hmm. Having that side of my brain active with music allows my other side to get engaged.

[00:41:59] Richard Stroupe: I think you raise an excellent point. 'cause as AI becomes more mainstream mm-hmm. It's going to replace a lot of the STEM functions. Correct. Like your math and your computations and your formulas and your blueprints and draft plans. Absolutely. You know what's gonna be left is creativity. Yeah. Right. If you can use these tools in a creative fashion, whether it be absolutely, whether a prompt or, or how you layer the tools together to produce some output.

Um, and you're right, I think arts should be prevalent in mandatory in all the curriculum, um, especially now more than ever because AI is gonna replace a lot of jobs. Yeah. And what's gonna be left 

[00:42:41] Justin Whitman: is people need to know how to utilize it. And there's a lot of individuals that are doing a fantastic job teaching at Jonathan Mast.

I mentioned him before. He had a 500,000 person group mm-hmm. On Facebook. And it was taken down briefly and then put back up. Um, just educating hardcore, educating individuals on how to properly create prompts. Anybody can jump in there and say, Hey, chat GPT, tell me about X. But when you can really.

Computate a fantastic prompt for a client or yourself. Mm-hmm. And then keep that thread open. Mm-hmm. And keep asking it over and over again. Now you're at, you're creating your own GPT. Mm-hmm. It's learning who you are. I've taken GPTs and loaded tons of my content from the past two decades mm-hmm. That I have.

Mm-hmm. 

[00:43:30] Richard Stroupe: So 

[00:43:31] Justin Whitman: it learns me, it learns my style, it learns how I talk. It knows everything about you use us in the past, I can ask it things so I can move quick. 

[00:43:38] Richard Stroupe: Yeah. 

[00:43:39] Justin Whitman: And you need to, 

[00:43:40] Richard Stroupe: right. 

[00:43:40] Justin Whitman: Especially when you're a party of one trying to I know. Trying to build a tech startup. Yeah. So yeah. Run, lean, run fast break stuff.

Right. That's the Facebook right way. It's very difficult to do that when you also don't have the Facebook money and the Peter Thiels of the world dumping, you know, you watch 

[00:43:57] Richard Stroupe: his interview the other, other week, 

[00:43:59] Justin Whitman: I didn't get to see it yet. I, I do have it flagged. It is to kind of go and, and watch's strange.

[00:44:04] Richard Stroupe: I, I, I've always. I've always been impressed with Peter Thiel. He's been very lucky. He's, yes, he's very wicked smart. Oh yeah. He's in touch with the Elon's of the world and Yeah. And built some incredible technology sometimes 

[00:44:16] Justin Whitman: on the cusp of, or in the know of things that are coming. 

[00:44:19] Richard Stroupe: Yeah. But sometimes like these people become like super successful.

Mm-hmm. Ultra wealthy 

[00:44:26] Justin Whitman: out of touch, 

[00:44:27] Richard Stroupe: and they just turn weird. Yeah. It's like, why can't you just be normal? 

[00:44:30] Justin Whitman: Well, he's going to New Zealand. Right. Like, that's where I think he, 

[00:44:33] Richard Stroupe: he has a big place down there. Yeah. And like a bunker or something. Yeah. End of the world type thing. 

[00:44:38] Justin Whitman: And, and for me it's, it's hard.

And, and I'm not speaking 'cause I'm not uber wealthy, right? Mm-hmm. But I look at that like. If and when and when my company hits its first billion and there's equity and there's things that can, that can benefit me. 

[00:44:57] Richard Stroupe: Mm-hmm. 

[00:44:58] Justin Whitman: I don't look at it like benefiting me. I look at it like I can then pull that and then put it out into the world.

Mm-hmm. To give back or do things, or create programs. And like for me, I wanna leave a legacy in the music industry in a way that I don't see going on right now. 

[00:45:15] Richard Stroupe: Mm-hmm. 

[00:45:16] Justin Whitman: I don't wanna hold onto all this wealth. Mm-hmm. I want to be able to give it back in a way where I become synonymous with change. In that industry.

Right. And I just, I think there's ways to do it and there's a lot more that I can't quite talk about yet, but that we're doing some, and I say we, the individuals I'm working with, I do hire outside. Mm-hmm. You know, individuals. I had a team in India, uh, that just worked relentlessly for me and mm-hmm. I would love to be able to bring that state side.

It's just hard to find individuals, uh, that can do what I need done in that quick of a timeframe that many people involved 

[00:45:52] Richard Stroupe: at a certain budget and at that dollar amount. Yeah. Yeah. All comes back to the budget. It does help when I can hire 

[00:45:57] Justin Whitman: 20 people, but I would rather hire two people Yeah. Uh, and pay more.

Mm-hmm. And I have it even built into my own budget. I've, you know, one thing I've always told everybody is, you know, when you're building a startup, you need to, and this is where you and I talked about, it goes back to the, the, the Elevate event. It's, you need to think about your business ahead of time.

Mm-hmm. Build that projection, put together the financial model. Build your data room, get all these things in place because you never know when someone's gonna come shoulder tap you and say, Hey, I want in. Right. And due diligence is, is not fun. It's not meant to be fun. Right. It's meant to be a sounding board.

Politicians go through it when they want to get into politics. People are digging into their business, they're gonna dig into your business. Right. Be prepared from the beginning. 

[00:46:45] Richard Stroupe: We actually added that section as a, you know, a whole Oh, that's fantastic. Yeah. Course. Nice. Based on what you and I talked about.

Yeah. 

[00:46:54] Justin Whitman: Yeah. I, I know a couple of the individuals in the group, I shared my, uh, my due diligence table of contents Yeah. With them and, and showed them, you know, you can open up a Google Drive and literally dump in folders. Mm-hmm. And then have those folders numbered to go with this. Yeah. And just dump your stuff in.

Yeah. And now it's easy to find it. Yeah. And then a checklist too. Right. So this way you can know who looked at what. Yeah. So 

[00:47:16] Richard Stroupe: I almost feel guilty because you guys. We're kind of like the beta, you know, looking at, okay, how do we put this class together? Yeah. Great feedback. And now it's, you know, basically your two days is now one day.

Yeah. And day two is completely d something new. It is. I'm like, oh man, I should bring everybody back for this. Well, I mean, you did, you did throw 

[00:47:39] Justin Whitman: out the offer for us to come out for, uh, some, some drinks on the party on the, on the 10th, on the, that day two, right? Yeah. Yeah. And I'll come up for that because it'll be great.

It's, it's gonna kind of be like, uh, this will be the freshman class meeting. The new freshman class. Yeah. And now, now we're, you know, a great hire and every time we go, we'll, eventually be, we're the inaugural group. Mm-hmm. You know, where you cut your teeth. I mean, you, your wealth of knowledge was fantastic.

And I watched everybody's engagement. Mm-hmm. And I told you I've been to tons of those things. So. Just seeing what they took away and then watching them use it even as sim, simply as LinkedIn or the, the way that we communicate with each other in our group now. Mm-hmm. Uh, you can tell Yeah. That things resonated, but not only resonated, they just took it and ran with it.

[00:48:26] Richard Stroupe: Yeah. Yeah. Brit and I actually had a conversation last weekend. She reached out and, good, she's gonna take some more executive ed classes at Harvard. I'm like, yeah, this is the one you should take. Here's the reasons why. Yeah. We looked at the curriculum together to kind of figure out, oh my God, exactly which one she needed.

And 

[00:48:40] Justin Whitman: see, and that's what people don't realize is I didn't get any of that mm-hmm. With the other groups. Mm-hmm. But with yours, you know, we, time is the most valuable mm-hmm. Commodity right. With anybody. Mm-hmm. And the fact that you're generously giving us your time, that's fantastic. Mm-hmm. So it means a lot that you've done that with me.

You're, you've done that with, uh, Bridget, you're. I know the other guys that have reached out and mm-hmm. And Jack and everybody else. I mean, you've just been fantastic. Not to mention, I mean, we had one hell of a speaker come and his son was super, super fantastic. Yeah. Yeah. Wasn't he great? Yeah, it was. It was.

And it's, it's just, it was, it was engaging. Mm-hmm. It wasn't like, you just feel like you're being lectured. Mm-hmm. It was a very engaging experience. So I think that's, every time you post it, I'm always gonna go underneath of it. If you haven't submitted, you better. Like, that's kind of my tone is, I can't say it the way I want to say it mm-hmm.

On LinkedIn, because I don't wanna write in all caps. I'm not, you know, I'm not a 6-year-old. Yeah. But like, I wanna really get my point across, like, don't miss out on the opportunity Yeah. To get in. And if you don't, there'll be a third one. Yeah. There'll be a fourth one. 

[00:49:50] Richard Stroupe: Yeah. Well, you definitely need to, to, to come for the next one.

'cause the, our next speaker is, um. Retired General Joe Anderson. Okay. Three star. 

[00:49:59] Justin Whitman: Nice. 

[00:49:59] Richard Stroupe: And he, is that the guy from Wilmington? He's been all over the place. Okay. But he lives up in Northern Virginia now. Okay. Yeah. Nice. Yeah. He's great, great person. 

[00:50:08] Justin Whitman: And he's speaking on, uh, leadership and managing risk. Yeah, I would, I'd, I'd love to come up and meet him and if I'm able to stick around and Yeah.

And listen, if I can just sit in the back, I'll bring a folding chair and Yeah. Let everybody sit on the comfort stuff. We have, 

[00:50:20] Richard Stroupe: I, I went and bought 30 chairs. Oh, you did? 

[00:50:23] Justin Whitman: I know. I, I sat on the couch. I was immensely comfortable, obviously, as you can tell by my stature. Yeah. This is how I, so we sit everywhere.

We 

[00:50:30] Richard Stroupe: we're, we're buying another couch this week, and I'm putting it Gimme that 

[00:50:33] Justin Whitman: little use space. 

[00:50:34] Richard Stroupe: Yes. Mm-hmm. Yeah. I wanted to get at least 10 people comfortable, and then I got chairs and tables in the back. Nice. Like we could fit. Yeah. It was a 

[00:50:42] Justin Whitman: fan. It was a fantastic event. It was, but 

[00:50:44] Richard Stroupe: you need to keep it small and intimate, because I think that's part of the Yeah.

I 

[00:50:46] Justin Whitman: think any more than 10 or even a dozen. Yeah. And when you hit past that number Yeah. It turns into, you know, Tony Robbins. Type seminar and not something you can take away from. Yeah. 

[00:50:57] Richard Stroupe: Well, with the work you do, uh, both consulting and, and your own op, you know, uh, entrepreneurial, you know, endeavors, what in your opinion, makes a brand truly stand out?

Like, what are you doing to kind of promote yourself and, and what you're telling other folks? 

[00:51:12] Justin Whitman: You have to eat, breathe, and sleep your brand. Mm-hmm. I mean, it, it is, it is imperative. I mean, it's imperative anywhere you go. Mm-hmm. Uh, and I'm not telling people to go out and, you know, get tchotchkes and, and you know, brand any opportunity, chance that you get, but you also have to understand what your brand is.

Mm. And there's a lot of people that have, uh, that I've consulted for that have very successful entities. They have zero comprehension as to what that brand's value is. Mm-hmm. Through their actual market reaches. Who, uh, they should be reaching out to, to be able to communicate with. Uh, there's just so much when it comes to branding now, it's not like it was back in the day when you watch these shows of, of the guys and gals in the 1950s Mad Men and stuff like that where they just throw up an ad and might have a TV or a newspaper thing and there's your brand, you know?

Mm-hmm. Lucky Stripe cigarettes or whatever. Mm-hmm. Nowadays, you know, being aware of how to accurately advertise and brand yourself on social, uh, brand awareness in terms of. Not overreaching your customer base that you have, how to then also scale your customer base? What is your product? Is it, is it at a pivotable moment where you need to transition and change?

Brands do grow and mature over time. Mm-hmm. Are you prepared to grow with that or are you stubborn and stuck in, you know, phase one of the company and you're afraid to move on to phase two when the public is on phase eight. Mm-hmm. You know, there, there's a lot of, uh, there's just a lot that goes into, and obviously why people like me get hired by companies to come in and fix it.

Right. There's a lot that goes into it. Just like you said, you changed and added a whole new day to what you have. Talking about branding can be a, a very in depth conversation. Mm-hmm. And I think it's just as important as knowing your numbers. Mm-hmm. And to me, having a stellar product is not even, it's a given.

Mm-hmm. With, with the, with what you have doing. But if you're not prepared to brand and market and advertise your business and know your numbers, you're dead in the water. Mm-hmm. Right there. And if you don't have people that know, or you can't do it yourself, you can't bring people in that eat, breathe, and sleep your brand.

Mm-hmm. You're dead in the water too. 

[00:53:36] Richard Stroupe: Right. Is it more psychological when you're trying to explain your brand and your story and what you're trying to accomplish and maybe tie your product or service to more of an emotional attachment so that someone Oh my god, yeah. 

[00:53:50] Justin Whitman: Yeah. There, there's doesn't forget Yeah.

Branding, you've, you've dealt with government contracting, right? The alphabet soup. Yeah, the alphabet soup. But there's still an emotional connection that goes into that, uh, for you branding your business compared to somebody else's business that might do the same thing. 'cause you're wanting to win that bid, right?

Mm-hmm. How are you gonna set yourself up and brand why you are capable of doing this, you know, job better than the next person. Mm-hmm. There's. The psych, the, the psychology and behind that of conveying who you are and what you bring to the table mm-hmm. For that type of world is one thing. But imagine a clothing company mm-hmm.

And they got one hell of a clothing line, and it looks fantastic and it's great, like a really comfortable sweatshirts, but they don't know how to brand it. Mm-hmm. It's a great price point. They don't know how to brand it, you know, it's, it's, it's made and shipped and at your door and it costs them $5 and they can sell it to you for 15 and they're comfortable with the $10 profit.

Mm-hmm. For sure. They still don't know how to brand it. They put it up on a Shopify and Amazon and they just hope gorilla style works. They don't know how to brand it. Mm-hmm. Psychologically, you know, it, it can play tricks on your mind if you also don't know how to go in and create the story. Mm-hmm. Put the emotional component behind what you do.

I mean, I, you use us, I use as an example all the time when I'm talking to clients. I hurt my hand in 2015. I have what's called chronic regional pain syndrome. I'm left-handed, left-hand dominant. I play all these instruments. I can barely play 'em like I used to. Mm-hmm. Can't play the drums like I used to.

Playing piano and riffing on the guitar is difficult just because my hand doesn't move the way it used to. 

[00:55:35] Richard Stroupe: Mm-hmm. 

[00:55:36] Justin Whitman: I'm gonna live vicariously through all the musicians that I help. Mm-hmm. I have an emotional invested need to see other artists succeed because I can't play like I used to. Mm-hmm. So that compassion and desire comes through and I don't see a lot of companies that at least I get interacting with 'cause I'm, or I'm interacting with 'cause I'm brought in to fix it.

And it's, it's weird to me that they don't understand that it's like in business school for them. And a lot of 'em are highly educated. Mm. They've just never been taught the emotional component of how to sell. That and we talk about ai. Mm-hmm. AI can set up everything. It can set up your calendar, it can set up your meet and greets.

It can set up all the things you need done. 

[00:56:21] Richard Stroupe: Mm-hmm. 

[00:56:22] Justin Whitman: I still need to sell you this bottle of water and it's not gonna sell itself. Now, once you buy it, you might start buying it by the pallets. Mm-hmm. I still have to have that emotional connection with the individual that I'm trying to sell it to. Mm-hmm.

To be able to actually get the product off the ground. Mm-hmm. So, yeah, psychological, emotional. Mm-hmm. Um, a lot of educated guesses to start out. And then from there, then there's the systematic approach, then there's structure and there's, there's a lot that goes into it. 

[00:56:53] Richard Stroupe: Mm-hmm. But when you're competing in a noisy world with a lot of competition, a lot of market fragmentation mm-hmm.

And a lot of us suffer from a DD. Yeah. You know, I mean, there's things going on all the time. That's why I love nascar. 'cause I can so much stuff on the screen. Yeah. How do you, how do you really focus on authenticity? In a crazy world like we live in now, and it seems like it's getting worse over time.

Yeah. 

[00:57:17] Justin Whitman: I will say my recent clients that I've had over the last five years mm-hmm. I have just opened their eyes to the benefit of social. Mm-hmm. Unfortunately, a lot of individuals that are in the C-suite positions have been in there for quite some time. Mm-hmm. There's not a lot of individuals that are my age or younger.

Um, and there will be eventually, and they, they get it. But social pushes people in a way that awareness becomes easier to swallow and get out there if you know how to brand yourself correctly online. Mm-hmm. You have to have a presence. If you don't have a presence online somehow, some way websites just don't do it anymore.

People are on LinkedIn, you know, when we're on LinkedIn and we're looking at stuff, how often do we scroll down and then click on their website and go look at that? We, we pretty much reach out and wanna actually have that. You know, intimate connection. Mm-hmm. It's funny, all these things. We used to go to these, you know, power meetings in DC and these happy hour events, and that's how you kind of met everybody.

Right? Right. Or you go to functions and galas and you name it, and that's just on the high end of stuff. But you might meet someone at a coffee shop now. You go online, you search for 'em, you find them. How do you engage that conversation? You have to have a compelling reason mm-hmm. To get somebody to wanna talk to you.

It's the same thing with branding. You know, it is noisy. There are hundreds and hundreds and thousands of clothing companies and, and car dealerships that are trying to win your attention. Mm-hmm. It's just how you reach your audience and how you succinctly understand. Who that audience is mm-hmm. Allows you to be able to go after what you need to.

Some people just love the pie in the sky thing, right? Mm-hmm. I would love to open up everything on UUs up and have all of my different plugins and everything else working. I know my feed wall and the video sharing and some other stuff are where we'll start with. Mm-hmm. If you do too much at the beginning, you get drowned out right.

In the noise and they, they turn off. Yeah. But if you can become hyper-focused mm-hmm. People see that and they respect it. And if you can communicate correctly and not be a, uh, a dumpster fire, you can win attention in favor. It's, it's difficult because everybody's different. Mm-hmm. Every sector's different.

Mm-hmm. And I've worked in, I'm, I'll say all of 'em. Um. There are some that are more challenging than others. Mm-hmm. Uh, but you know, I, I dealt with the CPA firm. It's not the sexiest thing to go and try to get people to want to use, uh, an accountant. Yeah. But, uh, we did and, and he went from 50 clients to 260 clients by the time we were done.

Wow. And he hired on eight different people part-time, and I think he's a bunch of 'em converted to full-time. Mm-hmm. So 

[01:00:05] Richard Stroupe: That's great. And that was just a, that was a quick little one. What's the hardest lesson you've learned as a founder and how has that impact or shaped your vision, not only with your own startup, but helping others learning 

[01:00:21] Justin Whitman: to accept and move past the No, it, it, it's, I meet so many founders that are like me and.

Being a founder makes you stubborn, right? Like you are headstrong, you're special, you're willing to go out there and get beaten up. Mm-hmm. You're willing to put in the work. We work the six days, seven days, 24 hours a day. Our brain is always running and my brain's running a mile a minute. I'm thinking about a million different things right now while we're talking.

Mm-hmm. That I have stuff to do in two weeks and a month from now. But learning to accept the No and move forward mm-hmm. Is one of the toughest lessons because you get so amped up and so excited. And I got so excited when I thought that I had a deal in the state of West Virginia. Mm-hmm. And, you know, we worked diligently on doing this with the state and it was gonna be their largest deal to date.

Mm-hmm. And it just, it went south. Mm-hmm. And we, we and them, we, we all parted ways from the deal. And that no, you can't do it is demoralizing at times. Mm-hmm. You know, being told no when you've worked so hard on something or talking to an investor and being told no, you're not ready. What do you mean I'm not ready?

Like, I know I'm ready. Like, understanding the why behind the no. Mm-hmm. Is just as important as being able to accept the no in and not let it just ruin you internally. Mm-hmm. You know, when, when I had my accident in 2015, I did have to take a step away and shelf my project and even walk away from all the consulting stuff to focus on my health.

Mm-hmm. And, you know, depression sets in because it's, you're just not prepared for change or being told change is eminent or being told no. Mm-hmm. It's just, you have to get comfortable with it. You have to sit in, you have to expect it. I know he is gonna say no. I know she's gonna say no. How do I overcome that?

No. Mm-hmm. But what's the why behind it? You have to be thinking about these things because founders read all the wonderful stuff online and, and I think even the stuff I'm sharing right now on LinkedIn is honest. Like, I'm doing this. Mm-hmm. I'm tired of X I'm, you know, and I don't want to steal the thunder from what I posted, but it's, it's gritty, it's raw, it's real.

Mm-hmm. I'm out in the open now. I'm not gonna sugarcoat it. Mm-hmm. You know, I'm 46. I've been there, done that. I've been around the block. I think there's some truth that needs to be shared with what it actually takes to do it. Mm-hmm. I think we talked about it in the group. Not everybody's cut out. 

[01:03:12] Richard Stroupe: To 

[01:03:12] Justin Whitman: be an entrepreneur.

Mm-hmm. To be a founder and then to become a CEO, there are stepping stones. Mm-hmm. You know, and, and Jim, Jim Roberts put out a great post the other day about, you know, that, you know, founders are entrepreneurs and entrepreneurs are founders, and it's probably the one time that he and I collided a little bit on.

I agree, but I disagree. Mm-hmm. You know, an entrepreneur is someone who can go and open up a nail salon and, and do a great, but they're not a founder. Their business closes at a certain point. Right. You know, and yeah, they work on stuff when they're there, but founders eat, breathe, and sleep that mm-hmm.

Daily, you know, I might be a CEO one day again. Mm-hmm. But, and, and I've been offered recently some CEO roles. And I'm turning them down. Mm-hmm. Because I'm so gung-ho about being a founder. Does that make me crazy? Right. You know, substantial revenue, great salary, all that. Yeah. No thanks. Yeah. I want to, I wanna be beaten up like a punching bag by VCs and investors right now.

Yeah. I'll talk to you guys later. 

[01:04:10] Richard Stroupe: Yeah. Yeah. It's a very risky proposition. It is. And you have to have some resilience and grit as you talked about. Yeah. Yeah. 

[01:04:18] Justin Whitman: The rawness. Mm-hmm. The rawness of it. 

[01:04:21] Richard Stroupe: How do you manage all this? 'cause you, you have a very active lifestyle and, and we talk about how our minds work and it's hard to shut off.

Yeah. Um, how do you, what do you do to decompress? 

[01:04:33] Justin Whitman: Good question. Question. Um, 

[01:04:35] Richard Stroupe: it wasn't on the prepared sheet, I just Well, no, it's just, and it's, it's, yeah, yeah. No, no. I do, I do like to throw some curveballs. Yeah. No, I, I appreciate that. 

[01:04:43] Justin Whitman: Um, it, it is a very, it is a difficult, uh, question because I used to, in my brain tell myself I was decompressing.

While helping my clients. Mm-hmm. You know, I would pop into a restaurant and, you know, I'm a, I'm a chef, classically trained chef by trade. Mm. I went to culinary school. I didn't, uh, go the college route. I took some courses. It just wasn't for me. Um, you know, music was calling me. I was making good money.

Yeah. My dad was an Naval Academy graduate. He wanted me to go into the military. Uh, so I went to LA enlistment into the Air Force. Okay. And then music was paying better. Yeah. So I'm like, did meps did everything else. Yeah. Satellite communications was the way I was going. I did really, really well in the ASVABs.

Yeah. Uh, but then I turned that down. Definitely disappointed my dad. Now my dad would not say that he, he's very proud of where I am, but I had to work hard. Mm-hmm. Um, I always felt like I was getting my. Stress out with my clients when, when, if I would go into a kitchen with somebody and rewrite a menu, not Gordon Ramsey style, I'm not in there yelling at everybody.

Mm-hmm. You know, or if I'm in a retail shop and I'm helping 'em, or I'm doing something with the telecommunication company, it is exciting, it's fun, you know, I'm popping in and popping out. I'm the fixer. Mm-hmm. I'm the quiet guy either looking at stuff secretly or out in the open. Um, I did Muay Hai when I was a kid for about 15 years.

Mm-hmm. But with this, I can't do that. Music used to be how I would, you know, I would play and play and play and practice. Can't do that like I used to. Mm-hmm. I listened to tons of music. I mean, you know, we talked about, you know, what I like and what I listen to. Mm-hmm. Uh, tattoo therapy obviously is a, is a great way to kind of quiet the mind.

'cause the pain is there and it's real. Mm-hmm. Um, now that I'm in Myrtle Beach, you know, just getting out and going places and, and doing things, but my life is. Starting over at the same time too. 

[01:06:39] Richard Stroupe: Mm-hmm. You know, can you walk us through one of your transformations in helping one of your clients with their marketing and branding?

[01:06:45] Justin Whitman: Yeah. Um, so God, there's, there's been a lot that's like an instant. You, when you get in a car accident, you see your life flash through your eyes. It's like an instant, just flash of flood of all the clients. Mm-hmm. Um, I was fortunate enough to be involved in the transition, uh, for Nextel to Sprint and then, uh, I came back again and, and was there when Sprint was going to T-Mobile.

Okay. Um, when I was with Nextel, we had about 135 stores under our purview, uh, that we were cleaning up and getting ready for the mergers and acquisitions. Mm-hmm. Um. We knew that some of the other stores that had other consultants that came in to kind of tidy stuff up and make it really a sexy package mm-hmm.

Uh, for the transition, um, weren't really doing their job. They weren't taking it seriously. Mm-hmm. They were just looking at like a payday. Right. And yes, big companies like to throw money around because they have to sometimes. Mm-hmm. And it's always fun being brought in and being provided gobs and gobs of cash to do stuff.

Mm-hmm. My thing is, is every place that I go to, I take it to heart. Mm-hmm. So. That transition, making sure that those employees were still employed when it was over and done, or the ones that deserved to be employed were still employed at all those locations. It transitioned out to be 700 and something stores.

Wow. Uh, that we ended up dealing with between, you know, corporate stores and third party resellers. Mm-hmm. Uh, really going around and, and having your hands in that cookie jar mm-hmm. To make things successful and get done. Um, it's a lot of work. It's a lot, it's a lot of work for sure. Yeah. There's an emotional component that gets into it where you're, you're vested 'cause you're going in, you're meeting people, you're not just looking at spreadsheets and p and ls and, and, and who's good at what they are.

You're actually getting in and you're getting to know them. You're getting to know if they have kids and mm-hmm. What are their pain points? And, and then it's also tough too, because you're also realizing where maybe there are a few people that need to go. Right. They're not gonna cut it. Mm-hmm. Um. And that's the same story I've had everywhere.

I got to work on the smart car when it came into the States. Uh, and it was attached to Mercedes, and we're dealing with it out in, uh, Dearborn, Michigan, and we're raising a unit up in the air and we're dropping it down on the ground to show everybody just how the roll cage works. Mm-hmm. So we're slamming into Jersey barriers making, you know, real impactful.

Mm-hmm. Feeling based, you know, actions. Mm-hmm. Um, but yeah, like I'm now flooded with just all the clients from the tech and the retail. There was a mom and pop pizza place, uh, that I got to help in Northern Virginia, in Loudoun County, and I don't wanna put 'em on the spot, but watching their business get saved to the point where he was able to start the process of looking at a second and third location, it just, it hit me in a way where most of the time I stuck around long enough to get them up and running.

Mm-hmm. I stuck around long enough to start seeing. It benefit the family. Mm-hmm. And how it impacted the family. Mm-hmm. And that just, it makes it tough for me too, to be able to step away and focus on, you know, my project. Right. My startup, because that I get, I get a really euphoric feeling mm-hmm. In helping people.

[01:10:10] Richard Stroupe: Do you still balance the two? Do you still do consulting? I do. I, I have a, I have How many clients do you have? 

[01:10:15] Justin Whitman: Uh, I only, I got rid of all my clients except for one. Okay. Um, so after my accident, I sold off a lot of my businesses. I was in, uh, real estate. I had, we were involved in malls and a bunch of other things.

Mm-hmm. And I kind of consolidated everything so I could focus on getting better. Uh, I took a client when I came down to Myrtle Beach, uh, massive restaurant group. Extremely well known, uh, fantastic individuals, super family oriented, uh, deeply ingrained in the market, just working on menu changes and some other things.

Um. That level of, of work and commitment with a group like that mm-hmm. Just warms your heart in a way that it's hard to step away. And that consulting gig, I know that in my mind was probably gonna only be three or four months, uh, turned into the last 16 plus months. Wow. Me being down there. Mm-hmm. And just recently have I stepped away?

'cause I need to focus on, you know, UMuseUs. So for the next three, four weeks, we're gonna get ourselves ready so we actually can launch Got it. And go after funding and all the fun stuff. But, so 

[01:11:18] Richard Stroupe: you're in the process of raising funds now? 

[01:11:20] Justin Whitman: I would love to be. Yeah. Yeah. The, uh, there is a, a deep desire to go after what we, I mean, I've had Pricewaterhouse Cooper helped us with our financial model when I was at WVU.

Mm-hmm. And. That made me feel good about what it was. I mean, I built it out, shared it with them. They gave me the customer acquisition piece of how social actually earns money, which allowed me to rebuild what we were doing on our advertising platform. 'cause we have one built in internally. Mm-hmm. And, you know, just getting us prepared and ready to the point where I now know we're ready for capital.

Mm-hmm. Um, there's obviously gonna be some things that we're gonna have to change. I'm gonna have to move companies around and things like that. But, um, I know I'm at that point, I just need to get everything, you know, i's dotted, t's crossed. Mm-hmm. I like to go to things as prepared as I possibly can. Um, I know there's gonna be some curve balls and I need to be prepared for those two.

So how much 

[01:12:13] Richard Stroupe: are you planning to raise? 

[01:12:14] Justin Whitman: So, originally with the state of West Virginia, we were after 1.5 million. Mm-hmm. And we had it. Um, that deal went south and actually I'm kind of glad we walked away from that and they were trying to acquire too much mm-hmm. Ownership of the company. And I think we've talked offline about, you know, what to give away, what not to give away.

Mm-hmm. Uh, or too early. Uh, we went back and looked at that number and realized that we could do it for like 3.2 million, but after a discussion with a immensely, uh, smart individual after my most recent cohort, you know, elevate class, I would rather maybe raise a little more money than that. And the irony is, it is easier to raise more money than it is to raise little money.

It is, it's, I'm, I'm now getting more callbacks. Individuals now that we're going after about 5 million mm-hmm. To raise. So you understand why that Yeah. I mean their, their risk to their risk ratio of, of what it would actually be. It's easier for 'em to throw 5 million to be able to grab 15 to 20% of a company Exactly.

Than it is to throw, you know, 1.5. And they're lucky if they get five or 7%. They're not gonna get outta bed a hundred percent for anything less than 12. Yeah. So, yeah. You know, we know that that means, you know, I'm still gonna run lean. That gives us, you know, a two year runway mm-hmm. On the company or 18 months depending on how quickly we scale.

Uh, we have a very, very conservative scale process. Mm-hmm. But I know social, it's conservative on paper to make everybody happy. Mm-hmm. But the problem is, is we could grow quite quickly. Mm-hmm. But as we grow quickly, the advertising dollars follow advertisers like to go where the people are. If we get to a hundred thousand monthly active users.

The Coca-Colas and the Red Bulls of the world, and the Frito-Lays and the hotel chains and the airlines, they're gonna wanna be involved. Musicians use all the same products we do. Mm-hmm. This isn't like we're going after niche advertisers. They need clothing. You know, there's, there's deodorant brands out there that are doing rock and roll type stuff.

There's car manufacturers that are doing, you know, music related campaigns. They could easily bring those campaigns to my platform and do them. So there's a lot to be said. It's just, we've just had to fine tune what the pitch deck looks like and everything else, and get the numbers right. Mm-hmm. And then it's 

[01:14:34] Richard Stroupe: gung-ho.

Have you thought about reaching out to some of these, um, successful name brand artists to kind of, because you know, sometimes you'll hear these sports figures or, or celebrities will make an investment and then it's like, oh, okay, well if he invested, it must be cool or whatever. Yeah. And 

[01:14:52] Justin Whitman: I would, I, there, there are a few artists that I would love to have, you know.

On my advisory board. Mm-hmm. I, and I would, and I would love to see him on the cap table, in all honesty. Um, I'm a huge, I, I love Foo Fighters just 'cause I like what Dave Grohl built, well, he's from the DC area. He is his mom taught at, uh, west, west Springfield. Mm-hmm. I used to go over to that school for, uh, I think they had the planetarium in there.

And I've met her a couple times. Super, super sweet. Uh, he owns the Black Cat, I think he still does in dc. So we've played and performed there and did stuff when I was younger. Um, I played all over dc but he would be a, a great, uh, addition to what it is. There are a lot of other artists that we've kind of secretly, you know, reached out to.

We used to have a hashtag on Twitter back in the day when we first got our, well now X. Mm-hmm. But when we had our Twitter account back then, I think I ramped up to something like 500,000 users. Wow. And we were out there like Dave Grohl for Rock Out the show is what we were putting out there all the time.

Yeah. Because you can have the literally long hashtags and everybody didn't care. Yeah. Um, eventually I got rid of that account. Well, I didn't get rid of it, I just downsized it. Mm-hmm. And now I only, I'm just singular focused on people. But 

[01:16:11] Richard Stroupe: What about, uh, Maynard? 

[01:16:13] Justin Whitman: Yeah. I mean, 

[01:16:14] Richard Stroupe: because he, he, he is a true 

[01:16:16] Justin Whitman: Yes.

Entrepreneur. Well, he's with a, he's with Apple. I think he does stuff with, um, does he really? Apple Music? I believe. 

[01:16:23] Richard Stroupe: Well, I know he is got the vineyard. Mm-hmm. And he's got the three bands and Yeah. You know, he's just all over the place. 

[01:16:28] Justin Whitman: And, and see, like that's the thing is. There's so many artists that, that put Lincoln, Lincoln, uh, Lincoln Park puts, you know, money into tech.

They, they have a huge tech push Wow. With their program. Uh, I know Justin Timberlake does, and even then we go into the pop world, the Justin Biebers of the world, they, they put money into tech and other pro programs. Uh, TPA is huge in the technology. Mm-hmm. I mean, he's all over Twitch right now, but, um, he's somebody I would love to have on the platform too.

[01:16:57] Richard Stroupe: Well, I was just thinking if you get somebody like that, then they can promote it to their base. Absolutely. Their fans will start using it. Yeah. 

[01:17:04] Justin Whitman: Yeah. And their buy-in could be, could be minimal. I mean, I, I might be looking at either raising. From one or two VC firms, or we do a syndicate group where they all share from, you know, what it will actually be.

And maybe I bring some of the artists in as advisors. Mm-hmm. You know, the scenarios are there that I'm, I'm kind of working through of what's the best option. Mm-hmm. But now that we're ready, you know, there's some things we still need to change. I mean, obviously I'm not great with the front end ui, ux, we got some changes, but those are simplistic ones.

And I've been talking to guys, we know what those dollars cost to get that done. Um, this is your dev team 

[01:17:40] Richard Stroupe: out of India? 

[01:17:41] Justin Whitman: Yeah. And there's people I've talked to in the States mm-hmm. Now that, um, are really engaged and I've met some people in Wilmington, North Carolina mm-hmm. That are really engaged. And there's a few in Myrtle Beach.

I just gotta see if they're actually available. Mm-hmm. Um, a lot of people like to move to the beach. And they can remote work, and once they realize they don't have to shovel snow, they're like, this is great. I'm, I'm, I'm 10 minutes from the beach Yeah. Where I live. I mean, you and I don't go as much as I probably should, but just being able to say that right.

Makes me feel a little better inside. Well, 

[01:18:10] Richard Stroupe: it's, it's the lifestyle. You're not in the grind. You know, it's like I tell people all the time, when you live in Northern Virginia, you feel, you feel it. You feel it. It's like a heavy weight on your chest. It's, yeah. And it wears you down. Yeah. And it's like, as soon as you kind of get past the Richmond area mm-hmm.

You just kind of release and it's like, oh God, that is funny. I feel better. 

[01:18:28] Justin Whitman: Yeah. When I drive through the city or around 2 95 and you get back on 95 and you're coming down, you do feel a little 

[01:18:33] Richard Stroupe: Yeah, yeah, 

[01:18:35] Justin Whitman: yeah. There is that. I even had 

[01:18:36] Richard Stroupe: a dinner the other night downtown, um, mill Vet. You heard of these guys?

Military veterans? I think so they're, they're a nonprofit that helps military transition. Oh, that's fantastic. Into private sector. Yeah. Great group of guys. Yeah. A lot of former, you know, military that are investment bankers and startups and, yeah. A lot of retired generals and admirals who are looking for board Yeah.

Opportunities. But just, I'm driving downtown and Right. I'm again on constitution. Mm-hmm. Here's these cops come and block the whole thing. Yeah. And it's like, go left. I'm like, where am I going? Yeah. And then you turn left, turn left, turn left. And then it's like, well I don't even where I'm at this point and at that 

[01:19:14] Justin Whitman: left it's a right.

Yeah. Like it throws you. 'cause now you can't make your full circle that you need it. Yeah. So I need to go to 

[01:19:18] Richard Stroupe: 12th Street. Yeah. Here I am going up like, I don't know, D or F. Mm-hmm. All the way past George Washington, all the way up North DC Come back around and it's like, I guess Trump, I don't know if they blocked around the White House, but it was like clearly four or five blocks easy around the White House.

Easy was, was just blocked off. Yeah. Just in an, in an instant. Yep. And it just disrupted traffic. It's like, oh my God. No. Yeah. Just another reason why I hate living here. And you have to know to get around. That's the worst part. It's, and, 

[01:19:49] Justin Whitman: and even in the areas where the actual good venues are, which is, you know, closer to like Z Street mm-hmm.

And like further into the southeast, um, you know, like you're still stuck. I mean, one way roads, single lane, no parking. Yeah. None of that. Parking is always a hassle. And, and I look to myself, I'm like, if I build something down in this, in the, I'll call it the Carolina Coast. Mm-hmm. If I build something down here, I would be really attractive for the right either family unit or individuals to relocate.

I mean, just in Myrtle Beach alone, they're building a brand new high school in Carolina Forest, a brand new mm-hmm. Elementary, middle schools down there in, in a very, very nice area. I mean, great food to be able to eat around there. Mm-hmm. Entertainment, an international airport, uh, lots to do. The only thing that they're kind of missing is a traditional shopping mall, but I think I say that because.

Um, spoiled from being in Northern Virginia where we had like six or seven massive malls mm-hmm. Between Tysons and everything else to be able to go and shop till my heart's content. Mm-hmm. Not that I wanted to spend money, but you know, it was all overpriced too. Yeah. Down here, the cost of living, you know, that same salary that we could pay them up there, they could get paid the same salary down here mm-hmm.

For their work and live extremely comfortable 

[01:21:06] Richard Stroupe: mm-hmm. 

[01:21:07] Justin Whitman: And experience a lot more and do more stuff with their families, you know, and, and my brother, uh, for his, uh, masters, he talked about the, uh, the four day work week mm-hmm. Which everybody seems to be wanting to adopt in certain aspects of it. Tim, Tim Ferris, right?

Yeah. Yeah. And the, uh, and, and I get it. I do, I mean, in a perfect world, I would love to see if that would be functional. Mm. Just, you know, you can imagine a Friday's off type of thing, an actual full weekend, a Monday through Thursday, but it doesn't mean everybody goes to a. A 10 hour work week. It's a true eight hour work week.

32 hours. Mm-hmm. And that's what a lot of these European nations are doing. And some companies, it's not gonna work for what they need. But, you know, if you could make that work in tech, uh, in certain tech mm-hmm. Or at least for certain people and maybe give others, you know, some other type of benefits, there's something there that you could really start to harvest some quality employees.

[01:22:07] Richard Stroupe: Right. Well, we need something because I mean, AI is totally eating jobs at this point. Yeah. You know, left and right and, you know, I, it's a bleak future to consider people moving to universal basic income or UBI. Yeah. Where you get your stipend. Yeah. And, you know, there's no quality of life. No. Because then you're, you're, here's, here's your $4,000 per month and make, make the best of it.

Yeah. I mean, that's what we look forward 

[01:22:30] Justin Whitman: to for social security. Yeah. I don't want people to be looking forward to that in their twenties. Yeah. And that's, and that's where it gets kind of scary. And that's where, you know, programs like what I want to do. I want to be able to give back. I want to be able to build, you know, social improvement campaigns mm-hmm.

For music at schools that actually employs people. Right. Or we figure out how to build, to make it, you know, a, a residual thing. Not just where we donate a little bit, but how can it actually fund itself mm-hmm. And get going and work with these municipalities. Because again, like you said on the creative side, AI can't do it, can write creative.

It just can't do the creative. Mm-hmm. Somebody still has to prompt it. Somebody still has to do all these things. Just like you see all the, the, you know, machine learning that's out there right now and the little robots that are out there, somebody still has to physically build that. Mm-hmm. And program those things.

Uh, my son, uh, is in, is, is finishing up his time with Bloom Tech. I got him involved in that. So he's doing full stack development online. Didn't go to college for it. He did a very intense 18 month program. Mm-hmm. And it's written by the, by the, by the big companies, the Amazons, the Apples, the Facebooks, the Microsoft, the Oracles.

Mm-hmm. They give their curriculum that they need and then they pull kids out of that program and he could walk out, they guarantee a minimum. I think it's like 85,000 a year. Right. And he's not even 21 yet. 

[01:23:59] Richard Stroupe: Yeah. 

[01:23:59] Justin Whitman: I mean, when I was that age, that was not a salary I was looking at. Right, right. Yeah. Yeah. 

[01:24:05] Richard Stroupe: But yeah, there's, there's a lot.

There's a lot. Yeah. So what are you looking forward to after launching your business and really focusing on that and, and really just like, what's the next 18, 24 months look like? 

[01:24:16] Justin Whitman: It's just, if, if I, if it was a perfect world, the next 18 to 24 months, I would be knee deep knuckles down and UMuseUs.

Mm-hmm. Just really grinding. Getting the platform launched, um, getting people on board, working on the actual, uh, televised, uh, live competition element. Mm-hmm. Just really building out something that people that are on the platform are using it, are just happy to use. Mm-hmm. You know, you, you look at the consumption that people use.

TikTok and musicians are on there breaking all the time, but they're drowned out by the noise of cat videos and fights in Burger King parking lots and things like that. 

[01:24:59] Richard Stroupe: And now AI generated, 

[01:25:00] Justin Whitman: yeah. Now faceless videos and all that kinda stuff. And that's nothing wrong with it, but for me it's, I wanna be able to give a compartmentalized, hyper-focused, but, you know, robust platform for everybody that loves music and are, and are musicians.

So I think we need it and I think that that's where a lot of social's gonna be going to our, our niche, our niche platforms mm-hmm. That actually give people the way able to do it, and it has to be free to the user. I, I, you know, when people talk about, and I've, I've had some investors tell me, you need subscribers.

No, I don't. Mm. And, you know, just sit back and watch and, and have fomo. Mm-hmm. Because either you're gonna believe in what I'm saying, or you're gonna miss out, and maybe you weren't meant for me. Mm-hmm. You know, from the very beginning. So, yeah. I mean, I just, I, I'm a, I'm a workaholic Richard. Um, I, I love working, I love helping other people.

And I'm gonna live vicariously through all these musicians and music lovers. Mm-hmm. So they should appreciate that and watch out. 'cause once, once we get funding, it's, nothing will be out of my reach. Right. Yeah. That's awesome. Yeah. We hope 

[01:26:12] Richard Stroupe: so. Have you located and found some VCs to work with, or? 

[01:26:15] Justin Whitman: I've, I've talked to a few.

Mm-hmm. Um, we've had discussions. A lot of these VCs that I've talked to recently mm-hmm. Or even in the last few months. We would love to fund you move to Austin. Oh, we would love to fund you. Come back to DC Yeah, we'd love to fund. We have a fund in, in New York that would be great for you. Mm-hmm. We have, we have several funds in Palo Alto, in la in San Diego.

And now I want you to relocate re and I'm like, no. If, if COVID taught us anything. Mm-hmm. Remote work is real. It's a social platform. 

[01:26:49] Richard Stroupe: Yeah. You would think like they would want you to stay here just because it's cheaper. Not like if it's cheaper, you know, from a 

[01:26:55] Justin Whitman: big fish in a little pond. Yeah. Yeah. The state would the whatever, wherever I land.

Mm-hmm. And, and this is a very egotistical, cocky thing to say, but wherever I land and stay, that state's gonna love me. Mm. Because I will be a proponent of change in whatever economy ecosystem that I'm in. And I'll help. Manifest that ecosystem into something much larger. Mm-hmm. Only because I'm gonna need it to be larger.

[01:27:23] Richard Stroupe: Well, couldn't you keep your headquarters here and then do small popup offices in some of these other locations? 

[01:27:29] Justin Whitman: I could, yeah. If I had to. Uh, but that's not the offer on the table from them. Mm-hmm. You know, one firm was like, yeah, we normally, we, we cut $5 million checks, we cut $6.5 million checks. And that was kind of strange to hear.

We could cut more money. Mm-hmm. But you need to bring it all here. And I said, well, what if I just move my headquarters, or I'll keep it in West Virginia, I'm living in Myrtle Beach, and then I'll, I'll set up a group of individuals in Austin. 

[01:27:55] Richard Stroupe: Mm-hmm. 

[01:27:56] Justin Whitman: And there's tons of talented tech individuals in Austin.

Right. Not good enough. You need to be here. Okay. I could be there half the week, I'll travel. Mm-hmm. You know, for the money. It, it, it makes sense. No, you need to be here. You need to relocate. You need to relocate within 90 days of closing. Mm-hmm. And I'm like, and they're like, well, due diligence for us is 21 days.

We're, we're in and out. Like, we're quick, quick, fast, in a hurry. They want to turn and burn. 'cause you know, investing is all about throwing your money out a lot of different projects and hoping two or three of them stick. Mm-hmm. And that your return is not just 10 x but 30 x 300 x. Right. And I want to be able to give that 3,300 x but one of the things I took away from, from our talks, not just from the event, but you and I personally talking, I want my ride or die.

Mm-hmm. I want whoever joins me on my cap table first and believes in me now mm-hmm. And gets it up and running and gets us to launch. I'm riding with that person to the end. Mm-hmm. You, you hear these horror stories of a lot of larger VC firms when you hit these series A and series Bs kicking, you know, the starting people out.

Mm-hmm. Why would I kick out the people who believed in me from the beginning? Mm-hmm. I won't take that money. I mean, I'm, I'm, I'm very principle oriented. Mm-hmm. Um, I have, I, I want to be a platform with a conscience. Right. And it matters to me to do the right thing for the people who believed in me.

Mm-hmm. Because they invested money they could have put someplace else hoping in two to three years that there would be a 30 x and now they're getting bought out at 10 x. Mm-hmm. That's not fair. Yeah. And, you know, it's, there's a lot of work that goes into just giving money. It's, and everybody doesn't understand that too.

And I do. Mm-hmm. So it's just finding the right people and making it work. Yeah. It's tough. 

[01:29:48] Richard Stroupe: It is. It's, it's 

[01:29:49] Justin Whitman: tough. 

[01:29:50] Richard Stroupe: Well, I can't wait to have you back. Post the raise. Yeah. And, and maybe another year or two just to kind of see where things are at. Absolutely. I 

[01:29:58] Justin Whitman: would love to come 

[01:29:59] Richard Stroupe: back. Yeah. Talk about all the great success that you're 

[01:30:01] Justin Whitman: having.

Yeah. I appreciate it. Yeah. Coming, sitting down and talking with you is always fantastic and I can't wait to see what cohort 2, 3, 12, 20, 50 looks like. I mean, it's, I think anybody's gonna benefit from sitting down and listening to you going through that curriculum, that extensive curriculum that you put together.

Uh, it is very digestible. Mm-hmm. And it is, it's just, it's coming from a place of. Not just education, but from real life experience. Mm-hmm. And not a lot of people teach that right now on such an intimate level. Right. With an intimate group amount of people. So it'll be great looking forward to Awesome success from you.

[01:30:42] Richard Stroupe: Yeah. Sounds good. Yeah. Well, let's go grab some lunch. 

[01:30:45] Justin Whitman: Yeah. Sounds good to me. 

[01:30:48] Christa Schroeder: Amplified. CEO is produced by Topsail Insider, edited by Jim Mendes-Pouget, and sponsored by Cape Fear Ventures. For more information about Amplified CEO, Richard Stroupe, or Cape Fear Ventures, please contact Christa at 910-800-0111 or christa@topsailinsider.com.