Brainstorm AI 2024: Colin Kaepernick’s Next Revolution

Fortune

Colin Kaepernick, Founder and CEO, Lumi; Super Bowl Quarterback, San Francisco 49ers Interviewer: Andrew Nusca, Fortune

Transcript

00:00Hey Colin, how's it going? It's great. How are you? Good good

00:05We uh, we got a lot to talk about my friend

00:08so

00:10why don't you explain the origins of Lumi because I

00:15Was fascinated to find out that it's really focused around

00:19Comic book illustrators graphic novels things like that and I thought Colin Kaepernick

00:24So please indulge us

00:26Yeah, so part of this came out of 10 years building a media company five years building a publishing company

00:33And seeing the challenges that creators faced

00:36But the other part was I grew up on comics

00:40And we had a whole stash of comic books. We have boxes and boxes of them

00:44My brother is actually the one who really got me into him. He's 10 years older than me

00:50we have a

00:52Sounds a little sketchy now, but there was a house down the couple blocks away

00:56We ride our bikes to and the living room was just comic books

01:00So we go through and grab the ones we wanted and go back home

01:04But as I went deeper down creating graphic novels being on the publishing side and

01:10Seeing the challenges that careers were facing whether it's writers illustrators

01:16inkers

01:17colorists

01:19What we found is a lot of them are living paycheck-to-paycheck project to project they actually aren't creating things that they want to

01:28Because they're just looking for that next gig and a lot of them have their own ideas

01:32That they want to bring to life and are just looking for the avenue and opportunity to do so is your company focused around the

01:39Kind of creative tool and support part the distribution part because that's important with publishing too

01:45Where does it come into play if you're one of those folks? Yeah, both of those, okay?

01:49So very focused on creating that tool set for creators to give you AI assistance where and if you need it

01:57So you can go on the platform and create and never touch AI if you don't want to

02:02Or you can use it through the process to help you and then that is distributed directly on the platform

02:09Trying to solve that distribution issue that a lot of creators face

02:12How does this company make money because that's the number one question when you're talking about?

02:18Media and publishing absolutely so a few different ways first way is we do a monthly subscription

02:26That's our immediate revenue generator, but as we look more broadly

02:30We have on-demand publishing for physical publishing publishing

02:34We've realized creators want that they need it

02:38and it's a way for us to do that profitably from the first copy sold which is a

02:44Anybody has worked in the publishing industry

02:46You know that's a very difficult space to work in and be profitable

02:50so we solve that and then the last piece is we help with the merchandising of the stories that they're creating and

02:58I've released graphic novel multiple children's books

03:03I've talked to a bunch of artists around this and what we've realized a lot of them aren't merchandising very well

03:09And I actually didn't merchandise my own

03:13Projects because it wasn't an easy process to be able to do that

03:16So that's something that we're looking to solve for them as well, right? What's harder?

03:21publishing or football

03:25Depends which part I

03:29Mean the physical toll football definitely harder

03:33Figuring out how to be profitable in scale of publishing company is no small feat. Yeah fair fair fair fair

03:39So what is the status of Lumi right now? Like where are you at in terms of a product? Where are you headed?

03:45Yeah, so right now we have a product beta testers on the platform

03:51Interesting enough. We actually have contracts with school signed right now

03:54And they're looking to use that as something to advance learning

03:59Project-based learning to help literacy literacy rates

04:03student voice student engagement

04:06So seeing a lot of traction there in use cases that they want to elevate students with

04:11How are your how is your company handling IP?

04:15We've talked about copyright and concerns about that on this stage already today. Yeah, I

04:22Guess the big question throughout the industry

04:24How we look at is creators own everything that they create on the platform

04:28Anything that they bring to the platform they own. We're not touching that. We don't want to touch it

04:34We want to be a space where creators are owning the content because that gives them longevity

04:39And if we're serving them in the best way possible that creates a much more reciprocal relationship

04:46And it also pushes us to be the best company that we can be for creators

04:51We don't want anybody controlled or constrained by that so

04:55Guess a great point around that if someone creates a breakout comic or graphic novel

05:00They could take that and sell it to Netflix or Disney or any other platform

05:06Nothing that we're doing on our end to restrict that in any way got it

05:09I'm gonna come to the audience for questions in just a minute, but I want to ask you one more

05:13You've already raised funds for this company that took you on a you know the show

05:19With investors, what did you learn from that experience?

05:24You know very similar experience to playing football. Oh, please go on yeah

05:32so what you realize is

05:35You aren't gonna be everybody's cup of tea

05:38in

05:39Football when I was getting drafted even when I was going to college you always looked at is it only takes one

05:44You need one person to believe in you, and then that gets the ball rolling

05:49And ultimately you want to have a chance to be in the game

05:53We found some great investors that support us in that way

05:56So to any other founders or people looking to raise funds I you're gonna get a lot of nose through that process

06:04Keep going and just look for that one person that truly believes in you and it's gonna support you

06:11Yeah, all right, let's go to the audience for questions, please

06:15questions for Colin oh

06:17Yes, right up here. What please wait for the the mic your name, and who you're with when you get it. Thank you

06:23Thank you, so I learned something Kelly, and I work or have worked for a while with the Economist

06:29So I think it's great what you're doing especially

06:32You know trying to help the community and people with low resources to create content to sell etc

06:39So I'm curious to especially because I've worked for a long time mobile apps engagement subscriptions, etc

06:46Yeah, I would like to understand. What do you think is the best way to you know grow your platform?

06:52but at the same time making sure that it's affordable for people with low resources and

06:59Are you partnering with any other?

07:01Let's say third-party companies that will help you perhaps or get them like free credits like I don't know like to publish on

07:08Amazon books or to you know like get some sort of partnerships with with publications to

07:15Yeah, help help those with low

07:18Income, thank you. Yeah, that's a great question

07:23So that is actually part of the foundation of why we've built the platform

07:27So right now subscription start 20 to 75 dollars a month

07:31So we take a tiered approach to make sure we're trying to give access to people who may be financially constrained

07:38the other part to step back and look at the difference in where we're at on this is

07:44If you look at the lowest bar of where creators are typically entering a publishing space today

07:52Typically is through a Kickstarter and they're raising five to ten thousand dollars to get a project off the ground

07:58So we're drastically lowering that barrier now if you look at projects that I've done in the past

08:05Typically you're looking at a six-figure investment and you're looking at a two plus year production timeline

08:12Before it ever sees the light of day

08:14So we're trying to break down both the expense and the speed of creation for creators

08:20To be able to get their ideas out into the world

08:23right on

08:24another question for Colin, please

08:28Yes right up here in the front

08:31Hey Stephen

08:34Stephen wolf potato, I'm the CEO of alpha and company

08:37but before that I started a kids media company focused on diverse kids media holding candles and

08:42One of the great areas for creators to really monetize their IP is actually with merchandising

08:48Do you envision the platform actually expanding into products and giving the ability to actually have storefronts?

08:53Just because there's so much more to just the content. It's actually all the merchandise

08:59What 1,000% you are you're dead-on with how we are thinking about it

09:05No

09:05one of the things that we realize is the people who are consuming the content the people who are buying the books are also the

09:10People that are most likely to buy the merchandise like it's a natural progression

09:16Most people aren't doing it

09:19and the ones who are

09:22Actually, they don't love the process of doing it. They just do it as a means to an end

09:28So we want to help simplify that process all the way through for the creator from creation

09:35Taking that idea to a finished product to the publishing to the merchandising

09:40so one they can create the things they actually want to and

09:44Two they don't have to worry about the being the business owner the operator handling all the logistics

09:51Every creator we've talked to it's been like I just want to create

09:56I don't want to do those things, but a lot of them end up doing it because they have to today

10:01Yeah, and those are barriers that we can break down. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, I

10:06Understand that mindset very well

10:09Let me ask you a question Colin

10:11You know you've gone on this this journey, you know post post football every morning by the way you still training of course

10:18Okay, you heard it here. He's still training

10:20I was I was training before I got on my flight to come out here. Oh now you're making me feel bad. Okay, so

10:26So I I would love to understand

10:29You know who you see as a mentor for this part of your career whether that's in Silicon Valley or somewhere else

10:38That's a great question. I

10:42Think there have been a few different people that have really helped me get to where I'm at today

10:47One has been in the VC community Ben Horowitz has been great person to lean on sure it's given me phenomenal insight

10:55Ev Williams

10:57There's been another one who has really helped me my thinking

11:00Having the opportunity to sit on the board of medium has been

11:04Incredibly insightful and very helpful for my own development

11:09And the other one just thinking about where I'm at today is

11:12Alexis Christina the seven seven six team who is our lead investors

11:17They're incredibly brilliant and also great people

11:21So to be able to have them to lean on ask for guidance

11:26And also just pick their brains on things that we're working on

11:29How we can scale things more effectively how we can reach reach creators more effectively

11:35Especially when you have someone like Alexis who's built reddit

11:38You know you have a great person to be able to lean on in that regard and an enthusiastic one all right

11:43Well, let's go for one

11:46One more question. I think there was one over here, but I cannot

11:49Recall oh, it's way over here. Yes. Hey Carol

11:53Hi, I'm Carol Vanden Henda. I chair responsible AI for Mars Incorporated, but outside of that. I'm actually an author

12:00So I have a question because I know a lot of authors

12:04They feel that it's stealing their copyright their IP

12:07How do you overcome those objections?

12:10To launch Lumi and thanks for your great work. Oh of course

12:15Phenomenal question and we have talked to a lot of writers about it

12:20I think one is

12:22Understanding that AI isn't going to do the work for you

12:26You know I think it's a great question

12:28I think one is understanding that AI isn't going to do the work for you

12:33Two is understanding that most of the writers are already using AI. They just don't know it as AI

12:40We talked to a lot of writers that

12:43Are hesitant they wanted to see the platform what it was

12:47As we talked to them, and they showed us their workflow most of them are using Grammarly

12:52And the AI in their workflow already

12:55Then as we get them on the platform, and they see how it actually works, and how we're looking to engage with them

13:02we aren't looking to do the work for them and

13:05we're looking to be there to be helpful in that process if they need help brainstorming ideas if they're struggling and

13:14You know they hit writer's block, and they're looking for

13:17Where can I go with this where can I take it?

13:20So we're looking to help them through that process

13:23But they also have the opportunity to use it as much or as little as they want and that's one of the things that was really

13:29important for us

13:30Both on the writers and the illustrator side is making sure that they have the opportunity to opt out if they want to

13:38or engage when they do want to

13:41Fantastic Colin. Thank you so much for joining fortune brainstorm AI. Yeah, absolutely. Thanks for having me

13:49You

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