This Startup is being Recorded

E19 - How Important is Privacy, Really?

• Valerie Garrison • Season 1 • Episode 19

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Agenda:

  • Melvin is here to discuss WeWatch, the software company he runs. WeWatch builds an exclusive meeting recording software. SYT has been testing WeWatch with a free trial the last week, and Melvin wants to come in for feedback.

Takeaways:

  • Matt to replace all the cameras for all devices the employees, their friends, their family, and acquaintances  
  • Weekly privacy meetings coming back
  • DuckDuckGo is about to be required in SYT
  • Thea to keep dealing with the John PR nightmare

Marvin Janine Simpson is a businessman and raconteur with homes in Italy, Manhattan, and Detroit. He is not on social media, but would like to plug his primary investor: talented actor and comedian Declan Gallagher. You have find him on Instagram and Twitter @therealdeclang


Ben:

welcome to this startup is being recorded. This recording is improvised fiction. Similarities between it and the real world are entirely intentional. Now enjoy the recording.

Kate:

Okay. Um, we're recording. I just wanted to, I guess, before we get started, uh, Melvin, I'll let you know. And just everyone know that we do record our meetings here at SYT, um, S Y T all capital set. Uh, we are a couch marketplace startup about to secure that series a funding, which will be so, so sweet. Um, and we just want to make sure that we have everything recorded for posterity reasons. Uh, We do, of course have, uh, uh, Melvin, our guest here today. I guess before we dig into our agenda to talk about, we watch, let's just quickly go around and introduce ourselves for any new employees. So I can go first. I'm Kate I am the chief of staff, um, under John and he couldn't make it today. He, he said that, you know, he's really fine with any decisions we make around tools that there, those are. About him. So no matter how much he seems to be particular about those things, I guess he's giving us the choice to make our own decisions. Um, anyway, he won't be here, but

Thea:

all right. I'm uh, I am the chief creatives are here at Metta market. I'm sorry. I'm so sorry, man. I just, you

Kate:

I know,

Thea:

up about the tech though. I stare at it all the time SYT I'll get there, you know?

Kate:

Yeah.,

Matt:

I'm uh, matt.yachts. Uh, that's also my website. More about me. And I'm the CTO here at CIT. All caps said that's why T

Kate:

great.

Matt:

is it

Eric:

and Eric, Troy Carter, chief product officer here at SYT, sorry at SYT. Uh, I feel like I haven't been giving it a full. The full weight of the caps. Yeah. If I was really stuck on that for awhile, but I'm, I'm, I'm there now. I'm excited.

Kate:

Um, Melvin, do you mind introducing yourself?

MJ:

Uh, yeah. Hi guys. Hello. Thank you for having me. I'm my name's uh, Melvin Janine Simpson. I'm the founder and CEO of we watch. Of course it's an exclusive meeting, recording software. I don't need to tell you all that course wrapping up your free trial. So hope you're all satisfied. Yeah. Thanks. I'm excited to be here.

Kate:

yeah. I mean, thanks so much for reaching out to us at the end of the free trial. Frankly, most software companies don't really give us this much, uh, attention, but we're, um, I guess excited to tell you our feedback and see, see where we take it from here. I think we had some, some mixed results internally, certainly, but, uh,

MJ:

Oh, well, I mean, that's not what we want to hear. Honestly, I don't want you to have any, we want just positive results. So that's why I'm here. We're going to kind of clear up any sort of potential misgivings you might have about the software or, uh, its uses potentially uses or even misuses. You know, uh, Kate, I did get some very concerning emails, uh, from your end and I felt the need to kind of come here and do a little PR of course, Matt and I know each other from back in the day we have boated together.

Matt:

a while. Yeah.

MJ:

It's been a long time. Matt, have you been.

Matt:

Uh, oh, you know, just in the hustle. Uh, it's a, if it's not an update, it's a.

MJ:

That's what we always used to say. Yeah. It's

Matt:

true. Oh, I forgot. Yeah, you were there when we came up with that, man.

MJ:

That was a great night. Yeah. Is spinny was there? I remember spinny.

Matt:

Oh my God. I haven't thought about spinning in so long.

MJ:

I know.

Matt:

keep in touch with spinning?

MJ:

Yeah. He went to jail actually.

Matt:

That's not surprising.

MJ:

fraud. Yeah. No, I wasn't surprised either. Yeah. Well, I said it makes sense. Yeah. Yeah. So, um, but he's good. I'm going to sing word from you, you know, I'll tell him, say hello,

Matt:

oh, sure.

MJ:

time I write.

Matt:

Yeah. And, uh, you can, you can let him know, uh, what was that other thing we always said, live and learn.

MJ:

Within LAN that's right.

Matt:

Yeah.

MJ:

Oh man. Oh, that's good. Matt live in London. God, I miss you guys. We had what fun we had.

Matt:

Yeah.

Eric:

small world.

Thea:

Uh,

Matt:

Well I've oh, please.

Thea:

a lovely catch up between the two of you. Um, but I will say I'm pretty exhausted the PR nightmare we had last night. Um, I wasn't aware that, uh, these streams stream all the time, um, and, uh, you know, John got into a little bit of a mess last night. And team been up, uh, trying to scrub and, uh, you know, cover up and deal with potential backfires as, as much as we can from that.

Matt:

Um, which I, I guess, um, I can kick us off with, uh, one of those. So, uh, Melvin, um, I mean, heck you're, you're still MJ, right? Uh, MJ, if I could, uh, one issue we've had is a, you know, as an open startup, we're trying to be, uh, fully transparent about everything we do. That's why we broadcast meetings like this one. And one of the things I was excited about for we watch is, uh, you know, not necessarily putting everything else out there, but at least getting the context, uh, you know, what we don't see between meetings, uh, maybe something we could share internally or have your, your systems bring to these meetings so that we, um, can more quickly understand things in context. Uh, but we're having some trouble controlling. When the thing seems to go online, um, which is why like Kate's using our regular meeting software for this. Uh, and, uh, I just wanna say, thank you. Thank you, Kate, by the way, you know, until we started playing with this this week, uh, I hadn't realized how much manual effort you put into getting all of our stream recording going. So thank you.

Kate:

Yeah, no problem. No problem. Just, you know, put on some music late at night and get the stream going. It's kind of fun, but yeah, I mean, I echo that we watch has had so many great promises. Um, it's I mean, frankly, it's popping up a lot on my computer right now. Which is odd because I thought our free trial was over and I had uninstalled it.

MJ:

Well, I'm gonna be honest with you K. You know, that is the thing. Yes, you'll free trial has ended, but of course we wouldn't be the business that we are today. If we didn't remind you that we are still out there because a lot of people will kind of end a free trial and then they'll go find a similar service elsewhere. But we want to remind people actually. This is probably the best place that you're going to find this particular service. And I'm going to be honest with you once you install us software. Um, it's all, well, I mean, I'm not sure the technical terms, not never been good with terminology, but it's living in your camp. I guess you could say, um, and it's always watching how you move and eat and breathe. So yes, you've got installed it, but we want to learn what are the people who found, installed it doing now? What are they looking for? Are they single? Are they looking to mingle? Why did they uninstall us service? What are their addresses and names? That's just sort of the things that we're looking to. Ding, ding, ding, figure out, hit, hit, hit on the, on the, you know, as, as my mom used to say on the docket.

Thea:

uh, listen, I understand more than anybody, the importance of collecting great data on our customers and using the. Marketing purposes. Uh, and the value of that data, I really do. I'm concerned that, uh, we've had several incidences the cams turning on, um, night in people's private homes or, know, um, they don't realize it and we want to stream definitely transparency is super important Mehta market. Um, but. Sit God, I'm sorry. I'm

Kate:

That's okay.

Thea:

am so happy to, to have our transparency at CIT, but, but there's a, there's a limit to what the public should know about us.

Kate:

I mean, we are learning new things about our employees. Um, like we really thought that we had figured out a way to block all porn sites. Um, not true, not true, which is a big problem, you know, that's on us. Um,

Matt:

as I repeatedly stated in, in those email threads, in the meetings, uh, after the software was installed in lunch, after we installed extra firewalls, after we installed VPN detection software, we're never going to be able to block that. Like people will always find a way.

MJ:

Yeah, find a Y Yeah,

Matt:

Yeah.

Kate:

Yeah.

Matt:

that was, that was, that was what we used. I was spinning, came up with that. Right. Porn always finds.

MJ:

air pulling always finds a way. Yeah. It's Spinney said the funniest thing is my, like he, yeah. He said, Paul always finds a way. And that was the other thing he said about, um, oh, uh, red light means stop

Matt:

oh yeah.

MJ:

and that always, yeah,

Matt:

was important. One, gosh.

MJ:

that got me through the first two years of business school, actually red light means stop. That's important because what it reminds you to do is just take a breath, slow down. And you recognize the color.

Kate:

Okay. Needless to say, we found out that obviously last night, John still use his work computer to watch porn all the time. Um, that was now all over the internet, which, you know, the things he does to porn are his own business, but people do judge you,

Matt:

they are when they're your own business, unless you're a camera.

Eric:

and then it becomes public business.

Thea:

bad branding to honestly have such vanilla tastes.

Eric:

well, and he was standing, he wasn't even sitting down

Thea:

I believe me, you know,

MJ:

you had to have, it might have been.

Thea:

just, just how backwards John was in Hughes. Arousal habits is like not a good look for a progressive company. You

Eric:

Yeah,

Thea:

porn is a problem, but also what that porn says about. Lifeblood as a company is, is frankly, you know, in the banality of it.

Matt:

I w I will say when I, uh, and I, you know, sorry. Califia, but it is out there. So I had to go check out the footage. Um, I was surprised, uh, that he watched the whole thing, wedding ceremony. It was, it was really involved getting to their wedding night.

Thea:

it was just, it was, was bizarre. Um, I mean amount of time he spent videos, just getting to know them as people was,

Eric:

Yeah,

Thea:

was, strange. Um,

Eric:

well, this actually brings up a concern.

Thea:

Texted both of them to get their consent, to watch porn that they put on

Eric:

yeah,

Matt:

Oh, I D I missed that. Yeah.

Thea:

But again, like a level of, um, a new level, I

Kate:

yeah.

MJ:

Hm.

Eric:

I'm actually noticing, and this is, this is a concern for me, is that there, there may be a feedback loop, uh, in play here where I think people are starting to realize that they're being watched more and it's actually changing their behavior. Um, you know, our, our user interviewers have not logged off since, since Thursday. Like they've just been going and finding more. Clients to interview. And I think they're being observed is causing them to want to observe more. It's in some kind of weird behavioral mechanism. I don't know if it's the software or if it's just a coincidence, but if

Kate:

is this something you've seen before?

MJ:

Well, yeah, I mean, of course this is a behavior that we've observed. Um, we sort of liken it to, um, uh, w we call it the Truman show syndrome wherein somebody becomes aware that they are the focus of exactly the sort of media conspiracy that they might have always feared that they were a part of. And what we kind of strive to do is we want. Is, we just want to, we basically want to know a that we don't want anybody to talk about it. So we'll talk to that person and we'll sort of say like, look, here's the reality of the situation. Yes, of course we are watching you, but that can change your behavior because then it's going to change the type of ads that we can sell. And that can actually be really confusing for people. So it's a tough, it is a tough.

Eric:

So, is this something that will go away? Is this something that will go away after the free trial? After, you know, after we start paying, you will come and talk to our people and they'll stop behaving as, as lawyers

MJ:

Well, I mean, you look, you can't stop a voice. The only people that are using your camera. To watch you and your coworkers are we watch employees. We're not selling that information. We're not giving it out to people. So Eric, we're not, you know, putting it all in the X tube or whatever, putting out there for all the years to see it's just into office, whatever anybody else obtains. I can't help.

Kate:

it seems like maybe there's some sort of like security breach that's been happening because I mean, videos of our employees, including, you know, John last night have been all over the internet, you know,

Thea:

can't speak, I can't speak to, know, other cases, but in the John use case, of it is that, the button to start streaming, um, appears right next to the button to. Get your, like put in the password on your laptop. Like

MJ:

um,

Thea:

built very easy to turn that on.

MJ:

thank you. Yeah, we worked really hard on that actually about four, actually, you're going to be surprised at this four weeks of meetings to figure out kind of where to put that button in a way that people wouldn't really notice. It might just click it. Um, look, in terms of the videos of your colleagues, I can attest to the fact that while yes, of course. There's the, you know, the infamous video of. Everything that's been put out there that has been put out in the interest of public knowledge. We're not just releasing things, Willy nil here.

Kate:

So you are releasing things.

Thea:

the thing is that

MJ:

Well, yeah, of course.

Thea:

I value. transparency as much as the next person, but you have to understand, my team are

MJ:

Hm.

Thea:

curated Instagram influencers, and, two of them have been outed for having bowel movements.

MJ:

Yeah.

Thea:

that, is devastating to their followership.

MJ:

Well, look, of course, we were shocked to hear about the bowel, you know, bowel gate as well, that was ringing around the office today. But again, the interest of public knowledge we had collate the, I don't think I have to tell you hundreds and hundreds of teenagers. In Boulder, Colorado holding this stool last month because they didn't see it on Instagram. And if they don't see it on Instagram, it ain't true girlfriend. All right, pardon me? I'm not trying to get over familiar. It's just a colloquialism. So I'm just saying those videos were released to quite frankly, release those children of their problematic, you know, holding rituals. So.

Eric:

I'm just getting, I'm getting a little spun around with the Truman show and the influencers. I w what's can you just tell me what the mission of we watches Melbourne? I think that might help me get the use case a little bit better.

MJ:

thank you, Eric. I appreciate the opportunity to stay my platform. We watch originally. Of course, uh, you can find it on the trades, the stock trades, as we watch parentheses, you were. Uh, we are here to watch you work. We record multiple partner meetings or solo sessions to, of working or whatever you might be doing and we'll save it to your computer. And we also have a staff that will feed back personally to you to kind of let you know, Hey, look, we notice this seems a bit off, mate. You could be doing this better. That whole kind of thing. We watch you to get better. That's one of our taglines

Eric:

that explains, that explains a lot of that. Did anybody else get the personal analytics report?

Kate:

Yeah,

Thea:

Yeah.

Eric:

700 pages? It was, it was beyond. No personal detective level information that was found about me. I've never told anybody, certain things that were in that report. Um, it was very impressive. It was all, it was, it was a little dry, to be honest, maybe that's a statement on me. Uh, but, uh, you know, how do you expect this to go through and use all this?

MJ:

Of course at the end of the day, we'll send you the two page tabulation of sort of major hip points for the day. Yeah. So if that's not happening fast enough for you, I do apologize. It is about five 10 every day because we have a real, it's not computerized. We've got a real person watching you doing that. Tabulation. It's very important. Um, as for the not being super readable, I do want to apologize. Uh, we have black ops guys that are just tops at research, finding things basically like legalized stocking, but they're not great writers. So we are working on that and I do appreciate the feedback and I hear you. Thank you.

Thea:

So it really is very rare to get somebody with both tactical skills and copywriting skills.

MJ:

Yes. Yes. Thank you. God.

Thea:

team to.

Kate:

okay. I mean, I think this is all very insightful. Um, I guess maybe I'd love to hear some other customer testimonials, you know, What are some ways that this is being used by other companies that we could learn from?

MJ:

yeah, of course. Yeah. You won't meet us, right? Um,

Matt:

that would be good.

MJ:

yeah. Well, I'm going to be honest with you. I don't want to rock the, you know, uh, rock the Casbah. You know, like the song, it's just funny little thing. Um, you guys are actually the first and I'm hoping not the last customers that have tried, we watch. Um, yeah. You know, cause we don't want to see any of our customers, uh, leave, especially because at this point there is only four there's only four of you. So,

Kate:

pretty.

MJ:

it's pretty important to me personally. I've got a lot riding on this, frankly. My father is kind of a prick. He's like, you're never gonna make anything of yourself, Melvin. And I'm like, you know what, dad. I don't know if we can sway here, but I say F you died, so I don't want to fail. So

Kate:

sure. I mean,

MJ:

relatable.

Kate:

it is, yeah. I think we all have our own different set of parent problems. Um, um, Matt, I guess I'm just a little. Confused because when you, when you recommended to MJ and his company to us, you had very, very high remarks to say about your past work together. I felt like.

Matt:

I mean, I couldn't believe some of the stuff that we got done with those, uh, small teams. I mean, we were really cranking out some, uh, prototypes and some, uh, minimum viable products and, uh, making a lot of money, uh, not for ourselves really. Which was unfortunate, but, um, Hey, uh, yeah. Tell, tell your dad. I said hi. And also, uh, I swear to God, I'm still gonna find a lawyer that will claw back what he took from us.

MJ:

Yeah. Tell him, you said hello? You know, he's actually, um, he's actually dying. Yeah. So, uh, yeah. Yeah.

Matt:

God couldn't happen to a nicer guy.

MJ:

I know that's what I was saying. That's what I was saying is something like hardness medication and stuff. Cause he did take a lot of money from us. You can actually, in fact, if any of you are curious about. Terrific. New York times article called the prince in the Papas. Papas refers to myself and here cause we were taken for fools. And now that man lays dying somewhere in Queensland, uh, with a terrible nursing team that I hand picked Matt, you're going to love this from the lowest testing interns at the worst hospital in Sydney.

Matt:

there it is. Yeah.

MJ:

I'm pretty, I'm pretty excited. Yeah. But anyway

Matt:

one of the things like MJ has always been a willing to do the legwork, like unafraid to do the research, to dive in. Um, I will say honestly, this is kind of an aside, uh, so we can, we can pull it back, but. I'm surprised, uh, that you didn't get some machine learning or AI going with this thing, hiring all those folks has got to be expensive. I know Spinney was always afraid of the robot revolution, but I didn't think you had taken on any of that MJ.

MJ:

Well, I'll be honest with you might like be honest with you. I did spend a lot of time, uh, with MJ sort of before he went to prison, hold up together in that. Yeah, me and spinning. And he did instill a lot of, quite a lot of fear in me about the robot revolution. The R squared is he called it. That's what all this literature says, and I'm going to be honest. Um, when I walk around my hometown, I see destitution, I see tents. I see skyscrapers filled with, um, people who are homeless, right? So I'm saying let's employ those people. It's bringing them out of the dark. And pay them to do a job that yeah, probably a robot could do just as well, quite possibly bad off, but I want to pay these people to live

Matt:

that's, that's a, that's a real altruistic goal. Like.

MJ:

Thank

Kate:

these are the people who are watching our videos and deciding what should go on the internet and what should not.

Thea:

and what's the

MJ:

Yeah.

Thea:

is, is it a one-to-one? Is there one person watching us at all to.

MJ:

Well, it's one to three. It sorta depends on like, uh, depends on how many showers do you take per day? It depends on how many people are coming to and fro your home. And it also depends on like, uh, what kind of clothes do you wear? Like, are you someone who has closed from like H and M or do you go to like Zahra? You know what I mean? So we w depending on that, we're going to have more eyes on you. Of course, you're going to be more influential, um, but, gets at least one, at least one.

Thea:

um, don't think any of first staff take computers into. The shower. Um,

MJ:

Hmm.

Thea:

and,

Kate:

learned

MJ:

name.

Kate:

wasn't the case, unfortunately. Um, but it's only a few and we're, we're having side conversations with.

MJ:

there's no need to take your computer into the shower. As long as you have a desktop or a laptop that you've left open that sort of like a scans into. The room of the shower or the room that you're going to be sort of strolling through. When I say you're taking showers, I'm not referring to the showers themselves. Clearly. I'm actually just referring to the how many times per day can we count on your naked body strolling through this apartment? What are we going to have to see? And when, so that's sort of more the hook that I was angling. Yeah.

Eric:

I did notice a red light on my smart fridge.

MJ:

Um,

Eric:

there any functionality like with home networks where the software installed itself on other cameras?

MJ:

no, of course. Yeah. Yeah. So Eric, basically what happens is as soon as no matter what device you download us on, so you got us on your smart phone or. Right. There's going to be a little button, pop up, say terms and conditions. Do you accept? Yes or no? If you don't accept those terms and conditions where you can not go through with the download, it'll kick you back to the screen, right? We all know terms and conditions. What you consented to was we're going to connect to your home networks. We're going to chill families, networks. We're going to upload

Matt:

I, when I, uh, when I brought this in, I, I told everybody read, you have to read the terms and conditions. Okay. You have to. That's why I read them. And I, I haven't installed this on any of my devices, personal or work. Uh, it's actually not allowed in the Devon ITT. Uh, and we've, we've put up a special firewall blocker to keep it from getting installed on any new machines.

MJ:

Good call. That's a good call.

Matt:

yeah, I cause uh, I, I saw that signature coming across the network that is, uh, an MJ classic you and spinny with, with your little tendrils, they'll get in anywhere.

MJ:

we'll get you out. Yeah, we'll get you out and then we'll get in there and we will infest you uh, much like Elias. We never truly leave. Um, yeah, of course.

Kate:

is this software per chance, the same kind of origin as what. Spinney to jail for fraud.

MJ:

Well, of course, um, there are similarities and Kate, if you are going to sit me down in a court of law and say, you know, did you and spinny come up with this idea together when you were vacationing in the Maldives? Yeah, we did. That's the truth. All right. And that is how this idea came to fruition, but I'm going to tell you something else. Spinney went away for a very particular type of fraud. That was, he was getting elderly people over the age of 75 to invest in a sort of scheme that they thought was going to be free health care, but it was actually more of like Spinney just needed to buy clothes kind of a thing. So that's why he went away. That's pretty separate from this. Um, I, I distanced myself from those crimes, but. That criminal did help come up with this software that's watching you. Yeah, absolutely.

Kate:

Great.

Thea:

okay.

MJ:

Yeah.

Thea:

Um, uh, this has been very illuminating. Um, I personally. Cannot be everybody's PR person. Um, you know, I just want to make that very clear, uh,

Kate:

You've said that

Thea:

have we would call in the industry, but whole of issues here.

MJ:

Um,

Kate:

yes, the industry.

MJ:

well,

Thea:

I mean, we are having members stream, uh, All sorts of things that don't represent CIT. Uh, we're at a very fragile time right now in our brand transition,

Matt:

true.

Thea:

as, as evidence for me not even getting the name right half the time. and we are at an opportunity in which we can define our brand

Matt:

that reminds me. I'm sorry.

Thea:

currently

Matt:

Kathia can, uh, or Kate can, when y'all remind me, when did, uh, the investors last come through the office?

Kate:

Thursday.

Matt:

Okay. Uh, you should, uh, we should send them out some fair day cages for their, for their phones and laptops, uh, and have them bring them those that we can, they can bring them by.

Eric:

just can't we can't just let this keep going. Yeah, this is, this is CERN.

Kate:

Frankly,

MJ:

of your invest.

Kate:

MJ, I think what you're doing is, is it's frankly criminal and you deserve to be thrown in jail with spinny.

MJ:

Oh,

Kate:

Matt. I am actually more upset with you for bringing MGA's product to us, not letting our entire team have it, but just Willy nilly, letting John install it.

Matt:

is above board. You read the terms and conditions, right? It's a li it's a binding legal agreement.

MJ:

how could You don't read it?

Thea:

you know, we ran out of retainer hours for this month, which your employee Ram through within a day, we didn't have time to review this contract because we didn't have a legal team, which you knew.

Matt:

Yeah. Califia, it's not for the lawyer to tell you if it's okay to click on the terms and conditions you have to, you agree to them, the lawyer can't agree on your behalf.

Eric:

Forget the loan. This is, but this is useless. Like forget the lawyer part. Why, why did you bring it to us, man?

Matt:

I mean, I'm sorry. I'm I was trying to do. I know you've been working on this for a long time. I think, I think it's really cool technology. I don't think it's a really good business model. And I, I feel like this kind of shows why people get, are going to get really bad.

MJ:

well, I would have appreciated you telling me that six months ago, when we sat down together at Malakai's and you told me, I said, do you think it's a good business model? And I believe your words were, yeah. Yeah, sure. Do you want to get a big pretzel?

Matt:

yeah.

MJ:

focused on that big pretzel mat, we might not be having this conversation now, but I'm also going to say, Hey guys, don't be so mad at Matt for right, for bringing this to.

Matt:

You don't have to go

MJ:

he only gets a 5% cut of all the profits. So you guys shouldn't get that mad at him. Cause it's not even like he's making that much money on these. And really I'm only giving him like 3%. I'm lying about the rest of it

Matt:

Yeah. I mean, it's honest, honestly, it was just cause I. The, the tickets that day and I bought the pretzels. It was it's people trade equity all the time. Yeah.

MJ:

Yeah. Cold money.

Thea:

gotten our lawyers on, cause it's in clear violation of our conflict of interest policy.

Kate:

yup.

Matt:

Yeah. I suppose

Eric:

month, first thing next

Matt:

true.

Kate:

Yeah, at least two of the four hours next month, they're going towards that.

MJ:

so will you all be keeping the service? You know, it's$199 a month or you get an entire year for$2,800. So it's a really good deal. Um,

Kate:

That's a terrible deal. You pay more in a year. Um,

MJ:

Yeah. If you don't subscribe. Yeah. You'll pay more.

Eric:

I mean, I guess had inflation was like 30% would be good.

MJ:

Well, we don't know what next year is going to hold. We don't know what next year is going to hold, you

Matt:

um, remind me and MJ is this, uh, is that currency converted? We're paying a New Zealand dollars, right?

MJ:

Yeah, that's correct. It's New Zealand dollars. So I believe like 2,800 New Zealand dollars is something like 5 million in American currency. I'm not actually sure.

Eric:

not

Matt:

man. You've G, M D. You've got to hire a new, you've got to hire a new business guy. No, it's worth it's

MJ:

I've never been good at math.

Matt:

it's worth like two thirds of a, an American dollar New Zealand dollar.

Kate:

can just Google this.

Matt:

yeah.

Kate:

Okay. We're definitely

MJ:

never been good at math, so it's all right. No

Eric:

happens if our, what happens if our card declines?

MJ:

If your Cod declined.

Eric:

Yeah,

MJ:

Well, there's no worries about that, Ethan mate. No, because we actually are connected to your Cod we're connected to your bank account. So yeah, of course you can shut down the Cod of course you can do these things. You can cut it up, you can burn it, but we're connected to your bank account. So if there's not enough money in there, we will overdraft you and then you're paying the fees or if you got the money. And then my once again, coming back to the no worries, Polis. You know what I'm saying? The NWP

Thea:

Okay.

MJ:

meaning there'll be no worries. Cause we'll charge it automatically. It'll come out. You probably won't even notice it's gone. That's what I was saying about the no worries, but yeah, just want to be clear

Kate:

okay. This might explain. Who's been buying all the burger king out of my bank account, um, in the last week. Um,

MJ:

well, if you ever been there, it's terrific. Have you ever gone?

Kate:

Now what burger

MJ:

something called a walk. All

Kate:

true.

Eric:

so you are buying burger king. The funds from, from Kate's account.

MJ:

Of course my, what do you think it's all about to be a businessman in the world? You get to buy bug a cane

Eric:

that's not in the terms of service. There's no burger king in the terms of service that feels like

Matt:

MJ, this is why. Hey, no, you didn't want to do the lawyers thing, but you have to set up your own accounts. You withdraw the money into your account, and then you spend from that. You can't, you can't just go spending from your customers' bank accounts. MJ.

MJ:

there's a thrill about it is the thrill about it. And you know what I'm talking about, we were going

Matt:

and spinny both of you. This is what got Spinney in trouble. Now they prosecuted him harder because he was targeting the elderly, but you'll get in just as much trouble.

MJ:

I don't know about that. My, they don't really look at crimes towards millennials as being that serious, but what Spinney did targeting those older people, putting them in the shelter. Yeah. They didn't like that. That was pretty bad. That's a good point. They wouldn't vote. Yeah. That's a good point. That's what Spinney always used to say. Old people vote. Young people don't vote. That was a famous saying that he had.

Kate:

Okay. Frankly, Spinney seems like he could start a better company than this. Um,

MJ:

he could.

Matt:

a great head for business.

MJ:

Yeah. Yeah.

Kate:

we really have to wrap this up.

MJ:

Do you guys remember D rather quickly members only jackets that was spinning his idea. They had that shitty little jacket and he was like, you put a member's only tag on there. People will buy it. That's his claim to fine. Never forget.

Kate:

oh, spinny is probably rich and handed. Interesting.

Matt:

They seized. Most of it.

MJ:

Yeah. Yeah. He's a great man. He's a great man.

Kate:

okay, well, um, I think we will all be changing bank accounts. Um, Matt, your job next week, we'll be figuring out how to uninstall this thing that lives inside of our camp.

Matt:

Oh, it's

MJ:

do it,

Matt:

it's an easy, yeah, it's it. We can't pull it out of the camera firmware, but, um, we've got a whole, just bring your phone by, uh, it'll take us a couple of hours. We'll pop the camera right here.

Eric:

Can I bring my fridge?

MJ:

Matt. We're going to have to talk about that off air, actually, because that is going to violate a clause that you entered with us. We don't need to talk about it here. Continue.

Matt:

oh, you want to use a past contract on me? Okay. Well, uh, then I won't be the one doing it. I'll just give someone the idea to remove the camera with.

MJ:

I wouldn't object to that. I wouldn't object to that. And actually Suh that's me applauding your terrific lawyer. Intuitive.

Matt:

Listen, uh, drinks are on me next time. You got really far with this one a lot further than I thought.

MJ:

Yeah. Thank

Matt:

My friend. Good game.

MJ:

got another one coming up. I got another one coming up. It's um, an app for pregnant women that we say monitors, your baby's health. That's what I said, sinister, but actually all of the people that are sending the stats about the babies are people that actively want to steal. Can not for whatever, have not been able to have children or have their children taken away from them. And now they are in the

Matt:

can't believe it. You're really building the raising Arizona. Well,

MJ:

Yes. What we talked about. Yeah. Raising Arizona app. Yeah. So we called it a rap because it was the raising Arizona apps or have two A's and two PS, it seemed actually more clever on the yard mat. I have to say it seemed clever on the yard.

Matt:

just, that was just a working title, right? This is not supposed to give away what it does. So

MJ:

Yeah, that's true. Yeah.

Matt:

believe you actually are going through with it, man.

Kate:

Okay.

MJ:

Mike. Yeah, we're happy about it. Yeah.

Kate:

Well, I look forward to seeing you on America's most wanted. Um, and until then, frankly, I think we have to stop this recording and deal with all of the various things that are probably being streamed, uh, from our company's computers right now. So MJ. I don't really want to end this by saying thank you. But at least I

MJ:

You're

Kate:

your honesty. Um,

MJ:

I appreciate your honesty too. Uh, what you are Googling and the date of night is not going unnoticed and, uh, appreciate you being so honest and open about your interests. So thank you to,

Kate:

we can talk about that later guys.

Thea:

It's not really honest or open if you're being spied on.

Matt:

This

MJ:

well, I don't

Matt:

use Google.

MJ:

Yeah,

Matt:

talked about this to

MJ:

You ever had a private mode, right?

Kate:

Okay. Well, make

MJ:

We can see that too

Kate:

required. We will.

Matt:

You know what I'm going to bring back my weekly privacy meetings because of nobody it's just an open office hours come by. But obviously nobody learned the first time around. So we're going to do it again.

Kate:

Sounds good. Um, I'm going to wrap this up. Uh, MJ, have a great day and a great, a great life. Truly.

MJ:

already doing it. Thanks mate. Having a terrific life.

Matt:

Uh, Hey, uh, give my regards to spinning and, uh, tell your dad. I hope he rots.

MJ:

I will make, I will. I'm going to go over later and I'm going to hold my hand around his breathing tube and he's going to go on my gold is the seat. It's amazing to see the fear in his eyes, Matt. It was terrific it, and to see you again, Mike, please come out to the links. We'll ship a few bowls together. If I'm ever allowed in the United States. Again, I'd love to have dinner with you.

Matt:

All right. Sounds good.

Kate:

Okay. All right, recording. Ending now.

Ben:

This meeting has ended. To subscribe to this startup is being recorded. Go to the podcast player of your choice and tap a button that likely says subscribe. More content is on Twitter at startup recorded, or shoot us an email with ideas, feedback, or your personal startup horror story. At hello@startuprecorded.com.

Marvin Janine Simpson is a businessman and wrecking tour with homes in Italy, Manhattan, and Detroit. He's not on social media, but we'd like to plug his primary investor, talented actor and comedian Declan Gallagher. You can find them on Instagram and Twitter at the real Declan G.

Ben:

Kate is played by Valerie Garrison. Valerie is a health tech product manager and regularly plays with the improv troupe letters to chicken online. You can find her on Twitter at thevalgarris eric has played by Barry wright Barry is a product manager at Spotify and a co-founder of Highwire Improv. Find him by his name on LinkedIn, where he holds regular office hours or at highwireimprov.com. Matt is played by Martin Mcguire. Marty is a senior web engineer and improviser in New York city. You can find Marty's comedy code and cats on his website at M M G dot R E. Calathea is played by Robyn Stegman. Robyn is a digital campaign manager for ocean Conservancy and is a comedian mostly found at Highwire improv. You can find her on all the social medias. And she does mean all at rsteggy thank you for listening.