Richard Lee With Supercopy

Intro: [00:00:04] Broadcasting live from the Business RadioX studios in Atlanta, Georgia. It’s time for Atlanta Business Radio, brought to you by on Pay Atlanta’s new standard in payroll. Now, here’s your host.

Lee Kantor: [00:00:25] Lee Kantor here another episode of Atlanta Business Radio. And this is going to be a good one. But before we get started, it’s important to recognize our sponsor on pay. Without them, we couldn’t be sharing these important stories. Today on the Atlanta Business Radio, we have Richard Lee and he is with Super Copy. Welcome, Richard.

Richard Lee: [00:00:43] Hi. Glad to be here.

Lee Kantor: [00:00:45] Well, I’m so excited to learn what you’re up to. Tell us a little bit about super copy, how you serve in folks.

Richard Lee: [00:00:51] Yeah. Yeah. So super copy was created about four months ago to help people market and create a lot of content quickly and create content that matters in the faster way than what we’ve been doing recently.

Lee Kantor: [00:01:03] So how do you do that magic trick?

Richard Lee: [00:01:06] Yeah, so we use A.I. for a lot of the content, like contextual information, and we use that to create a lot of words that come out in the format and sense that comes out in. But it’s up to the marketer to put in the right information, such as What’s the goal of it? What’s the context? What brand are you pushing? What’s the tone with the language? So we’re essentially augmenting and compiling a marketer’s current progress.

Lee Kantor: [00:01:28] So now is this something that once I start working with super copy, it’s going to kind of learn with me and start understanding my tone and my voice so that I can, you know, create more content faster.

Richard Lee: [00:01:44] Yes. So that’s something we’re working on right now. So right now it’s partially a manual process and partially an automated process and the future. We want this to be something that learns a few, but also like something you get to edit into, something you want it to become.

Lee Kantor: [00:01:57] So now what is the way I would be using this today?

Richard Lee: [00:02:01] So right now the way it currently operates is we have a quick interface where you could put in your brand, your company, your company’s website or digital link of some sort, and then discuss what kind of goal do you want? So is it convincing people to tune into the radio or is it convincing people to check out this new product that we just launched? Or is it discussing the value of a new feature that just got launched for a product X, Y, Z? And then you get the tone as well as the audience who you’re talking to.

Lee Kantor: [00:02:30] And then what happens?

Richard Lee: [00:02:32] And then you click generate, there’s a button that comes up and then it just generates you a couple of options for you to consider. Right now, we’re figuring out the best way to measure, measure the impact before you can post it or shared or send it to a friend.

Lee Kantor: [00:02:44] Now, is it something that I can just like, say, for example, I want to come up with a bunch of subject line for an email marketing campaign that I want to test. Is that something that I could use this with?

Richard Lee: [00:02:57] Yes, absolutely. We actually had a couple of sales people use it either to prototype out a couple of sales headlines, but or also like test out some things a lot faster instead of like brainstorming as a team together.

Lee Kantor: [00:03:09] So I could use it not only for the subject line, I can have the kind of the copy for the email marketing campaign as well.

Richard Lee: [00:03:17] Yes, that’s absolutely right.

Lee Kantor: [00:03:19] And then is it something that okay, so say I come up with a five email cadence and I send it out using super copy? Is it something that it can learn and say, you know what, We weren’t getting the open rate. We anticipated our number two. Let’s try to optimize that for a better result?

Richard Lee: [00:03:42] Yes, definitely. So right now, super copy doesn’t send it out for us, but we do have people copy pasting into their emails and editing, of course. So we do see people doing A, B testing and seeing which one goes well. So super copy allows you to adjust your tone and your demographic really quickly, as well as adjusting a lot of the nuances early on. So when you set up your AB test, you have a little bit more of a direction on each one that you’ll be doing. And in the future, of course, we want to integrate with the email and texting system that people already have to see those responses real time.

Lee Kantor: [00:04:13] Now, at this stage, is it primarily just kind of a a thought starter for a better first draft? And then I’m going to go back in and edit it and tweak it? Or is it something where it can take my first draft and make it better?

Richard Lee: [00:04:28] Yeah, so we actually do both. So we do our the initial product was generating the first draft really quickly. So we’re getting you to the red zone, right in the football term, we’re getting to the red zone and you just have to finish up, which that’s the harder part, right? And that helps you focus on the important part, which is the nuances and the jargon and the things that just makes it a little bit more for the audience. But we also have a tool that use AI to make things a little bit more engaging. So we have an Engager tool that if you put in the the copy, you could click on it and it’ll generate a slightly more engaging version of the post.

Lee Kantor: [00:05:01] Now, when you say engaging, if my tone like say, I think you mentioned earlier, my tone is persuasion, which is different than maybe entertaining, which is different than educating like, are you pulling if I say persuasion or have you taught it like some persuasion strategies and inputted some persuasion language in order for you to to be to actually persuade?

Richard Lee: [00:05:29] Yes. So it does take into context of the words I use to convince it. So if you use persuasion, it will use persuasion type words. So essentially persuade the user or audience member to sign up for X, Y, Z.

Lee Kantor: [00:05:44] But if you say entertaining, is it using like comedic words? Is it using friendlier tone, more conversational?

Richard Lee: [00:05:52] Definitely. So it really takes into consider the words you use if you entertain or convince or discuss like the tones of the words will change based on the word.

Lee Kantor: [00:06:03] And then if if I say entertaining over time, is it going to kind of take on a the avatar of some person that’s entertaining?

Richard Lee: [00:06:18] So that’s the ultimate goal for us is how can we get it more and more tuned into something that’s more entertaining And like deciding on what’s more entertaining and entertaining is a broad word, right? So the initial term is it gets the basic going, but the future term that we want to build up is how can we how can we know what’s entertaining? And also what demographic is this entertaining to and adjusting that to the entertainer itself.

Lee Kantor: [00:06:42] So it could over time, like if I say I want to have a tone like Jerry Seinfeld, it would have a tone like that more so than a tone like. Bill Burr.

Richard Lee: [00:06:55] Yes. So right now you could actually try Jerry Seinfeld because he has enough content online to refer from. Like, we could see some of the cadences. But if it’s like a completely new comedian, that’s like just started out, their cadence and style will be a little harder to pinpoint.

Lee Kantor: [00:07:12] So could you could this be a tool for an entertainer like, say, a comedian wanted help in writing jokes or or stories? Yeah. So it can work in nonfiction as well as a fiction environment.

Richard Lee: [00:07:27] Just because the information pulled from it doesn’t really know what’s true or not. Like, it’s kind of like the Internet in a nutshell, right? Like it’s really hard to dictate what’s true or not because there’s information on both sides on any topic. So it just gets on. It gets especially asides with, you know, which way you’re thinking. So if you think blue is the best color, like, okay, blue is the best color because you say red is the best color. And they’re like, Oh, yeah, red is the best color. So it just depends on how you dictate it.

Lee Kantor: [00:07:56] So what’s your back story? How did you get involved in this?

Richard Lee: [00:07:59] Yeah, Yeah. So I’ve been I come from an electrical engineering background here at Georgia Tech, graduated and had a corporate job. And at one point I’m like, cool. I want to pursue start ups. The the pandemic hit now is a perfect time for me to just start pursuing that. So be. I’ve been in entrepreneurship for about three years, full time, and I’ve gone through multiple iterations, and the last iteration was essentially a digital product studio where we work for our clients and I’m like, okay, we want to make you more money. Essentially, that’s what our products do, right? So we create a bunch of products for our clients and we just realized. They had a far bigger budget for their marketing that they were spending like all over the place, and then a super small budget for any product. They want to create it to make the marketing make sense. So really, okay, you’re spending. 100 x all you’re spending on us. Why don’t we just do the marketing? Because we also are the best marketers of our own studios. So, okay, you’re essentially creating a problem for ourselves because we just didn’t know how to market effectively. Okay, what can we do to do that? Because like right now, what we were saying is that you got to post everywhere. You have to everywhere at all times. It all has to be good. And that’s what we saw. Okay. That doesn’t seem humanly possible. How can we make that a little easier? And that’s where super copy came from.

Lee Kantor: [00:09:17] So now have you pivoted your business or this kind of aside thing right now?

Richard Lee: [00:09:22] So Supercoppa is the main business. Essentially, it’s a technical startup and and everything else has been to the wayside and we’re not really focusing on it.

Lee Kantor: [00:09:31] So are you still. So you’re not doing any kind of help. You’re not a marketing company. More. You’re a startup that’s trying to roll out the super copy. Is it an app or a software or software is a service? How is it going to be marketed?

Richard Lee: [00:09:47] Yeah, that’s I think that’s a really good question. So, yeah, like definitely not doing anything else. We are now a tech startup in most traditional sense and it’s a SAS, so you could use it online. It’s a web portal so you could go in and anyone with a log in access could access it, and it works off internet. So if have an access and a website, you could access it.

Lee Kantor: [00:10:09] Now, is it something that in order to try it out, I have to buy it? Or is it something that I can kind of You have a freemium model?

Richard Lee: [00:10:19] So right now we are we do not have a free child. We’re currently building that right now. So everyone that we signed up in the last few months, they’ve all paid day one. But yeah, we are definitely looking to premiums for people to try to for us and we want to create a premium product to over time we’ll be adding features and anyone that signed up in the last few months will be inheriting those features over time.

Lee Kantor: [00:10:40] So now that you’re have this start up, is there any advice you can share for other startups to maybe launch or to grow quickly?

Richard Lee: [00:10:49] Yeah, Yeah. So I think a funny story for us, We built this product in a day. We built essentially the prototype of day and sold that prototype the next day. So I’ve, I’ve been in the startup game for a couple of years and I’ve been affiliated. We’re working for like living in that world for about ten. My biggest advice is just get it out there as fast as you can. Customer discovery is fantastic, but you really need to see where people’s money, where they’re willing to spend money at because it must be a problem we’re solving at that level. So yeah, I would always encourage speed and also like taking the risk when you can.

Lee Kantor: [00:11:26] So to layer on top of that, how did you come up with a pricing structure that could work for you and would be kind of an easy in for the client?

Richard Lee: [00:11:37] Yeah. So initially I think this is what lost our founders do is they kind of get like what people think they are. So we start off with $100 based on like and just saw a reaction. So especially we’re onboarding people manually, right? So we could tell from their face whether they’re like, Oh, that’s way too high, or they’re like, Oh, that’s an easy decision. So we always go based on that type of feedback and we see what type of customer like pushes away from a certain price point. And so in people that don’t even consider that like being an obstacle, So we do look into that. So I would say if your product is SAS, you could easily be in the realm of like 20 to 100 to 1000 depending on what your product does and what what kind of critical problem it solves. Right. Like if I could ten extra business with this SAS product, I’m like, usually people are willing to spend a lot more if I’m helping your business by 10%. Is there like a band aid you’re selling? Is it a vitamin? Is a painkiller? So it depends on what kind of category you go into.

Lee Kantor: [00:12:34] Now who is the ideal purchaser of this?

Richard Lee: [00:12:37] So we’ve been working primarily with marketing agencies and sole marketers because they tend to use the product the best. We work with business owners, but we just noticed that they’re very their hands are full with 20 other things all at the same time. So like marketing might be the last thing that they’re considering, but they still want it. So we’ve been seeing various different types on a like once 20 person team scale and we also been working with 100 plus employee companies and seeing how that works for internal marketing.

Lee Kantor: [00:13:07] Now how is your experience been in the Atlanta startup ecosystem.

Richard Lee: [00:13:13] The last year? Because it’s really nice. I really like it. It’s one of the reasons I stayed after college here in Atlanta. Everyone’s really supportive. If you have a question and if you’re genuine about it, people will reach out to you and people will help work with you. I really love the bootstrap energy that Atlanta has. Like it’s not Silicon Valley, but it is throwing money around for no reason and that’s kind of you have to earn it. I do like that. So it helps us focus on bootstrapping and making revenue a lot earlier compared to like going to go get funding earlier, which is I would say not the best practice, especially in a professional model.

Lee Kantor: [00:13:47] Now, what about if you were to educate people on artificial intelligence and how you’re using it? Some people are afraid. Some people can’t wait. What would you you know, what are some of the myths you’d like to dispel about A.I.?

Richard Lee: [00:14:03] So I would say for AI is really good at helping people get to where they are there. It’s kind of dumb if you leave it alone. Right. Because it’s it’s it’s just recognizing what it sees. And often what it sees is often wrong. So that’s something we do see in the market. And A.I. requires some kind of copilot, Like it’s like you’re the goose and maverick and maverick goose type model where without it, you still need A.I. to replicate things on scale. But without the human, the AI’s kind of stopped replicating very old things or mundane things. It just doesn’t really understand it. It’s not going to go for your job unless it’s super repeatable. If your job is super repeatable and doesn’t require a lot of creativity. A.i. is probably going to take over that spot primarily because it’s such a repeatable test that humans shouldn’t be doing. But in jobs that are far more creative, it will have more of an augmenting experience. They’ll help you get to your place where you want to go. They’ll never replace you.

Lee Kantor: [00:15:03] Yeah. What I’ve heard is if you if your job can be done with a checklist, you’re probably going to be replaced.

Richard Lee: [00:15:10] Yeah. Yeah. But we’ve seen that with technology over the last hundreds, hundreds of years.

Lee Kantor: [00:15:15] Right. It’s nothing personal.

Richard Lee: [00:15:17] Yeah, it’s nothing personal. It’s a repeatable test that shouldn’t be done by a human. That’s overkill, right? The number of energy you have to put into it. But if it’s just like. Like writing something creative. Yeah, like, I will help you, but I won’t do the thing for you.

Lee Kantor: [00:15:33] Now, what do you need more of? How can we help you?

Richard Lee: [00:15:36] Yeah. I would love to meet with more marketers in Atlanta. Meet with Mark Agency in Atlanta and just listen to you like what are your pain points and help you solve those problems for you.

Lee Kantor: [00:15:46] And if somebody wants to learn more, where should they go?

Richard Lee: [00:15:50] You can hit me up on my email at Richard. I better btr sue dot com or email me there or check us out on our site. I’m also very active on LinkedIn, so I’m there. Richard Lee. You can find me on that handle as well.

Lee Kantor: [00:16:10] And it’s super copied that I Oh.

Richard Lee: [00:16:12] Yes, super copy that.

Lee Kantor: [00:16:14] Oh, and that’s the website. They can go and they can check it out. They can look at it and then buy it if they were interested.

Richard Lee: [00:16:21] Yes, absolutely.

Lee Kantor: [00:16:22] Well, Richard, thank you so much for sharing your story today. You’re doing important work and we appreciate you.

Richard Lee: [00:16:27] Appreciate it. Appreciate it. Thanks so much for having me on.

Lee Kantor: [00:16:30] All right. That’s Lee Kantor. We’ll see you all next time on the Atlanta Business Radio.