Jason Burchard is a co-founder at RootNote where they’re using data to help digital creators build better businesses.
Prior to jumping into the complex world of creator data, he co-founded one of the first equity-based investment firms that invests directly into creators, worked at a seed stage social impact venture capital firm in London, and consulted as a senior consultant at a Texas-based consultancy.
Jason holds a BSc in Civil Engineering from the University of Texas at Austin and MSc in Management from the London School of Economics and Political Science.
Connect with Jason on LinkedIn.
This transcript is machine transcribed by Sonix.
TRANSCRIPT
Intro: Broadcasting live from the Business RadioX studios in Nashville, Tennessee. It’s time for Nashville Business Radio. Now, here’s your host.
Stone Payton: Welcome to another exciting and informative edition of Nashville Business Radio. Stone Payton here with you this afternoon. You guys are in for a real treat. Please join me in welcoming back to the Business RadioX microphone with RootNote, Mr. Jason Burchard. How are you, man?
Jason Burchard: Stone, it’s great to great to talk to you. I’m doing well. Thank you. And thanks for having me back again. I know it’s been a minute since we last caught up.
Stone Payton: We have really been looking forward to this conversation. I was on the phone with my business partner earlier today, and I said, I’m going to get to visit with Jason, so I can’t wait to give him the full report on it. Jason, I got a ton of questions. I know we’re not going to get to them all, but I think a great place to start would be if you could kind of paint a picture for me in our listeners, mission, purpose. What is it that you and your team over there at RootNote are, are really out there trying to do for folks, man?
Jason Burchard: Yeah, I think at the broadest scale possible, we’re we’re aiming to make really analytics accessible to everyone. Um, we like to say that we’re building the consumer layer of analytics, really with the meaning that the world is digital now. Anyone can go out and build a global brand around, you know, content and commerce, and they’re relying on a lot of a lot of different platforms and products to do that. And they’re creating a ton of data, and they need to be able to use this information. But what we found over the years and working with a lot of creators is that this information really wasn’t made, uh, readily accessible or useful to kind of the demographic that are building these brands. So we really want to just simplify the process of business analytics. And, um, really for, for kind of, you know, the hundreds of millions of individuals that are out there building their brands online. And so, you know, that’s kind of the broad vision. And what that boils down to right now is we’ve effectively we’re building kind of what we call the future of business analytics for the sports media and entertainment space right now. And we’re going to end up kind of expanding beyond that. But, you know, right now we’re working with colleges, professional teams, talent agency brands to basically consolidate all of the data that they’re generating across all of their kind of we call it like owned and operated media or owned and operated content. And then also all of the, the, the content across the talent that they work with, whether those are athletes, collegiate or pro, um, creators, YouTubers, podcasters, and really help them use that information to go out and, you know, build better businesses and then also sell, um, as you know, the world kind of runs on data today, and a lot of people need access to that information. And it’s not always easy to get. So we’re, uh, we’re we’re working to reduce friction wherever we can when it comes to helping digital content creators and creative teams data.
Stone Payton: Well, you’re certainly singing my song, man. You know, I’m a part owner of a fairly successful media company. I gotta believe there’s a ton of data that we’re not even realizing we have available to us. We certainly are not knowing how to capitalize on it. Uh, good work if you can get it. It sounds like a very noble pursuit. What is the backstory, man? How in the world did you find yourself doing this kind of work for for these folks?
Jason Burchard: Yeah. Well, I’d say, um, by complete accident. Uh, so the first company we launched was effectively a venture fund where we were making direct investments into digital content creators. So, you know, the goal was to invest in a MrBeast before he was MrBeast and, you know, launched, uh, MrBeast burger and Feastables and this kind of whole kind of line of different chains. And, um, we just we weren’t working specifically with MrBeast to put that out there, but I like to use him as an example of what you can do once you’ve kind of built your your audience. Right, and you can start kind of building your own brand and productize and creating a lot of different lines And really, you know, we live in a world, as I mentioned, where anybody can do that. And so our initial business was effectively funding these individuals that were building these global brands around content. And what we learned very quickly was that data was just this massive hurdle to overcome. You know, we were working alongside the creators and their agents and managers and publishers and labels and kind of all of these different parties and realize just how complex this world was. Everybody needed access to the information. Nobody had that kind of full picture. And we actually realized that we couldn’t actually scale a financial product or an investment model without getting out there and kind of solving that data problem first. So that’s when we started exploring, you know, the first thing that you do when you’re you’re trying to solve a problem is you see if there’s something out there that does it for you.
Jason Burchard: You know, building a platform is certainly not the easiest solution. If there was something else out there to do it for us, we probably would have just done that. But, um, we realized that there wasn’t. And we also saw concurrently that there’s massive generation and demographic of people who are, you know, building their brands around content. They were launching podcasts as well now and radio shows and really kind of using it as a way to reach new audiences. And, you know, we saw that all kind of emerge during the pandemic. And really it hasn’t slowed down. So super excited to be in the software space now, solving what we believe to be a real and a really big problem for a lot of people out there. And we’re I think we’re ultimately really excited is that while we started specifically focused on the content space, we see this whole kind of shift in the way that people are advertising, reaching audiences by, you know, creating their own content, whether you’re a startup or an SMB. So we we see a lot of opportunity. We think that, you know, the content creators are a great place to start. But ultimately, um, you know, we want to be serving anybody, whether you’re an individual or a company that’s building a brand around your content.
Stone Payton: So what are you finding the most rewarding? What’s the most fun about the work these days for you?
Jason Burchard: I mean, so we, uh, we launched a series called I’m going to plug it, and then I’m going to plug it at the end to call hashtag trending by RootNote, where basically we just take a deep dive and look at the data across different creators and influencers. And it’s really fun for me to be able to use our product to do an analysis and learn something I didn’t know. Um, because I know that if I can do that, then our customers to and it’s just really fun. Um, we have a pretty wide demographic of, of early customers. So I’m learning a lot about different spaces field. You know, with college you’ve got nil going on, which is name, image and likeness. And, you know, helping athletes monetize now that they can do that. And on the pro side, you have this whole contingency of athletes that are becoming content creators. That’s really exciting to see. And then on the agency side, I think you’ve seen a lot of really innovative, um, you know, companies emerge and they’re looking for more data. And it’s because the brands are asking for it. And we’re seeing this trend where, um, you know, brands, they used to want to go out and partner with, you know, LeBron. And they still do. But they also want to partner with, you know, micro and nano influencers. And they’re kind of changing their strategy to work with a lot of different creators. It’s really interesting because it gives us an opportunity to help. And, you know, they’re creating new new revenue opportunities for these creators. And, um, so long answer to your question, but it’s just exciting to be building in a space that’s quickly evolving and changing. Um, and to be just to be a very, very, very small part of it right now.
Stone Payton: Well, let’s dive into the work a little bit. Maybe walk us through a use case. You don’t have to share, you know, specific names or anything if you don’t want to. But maybe I’m particularly interested actually in the early stages, but just kind of walk us through. I guess that’s the right term, a use case.
Jason Burchard: Yeah, absolutely. So, um, just got off the phone earlier today. Excuse me? A zoom call with a team. As a talent agency, they represent everyone from professional athletes to college athletes to now, even, um, some athletes that are still in high school. And, you know, the challenges that they have, these really large kind of rosters of of athletes who are, who are creating content and basically going out to land brand deals or marketing deals. And it’s really, really hard for these teams to keep track of all that data. Right. You’ve got, you know, dozens to hundreds of clients. They’re building their brands. They’re on multiple platforms across TikTok and YouTube and Instagram and email lists and Shopify stores. There are these really complex brands, and they’re managing a lot of them, and they need to have data at their fingertips. Right? So whenever you’re getting ready to go out and pitch, uh Business RadioX. To sponsor, you know, maybe your athlete or to jump in and sponsor like a content series or, you know, you’re getting your Business RadioX is ready to go out and you all are getting ready to pitch your next sponsor. You’ve got to have that data to back up kind of the narrative.
Jason Burchard: And, um, what we’re finding is that, you know, these these teams are still operating in a very manual, kind of one dimensional world of, you know, spreadsheets and then taking that and creating a deck. And then once that that data is out of date and it’s almost a I’d like to say it’s irrelevant by the time you’ve made it right, you’ve got more listeners, your audience is grown. So anyways, um, we help them roll all of that, uh, information across, you know, all of their different individual athletes into a unified place of truth. And then we’ve effectively built a sales enablement that makes it really easy. For example, Business RadioX, if you want to roll up your data and you want to go talk to your next partner or city when you launch into another city or, um, you know, to tell that story with data and to tell it in a way that was built for creators and creative teams opposed to data analysts. Because the reality is that everybody needs data now, which means everybody needs to be able to use data. And we found that’s kind of our sweet spot in helping teams at this point in time.
Stone Payton: So how does the whole speaking of sales, how does the sales and marketing thing work for a firm like yours? Is the work coming to you, or do you have to get out there and shake the trees a little bit? You know, just like we do in a lot of our listeners do.
Jason Burchard: Yeah. I mean, I think, you know, it’s for for us and I think pretty much for everyone right now, it’s finding the right balance between inbound and outbound. And, you know, we certainly have some some great partners coming in through referrals. But there’s also that that outbound effort of just hitting the pavement and, you know, sending those cold emails and telling people about what you’re doing. I think, you know, one of the challenges that everybody’s facing right now is just it’s getting harder and harder to reach the inboxes of people. And I don’t know about you, but I am completely inundated with, you know, AI generated emails from everybody. And it’s, you know, it’s hard it’s hard to reach your audience. And so I think, um, you have to be super, super, uh, focused and also just compelling in what your value proposition is and even just to get that attention. So, um, to answer your question, we’re doing a combination of inbound and outbound. And you know what we love doing. And it’s obviously what you all are doing is we create a lot of content ourselves. Um, we create content that informs, you know, our target audience whenever they’re ready to buy about different issues. So we actually have what we call a content library strategy, um, where we kind of, you know, generate the traffic to our website by creating a lot of content. And then our goal is to eventually turn, you know, some of those, um, readers when they’re ready over time into customers and advocates of what we’re building.
Stone Payton: So as you were making the transition to this world and deciding to take the deep dive in this direction. Did you have the benefit of one or more mentors to kind of help you navigate the way? Or is everything so far been built on your own, your own scar tissue and.
Jason Burchard: Yeah. Well, I’d say there’s definitely even even with some just brilliant mentors, there’s always going to be, I think, a lot of scar tissue. Um, whenever you’re building a company, because, as you know, I think no company is built the same. And it’s really hard to repeat anything. Um, so everything is, is a little bit different. But yeah, we’ve relied so much on, on just mentors and advisors to help us get through, you know, challenging and difficult times. And, um, you know, I think in friends as well, you know, I think one of the biggest challenges that I have is I’m a non-technical founder, you know, meaning that I don’t I don’t code, I don’t build the product. So, um, whenever we were initially finding our first, um, co-founders on the technical front, you know, the best resource that I had was my, you know, other founder friends who were technical, who were CTOs and CEOs who could say like, yeah, you really need to talk to this person. They would be a great co-founder and a great engineer and a great builder. And so, um, yeah, I mean, there’s I can say with 100% certainty that without friends, mentors and advisors, we certainly would not be where we are today. And, um, let alone even have, I think, a product off the ground at this point.
Stone Payton: I know in our arena, being the, uh, business talk media, that there are a lot of myths may be a strong word, but misconceptions, preconceived notions, some things that are a little off the mark. The the frame of reference people have for this platform and the methodology that can be applied. Uh, you know, sometimes it’s a little off the mark. So for us, we have to do a lot of education. Are there some common patterns or myths in your world where education or some other strategy is important early in those conversations.
Jason Burchard: Yeah, I mean, absolutely. I think whenever you’re building a product that kind of, um, like looks at data in a new or novel way, um, there’s always going to be some, some education. Um, I think one of the, the myths that I hear a lot is a myth that you have to have, you know, a massive audience to be interesting or compelling to a brand or a partner. Um, I think what’s more important now than than ever before is that you can communicate that maybe you have a niche, right? Like maybe you only have 10,000 followers, but they’re incredibly engaged and passionate. And so I think those are some of the myths that we can kind of help dispel and really help highlight the, um, kind of the uniqueness of every individual creator, uh, is, you know, it’s like like we tell people, you don’t have to have a million followers to be interesting to a brand or a partner or similar. With a radio show, it’s more about you know, who those audience, who that audience is and, you know, really like what the, um, you know, finding the right partners, obviously, to reach out and connect them with your audience.
Jason Burchard: So, um, yeah. And then I mean, obviously, like, you know, as far as, like other kind of things that we have to deal with on, like the education front, like our space, as you know, is just it’s constantly changing. It’s like, um, you know, Twitter rebranded to X, and now Instagram has launched threads to compete with them. And then snap is starting to make a comeback. So there’s just a lot of questions in general about, you know, where do I have to be? What’s the platform. You know. And, you know, we’re having this conversation today and, you know, September 18th, 2024. And then the question is like, okay, well, what’s what’s the landscape going to look like in two years? Is TikTok going to even exist in the US? Um, you know, I’m not making a comment on that either way. I’m just saying there are a lot of questions because this landscape is just changing so quickly. Um, and will continue to change.
Stone Payton: What a great segue to my next question. What’s next for you guys? What are you seeing on the near and mid-term horizon?
Jason Burchard: Yeah. So for us, our priority is we’re moving from kind of our private beta phase to our public beta phase. So we’re actively out there and onboarding new customers and building our use case, and really just building product and working to make the product as good as we can. And you know, the best way to build a great product is to get great feedback. And the best way to get great feedback is to get a lot of people kind of telling you what they need. And so that’s what we’re focused on right now. And it’s been really exciting to just kind of grow. And you know, for us, you know, I keep running into to other startups kind of in like the consumer product goods space that are using influencers to get their first, you know, X dollars in sales. And so it’s just it’s really exciting to see this space continue to evolve. And as I mentioned, like to be a small part of it. So, um, yeah. And like I said, for for us, what’s next is continuing to build our, our, uh, you know, our customer base and go to market.
Stone Payton: So it sounds like you’ve got more than plenty on your plate. So I don’t know when or where or how you would find the time, but I’m going to ask anyway. Interests, passions. Pursuits. Hobbies outside the the scope of your work. Anything you have a tendency to nerd out about that’s not about this to kind of step away.
Jason Burchard: Yeah. No, it’s a great question. I’d say, um, unfortunately, I’m probably one of the, the, the more boring of, of our team members. But honestly, for, for me, you know, I like we love just getting out in nature and kind of recharging that way. Um, as I’m sure you do and can imagine, I spend most of my day, um, you know, on zoom calls or on the laptop. So, uh, for, for me, kind of, uh, the hobbies right now, I’d say are kind of getting out there and finding new, uh, new hiking trails to explore, um, with, uh, with my wife, but, um, yeah. And outside of that, you know, love traveling. Um, we try and get up and see a new place whenever we can. And the beautiful thing about having a kind of remote first company is that we do that. So.
Stone Payton: Oh, I like that phrase remote first company. Very nice. Well, I’m a little longer in the tooth than you, so I’m at a little different phase in, in my life. So I probably have a little bit more of that kind of time than, than you do. But I, I will say throughout my career, my observation was that I felt like if I gave myself I, you know, I called it white Space. Um, it stepped away periodically. One thing, a lot of times the company just did better if I’d get out of the way for a little while. But but also doing that, it really did allow me to recharge. And I feel like equipped me to serve the people I was trying to, to serve that much better. When I came back with those with those fresh batteries. I think it is important for a lot of entrepreneurs, isn’t it?
Jason Burchard: Yeah, I mean, I think it’s critical and I think everybody has their thing that kind of helps them recharge their battery. But the reality is that there are no there are no quick wins in this space. Um, you know, everything takes a while and you know what you may perceive as being a quick win that you read in the headline. There was a lot of work that went behind it. So. And it’s the same for creators, too, right? Yeah. Um, it’s you have to create a lot of content before that first post goes viral, and you really start building that audience to take off. So, uh, it’s it’s a long game. So, um, you know, you have to treat it like such. And you have I mean, it’s a lot of hard work. It doesn’t mean you can just, uh, do it for a while and hope that it’ll work. It requires the work as well. But I would certainly encourage everybody to make sure that they’re taking care of their, their mental health. Um, and they’re building a creator journey because it is a it’s a long road.
Stone Payton: Well, I really resonate with your your comments on that front. First of all, I think it’s marvelous counsel I was sharing with a young I’ll call him an aspiring entrepreneur. Just the other day and I just made it very clear to him. Yes, Business RadioX is a 20 year old overnight success story. Yeah. You know. Yeah.
Jason Burchard: Yeah.
Stone Payton: Uh, before we wrap, I’d love it if we could leave our listeners with a couple of of pro tips, whether some things to be looking about, reading, doing, not doing in, in this world that we’ve been describing or just in, in building and and scaling an organization. But let’s leave them with a little something that they can chew on and look, gang. You know, the number one pro tip, particularly if you’re at all interested and you very well should be around leveraging the data. You know, reach out to to Jason or someone on his team and start tapping into their work. But let’s give them a little something to chew on.
Jason Burchard: Okay. Um, yeah, it’s funny, and I wouldn’t say I’m a pro, but what I can definitely say is, if you’re building or creating, just keep your head down and focus on on what you’re doing. And don’t worry about the noise or the competitors. The reality is you’re going to see a lot of things that you you, you lose sleep over that really don’t matter or are inconsequential. All that matters is that you, you know, you build a great product. Talk to customers. You take their feedback and you put it back in the product and you just don’t stop. Um, that’s what I, you know, it’s like, don’t worry about the headlines or anything else that’s going on around you. Because if you do build a good product and you figure out the right distribution channels and the right partners to get it out to market. Um, you know, you’ll have something. So I’d say that’s kind of my my tip number one. Um, I’d say tip number two is, uh, don’t try and do it alone. Uh, you know, find find some great advisors or mentors if you’re trying to build a company as a solo founder. I can’t speak to that because I don’t have that experience. Everything I’ve done, I’ve always done with, with with partners. But, um, you know, it. It does take a village, and it certainly takes some co-founders, or at least some close advisors or mentors to help you get it off the ground. So I would say, um, build that network because times are going to get tough and it’s going to get hard. And the first thing that you’re going to want to do is ask somebody who has, you know, been there before you, because I guarantee you that while your situation may seem, uh unsurmountable or, uh, you know, like, maybe you may be facing it for the first time alone, um, the odds are that someone you know has probably gone through something similar, and they can probably help you out. So those would be my pro tips for anyone who’s kind of, at least in the phase of the journey that we’re in right now.
Stone Payton: Nicely said. Amen to both. All right. What’s the best way for people to learn more? Tap into your work. Let’s leave them with some coordinates.
Jason Burchard: Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely. Um, so you can find us at a ww.co.co. We’ve got a free trial going right now. So if you’re interested in what we’re building or would like to see a demo and easily schedule one online, or if you want to reach out to me directly, you can reach me at Jason at runoko. Um, if you if you mention that you heard about us on the, uh, Business RadioX podcast, we can give you an extended trial. Um, so certainly, uh, feel free to reach out. Um, also, please connect with me on LinkedIn. You’ll find me there. I’m at, uh, Jason Burchard on LinkedIn. And then lastly, if you’re interested in some of the analyzes that we’re running on, some of your favorite local sports, media and entertainment personalities, um, you can follow us at Hashtag Trending by. Net or actually go subscribe on LinkedIn to our weekly newsletter. So that was a lot, but we’re pretty easy to get Ahold of, so please don’t hesitate to reach out if you think you’d be helpful.
Stone Payton: Well, Jason, it has been an absolute delight having you on the broadcast this afternoon. Thank you for your insight, your perspective, your enthusiasm. Congratulations on the momentum. Keep up the good work. What you’re doing is having such an impact on so many and we sure appreciate you, man.
Jason Burchard: Well, we appreciate you, Stone. Thanks for giving us a platform to share more about what we’re doing.
Stone Payton: My pleasure. All right. Until next time. This is Stone Payton for our guest today, Jason Bouchard with RootNote and everyone here at the Business RadioX family saying, we’ll see you again on Nashville Business Radio.
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