Idea
Skin a proven game with licensed IP (Family Guy Candy Crush)
Shaan's friend Sully took a proven, addictive game (Candy Crush) and reskinned it with Family Guy branding, then got Family Guy to promote it. The licensor earned millions in revenue from the game's success; he later did the same with Harry Potter.
“So he took a proven game, Candy Crush, that's like super addictive, amazing at monetizing, And he just skinned it with the Family Guy branding and got Family Guy to help promote it. And Family Guy got millions of dollars in revenue from the success of this game. And then eventually the same thing with Harry Potter.”
Steal thisTake a proven, addictive game mechanic and reskin it with a hungry IP brand that will co-promote it.
Tactic
The 'one whiteboard question' until you crack it
When the company was screwed unless they landed Family Guy, Sully put all chips on one strategy: every morning the whiteboard asked 'How do we go get the Family Guy rights?' They'd try an idea that day, fail, and come back the next day until it worked.
“So he just put all his chips into this one strategy and was like, okay, every morning when we come into the office, we just have a whiteboard. The whiteboard says, how do we go get the Family Guy rights? It's like, what can we do? And they would just come up with some ideas and then they would try it that day and then they would fail and they would come back again the next day and the next day.”
Steal thisWrite the single make-or-break question on a whiteboard and attack it every single day until it cracks.
Tactic
The 'one whiteboard question' until you crack it
When the company was screwed unless they landed Family Guy, Sully put all chips on one strategy: every morning the whiteboard asked 'How do we go get the Family Guy rights?' They'd try an idea that day, fail, and come back the next day until it worked.
“So he just put all his chips into this one strategy and was like, okay, every morning when we come into the office, we just have a whiteboard. The whiteboard says, how do we go get the Family Guy rights? It's like, what can we do? And they would just come up with some ideas and then they would try it that day and then they would fail and they would come back again the next day and the next day.”
Steal thisWrite the single make-or-break question on a whiteboard and attack it every single day until it cracks.
Framework
The licensing playbook: borrow a brand, pay a fee plus a revenue cut
Shaan walks through how his friend Sully's TinyCo licensed Family Guy: pitch the IP owner on a category they ignore, build the product yourself, and pay an annual licensing fee plus a per-dollar royalty.
“If you license us the brand for, uh, for Family Guy, we will create a mobile game that uses Family Guy characters, and I'll pay you a $3 million a year licensing fee. For this, plus, you know, an extra, you know, dollar for every $10 we make on the game.”
Steal thisApproach an IP owner about a category they neglect, offer an annual fee plus a per-dollar royalty, and build the product they won't.
Story
Founder puts his own $1M angel windfall into the dying company, behind $10M of debt
TinyCo's $100K MoPub investment turned into $1M when Twitter acquired it. With investors refusing more money, Ali put that $1M into his own failing company — junior to $10M of SVB debt — and a16z matched it dollar-for-dollar.
“I had invested in this company called MoPub, started by this guy Jim Payne, and I'd invested $100,000 into it. It got acquired by Twitter and that $100,000 turned into $1 million. So I said, okay, I just made this $1 million. I'm going to go put that money into the company. And that million dollars is going to be behind the $10 million of debt that we've got from Silicon Valley Bank.”
Number
TinyCo sold at ~$85M revenue and $15M EBITDA; Family Guy alone did $150-200M
At sale, TinyCo was doing about $85M in revenue, $15M EBITDA, with ~150 people. The Family Guy game alone went on to generate more than $150M, maybe $200M, in revenue.
$85M
Revenue at sale · USD/year
“The Family Guy game goes on to do more than $150, maybe $200 million in revenue at this point. We get an offer to buy the business. We hire an investment banker, this guy named Dick Filippini, who helps us get a couple more offers. We sell the business. The year that we sell, we do— we're doing about $85 million in revenue, $15 million in EBITDA, about 150 people at the time.”
Story
The Native deodorant 'sniff test': run a mile, smell each other's armpits
Ali and his brother built Native (later sold to P&G) by buying deodorants off Etsy, applying them under each armpit, running a mile, then smelling each other to find the one that actually worked.
“So we put some of the deodorant that we bought from Etsy under each of our armpits. We go run a mile and then we sniff each other's armpit. To see, is this deodorant actually good? Highly scientific. It's totally unscientific, but also very effective. Effective. And we eliminate all these terrible deodorants from Etsy that are not effective, and we find one that works.”