The Twenty Minute VC (20VC): Venture Capital | Startup Funding | The Pitch

20VC: HitRecord's Joseph Gordon-Levitt on How Show Business Prepared Him For Life As An Entrepreneur, What Founders Should Look For Most In Their Investor Base & Why The Current Ad Model of Social Is Harming The World's Creative Spirit

Jul 12, 2019

Joseph Gordon-Levitt, the founder of HitRecord and a celebrated Hollywood actor, discusses the intersection of creativity and entrepreneurship. He shares insights on how his acting career shaped his startup journey and the importance of collaboration over self-promotion. Joseph reflects on the challenges of balancing his dual roles and the critical factors in selecting investors. He also critiques the current social media ad model's impact on creativity, advocating for a shift towards communities that embrace the joy of artistic expression.

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ANECDOTE

HitRecord's Origin

Joseph Gordon-Levitt started HitRecord as a personal website to showcase short films and songs.
It evolved into a collaborative platform after adding a message board where people wanted to create together.

INSIGHT

The Power of Online Collaboration

The internet's true potential lies in collaborative creation, not just content consumption.
Making things together online was new behavior enabled by this technology.

ANECDOTE

HitRecord as a Production Company

HitRecord transitioned into a production company, focusing on collaborative projects.
They tackled legal challenges, partnered with publishers, and created a TV show, paying artists nearly $3 million.

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Joseph Gordon-Levitt is the Founder @ HitRecord, the startup that allows you to be creative, together, encouraging less self-promotion and more collaboration, so you can create things you couldn't have made on your own. To date, Joe has raised funding from some personal favourites of mine in the form of Alex @ Javelin, Masterclass Founder David Rogier, Twitch Founder Kevin Lin and CrossLink Capital just to name a few. Alongside his role with HitRecord, Joe is also an A-List Hollywood Actor and filmmaker starring in some of my favourite films of all time including The Dark Knight Rises, Inception, 10 Things I Hate About You and many many more.

In Today’s Episode You Will Learn:

1.) How Joseph made his way into the world of technology and startups with the founding of HitRecord? How did much of Joe's early acting career inform much of the HitRecord product today?

2.) Having had such success in the acting world, what caused Joe to really push forward with HitRecord? Question from David @ Masterclass: who has been Joe's biggest mentors in his transition to tech? What have been his biggest takeaways from them? How does Joe balance both being an actor and entrepreneur at the same time? What are the challenges?

3.) Why did Joe decide now was the time to raise VC funds for HitRecord this late into the company life? How does Joe approach the element of investor selection? What specific value add did Joe want to see in his potential investor? How did the pitch process go? How does it compare to presenting for a role in the acting world? What was Joe's biggest lesson about what successful technology pitches do?

4.) When Joe thinks about the HitRecord community, what has surprised him the most with the growth of the community? Why have they purposefully decide to never spend on user acquisition or traffic? What is the strategy behind this? What is Joe's biggest advice to individuals wanting to scale their community and the essentials?

5.) How does Joe assess both the content and social media landscape today? Why is the creative spirit of the world being killed by the current ad model of social platforms? How does Joe think this can be countered and where does HitRecord fit into this evolving landscape?

Items Mentioned In Today’s Show:

Joe’s Fave Book: Letters To A Young Poet

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