Founders Q&A: The Revolutionary Startup Rewriting The Rules of Entertainment

In our latest installment of Founders Q&A, we sit down with Ray Ready, the dynamic founder of a promising new startup, Everybody Eats Entertainment. Ray shares insights into his journey, his vision for the future, and plenty more in this comprehensive interview.

Q: Can you tell us about your personal background and how it led you to founding your startup?

A: I am a young individual trying to find myself and my career path as I maneuver this wild world. I worked in many different fields and have a passion for being an important part of business functions and creation. After trying to force myself down the conventional path of pursuing grad school to be a special Ed teacher I made the decision I had to change my course of action if I wanted to live a life I would feel fulfilled with. It’s not that I wasn’t happy but I was noticing a trend of settling instead of pushing myself. Thus I started coming up with ideas for start ups that I would feel would please my soul rather than solve the career path and grandiose life questions I was asking myself.

Q: What problem does your startup solve and how did you identify it?

A: We seek to solve a couple different problems trends I’ve noticed in recent. First and foremost we are meant to be a source of escapism for our viewers that tune into to watch our corky videos or videos able local organizations making waves in Virginia. A lot of our younger generation deals with many stresses and we’re here to help you relax and hopefully not take life so seriously. We do mental health tutorials as well as corky skits. We do a number of community drives to help actually build a real community of people who can make change and support causes. Lastly, we make content for local businesses. Rather than making content from within a company, we are an outside source of noise that offers an authentic take on what is being offered. We try to help the Artists or Business owners focus on the business while we focus on what content would be ideal for audience interaction. We are attempting to build the bridge for artists to better build their digital profiles and take their crafts to the next level.

Q: How did the idea of your startup first come about?

A: I’ve always wanted to be the lead singer or guitarist that melts faces but that’s never been me. I am the expert networker that knows all these great bands and businesses. Rather then fake that I’m the guy, the goal is to go around and find authentic and great artists before they are discovered/in the process. That all being said, I’ve been cooking it up in my mind for years and finally was pushed to a creative funk that I had to either take the leap and lean into my start up idea or give up on the dream.

Q: What is your startup's mission and how does it drive your daily operations?

A: Our mission is to highlight those who we believe are metaphorically eating and make more noise about their events. It drives us that we are becoming respected in our community as advocates for local businesses and causes. The respect we get from those making whatever craft is priceless and drives me to keep working for the people I think need it/deserve it.

Q: Can you share the story of how you gathered your founding team?

A: The idea of the formal start up concept came from me. I spent the first couple months mapping out how I wanted the business plan to work and who I wanted to be involved. My friend Martin is the most natural comedian I’ve ever met and Devon is an honest friend that has a great eye for content. As stupid as it sounds, the first couple meals are free and then it’s about what you bring to the table. Rather than looking for Investors, I wanted partners and people who want nothing other than our own success. After I came up with the map, we started filming and attempting to execute the map within the fields I wanted to touch such as Sports, local businesses, and comedic content. There were a couple months that everyone called me crazy for the idea but now less than 6 months into the project we are all creating content and taking the concept seriously. We have a number of background partners that help out when their expertise fits.

Q: How did you go about securing initial funding for your startup?

A: We have been very low cost at the moment. I saved up $100 and bought a Gimbal to help up our production value. After that, we built a website on Printify to sell merch for 0 money down. They do the sourcing and fulfillment while you just design and advertise. It helped us raise money for our in hand merch drop. Now we are learning the idea of sustainability and profitability with merchandising our brand. At this point we have had no outside investors other then us 3.

Q: What were some major obstacles faced during the early stages of your startup, and how did you overcome them?

A: Learning how to effectively time manage and how to prioritize my tasks. I have had to learn a plethora of tasks from video production to website building. It’s very overwhelming but with the help of mushrooms, chatGPT and changing my thought process of “I don’t know how” to “how do we make it happen”. I’ve gotten back to becoming a do-er and we are overcoming obstacles regularly now.

Q: Can you tell us about a time you failed and what you learned from it?

A: Thankfully I don’t really believe in failure more so on the idea of what can be improved. One of my best attributes is that I’ve been pushing my self to edit content in a timely manor to have it ready for sports events or pre event to promo something. There have been many times where we have not released a video because I haven’t effectively used my time or whatever. I learned that Shit Happens, make the next play. Keep moving and adapt! That play happens but the next hasn’t yet. Solve it out then.

Q: How does your startup stand out from competitors in your industry?

A: At this moment, I think our authenticity is what makes us different. We know that we are goofy as hell and not your conventional influencers yet we don’t give a shit. We are here to be the lovable idiots that help people solve their every days stresses.

Q: What has been the most rewarding part of being a founder so far?

A: Seeing the random people, my friends, and businesses take our concepts seriously. We have been asked to be on 3 podcasts and just recently got on ESPN Radio. We are slowly building an army of east coasters that want everybody to eat. Hearing people says “trust” and “respect” when speaking or greeting each other absolutely geeks me. Dreams come true

Q: Can you describe a typical day in your life as a founder?

A: To be honest I’ve split my week into two. I make money and plan my non-paid projects during the beginning of the week and attack content all weekend. I try to zoom focus on whatever I’m doing but I’m ADHD so there are regular breaks and lots of kush.

Q: How do you stay motivated during challenging times?

A: I recently read “Can’t Hurt Me” by David Goggins and that has helped with the idea of powering through obstacles. If you quit or stop before the goal, that will be more painful then powering through the immediate struggle to find the finish and truly take the break you deserved.

Q: What is the best piece of advice you received?

A: What ever happens, the only thing you can control is the next play. Idk who said it but it stuck with me.

Q: How do you manage work-life balance, especially during intense periods of work?

A: It is very hard. Many times to truly reach the potential of my creative craft I have to isolate myself from easy distractions. I call it album mode but I am no longer satisfied with the simple pleasures while I’m consumed with certain projects or waves of productivity

Q: What strategies have you found effective for managing your team remotely?

A: To be honest, at first I was very nervous about ensuring results or content. At this point I am learning how to trust their judgment as I see them as learning to trust themselves. If you want them in your team then you need to be able to trust that they will solve the problems in a manner that is needed.

Q: How has your leadership style evolved as your startup has grown?

A: I have become more red talking. I’m wise but I speak in mysticism. I am learning to become observant of myself while also trying to push my friends.

Q: What does success look like for your startup, and how do you measure it?

A: Success is being taken seriously both in our real community and the only community. We are building towards it but I don’t have a clear defined end goal rather that we are on the journey towards making success feasible.

Q: How do you encourage a culture of innovation within your team?

A: As I’ve proved to my team from early this year. The only thing holding ourselves back is us. I’ve learned how to make our video production almost match semi professional level. I get content that is quality and have amassed a small following of our team. I constantly encourage outside of the box thinking when it comes to anything. I truly don’t think there is anything we can’t do.

Q: Could you share any pivots your startup had to make and the reasons behind it?

A: One of the big realizations I’m making is that if we want to make money being a content creator, we need to merchandise and commodify our craft. That is something I don’t know how to quite do yet but trust. It will come.

Q: How have you leveraged technology to grow and improve your startup?

A: I am constantly consulting chatGPT on ways to simplify my work and make our ideas more profitable. I tell the others that GPT is basically another entity within our company that answers all of the questions that had been limiting us before. I also use social media in finding out what is trending and how I can apply it to my business structure.

Q: What is one thing you wish you knew before starting your business?

A: I wish I had a video producer/someone to help with editing content but it also gives me control of what gets released and what stays inside

Q: Can you discuss a time where customer feedback directly influenced a decision or direction for your startup?

A: Our company is very forward facing and maintaining a goofy public image can be hard to maintain. I am constantly sourcing from everyone about ways to improve our content.

Q: How do you see your startup evolving in the next 5 years?

A: I hope to see us as a mid major alternative news/media outlet on the east coast and hopefully a hub for creators in Richmond and Virginia.

Q: How have you adapted your startup to changes in the market, especially during crises?

A: We are run on a $0 down style idea, that because of the “experienced required”, we are creating our own experience.

Q: What are the key qualities you look for when hiring new team members?

A: I look for hunger to get projects finished. Everybody has ideas but the ability to finish a project is the other half that many can’t complete.

Q: Can you share an instance where your team had to go above and beyond to deliver on a project?

A: For our Riverrock video competition we brought 3 cameras and had a drone. I spent about 8 hrs the next day editing. We all pushed ourselves to get the best results we could.

Q: How do you promote personal growth and learning among your employees?

A: Personal growth is a must to be part of our team. I do not want someone who can’t learn from their mistakes and keep going.

Q: What advice would you give to someone considering starting their own business?

A: Educate, Organize, Mobilize! Make a plan and go for it! The best day to start was yesterday so start today and do so wisely. Everybody Eats but how much you Eat depends on how Hungry you are! Stay Hungry!