“Richard And I Will Invest Dollar-for-dollar In Your Company”
How many people do you know that made a million dollars from Twitter?
How many people do you know that got funded by Sir Richard Branson, on their first startup?
How many people do you know that did both – before they turned 19?
“Mom, we have some really, REALLY good news”
Today’s guest is Stacey Ferreira Co-founder of MySocialCloud. Stacey’s story has been told again and again over the last two years, and for a very good reason.
When Stacey finished school, she moved to California to live with her brother and work on the project which is now MySocialCloud. They shared an apartment in south central Los Angeles, not the area where you would want to live. The apartment was very small. They set up their office in the living room, and in typical entrepreneur style – Scott slept on the coach while Stacey slept on an air mattress. Stacey says that they lived the project that summer, sometimes not going outside for weeks at a time.
One morning Stacey was on Twitter and saw a tweet from Sir Richard Branson. The tweet said that If you donated $2,000 to the charity of his choice, you could attend the 25th anniversary celebration of Virgin America and meet him in Miami for intimate cocktails. Stacey was skeptical that someone like Sir Richard Branson would send out such a tweet, but she decided to go for it, afraid that someone else will steal her opportunity. She replied and asked if she and Scott could participate – even though they were underage. At 2am, Stacey and Scott got a positive response.
Of course, they didn’t have $2,000 – never mind $4,000 for the two of them, plus expenses. So they called their parents in the middle of the night, asking for a loan. Stacey and Scott’s parents were dubious; but decided it would be a good learning experience for them. Two days later, the siblings were on a plane to Miami. On the first night, they waited with about 18 others to meet Sir Richard Branson. It just happened that Stacey was by the door when Richard Branson entered. Stacey took the opportunity and introduced herself. After telling him a bit more about their project, Stacey boldly asked for his contact information, and was delighted when he gave it to her.
Getting Funded, A Dream Coming True
Once the Ferreiras returned home, they focused on building the initial product. They kept Branson updated on what they were doing with regular emails. Eventually he suggested that he introduce them to a friend of his – Jerry Murdock. They talked with Murdock by phone, explaining their vision and what they were planning. A few weeks after their initial conversation, Jerry flew out to California.
The cofounders went over the product and gave Jerry a little demo. That night at dinner, Jerry announced, “Here’s the deal. Branson and I are going to invest dollar for dollar in your company.” Stacey and Scott were amazed by Jerry’s announcement. It was such an incredible opportunity. Now with investors, they could build their product!
And Today…
Two years have passed, and a lot has changed. The MySocialCloud story became world known. Stacey dropped out of college and moved to the west coast to work full-time at MySocialCloud. But more important — so many lessons were learned, mistakes made, achievements reached – and all of those Stacey shares with us today.
In This Episode You Will Learn
- How Stacey & Scott Ferreira got $1M funding for their startup because of a single tweet
- The secret to making huge things happen for you.
- How to build your team and what are the crucial things to pay attention to
- What kind of prototype do you really need in order to get an investment from Richard Branson himself, Jerry Murdock, or someone of such caliber
- How to keep your business going in the right direction
- What challenges did the MySocialCloud team face since funding, and how they overcame.
- How does a free tool like MySocialCloud make money
- What are Stacey’s thoughts and tips for young entrepreneurs that are about to start college
- How to effectively execute your ideas
- How to find an opportunity, make a goal and make it happen
Items Mentioned In This Episode Include
- Stacey Ferreira: Blog, Twitter, LinkendIn
- Scott FerreiraVisionary and CEO of My Social Cloud
- Shiv Prakash CTO and Co Founder of My Social Cloud
- My Social Cloud
- Never Eat Alone by Keith Ferrazzi and Tahl Raz– Stacey’s current favorite nonfiction book.
- Richard Branson: Twitter, Blog
- Jerry Murdock
- Our Udemy Giveaway
Sharing The Love – Gratitude For Reviews!
My deepest appreciation to all of you (comment or email me if you want to be removed from the list):
- Focus Beyond
- Write Publish And Sell
- Farnoosh Brock – Prolific Living Inc.
- Ralph Quintero – The Great Business Project
- MichonJ – Happy Tree Media
- Blasting Awesome
- The One From Down-Under
- GazzaNick
- Terry Renewable
Our $771 Udemy Giveaway
Our Udemy Giveaway is still taking place, where I’m giving away 4 of my favorite Udemy courses, at a total value of $771, to the listeners of the show. Join and claim your prize right here. The giveaway ends in two weeks, and winners will be announced on episode 8 of the podcast.
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Meron
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Transcript
[spoiler title=”Episode 006″]Still in progress, please come back later![/spoiler]
Hi Meron !
Stacey’s story is very interesting . Sometimes you just have to grab the opportunity from the hair .
And we have to stress out that it’s not a single tweet ( ok , it makes a nice headline ) . It’s borrowing 4k , travelling to the other part of the country and working your tail off to show some result . Mostly working a lot …
And hearing the way Stacey answered or laughed from time to time … She’s still a 20 year old girl …
Be healthy and smile .
Hi Ilias! Hope you made it home safe & sound. How was your flight?
Yes, I agree. Honest truth is that the 1 tweet is only the beginning. It’s taking actions day in and day out, it’s not being afraid to stand up to your dream and plan big, it’s executing and not playing around, it’s being lucky enough to be able to borrow those 4K… It takes a lot to create an event of success – but takes very little to kickstart the process that leads to that event – just a decision, would you agree? 🙂
What made you laugh? Do share!
Stay sexy my friend!
Hi Meron !
My flight was full of dreams , because I was sleeping all the time . 🙂
What I meant was even though Stacey has raised a loooot of money for her startup she still reacts like a typical 20 year old girl . Hope it makes sense .
See ya !
Interesting, how would you define my reactions then? 🙂
Stay sexy!
Who cares about you, my friend ? You haven’t raised a million … 🙂
I was wondering , what is branson gaining from this ? you don’t just give a million dollars . do you have any insights ?
Hahahaha!! Love your comment. Who cares indeed 😉 I haven’t raised.. Yet!
Branson invested dollar for dollar, so $500,000 of his own funds. MySocialCloud’s income comes from (according to their current model) secure password management for enterprises, with password sharing features etc. I don’t know how they price it, but I reckon with a handful of big customers he can make his money back easily. Add the amazing PR that the story created, sending him more and more bright minds. Reading his last book, he is also very big on raising and helping the next generation of entrepreneurs. Maybe he saw in the Ferreiras the spark of greatness, even if the product was not a money machine at the time. Now Stacey’s story has been featured everywhere, inspiring more and more youngsters to take action and create something. I think the answer is a combination of all three. But what’s your take?
Hope someday I can interview him and ask the same question !
I’m sure he made his money and more , but unless you see the contracts you can’t really know , can you ?
Anyway , I hope you interview him someday . Just follow him on twitter , you never know . 😉
Be healthy and smile .
Haha 🙂 I think if there’s one lesson to take from Stacey – is that I’ll have to actively make it happen, in addition to following him on Twitter 😉
Stay sexy!