University of Miami Business School

Okay, welcome everybody and great. Thank you for coming here on time, as I asked. I do appreciate that and it will be newly noted. The attendance sheet is going around. Make sure that you sign in, please sign in on the end. As you know from my email, I'm having a guest speaker today, David Hoffman, who was a former student of mine and is now a successful entrepreneur. And perhaps you went on to his website. I had sent you the website and checked it out beforehand. But even so, he's going to go through, say a little bit about his story, how he came up with his idea, the history of it, where he's at now, and where he's going to go forward with this. Okay, and then we'll open it up to some questions. So, without further ado. All right, so you guys ready? Sure. Well, my name is David Hoffman. I was born here in Miami, Florida. My parents were born in Venezuela. My mother is Italian. My father is Hungarian. And they came here to University of Miami. They met here and they stayed in Miami. And until the year, until I was 16 years old, I only traveled to the Bahamas and to Venezuela. And I really had to see the world. And my brother-in-law, thank God, not my brother-in-law, but at the time he was my sister's boyfriend, he invited me to Spain, to Asturias, to a little town. And I went there for six weeks because I wanted to go see, you know, Europe for the first time. And, thank God, my, what's it called, my cousins, I have cousins in Italy. And my mother said, you know, I want to go to Italy. So, I was like, okay, you know, I'm going to do this. I'm going to go out there. And I did. I went six weeks and it changed my life. After that, I came back to Miami and told myself, you know, never again will I not travel as much, you know. I tried to travel as much as possible from then on. Luckily, when I was in college, I started doing real estate. And, you know, I made money. So, I traveled even more during that time. And one summer, in the summer of 2007, I remember you then. In the summer of 2007, I traveled to Europe for four months. And it, like, okay, sorry, I'm trying to think. I have too many things in my head. Okay. So, I traveled four months through Europe, you know, went on a road trip to Italy, Spain. I went jogging around visiting friends. Luckily, at the University of Miami, I met a lot of people from Europe. And then I came back and I went to Puerto Rico. And somebody told me, a friend of mine told me, hey, Dave, you know, you're showing me the world through your pictures. So, I told myself, you know, I have, you know, this possibility to keep doing what I love. But I have to create something out of it. I have to make a concept and actually go for it. So, I came up with the idea of DavidsBeenHere.com. Now, what is DavidsBeenHere.com? DavidsBeenHere.com is a website where I travel the world and show people restaurants, nightlife sites, activities, and events through video. Now, I'm going to show you one video. This is my first video that I did. So, here I am at the Astronomical Clock. Seriously, this is the most incredible clock I've ever seen and you will ever see. For the past 600 years, hour after hour after hour on the hour, the bells ring. What you see is two windows open and two other cycles walking in circles. In the middle, you see a little skeleton with a little bell. And it goes, ding, ding, ding, ding. Now, let's empower it first. Let's watch it. This is the Astronomical Clock. Where have you been? My partner now, Carlos De Verona. And so, we did this for about two straight years. Me and him and an assistant traveled with us. And after nine months, we couldn't travel with the assistant anymore because it was too much cost and he wasn't really doing that much. There was a tripod on his back and that was it. So, at, let's say, it was October of 2008, we got rid of the assistant and it was just me, just doing this. And at the time, I'm super clumsy, I'm sorry. Okay, so I got, during the time, I was here at the University of Miami. Luckily enough, I learned how to write a business plan and I got funding. And I was here and you guys showed me how to get funding. And so, I got funding for about three years. And after this, so, jump again to the front. So, we got rid of the assistant and me and my partner were trying to figure out how to make money because we were trying to sell ad space but it wasn't really working at the time. And we were thinking, you know, we have something with this footage. You know, this footage is worth money. So, we thought, you know, we can create something. We can create a demo reel and send it out to different people and see different companies that sell stock footage. I don't know if anybody knows what stock footage is. Okay. Well, no. Stock footage is like a five to ten second clip of HD clip that you sell and you use it for advertising, for movies. And so, we created a reel and we sent it out to about a hundred companies and we got to deal with the biggest company out there called Thought Equity Motion. This is what we sent out. Okay. So, in March of 2009, we got to deal with Thought Equity Motion. And after that point, me and my partner decided that we were just going to go out and get every country that they didn't have. So, every location that they didn't have at all, we're going to go out and get that footage because we'd be the bank for them. So, we did this for another six months. We traveled to Ecuador, Costa Rica, went a hundred days to Spain, and then we went to Switzerland. And once we were done with Switzerland, we decided that we couldn't do this anymore like this because it was crazy. I mean, we were flying here, getting on a train, getting in a car. I mean, every day we got up pretty early. I was every day walking with a child on my back, him with a camera on his back from the second we woke up to the day the second we went to sleep, it was like this. So, we decided we couldn't do this anymore like that. And we came back to Miami. And the next few months, we started thinking how to get people to do this for us. So, we started hiring people to create stuff for us. So, we did that for about eight months. And we didn't really know what was going to happen with David's business. I didn't want to do it like this anymore. I didn't really travel with a crew. I mean, traveling with a crew was expensive and tiring. And to do this for a living and not like it, it's not fun. So, I decided to create something called David's Been Here City Guides. Now, David's Been Here City Guides are this. Well, okay. So, what I started doing is I started going on Twitter and Facebook and YouTube a lot trying to figure out, you know, how do people make money through their knowledge of travel. And there's a lot of people out there on Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube that travel a lot and create a living out of it. Bloggers, vloggers, whatever the case, they make money because You opened the wrong file, scroll down. Yeah, scroll down. No, it's the backup file. Yeah, scroll down. Okay, so this is David's Been Here City Guide. Okay. And this guy is an exclusive guy. Whoa. So, what I do now is I travel to different cities and I focus on one country at a time. So, I try to go to a country, let's say, I don't know, Jordan. And I go to different locations that people don't really know about. I want to show people things that people don't have an idea about. When you think about Europe, it's Paris, Rome, and London. And that's not what I want to do. I want to go to Eastern Europe and expose Bulgaria, Romania, Serbia. That's what I want to show. So, through these guides, I bring you, I bring you. So, what I do here is I feature, you know, one hotel that I always used to do. The hotel I stay at. So, this is the hotel I think that everybody should stay at when they go to, let's say, Medellin. And then these are all the seasoned dudes. So, I give you all the information on what to see while you're there. Okay. Restaurants. There's restaurants, right? Nightlife. So, I have an intro for the nightlife. Tell you what the nightlife is about. And then each location that I went to that I think you should also check out. And then these are the day trips. Because this is what I want to see when I go somewhere. I want to know about the hotel, what there is to see in the city, eat, nightlife, and day trips. That's my thing. Okay. And nightlife is not even the main thing for me because I have to wake up early. So, I create these guides now. And I sell them on my website. And I also sell them in a subscription-based model. Okay. Now, I didn't just want to create, you know, content that has to be for sale. I want to create free stuff. So, now I take this little camera with me, which is a HD Nino. Anybody ever seen one of these? It's the smallest HD camera alive. Alive when I say out. Here we go. Take your phone. So, now I fill my shirts with this. And in it, I create a reality series of going through these countries. So, it's called David's Been Here Unplugged. Okay. And, okay. So, sorry. I play John Terry right now. I know. Okay. I'm just trying to figure it out. So, this is David's Been Here Unplugged. These videos. Okay. And… This video is brought to you in part by the Jordan Tourism Board. All right. So, we're leaving Petra. And we're heading right now to Wadi Rum. We're getting in the car. Heading out. That's it. So, it's sort of a reality show going through these countries and giving you the experience. And I give tips. I mean, each show is about eight, nine minutes. And it depends on how long I film. I try to film every single day. And I'm actually upgrading. They actually came out with a Steadicam. Anybody know what a Steadicam is? Okay. When you… Have you ever seen, you know, a shot that, like, flows like this? Like… I mean, any movie. Any movie has a Steadicam. So, there's a little Steadicam that they made for this, for the Flip HD, that will now allow me to create videos that… This one's a little shaky. I mean, it came out shaky because, obviously, it's very hot. But the Steadicam is going to change that in the next trip. And I also, through Twitter and YouTube, I created a series called Ask David. Now, Ask David, if anybody here has, you know, is going on a trip or is trying to plan a trip or wants some information about a location, they can ask me through email. And I create… And I create a video showing you, you know, what to do and where to go and what to see. So, let's go through the tips. So, this response… Or a trip that you want to do and I'm going to plan it for you. This response is for Mike Hogan from Ireland. He's going to Madrid. And here we go. Alright, Mike. So, here we are in Madrid. And the first thing you have to know about Madrid… So, that's sort of how it works. I try to show you… I try to give you my information and show you on a map exactly, you know, where you're going, what you should do, and so forth. And then there's another thing. I also have a podcast series called The Cool Historian, which is me. I give one time a week. I create a little podcast, five minutes, and I teach you history. And this is just something I just started about a month ago. But it's starting my new website now. And so, that's pretty much all the stuff put together. Okay? Right now, I'm about to launch my new website, Disney4.com, which is very… Surprising. There we go. Okay. So, in this website, I'm going to have a shop. And in the shop, I am selling… This is my first product, actually. This is an inflatable travel pillow because what I've noticed is that with a brand, you can make money through every single way possible. I mean, video, you know, paper. I'm writing an e-book now on how to travel for free if you have a travel company. Because I've mastered that at this point. I wouldn't have been able to do this if I didn't get everything free. Just so everybody knows that. I mean, flights, rent a car, hotel and food, $1,000. And I've been doing it for years. So, it's impossible to do it without getting it free. And another thing is now I contact tourism boards and they invite me. So, I don't even need to go through the hassle, especially with Indian countries. I mean, countries that I wouldn't be able to even speak the language. Okay? So, this is the first product. I don't know. We'll blow it up in a bit. But this is the first product and I'm making a series of products that are travel essentials so that people can buy things that they actually need. I'm not trying to make, you know, David's been in your house. I mean, maybe in the future, but that's not what I'm going after right now. Okay? Okay. So, one thing I need you guys with is that do what you're passionate about because if not, life isn't going to be as fling as it could be. Okay? Another thing is follow your role models. My role model is Gary Vaynerchuk. Anybody watch Wine Library TV? No? No? Okay. Well, Gary Vaynerchuk, he has his own liquor store and he creates something called Wine Library TV, which is every single day, he sits down in front of a camera with four different bottles of wine and he teaches you about wine and tells you why you should drink this wine. And he has episode 1,000 now or something. And he creates books and his books teach you how to communicate with your community. So, the two things with the Internet is you have your content and you have your community. If you don't have a good fan base or if you don't stay in contact with your fan base, I do all day and I actually forgot to do that. I was going to take a picture of everybody and post on Facebook. Okay. You okay? Yeah. Let's see how many likes we get really quick. Well, I mean, just, you don't want me to do it? No. Okay. Everybody, and she knows, because a lot of people that I know told me I couldn't do anything. I couldn't do this. This would never happen. And look, I'm three years later and I have crunchy teeth. And I have a tattoo of a child on my arm. So, you know, do what you want to do. Don't answer. Any questions? How many subscribers do you have now? Wow. That's good. Which one? How did you get funded? Well, I made a business plan and told them what I was going for and told them I was going to make money. And two people believed in me out of a lot of people. So, that's how I got funded. How many subscribers do you have now? How many subscribers? Well, it just really depends. In Facebook, I have 18,000 fans. In YouTube, I have, like, 25,000 friends, 30,000 subscribers. And it really depends on which site. In Twitter, I have 14,000. So, every day it grows. Do you have a long-term goal, like, or are you just going for the goal? Yeah, yeah. I'm sorry. My long-term goal, I didn't even say it. The next five years, I'm trying to cover another 50 countries and hopefully get to space. That's really where I want to go. That's my life dream. I just want to go out there and hopefully get to the moon one day. How long did it take you to start being profitable? Two years. Once you hit the two-year mark? Once I hit the two-year mark, I was just breaking it down. Now, thank God, I'm faster. Is it mostly ad-based? Yeah, it's mostly ad-based. I mean, but it just varies. I mean, I make money through many different things. You know, on YouTube, I have a partnership. So, every single video, I make money from it. Every time somebody plays, it plays. So, everything, you know, depends now. Thank God, I'm launching my new site, and we're going to have the guides for sale, which I already have about 100 guides that I'm selling. I'm going to sell subscription-based model. I'm going to sell a lot of trial and errors on this. I've only been selling this for two months, and I sold out on Amazon. So, it's doing good. I mean, they've been here. I don't know. I don't think so. I mean, I don't really see a competitor. I mean, competition, I think, is almost exactly the same as you, and no one's doing exactly the same as me. So, anybody else? Can you, like, tell us how did you start getting funded? How did I start getting funded? You just, like, went to an agency and said, oh, I want to… No, no, no. I started with family and friends. What is it? What are the four Fs? Family, friends, pool. Pool, okay. And then I started asking people to get used in front of people. Just try to get in front of as many people as possible. It's a number game. If you get in front of 100, you'll get one. Think of it like that. So, what was your base? Like, what did you promise them? What did I promise them? I promised them. I gave them a percentage of my company. That's what I gave them. I mean, there's actually… It's confusing, but, yeah, that's what I promised them. How did you approach the investors to get polled? How did I approach them? Well, my father actually put me in front of a lot of people, and then I put myself in front of other people, and, really, I just went over with a business plan and told them what I was doing, and it was unique, and, you know, no one else is going to do this, and I'm being a politician. Who do you, like, email? Who do I email? Like, what kind of people? Yeah, I mean, like, where do you find investors? Where I find investors. Really, I found my investors through people I knew. They got me in front of other people. I mean, all I did for, I think, four months, my last four months in college was sit in front of people. I mean, you just have to sit in front of as many people as possible. Anything else? How many people do you know? Right now, really, 35. I'm about to go to Sri Lanka next month, so that'll be pretty soon. And how often do you travel? How often? I mean, I try to do now. My base is Miami. I don't really… A lot of people think that I'm always gone. I come back here. You know, I set up the next trip. You know, do a million other things. But I try to travel four or five times a year for 18 days max, because I already know that 18 days is the maximum I can go, unless my girlfriend comes with me. But it's just too long of a trip. How time-consuming is what you're doing now? It sounds like you have a lot going on. All day. I mean, it's all day. Entrepreneurs don't sleep. Think about that. And, like, I'll tell you, I live in Miami, and I haven't been out in the city for three years. I mean, for me, I just have a goal, and I haven't gotten to that goal. Anything else? Do you plan on expanding, or just staying in this business? Not, like, doing another different business, or just staying and making this bigger? Okay, I'm making this bigger. Making this bigger? And I can tell you, but then I'll be… So you don't have an exit strategy? An exit strategy? For me, there's no exit strategy. I don't want to do this, go like that. I mean, I just want to keep making money from it and live off. I'm not trying to sell money. I'm trying to get out of it. That's not what I want to do. I just want to keep… So basically, you travel around, and you tell people about it, and you make money off of that? You actually have to travel a lot. I travel, say, I travel for 20 days, and I make city guides. I know the knowledge about it, so if anybody asks me about Nepal, I can tell them, you know, what to do. The only problem is, you know, once time passes, let's say 10 years from now, things change completely. Yeah. So… Okay, you said that you can tell people what to do when they get there, right? But how do you get that information? For example, you get to the city, and you get to know people, and you ask them, oh, what's the best thing to do in your life? No, no, no. What I do is, when I contact, let's say, like the hotels, let's say a country that I don't get to travel to, the hotels, I ask them, you know, what restaurants do you think I should promote? And then they tell me, and then they tell me, you know, these are day trips. There's a lot of places, when I got there, I started asking questions. I mean, that's how it all works. I didn't know 95% of the stuff I did until I got there. Or somebody told me, you know, this is what you do, but things change, so it keeps, you know, it's a difficult business, but… Yeah, because you have to keep updating. Exactly. Play the guys. Every year, update them, so we're going to have somebody at the stop just calling and figuring out, is that restaurant closed? Okay, let's add another one. Let's change it up. I mean, so it's… Anything else? All right, so we're going to play a game right now that my girlfriend hates because I always win, but we're going to play a game on capitals, okay? I'm going to ask you, and I'm going to go through here. Okay, what's the capital of Nepal? Kathmandu. Oh, man. Albania. I knew. Tirana. Good. Sorry. Spain. Okay, you're the Albanian guy. Costa Rica. Okay, Sri Lanka. Yeah. Warsaw. You said it? Yeah. Huh? Warsaw. Okay. Okay, um… Argentina. Botswana. South Africa. Gettysburg. No, um… Gettysburg. Oh, it's Gettysburg. Why can't you guys follow directions, okay? Okay, um… Saudi Arabia. Oh, no. Riyadh? Is that wrong? I don't even know Riyadh. Okay, I want someone to win something. What's the capital of Romania? Huh? What's the capital of Bulgaria? Sofia? Instead of being too easy, I'm pretty good at it. Morocco. Is that wrong? Wrong, wrong, wrong. Can I get a friend? Tunisia. Who was? Yeah, but you already… Tunisia? Turkey. Istanbul? No. Santana. Me? No. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Very nice. That's it. Thanks.