Brian Snyder is the Founder and CEO of Madbrook Publishing, an educational/entertainment company that publishes Everything Butt Art. Snyder says Everything Butt Art’s mission is to “teach kids to draw, always starting with the butt shape” which is a format that “really engages kids.”
After presenting on-stage during TechCrunch Disrupt, New York Snyder came into our studio for an Office Hours session with Hunch’s Chris Dixon and First Round Capital’s Josh Kopelman.
Snyder initially asked the two founders for advice on making his educational content “device-agnostic.” After sharing insights, Kopelman asked Snyder what kind of company he wanted build; “a venture backed company” or a “cash generation business?” Offering his two-cents on the venture world, Kopelman told Snyder “the more you are viewed as a platform, versus specific content I think improves your positioning.” While recognizing that there are successful content based businesses, Dixon agreed with Kopelman and told Snyder “venture style investors are weary of [content based businesses]. [Content] is sort of a bad word in the business because it is sort of hit driven.“
Kopelman concludes by telling Snyder “the challenge is, if someone is investing now they need to decide are we investing in this hit, are we investing in the Butt Art concept and if Butt Art works great, and if Butt Art fails does that mean the investment fails?” In essence, “am I investing in a title or am I investing in a company?”
Make sure to check out previous episodes of Founder Office Hours which feature entrepreneurs from SchedIt, Profitably, Dispatch.io, and Napkin Labs.