I was told to stop sharing Angels online… so obviously I’m going to keep sharing it

Happy Wednesday 💌

I hope you’ve all had a good week!!

The craziness here continues lol. After my post about Angels went slightly wild last week, this week has basically become… calls. Lots and lots of calls.

Production companies, potential brand partners, angel investors, lawyers… everyone!!!

And I’m really hoping that by the end of this week, I’ll have a lot more clarity on what the actual deal for Angels could look like, who might be involved, and how we start turning this from an idea on the internet into an actual show.

Which feels mad considering where we were literally a week ago.

But before I get into what I’m looking for from each of those conversations, something happened on one of my calls last week that I haven’t stopped thinking about.

“You need to stop sharing all of this online.”

I was speaking to someone from a production company about Angels and explaining everything I’ve been doing online, and his view was basically that I was sharing too much. Someone could see the idea. Someone could copy it. Someone with more resources could potentially move quicker than me.

And obviously… yes. They could. That is a risk.

But I’ve decided I’m going to keep sharing anyway.

Because one of the bits I’m finding MOST exciting about this whole thing is that it already doesn’t really feel like I’m building it alone. Since that first post, there have been thousands of you contributing to what Angels could become.

You’re suggesting panelists. You’re tagging brands you think should sponsor it. You’re commenting ideas for the format. You’re sharing the posts, asking questions, telling me what you’d actually want to watch… and I LOVE that.

If we manage to get this across the line and get a series made, everyone who has been here from these very early posts will have played a tiny part in making that happen 🥹

You’ll have watched the production company come on board, seen us find the brand partners, hopefully will see the panel come together. And when we get into actually conceptualising and producing the show, I want to bring you into that too.

So imagine getting to episode one and being able to say… I remember when this was literally just an idea on Instagram. How fun is that???

In fact, I think there’s something powerful commercially about building it this way too. The traditional advice might be to keep an idea secret until it’s perfectly packaged and ready to pitch. But the media landscape is changing so quickly. For a new format like this, having an audience who already cares is part of the proof of concept.

Every comment, share, person tagging their dream angel or asking when they can apply is showing that there is appetite for this show before we’ve even made it. So yes, somebody could copy it.

But I can’t make myself smaller, or make the idea smaller, bc I’m worried somebody might. We’re on the journey now anyway hehe 🎀

This week is about figuring out the people who are going to help me make Angels happen, and there are a few very different conversations going on. Starting with…

The production company 🎥

I mentioned in my original video that we already had interest from one production company (who are keen to fund and co-produce).

They were actually the ones who encouraged me to go and have other conversations too, which I really respected. This is a big decision and they basically said… go and understand your options. So that’s what I’m doing.

I’ve got calls with a few different production companies this week, and the biggest thing I’m trying to work out is whether they get it.

Do they understand why I want these types of creators involved?

Do they understand digital?

Do they understand that the social content around the show is a huuuuuuge part of the format?

Have they done something like this before?

And also… do I want to spend loads of time with these people? I want the people involved in Angels to be warm, nice, collaborative people who are excited about building it. I also really want the production company we work with to stand for something.

We say all the time at tbh that we manage talent with something to say. Our creators have depth beyond their content, and I’d love the businesses involved in Angels to have that same sense of purpose.

One company I’ve spoken to creates opportunities for film students outside of the usual London bubble to get real experience on productions.

When we were talking about Angels, they suggested having some of those students follow the Angels and capture loads of BTS social content throughout filming. And I just thought… YES. Because they’d understood both sides of what I was trying to build. A really professionally produced show, but with this whole other digital world happening around it.

Another company talked about the possibility of having a majority-female crew, which I also loved.

Those details really stick with me because they tell me something about the people I could be building this with. Then, obviously, there’s the actual deal.

How much IP do they own? How much control do I retain? What are they actually taking responsibility for?

I’m very aware that a production company would be bringing expertise that I simply don’t have. I know creators, brands, talent and digital. I do not know how to physically produce a television show 😂 So I want a partner who takes that whole part and makes it infinitely better, while still allowing me to protect the original vision. Which brings me onto something slightly less sexy but probably VERY important…

Lawyers !!!

One of my jobs this week is speaking to my lawyer about how Angels actually needs to be structured. My expectation is that Angels will need to become its own LTD company, and that company would then enter into agreements with brands and TBC the production company.

Maybe it is a services agreement, some kind of joint venture…or maybe that is all to be negotiated.

I’m not lawyer and I’m not pretending to be. I just want to get the structure right now, and start building out the agreements/templates we’ll need so that when we do agree the right deal, we can actually move.

Then there are…

The brand partners 💸

This bit feels faaaar more familiar to me bc brand partnerships are my bread and butter. And VERY excitingly, a few of the brands I’m speaking to this week were genuinely on my dream list when I first started thinking about Angels 🥹

The conversations here are going to be about what they want to invest and what that investment actually looks like. Could one brand fund the whole series, or do we bring in two non-competing partners? What deliverables would they want as part of that? What happens on social?

There are sooo many ways you could build a partnership around a format like this, and ultimately a lot of those decisions will come down to budget and what feels natural for the show.

The angel investor conversations are a different beast…

The actual angels 👼

This is probably the area I’m most curious about this week because it’s a completely different negotiation.

Whilst a brand is investing in return for sponsorship and deliverables (super clear and simple)… an angel investor would be investing in the future success of Angels itself.

Which means we’re talking about things like what Angels is worth right now, what their investment buys them, and what the potential future value of the business could be. And that is obviously a much more complicated conversation, requiring financial forecasting etc when the business is currently… an idea, a viral post and a lot of very exciting conversations.

But money wouldn’t be the only consideration for me here either.

If I bring angel investors into Angels, I want them to add something. I want them to understand the format and what we’re trying to create. I want them to care about the vision. I want people who are going to be fun to build with and who can bring value beyond cash. I don’t know yet whether bringing angel investors in at this stage will make sense.

And I think that’s probably where I’m at with this entire process right now…

I don’t have all the answers yet.

There are loads of things here I’ve done before, and quite a few I have not.

So I’m speaking to people who know more than me, asking a million questions, listening to different options and slowly working out what feels right. And I’m going to keep sharing it while I do. Even if I’ve been advised not to 👀

Because if Angels does become what I know it could, I LOVE the idea that there’s a whole group of you who will have seen it being built in real time.

The calls. The questions. The things I don’t know yet. The decisions. The people coming on board. The moments where something completely changes direction.

And I am suuuuure, next Wednesday, I’ll have more to tell you… 💌

Verity x