Meet Monicat Data | Episode 10

So I almost feel like our brand just went through a whole shift and now it's actually like ‘Okay, we can actually market this.’ 

This is the Lunar Startups Podcast and I'm your host, Twila Dang.

Lunar Startups launched its first cohort in the Fall of 2018—a startup accelerator determined to create better opportunities for women entrepreneurs and entrepreneurs of color. But at the heart of this work were six companies, a group of entrepreneurs representing a variety of fields coming together with the support of Lunar Startups to take their businesses to the next level. We'd like you to meet them. We asked the cohort founders to share the origin stories of their businesses. 

Bloomberg: My name is Kurt Bloomberg and I'm one of the co-founders of Monicat Data. 

Russel: I'm Jasmine Russel, CEO and co-founder of Monicat Data. 

Utt: I'm Cassie Utt. I am one of the co-founders of Monicat Data. 

Russel: Monicat Data is a data management and technology group for the creative economy. We also call ourselves technology consultants for creative businesses. 

So, our whole thing is we want to give creativity a better track record.

Bloomberg: Monicat Data came about to be because there were unique ideas that myself and Jasmine had and my relationship with Jasmine in terms of where she was at in terms of corporate and the things that she was experiencing and figuring out what else is out there. And then wanting to figure out if like this is something that I want to do. And I remember distinctly wanting to figure out like ‘Should we put this out and get the—get the number...uhhh…

Russel: What are you thinking about? 

Bloomberg: When we were in the apartment and you're like on the website of Minnesota and you’re like ‘Should I do it?’

Russel: Oh, you mean like actually releasing it that day? Like the 

website? 

Bloomberg: Mhmm

Russel: Oh, I think it's interesting you mentioned the corporate piece. I was like, coming home crying everyday. Me and Kurt would have these conversations just about creativity, the lack of creativity at my job, but also the lack of support that creative groups would have. I was just really at a point where I was like ‘I don’t want to do this anymore’. I would go into work every day and just really be tired. Like even driving to work, I was just exhausted. I would have this pain and sick feeling in my stomach. That's what really prompted a lot of just complaining conversations with Kurt. But from there we started to come up with some good ideas and like really saying like “Okay, how could we start to apply some of these things within data and tech that we know?” Then with Cassie, me and Cassie met through Tedx Minneapolis. We were both speaker curators there and Cassie was traveling the world at the time. So she was doing remote year and I don't even know how we got into our Facebook conversations, but it seemed like we were just like having them and you were writing your blog at the time.

Utt: Yeah, I think it was partly that you launched your website which I saw because you had posted it on Facebook. But also that I was traveling so there was you know, “Hey, how's your trip? What are you up to?” And I was like, “What are you up to? You just launched a business. What is that?” And yeah, so we moved here around the same time as well. Like, we were both new to the Twin Cities at almost exactly the same time. 

Bloomberg: Yeah. I think the puzzles fit where my experience in dance and being an artist and really understanding that I was trained to be a creator, not a business person. 

So artists were too busy trying to create in the process and then pile on top of that administrative work, business work, [and] marketing which was not our forte. We were figuring out how to be dancers—how to be movement generators. So that coupled with Jasmine's background, I think there was something unique about “Is there a way to support artists?” and utilizing technology and just up their understanding of what technology can do and not see it as this opposition of “I'm an artist. I have nothing to do with technology because my art will speak for itself.” But how do we increase people's capacities to articulate “What is your impact?”

Russel: But before we even get there, it was like in June [where] we started just like putting out light research. So emailing people like, “What are you using with data? What are you using with technology?” That's actually how we started to get some of our first clients—through asking like the state arts board, asking people in the community that we knew like “Who do you know that's a creative or a creative business that is needing strategy support?” And talking with Cassie. Cassie’s like “Well, I'm traveling right now, but I'll be back in the states in about a month”. So it was post research and Cassie’s like “If you're really serious about it, I'd love to talk more with you when I get back”. 

Utt: Yeah. I mean, I was on this trip called Remote Year. I worked remotely for a corporate company, but I was surrounded by entrepreneurs and people working on, you know, side projects or building companies together on our trip. So we were traveling together every month going into new co-working spaces, meeting really creative interesting people doing things they were passionate about. So that kind of inspired me to find something that I was also equally passionate about. My background...I went to school for computer science and vocal performance—so for opera.

Through the work I've done with in theater within the opera world, there are certainly improvements that can be made on the tech side. I mean, the focus is on the creation, on the process, on the output, and the community. There is that aspect 

that Kurt mentioned as well—that administrative side [and] that tech side. Either there aren't the skills there to know about or there isn't the time to do it. So, when Jasmine and Kurt launched the website and launched Moniat, I was like, “Oh that's exactly—it like connects what I'm passionate about, what I've learned—technology and art and creativity—all into one”. So that's what really, I think, drew me to the idea and I knew Jasmine. I knew Jasmine was a great person and like I'd love to work with her more. But it was coming off of that trip and the energy that I was around all the time. That was like “You can also do something that you're excited about.” 

Russel: While Cassie was traveling, we were just kind of like moving through that research phase and ideation phase [and] getting some initial feedback. I remember one of the first people that I had talked to was like, “So what are you measuring against?” 

And I was like, “I don't know, I just I just think that these groups need help” and she's like “No like what studies are using. What's your base?” She was coming from a data side. So for her, when we first started we were data management and technology for artists and arts. It was like starting an art supporting organization—it was a super long title. It was focused on artists. And asking her like “Well, what do you use for data?” For her it was like, she had to line up everything with state baselines or national baselines of indexes. 

So she was very statistically driven. Though a lot of people were just kind of like, you know, there's a need for this and you're selling it to me. So I guess let's just see what happens with it. But I think even before that—thinking about what Kurt was mentioning—the idea and the concept before we launched the website, I went to a pitch night one night and just like scratched the idea down because all these conversations I was having with Kurt, I was like, “Well, let me just see like, if I could even like pitch some idea”. Which is really rough and really bad. I wrote it in a notebook, took it to an event, pitched it and then I came back, which is what Kurt was referring to one night. And I was like, “You know what? I think that I should just create a website.” So that night I created a website and had like—I don't know—four pages on it with some basic information from the basic research and then launched it out. And I guess that's what you saw—was like the rough scratch...just like “Let me just get something out.” Because the thought was if we had a website, then at least we would have something to talk to. And thinking about key offerings—it was like three key offerings. We had the data. We had the tech now where it's just creative data management and technology design. But yeah, that first website was just like getting something out there so we'd have something to speak to. 

Music plays.

We'll be right back after the break. 

Welcome back to the Lunar Startups Podcast. 

Russel: At that time, I was still working corporate and I was also working on another venture at that time. For about a year and a half I was working on a point-of-sale system technology. So I was like really deep into figuring out what that was and doing that while having a full-time job. So Monicat was something that came really out of “What am I passionate about?” So I was just like in an experimental mode of seeing things and if they would work or not. So the fact that we even got our first clients was like, “Oh, okay this is interesting.” But it kind of stuck a little bit more, where it seemed like we all wanted to spend a little bit more time with it. 

Utt: There was a very kind of formal process that you both put me through. 

Russel: Yeah. That's right. 

Utt: There was a PDF document that outlined the role that—at the time—was going to be my role and then I sat down and talked to Jasmine. I was like, “Yeah, sounds great. I'd love to be a part of it” and then I sent in my resume and why I wanted to be a part of the project and why I thought it was a good fit to be on the team. Yeah, we had we had like a one-on-one conversation. 

Russel: Yeah now that I think about it, I guess I just wanted us to like—just knowing Cassie's background—have it laid out well, even though we were still like trying to figure out exactly what we are and what we were doing. And after we kind of had that meeting and sit-down...the first project with Spring Board...had the meeting with Carl...moved through kind of like, okay, this is the project over at Spy House. 

Spy House off Each Street, which is really noisy and really loud when you really think about it. It's a horrible place for meeting. You can't present. We had our scratchy website and poor Carl was just like “Yeah, well alright looks good.” He handed over the data and then we just kind of like moved through it. Cassie took on a project management role and I don't even know what that first project—if we'd really like to find as like Cassie is the PM. person of our team. But Cassie is very straightforward and tactical and it probably comes from her PM work during the day. Cassie was just so like on top of things. Kurt is more of ,like, the ideator I would say sometimes of like, “Does this really work? Does it fit together?” kind of thing…”Does it make sense?” I think in looking at Kurt and Cassie together and then with me like being more of the data person at that time—still the data person—it made sense with our backgrounds to release a like “Well, what could we do with this?” Also after the first Spring Board project and 

delivering what, I would say, is probably one of our worst presentations to Carl but also I like it at the same time.

Bloomberg:  Never going to forget it. I'm never going to forget that experience. 

Russel: We delivered to Carl in the same Spy House that was noisy, not on like a projector or anything, just like on a computer. And we were moving him through the geographic map we created and the data points and the downloads and how they connected with different neighborhoods and we were like taking him through this whole data of his map. He's like, “Yeah, it looks good.” And for me, after that meeting, I'm kind of curious Kurt and Cassie, what you though after that meeting but I felt like “I don't know if this is gonna work” because I was like we can't deliver like this—we can't deliver in a coffee shop. But the information was useful. I think it was just so different from what I was used to. Having to deliver something like that in a coffee shop, but that's where we were at that time. 

Utt: Yeah, it's really interesting that we did that because that's the only project that we met in the evening, after hours, and in a location like that. Because even our next project, we met at Rhymesayers—always at Rhymesayers—always during their workday and that kind of was how it happened after that as well, from there on. 

Bloomberg: I thought it was a good meeting. It was loud. But I think for me one of the things that sticks out to me is to do that project, we had to purchase technology. So that to me was the first time putting money assets down to figure out “How does this actually work?” We need particular tools. To me that was like, “Okay. All right. This is gonna be an experience—this is going to be an expensive experiment.”

Russel: Yeah that was expensive because we didn't have any project dollars. That was just like “Okay tableau.” Nine hundred. Oh, you need to charge you another nine hundred?. I was just like, “Okay. I'm out $2,000.” If you were a customer, you'd be either a creative team—which is mostly what we work with—or an independent creative. So far, we've said independent creative, but we've mainly worked with creative teams. So you could be an art nonprofit...a funder. You could be a theater group, architect firm, a gallery, a design group, and you would have either a data need or a technology operations need. So on the data side, we have your standard qualitative quantitative research and digital analytics. 

There could be like go-to-market strategy. And then on the technology side, there's understanding the operations of the technology—how efficiently it's working. 

So basically when I'm explaining it to people that don't always understand agencies, I usually start with saying there's tons of tech agencies that specialize in manufacturing or healthcare or there's tons of data groups that are specialized in science research. For us we're saying “We're specifically focused on the creative economy” and what we usually take people through is a three-phased approach. 

So there's researching their issue and problem, actually implementing the data, and then the onboarding so that they can hopefully keep up what we've installed. 

And then on the technology side—very similar—looking at the systems to research, actually executing the implementation of the technology solution, and then onboarding.

Utt: We met with a lot of different organizations, artists, arts organizations—mostly at the very beginning. And we would talk to them about what their issues are, what they don't know, and what they don't have enough support for. Whether it be understanding their data or understanding how to survey people that come to their shows or that they just have so many tools and technologies that they've acquired over the last ten years that they don't know what to do with it. So I think through those conversations and the lack of understanding and support that they had, it was very clear that there was a big gap. I mean, we spent a lot of those conversations just kind of educating people on what was possible. So that seemed to be a big opportunity to just educate that that part of the community—that creative economy. 

Russel: So we launched in September of 2016. We had our first few projects. Then came January of 2017 and we stopped for a while. And then we had like a three month gap before we got hit with four projects all at once. It was interesting because that was the first time we really had that kind of project flow and we needed to figure out “Well, how do we manage it?” So that made me feel more confident in what we were offering but it also gave us an eye into like just timing of some of these creative groups and how their calendar years actually work with funding. April to September are your busy times. September to December is usually when people are trying to close things out.

Bloomberg: I think Monicat is doing well when it comes to the idea. I think, for me, it's struggling in terms of any kind of start up to figure out how to sustain financially for people and also understanding the ebbs and flows of business and the grind that is required to make things work.

Russel: For our first two years, we were pretty much on word-of-mouth and now this is the first time where we're actually saying “Okay HubSpot—let's use that.” Let's actually start sending things out. When we really think about it, if we've been doing so well pretty much just off of word-of-mouth, as we implement these new tools hopefully that can turn around different things with having good leads, having a constant flow so that we can actually grow our team. But I think that we needed to have some quiet periods here recently to actually realize like “We do need to utilize tools just like any other agency, so that we can get word out about us.” I think also in being in an accelerator, there's so much change. So it's like, you're being thrown all these like ideas and things you should implement. And we've implemented a lot but that can also make you kind of feel uneasy with actually being able to like just execute it. Because you're changing so much that it's almost like changing your brand. So I almost feel like our brand just went through a whole shift and now it's actually like, “Okay we can actually market this.” We could actually send out stuff on HubSpot and it can be accepted or rejected. 

Bloomberg: What I know in terms of what Monicat does as an idea for people...in terms of the interns that we've been able to work with or the people that get excited about what we're doing to me is really helpful.

Russel: For me, I feel like my hope is so action-oriented now or it's just like, I don't really have time to like be lofty. It's either working or it's not working. So I'm looking forward to the next couple of weeks, not even like the next couple of months, but just like the next couple of weeks of actually executing some of these tools to see if they'll actually bring some results. 

Utt: We are experts at data and technology and being creative. And so I think when people hear of Monicat Data, I hope that's the thing that they know about data technology and creativity. They're the ones we want to go to. So I think—even ourselves—making sure we remember that we are experts in this space. We've done a lot of research. We worked on a lot of projects and we've presented many, many times on why this is important. Whether you're an individual artist or an architecture firm or a product designer, that we're the ones that can help. 

Music plays.

Thank you for listening to this podcast. 

If you'd like to learn more about Lunar Startups or apply for an upcoming cohort, check out the website at lunarstartups.org. 

We'd like to extend a special thank you to the Glen Nelson Center at American Public Media, Knight Foundation, and Osborn370 for their continued support of Lunar Startups.

This podcast is a Matriarch Digital Media production. Executive Producers: Twila Dang, Brittany Arneson, and Josette Elieff.