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Ben Dobyns, CEO and founder of Zombie Orpheus Entertainment. He\u2019s started giving the company\u2019s films away for free ever when he started the company\u2014a tradition he\u2019s proud to continue today.

Famous Five:

• Favorite Book? \u2013 The Art of Game Design
• What CEO do you follow? \u2013\xa0 Jamie Wilkinson

• Favorite online tool? \u2014 Slack
• Do you get 8 hours of sleep?\u2014 Yes
• If you could let your 20-year old self, know one thing, what would it be? \u2013 \u201cTake the time to pursue the dream. Shortcuts will disempower you and empower other people\u201d\xa0

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Time Stamped Show Notes:

• 01:33 \u2013 Nathan introduces Ben to the show
• 01:57 \u2013 Ben had a terrible experience with Hollywood distribution in 2008
• • 02:10 \u2013 Ben didn\u2019t get paid for the film they made
  • 02:18 \u2013 The company owed Ben $ 30,000
• 03:23 \u2013 \u201cIndependent films will lose your money if you invest in them\u201d
• 03:34 \u2013 Ben launched his new company in 2010 and paid their investors back after a year
• 03:47 \u2013 Zombie Orpheus Entertainment was launched in 2010
• 03:59 \u2013 \u201cWe\u2019re going to give people free films and share them\u201d
• 04:10 \u2013 Ben had a realization that each film will be a form of advertising
• 04:33 \u2013 At the end of every episode, there\u2019s a message that will lead viewers to give Zombie Orpheus Entertainment money
• 05:08 \u2013 Journey Quest series on Youtube
• • 05:45 \u2013 Ben will let the viewers choose if they want to continue watching or not
  • 06:04 \u2013 Based purely on fan contribution, Ben and his team are able to continue the show
  • 06:16 \u2013 They made $ 30,000 for season 1 and from Kickstarter is $ 112,000 which funded season 2
  • 06:28 \u2013 Zombie Orpheus Entertainment is now out of the investment cycle
• 07:07 \u2013 Zombie Orpheus Entertainment built a fan base on Facebook and Youtube
• 07:36 \u2013 Zombie Orpheus Entertainment had 1,117 unique backers for Journey Quest\xa0
• • 07:57 \u2013 On Kickstarter, average contribution is $ 97 per backer
• 08:33 \u2013 The fan base is big for Zombie Orpheus Entertainment
• 09:01 \u2013 Ben done 3 Kickstarters this year
• • 09:18 \u2013 Attack in the Darkness \u2013 raised $ 25,000
  • 09:28 \u2013 The Gamers \u2013 raised $ 174,000
• 09:49 \u2013 Raised $575,000 for the 3 seasons of Journey Quest
• 10:04 \u2013 Ben setup a pre-funding page with public metrics for journey Quest
• • 10:14 \u2013 4,200 people added their names in the email list
  • 10:29 \u2013 They launched with 4,600 names in their list on day 1
  • 10:45 \u2013 Kickstarter attracted more people
  • 11:06 \u2013 RenewJourneyQuest.com is the pre-funding page
• 12:00 \u2013 Ben has one of the best Kickstarter planning sheet
• • 12:20 \u2013 The sheet is not currently for public use
• 12:36 \u2013 With Journey quest, the needed budget was $ 325,000 for the production
• • 12:55 \u2013 Ben didn\u2019t aim for profit for this Kickstarter
• 13:10 \u2013 Season 3 of Journey Quest will be moved to BackerKit for pledge management
• 13:55 \u2013 Ben isn\u2019t looking for an exit or an IPO
• 15:00 \u2013 What Ben is doing is similar to a SaaS business model
• 15:50 \u2013 Ben has been offered venture capital but he won\u2019t accept it
• 16:55 \u2013 Ben is going to release their world bible and their intellectual property to allow their commercial derivatives
• 17:45 \u2013 Ben uses Kickstarter to have a merchandise fusion with a reward program
• 17:55 \u2013 Ben is really picky with merchandise quality
• 18:25 \u2013 Keep Zombie Orpheus Entertainment\u2019s shows alive by dropping a dollar or $ 5 at Patreon
• 21:07 \u2013 The Famous Five

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3 Key Points:

• Use bad experiences as education and motivation.
• Venture capital is not always an option.
• Take the time to pursue the dream. Shortcuts will disempower you and empower other people.

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Resources Mentioned:

• Toptal\xa0\u2013 Nathan found his development team using Toptal\xa0 for his new business Send Later. He was able to keep 100% equity and didn\u2019t have to hire a co-founder due to the quality of Toptal\xa0 developers.
• Host Gator\xa0\u2013 The site Nathan uses to buy his domain names and hosting for the cheapest price possible.
• Freshbooks\xa0\u2013 The site Nathan uses to manage his invoices and accounts.
• Leadpages\xa0 \u2013 The drag and drop tool Nathan uses to quickly create his webinar landing pages which convert at 35%+
• Audible\xa0\u2013 Nathan uses Audible when he\u2019s driving from Austin to San Antonio (1.5-hour drive) to listen to audio books.
• Assistant.to \u2013 The site Nathan uses to book meetings with one email.
• Acuity Scheduling \u2013 Nathan uses Acuity to schedule his podcast interviews and appointments
• Drip \u2013 Nathan uses Drip\u2019s email automation platform and visual campaign builder to build his sales funnel.
• Patreon \u2013 Ben\u2019s pledge page
• Show Notes provided by Mallard Creatives