Letters of Intent

Pankaj Raval (00:00)
Welcome back to another episode of Letters of Intent. I am your co-host, Pankaj Raval. And today we are joined by my co-host, Sahil Chaudry, and a special guest I'll let Sahil introduce. But it's going to be a really good episode because we've got a guest here with a lot of interesting background and a lot of interesting ideas and ways that he is actually going to be disrupting the entertainment industry. So Sahil, please introduce our guest and tell us a little bit about what we're going be talking about today.

Sahil (00:23)
I'm Sahil Chaudry, corporate attorney here at Carbon Law Group, and I have the pleasure of introducing a good friend of mine, Alvaro de la Cruz. From the moment I met Alvaro, he really struck me as a dynamic disruptor. And once you hear his story, you will see why. He originally moved to LA to pursue a career in film as a director and a producer. And following the industry strike and a ton of circumstances surrounding the macroeconomics of the film industry,

He pivoted into technology and is now building Showlytics, an AI-powered personalization and analytics platform for movie theaters. I'm really excited to talk about this because we're hearing so much about AI, but we have not heard many people talk about how this integrates into the theater experience. And Showlytics aims to help theaters increase attendance by predicting which films, showtimes, and seating preferences drive actual bookings, and pairing that with targeted personalized messaging.

He previously served as SoCal operations lead at Picnic, which is now Cloud Kitchens, also known as Adams, where he helped scale logistics operations from hundreds to thousands of daily orders, shaping his approach to data, systems, and behavior-driven outcomes. He will begin his MBA at USC, focusing on the intersection of film, technology, and consumer behavior. Alvaro, thank you so much us on the

Alvaro De La Cruz (01:38)
Thank you for having me and thank you for the great intro.

Sahil (01:40)
So, Alvaro, let's go back to the beginning. What led you to pursue film originally?

Alvaro De La Cruz (01:45)
Yeah, so I started, I was born in Puerto Rico and I went to school in Connecticut and I didn't really where I wanted to go in my life in terms of what I wanted to do for business. And then I got really into YouTube as a lot of kids did high school. And that really opened my eyes to be able stuff on my own. So I'm self-taught, like I taught myself editing, I taught myself cameras.

and slowly started making short films, really focused on honing my skills, learning about behind the scenes of like how movies are made. And that really pushed me to try to keep pursuing that as a career. So I went to Georgetown and at Georgetown, I majored in English with a film minor, really focusing on trying to get as much as I can in terms of screenwriting. had a that really helped me champion my skills. And then from there, I decided to move to Los Angeles.

So I specifically bought a car in DC. So I leave the East coast and move to the West coast. And so, yeah, so I did that on purpose because I really wanted to be here. And so when I moved to I started working in production. So I was working like events as a key PA, PA. I worked as a second assistant director on a film in Austin for a month. I worked on a documentary in Alaska. I worked on other like independent films, but then the strike happened. And so,

Sahil (02:33)
Wow.

Wow.

Alvaro De La Cruz (02:54)
Yeah, so everything slowed down. I was working on my own shorts here and there, but realistically speaking, like the money wasn't like, it was hard to make a living in this industry, especially with the strikes. So I really had to like figure out, okay, rather than trying to approach it terms of the creative way, don't I first like take a step back and try to like learn some other skills? So I started working applying to see other positions, companies and operations, because I've always had like a logistics background where it's like creative and business oriented.

And so then I worked at a company called where they do deliveries. And it's a part of now, Adams, which is a which is also next Cloud Kitchens. And we were doing, when I first started, we were doing about like hundreds of orders a day. And then we scaled to like thousands of orders and it's just been growing. then realizing, working at a tech company, seeing how tech companies are built, understanding the

because was a startup, understanding how startups are made, I was like, okay, like I want to have my own company, I want to build my own startup. And rather than just doing a production company or rather doing a distribution company, I thought about what if there was a way I can solve an industry issue and have that be the way into the industry, back into the film industry. So as a director and a producer, and that's the end goal, like any producer wants to have their film in theaters. Everyone wants to be...

Pankaj Raval (04:00)
Mm.

Alvaro De La Cruz (04:08)
playing in theaters, no one necessarily wants to make a film and just release it on streaming. If anyone says that, I don't think they really understand then the power of having someone sit in a theater and watch it with all together. And I truly believe that theaters are still very much alive. I still think everyone's saying that it's a dying industry. Everyone's saying that people are not going as often. And I always disagree with them because it's not a dying industry in the sense of.

just like how we have concerts, we have Broadway still, we still have that avenue. And so really pushing towards, okay, what is the symptoms of why people are not going as often? And so from that, I started realizing, me try to think about what's a really big problem in the theaters right now is that there's a huge lack of awareness. So I remember like back in the day, you would go on, you would look up your newspapers, what's showing for that

So you would all the showings, you see everything. And so then you would understand what's playing in theaters. Now we have so much marketing. We have Netflix marketing, we have YouTube marketing, we have Amazon, we have these different types of shows on all these billboards, but no one really knows what's going to be playing in theaters. And then there's a huge issue with the decision fatigue. We have so many options now that no one really wants to make a choice. Or making a choice becomes a lot harder. So with those two symptoms, which I really think are a huge issue,

there is a way that can be fixed. And I think just like how the retail industry has done very well with personalization, I think we can also do that for in-person experiences.

Sahil (05:27)
I want to ask you, Alvaro, you described a number of pivots there. You described, first of all, just breaking into Hollywood and getting a job as an A.D. that is an accomplished in and of itself. But you did that. And then you are able to find a job working with.

think Travis Kalanick, at a company that he founded. And so you're going into these roles that are very high performing. And I want to note for a moment your ability to pivot because when you saw an opportunity, it sounds like now even with Showlytics, you took your lessons from Picnic and now you're applying those to this next venture.

What do you think allows you to be able to pivot? Because a lot of people might get stuck in a rut. They came to LA, they had this one fixed idea of a dream. And you seem like you have this hustler spirit, first of all, to get your foot in the door. How do you get your foot in the door in something like Hollywood? And second, how do you give yourself permission to pivot and how do you pivot well?

Alvaro De La Cruz (06:22)
So to get myself a foot in Hollywood, everything is with network. So just reaching out to people, building friendships. I would reach out to people and just get coffee with them. And it's kind of funny because a lot of the times someone would ask me, okay, what do you want? And most of the time it's like, I don't really want anything. I just want to get to know you and learn your story. And for people in LA, I think that's very rare too, because everyone always reaches out for an ask. like, oh, you're a producer. I want to work with you. Or can you help fund my film?

You're an actor. Who do you know that you can present me to and I think once you start approaching people in this especially in Hollywood with always like a desire of like something from them rather than just learning from them I think it it closes down opportunities So my goal was always just to meet people get coffee with them. See if they're available not have anything I want from them just like hey I'm love to keep hearing from you grabbing more coffee and then slowly just seeing opportunities because from there I started figuring out okay, like this person

I remember there was a director I became friends with and she posted like, is around? And then after we had coffee and I just messaged, Hey, if you need a PA, like I'm happy to work on the project. And that project then I became the key PA for that. So it was just reaching out, but it wasn't like the first time I met with her was to get a job. It was just more about like, I'm around if anything. So doing stuff like that, that's how like I got in, started building my in the industry.

And I'm still into the industry too. think if you don't go to school out here and, or you haven't been here for years and years, years, it's really hard to break in. I think that's one of the reasons why I'm going to USC as well as to keep building my network because going to school out here is very different. You meet people a lot faster rather than coming from out of state. and then I think my pivot mentality, I think comes down to where like, I have an end goal in mind of what I want to do with my life.

But just like life, just like a story, you're not going to be able to get there in one shot. You need to be able to go around, take different paths, go up the hill, go down the hill, take the wrong exit, go and turn around, always having a deep understanding of where I want to be. like film industry is where I want to be, but it doesn't necessarily mean I need to be able to flow and progress and change. So.

with what I'm doing now, if you would have said to me four years ago, hey, I'm going to be doing an MBA. I would be like, no, I'm going to be working on set. I'm going to be working on production. And then I got to Hollywood and I'm like, oh wait, there's no production here. So then I had to like figure out, okay, I can't get a production job. I need an actual job. Let me get a tech job. And then like, and I really enjoyed my time at a picnic, but then I also realized that, okay, I like the tech job. I like the tech atmosphere, but it's just not the industry I want to be in. I want to be back in the film industry.

Sahil (08:35)
Right.

Alvaro De La Cruz (08:51)
So it's like, okay, what can I do? And then it's like, try starting a company and I'm like, okay, at least I need to have a backup plan if that doesn't go well. So at least I have the MBA. So it's like having little backups of like, I can try doing this put all my effort and make it great or there, but also have a backup plan in case that doesn't work, then I'm still going to try something else and I'm still going to keep pushing.

Pankaj Raval (09:10)
Fantastic, yeah.

Sahil (09:10)
I think so many

of our entrepreneurs can relate to your story and so many would be like to hide the moments that they have to pivot. But I think this is so helpful to our entrepreneurs. I'm curious, Pankaj, I know you also started in entertainment as well. seems like the ability, and today, I'd say our firm is primarily corporate and IP. But I think that ability to pivot that

can be solved and they can be very rewarding and find different ways to get into the industry you're interested in. I think that's really powerful and I think people listening are really going to appreciate that.

Pankaj Raval (09:43)
Yeah, absolutely. mean, I think, you one keyed in on when you're speaking of was like importance of like knowing where you want to be, because you're right, a lot of different ways to get there. And, success is never a straight line. there's always ups, there's always downs, there's always backwards, there's always forward. if you look at it on a map, it's a squiggly line to success whatever success means to you, that all those also

will change as you get older, as there's different stages of your life, success is going to change what you want. But I think being clear about, OK, yeah, passionate about the film industry. You really want to see what you can do in this industry and understanding also that it's changing, too. Right. I think it is changing. And how do you ride that wave of change? Right. How do you not get hit by it, clobbered by it, but also ride it in the world of

Sahil (10:26)
Yeah.

Pankaj Raval (10:29)
LA surfing is big and you want surf that wave change. Then I think, leaning into technology is huge because, for what we see as kind of tech lawyers and startup lawyers. Yeah, I mean, we see that a lot. And where AIs are something in everything right. The film industry, the legal industry, every industry is being touched by AI in some way. So how is that affecting, what you do? So I love to learn a little bit more about Showlytics,

Sahil (10:37)
Yeah, even for us.

Pankaj Raval (10:51)
how you hope it will revolutionize the theater industry.

Alvaro De La Cruz (10:54)
Yeah, like I think working first out of tech company, it really opened my eyes to understanding that for a company that's very established, for a company that has already their systems built out, it takes a long time to really change their systems from going to their normal systems to implementing AI technology. Like AI seems like it's a fast implementation, like, you can just search something in ChatGPT and it gets over there. And on a consumer basis, it's easy to use because it's you're always changing your daily life habits.

But in a company, you're disrupting the whole flow of the company. And so, understanding that AI implementation will take years for any major company to really integrate correctly. I realize that for a non-tech company, it's going to take longer than that. And so, for theater chains, right now, they are almost like an island, if you think about it, where studios market the movies. Studios put all this money in their advertisement campaign.

And they work with theaters to some degree, but all the billboards are for just the movie, not for the theater. And so there's so many theater chains or so many processes so that you're, you're using advertisement Instagram and you're then telling the customer, go find your local theater and choose and find a seat and choose a ticket and all that. And with the studios having already spent that much money, theaters don't

have much access to that because it's more generalized. So then it's now the theater's job to be like, hey, come see the movie here. And that costs and that takes a lot of time. So I was thinking about it, it's like, okay, theaters already your membership in terms of a lot of people have no rewards platforms. But the AI integration to them is very limited in the sense of you might get a very generic like, hey, come see, Project Hail get your ticket.

because that's the newest movie that's come out. But maybe I don't want to see Project Hail Mary. Maybe I want to see a horror film or maybe I don't want to get it through email. I want to get it through text or maybe I want to get it through push notification on the app. And rather than just having a simple notification, I want it to be like, it already has my seats pre-saved. So I have to do is click one button. So thinking about like how you can speed up the buying process and giving these tools to the theater chains, that's goal of showlytics of

not necessarily changing the system, but being system that gives them more access for their customers so they can fully understand their customers and then use marketing channels to quickly get them back into theaters.

Sahil (13:07)
So how do you think predicting films, showtimes, seating behavior will actually drive revenue?

Alvaro De La Cruz (13:14)
just with the data itself that theaters have, it's not gonna be the easiest process because you can have, depending on how many times someone goes, you'll have limited data to some degree. The difference of what we're trying to do is that we're trying to also merge the theater data with outside data. And we're also trying to not necessarily convert someone that doesn't go to theaters to go see a theater.

What we're trying to do is someone that goes maybe once every two months to go once a month So we're just trying to increase the frequency movie goer because right now like average I could be butchering the number but like someone goes to the movies theaters like two or three times a year So if you can change it where they go to four times a year, even though it might seem like a small increase It's still a lot in terms of box office value, especially for a smaller for theater chains. So

Pankaj Raval (13:59)
Hmm

Alvaro De La Cruz (13:59)
When I

think about outside data, it could be social media trends. So it could be really hinting on, I know based on your customer profile, you're someone in your 20s or 30s, you must be really in touch with social media trends. So you might see something with a certain actor that's getting a lot of attention. So for example, Robert Pattinson, they're doing a lot of now the campaign back Twilight. And so Zendaya is wearing the Twilight shirts because they're Robert Pattinson's movie. So if you did something about you like Twilight, and then you have a little caption.

and then says go buy the drama here, like you might just be more inclined to actually purchase it and be like, I didn't know there's a Robert Pattinson movie out.

Pankaj Raval (14:34)
Mm.

Sahil (14:34)
So

I'm thinking about the last movie I I saw Wuthering Heights in theaters. I went with my wife there was so much press. was all over TikTok and it wasn't streaming yet. And so I'm thinking about what's the behavior like? What's the reason that I went? was able to turn it into an event for myself. Right. We go to Din Tai Fung. We go see a movie. It becomes an evening that you can plan.

And I think part of that is the excitement around the film. It turns into enough of a social event where you're go watch it, you can talk to your friends about it. And there's enough excitement on social media to generate that kind of buzz. How does that play a role with Showlytics? Do you think there's a relationship between someone's personal choices and social media and the press surrounding a

Alvaro De La Cruz (15:16)
No, I think as human beings, we go where people go. If you say this movie is then I'm going to go see it. This happened with Titanic. When Titanic first came out, two weekends, the box office was not as great. But the word of mouth of like, oh my God, you're going to go see this movie, blah, People started getting interested in going to see it. And then I think it was like week three or four where really the box office just grew 10 % for that weekend.

I think because we're all so much on our phone and I think after COVID, we all crave in-person experiences. I do think that we want to go to event-driven films, but the only way we can believe it's event-driven is if people are talking about it. And the only way we can figure out if people are talking about it, if we can see, other people are doing it as well. And so that could be social media trends. But also in terms of, we also want to prioritize our habits too. So if you're someone that loves going out

Pankaj Raval (15:55)
Ahem.

Alvaro De La Cruz (16:06)
theaters Friday nights. We might give you a movie that you didn't know was playing with maybe your favorite actor you didn't know was there. Present to simple quick to buy, whereas like just one button and you're more likely to pay for it because you didn't need to do the work to figure out what seats you want what time to go to it's just there. And so that ease is just so much more buying process. Like why do you think like on Amazon like it's easier to buy something now it's just a buy now button.

rather than having to put it your car and then check out. So one click system really does make the work a lot faster. And then, using your habits, but also being of the habits. So for a great example is that, based on your past history, we could track to see, hey, when you went to theaters, was it raining or was there a heat wave? And and if we can tell that you went when it was really cold or you went when it was raining or you went

We can now say, it's going to be raining next week. Do you want to go see this movie?

Pankaj Raval (16:55)
Hmm, interesting.

Sahil (16:56)
Yeah, I do want

to ask though about kind of the macro industry because I would say if I was going to challenge this concept, if I was sitting in the seat of a VC, I would say, well, a lot of big box-off, a lot of films that would in previous years have been big blockbusters are turning into flops at theaters. Thinking specifically, for example, there was a movie Julia Roberts starred in After the Hunt.

I think domestic gross was like 3.3 million. The film cost 70 to $80 million to make. trend today? social media stars overtaken Hollywood stars? What's the strategy I mean, let's say a film with Timothee Chalamet, which I think was a blockbuster success. I'm thinking of the film,

Alvaro De La Cruz (17:37)
Marty Supreme.

Sahil (17:37)
Marty Supreme, that's right. Marty Supreme. So Marty Supreme, big success. But now you've got legacy stars that are not performing at the box office. So what is the future of this industry? I can see an argument for streaming wins because it's convenient, it's cheaper. What is the argument for the future in theaters? On one hand, you're saying personalization is going to be key and pattern of behavior is key.

But what gets the butts in seats today in 2026?

Alvaro De La Cruz (18:06)
more of a just a general like good content, good storytelling. Like personalization only works if the industry pumps out movies. And you can track basically like everyone saying the box office is down. Yes, it's down. But if you also look at the past years, we've had less movies in theaters than we had in 2019. So...

Sahil (18:23)
Yeah,

actually I'm checking right now. So Marty Supreme, $147 million globally with a reported $70 million budget. So that's a huge success. And in fact, it turned into record, highest grossing film. So how do you explain that? It's like, I'm, you

Alvaro De La Cruz (18:40)
Marty Supreme is an interesting story too, because you also have to remember when looking at Box Office success, you have it in half, because half goes to the theaters, half to the production. we're, at least what I'm seeing in the industry is that the big, big movies that are over $200 million struggle in the box office, because a lot of the times they

Sahil (18:48)
Interesting.

Alvaro De La Cruz (18:59)
oversaturated. Like think about the Marvel movies. Like I love Marvel movies, but there's just too many movies at once in one year. And, they would have been successful if the budget was 50 to 60, $80 million. But when you already make a movie that's $200 million, you have to hopefully cross to at least 500, 600 million just to make some profit because you also have advertisement costs that are not in the budget. And a really hard thing to do. But we still need more content in theaters. So

Pankaj Raval (19:07)
Okay.

Alvaro De La Cruz (19:24)
I think this year we're going to be hitting at the same level as hopefully where we I think, probably over 120 movies a year in the theaters. great. We didn't have that in 2021. We didn't have that in 2022. We didn't have that in 2023. So the box office was lower. So more movies we have, the better. But now we're starting to see also a shift that a movie that's $40 to $50 million is doing $200, $300 million. That's really good.

Sahil (19:47)
Hmm.

Alvaro De La Cruz (19:47)
So studios also have to figure out what are the costs that they have to do to produce a better film. Right now, when streaming happened, there was a habit of let's pay out front of the actor, the director, and then not worry about backend. That's not really a system that works anymore because you can't pay, like you should pay an actor a good rate in the front and then give them backend. So that way they promote the movie more in theaters. They push on social media so that people realize,

this film is going out theaters. But if the film's already $250 million, $200 million, it's hard to even think about your profits, unless you're someone like James Cameron.

Pankaj Raval (20:20)
Interesting. Yeah, I mean, this is a fascinating it's funny because for me, with the little kids, I haven't been to a movie theater many years because it's hard to go with little kids. kids can't sit through a movie. So, I feel like I'm in a little bit different space where perhaps I'm not the target demographic. But I also see that like, OK, now, I got a projector at home.

And now you're competing with so many screens, right, today that you didn't have that competition, 30 years ago or 40 years ago, even 10 years ago, still had, you're with television and other things. You talked about community, but like, do you feel like the model needs to change and adapt the change in the world? I don't see theaters have as like really changed their model in many years.

Alvaro De La Cruz (20:57)
So theaters have been changing their model in the sense of they have been prioritizing. So theaters have been doing a lot of like re-releases lately, which I think is a good system. So it's like, so like I would love to see the Dark Knight in theaters again. You that's one of my favorite movies. And so there's a lot of movies out there that theaters are thinking about putting back in theaters for a few days just to like, fill the seats during the Merchandising is a huge industry now in the theater world.

Pankaj Raval (21:06)
re releases, okay.

Sahil (21:09)
Mm-hmm.

Alvaro De La Cruz (21:21)
exhibitors are making a lot of money with merchandising because It's like you're getting like for the new of Mario Galaxy movie. They have like a Yoshi bucket a popcorn bucket And so everyone wants that Yoshi popcorn bucket. They're buying a lot of and then putting out eBay to resell So merchandising they're using a lot of that. They are trying to integrate more social media. It's when you have a company that's focused on entertainment

Sahil (21:23)
Mmm, it's like a concert.

Alvaro De La Cruz (21:43)
for theaters, it's really hard for them to then shift their focus and try doing stuff on tech. It gets very complicated because you can't be two as easily. And they don't have the skill sets per se to fully find a way to really engage with the audience through social media or through tech channels. to your degree too, studios need to change as well. It is proven that movies are made by streamers that release in theaters do better when they're on streaming.

connect it like, oh, that movie was in theaters. I'm going to probably see it in streaming. But what I can't stand, and I think the industry needs to realize is stop the audience when the movie's going to come out on streaming. You need to stop telling the audience when the movie is coming out on streaming. Make it a question, OK, I'm seeing this movie in theaters. It's going to be playing in theaters for 45 days.

Sahil (22:08)
Right. Yeah.

Hmm

Pankaj Raval (22:19)
Hmm.

Mm-hmm.

Alvaro De La Cruz (22:29)
Maybe it's going to be playing for 75 days now that Universal extended their window. But don't tell them it's going to come out two weeks afterwards. Because reducing demand. Like, oh, I can just go see it at home. And I five years ago, 10 years ago, you would go to the theater, you would see a movie and be like, okay, when is it coming on DVD? I don't know. So I'm going to go see it twice. Like I watched Mad Max Fury Road three times in theaters because it was so good and I didn't want to wait until watching DVD again.

Pankaj Raval (22:35)
Yeah.

Sahil (22:46)
Right.

Pankaj Raval (22:49)
Yeah.

Sahil (22:51)
Yeah, that's a great point. I also think there is still, for example, the Oscar requirement that a film has a theater run. And so there is still a prestige element to go into a theater. I do think there's something, it does still feel like an event, but.

to me, has to feel like an event. suppose that what Showlytics is gonna do is, preferences, there are certain factors that I might not even understand about myself, or why do I go to a theater? But Sholytics is gonna know why. Like the reason I might go to a theater is different from when Pankaj might go to a

Alvaro De La Cruz (23:20)
That's the goal.

Sahil (23:25)
There might be a whole other set of preferences, whether it's what the weather's like and what day of the week it is and where I will find a seat and what kind of a genre it is. But showlytics will know me better than I know myself in terms of when I actually go. And I think exciting method I find interesting about showlytics is that you're not trying to...

sell me on something that isn't already me. You're just capturing, you're capturing actual behavior. You're capturing actual times I spend money. And then you're giving me the opportunity to go to a theater when I would actually wanna go. And so I think to me, that's a better bet than trying to invent reasons that people would go to a theater. Like, we can guess that maybe if there were

or merchandise or there could be any number of reasons someone might go to a theater more or if there were enough tik-tok ads served to me but I think what Showlytics is gonna do is give me the actual reason it's gonna stop guessing and I think that's kind of what we've experienced recently with social media

In the past, you would buy an ad in a magazine and who knows how many people saw it? Who knows how many people saw it before they bought that watch or bought that car? But today you have attribution and this feels like the next Just the data alone is gonna be massively valuable.

Alvaro De La Cruz (24:40)
And to your we're trying to make your life easier. That's the goal of what we're trying to do. We're not trying to spam you with more content. We're not trying to give you some more emails in your inbox. We want to be very careful of what your personality is like and patterns to make sure that we're targeting at the right time rather than when it's convenient.

The reason why is have have a lot of notifications for Fandango, but they're all generic. They're all for the new movie, like, Project Hail Mary, then it's the drama. And it's frustrating because that's not how it gets my attention. If it was more detailed, like it understood me, it might know that would go to the movies at night on a weekend, on a Sunday night And I know, I always try to sit in the same type of seats in the middle.

Sahil (25:08)
Yeah.

Yeah.

Alvaro De La Cruz (25:26)
in the back

a few rows, not the wall, but like more in the center. did all that work, then I can just click yes or no. an easier decision process for a movie that I actually want to go see. But to make sure that we're giving you valuable data, we're also going to understand you're someone that buys a ticket the day of, then we'll send you notification the day of. But if you're someone that buys three days before, then we'll send you three days before.

Sahil (25:29)
Yeah.

Yeah.

Alvaro De La Cruz (25:48)
We're not going to send you a generic five days before because it doesn't work with your system. And then if you ignore a notification once, if you ignore a notification twice, then we'll be very more limited of what we actually do send you. ahead.

Sahil (25:59)
how have the theaters responded to this? I'm assuming you've started pitching to theaters or at least connecting with theater owners. And also it must be kind of tough because theaters are regionally fragmented. are national chains, but that to get adoption, you need to get regional or local buy-in. Could you talk a little bit about how theaters are fragmented and who the actual buyer

Alvaro De La Cruz (26:19)
Yeah, so right now we're focusing on small to medium sized theater chains. So ones that maybe have like 80 to 100, 120 locations, very limited. looking the world. It doesn't necessarily have to be just in the US. We are like, I have been talking to two and getting but we've been very slow to launch just because we want to be very careful about how we approach it. Also in terms of just the technical aspect it's not an easy

system that we're trying to break. And like we're trying to create a new system, it's hard to break the old system and say, hey, here's the new system. And so the conversations that right now our main goal is that we want to have at least two to three design partners as theaters where we can see and understand what data they actually have. Cause it's a catch-22. We want to see their data, their data is what holds it and keeps their value that streamers don't have access to. Theaters want to be very careful about the data sharing because they don't want to lose the data they do

and else taking it or taking advantage of it. And so my system, my way of approaching is just trying to create relationships, trying to say, hey, we're really just want to help show them the idea, really make them understand like, hey, you completely own your data. We don't own your data. We won't share your data. It's like completely like yours. And then just going through the conversations are like, okay, what if we show it to this team member and how do we integrate it with their it's really trying to figure out how it's going to work.

because it's not just a plug and play. We want to make it and play, but right now we're still trying to understand what the tools they need. What is the systems that they need? How is it going to Is it going to be for the marketing team or is it going to be for the engineering team? So we have a very simple recommendation engine. It's not figuring out, how can we integrate more data and also integrate their data into our system

Pankaj Raval (27:56)
So, yeah, tell us a little bit about like, where you guys are in the fundraising the next steps for Showlytics? Where are you right now? Yeah, in the build? And when will your listeners maybe be able to utilize the platform?

Alvaro De La Cruz (28:07)
So the first thing about the platform, which is great, it's completely B2B. So it's not necessarily consumer friendly. It's all going through the already existing theater chain systems. So if you're an AMC, of course AMC would be the perfect partner just because of the amount of users they have. Like let's imagine AMC decides to join us. It just means that have better notifications for their customers using the AMC app. So it's completely B2B. We don't necessarily

want to create another app for a customer to download because then it's not going to be systems. And we want to give theaters better tools to bring them to their platform. Because the beauty about theaters is that you always have one theater that you always go to. It's very rare to go to multiple theaters. So it's always that one that's next to your house. So we were very understanding of like, it's B2B. Right now, we've been bootstrapping. Me and my co-founder, we've been just working on it in terms of on our own time, like while I was working at Picnic.

I was working on on my downtime, just reaching out to people. And right now when it comes to design process, just trying to figure out what works. Thankfully, it's not a huge, sometimes we have our own, since we're doing it ourselves. So it's more about just figuring out what works, playing around with the data, seeing what they're. Eventually, either we don't have to raise, which would be the goal, or if we do decide to raise, we then raise. But we're being

careful with how we spend money just to make sure we have the right product and get the right market fit as well.

Pankaj Raval (29:23)
Absolutely.

Sahil (29:23)
So, Alvaro, we've now entered the rapid fire reflections round. All right, at Carbon, we are very big on reflecting. Pankaj hosts a weekly meditation to open up our meetings. And so we know you've had, through your journey, you've had a lot of moments of introspection and lessons and reflections. So I'm gonna ask you a few questions and we'd love to hear just whatever's on of mind.

Pankaj Raval (29:28)
Mm.

Sahil (29:46)
So number one, you are launching a podcast called Hollywood Valley. What inspired Hollywood Valley?

Alvaro De La Cruz (29:53)
I had a conversation with a producer about the future of film with AI and all that, and it kind of scared me. And so I just want to reach out to as many people that are in both the entertainment and the tech world to understand what the industry is going to be. And I find that it's probably an easier ask to just be like, Hey, we'd love to film you for a podcast. Well, then just be like, Hey, we'd love to get coffee. And I made it as an avenue to get more connections and understand and talk to more

Sahil (30:18)
Okay, next question. One lesson from picnic that has stayed with you.

Alvaro De La Cruz (30:22)
Surround yourself with good

Sahil (30:24)
A belief about entertainment or tech that you've changed your mind about.

Alvaro De La Cruz (30:28)
AI will change things, it won't replace things.

Sahil (30:30)
A mistake founders make in legacy industries.

Alvaro De La Cruz (30:34)
Maybe doing too much at once.

Sahil (30:36)
And what does success mean to you today?

Alvaro De La Cruz (30:39)
Feeling like I've made a difference, if that sounds pretty cliche, just having an impact. Yeah.

Sahil (30:43)
You're in the right place. Alvaro,

Pankaj Raval (30:43)
That's good. That's

it. Yes. We are. fantastic. I know this is You I think it's really exciting hearing from entrepreneurs at different stages of building ideas, how they think about ideas. I think it's all really insightful, we are the law firm and risk takers. And I think, entrepreneurship is about

Sahil (30:45)
you're in the right place. We are the home for difference makers. Yeah.

Pankaj Raval (31:06)
risk taking also eventually deal making, right? You're gonna have to make deals theaters, these theater chains, get your foot in the are kind of big, large entities that are difficult to kind of sometimes approach. So I we commend you attacking this issue, an opportunity and continuing to believe in the world of film and what it can offer people. So, yeah.

Sahil (31:24)
Yeah. Yeah,

someone who is in love with film. I mean, that's probably my favorite. love watching movies. I love film. I love indie films. I love big box office movies. I think what you're tackling is really important. And I think everything we can do, especially as an L.A. based law firm, we appreciate the entertainment industry. It creates a lot of jobs. of our economy. So.

I really commend you for tackling this problem because it's facing a lot of challenges and I think we need to be tech forward. We can't be afraid, art can't be afraid of tech, it needs to incorporate. And so I really appreciate what you're doing think I can't wait till my local theater is signed up for Showlytics and I'll be the first to subscribe.

Pankaj Raval (32:03)
Or get the notices at least, right? Get the ads and click buy. So yes, yes, absolutely. Yes.

Alvaro De La Cruz (32:03)
Appreciate it.

Sahil (32:05)
Yeah, exactly.

Yeah.

Alvaro De La Cruz (32:10)
And also, and

it's also like interesting at least from like this, city here, like sometimes, and I guess every founder probably has this where like they feel like they have some sort of imposter syndrome because I'm still not like a company is like, when do know when a company is fully started type of situation? So it's great to just get people's opinions and like know that like, even though as long as you try, it's worth the risk.

Pankaj Raval (32:31)
Yeah. And I'll also leave it with this because I think a lot of entrepreneurs, it's easy to ask for people's feedback but I think it's a fine balance between hearing people's feedback and also believing in what you're doing and how it's going to really be valuable to people. Because sometimes, not everyone can see it, especially like people who are not in it. People don't see the real potential sometimes. And, I love the quote by, ⁓ I don't know who said it, was it like Steve Jobs or someone said, you know, that if people asked Henry

he should build, they would have said faster buggies. So it's about trying to disrupt these industries, trying something new. And yeah, we really wish you the best and it's a pleasure working with you supporting you in this vision.

Alvaro De La Cruz (33:09)
Appreciate it. Have a great, have great people around me already.

Pankaj Raval (33:09)
you.

Yes, absolutely. And last question is, where do people find you? If people want to reach out to you, get in touch with you, learn more about where you're building, how do people get a hold of you?

Alvaro De La Cruz (33:18)
LinkedIn would probably be the fastest because I'm still haven't really publicly launched Showlytics in terms of getting it's been more word-of-mouth type of situation but LinkedIn and then I'll probably be launching and giving you more information about the Hollywood value podcast that I want to start so I think those two avenues are pretty

Pankaj Raval (33:36)
Awesome. Awesome. Well, thank you so much again, Alvaro. Really pleasure hearing from you and speaking with you today. we wish you the very best. Until next time, I'm hoping there'll be a next time, maybe in a year or so when you're building this out we can check back in. Best of luck building in the meantime.

Alvaro De La Cruz (33:47)
Yeah.

Sahil (33:48)
Yeah, thank you

Alvaro De La Cruz (33:48)
Awesome.

Sahil (33:49)
all for joining us on this episode of Letters of Intent. Remember to subscribe to our channel on Spotify. We're available on all social media platforms. And if you have any legal questions, make sure to connect with us. And until next time, thank you so much for listening.