Matt Sandler is a musician, entrepreneur and founder of Chromatik, a mobile startup enabling musicians to practice, learn, and share their favorite music.

I wanted to replace Macaulay Culkin in Home Alone 3.

My mom’s best friend Rochelle worked at MGM and jokingly said that I should audition for the latest Home Alone movie in ‘95. I was 8 years old. I took her seriously and got a’practicing.

In the end, Rochelle wouldn’t let me audition. She didn’t want to help in the downfall of a child actor. Not to mention, I was (and still am) awfully awkward on screen.

I’ve been intrigued by the entertainment industry ever since. That led me to playing music professionally, before jumping in the tech world. I’ve bridged the two for the last 8 years, from Chromatik and CitizenNet to KROQ 106.7FM and Capitol Records.

As I got deeper into technology, it became clearer that those two worlds didn’t see eye to eye.

“A lot of people in LA feel as though the [Silicon] Valley guys are pirates and don’t respect content. In the Valley, they feel like people coming from Hollywood are litigious and archaic. There’s truth on both sides — but now they both need each other.” – Troy Carter, Atom Factory

Many smart folks have written about Hollywood vs. Silicon Valley. Separated by only a 50 minute plane flight, the two cultures are diametrically opposed at times. Oil and water. Night and day. Lamb and tuna fish.

But none speak tactically about how tech startups should approach working with Hollywood.

Just as with Sand Hill Road, there is a method to the madness. The better you know the landscape, the better you’ll play the game. So we’re going to dig into:

Part 1 – Who to work with in entertainment?

Part 2 – Celebrities 101

Part 3 – Selling to entertainment companies

Part 4 – A 3 minute introduction to content deals

Part 5 – Is it worth working with Hollywood?

WHO TO WORK WITH IN ENTERTAINMENT

Let’s start with getting a lay of the land.

Who’s been there, done that in Hollywood? Who can help you navigate the scene? What influencers are involved with startups? What investors “get” Hollywood?

With influencers and entertainment executives living in the public eye, there’s unprecedented levels of access today. But Hollywood is tricky. It’s still largely about who you know to help get deals done. And people wear multiple hats – agents are also investors, lawyers are also entrepreneurs, and celebrities sometimes want to be an actor slash model. Not the other way around.

Here’s a look at who you should be working with:

(As a quick aside, this list is far from comprehensive and not ranked in any way. My apologies in advance to anyone I missed because I’m an idiot. Please ping me at@mattdsandler with folks that should be on this list.)

AGENTS

Agencies are typically the first touchpoint for startups in the entertainment world. They are huge organizations that broker deals for talent they represent. Lots of cooks in the kitchen. And while agents are some of the most powerful individuals in the entertainment industry, they are middlemen. Agents don’t always have close relationships with talent (a la management), and they certainly don’t have green-light ability. But agencies work with, invest in, and incubate startups frequently. So it’s a great starting place.

ICM Partners – Keyvan Peymani

Creative Artists Agency – Michael Yanover, Esther Nordlinger, Sam Kokin

William Morris Endeavor – Ari Emanuel, Dan Porter, Marc Geiger, Molly Matthiesson, Charles King, Chris Jacquemin, Jason Lublin, Avi Gandhi, Beau Bryant

United Talent Agency – David Spingarn, Brent Weinstein, Robyn Ward, Greg Goodfried, Milana Rabkin, Oren Rosenbaum , Kendall Ostrow

Paradigm – Lawrence Antoine

The Windish Agency – Tom Windish, Rob Bonstein

LAWYERS

Finding a great entertainment lawyer can help make or break your company. If you’re poking around the entertainment scene, you’re going to want to get deals done. To strategize and execute on a deal, you want someone on your side who has worked similar successful deals before. Remember, when it comes to dealmaking, the worst day in tech is still usually better than the best day in entertainment (Tim Ferriss).

Hertz, Lichtenstein, and Young – Ken Hertz

Davis Media Law – Glenn Davis

Cooley – Jennifer Massey

Myman, Greenspan, Fineman, Fox, Rosenberg, and Light – Eric Greenspan

GISPC – Joe Brenner

HJTHNWRR&K – Walter Teller

Eric Galen

ENTREPRENEURS

Some entrepreneurs have a magic touch with entertainment and media. They navigate the industry seamlessly and bring exponential benefits to their startups through creative deal-making, strategy, and product leadership. I’ve been lucky enough to know a few of these folks, and it’s not just hype. These are some entrepreneurs who have successfully fought the good fights.

Brian Lee – The Honest Co, ShoeDazzle, LegalZoom

Peter Gotcher – Digidesign, Pandora, Dolby, Jaunt

John Maloney – Circa, Tumblr

Sean Parker – Facebook, Spotify, Napster

Ian Rogers – Beats Music, Topspin

Jason Kilar – Hulu, Vessel

Ynon Kreiz – Maker Studios, Endemol

Chris Ovitz – workpop, Scopely, Viddy

George Strompolos – Fullscreen, YouTube

Miles Beckett – EQAL, lonelygirl15

Ara Katz – Jello Labs, Beachmint

Steve Raymond – Big Frame, Flux, Musicmatch

Allen DeBevoise – Machinima

Brian Norgard and Dan Gould – Chill, Ad.ly, Newroo

Jack Conte – Patreon, Pomplamoose

Tom Ryan – Pluto.tv, Threadless, Smule

TALENT

Talent is purposefully the most difficult group to access. They have blockers and tacklers, and their time is spent on many disparate creative projects. But if excited about your startup, these folks can move mountains for you.

Ashton Kutcher – A Grade Investments, Katalyst

Ellen Degeneres – The Ellen Degeneres Show, eleveneleven

Ryan Seacrest – Seacrest Productions

Robert Downey Jr – Downey Ventures

Chris Hardwick – Nerdist Industries

D.A. Wallach – Chester French, Spotify

Rachel Zoe – Zoe Media Group

Nas – Musician, Queensbridge Venture Partners

Tyra Banks – Fierce Capital

Adrian Grenier – SHFT, Wreckroom

Trevor Skeet – DJ Skeet, Spotify

BONUS – Who Represents Whom?

Want to get in touch with an influencer’s representatives? Here are a few quick ways to find the information you’re looking for:

For actors, directors, and screenwriters

Check out IMDBPro or StudioSystem. They have more information than you could imagine.

For musicians and other influencers

Check out the “Contact” page on their website. Surprisingly, they show some (if not all) the necessary information for you to reach out to their representatives.

But as always, warm introductions are the best path!

INVESTORS

It takes a special breed of investor to “get” Hollywood. Especially when you combine that with investing in early stage startups. Either these investors have been in the trenches themselves, or they’ve done enough deals around LA and NYC to know how the industry works. These are the go-to firms, if you need capital and help navigating Hollywood.

Lowercase Capital – Matt Mazzeo and Chris Sacca

Greycroft – Dana Settle and Mark Terbeek

Science – Mike Jones, Peter Pham, and Jason Rapp

Atom Factory – Troy Carter, Ty Stiklorius, and Katerina Markov

Upfront Ventures – Mark Suster and Greg Bettinelli

Plus Capital – Adam Lilling

Launchpad LA – Sam Teller

Broadway Video Ventures – David Birnbaum

Sherpa Ventures – Shervin Pishevar

MESA – Jamie Kantrowitz

Queensbridge Venture Partners – Anthony Saleh

The Chernin Group – Jesse Jacobs, Jason Bergsman, and Scott Bromley

Rustic Canyon Partners – Nate Redmond and David Travers

SV Angel – David Lee and Ron Conway

Amplify.LA – Paul Bricault, Richard Wolpert, and Jeff Solomon

YouTube – Jane Hu

Velos Partners – James Bailey and Raj Ganguly

ENTERTAINMENT COMPANIES

Most major entertainment companies — record labels, movie studios, etc — are banks these days. They finance creative projects in their domain, and (sometimes) help with distribution. Entertainment companies usually appoint an internal team to work with emerging technology startups. And, in turn, this team vets startups and helps route them to the relevant people in the organization.

David Min – Disney, Strategic Innovation

Ethan Applen – Warner Bros, Global Business Development

Hardie Tankersley – Fox Broadcasting, Digital Products, Platforms, and Innovation

Rob Wells and Carlos Adame – Universal Music Group, Global Business Development

STARTUPS

We’re not talking folks like Netflix or Spotify. Rather, these are pre-IPO companies built in the last few years, who have proven that they can make things happen in Hollywood.

WHY WORK WITH HOLLYWOOD

Now that we have the lay of the land – why does your company need to work with the entertainment industry?

Similar to the Silicon Valley “scene,” Hollywood can twist and turn you with parties, pseudo-celebrities, and more. Know what you want from the equation, or prepare to waste a lot of time in limbo.

Without solving for every scenario, below are three of the most common startup reasons to go to Hollywood:

1. We want a celebrity to drive our marketing.

2. We can help entertainment companies sell, market, or track their products more effectively.

3. We need content — movies, TV shows, music — to fulfill our product vision.

Let’s explore each reason further.

CELEBRITIES 101

YOUR APPROACH WITH CELEBRITIES

Good Approach – Finding talent to add fuel to the fire with a scaling business.

Say you have an online arm butter business. Gyms around the country buy your products, and you’re looking at $2.2mm in sales this year. Fantastic!

But now you’re thinking about how to grow even bigger. Wouldn’t Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson be the perfect endorsement? Your startup could get access to a bigger audience, with The Rock’s help. You would have access to new promotion channels and likely increased brand association with his involvement.

This is a perfect case to try to work with a celebrity. You have a real business that you’re looking to grow. The talent-product fit is exceptional. And if you construct the deal correctly, there is potential value on both sides.

Hollywood understands marketing. It’s in the air. And when used effectively, that prowess can pay enormous dividends for your startup.

Common Mistake – Talent as a main distribution strategy.

Just because a celebrity is involved, it doesn’t mean that people will buy your product. Or better said, celebrity cannot supplant product-market fit.

No celebrity can make or break your business independently. Bringing on talent can mean significant overhead and expectations, both internally and externally. Everyone wants to use their time judiciously, and that means not putting the cart before the horse.

CONSTRUCTING A CELEBRITY DEAL

Almost every consumer tech company tries some form of influencer marketing. Many folks think that celebrity endorsement is the highest form of word-of-mouth marketing. Heck, there are even great companies who sell influencer tweets (Ad.ly), YouTube promos (FameBit), and more.

But as any reasonable entrepreneur could assume, working with influencers can be complicated. There are different levels of engagement, compensation structures, and influencer responsibilities. It all depends on what you’re looking to do.

Assuming everything’s equal, here’s a rundown on the hierarchy of common startup-influencer interactions:

1. Organic influencer use.

2. Influencer co-founder to add creative input, leverage personal network, and more.

3. Influencer invests in startup, on the same terms as all other investors.

4. Influencer invests in startup, on different terms than all other investors.

5. Influencer endorses startup product for payment.

6. Influencer endorses startup product for equity.

Let’s take a deeper look…

1. Organic influencer use.

You’re in pretty good shape if you’ve organically developed a product that influencers use, value, and adore. Influencers spread the word about your company without compensation. You’re getting the best of the influencer world, without having to pony up cash or equity. Examples includeSoundcloud, Patreon, and Slideshare.

Downside Potential:

You have limited potential downside in this scenario. You live or die by the product, so focus there.

Typical Deal Structure:

Send swag, love, and respond to feature requests!

2. Influencer co-founder to add creative input, leverage personal network, and more.

In rare (read: very rare) circumstances, it makes sense to build a company alongside an influencer. The product-influencer fit needs to be exceptional, the influencer needs to commit to her responsibilities for the coming years, and the economics need to make sense for everyone involved. Compelling examples including The Honest Co (Jessica Alba), Crowdrise (Edward Norton), and Funny Or Die (Will Ferrell).

Downside Potential:

Startups are hard, man. Make sure the influencer reads Ben Horowitz’s “The Hard Thing About Hard Things” and thinks seriously about whether a startup is something she can dedicate herself to for the foreseeable future. As with any co-founder, you run the risk of the individual losing interest, not pulling her weight, or worse. And when that co-founder is an influencer, she is likely a major component of your company’s story arc for marketing, hiring, fundraising, etc. You run tremendous signaling risks if the influencer isn’t engaged and has a large equity stake.

Typical Deal Structure:

It’s co-founder status. If three founders, then 33% each, ideally vesting over 4 years. In some cases, there are deviations because of time constraints, cash considerations, or other factors.

3. Influencer invests in startup, on the same terms as all other investors.

The influencer digs your startup and wants to get involved. Instead of asking for equity or cash to get involved, she wants some skin in the game to share in the upside and align with the company team/investors. Great news. You can include her in the upcoming round of financing alongside the rest of your investors. Some recent examples include Wash.io (Ashton Kutcher, Nas, Scooter Braun), Shots (Justin Bieber, Floyd Mayweather, Omar Epps), Gobbler(John Legend, Jared Leto), and Chromatik (Bruno Mars, Overbrook Entertainment).

Downside Potential:

Just like any investor, an influencer (or business partner acting on behalf of an influencer) can behave badly.

Typical Deal Structure:

Influencers come in around $25,000 – $100,000 in check size, with rare exceptions. Also note that if an influencer invests, her business partner(s) may want to write a check too. You’ll be expected to make room in the round.

4. Influencer invests in startup, on different terms than all other investors.

Similar to the above, but the influencer would like additional compensation for the value she plans to bring to the table in marketing, promotion, and more.

Downside Potential:

This is where things get tricky. First, you run the risk of the influencer not delivering on her “additional value.” But secondly, shareholders don’t love the concept of someone getting a sweetened deal, especially when there’s questionable enterprise value coming from the influencer. Be prepared for some pushback.

Typical Deal Structure:

The best way to structure these deals is in two steps: (1) Have the influencer invest in the same vehicle as other investors; (2) Grant a milestone-based advisory role. That way, the cash investment is on the same terms as all investors, while any additional equity comes as a direct result of the influencer hitting pre-determined milestones for the company.

5. Influencer endorses startup product for payment.

These deals typically come together from a startup approaching an influencer with an opportunity to get involved. The influencer likes the product, and then the agent/manager works through an “endorsement deal.” Endorsement deals mean major bucks to influencers. YouTube stars pay rent with product endorsement money. Athletes regularly make more money off the field than on it. And popular musicians play on instruments and gear provided by companies of their choosing.

Downside Potential:

These deals are pretty low-touch. Don’t expect anything from the deal, except what you specifically carve out as the agreement deliverables. Influencers will do the bare minimum necessary to fulfill their obligations. Not out of malice, their time and attention is just spread very thin.

Not to mention, you’re spending money on an influencer without guaranteed ROI. This is a great way to burn cash quickly, if you haven’t considered the economics appropriately.

Typical Deal Structure:

These deals vary, depending on specific deliverables. Compensation can range from a few thousand dollars (social media obligations) through millions of dollars (think Beats Music – Ellen Degeneres relationship).

6. Influencer endorses startup product for equity.

Similar “endorsement deal” construct as above, but instead of cash considerations, the influencer has agreed to accept equity in the company as compensation.

Downside Potential:

This is the riskiest of all startup-influencer relationships. Influencers rarely value equity the way you do, which immediately misaligns company and influencer expectations. The influencer feels like she’s doing free-ish work for the company, while the company feels like they’re giving the influencer an arm and a leg. She believes deliverables should be minimal, and you believe deliverables should be huge. You can see where this has potential to go sideways, if you do not develop joint expectations upfront.

Typical Deal Structure:

Influencers rarely value equity the way you do, so you’re likely going to have to pony up more equity than you’d like to complete the deal. Again, the deal varies greatly, depending on the deliverables you’re looking for. But generally you’ll have an upfront option grant, with additional stock options vesting over time or by specific milestones.

BONUS – Social Stats Hack

Let me be clear — no single influencer will make your business instantly successful via social media. Success requires product-market fit, many customer acquisition paths, and much more.

Said another way, no single influencer has enough social media power to generate scalable, recurring revenue for your business in an instant.

An influencer tweet or Facebook post will not make or break your company. Sure, they can send you some great traffic. But it’s just a bump that comes and goes.

To illustrate, let’s dig into some stats.

Ever wonder how much traffic a single social media post sends? Did you know that you can grab CTR statistics via bit.ly?

Just copy and paste any bit.ly link into your browser’s address bar, and then add a “+” to the end of the URL. Voila!

Let’s imagine that you’re a food-related startup looking for an influencer. You’d like to work with a Food Network Star like Alton Brown, Guy Fieri, or Giada De Laurentiis to help promote your brand, but you’re still trying to wrap your head around possible impact of a Facebook campaign…

Giada De Laurentiis

Facebook Likes – 601k

Facebook Link and Post Link

Post Engagement – 4,206 likes / 38 shares / 84 comments

Bit.ly Stats

Post CTR – 1,207 clicks (743 directly from official Facebook link)

Guy Fieri

Facebook Likes – 451k

Facebook Link and Post Link

Post Engagement – 6,867 likes / 2,423 shares / 203 comments

Bit.ly Stats

Post CTR – 5,177 clicks (2,859 directly from official Facebook link)

Alton Brown

Facebook Likes – 613k

Facebook Link and Post Link

Post Engagement – 4.379 likes / 747 shares / 162 comments

Bit.ly Stats

Post CTR – 25,773 clicks (12,146 directly from official Facebook link)

My man Alton Brown smokes Guy and Giada in CTR, while Guy leads in social engagement.

Sure, it’s just one Facebook post. You could go investigate their reach on Twitter, Pinterest, YouTube, and more. But the point being — you now have the tool (bit.ly+ trick) to analyze trends around influencer reach and potential customer acquisition capabilities per social media channel.

The examples above aren’t the biggest stars on the planet. They’re no Kim Kardashian, The Rock, or Justin Bieber. But the general principle holds that a single influencer will not make or break your company by sheer social media brute force. Be tactical about how you engage an influencer and be reasonable about how you value social media elements of influencer campaigns.

Considerations:

Is your product-influencer fit right? Does the influencer truly buy into your vision? Or are they just working for cash and/or equity considerations? As my friend Joey Flores of Earbits put to to me – “Do they care? It’s the people who care about you and your vision that put the time in. You have to hold out for an influencer that feels that way about your company.”

Make sure that the ends justify the means. Namely, is the deal compensation justified for the expected campaign return on investment?

Is the timing right? How can you use everyone’s efforts to drive the biggest results?

SELLING TO ENTERTAINMENT COMPANIES

YOUR APPROACH WITH ENTERTAINMENT COMPANIES

Good Approach – Entertainment companies could buy your products.

When compared to most major corporations, entertainment companies are pretty ahead of the curve. Especially in marketing/advertising technology, social platforms, next-generation content distribution systems, and more.

Many startups find significant traction in selling to or working with entertainment companies. There are new movies, albums, and TV shows debuting every week — entertainment companies have products to sell and dollars to spend.

Common Mistake – You’re going to “put {insert your Hollywood company of choice} out of business.”

You’d be surprised how many Silicon Valley folks come down for meetings in Hollywood with that pitch. Just stop. You’re reinforcing stereotypes. If you want to try to put Hollywood out of business, go do it.

MAKING THE SALE

Selling your product in the entertainment industry can take two pretty clear paths — (1) B2B sales to entertainment companies; and (2) co-branded or white-label consumer tech.

1. B2B Sales to Entertainment Companies

The B2B sales process is an art unto itself. This post is long enough, we won’t talk through the intricacies of B2B sales. However, the interesting opportunity in the entertainment space is that product cycles are much quicker than most other industries, thus lending itself nicely to trying new products without much risk or overhead.

For instance, say you’ve developed a new social media analytics platform specializing in analysis of Instagram, Vine, and SnapChat. You could approach a film company, perhaps Sony Pictures, with the your pitch and a demo cycle around an upcoming movie marketing campaign. The opportunity has limited downside for Sony, potentially high impact for you, and gives you an opportunity to show what your platform can do in primetime. It’s great trial by fire.

Examples:

Next Big Sound – Started by selling directly to record labels, including Sony Music and Universal.

MobileRoadie – Started by selling directly to influencers, including Madonna and Adele.

CitizenNet – Started by selling directly to entertainment companies, including Live Nation and Summit Entertainment.

Considerations:

Is the product providing meaningful value for the entertainment company to introduce into its workflow?

How do you price your product? Per month? Per project?

Most entertainment products are in the limelight. Meaning, entertainment companies require serious “uptime” guarantees and 24/7 client support. Is the product ready? Who on your team is going to be the point person day-to-day?

2. Co-branded or White-label Consumer Tech

Hollywood develops fantastic brands that people know and love. Brands sell. Your startup wants to sell products or grow a community. Hence, co-branding or white-labeling your product with a brand ain’t such a bad idea, in certain circumstances.

For example, you see these products all over the iOS App Store:

Obviously there’s upside for both parties here. For the entertainment brand, they vastly reduce product risk in working with a technology company. And on the startup side, you’re leveraging the entertainment company’s brand and audience to help propel revenue and users.

Generally, these deals result in a technology license or revenue share agreement:

Technology License Agreement – Fee paid by the entertainment company, for license to use the technology developed by the startup.

Revenue Share Agreement – The entertainment company and the startup split the net revenue, based on a certain percentage (50/50, 70/30, etc) set forth in the agreement.

Considerations:

Who owns the technology IP going forward?

Does the agreement allow you to service multiple entertainment properties?

What does this agreement “get” your company? Revenue? Notoriety? Users? It’s likely going to be a massive undertaking, make sure you know what you want out of the equation.

A 3 MINUTE INTRODUCTION TO CONTENT DEALS

YOUR APPROACH TO CONTENT DEALS

Good Approach – You want to execute content deals.

Hollywood understands content deals. There are teams dedicated to content licensing in every major entertainment company. It’s their job to find new ways to make money with their creative IP.

Premium content is difficult to access though. As a startup, you need to prove a few things:

1. Your product has a real value proposition to users and/or content owners.

2. Your product has potential to generate real revenues for content owners.

3. You have the ability to monitor and report accurate content usage statistics.

4. You have enough cash to manage significant (relative to your vertical) minimum guarantees.

Even then, there are politics to navigate. You need the right introductions, the right deal strategy, and the right pressure points to get anything done. Otherwise the negotiation will be on the content owners’ terms and timeline — which is something that doesn’t jive well with startup budget and goals.

Develop a fantastic product, retain a great lawyer, and be patient. You’ll be able to get content deals across the finish line.

Common Mistake – You want exclusive rights to stream HBO’s Game of Thrones past seasons worldwide. Tomorrow. For free.

Not saying that you shouldn’t shoot for the moon. Anything’s possible. But do your homework. Understand your ask and the risks/rewards that come with it. The wrong ask and approach (read: entitled brat) can sink your entire deal. There aren’t that many entertainment companies that hold premium content, so don’t burn bridges.

THE BASIC CONSTRUCTION OF CONTENT DEALS

After passing the sniff test above, you’ll progress to the agreement stage, where you need a great lawyer helping you negotiate these deals. Without over-generalizing too much, here are the basic terms you need to consider going into a content agreement conversation:

Content – Are there specific titles that you’re looking to secure? Or are you looking for blanket license agreements from a content owner for their entire catalog? Exclusivity?

Minimum Guarantee – How much revenue are you willing to guarantee to the content owner upfront? Typically, your company will have to promise minimum guarantees to content owners. Meaning, you negotiate a baseline annual revenue figure that the content owner will receive from your service. MG’s are paid upfront (annually or for the entire term), and are recoupable against your actualualized revenue.

Term – How long are you looking to secure the content for? Too short, and you’re going to be renegotiating agreements before you know it. Too long, and you lock yourself into unfavorable deal terms beyond inflection points. Tough to know upfront, but as a baseline, content agreements generally run from 2-4 years.

Territory – Where are you planning on using the content? Worldwide? Asia only? North America? Content licenses, pricing, opportunities, and restrictions vary territory by territory. Very regularly content owners only have rights to license for particular territories. Be thoughtful about this, as it will materially impact every other dealpoint in your agreement.

As a former boss used to say, be warned – “The good news is that you got your deals done. The bad news is that you got your deals done.”

Once you execute content deals with entertainment companies, there’s substantial overhead. You’ll need to start producing — revenue, user numbers, etc — to support your deals. Expectations stack up quickly, and you want to make the most of your opportunity.

IS IT WORTH IT?

Take the advice above with a grain of salt. It’s coming from a guy who once thought he’d be the next Macaulay Culkin.

But really, every startup venturing to working with entertainment will have its own unique challenges. We at Chromatik have seen tremendous benefits from working with the Hollywood and are thankful to our content, musician, and entertainment partners. But there are plenty of startups with different sentiments.

At the end of the day, the choice is yours.

You’re now equipped with a few resources to help you along the way. But if you have any questions, happy to talk anything through via Twitter (@mattdsandler) or email (matt at chromatik dot com).

Thanks to Emily Sandler, Andrew Skotzko, Sam Teller, Patrick Vlaskovits, Joey Flores, Casey Armstrong, Steve Manuel, Rob Ellis, Susan Su, Keyvan Peymani, Matthew Joseph, Kelley McKinney, Nate Redmond, Adam Lilling, and Eric Galen for reading drafts of this piece. Very much appreciated!

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