Interview with CEO of Realvibez Media, David Mullings

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Last week I had the distinct pleasure of interviewing one of the Founders and Managing Partners of Realvibez Media, CEO David Mullings. What began as a graduate school project for brothers, David and Robert Mullings in 2002, has now evolved into Realvibez Media; a self-described integrated media and entertainment company focused primarily on Caribbean content and the delivery of that content via multiple platforms. Just last week, Realvibez Media announced that they have signed both a content distribution deal with the number one reggae music television station in the Caribbean, RE TV, and became the first official Caribbean media partner on YouTube.

David was also asked to endorse a book on entrepreneurship coming out in September titled ‘The Toilet Paper Entrepreneur’ and written by Mike Michalowicz, a frequent contributor to CNBC’s The Big Idea with Donny Deutsch. David’s testimonial is one of only four on the back cover, just below Donny Deutsch himself, possibly making him the youngest Jamaican ever asked to endorse a mainstream business book in the USA. With accomplishments of this caliber, I was more than eager to learn just who the driving forces behind RealVibez Media were, and what was their motivation.

Below is the first part of my two-part interview with David Mullings. Read Part II here (or click the link at the end of the post). You can read the entire un-edited interview here.

YFA: David, please give me a little background on your family and your upbringing? What was the atmosphere like in your home?

David: I have a brother, Robert, who is 1 year young than me and my business partner, both of us born in January, and a younger sister, Shannon, who just turned 21 on July 5th. I was born and raised in Kingston, with my father originally from Montego Bay and my mother growing up in Spaldings, Clarendon. My father is a doctor and lecturer at UWI, an Ob/Gyn and my mother is a nurse. We grew up in Hope Pastures in a household we used to think was strict, until we got older and recognized the benefits of our upbringing. The atmosphere was mainly about school and the value of education but I was also encouraged to be involved in different sports.

YFA: Growing up did you and your brother know that you always wanted to be businessmen and/or entrepreneurs?

David: Growing up we weren’t focused on long-term goals at all.

At 15 I decided that I wanted to be a positive role model for young people around the World but especially young Jamaican males. I considered 4 options for my future: a politician, a university lecturer like my father, a professional football player and being involved in entertainment. I decided against politics because of my parents request and my feeling that I would have to compromise some of my ethics to get into a position of power that could actually have influence. The lecturer idea was discarded because I decided that young people already in university didn’t need positive role models as much as those who couldn’t get into university. That left football and entertainment so I pursued both equally.

I laid out a 15-year plan broken down into blocks of 5 years, planning everything down to around when I would need to get married. At the end of the plan, I was supposed to become a positive role model and the goal was to become the Chris Blackwell of my generation. That summer, my parents got the business ball rolling because they forced us to start researching and presenting business ideas. That continued every summer and every Christmas until I was 20, when they finally said yes to one of them.

It wasn’t until my senior year that I really started to move towards business because football, my first love, didn’t look like it was going to happen.

YFA: When and how did you guys develop the idea for Realvibez?

David: I am an avid collector of kickers, Hong Kong martial arts movies, and I used to buy them directly from Hong Kong over the web. Growing up in Jamaica, I used to see all the ads for movies coming out at State Theatre but then it would say 21 and over so I could never watch them there, I would have to watch them at a friend’s house. As soon as I was old enough, I started collecting them but I would get some really crappy ones. That lead me to build my own website to review my collection, Myhongkongfilms.com, and it gained some traction. Robert was working on his Honda Civic then and the whole import scene was blowing up so we decided to launch a site that combined the films and the cars. Robert and I started the MBA program at the University of Miami in the fall of 2001 and a classmate offered to invest $10,000 in the idea but our parents countered so that we could “keep it in the family”. While at college we would dj at parties for extra money and in Christmas 2001 I was home and went out to Lime Cay with my cousin and her then boyfriend, now husband, Marc Gayle.

Marc knew I was into video because I had just spent the summer shooting my own mini-movie with friends just for the fun of it. He asked why we didn’t create a video website and let Epidemik create mixes for it. We went through all the people we knew in the industry and decided to follow up. The seed was planted and when I got home, I spent 4 hours working on a preliminary business plan including long-term strategy and the kinds of subsidiaries we would eventually have. I then called Robert and pitched him the idea, he was sold. Then I had to present to my father and he loved the idea so he chose the name right then and we registered it. The site officially launched on February 1st 2002 and has had major ups and downs since then.

YFA: Having been exposed to what I’m sure, has to have been a wide range of entrepreneurial possibilities and ventures, what made you choose Caribbean media?

David: The original business plan for Realvibez was based on creating a Viacom or Virgin owned by Caribbean people. We felt that we could bring authenticity as a venture run by people actually born and raised in Jamaica. The Caribbean entertainment industry was  It was also the first venture our parents agreed to fund and it so happens that we knew people in the industry, having gone to the same school as 3 members of T.O.K., knowing Wayne Marshall, living up the road from Esco and being next-door neighbours with Blaxx the producer.

When Realvibez launched, Reggae music was generating over US$1 billion in revenue per year but only a few hundred million made it back to Jamaica, probably less than $300 million. The opportunity to build an organization that would leverage the community around that while becoming the hub and helping to grow the pie while steering more back into the pockets of the musicians and producers was exactly the kind of challenge we were looking for.

YFA: Once you guys decided to go forward with Realvibez what business models, mentors, sources of inspiration did you look to? Did you use traditional funding methods?

David: Our parents started us off with $10,000 but with a twist. They didn’t give us the money upfront, they offered to absorb our living costs up to that amount and we would have to get regular jobs and use the paychecks to fund the venture. The reasoning was that it would teach us the value of that money so that we wouldn’t waste it since we knew how hard it was to earn. We thank them for that lesson regularly.

Richard Powell Jr., our God-brother, has been the second most influential person when it comes to our way of doing business, the way we talk, present ourselves, negotiate deals and approach growing the venture. His has had the most influence on the architecture and concept of the whole idea. We consider him the head of our advisory board. We have two of our MBA professors on the advisory board - one who teaches entrepreneurship and one who teaches marketing. Other mentors include Earl Jarrett, the General Manager of Jamaica National Building Society, the largest mortgage company in Jamaica - his advice on business, the questions he asks and the support he has given us over the years makes him the single most supportive business person of Realvibez in the Caribbean. Emile Spence, my former boss, and now General Manager of JN Global which runs JN Money Transfer plays an integral role, especially in marketing advice and strategic partnerships. The two remaining people in our immediate circle are Richard Lue, who has worked in senior levels with Air Jamaica and the Jamaica Tourist Board and Marlon Hill, our lawyer and one of my role models. We also look to the traditional figures such as Warren Buffett, Bill Gates, Richard Branson and Chris Blackwell.

I would say that Richard Powell Jr., Richard Branson and Warren Buffet provide the most inspiration for us. Our mentors and advisors also supply us with a book list and we subscribe to magazines like Harvard Business Review, Fortune and Inc. magazine.

YFA: What struggles or obstacles have you faced establishing yourselves? How have you dealt with them?

David: (1) Our age works against us. Many people just don’t think some guys in their 20’s could be doing anything meaningful (2) In America, our ethnicity can be a drawback in some cases and it just combines with the age to make it tougher (3) In Jamaica, some of the Jamaicans don’t take us seriously because of the age, the “uptown” label can play against us at times and the potential Jamaican investors don’t seem to be interested in what we are doing. The hardest part has been convincing other people to invest in the company and our vision. We have dealt with that by continuing to bootstrap, executing our strategy diligently, polishing our business plan and financial projections and hiring a strategic advisory firm based in New York run by middle-aged White Americans that will present on our behalf to potential investors.

YFA: You guys currently have merchandising deals with Caribbean artists Cezar and T.O.K., can you tell me exactly how that works? Does that mean we’ll soon be able to purchase T.O.K. shirts and things of that nature?

David: Exactly right. We are negotiating deals with multiple artists with a view to doing a wide range of merchandise, just like what American artists have for sale. The first products will be posters, then t-shirts. Additional products will come soon after and everything will be for sale via the Realvibez store which is powered by Amazon.com and also whenever the artists go on tour. Realvibez invests all the capital to produce the merchandise - photo sessions, graphic design, production, marketing and sales. Robert is in charge of that unit. The artists benefit because they can finally leverage their fan base without risking their own money.

Click here to read Pt. II of my interview with David Mullings.

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• Pt II: Interview with Realvibez CEO, David Mullings (3)