From PIXAR to FLY-FUT

Its been nearly 3.5 years since i left Adidas. 2 fantastic years at Herzo came to an end. 30th of may 2017 i was heading home, back to Madrid. No job, no savings, just a promising project and lots of energy and passion, ready to hustle, ready to create and ready to shock the world. But the birth of the idea of FLY-FUT goes back to 2009 altought it wasn’t until january 2017 until i fully commited to bulding my own company. A company that will define the future of football for amateur players, a new and extend way to live the biggest sport in the world.

But this post is about how meeting Mathew Luhn changed the way FLY-FUT was built, the ingredients i took from Pixar and placed inside FLY-FUT’s DNA. April 2017, i had already handed my resignation letter to my direct supervisor and to HR when i was invited by accident to a talk session with a guy that came all over from LA. The title of the event “The Art of Storytelling”.

I had always believed in the power of the correct use of words, speed and tone of communication define 90% of the final outcome. Getting what you want and how you want it, but i a had no idea how to build a proper base of tools or process to get there.

So i sat down at that session, and the guy just blew my mind away. It was a constant “moment of clarity”, the way he explained how to communicate, how to create a solid story, how to hook people into it, how to control the speed, etc… it was just a 10 out of 10. For once in quite a large period of time i was trully facing a “ A-player” . For those of you that dont know Matthew, at 19 he was already working as a animator for th Simpsons and then he joinned PIXAR, worked for more than 10 years with Steve Jobs in building some of the best animation movies ever created.

Si there I was, listening to Matthew, trying to take nots of everything, paying my 100% attention to his words. After the session ended, i walked up ot him and introduced myself. I managed to capture his attention and right there is when i saw a business opportunity. I knew my startup would not be able to afford any salary for the first year or so… my plan was to work 90% of the time on building FLY-FUT and then a 10% booking talk-shows for matthew in spain for a commission of each talk-show.

By Sept 2017 i had already signed a contract with Matthew as his agent in Spain and confirmed 9 talkshows, 2 prestigious universities and 7 big companies where looking forward to welcome Matthew and experience the best Storytelling mastercalls ever. In the end, due to Matthew’s agenda we could not celebrate any of the shows but, life has funy ways… after a while i understood that meeting Matthew was not ment to create direct revenue from his talkshow but to really learn how to dominate and apply storytelling to FLY-FUT. So here are some of the key points i learned from Matthew, the man who worked with Steve Jobs in creating some of the best animation movies ever:

• Make the Story Memorable, make it Personal. When pitching investors or clients… make sure the story you tell is memorable, make sure they invision themselves as the main character, make sure they relate to the main character. Talk with sincere passion, communicate from your heart, be honest, be true. People love to identify themselves in stories, by making them part of the story, you are more likely to reach your goal.
• Change in the main character is what good stories are about. Think about it, Count of MonteCristo, The Godfather, Rocky… they are all guys who experienced a huge change through the story. When pitching make sure you express the change you experienced as main character of your story. Talk about when you failed, how you failed, what you discovered, what you learned and how you are using those learnings now. It will create empathy with the audience. Do not focus too much on those mistakes or you will look like a complete imbecil.
• The Ups & Downs speech technique. Good stories are never happy moments all the time or sad moments all the time. Its about creating a constant up and down in the emotions of your story. Never bring them too low or to high too often. Make sure you balance the intensity of the up and down emotional slope.

Today, nearly 4 years after i met Matthew i can say his input is still very solid in FLY-FUT. Not only in the way i was able to raise capital, but also the way we as a company talk to customers. We create a whole new experience for football fans. We record amateur football competitions with drone tech, edit the games and serve them on our app. Teams subscribe to it and enjoy their games in 2 formats. 7 min Highlight video with professional edition and the complete game without edition. They see themselves as the main character of a professional football game. We make real their dream of seeing themselves as pro players, being able to share and keep unique moments in the pitch from the best perspective ever, drone perspective. This is why PIXAR and Matthew are also part of FLY-FUT’s story.