TRANSCRIPT: March 30, 2026 — Strategy & Direction
Participants: Debbie McGrath, Ewing Gillaspy, John Kelly
Duration: 37 minutes
Source: Fireflies ID 01KMZMBANV6TW9NFG27GVXGET3
KEY DECISIONS MADE
- Three separate asset tracks confirmed (domain / media / MyPeople)
- Domain sale runs first — simplest, highest value
- 90-day engagement window
- Fee range 5-8% discussed
- John Kelly as interim CEO/mentor for MyPeople
- Wednesday follow-up after 3:30 PM ET (Ontario time zone)
- Debbie has Bambora data access (free intent data appending)
- Tim Glory / Sierra Ventures connection for MyPeople
- Informa REMOVED from buyer list (being sold themselves, also trying to sell Debbie an asset)
- Jason Corcello is Debbie's next call (track outcome)
- Domain broker Andrew Miller at 10% — coordinate on multi-asset buyers
- Hip surgery Wednesday — limited availability
- Red-eye flight tonight, won't review materials until Tuesday
DEBBIE'S KEY QUOTES (March 30)
- "Selling just the domain name is kind of the simplest, easiest, and probably the highest value right now"
- "When people try to buy the HR.com business with the domain name, they don't value the domain name as much as they should"
- "Workday is being very difficult to work with and not letting anybody get their data out. They're saying if you want AI, you have to buy our AI level"
- "Clients are going to just be sick of waiting for these guys to catch up"
- "If somebody like a Workday buys it, they should keep it separate and run it as their independent layer of AI that goes to everybody"
- "Informa is actually on the market to be sold themselves"
- "I can get you all that data for free" (re: phone numbers, through Bambora)
- "All that data is going to be free everywhere soon"
- On My People: "We're like 7 million in revenue now"
- "Silicon Valley funding people want young people. They don't want us."
JOHN KELLY'S KEY QUOTES (March 30)
- "If you have somebody coordinating all those things together with a holistic view, one plus one plus one equals six or seven"
- "Selling the domain is the easiest thing of all. We can go out there and find $15 million and run with that pretty quick"
- On interim CEO: "I can sit down and talk about that a lot more detail"
- "I'd like to meet them" (the two internal candidates)
- Re Tim Glory: "He's one of the founding partners [at Sierra]. He'll know you in some form or another."
FEE STRUCTURE DISCUSSED
- Ewing: "Highest I would go is 8 with no engagement fee"
- Range discussed: 5-8%
- Only 10% for companies under $5M total value
- Domain broker at 10% (negotiated from 20%)
- Need to coordinate with domain broker on multi-asset buyers
- Debbie concerned about tail clause — wants clear tracking system
TAIL CLAUSE DISCUSSION
- Debbie: "90 days is really not that great if you have a clause like that"
- Ewing: "We would want to be able to finish deals that we start"
- Ewing: "We're not going to play games... we sent them a letter and they never responded, now you close them six months later? No way."
- Debbie: needs tracking system, open and honest documentation
- Ewing committed to: dashboard showing all contacts, transcripts, meeting notes — "unedited, for you to just inspect"
MYPEOPLE DETAILS
- Debbie has two internal candidates for CEO (both men, technology founders)
- Wants John to mentor them, not replace them
- Currently funded by HR.com at $250K/year
- 6-7 target accounts for immediate onboarding
- Need 3-5 enterprise contracts to show revenue growth
- Tim Glory at Sierra Ventures — John's contact, founding partner, HR tech investor
STRATEGIC CONTEXT
- Four sales tracks: domain only, media, MyPeople, full package
- Most buyers will want 2 of 3 assets
- Media + domain most likely bundle
- Only SAP-size companies would see value in all three
- Big players buying domain to create independent AI layer
- Oracle's Larry Ellison buying media properties
- Workday, SAP, Oracle all doing "lip service" on AI
- Clients frustrated with closed ecosystems
WEDNESDAY DELIVERABLES NEEDED
- Updated dealroom site with operator positioning
- Simplified engagement options
- Audited buyer list (Informa removed)
- Dashboard/tracking system demo
- Follow-up after 3:30 PM ET