Colin Kaepernick’s AI Startup Lumi and the Future of Storytelling
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We all have stories to tell, but sometimes we need a little help with the telling. Perhaps were not great getting started, or building characters, or drawing all the pictures that might fill out that story. What if A, A, I could help with all of .

that I found the category of I am not an expert writer um i'm also not an expert illustrator. No one would buy my book if I was the one .

that's calling caporal the former nfl quarterback LED the santa ceco forty nine years for six seasons outside the world of football. He's probably best known for his twenty sixteen civil rights protests when he took a knee during the national to announce racial injustice and police brutality.

This summer, he launched looming an A I platform that aims to empower all creators to tell stories by giving them tools they might, not others SE have access to. The company is backed by radical founder Alexis oh anian venture capital firm seven, seven, six from the wall street journal. This is the future of everything.

I'm charlock garden burg. today. We're bringing new W, S, J. Reporter entered Beata's conversation with calling cronic from W S J tech life. They spoke about the launch of luny and how cabinet s time as a star quarterback activist in the limelight, ke and children's book author have informed his mission and his approach as a CEO that's after the break.

Here's W, S, J.

reporter and repeats s conversation with Colin capri from W, S, J, tech light last month. This interview has been edited for time and clarity.

so as you know, on the football guy.

not to tech expert.

So can you explain what is looming and what can users do with IT?

yeah. So loomis mission, we are trying to democratize story telling. And what we help creators do is take an idea or a concept of a story and turn that into a finish product. So helping everything from character development, ideation create a manuscript image generation, or for illustrators, give their art workup, and then turn that into a final comic on graphic novel to start and will expand.

generous from there. And you use the word democratized, so much of what you've done in the business world lines with your social justice visions. How does looming fit into that idea?

Yeah one of the things that actually found building a media company and building a publishing company was that craters actually aren't in a great position to succeed. Um long production timelines, high production costs. Most creators don't own the work that they're actually creating and don't see long term benefit of IT. So as we were trying to solve these issues on the media company and publishing company side, we saw the opportunity with AI to help creators bridge some of the skill gaps they may have and help them build independently. So we actually think this will open up the fund for hooking, create and the stories that actually can be created.

And you know, some of the concerns about AI have come from specialists like, say, a graphic designer or an illustrator who's afraid that they could be phased out of their job from, say, illustrators, a graphic novel or a children's book. If you heard that feedback and what's you're sort of response to lay those fears, we have definitely .

heard that feedback as we've talked to creators and really trying to get their insights of where their concerns, where are their opportunities and really what they view the future as. And I think the key pace that ank is actually going to be a little bit ironic in this situation. I think the very thing that people are nervous about replacing them in a lot of corporate positions is actually going to be the very thing that gives them much more freedom and independence to be able to create what they want and how they want to do. IT.

it's interesting in speaking of children's books. You're out with a new one just recently. We are free, you and me.

Did you use gloomie at all when you are looking for that? Or how have you use looming at all for personal use? If not there?

We started the process for we are free long before the idea of lemi, which speaks a little bits of production timeline. Ines, I mean, there was over a two year process from contract sign to book out. Um how i've actually used looming in recent days outside of testing the form, making sure everything's working for the creators were serving, is actually with my wife and daughter creating a story for a little black and egyptian girl. There are not a whole other stories like that out there. So we are now actually able to create our family and a story, create stories of her overcoming obstacles that's actually gonna a interesting use case that were to see the personalization of stories in a way that we just have them before.

And when those stars are being personal. Ed, this is looming like helping spit out the words of the images that go along with what the ideas you guys are coming up with. And as you work with IT.

yeah so IT will help with creating us as characters. What if we actually described as what's our physical appearance? What type of clothing do we wear? Do we have back stories? And then also on the idea I found the category of I am not an expert writer, um I am also not an expert illustrator.

No one would buy my book if I was one illustrating IT. So I get help on the invigoration side, but I will put our characters in the scene IT will help create dialogue that I can then go in and edit. And we can also put the teams in that we want.

So my wife may say, know what? We want our daughter to overcome this obstacle, or we want this to be something that builds confidence for her in this story. And we can actually .

create that calling cap next, warn a lot of hats he still does. How of all these experiences informed being the founder and CEO of an AI company that's after the break?

These days, you have an AI start up media company of publishing business in addition to all of the show topic endeavors that probably take up even more of your time between all of this. Do you still find time to train and hope that in n fell team might come calling, even though it's been almost eight years now since you have played in the league?

Yeah, I still wake up every morning and train. So i've actually had to just my my schedule little bit, which this sounds saying this out loud sound sounds a little bear. But I get up at three thirty and I started my workday and then I go to my training and I actually found that I have to do the early morning work once.

So when i'm on the west coast, i'm ahead of car for everybody has some east coast, so I can keep replies and answers back quicker and then go do my training and then start the rest of my work day. But I still trained every day. I still trained the way I was while I was playing, making sure them ready at. And he gave me a moment.

What i've found sort of fascinating about your arc is that even after you have left the nfl, the protest continue to gain momentum, even when you weren't on the field in ways that at me as a reporter, I kind of never saw coming. And one of those moments I can remember exactly where I was and how I just screamed LED to a laptop when I heard that to start writing stories about IT was the moment that at a stump speech in alabama, then president Donald trump was talking about what he would do with a protest tester. You remember when you first heard that, and what was going through your mind about the way this was being digested by both the guy who who is the president in the united states, but also a lot of the public.

is actually, for me, much easier to analyze. Now, looking back what would have been seven years ago, I think one of the key elements that is important to think about in relation to that moment is what does that actually mean to, at that point, have a then sitting president being willing to target an individual citizen and using the power of their office, the power of their influence, to be able to try to minimize an individual in their aspirations. So thinking back to that moment, I also think place really prevalent into where we are at today and the future that we decide .

to build together in another one of those moments that sticks out in my head as a moment that was moving for some people, polar ized for others, was in twenty twenty, in the wake of moments like George floyd. And you saw there was people nearing at protest across the country and is a striking enough moment that Roger cadel, even though he didn't say your name, he said we were wrong to not listen to players on these subjects earlier. Why do you think this message, even though IT has been polar ized, has resonated among some people for so long? Given that we're now years past when you started doing IT in twenty sixteen.

I think the fundamental piece of IT is should people be able to live a Better life and should people be able to live without the threat of death like that, fundamentally is the basis of this. And if we take a step further, should people be discriminated against because of the color of their skin, or because of their religion, or because where they live, or because of their national economic status? I think that kind of fundamental baseline and moral baseline is what has helped IT really have staying power because I think majority of people can look at instances and say, you know what, people should be treated fairly. They should be treated justly, and they should be given the opportunity to succeed and thrive in the best way that they can.

How have all of these experiences, whether it's quarterbacking a team on a super ball run, whether it's dealing with there's probably half a country that loves you, have have a country that hates you. How have all of these experiences inform you and your experiences a CEO now that you're running a business in this space? Yeah thinking about past experience.

this is a quarter bag things i've been through and how IT relates to building the company. I think the first one that immediately jumps out is that people are the most valuable thing that you will ever have. And I ve found that true.

And playing on a super boy team, I found IT true and building lomi, I found IT true and building. No, your rights are foundation. If you have great people around you, you will do great things, even if your plan is a little bit fuzzy.

If you have the best plan in the world and you don't have the right people in the room, your plan does not matter. So people, number one and number two, I would say just the resilience to keep going. Things will not always be pretty. They will not always be perfect. They're not going to be how you plan them, but the ability to continue to push through adversity and obstacles that come your way to me is extremely valuable and a key factor and ultimately getting to success.

And I know there's a head coach, general manager, a tea owner, but a lot of people feel like the quarterback is really the guy who is in charge of that locker room, that team. Are there. What similarities or differences do you see between being at a CEO and that type of guy who has to lead a room of fifty summer men into battle on a sunday? I should .

think is probably much more applicable um to a startup company in the early days because you are in the trenches and in there with the dev all day, every day of executing and delivering and problem solving in real time. That's very much like solving problems on the field. Now when I think of like our foundation where it's more establish we've existed over more period of time, you still have that experience. But you also have teams that are now executing their more fully formed, which then feels a little more like the head culture gm counter roll. Even though you try to stay as close to the ground of Operations as possible, there is a level of stepping back that you have to do and giving people space to execute.

Plus, as A C, E, O, at least you're not getting sect.

Yes, you you do not have to dodge three hundred pound people running at you while trying to execute .

the schedule you had mentioned earlier. Waking up at three thirty just completely blows my mind, given that I don't have the last time I was awake at that hour either falling asleep or waking up. But does the riggers of those crazy days of having a icr body than practice, then going the cold tub again? Is the time management that you've learned as an nfl quarter or back help you today?

Absolutely is an interesting piece. I've actually talked to a decent amount of athletes about, which is when you stop playing, your schedule changes so drastically and that structure and organization that you had on daily basis is no longer there that most people start trying to figure out, how do I actually rebuild that into my day to day life? So for me, I try to keep a very structured schedule because it's what I know.

I know IT is how I Operate best at this point. Since then, playing football since I was eight years old and almost thirty years of do with IT and twenty eight at this point. So that is something that so familiar to me and thinking relation to like building a company very much feels like being in training cap, where from the time you wake up to the time you go to sleep, you are in IT all day, every day, there are days that you wake up.

Your tired and exhausted is like, what do we have to accomplish today? And you continue to push through that. And the beauty of that is your team is also the people that help you get through those days where it's like today's a difficult one. That kind of rigor and discipline to continue to push forward definitely .

is applicable. The future of everything is a production of the wall street journal. This episode was produced by me, Charlottenburg, Michael level and just coffin, our our sound designers and rote artha music like the show. Tell your friends and leave us a five star review on your favorite platform. Thanks for listening.