The Pitch

Format: 21-Minute Dark-Comedy Series
(workplace, family, female-driven; dark comedy)

LOGLINE
Our protagonist Olivia Grassi is a young tech entrepreneur forced to restart her life after public fallout from a sexual harassment lawsuit leaves her jobless and friendless.

The Concept

Our story follows Olivia Grassi, a young tech executive and co-creator of the world's most successful dating app.

Did we mention she's the youngest founder in Silicon Valley?

But when a romantic relationship with her business partner sours, Olivia is fired without proper cause. In response to being told that "a female co-founder as young as you makes the company look bad", Olivia files a sexual harassment lawsuit against her former business partners, and before long finds herself jobless, broke, and forced to move back with her family: her deadbeat dad, played by Larry Hankin (Breaking Bad, Seinfeld, Billy Madison); her knit-picky mother, played by Heather McPhaul (Silicon Valley, Veep, Dexter); and her annoying twin brother, played by Louie Torellas (Emmy-Award Winning actor seen in Law and Order, Miracle Boys).
With support from her family and best friend, Shane, Olivia pursues her dreams in defiance of the all-too-common hurdles women face in the workplace. Taking on inappropriate comments, sexual advances and harassment, Olivia's journey is ultimately grounded in overcoming the odds and defying other's expectations.
The pilot reaches it's climax when Olivia finds herself fending off the advances of a creepy billionaire more intent on dating her than working with her. The finale ends with Olivia realizing that she must take matters into her own hands if she wants to own her business on her own terms.
Appland humorously depicts the dark realities and difficulties experienced by women in male-dominated industries. Some of the obstacles encountered by Olivia include: gender discrimination, systematic patriarchal oppression, and sexual harassment.
All of the scenarios portrayed in the series are based on actual events and situations actor/creator Lauren Francesca experienced as a female entrepreneur in the tech and entertainment industries.
Darkly comedic and sometimes uncomfortably funny, Appland is directed by series co-creator and actor Dennis Feitosa.

The Themes

Self-Reliance — The unique portrayal of the harassment many people receive in normal day-to-day business interactions is an integral part of Appland. Lauren (actor/creator of the series) uses her experiences as a female business owner in the male-dominated tech and entertainment industries to show what it's like being the only woman in the room. And so, as Olivia makes her way through the common hurdles women experience in the workplace, she discovers she must pursue her ambitions on her own terms, and in her own way.
The Female Identity — The idea of the modern female identity is explored through all facets of work, friendship, and family. These uniquely connected lenses influence Appland’s creative storytelling style. Olivia's business relationships with toxic male co-workers who see her as an object paint a harsh portrait of what a woman can often experience in the workplace. On the other hand, we have Olivia's close relationship with her gay best friend Shane and her family, who give her the love and support she needs to accomplish her dreams. And so, through personal growth resulting from a series of traumatic experiences, Olivia realizes that she is the only one responsible for her success.
The Female Experience — As a young female business leader in a male-dominated industry, Olivia experiences a vast array of inappropriate workplace situations that undermine her as a business person, simply due to her gender. As a result, she is not seen as a serious entrepreneur by some of her male peers, a sentiment we see in her meetings with Alan and other investors. Having her business associates' inappropriate sexual desires constantly thrust upon her makes Olivia livid and frustrated—a struggle many working women experience daily. Olivia also struggles with prevailing and undermining thoughts that base a woman's professional importance on her appearance, and the assumption that a woman defending herself against an unwanted advance makes her overly sensitive—and to some, an enemy to men. Many American women often feel objectified at the whim of the powerful men who control the trajectory of their careers. Olivia fights back against this pattern, as she spends the series coming to grips with her ambitions and the ever present glass ceiling she strives to shatter.

Main Characters

Born and raised in Pasadena, California, Olivia grew up a straight-A student. Her interest in computer science took her from her college marketing classes to Silicon Valley. There, she became one of the founders of iDate, the most used dating app in the world. As the youngest female founder in Silicon Valley, Olivia became a symbol for women pursuing their dreams in the male-dominated tech industry. But after her relationship with iDate's co-founder Mitchell goes bad, she finds herself jobless, broke, and forced to move back in with her family to start over. To this end, Olivia finds herself in the unfamiliar position of having to regain her independence after becoming very successful at an early age. While unsure of herself, and often too nervous for her own good, Olivia initially gets help from her family and friends, before realizing that the only person who can pull herself out of her hole is, indeed, herself.

Born in Brooklyn, New York, Fred began his training in acting and the violin as a child. It didn't take long for him to become a day-player on Broadway. Even before high school graduation, Fred earned $200 a week from his performances. He met his wife JoAnne working on a Broadway show, and the two immediately connected. Throughout the years, Fred worked in advertising, film, and television, and at this point in his career Fred dedicates his time to writing, producing and directing community theater shows that make no money. Behind his crusty exterior, Fred is Olivia's biggest supporter, and he often does everything in his power to make his daughter happy. Olivia greatly trusts her father's judgment, and she admires him for his creative and artistic mind. Although he is subtler part of this first episode, Fred's role will grow as the series progresses, especially when he helps Olivia make a life changing decision in the second episode.

Shane and Olivia met in middle school and have been best friends ever since. Their friendship has since grown into an inseparable bond. Shane is Olivia's confidant, and she often takes his advice as the right thing to do. This has led her down some awkward paths, as we see in the first season of Appland. Shane’s ideas and suggestions inspire Olivia to take the next step in her life. He also sets her up with a meeting with Alan, both of which cause Olivia to face unfortunate workplace harassment. But even through his flawed advice and favors, Shane guides Olivia down the right path by helping her realize she has to go out and conquer the world in her own terms. Unknown to Olivia, she has more than enough reasons not to trust Shane. He has pretended to be gay for most of their friendship, and continues the charade so he can be close to the one woman he loves.

Supporting Characters

JoAnne is an overly affectionate and loving mother who can be smothering at times. Her need to be thought of in high regard often causes her to exaggerate the stories, facts and details about her life. She would rather lie to someone than have them find out the truth. Joanne's old-school mentality often leads her to clash with her daughter.

Andy, Olivia’s brother, was born thirteen minutes after his sister, permanently giving him youngest child syndrome, despite the fact that they are twins. He often competes with Olivia for parental attention, and tries his best to convince everyone he's more successful than his slightly sister. But Andy's success is not be as real as he would like everyone to think.

Alan is a billionaire hedge fund owner who likes to invest in female-led businesses. A self-made man, Alan made his first million running a stocks operation out of a boiler-room in Long Island. He eventually made his way to the West Coast, where he became a venture capitalist. Alan marches to his own tune, but his meeting with Olivia will drastically change his life and hers.

Mitchell, Olivia's ex-boyfriend, co-founded iDate with Olivia and his younger brother Aaron. He is a very passionate, and emotional, young entrepreneur who has been known for losing his cool in iDate's office from time to time. Mitchell will be a constant plague in Olivia's life, doing harm to her new ambitions from close and afar.

Episodes

Episode 1 — Pilot

Young tech entrepreneur Olivia Grassi has hit rock bottom. She’s been dumped by her boyfriend/business partner, ousted from the tech company she helped create, and she's spending all her money on a lawsuit against them, both. She moves back home to Pasadena, California, where her best friend Shane suggests she creates a new dating app to get her life back on track. Olivia goes on a series of meetings to pitch her new dating app, but fails miserably because everyone she meets is terrified of her. Frustrated, but not out of the game, Olivia gets help from Shane and her family to make another attempt at selling her app. This time she gets set up with one of the biggest venture capitalists in the world, Alan Stevenson. However, this opportunity doesn’t go far when Alan sexually harasses Olivia, and asks her to sign an NDA before agreeing to work with her. Rushing out of Alan's office, Olivia runs into Luke, who comforts her until her best friend Shane comes to her aid.

Episode 2 — The Real Job

Olivia continues to work on her new app while taking a job as a marketing director at a pregnancy app called "Baby Bump". She is the only person in the office who is not pregnant, which creates some humorous tension between her and the other employees at the start up. Olivia helps her dad clean the attic, and Fred suggests she pretend to be pregnant to more easily relate to the women. Olivia pretends she's pregnant, but her plan backfires and gets her fired. Luke comforts her and convinces her to keep trying. Meanwhile, we discover that Shane has actually been lying about being gay to Olivia for years because he's in love with her.

Episode 3 — The Frat House

Olivia continues to develop her new app while working a new job as head of marketing for a sports app called "The Pitch". She is the only woman in the office, which operates very much like a frat house. Struggling to get the approval of her co-workers, Olivia goes shopping with her mother, JoAnne, who suggests her daughter pretend to be “one of the guys”. Olivia takes her mother's advice, and it works, but not the way she expected. Many of the men in the office now tap her on the butt and discuss disgusting things with her, like the Men’s bathroom. Luke gives her some tips, but Olivia eventually decides to quit. Meanwhile, we find new insight into Shane's life of lies: he's not even a doctor.

Episode 4 — The Conference

Olivia attends a tech conference in San Francisco, hoping to make new contacts to help her sell her app. Once again, she's one of the few businesswomen at the conference. She takes a series of meetings, which go reasonably well. She also visits booths, where the majority of the displays are run by model-looking women. After running into Alan, Luke, Mitchell and Aaron, Olivia has a bad exchange with one of the models, and leaves the conference area to meet with her brother, who's been texting her the whole time. Olivia reluctantly agrees to take Andy around the convention center, where they have vastly different experiences. In almost every meeting, the men address Andy and not Olivia. Meanwhile, Andy is approached by every woman he walks past, and flirts with every single one of them. At the end of the day, Olivia has a speaking engagement, which goes terribly wrong when one of the models accuses Andy of touching her inappropriately. Meanwhile, we find the root of Shane's big lie to Olivia in their first few meetings years ago.

Episode 5 — The First Step

Olivia is following up with investors she met at the convention, but she is receiving a lack of response and interest. People still have a very negative image of her due to the lawsuits and negative PR she's received. She goes out for a family dinner with Luke and runs into one of the investors she met at the convention. Lara Clark, Alan Stevenson's nemesis, informs Olivia that she wanted to get back to her, but has been very busy. JoAnne invites Lara to sit at their table, and she agrees. What ensues is a series of embarrassing family moments and outbursts that seemingly make Olivia look bad. This is punctuated by Olivia seeing Shane at the restaurant on a date with a girl. At the end of the dinner, even with all the crazy family dynamics, Lara tells Olivia she will invest in her company…if she gets rid of Luke.

Episode 6 — The Start Up

We follow Olivia as she finds an office to rent and hires the first few employees of "Emma". She mostly hires her family and friends to help her out: Fred is the event coordinator, JoAnne runs social media, Andy heads the business development side, and Shane runs public relations. What ensues is an absolute and obsolete mess. Fred, Joanne, Andy and Shane all fight for more power and influence within their positions, and refuse to take direction from Olivia. Once again, finding herself very frustrated, Olivia fires all of them by first day’s end. She gets a call from Lara checking in at the end of the day, but the only thing Lara is concerned about is whether Olivia has broken up with Luke. And so, Olivia sets out to do just that.

Episode 7 — The Business Trip

Olivia and Shane go to New York to meet with a group of investors and a number of companies that will help them develop and market "Emma". Throughout the trip, we see Shane struggle to keep his big lie to Olivia under wraps. It's especially difficult for him to do so because they're sharing the same room. Olivia confides in Shane about her breakup, and everything that's happened since then. He badly wants to make a move, but he can't because of the situation. Shane invites Olivia out to change the mood, and she says she wants to go to a gay club. Shane is put in an awkward position, and nearly reveals his big lie to Olivia.

Episode 8 — The Coup

Olivia returns home, only to discover that Andy is attempting a hostile takeover of the company, Fred is using company money to hire actors to perform his next play, and JoAnne is using the company's social media budget to promote her personal accounts. Olivia must put out these fires to save the company, which is already hanging by a thread. Adding to Olivia’s predicament, Lara is putting immense pressure for an official Valentine's Day app launch, which every developer has told Olivia is impossible. Shane, who is planning to tell Olivia the truth and propose to her on Valentine's Day, comes up with the solution, but at the cost of his romantic surprise.

Episode 9 — The PR Campaign

Olivia embarks on a media campaign to promote "Emma". She goes on a series of television show interviews and is grilled about the sexual harassment lawsuit against "iDate", and the fact that she hired mostly her family and men to run an app that's markets itself as "for women, by women". During one of her media appearances, she is ambushed by Mitchell and the two have a very heated exchange. Alan is brought on as guest on another show, and the two have a very awkward exchange. On her third media appearance, Olivia is confronted by Luke. Her family is behind the scenes causing trouble, while one of Shane's exes is expecting a favor because she helped him book Olivia on all of the shows. Meanwhile, Shane is almost caught redhanded by Olivia in the green room.

Episode 10 — The Launch

"Emma" is launched. And what follows is a firestorm of defeat. The app almost instantly receives negative reviews on the app store and every media outlet that covered the release. The in-office family dynamic goes off the rails as everyone tries to put out fires on the development, business and PR fronts. The tension escalates when it becomes clear that a competitor with the exact same concept launched the day before. After some digging, Olivia discovers that the company running the competing dating app is in fact the maternity app developer she previously worked for. They stole the project she had left on her laptop and developed it without her. She and Shane plan to break into the maternity app's office to steal their project back. The police arrive and we end the season with one of the female cops recognizing Shane, and outing him to Olivia.

Season 2 Concept

Olivia is in the middle of yet another massive scandal, as she and Shane are being penned as the Pussycat Bandits. Making them infamous for stealing secret data from tech start ups and established companies. All this while her new start up "Emma" is floundering. Olivia must regroup to figure out how to save her company and her reputation. And Shane, well, he must figure out new and creative ways to convince Olivia he's gay.

Production Details

5-Day Production - 4 days shooting, and 1 pickup/b-roll day.
Shot on sound stages at the YouTube Space in New York and Los Angeles.
Two-camera coverage on Red Epic Heliums.
Created and co-written by Lauren Francesca and Dennis Feitosa, and based on real experiences from women in the tech industry.