Anjulei Aurelio

Dude Perfect raised $100M for global biz expansion. The deal is getting lots of buzz, but our team’s math signals challenges ahead. Let’s break it down… DEAL DETAILS • $100 - 300M growth capital investment • Led by Highmount Capital • Unclear if 100% invested upfront OR draw down of commitment over time • No previous capital raised USE OF FUNDS • Hire mgmt team to expand biz • More live experiences incl int’l tour, consumer products • Grow content formats, frequency, channels, global localization e.g. animation, TV, movies, streaming • Extend brand beyond 5 founders by building talent network • New HQ in Frisco, TX as prod facility and “family-friendly entertainment destination”: – Retail store, podcasts / gaming / fan UGC spaces, trick shot tower, DP museum, mini golf, restaurants – Original plans for 3-story, 30 acre facility est to cost $100M+, 2 yrs to build COMPANY OVERVIEW: Dude Perfect • Digital-native comedy and sports media brand • Faith-based mission: “We’re about giving back, spreading joy and glorifying Jesus Christ”  • Other YouTube franchises: “Stereotypes,” “Overtime”, “Bucket List”  • Media brand also incl books, mobile games, board games and toys, and merch / retail / food and beverage partnerships • 25 current team members PERFORMANCE HIGHLIGHTS • 60M YouTube Followers, 17B views • Est 2024 revenue: $50M per DP • Est 2023 and 2022 revenue: $25M and $20M per WSJ  • Consumer product partnerships incl Nerf toy line, Columbia Sportswear • Partnered with A Parent Media co to launch a streaming service • ESPN “30 for 30” doc premiering at Dallas Int’l film festival • TV series on CMT in 2016, later aired on Nickelodeon • Alternate broadcasts for Amazon’s Thursday Night Football • 4 live nationwide tours as of 2023 ORIGIN STORY • Founded 2009 by 5 friends at Texas A&M • Cofounders = twins Coby Cotton and Cory Cotton, Tyler Toney, Cody Jones, Garrett Hilbert • Started as YT channel featuring trick shot videos INVESTOR OVERVIEW: Highmount Capital • Growth stage and middle mkt PE fund for tech, media, healthcare • Founded in 2023 by jason illian and David Hawkins • 4 team members on website + advisor • 3 team members have faith-based ties per bios • No other investments listed on website other than DP My takeaway... I really like and support the trend of increased investment into YouTubers and digital-native media brands. But as I wrote about in my 2024 State of Creator x Media capital markets reports (will link them below), investment must match market and opportunity size. To ensure good ROI, and to set good precedent for future investment into our space. The DP bet is exciting, but could be overly optimistic based on our prelim math. My colleague Michael Booth's post breaks the math down (link below). More analysis to come in my Friday newsletter. —- I’m the founder of RockWater Industries. We do m&a and strategy advisory for media, agencies, and creator economy. My dm’s are open. #media #agency #creatoreconomy

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The Neighborhood Studios team spent the last few days thinking about our new idea pipeline and its output. Tons of thoughts on this after being in a venture studio for 2 years. Here are some summary stats... - 1,750 new (raw) ideas considered per year. - 110 of those are given a second glance. - 66 of those are seriously considered. - 10 of those become experiments...real products in the hands of customers. - 2 of those are spun-out into studio companies. What the studio team has been discussing over the past few days is that 66 number. That's the number of ideas that 3 people on the team can dig into every year. Venture studios can be perceived as a "startup factory"...an engine to launch startups. The reality is that venture studios are a machine to invalidate ideas. We invalidate many more ideas than we validate. We touch 1,750 ideas per year, seriously dive into 66 of them, build experiments for 10 of them and only launch 2 of them. All that work turns into 2 studio companies per year that have a way higher success rate than the average startup in the wild. Said another way...startups are hard. Talk with Tapan Patel Gabe Hart Whit Anderson IV Jonathan Brinson if you wanna talk about this. They are world class.

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INTERVIEWS OF 2024 SXSW PITCH WINNERS:  Angelo Huang of Swif Fifty of the world's most impactful startups showcase their talents at SXSW Pitch every March in Austin. In this ongoing LinkedIn series, we interview category winners at this year's event. CEO Angelo Huang has been building Swif.ai for three years. Based in Los Altos, California, his startup won the "Enterprise & Smart Data" category at this year's edition of SXSW Pitch. Read Huang's answers to our bite-sized questions below. SXSW: What is Swif.ai?  HUANG: Swif is an AI powered unified device security for your continuous compliance. See https://www.swif.ai/ SXSW: What community does Swif.ai serve? HUANG: We serve the community of modern CISO and IT managers. SXSW: Who is your all-time favorite entrepreneur? HUANG: Elon Musk. SXSW: Best startup-related book you have read? HUANG: "Anything you Want" by Derek Sivers. SXSW: Best startup-related advice you have received? HUANG: Make something useful. SXSW: Current entrepreneurial trend that excites you the most? HUANG: AI and robotics. SXSW: Fail fast or perseverance? HUANG: Perseverance for great things and fail fast for half baked progress. SXSW: Energy drink of choice? HUANG: Monster. SXSW: If I wasn't running Swif.ai, I would be HUANG: Starting my next company. SXSW: Favorite VC? HUANG: The ones that will invest and have invested in Swif.ai. SXSW: Most over-hyped technology at present? HUANG: AI. SXSW: Most under-hyped technology at present? HUANG: AI. SXSW: What did you enjoy most about your experience at SXSW? HUANG: It was a once in a lifetime opportunity. SXSW: My startup is unique because  HUANG: Continuous compliance is one of the biggest opportunities in the next 5 years. SXSW: What is your startup's greatest need at present? HUANG: Fundraising. SXSW: What is your best advice for other startups? HUANG: Figure out GTM is very important. SXSW: What is your best trait as a leader? HUANG: A growth mindset. SXSW: What is your best trait as an entrepreneur? HUANG: I am relentless and resourceful. Learn more about Angelo Huang of Swif.ai as well as the other outstanding 2024 SXSW Pitch winners by listening to the audio of their session at this year's event. See https://lnkd.in/gHtwQB8n Finally, if you are a startup, be sure to apply for SXSW Pitch 2025 when the entry process opens in late summer. See https://lnkd.in/gE2hcVPK #sxsw, #sxsw2024, #sxsw2025, #founders, #founderstories, #entrepreneur, #entrepreneurism, #startups, #startup, Angelo Huang, Chris Valentine, Swif, #creativity, #innovation, #venturecapital, #funding, #artificialintelligence, #AI, #pitch, #pitchcompetition

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One day you're a manager at Target. Five years later, you're designing and releasing your own line of fashion apparel with Target. That's the incredible journey of Jenee Naylor, a fashion influencer I've been following for years. In the $250B influencer industry, mere follower count won't cut it anymore. It's about building brands and businesses that resonate deeply. Jenee's partnership with Target isn't just about fashion; it's about harnessing influence to redefine commerce. Today, VCs and corporations are pouring millions into influencer-driven ventures, recognizing the powerhouses they've become. YouTube group, Dude Perfect, for example, received a $100M investment from Highmount Capital to support their ventures. Walmart was a launch partner for Mr. Beast's Feastables line of chocolates, which saw the product on shelves in hundreds of stores. Behind every successful partnership lies strategic alignment: data-driven insights, diverse audience engagement, genuine brand connection, and a solid track record of turning influence into revenue (which, in Jenee's case, is evident from the significant traffic she drives to various stores when she shares links to products she wears on her social pages — I'm one of the many who clicks those links to make purchases based on her recos). The creator economy is soaring, but it's essential that its rise is inclusive. We need more trailblazers like Jenee, breaking barriers and shaping a future where diversity drives a surge in entrepreneurship and business empires led by strategic-minded talent. #CreatorEconomy #InfluencerMarketing #DiversityAndInclusion #FromManagertoMogul

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Pioneer Square Labs is hiring a New Ventures Lead. It's one of the best roles in Seattle and you should ping me if you're interested. PSL is a magical place. In 2 years I had the pleasure of supporting unbelievable CEOs while they turned nascent, fragile ideas into the next class of How-Did-This-Not-Exist-Before companies. To name drop: Scott Case at Recurrent, Devin Miller/Bassam Saliba at SecureSave, Clara Siegel at Dance Church and Cris Eugster/Michael Leggett at Ever.green. In a word, this is role for people who love building momentum, from laughably minute wins (someone clicked on our site!) to bet-the-company decisions (fundraising/business modeling/management team hiring). Not a role for someone who wants to be a aloof advisor. It's a chance to be a do-er for several startup management teams in a short span. Also, you'll work with T. A. McCann, Julie Sandler, Greg Gottesman, Geoff Entress, David Zager, Palvi Mehta (et. al) which is, in a word, gold.

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Super stoked to announce the launch of BorgoAcademy's first course: Mastering Brand Engagement on Roblox (sign up here: https://lnkd.in/gjPu7D9W) Roblox has over 77 million daily active users, 67% of whom are Gen Z and Gen Alpha. More than half of these users discover new brands while gaming and are more likely to purchase from brands featured in a game, making Roblox the ideal platform for brand engagement. BorgoAcademy and Exclusible developed a course sharing their extensive expertise to help participants successfully enter Roblox. Here's what to expect: Module 1: What is Roblox Explore the fundamentals of Roblox, including its role as a new media platform and its potential for brand engagement. Key topics include: Module 2: Monetization on Roblox Delve into the various monetization opportunities available on Roblox for brands. Key discussions include: Module 3: Insights from 2024 Stay updated with the latest insights and trends from 2024, showcasing how brands are leveraging Roblox. Expert interviews with: Evgeniy Medvedev – Gaming Lead on the Fashion Industry Luca Zicconi – Gaming and Web3 lead at Škoda Auto Lorenzo Marzi – Gaming Lead on the Luxury and Automotive Industry Sign up now to get full access – link in the bio and comments LFGrow 🔥 #RightClickSaveAS

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Last year, we stealth launched a product studio under Blnk called EVOLVE with Jake Sheinman and Jack Phifer at the helm. EVOLVE is focused on building products centered around the future of Spatial Identity. Imagine looking at someone and instead, seeing what avatar they chose to be that day or walking down the street and seeing an entire city block turn into a concert or festival in AR based on the ticket you own… Last month, we launched our first app in partnership with PUMA Group called Goods, Your Web3 Camera. Goods allows users to see, capture and share your digital collectibles in AR. The blockchain addresses of everyone who used the AR Lens were captured and each participant was rewarded with an airdrop of their upcoming digital collectible. We saw hundreds of submissions and couldn't be happier with how Goods was received by the Super PUMA community. Check them out! www.trygoods.xyz Token gated AR provides personalized experiences based on the digital collectibles you own (fashion, avatars, merchandise, location based, access) and help define a path towards a future in which “you choose how others see you and the world around you”. Goods also utilizes Snap Inc. Camera Kit creating a new platform for the over 300k AR Developers building in Lens Studio to create for. As we build out the Goods SDK allowing any app or website to token gate AR and continue to build out our Apple Vision Pro user experience, I wanted to take a minute to give thanks to the team + everyone who’s supported us so far! Cheers to Steven Xu Shaun Lakey Konstantinos Papamiltiadis (kp) Ivan Dashkov Quintin Lodge Non-Linear Studio Danny Greene Erinn Stranko, MPA Sophia Dominguez Benjamin Milstein Mark Daniel Mario Sanchez Maselli Vincent Zhu Cara Liberati Charles Read FTR Michael Porter Chris Reilly & our angel investors. We’ll be closing the seed round shortly for EVOLVE and couldn’t more excited about the road ahead! Angels or VC’s interested in AR & Crypto/Web3, feel free to reach out- www.evolve.ar

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✨ Reflecting on my journey from attending the very first Vidcon in 2010, I’ve seen firsthand the incredible impact creators have on their fans. It was clear from the beginning that this was an industry worth diving into headfirst. 🌟 This year, I’m honored and thrilled to be back at Vidcon to connect, engage, and learn from the best in the industry. Will you be attending Vidcon 2024? Let me know in the comments or DM me if you want to meet up! #Vidcon #ContentCreators #Networking #IndustryTrends

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Nearly 70% of small businesses fail within the first five years. We’ve built Portal.ai to change that. Today we’re announcing our $5m pre-seed round. I've spent my life building companies, and after selling the last few, something became obvious: Entrepreneurs spend way too much time managing operations, marketing, logistics, etc. Especially small business owners. At Portal, we believe entrepreneurs should focus on what they do best — building great products. Our platform uses world-class AI agents to handle and automate the complexities of business operations, managing businesses with top-notch discipline. We’ve brought together one of the strongest teams in the industry, singularly focused on equipping these businesses with AI tools previously accessible only to large corporations. We’re fundamentally changing the odds for entrepreneurs everywhere. #PortalAI #AI https://lnkd.in/gkgt2-3W Thank you Axios and Kimberly Chin for featuring Portal's story. Mohammad (Hamudi) Naanaa Sam He Ricardo F. Mykhailo Kovetskyi yevhen H. Tiffany Dang Nicholas Nassim Kevin Yang Sanjeev Sharma Michael Stashkiv Kristiina Kansen Elizabeth Joyce Fahad Khan Roman Kutsachenko Oleksandr Pazhyn  

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Think you’re safe using that photo/video? Think again. If you use a photographer’s or videographer’s work beyond the agreed terms, without permission, licensing, or proper compensation, you could face statutory damages ranging from $750 to $30,000—or up to $150,000 if the infringement is intentional. Copyright laws protect the original works of photographers, giving them exclusive rights to use, display, reproduce, and distribute their creations. These rights mean that photographers can also permit others to use their work for a fee. Licensing fees are important because they recognize the value of the photographer's work and ensure they are compensated fairly. When negotiating usage with photographers/videographers, always consider and disclose how the images will be used, their size and prominence, and the duration of use. Respect creatives' rights, and ensure you’re compliant. Could you be overlooking crucial details in your usage agreements? 🤔

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UMG is really coming for superfans. And you can see why. Increased monetization on 20% of listeners is a big deal to a company as big as Universal. UMG CEO is saying they’re going to be focussed on “strengthening the artist-fan relationship”, and will be working with DSPs like Spotify to develop these features. This is exciting news, it’s what we’ve been saying for years now. But to be successful, I truly believe these things need to be fan driven. When these huge organizations are bringing about these changes, I worry that the priorities of fans will get sidelined. Strengthening the artist-fan relationship is one thing, but it has to be a 2 way street. Pushing more and more content behind a paywall doesn’t seem like the best way to do it. The artist-fan relationship needs to be driven by fans, not just the financial interests of shareholders. I’m hopeful this is a step in the right direction but this is a space we definitely need to keep a close eye on.

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gm. Gas.zip April look back — This month we saw another increase in volume for 6 months in a row. 25% jump in users & 50% jump in transactions. We‘re at 2.5 million transactions on LayerZero. We’re very excited to be building on such a robust protocol and to keep growing together. We also added another 18 chains. We want Gas.zip to be the source of truth for exploring new chains. It’s a priority for us to add as many new chains as possible, while still allowing users to refuel gas on up to 40 chains at once. We spoke at the LayerZero Lounge to discuss our journey and where we’re looking ahead. And we also had a recorded Spaces with @arbitrum and we have several other Q&As planned with some top and upcoming chains. We saw integrations take off. We love the support from builders who recognize how Gas can help users refuel in-app to explore. Stay tuned for more developments

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Today officially marks 1 year at PrizePicks... What started from a random Twitter DM at 1am from Dylan Cooper, turned into an incredible opportunity to build the social arm of the fastest growing company in sports! In a year we went from 2 team members to a department of 23 covering 24/7 across all social platforms and a Discord of over 250,000 monthly active members. Massive thanks to Wyatt DeYoung & Adam Wexler for trusting me with this incredible community and allowing me to drive strategy as PrizePicks continues its dominance 💪 We've done a lot of dope sh*t, but here are a few highlights over the last year: 🏆 Best Social Media Award Winner (FSGA) 🕹️ #1 Largest Sports Discord in the World (PrizePicks) 🏀 ‘23 & ‘24 Fastest Growing Brand in Sports (PrizePicks) 🧠 A content engagement rate of over 4.5% almost doubling the industry standard across major sports entities & professional sports teams on social From trending weekly on Twitter/X during NBA/NFL, to turning around a DFS community play tied to the Drake/Kendrick beef in 60 minutes... we truly move at the speed of culture at PrizePicks and I couldn't have done it without the best team in sports. Caitlin Schneider has been the best mentor and leader as we've taken things from 0-100 when it comes to pioneering original content at PrizePicks and I couldn't have done it without your wisdom and guidance! Special shoutout to Josh Margolis for leading our department with grace and inspiring all of us to level up our strategy and approach daily. This video produced by the greatest creative team in sports led by (Chip Singh & Shawn Rinkenbaugh) does a great job at capturing the energy and excitement that the PrizePicks marketing team brings to every single sports moment. Here's to another spin around the sun at PrizePicks 🥂 Couldn't have done any of it without: Alexa Limbach, Andrew Labovitz, Bill Guidera, Adam Packer, Adam Boothe, Brandon Friedman, CFA Brian Huss, Chase Payne, Christie Shanahan, Derek Ascroft, Doug Raney, CFA Elisa Richardson, Chris Richardson, Derek O'Connor, Ethan Mann, Grant Cloud, Henok Kelete, Jay Deuskar, Jack Callahan, Jason McDevitt, Jon Hansan, Jordan Gold, Kara Wexler, Kaitlyn Wood, Michael Montanaro + my amazing social team (you know who you are) 💜 & so many more.

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Today Relay is announcing a Series B fundraise of USD $32.2M, bringing our total funding to USD $51.6M. Really proud of this milestone for our business ☀️💥 More than three years ago, when I was evaluating joining Relay, Yoseph West said to me, “This IS what you think it is.” At the time, Relay was around 10 team members, doing about half a million in revenue. What attracted me was the product, which customers clearly loved (like, REALLY loved); the seemingly endless marketing possibilities when your TAM is “33 million SMBs in the U.S.”; and the founders Yoseph and Paul Klicnik, who seemed dead serious about growing the shit out of this thing. The early days (affectionately known as “the dark ages” in my head 🧙) started with me shipping the t-shirts, writing the tweets, and scrambling to make any acquisition play stick. Eventually we brought on key team members like Matas Pranckevicius and Olivia Cummings — who continue to be a huge part of our story — and our growth started to really kick in. Today, I have the not-taken-for-granted opportunity to scale a company alongside a team of 14 exceptionally talented marketers. When I joined Relay, we had acquired 1,100 total customers. Last month, we surpassed 100,000. When Yoseph said “this IS what you think it is,” what he meant was the big swing — the chance to make an outsized impact on small business owners and contribute to a major growth story. This Series B marks one step on Relay's growth journey. We’ve got so much left to accomplish, and it’s not going to be easy. But it’s genuinely exciting to be taking this swing, playing a tangible role in the success of our customers’ businesses, and doing it together with a team of 140 Relayers and growing. As always, gotta pitch joining our team! We’ve got roles open across the Relay organization. If you’re inspired by the idea of driving success for small business owners AND making an outsized impact on a fast-growth startup, check out our open opportunities. Link in comments 👇

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Thrilled to share the achievement of one of my investments: Atomontage Inc., a revolutionary deep-tech company developing groundbreaking 🤯 Atomontage's Virtual Matter technology that represents a paradigm shift in 3D content streaming and collaboration, allowing for entirely new ways to stream and interact that can be used for example in social gaming experiences as described in the article bellow 🎮 . And guess what? It’s not just for gamers. Atomontage’s technology allows completely different user experiences of everything from architectural walkthroughs to medical simulations or any other applications where real-time 3D interaction is of utmost importance. You can guess the type of classified applications 😀. 👩‍⚕️Their technology is the future for 3D real-time interaction and let's see if my bullish assumption on Atomontage's potential to disrupt the industry will materialize. 🚀 #venturecapital #startupinvestor #deeptech #gaming #3Dcontent https://lnkd.in/ePAFtT7x

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Two posts in 1wk and it’s only Tues. **** Ppl are fuming over the pay gap of WNBA’s #1 draft pick. #caitlinclark will make 160x LESS than the 2023 NBA No. 1 draft pick in her first season. Let me share some of the reactions on social media that got my attention: “Paid according to the revenue the league generates. Not even close to apples to apples.” (NBA v WNBA) “Lucky to get paid that much. Have to generate plus+ revenue to pay more and WNBA has been in the negative every year.” “She’s getting $15k per month for 5 mos work, on top of her endorsements. She’s fine.” “The NBA players didn’t just start making all this money out of nowhere. They built the brand. The NBA supplements WNBA salaries.” “The NBA actually loses money every year by supporting the WNBA. It’s not a profitable business.” “That disparity will remain that way until women get off their a__ & buy tickets to their games and watch the sport.” And this: “On this salary, Caitlin Clark would qualify for low income housing in San Francisco.” Can you guess which gender posted these? Mind you, the 2024 WNBA Championship was most viewed (24M incl. men’s) during March Madness in last 5yrs. Here’s my take: Whether or not there is merit to arguments on pay disparity in professional sports, the dismissive/disparaging remarks against women in sports (while not all men share sentiments) make you wonder, when stats below show resemblance: Avg Athlete Comp by Gender: Golf ⛳️ Men: $1,042,917 / Women: $346,360 Soccer ⚽️ Men: $471,279 / Women: $54,000 Tennis 🎾 Men: $1,589,025 / Women: $1,039,141 How do we justify? We’re not waiting. Women Sports (of all leagues) will have a special segment on the new Network (coming soon). We’ll raise viewership, attract new fans, and change the revenue landscape for women in sports. You can count on it. WNBA (Women's National Basketball Association), National Women's Soccer League (NWSL), PWHL, Ladies Professional Golf Association (LPGA), WTA #womeninsports #sports #wnba #basketball #media #entertainment #tennis #golf #soccer

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April was a big month for 456 Growth Media! 🚀 We've been accelerating and amplifying our partner network of Talent agents, managers, Publicists, and independent Managers. 💼 We've collaborated with well over 100+ partner entities for talent sourcing and processed over $2M+ in transactional payments with our partner network on behalf of our brand campaigns in April alone. 📈 We're thrilled to see month-over-month growth with key talent representation partners. 📊 There's definitely a strong trajectory of new ventures launching each and every month as the creator inventory continues to diversify and expand. 🌟 If you’re in any of the below categories, please tag your business below and let me know if you're interested in speaking or sharing a talent roster for partnership consideration. Here are some of our key areas of creator focus: 1.) Creators with a strong focus on Instagram Reels (Micro-influencers with strong or growing engagement welcome) 📸 2.) Creators impactful and aggressive in Amazon brand/product marketing (Fixed Fee and Affiliate style partnerships) 🛍️ 3.) Affiliate Marketing Driven Creators (Data-First mentality! Focused on influencer affiliate platforms or Partner Networks) 💡 4.) TikTok Shop Driven creators either generating monthly GMV or making an aggressive attempt 💰 5.) Creators with strong off-social communities (SMS groups, Email Sub Groups, Blogs with traffic, WhatsApp Groups) 📧 6.) Creators with strong Facebook Audiences and engagement inclusive of private subgroups and/or communities 📘 Let's hear from you! 🗣️ #TalentManager #TalentAgents #CreatorEconomy #InfluencerMarketing #Partnerships

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Andrew Huberman recently displayed another case of a non-celebrity founded brand, rolling into a deep partnership with a celebrity/major influencer via co-ownership. We’ve seen the trend of net-new celebrity founded brands begin to plateau, but I think we are just getting started with this one. I think these are going to overwhelming succeed for a key reason: it’s better to start with good business fundamentals then experience added growth, than to experience added growth before good fundamentals. Who’s next? —— Shoutout to Ridge for potentially being a trend setter with this one with MKBHD. https://lnkd.in/gunTTrH6

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