The HotStart VC Podcast

How the Firm Behind Conor McGregor's $600M Exit Builds Companies With Elite Fighters

Azhar Muhammad is the COO of Paradigm Sports, the athlete representation firm behind some of the most successful athlete-founded companies in the world, including Conor McGregor's Proper 12 Irish Whiskey, which sold for $600 million just three years after launching, and Dakota Ditcheva's Vann Norway fine water brand. Paradigm Sports is not your typical athlete representation firm. While most firms run on short-term commissions tied to fight purses, a model that expires the day the athlete retires, Paradigm co-builds companies with their talent, creating multi-asset portfolios that generate sustainable value long after the competitive career ends. Nine years ago, they reached their inflection point when they architected the first crossover fight between Conor McGregor and Floyd Mayweather. That same year they launched Proper 12, proving that direct-to-consumer influence from super athletes could far exceed what traditional marketing ever yielded. Azhar breaks down why fame is the distribution and not the business model, how they decide when to launch a venture versus take a traditional sponsorship deal, and why the best athlete-founded companies are the ones that can stand entirely on the merits of the product long after the fame fades. He explains: * Why most athlete representation firms are economically misaligned and how Paradigm built a different model around equity and long-term value * How they architected Conor McGregor's Proper 12, which sold for $600 million just three years after launch * Why category alignment matters more than reach and why the wrong category always fails regardless of audience size * How they think about career timing when launching ventures: early career, peak, and post-retirement each carry different risks and opportunities * Why he studies the celebrity brands that fail just as much as the ones that succeed * His number one advice for athletes launching companies: balance short-term financial needs with building for post-retirement so you fight because you want to, not because you have to Chapters: CHAPTERS * 00:00:00 Introduction: The Hidden Firm Behind Conor McGregor's Empire * 00:01:17 The Paradigm Sports Origin Story: 18 Years of Athlete Advocacy * 00:03:16 The Money Fight: When Conor vs Mayweather Changed Everything * 00:05:09 Why Most Athlete Representation Firms Get It Wrong * 00:07:56 Scouting Founders vs Scouting Fighters: The Selection Criteria * 00:10:11 Timing the Founder, Not the Fame: When to Build * 00:14:30 The Proper 12 Blueprint: How Conor Built a Whiskey Brand * 00:17:00 What Makes Great Athlete Entrepreneurs: Beyond Reach and Enthusiasm * 00:19:51 The Future of Athlete Ventures: From Spirits to Sports Tech * 00:22:05 Why Combat Sports Innovates While Traditional Sports Stagnate * 00:25:00 The Mac is Back: Building Around Conor's Return Fight * 00:25:48 Dakota Ditchevo and Van Water: Perfect Category Alignment * 00:29:39 Advice for Athletes: Fight Because You Want To, Not Because You Have To HotStart VC Subscribe to the HotStart VC newsletter: https://hotstart.beehiiv.com/ [https://hotstart.beehiiv.com/] Become a HotStart Angel and co-invest with us in celebrity-founded brands starting from $5,000: https://www.hotstart.vc/hotstart-angels/ [https://www.hotstart.vc/hotstart-angels/] Check out our fund: https://www.hotstart.vc/ [https://www.hotstart.vc/] Scott van den Berg LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/scott-van-den-berg-22b534150/ [https://www.linkedin.com/in/scott-van-den-berg-22b534150/] Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/scottvandenberg_/ [https://www.instagram.com/scottvandenberg_/] TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@scottvandenberg_ [https://www.tiktok.com/@scottvandenberg_] YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@scottvandenbergvc [https://www.youtube.com/@scottvandenbergvc] Azhar Muhammad-Saul Paradigm Sports: https://www.paradigmsports.com/ [https://www.paradigmsports.com/] LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/azhar-muhammad-saul-85114b17/ [https://www.linkedin.com/in/azhar-muhammad-saul-85114b17/] HotStart VC is a fund that exclusively invests in brands founded by celebrities and creators. We're the go-to platform for celebrities and creators launching brands, providing capital, strategic support, and the infrastructure to scale.

How Sommer Ray Is Disrupting the RTD Space With Tempted | Yoni Bierig, Co-Founder

Yoni Bierig is the co-founder of Tempted, a wine-based ready-to-drink Shirley Temple cocktail co-founded with influencer, DJ, and entrepreneur Sommer Ray, whose previous company Imarais Beauty was just acquired. Yoni had no experience in the beverage industry when he started Tempted. But when he met Sommer at dinner in Atlantic City and they both ordered Shirley Temples, the idea clicked. What started as a childhood favorite became the foundation for a brand generating a quarter million likes and millions of views in 30 days without spending a single dollar on ads. Tempted is a 7% ABV, four grams of sugar, 150 calorie wine-based RTD with a full ingredient label on the can, something most alcohol brands still refuse to do. Unlike most celebrity brands that lead with the famous face, Yoni built the brand around the product first and introduced Sommer gradually. His philosophy is simple: the celebrity should be the fuel, not the ship. Because if the ship is the celebrity and something goes wrong, the whole business goes down with it. Yoni breaks down why he turned down national expansion opportunities because the brand wasn't ready, how Sommer's DJ tours create built-in distribution opportunities where clubs pay to stock Tempted before she even arrives, and why he posts the good, bad, and ugly of building the company every single day on LinkedIn as a public journal. He explains: * Why the RTD space is on a rocket ship while the broader alcohol industry is on a downward spiral * Why being wine-based allows Tempted to be placed in distribution channels other RTD brands cannot access * Why investors have a bad taste in their mouth about celebrity brands and how Yoni navigates that uphill battle * Why he believes the VC space has turned into private equity and what that means for early stage founders * How building in public on LinkedIn turned followers into super customers who buy the product and give honest feedback * His number one advice for founders working with celebrity co-founders: focus on the product and let the celebrity be the fuel, not the ship Chapters: CHAPTERS * 00:00:00 Introduction: From Summer Rae to Building Tempted * 00:00:51 The Founding Story: When a Shirley Temple Sparked a Business * 00:02:20 First-Time Beverage Founder: The Advantage of Naivety * 00:04:43 What is Tempted: Wine-Based RTD with Full Transparency * 00:08:32 Celebrity Product Market Fit: Why Summer Rae is the Perfect Partner * 00:10:57 Leveraging Celebrity Platform: From Social to Retail Strategy * 00:13:03 Summer Rae the Entrepreneur: Beyond the 20 Million Dollar Exit * 00:15:34 Distribution Strategy: Staying Focused and Avoiding National Too Soon * 00:17:53 Building in Public: The Power of Transparency on LinkedIn * 00:22:33 Celebrity Brand Inspiration: From Skims to Finnish Long Drink * 00:26:13 The Celebrity as Fuel Not Fire: Strategic Brand Positioning * 00:28:03 Raising Capital: The Honest Truth About VC Skepticism * 00:31:57 Survive Until You Thrive: Advice for Struggling Founders * 00:32:35 What's Next for Tempted and Final Founder Advice HotStart VC Subscribe to the HotStart VC newsletter: https://hotstart.beehiiv.com/ [https://hotstart.beehiiv.com/] Become a HotStart Angel and co-invest with us in celebrity-founded brands starting from $5,000: https://www.hotstart.vc/hotstart-angels/ [https://www.hotstart.vc/hotstart-angels/] Check out our fund: https://www.hotstart.vc/ [https://www.hotstart.vc/] Scott van den Berg LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/scott-van-den-berg-22b534150/ [https://www.linkedin.com/in/scott-van-den-berg-22b534150/] Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/scottvandenberg_/ [https://www.instagram.com/scottvandenberg_/] TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@scottvandenberg_ [https://www.tiktok.com/@scottvandenberg_] YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@scottvandenbergvc [https://www.youtube.com/@scottvandenbergvc] Yoni Bierig LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jonathanbierig/ [https://www.linkedin.com/in/jonathanbierig/] Tempted: https://drinktempted.com/ [https://drinktempted.com/] HotStart VC is a fund that exclusively invests in brands founded by celebrities and creators. We're the go-to platform for celebrities and creators launching brands, providing capital, strategic support, and the infrastructure to scale.

Why This Investor Is Skeptical of Celebrity Brands But Still Backs Them | Deborah Benton

Deborah Benton is the founder and Managing Partner of Willow Growth Partners, an emerging growth consumer fund that has backed some of the most successful celebrity- and creator-founded brands in the market, including Katy Perry's De Soi, Gal Gadot's Goodles, and Molly Sims' YSE Beauty. She spent most of her career as an operator in consumer brands before launching Willow in 2020. The gap she saw was simple: there were no early stage consumer brand funds providing seed capital, so the only option was tech-oriented funds that underwrote and valued consumer brands exactly like tech companies. That led to destruction of value and unfortunate outcomes for phenomenal brands. Willow was built to fix that. Deborah is sufficiently skeptical of celebrity brands, and appropriately so. When a celebrity or creator is involved, she spends a lot of time diligencing their role, their motivation, their expectations, and whether the relationship between the operating team and the talent actually makes sense. Because at the end of the day, the brand has to stand on its own two feet. A creator can move a deal from yes to no just as easily as they can move it from no to yes. She breaks down why celebriites with massive platforms like Katy Perry are better for awareness while smaller creators like Amber Fillerup are better for conversion, why she passes on pre-launch brands raising at 50 to 100 million dollar valuations, and why the most common reason celebrity brands fail is because the hard conversations never happen upfront. She explains: * Why Mr. Beast being front and center in Feastables is fundamentally different from Gal Gadot staying behind the scenes at Goodles * Why Hailey Bieber built Rhode to a billion dollar exit on DTC only before ever launching in Sephora * Why talent can open retail doors but the product alone determines whether those doors stay open * Why she tells some celebrities not to raise outside capital at all and to keep it as a lifestyle business * Why the brand has to stand on its own two feet regardless of who the celebrity is * Her number one advice for investors evaluating celebrity brands: be very disciplined and diligence the relationship Chapters: CHAPTERS * 00:00:00 Introduction: Debra Benton and Willow Growth Partners * 00:00:28 The Gap in Consumer Brand Investing: Why Willow Was Born * 00:03:30 Investment Thesis: Emerging Growth and Everyday Wellness * 00:04:22 The Qualitative and Quantitative Framework * 00:09:01 The Celebrity Brand Reality: Appropriately Skeptical * 00:09:49 Diligencing Celebrity Founders: Alignment is Everything * 00:11:43 The Most Common Reasons for Saying No * 00:13:06 Why Celebrities Make These Mistakes: Education and Advisors * 00:14:52 Celebrities vs Creators: Different Superpowers * 00:16:15 Brand Positioning: When to Put the Celebrity Front and Center * 00:17:52 The Timing Question: Day One vs After Product-Market Fit * 00:19:40 Managing Expectations: The Haley Bieber Effect * 00:21:13 Valuation Discipline: Passing on 50-100 Million Pre-Revenue Deals * 00:22:59 The Retail Advantage: Opening Doors vs Selling Through * 00:25:15 What's Needed for the Next Generation of Celebrity Brands * 00:26:20 What's Next for Willow: Food Innovation and Women's Health * 00:28:59 Final Advice: Be Disciplined and Optimistically Cautious HotStart VC Subscribe to the HotStart VC newsletter: https://hotstart.beehiiv.com/ [https://hotstart.beehiiv.com/] Become a HotStart Angel and co-invest with us in celebrity-founded brands starting from $5,000: https://www.hotstart.vc/hotstart-angels/ [https://www.hotstart.vc/hotstart-angels/] Check out our fund: https://www.hotstart.vc/ [https://www.hotstart.vc/] Scott van den Berg LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/scott-van-den-berg-22b534150/ [https://www.linkedin.com/in/scott-van-den-berg-22b534150/] Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/scottvandenberg_/ [https://www.instagram.com/scottvandenberg_/] TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@scottvandenberg_ [https://www.tiktok.com/@scottvandenberg_] YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@scottvandenbergvc [https://www.youtube.com/@scottvandenbergvc] Deborah Benton Willow Growth Partners: https://willowgrowth.com/ [https://willowgrowth.com/] LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/debenton/ [https://www.linkedin.com/in/debenton/] HotStart VC is a fund that exclusively invests in brands founded by celebrities and creators. We're the go-to platform for celebrities and creators launching brands, providing capital, strategic support, and the infrastructure to scale.

How This Creator Entrepreneur Used Legal Horror Stories to Build an AI Startup Doing $400K in ARR

Kristina Subbotina is a creator entrepreneur and startup lawyer with tens of thousands of followers who built an audience sharing real legal horror stories from her decade in Big Law, and used that platform to launch Lexsy, an AI-powered legal operating system for startups. It started with a push from an unlikely source. A General Partner at A16Z spent five months relentlessly sending Kristina content ideas, convinced she had something the founder community desperately needed. His pitch was simple: founders don't know what they don't know until it becomes a problem. So Kristina started posting, and once she stopped making boring professional content and started dancing on TikTok while sharing real legal templates she used at Cooley, everything changed. That audience became the foundation for Lexsy. Lexsy is a self-updating legal operating system for startups that combines software and services into one platform, handling everything from cap tables and data rooms to fundraising and exit at around half the cost of Big Law. For six months Kristina was not actively selling or taking new clients, and still reached $400K in ARR driven entirely by the trust she had built through content. Kristina breaks down why content is the most powerful distribution tool a founder can have, why AI will empower lawyers rather than replace them, and why hiring A-players takes forever but is the only way to build a world-class company. She explains: * How a GP at A16Z pushed her to start creating content and why that changed everything * How she went from boring professional content to dancing on TikTok while sharing real legal templates from Cooley * The legal horror story of a founder who used Claude to draft a sale agreement and ended up fleeing to another city to escape a five-year non-compete * Why Lexsy operates at 50% cheaper than Big Law through AI agents trained on top-tier legal work * Why AI will not replace lawyers but will raise expectations so dramatically that the job will look completely different * Her number one advice for creators launching companies: identify something you are truly passionate about because only that will carry you through Chapters: CHAPTERS * 00:00:00 Introduction: From Big Law to Building Lexi, an AI Law Firm * 00:01:08 The Content Creation Origin: When a GP at A16Z Wouldn't Stop Pushing * 00:03:05 The Content Strategy: Dancing on TikTok While Sharing Real Legal Value * 00:06:42 Legal Horror Stories: The Founder Who Used Claude to Sell His Company * 00:08:17 What is Lexsy: The Legal Operating System for Startups * 00:09:57 Software Plus Services: Why Lexsyi is Both a Platform and a Law Firm * 00:12:10 Training the Best AI Legal Agents: Why Data Quality Determines Output * 00:14:09 The Future of Lawyers: Empowered, Not Replaced by AI * 00:17:05 The Creator Advantage: Building Trust at Scale Without Ads * 00:19:17 Creators as the New Celebrities: Democratizing the Attention Economy * 00:24:01 Balancing Creator and Founder: The Prioritization Challenge * 00:25:27 Hiring A-Players: Why It Takes Time But Never Compromise * 00:27:22 What's Next: Scaling Content, Podcasts, and Speaking Engagements * 00:28:43 Advice for Creator Entrepreneurs: Find Your Why and Persevere HotStart VC Subscribe to The Fame Game newsletter: https://hotstart.beehiiv.com/ [https://hotstart.beehiiv.com/] Become a HotStart Angel and co-invest with us in celebrity-founded brands starting from $5,000: https://www.hotstart.vc/hotstart-angels/ [https://www.hotstart.vc/hotstart-angels/] Check out our fund: https://www.hotstart.vc/ [https://www.hotstart.vc/] Scott van den Berg LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/scott-van-den-berg-22b534150/ [https://www.linkedin.com/in/scott-van-den-berg-22b534150/] Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/scottvandenberg_/ [https://www.instagram.com/scottvandenberg_/] TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@scottvandenberg_ [https://www.tiktok.com/@scottvandenberg_] YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@scottvandenbergvc [https://www.youtube.com/@scottvandenbergvc] Kristina Subbotina Lexsy: https://www.lexsy.ai/ [https://www.lexsy.ai/] Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/kristinasubbotina.esq/ [https://www.instagram.com/kristinasubbotina.esq/] HotStart is the go-to platform for celebrities and creators launching brands, providing capital, strategic support, and the infrastructure to scale.

How Actress Jennifer Garner and John Foraker Built a $724M Baby Food Brand That Just IPO'd

John Foraker is the co-founder and CEO of Once Upon a Farm, a fresh organic baby and kids food brand co-founded with Hollywood actress Jennifer Garner that recently IPO'd at a $724 million valuation on the New York Stock Exchange. John wasn't one of the original founders. Cassandra Curtis and Ari Raz started the company in 2015, and John came on as an early angel investor after spending nearly 15 years as CEO of Annie's, taking it public in 2012 and selling it to General Mills for $820 million. When Jennifer Garner's team reached out in 2017, she and John met for what was supposed to be a 30-minute call. It lasted four hours. By the end, they both said the same thing: I'm in, if you're in. Jennifer Garner isn't the type of celebrity co-founder who shows up for the photo shoot and disappears. She's on weekly leadership calls, she has buyer phone numbers saved in her phone, and she follows up on sales calls at 11pm from a makeup chair on set. John breaks down why he chose to go public instead of selling to a strategic buyer despite years of acquisition interest, how they went from 300 to 10,000 distribution points in a single year, and why building a public benefit corporation with a mission to drive systemic change in childhood nutrition has been central to every decision they've made since day one. He explains: * How Jennifer Garner became a co-founder and what made her the authentic fit for Once Upon a Farm * Why word of mouth is still the number one discovery channel for the brand after nine years * How they went from 300 to 10,000 distribution points in one year and why that strategy is too risky for most brands * Why going public was the best path to stay independent and execute their mission rather than selling to a strategic buyer * His number one advice for founders working with celebrity co-founders: cultural fit and long-term commitment matter more than anything else Chapters: CHAPTERS * 00:00:00 Introduction: From Jennifer Garner to a IPO * 00:01:08 The Founding Story: When Two Founders Met and Created Once Upon a Farm * 00:02:20 The Jennifer Garner Partnership: Finding Authentic Celebrity Product Market Fit * 00:04:56 The Mission Statement: Building a Public Benefit Corporation * 00:08:09 Leveraging Celebrity Platform: How Jennifer Shows Up Every Single Day * 00:11:55 Product Development: From Baby Food to Age 12 and Beyond * 00:14:24 The IPO Journey: Four Years of Preparation and a Government Shutdown * 00:19:19 The Celebrity Brand Landscape: What Makes Some Succeed and Others Fail * 00:22:43 The Jennifer Garner Model: Joining Existing Companies vs Building from Scratch * 00:24:01 Retail Strategy: Going from 300 to 10,000 Doors in One Year * 00:25:38 What's Next: Fresh Organic Meat Products and 2027 Innovation Pipeline * 00:26:54 Advice for Celebrity Brand Founders: The Marriage Analogy and Long-Term Commitment HotStart VC Subscribe to the HotStart VC newsletter: https://hotstart.beehiiv.com/ [https://hotstart.beehiiv.com/] Become a HotStart Angel and co-invest with us in celebrity-founded brands starting from $5,000: https://www.hotstart.vc/hotstart-angels/ [https://www.hotstart.vc/hotstart-angels/] Check out our fund: https://www.hotstart.vc/ [https://www.hotstart.vc/] Scott van den Berg LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/scott-van-den-berg-22b534150/ [https://www.linkedin.com/in/scott-van-den-berg-22b534150/] Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/scottvandenberg_/ [https://www.instagram.com/scottvandenberg_/] YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@scottvandenbergvc [https://www.youtube.com/@scottvandenbergvc] John Foraker Once Upon a Farm: https://onceuponafarmorganics.com/ [https://onceuponafarmorganics.com/] LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/john-foraker-0061732/ [https://www.linkedin.com/in/john-foraker-0061732/] HotStart VC is a fund that exclusively invests in brands founded by celebrities and creators. We're the go-to platform for celebrities and creators launching brands, providing capital, strategic support, and the infrastructure to scale.