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

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.

How This Creator Built an AI Hiring Platform Used by the World's Biggest YouTubers | Sherry Wong

Sherry Wong is a creator entrepreneur with hundreds of thousands of followers across social media and the founder of Roster, an AI hiring platform for the creator economy trusted by some of the world's biggest creators like the Stokes Twins, Jesser, and Preston. She's been creating content since 2011, back when being a YouTuber wasn't even considered cool. But while scaling her platform, Sherry kept running into the same problem. Hiring. Finding the right video editor, thumbnail designer, or producer was a real headache. So she decided to solve the problem herself. Unlike traditional hiring platforms like Upwork or Fiverr, Roster uses AI to analyze the type of content you make, your niche, your style, and instantly recommends the best candidates to hire. But the real innovation is the hiring challenge feature. Creators dump raw footage onto the platform, set a timeline, and let thousands of applicants compete by submitting test edits. The winner gets the job offer and a cash prize. When Jesser ran a challenge, he offered a $100,000 job and $2,000 cash to the winner. Over 3,000 people applied. Sherry breaks down how she added YouTuber to her resume before it was common and how it landed her a job in Singapore, why she's expanding beyond creators to work with B2B companies like Stripe, and how hiring challenges are lowering barriers for hidden talent across 150 countries to get discovered by the world's biggest creators. She explains: * Why she started creating content in 2011 and how it became the reason she got hired at a $50 million creator economy fund * How Roster's AI analyzes portfolios, niches, and software to match creators with the perfect hires in seconds * Why hiring challenges generate over 3,000 applicants and how they turn hiring into content * How Stripe and other B2B companies are now using Roster because every company is becoming a production house * Why AI is changing job descriptions but not eliminating creative roles entirely * Her number one advice for creators launching companies: just start and don't overthink it Chapters: CHAPTERS * 00:00:00 Introduction: From Creator to Building Roster * 00:00:45 The Early Creator Journey: Starting Before YouTube Was Cool * 00:02:25 The Resume That Changed Everything: Adding YouTuber to Her CV * 00:07:22 The Hiring Pain Point: Why Creators Struggle to Find Talent * 00:09:07 What is Roster: AI-Powered Hiring for the Creator Economy * 00:10:17 How the AI Matching Works: Portfolio, Niche, and Style Analysis * 00:12:15 The Hiring Challenge Feature: Democratizing Opportunity * 00:14:20 Results and Impact: 3,000 Applicants and Life-Changing Opportunities * 00:18:58 Working with the Biggest Creators: From Stokes Twins to Dude Perfect * 00:19:25 AI's Impact on Creative Jobs: Evolving Roles, Not Eliminating Them * 00:26:02 Balancing Creator and Founder: The Reality of Wearing Two Hats * 00:22:06 Expanding Beyond Creators: Bringing Roster to Brands and Agencies * 00:24:38 The Creator Advantage: Distribution vs Decision Making * 00:34:32 What's Next for Roster: Bigger Campaigns and Productions * 00:35:10 Final Advice: Just Start and Capitalize on Naive Ambition 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] Sherry Wong Roster: https://www.joinroster.co/ [https://www.joinroster.co/] Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/sherrybyw/?hl=en [https://www.instagram.com/sherrybyw/?hl=en] 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 Turned 400K Followers Into an AI Startup | Ghita El Haitmy building Eli

Ghita El Haitmy, known online as TechBible, is a creator entrepreneur with over 400,000 followers teaching technology on social media and the founder of Eli, an AI-powered platform that auto-detects your entire tech stack, eliminates software waste, and recommends the right tools for your business. It started during COVID. Ghita was building a computer vision startup and needed users fast, so she started creating content under the brand TechBible to bring them in. But the content took on a life of its own. TechBible grew way beyond the original startup, and founders kept asking her the same question: what tools should I use for my business? The problem was that Ghita couldn't answer. Every company runs on a different tech stack, and without knowing what was already in it, no recommendation made sense. So she built Eli, a platform that solves exactly that. Companies connect their email and accounting tools, Eli reads their invoices and payment data automatically, and within 60 seconds they have full visibility into every dollar spent on software. One customer cut 25% of their software spend in a single week by identifying tools they had forgotten they were paying for. Ghita breaks down how she uses AI agents to track 3,000 tools daily so Eli stays current on every change in the software market, how public tech stack profiles on TechBible generate a million monthly impressions, and why she walked away from affiliate marketing despite it being profitable because she saw where the internet was heading. She explains: * How TechBible started as a user acquisition tool for her computer vision startup and evolved into a platform of its own * Why email is still the best source of truth for understanding a company's tech stack * How one company cut 25% of their software spend in a week by identifying unused tools * The AI agents she built to scrape 3,000 URLs daily and track every change in the software market * How public tech stack profiles generate a million monthly impressions and why other creators share their stacks * Her number one advice for creator entrepreneurs: detach your identity from the business so you can pivot freely Chapters: CHAPTERS * 00:00:00 Introduction: From Computer Vision Startup to Building Ellie * 00:00:48 The Early Tech Journey: Why Ghita Fell in Love with Technology * 00:02:56 The Content Creation Origin: Building TechBible During COVID * 00:06:57 The Problem Discovery: Why Founders Kept Asking the Same Question * 00:09:19 What is Eli: Auto-Detecting Your Entire Tech Stack * 00:10:42 The Cost Savings: 25% Reduction in Software Spend * 00:12:16 Staying Updated: How Eli Tracks 3,000 Tools Daily with AI Agents * 00:15:44 The Creator Advantage: Leveraging Personal Brand for Distribution * 00:19:39 The Public Tech Stack Strategy: Million Monthly Impressions * 00:24:37 Balancing Creator and Founder: Time Blocking and Efficiency * 00:26:23 What's Next: Financial Infrastructure and AI Agent Spending * 00:28:36 Advice for Creator Entrepreneurs: Detach Identity from Business 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] Ghita El Haitmy Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/techbible.ai/ [https://www.instagram.com/techbible.ai/] TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@tech.bible [https://www.tiktok.com/@tech.bible] Eli: https://www.eli.work/ [https://www.eli.work/] 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.