The HotStart VC Podcast

Scott van den Berg
  • 1.0 (1)
  • Entrepreneurship
  • Updated Weekly

Breaking down how celebrities and creators build billion-dollar brands — hosted by Scott Van den Berg.

  1. 19h ago

    How These Twin Creators Turned 450K Followers Into an AI Startup Fighting Loneliness

    Fabian and Julius Cowdrey are twin brothers, creator entrepreneurs with a combined following of over 450,000, and the co-founders of Joyna, an AI platform that matches users to the best events and experiences in their city in under 60 seconds based on deeply personalized recommendations. It started with a group coaching company. Four years ago, Fabian and Julius were running small groups for people who couldn't afford one-to-one therapy or coaching, scaling to 10 groups of 10 and serving 100 people a month. But they hit a wall. People kept asking for more groups and they were exhausted. So they built infrastructure to scale their support, first through a wellness creator platform, then through Joyna, an AI that learns about you and connects you to like-minded people through shared real-life experiences. What makes Joyna different from every other event platform is that it lives entirely on WhatsApp. Instead of forcing users to download yet another app, you simply text Joyna what you're looking for, it asks a few clarifying questions, and within 60 seconds it sends three personalized recommendations based on where you live, what you like, and what you've done before. It builds short-term and long-term memory so it gets better the more you use it. The timing couldn't be better. Loneliness is up 35 to 40 percent year over year. Companies like Time Left, which connects strangers for dinner, are now operating in over 200 cities in just two and a half years. People are desperate for connection. Joyna makes it effortless to find things to do and people to meet, whether you are new to a city, looking for a date spot, or just bored on a Tuesday night. Fabian and Julius break down why they chose to build a tech company instead of launching a CPG brand, how Julius gained 19 waitlist signups in one hour by going live on TikTok, and why being a good human with a solid network matters more than having a massive following when building a company. They explain: Why Julius started creating content around music and reality TV before pivoting to viral street interviews How Fabian built his following from 39,000 to nearly 240,000 in three months by posting four times a day Why they built Joyna on WhatsApp instead of forcing users to download another app How Joyna uses conversational AI to learn about you and match you to events that suit your interests, location, and preferences Why loneliness is up 35 to 40 percent year over year and how Joyna is making it effortless to fix that Their number one advice for creators: post for the person who needs to find you, not for your existing followers Chapters: Chapters 00:00:00 Introduction: From Content Creators to Building Joiner 00:00:53 The Content Creation Origin: From Music Covers to Reality TV 00:01:54 Building a Following: From Professional Cricket to 200K Followers in 3 Months 00:03:47 The Creator Advantage: Leveraging Personal Brand as an Unfair Advantage 00:05:43 What is Joyna: WhatsApp AI That Matches You to Events in Seconds 00:08:45 The Loneliness Crisis: Why People Are Desperate for Real Connection 00:12:29 How Joynar Works: Personalized AI Matching with Short and Long-Term Memory 00:14:44 The Marketplace Model: Affiliate Partnerships and Independent Hosts 00:15:55 Balancing Founder and Creator: The Time Management Challenge 00:20:34 The Celebrity and Creator Brand Trend: Why Tech Over CPG 00:24:18 Mission-Driven vs Money-Driven: Building Beyond the Exit 00:26:48 What's Next for Joyna: Building the Playbook Before Scaling 00:28:17 Advice for Creator Founders: Focus on Your Niche and Be Kind HotStart VC Subscribe to The Fame Game newsletter: 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/ Check out our fund: https://www.hotstart.vc/ Scott van den Berg LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/scott-van-den-berg-22b534150/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/scottvandenberg_/ TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@scottvandenberg_ YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@scottvandenbergvc Fabian and Julius Cowdrey Joyna: https://joyna.ai/ Julius Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jlcowdrey/ Fabian Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/coachcowdrey/ HotStart is the go-to platform for celebrities and creators launching brands, providing capital, strategic support, and the infrastructure to scale.

  2. Aug 5

    How This Creator Built an AI Startup to Protect Creators From Bad Deals | Kameron Buckner

    Kameron Buckner is a creator entrepreneur, practicing attorney, and the founder of Social Docket, an AI-powered legal platform built specifically for the creator economy that reviews contracts in minutes, flags missing protections, and helps creators negotiate better deals without needing to hire a lawyer. It started with friends asking for help. Kameron was in law school reviewing her own brand deals as a creator when her friends noticed and started asking her to do the same for theirs. And she kept seeing the same thing. Creators were signing contracts they did not understand, giving away rights they did not know they had, and losing money they should have earned. Some were so excited about getting recognized that they forgot to check if the deal could actually pay their rent. That pattern became the foundation for Social Docket. One creator used the platform to get an extra five figures on a single deal just by copying and pasting the language Social Docket drafted for her. The brand initially said no when she tried to negotiate on her own. They said yes when she used the right legal language connected to the right term in the contract. What makes Kameron different from anyone else building in legal tech is that she has been on both sides of the table. She has been creating content since 2014, long before it was cool, starting with a YouTube channel in her college dorm filming beauty and lifestyle content on an iPhone. By the time she graduated law school and started practicing employment law in 2019, she had already spent five years as a creator signing her own brand deals. Kameron breaks down why she quit her law firm job after just one year to build The Legal Tea, her contract consulting firm, how a client told her she wanted an app instead of monthly calls and sparked the idea for Social Docket, and why nano and micro creators with 1,000 to 100,000 followers are the ones getting the most frequent contracts and need the most help. She explains: Why she started creating content in 2014 and how her first YouTube check for $100 felt like winning groceries for the month Why the most common mistake creators make is not reading contracts because they are intimidated and do not know what to look for How Social Docket reviews contracts in minutes and drafts revisions that would normally take lawyers hours or days Why one creator got an extra five figures on a deal just by using the exact language Social Docket told her to say Why nano and micro creators get the most frequent contracts and need the most protection Her number one advice for creators launching companies: remember you are the CEO and you own a business, so act like it Chapters: Chapters 00:00:00 Introduction: From Law School Creator to Building Social Docket 00:01:04 The Content Creation Origin: Starting in 2014 Before It Was Cool 00:02:02 Law School While Building: The Unique Advantage of Dual Experience 00:03:31 Content Evolution: From Beauty Tutorials to Law School Vlogs 00:04:40 Practicing Law as a Creator: Navigating the Corporate World 00:06:52 The Legal Tea: Quitting Big Law to Consult for Creators 00:09:45 The 2020 Inflection Point: When Everyone Became a Creator 00:11:19 Legal Horror Stories: The Most Common Creator Contract Mistakes 00:12:37 What is Social Docket: AI-Powered Legal Operating System 00:14:29 How Social Docket Works: From Upload to Negotiation in Minutes 00:16:30 Training the AI: Using Years of Contract Experience and Custom Prompts 00:18:38 The Ideal Creator Profile: Nano and Micro Creators Getting the Most Deals 00:19:44 Leveraging Creator Advantage: Community Building and Free Market Research 00:21:43 Beyond Free Marketing: The Hidden Advantages of Creator Founders 00:23:09 The Second Wave: Creators Building Tech Companies Over CPG Brands 00:24:11 Infrastructure Over Production: Why the Industry Needs Backend Tools 00:25:47 Balancing Creator and Founder: When Two Worlds Merge Perfectly 00:28:48 Founder Inspiration: Learning from Natalie and Rella 00:30:04 What's Next: Partnerships, Q4 Super Bowl, and Expanding the Ecosystem 00:31:55 Final Advice: Remember You Are the CEO of Your Creator Business HotStart Subscribe to the HotStart newsletter: 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/ Check out our fund: https://www.hotstart.vc/ Scott van den Berg LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/scott-van-den-berg-22b534150/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/scottvandenberg_/ TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@scottvandenberg_ YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@scottvandenbergvc Kameron Buckner Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/kameronmonet/?hl=en Social Docket: https://www.socialdocket.ai/

  3. Jul 29

    How This Creator Entrepreneur Is Disrupting Hormonal Wellness | Giselle Orentas, Balangy

    Giselle Orentas is a creator entrepreneur with hundreds of thousands of followers and the founder of Balangy, a premium body care brand built around one belief: women should not have to choose between medicalizing their hormonal health or quietly suffering through it. For over 20 years, Giselle had hormonal migraines every single month right before her period. The kind that forced her to turn off the lights, put ice on her head, and call her ex to pick up the kids. She tried everything and nothing worked until she discovered wild yam. Within weeks of applying it to her skin, her mood swings started to disappear. Within three months, so did her migraines. That personal discovery became Balangy, a body oil designed to help women trust their bodies through every phase of transformation, whether it is PMS, perimenopause, or menopause. Giselle has been creating content since 2013, long before it was cool. She started sharing her raw vegan journey on Instagram while working at a construction company and over the years built a loyal community by posting wellness tips, superfood recommendations, and eventually her own personal transformation story. That audience became the foundation for Balangy, driving sales entirely through organic content before she ever spent a dollar on ads. Unlike most creator brands that rush to market with white-labeled products, Giselle spent two years searching for a manufacturing partner who could honor her commitment to fully organic ingredients. Most labs said no. She kept looking until she found one that shared her standards. She breaks down why she chose a body oil over a cream and how topical application works better for hormonal balance, how her favorite OBGYN became an advisor and now recommends Balangy to her patients, and why she turned down acquisition offers because she wanted to learn every aspect of building the company herself. She explains: How wild yam ended 20 years of hormonal migraines and why she knew she had to share it with other women Why topical application works better than ingestible supplements for hormonal balance Why she spent two years searching for a lab that could honor her organic ingredient standards How she is launching an overnight deodorant that cleans your underarms while you sleep so you do not need to wear deodorant during the day How Dr. Jella, her OBGYN advisor, now recommends Balangy to her patients including those already on HRT Her number one advice for creators launching companies: trust yourself because your story and experience are all you need Chapters: Chapters 00:00:00 Introduction: From 20 Years of Hormonal Migraines to Building Balangy 00:00:48 The Content Creation Origin: Starting in 2013 Before It Was Cool 00:05:42 The Face Reveal Moment: Overcoming Insecurity and Unhealthy Relationships 00:07:19 Building an Audience of Hundreds of Thousands: The Entrepreneurial Calling 00:10:00 The Wild Yam Discovery: When One Ingredient Changed Everything 00:10:19 What is Balangy Premium Body Care for Hormonal Wellness 00:15:47 Product Expansion: The Revolutionary Overnight Deodorant 00:17:47 Leveraging Creator Advantage: From Content to Company 00:21:38 The Celebrity Brand Trend: Doing It the Right Way vs Taking Shortcuts 00:27:37 What's Next for Balangy: Advisors, Ads, and Retail Expansion 00:30:16 Advice for Creator Entrepreneurs: Trust Yourself and Your Story HotStart VC Subscribe to the HotStart VC newsletter: 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/ Check out our fund: https://www.hotstart.vc/ Scott van den Berg LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/scott-van-den-berg-22b534150/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/scottvandenberg_/ TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@scottvandenberg_ YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@scottvandenbergvc Giselle Orentas Balangy: https://balangy.com/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/giselle.orentas/?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.

  4. Jul 15

    How This Creator Turned 400K Followers Into an AI Job Search Startup | Ford Coleman, Runway

    Ford Coleman is a creator entrepreneur with over 400,000 followers teaching career advice and hiring strategies to college students and young professionals, and the founder of Runway, a platform that helps college students land their first internship or job by connecting them to open roles hours or even days before they appear on LinkedIn or Indeed. It started with an agency. Ford spent three and a half years running a placement business that generated half a million dollars in annual revenue while building his personal brand on the side. But as his following grew, he started receiving hundreds of DMs every single day from college students asking the exact same question: how do I get a job? And every single one of them was doing the exact same thing that wasn't working. Mass applying to thousands of jobs and hearing nothing back. That's when Ford realized the job search isn't a numbers game. It's a timing game. The candidates who apply within the first 24 hours of a job posting are the ones who get interviews, not the ones who apply after the role has been blasted across LinkedIn and flooded with applicants. So he built Runway, a platform that integrates with over 200,000 company career sites and surfaces roles the moment they're posted. Runway users get interviews at six and a half times the rate of traditional job boards. Ford breaks down why he walked away from a half million dollar business to build a consumer product, how he's building a UGC program where he personally teaches creators to post content that converts followers into Runway users, and why AI is actually a tailwind for what he's building rather than a threat. He explains: Why the job search is a timing game and not a numbers game How Runway connects to 200,000 company career sites and surfaces jobs days before they hit LinkedIn or Indeed Why Runway users get interviews at six and a half times the rate of traditional job search platforms How AI agents help students tailor resumes, prepare for interviews, and identify who to network with for each specific job Why 52% of recent college graduates are underemployed and what that means for the market Runway is building in His number one advice for creators launching companies: build for the problem your audience is consistently asking about, not just for your audience size Chapters: Chapters 00:00:00 Introduction: From 400K Followers to Building Runway 00:01:11 The Content Creation Origin: From Zero to 400K Followers 00:03:11 Building an Agency to Half a Million in Revenue 00:05:00 The Pivot Moment: When 300K Followers Revealed the Real Problem 00:06:25 What is Runway: Solving the Timing Game, Not the Numbers Game 00:08:11 The Competitive Advantage: First Access to 200K Company Career Sites 00:10:15 The Results: 6.5% Interview Rate vs 1% Industry Standard 00:11:17 How Runway Works: AI Matching, Personalized Prep, and Smart Curation 00:16:37 The AI Disruption Debate: Entry Level Jobs and the Future 00:17:44 Leveraging Creator Advantage: Content as Distribution Engine 00:19:11 The UGC Strategy: Building a Sales Force of Content Creators 00:22:12 Platform Expansion: Mastering One Channel Before Adding the Next 00:23:39 Creator Entrepreneur Inspiration: Hormozi, Gray, and the Course Economy 00:26:01 What's Next: From 100K to 1M ARR by Year End 00:27:01 Advice for Creator Entrepreneurs: Build for the Problem, Not the Audience HotStart VC Subscribe to the HotStart VC newsletter: 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/ Check out our fund: https://www.hotstart.vc/ Scott van den Berg LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/scott-van-den-berg-22b534150/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/scottvandenberg_/ TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@scottvandenberg_ YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@scottvandenbergvc Ford Coleman Runway: https://www.joinrunway.io/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ford-coleman/ 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.

  5. Jul 8

    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 $600M 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 $600M 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/ Become a HotStart Angel and co-invest with us in celebrity-founded brands starting from $5,000: https://www.hotstart.vc/hotstart-angels/ Check out our fund: https://www.hotstart.vc/ Scott van den Berg LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/scott-van-den-berg-22b534150/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/scottvandenberg_/ TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@scottvandenberg_ YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@scottvandenbergvc Azhar Muhammad-Saul Paradigm Sports: https://www.paradigmsports.com/ LinkedIn: 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.

  6. Jul 1

    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/ Become a HotStart Angel and co-invest with us in celebrity-founded brands starting from $5,000: https://www.hotstart.vc/hotstart-angels/ Check out our fund: https://www.hotstart.vc/ Scott van den Berg LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/scott-van-den-berg-22b534150/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/scottvandenberg_/ TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@scottvandenberg_ YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@scottvandenbergvc Yoni Bierig LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jonathanbierig/ Tempted: 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.

  7. Jun 24

    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/ Become a HotStart Angel and co-invest with us in celebrity-founded brands starting from $5,000: https://www.hotstart.vc/hotstart-angels/ Check out our fund: https://www.hotstart.vc/ Scott van den Berg LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/scott-van-den-berg-22b534150/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/scottvandenberg_/ TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@scottvandenberg_ YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@scottvandenbergvc Deborah Benton Willow Growth Partners: https://willowgrowth.com/ LinkedIn: 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.

  8. Jun 17

    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/ Become a HotStart Angel and co-invest with us in celebrity-founded brands starting from $5,000: https://www.hotstart.vc/hotstart-angels/ Check out our fund: https://www.hotstart.vc/ Scott van den Berg LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/scott-van-den-berg-22b534150/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/scottvandenberg_/ TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@scottvandenberg_ YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@scottvandenbergvc Kristina Subbotina Lexsy: https://www.lexsy.ai/ Instagram: 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.

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Breaking down how celebrities and creators build billion-dollar brands — hosted by Scott Van den Berg.

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  • Creator
    Scott van den Berg
  • Years Active
    2025 - 2026
  • Episodes
    36
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Copyright
    © HotStart VC
  • Show Website
    The HotStart VC Podcast

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