Selfies At Scale: The Real Housewives of New York are among Cameo’s thousands of personalized … [+]
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Several weeks ago—seemingly ages before the coronavirus outbreak shuttered concerts, sporting events and much of the world economy—this baseball-obsessed Forbes writer found an unusual birthday present from a colleague among his unread emails: a video message from one of the better pitchers in the major leagues.
“This is Shane Bieber of the Cleveland Indians, but more importantly, this is Shane Bieber of my man Paul’s fantasy team—Paul, good s*** putting together that roster,” said the 24-year-old righty. “The only thing I gotta say is, I’m hearing my man Zack traded away Mike Trout. … What are we doing, bro?”
The personalized trolling cost $30 through a service known as Cameo. Founded in 2017 by LinkedIn alum Steven Galanis, former NFL agent Martin Blencowe and 30 Under 30 Class of 2020 member Devon Townsend, the platform lets anyone with a modicum of fame essentially sell virtual autographs. It features 30,000-plus stars, who set a price ($111 for Kyrie Irving, $420 for Snoop Dogg) for a personalized video they send out. So far there are 600,000 of them, with Cameo taking a 25% cut of each.
The venture, which has raised more than $65 million in venture funding from Lightspeed, Kleiner Perkins and other investors, is also one of the rare companies getting a boost from the coronavirus pandemic. Revenue surged 30% last week, and orders are up 83% since the beginning of March. With most of the world hunkering down at home, some big names are joining the party, too: This week, Cameo added Mandy Moore, Mike Tyson, Lisa Leslie, Busy Philipps and Akon, among others.
“Suddenly, our talent, who are some of the most in-demand people on earth, they just literally have all this downtime that they never usually have,” says Galanis, 32. “With social distancing in general, if it’s someone’s birthday, you can’t go to a restaurant or bar with them anymore, so people are looking for cool, unique ways to wish someone happy birthday, or congratulate them on whatever’s going on in life.”
Music Video: Snoop Dogg is one of the marquee names on Cameo, where social distancing is creating a … [+]
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Cameo won’t talk numbers, but its average video price is around $50, and last year members cranked out 350,000 of them, which would place Cameo’s slice at around $5 million for 2019. If the recent surge in volume is any indication, COVID-19 may be the best thing to happen to the app since Stormy Daniels joined.
Some creators will do even better. Caitlyn Jenner now manages to get $2,500 per recording. Businesses are paying up to $10,000 for a B-to-B option that offers actor Michael Rapaport, the Real Housewives of New York and other fringe figures for short commercials they can spread via social media. Even Shane Bieber’s rate has increased to $40. More than 30 celebrities are investors, too, including Snoop Dogg and Kyrie Irving. NFL linebacker Cassius Marsh and former NBA forward Lance Thomas poured five-figure checks into the business in its seed round.
The trick for all of them will be to capitalize on the momentum, a challenge not lost on Galanis, who is rolling out CameoCon, an all-digital convention scheduled for April 16-18 that hopes to fill the void left by the cancellation of festivals like SXSW and Coachella. Some are also pitching in with relief efforts: The stars of Bon Appétit’s Test Kitchen series came on board this week—and raised $70,000 for No Kid Hungry in one day. College basketball analyst Seth Davis has been doing videos for free to cheer up fans starved for March Madness.
“This is still a consumer discretionary product,” says Galanis. “We’re not selling Purell, or Clorox, or canned soup, right? So who knows what happens if people lose 40% of their net worth, or 60% of their net worth? But I think in any economic environment, people want to smile.”
For more on how creators have leveraged their fame to invest early in startups—and create generational wealth—check out my new book, A-List Angels, and follow me on Twitter.