Amber Case, author of Calm Technology sits with Steven Galanis, co-founder of Cameo, to discuss how Chicago became the home base for one of the country's flashiest startups. He shares how the platform is a fun way to hire a celebrity to surprise or friends and how the startup accelerated from novelty to a full-fledged advertising platform and more.

:44—Discuss Steven's transition from trading to entertainment/advertising

4:45—Realizing opportunities—selfies as the new autograph

6:04 —Why Chicago? From 1871, Mike Gameson to Chicago as the flagship

11:17—Gaining additional funding— Steven discusses leveraging networks serendipitous encounters that led to investments

15:40—The silver lining of success in Cameo's first video fail

21:50— Gaining talent with a new strategy

26:16 —Steven reflects on early notoriety & guidance from the Ikigai Japanese framework

30:22—Amber discusses, "the thing" that changed her career trajectory

33:42 —How to start a start-up—compressing 40 years of work into a couple of years

35:05 —Cameo's transition to remote work during the pandemic & benefits of remote work

44:48—Steven discusses handling PR nightmares and solving address them

48:29—Steven discusses consumer requests, B2B elements of Cameo & determining pricing

52:18—The first big name and first major coverage of Cameo

cameo.com

calmtech.com

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