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:

• 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/

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.

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:

• 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.

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:

• 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.

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:

• 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.

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:

• 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/

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_/

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@scottvandenbergvc

John Foraker

Once Upon a Farm: https://onceuponafarmorganics.com/

LinkedIn: 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.

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:

• 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/

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_/

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@scottvandenbergvc

Sherry Wong

Roster: https://www.joinroster.co/

Instagram: 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.

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:

• 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/

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

Ghita El Haitmy

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/techbible.ai/

TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@tech.bible

Eli: 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.

Haven Lough is a 19-year-old creator entrepreneur with over 5 million followers across social media and the founder of Haven, a skincare brand built for sensitive, acne-prone skin with ingredients you can actually trust.

It started with his sister. She was spending all her money on skincare, but she only cared how popular and cool the brand looked, not how healthy the ingredients were. At the same time, Haven was studying to become a dermatologist after leaving high school two years early to start college. He realized he had the knowledge, the audience, and the solution to a problem no one else was solving: skincare that's actually healthy and looks cool at the same time.

Unlike most creator brands that rush to market with white-labeled products, Haven spent two years working directly with lab chemists and manufacturers to create formulations that won't make you break out. The brand launched exactly one year ago, sold out 1,000 units in 24 hours, and he was on a yacht with friends when it happened. Haven has since expanded to three lip balms with a gentle daily facial cleanser coming next, and just announced a partnership with Dr. Dendy Engelman, one of the top dermatologists in New York City, who now recommends and approves every product.

Haven breaks down why celebrity brands are secretly failing and why people can now spot cash grabs immediately, why he named the brand after himself even though everyone told him not to, and how he turned a puppy yoga studio into his most profitable side venture.

He explains:

• Why he left high school two years early and how watching pimple popping videos as a kid sparked his obsession with skin
• How his sister's spending habits became the catalyst for Haven
• Why he spent two years in product development instead of rushing to market like most creator brands
• How Haven sold out 1,000 units in 24 hours and what those first moments felt like
• Why partnering with AI influencer Granny Spills taught him that relatability is everything and AI can't replace real human connection
• His number one advice for creator entrepreneurs launching companies

Chapters:

• 00:00:00 Introduction: From 5M Followers to Building Haven Skincare
• 00:00:47 The Content Creation Journey: From COVID Thirst Traps to Documenting Life
• 00:03:24 Building with Your Audience: The Power of Validation and Story
• 00:04:30 The Puppy Yoga Business: A Profitable Passion Project
• 00:06:58 What is Haven: Creating a Safe Sanctuary for Sensitive Skin
• 00:08:49 The Passion Behind the Product: From Pimple Popping Videos to Dermatology Dreams
• 00:11:10 Why Haven Named the Brand After Himself: The Strategic Decision
• 00:12:25 What Makes Haven Different: Targeting Sensitive Skin with No Compromises
• 00:14:13 The Launch: Selling Out 1,000 Units in 24 Hours on a Yacht
• 00:15:56 Leveraging Creator Advantage: Viral Content Over Ads
• 00:18:09 The AI Influencer Experiment: Partnering with Granny Spills
• 00:25:47 Bootstrapping Strategy: Why Haven Hasn't Raised Capital Yet
• 00:30:27 Advice for Creator Entrepreneurs: Build Your Foundation Before You Scale

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

Haven Lough

Haven Skincare: https://shophavenskin.com/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/haven.lough/?hl=en

TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@havenlough

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.

Aris is a creator entrepreneur with over 3 million followers and 3 billion views, best known for his viral skits as a French rich kid on his account The European Kid. That platform became the foundation for Storytime, a hyper-local marketplace matching businesses with creators in their neighborhood, where creators pay with content and businesses pay with experiences, effectively creating a new currency for the creator economy.

It started with a simple frustration. As a creator, Aris was spending hours in DMs with shops and bars trying to set up brand deals that should have taken minutes. He realized the entire partnership industry was broken. So he built the solution himself.

Storytime now operates in over 1,000 locations across New York City, just expanded to Miami, and has onboarded some of the hottest food and beverage chains in America including Cava, Joe & The Juice, and Oakberry. Unlike traditional influencer marketing platforms that focus on macro creators and six-figure campaigns, Storytime redefines who qualifies as a creator. A college student with 4,000 followers in NYU's neighborhood is more valuable than someone with 100,000 followers in Brazil.

Aris breaks down why being a creator gave him unfair advantages most tech founders don't have, how he closed deals with Oakberry and Sweetgreen by DMing their founders directly, and why nano and micro creators are the future of influencer marketing.

He explains:

• Why his viral Parmesan cheese video was filmed in two minutes and how low production often outperforms polished content
• How one video outside a New York nightclub went so viral it made French news and people thought he was related to the founder of LVMH
• Why Storytime focuses on nano and micro creators with 3,000 to 10,000 followers instead of celebrities
• How being The European Kid opened doors to founders of Oakberry and Sweetgreen that traditional founders could never access
• His number one advice for creators: it's a quantity game, and posting relentlessly beats perfection

Chapters:

• 00:00:00 Introduction: From The European Kid to Building Storytime
• 00:00:42 The Origin Story: From TikTok Curiosity to Viral French Character
• 00:01:37 The Parmesan Video: When Low Production Meets Maximum Virality
• 00:04:32 Realizing the Value: How Content Creation Became a Real Business
• 00:05:32 What is Storytime: Building a Marketplace for Creator-Business Connections
• 00:07:24 How Storytime Works: The Mechanics of Paying with Content
• 00:07:59 Creating a New Currency: Content as Payment
• 00:08:45 The Competitive Edge: Quality Over Quantity in Marketplace Partners
• 00:10:34 The Target Creator: Redefining Influence from Nano to Micro
• 00:11:47 Authenticity in Influencer Marketing: Friends Over Celebrities
• 00:12:28 The Creator-Product Fit: Why Aris Is the Perfect Founder
• 00:17:51 The Hidden Superpowers: Beyond Social Media Followers
• 00:19:25 The Acquisition Strategy: Organic Growth Through Network Effects
• 00:21:56 Global Expansion Plans: From Miami to Istanbul
• 00:24:50 Why Creators Choose CPG Over Tech Companies
• 00:27:07 Balancing Creation and Building: The 90-10 Split

HotStart VC

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Become a HotStart Angel and co-invest with us in celebrity-founded brands starting from $5,000: https://www.hotstart.vc/hotstart-angels/

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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

Aris Yeager

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theeuropeankid/

Storytime: https://storytime.io/

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.

Jay is a creator entrepreneur with over 13 million followers teaching English on social media, and the founder of BigBean, a language learning app that teaches English through AI generated images and videos instead of traditional translation methods.

Before building his own, he spent years using that reach to help other language learning apps grow, working with companies that reached valuations over $300 million. He got paid well. But he never saw a cent of the upside. So he asked himself the obvious question: why am I building everyone else's company when I could be building my own?

That question became BigBean. The core thesis: people struggle to speak English because they're forced to think in their native language first, then translate every word while changing grammatical structure in their head. BigBean eliminates that cognitive bottleneck by creating a direct association between image and word, no native language required.

When Jay posted his first video about BigBean, the app shot straight to number five in the education category on the Japanese App Store. That wasn't luck. It was the result of years spent understanding virality across multiple niches, building audiences from zero, and learning exactly what converts followers into users by growing other people's apps first.

He breaks down why he believes apps will become the new dropshipping as AI coding tools democratize tech entrepreneurship, how he balances being a creator and a founder without sacrificing either, and why the best move he made was finding a technical co-founder so he could stay focused on what he does best.

He explains:

• Why he started creating content at 12 and how a paper box tutorial became his first million view video at 14
• The virality strategy he still uses today: find small creators with one viral video and replicate the format
• Why he stopped posting ads on his personal account and started building social media teams for language apps instead
• How BigBean's visual learning approach solves the cognitive bottleneck preventing people from speaking English fluently
• How one video pushed BigBean to number five in the Japanese App Store education category
• His number one advice for creator entrepreneurs launching companies

Chapters:

• 00:00:00 Introduction: From 30M Followers to Building BigBean
• 00:00:53 The Early Creator Journey: From Clumsy Dodo to Theme Pages
• 00:04:22 Finding the Niche: Why Jay Started Teaching English on TikTok
• 00:05:43 The Virality Strategy: What Jay Understands About Going Viral
• 00:09:36 Working with Language Apps: Building Others' Companies
• 00:11:47 The Pivot Decision: Why Jay Decided to Build His Own App
• 00:13:34 What is BigBean: Visual Learning Through AI-Generated Content
• 00:20:08 The Launch Moment: One Video to Number Five in Education
• 00:21:25 The Creator Economy Shift: Apps as the New Drop Shipping
• 00:24:02 Balancing Creation and Building: The Co-Founder Solution
• 00:28:23 What's Next: Visual Dictionary and International Expansion
• 00:30:29 Advice for Creator Entrepreneurs: Master Your Craft First

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

Jay Fuijwara McCaughrean

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jayfujiwara/

TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@jayfujiwara

BigBean: https://www.bigbean.ai/

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.