The HotStart VC Podcast

Zeke Bronfman co-founded The Absorption Company alongside Twilight and Vampire Diaries actors Nikki Reed and Ian Somerhalder, and deliberately kept them off the packaging and website.

Because this isn't a celebrity brand. The only celebrity here is bioavailability.

This is a masterclass in using celebrity founders the right way: as a distribution lever, not a brand identity.

After selling their zero-sugar canned cocktail company in 2022, Zeke and co-founder Nate discovered they were peeing out up to 85% of the supplements they'd been spending thousands on every month. The culprit? Traditional supplements absorb at just 10-16%, meaning 84% never reaches your cells. That frustration became The Absorption Company: a science-first supplement brand using pharmaceutical-grade Capsoil technology to deliver nutrients up to 8x more effectively, backed by published clinical studies.

Zeke breaks down how the partnership with Ian and Nikki came together (he had no idea who Ian was before their first call), why keeping celebrities off the bottle actually builds more trust with doctors and consumers, and how he strategically deploys their platforms for performance marketing, retail doors, and fundraising without letting the brand become dependent on fame.

He explains:

• Why 77% of Americans take supplements daily yet 90% are still deficient in key nutrients
• The 3-step absorption failure killing every supplement you've ever bought
• How Capsoil technology makes their berberine absorb 6x better and CoQ10 10x better
• Why they're building D2C first, even with major retailers already knocking
• The one thing every celebrity brand gets wrong (and how to avoid it)

Chapters:

• 00:00:00 Introduction: Building The Absorption Company with Celebrity Co-Founders
• 00:01:04 Zeke's Background: From Better-For-You Cocktails to Supplements
• 00:03:37 The Founding Story: Discovering the Supplement Absorption Crisis
• 00:04:35 What is The Absorption Company: Solving the Bioavailability Problem
• 00:05:54 The Science Behind Absorption: Three Critical Problems
• 00:08:08 Building IP and Brand Moat: The Thorne Comparison
• 00:09:39 The Partnership Origin: How Four Co-Founders Came Together
• 00:12:00 Celebrity Strategy: Amplifiers Not Figureheads
• 00:13:43 Leveraging Celebrity Co-Founders: Ads, Podcasts, and Retail Doors
• 00:17:27 Why Celebrities Launch Supplement Brands
• 00:20:16 Product Lineup: From Solutions to Foundational Supplements
• 00:24:27 The D2C-First Strategy: Why They're Not Rushing to Retail
• 00:26:10 Learning from Celebrity Brands: The IM8 Performance Creative Model
• 00:27:17 Common Mistakes in Celebrity Brands
• 00:29:18 Fundraising as a Celebrity Brand: How Investor Sentiment Has Shifted
• 00:30:39 What's Next: New Product Launches and Category Leadership

HotStart VC

Subscribe to the HotStart VC newsletter: https://hotstart.beehiiv.com/

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

Zeke Bronfman

The Absorption Company: https://www.absorbmore.com/

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ezekiel-bronfman-66b613175/

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.

When London Lazar hit 10 million followers across social media by recreating Home Alone frame-by-frame every Christmas, he didn't follow the typical creator playbook of slapping his face on a white-labeled product and calling it a day. Instead, he made a decision that would have terrified most creators: he walked away from daily posting, ditched the audience that took years to build, and went all-in on inventing something the candy industry had never seen before. Now, just three years later, Final Boss Sour has raised over $7 million, launched 48 flavors using a monthly drop strategy borrowed from Crumbl Cookies, generated over 1 billion organic views as a faceless brand, and just completed a six-week test in 2,000 Walmart stores nationwide. But here's what makes London's story different from every other creator launching candy: he didn't start with gummies made from gelatin and artificial flavors like everyone else. He started with dried fruit, reinvented sour candy from scratch, and built a brand that could survive without him because he knew short-form content fizzles and he refused to be another creator who peaked at 10 million followers only to disappear three years later working a second job.

In this episode, you'll discover:

• The 2015 article about Logan Paul making $50,000 from a single post that convinced London to quit his $28,000/year job and bet everything on the creator economy before it was even called that
• Why he walked away from posting three times a day for two straight years without missing a single day and how that decision to prioritize company over content became Final Boss Sour's greatest advantage
• How they invented the sour dried fruit category by asking one simple question: what if you could take real fruit, dry it, and make it sour? Then ordering samples, adding citric and malic acid, and perfecting the tumbling process that makes it actually sour
• The monthly drop strategy that's launched 48 flavors in three years: every last Friday of the month brings a new flavor at a different sour level, acquiring thousands of new customers who didn't want kiwis or mangoes but clicked instantly for watermelon strawberries
• Why they refused to put London's face on the product and built Final Boss Sour as a faceless brand with 500k followers that became the number one selling candy on TikTok Shop without relying on one person's audience
• His unfiltered take on why every creator is launching candy: young audiences, nostalgic product, and factories that will work with you just because you have followers, but most are doomed because people only buy it once for the creator, not the product
• How they raised $7 million and closed their last $4 million round in two weeks because investors loved that they had a creator attached but weren't solely dependent on him, plus they'd already proven success across ads, affiliates, TikTok Shop, and retail
• His number one advice for creator entrepreneurs: invent something and make it mega demonstrable so your fans can explain it instantly on an Instagram story, because if you can't show a sour face in five seconds, nobody's going to talk about it

Chapters:

• 00:00:00 Introduction: From 10 Million Followers to Final Boss Sour
• 00:02:20 The Creator Journey: From Tesla Stunts to Home Alone Recreations
• 00:04:30 The Pivot: Choosing Company Over Content Creation
• 00:07:51 What is Final Boss Sour: Reinventing Sour Candy with Dried Fruit
• 00:11:45 48 Flavors in 3 Years: The Monthly Drop Strategy
• 00:19:21 Building a Faceless Brand: Why London Didn't Put His Face on the Product
• 00:17:07 The Walmart Launch: Testing in 2,000 Stores Nationwide
• 00:22:25 Why Every Creator is Launching Candy: The Creator Economy Gold Rush
• 00:28:58 Fundraising as a Creator Founder: Raising 7 Million Dollars
• 00:32:14 Advice for Creator Entrepreneurs: Invent Something and Make it Demonstrable

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

London Lazar

Final Boss Sour: https://finalbosssour.com/

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

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

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.

When Hannah Williams discovered she was being underpaid by $25,000 as a senior data analyst in 2021, she didn't just negotiate a raise or quietly move on. Instead, she picked up a camera, started asking strangers on the street how much they make, and accidentally built one of the fastest-growing media platforms in the creator economy. Within three weeks of posting her first video, Hannah had quit her full-time job, convinced her husband to follow, and was fielding calls from major brands like Indeed, LinkedIn, and Glassdoor who recognized what she'd tapped into: a cultural movement around pay transparency that was about to explode. Now, after four years of building Salary Transparent Street to over 3 million followers, generating $1.6 million in annual revenue, and helping workers collectively earn millions more in their careers, Hannah just sold the company in a seven-figure acquisition to NowThis. But here's what makes her story different from every other creator exit: she didn't sell because she was burned out or chasing a payday. She sold because she recognized her strengths as a creator and her weaknesses as an operator, and she found a partner who could take the mission further than she could alone while keeping her in the driver's seat as supervising producer.

In this episode, you'll discover:

• The exact moment Hannah's first video went viral with over 1 million views and how she went from zero followers to 400k in just two weeks by being the first to create a dedicated street interview channel around salary transparency
• Why she quit her government contracting job three weeks after posting her first video when brands like Indeed and LinkedIn started reaching out with serious partnership offers
• How she and her husband burned through their entire six-month emergency fund before landing their first brand deal at the exact moment the money ran out
• The business model breakdown: 96-97% of revenue comes from long-term brand partnerships with companies like Capital One Cafe and Glassdoor, with the remaining 3% from ad revenue across platforms
• Why she spent $300,000 building a salary database from scratch without charging users a single dollar and how that decision created a second acquirable asset she still owns post-acquisition
• How her community survey revealed they'd collectively made over $1 million more in their careers after watching her content, and that was just from 50-100 respondents out of a million followers
• The legislative impact: testifying in support of three pay transparency bills in Washington D.C., Virginia, and Maryland that all passed, proving creators can influence policy, not just culture
• Why VCs weren't offering enough money when she explored raising capital and how that pushed her toward acquisition conversations instead
• The multi-month negotiation process with Now This and why the first deal they discussed wasn't the deal they signed because she advocated for her worth the same way she teaches her followers to do
• Her number one advice for creators: don't be afraid to recreate something that already exists, but focus on what hasn't been done yet and what gap you can fill that will impact people a week from now

Chapters:

• 00:00:00 Introduction: Hannah Williams and Salary Transparency Street
• 00:01:35 The Origin Story: Discovering She Was Underpaid by ,000
• 00:02:28 The First Viral Video: From Zero to 50K Followers Overnight
• 00:04:30 Why Street Interviews: Choosing the Format That Changed Everything
• 00:11:08 The Three-Week Decision: Quitting Her Job to Go Full-Time Creator
• 00:14:00 Breaking Down the Business Model: 96% Brand Partnerships
• 00:16:41 Building Beyond Content: The Salary Database and Acquirable Assets
• 00:26:19 Working with Your Spouse: The Partnership That Made It Work
• 00:28:05 Real Impact: Millions of Dollars in Salary Increases
• 00:20:31 The Acquisition Journey: Finding the Right Partner in Now This
• 00:34:16 Balancing Creator and Entrepreneur: Lessons on Burnout and Hiring
• 00:37:21 Final Advice: Don't Be Afraid to Recreate the Wheel

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_

Hannah Williams

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

TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@hannahwill3ams

Salary Transparent Street: All social channels

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.

When Ben Guez sold his previous tech company, he didn't follow the typical founder playbook of taking time off or jumping straight into another startup. Instead, he picked up his phone during COVID lockdown, started creating content on TikTok (because he was too embarrassed to post on Instagram where his family could see), and accidentally discovered something that would become his next venture. Now, with over 800k followers across social media and a rapidly growing language-learning app called Canary, Ben represents a new breed of entrepreneur: one who builds distribution first, validates product-market fit through content engagement, and leverages audience insights to create tech products that solve real problems. But here's what makes Ben's story different from every other creator launching a company: he posted a single video of himself singing in French with English subtitles, noticed an unprecedented follower-to-view conversion ratio (3x better than his normal content), and turned that signal into a mobile app that's already generating $4k ARR with zero paid marketing—proving that the best tech founders of the next decade won't just build products, they'll build audiences around problems they're uniquely positioned to solve.

In this episode, you'll discover:

• Why Ben started creating content on TikTok instead of Instagram during COVID—and the exact moment he realized his "French guy in America" content was resonating beyond just entertainment
• The viral singing video that changed everything: how one post with French lyrics and English translations generated 3x better follower conversion than his typical content—and why that metric mattered more than total views
• How he validated Canary before writing a single line of code: creating a dedicated page that grew to 100k followers in five months, proving people wanted language learning through music
• How he reached 6k users and $4k ARR in just three months with zero paid ads—relying entirely on organic content from his personal page and Canary's dedicated account
• Why creators launch CPG brands instead of tech companies—and how AI tools like Loveable are about to democratize tech entrepreneurship the same way white-label manufacturers democratized CPG
• Why having 800k followers opens doors with investors but isn't enough to close deals without a tech background, strong team, and clear data
• Why he's building the "social layer" into Canary: enabling users to practice with native speakers, collaborate on duets across languages, and turning language learning into a community experience instead of a solo grind
• The creator monetization model he's testing: allowing musicians and language teachers to upload covers, earn rev-share, and get paid when users message them

Chapters:

• 00:00:00 Introduction: From Entrepreneur to Content Creator
• 00:01:39 The COVID Content Experiment: From TikTok to Instagram
• 00:03:08 The Viral Moment: Discovering Language Learning Through Music
• 00:04:15 What is Canary: Revolutionizing Language Learning with Music
• 00:05:59 How Canary Works: Features and User Experience
• 00:07:47 Building the Creator Economy into Language Learning
• 00:09:18 Cross-Language Creator Collaborations: A New Opportunity
• 00:10:13 Building in Public: Current Traction and Metrics
• 00:12:23 Why Creators Choose CPG Over Tech Companies
• 00:13:29 The AI Revolution: Making Tech Accessible to Creators
• 00:15:27 Angel Investing and Strategic Partnerships
• 00:16:41 Product Roadmap: AI-Powered Learning and Social Features
• 00:17:47 Go-to-Market Strategy: From Organic to Paid Acquisition
• 00:19:50 The Artist Opportunity: Shakira and Strategic Partnerships
• 00:20:37 Fundraising as a Creator Founder: Distribution Meets Execution
• 00:21:52 Breaking Misconceptions: Why Audience Size Doesn't Equal Revenue
• 00:23:16 Advice for Entrepreneurs Becoming Creators

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_

Ben Guez

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/bengue.z/?hl=en

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ben-guez-%F0%9F%8E%97%EF%B8%8F-a433a51a/

Canary: https://www.singwithcanary.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.

When Sam Cutler decided to take on the wellness industry, she didn't follow the typical creator playbook of launching another white-labeled supplement or skincare line. Instead, she bootstrapped Mindfull—a nutrition intelligence platform that's replacing calorie counting with real food education—and proved that creators can build tech companies that scale beyond their personal brand. But here's what makes Sam's story different from every other creator-turned-founder: she started by selling a single PDF meal plan for $59, validated demand with 650 sales in one week, then methodically scaled through a janky Squarespace site, a white-labeled app, and finally a custom-built platform—all without raising a single dollar of outside capital until now. This isn't a celebrity licensing deal or a quick cash grab—it's a mission-driven technology business solving real problems for women across 120 countries, built on a foundation of relentless testing, community feedback, and the hard-won lessons from launching her first tech company years earlier.

In this episode, you'll discover:

• Why 98-99% of creators launch CPG brands instead of tech companies—and why Sam believes AI will change that equation in the next few years as coding becomes democratized
• The viral wedding day "what I eat in a day" video that got Sam "canceled" and nearly ended her creator career—but became the exact moment that sparked Mindfull's origin story
• How she validated demand by selling 650 PDF meal plans in one week when she expected to sell 20—and why that signal was enough to commit to building a subscription business
• The scrappy validation playbook: PDF → Squarespace site → white-labeled app → custom platform, investing every dollar of revenue back into the next iteration before raising outside capital
• Why she tells every aspiring app founder to start with white-label solutions first: "Test at scale—see if anybody wants this before you waste hundreds of thousands of dollars"
• How Mindfull turns qualitative health metrics (bloating, skin, energy, sleep) into quantitative data that empowers women with nutrition intelligence instead of locking them into calorie counting
• The "heal in public army" expansion strategy: replicating Sam's content playbook across different creators representing different demographics, geographies, and hormonal life stages
• How she's spent zero dollars on paid marketing to date, relying entirely on organic content from her page and Mindfull's page—and why that gives her unfair advantages when she finally deploys ad budget
• The investor stigma around creator-founded companies and why Sam embraces being underestimated: "I'd rather be underestimated than overestimated—show people what you can do"
• Why every brand deal now goes through two filters: Does Sam personally believe in it? And would she put this product on Mindfull or recommend it to her community?
• Her number one advice for creator founders: "Fully commit and step into that role—don't dip a toe in. When your viral moment hits, you need enough backstory for people to decide if they trust you"

Chapters:

• 00:00:00 Introduction: From Creator to Repeat Tech Founder
• 00:01:04 Why Creators Choose CPG Over Tech Companies
• 00:05:55 Sam's Creator Journey: From Silver Lining Bias to The Fit Fatale
• 00:11:33 The Viral Wedding Menu: A Career-Defining Moment
• 00:13:50 From PDF to Platform: Validating Product-Market Fit
• 00:22:19 What is Mindful: Nutrition Intelligence Over Calorie Counting
• 00:25:57 The Content Playbook: Converting Followers to Customers
• 00:19:21 Bootstrapping to Profitability: Zero Paid Marketing Strategy
• 00:31:03 Scaling Beyond Sam: The Heal in Public Army
• 00:34:27 Fundraising as a Creator Founder: Underestimated or Advantaged?
• 00:38:22 Balancing Creator and Founder: Strategic Brand Partnerships
• 00:42:29 What's Next: Launching the Custom App and Global Expansion

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

Sam Cutler

Mindful: https://mindfulll.so

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

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

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

Email: [email protected]

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.

When Avni Barman quit her dream product management job in Big Tech with literally no backup plan, she had already spent seven years trying to make her entrepreneurship dreams work—launching five different business ideas, raising funding, hiring a team, and ultimately shutting it all down because none of it felt right. But here's the twist: in that moment of rock-bottom desperation with no money, no company, and no employees, she picked up a camera and started "yapping on the internet" about her career journey as a woman in tech. Within months, brands were reaching out offering serious money when she had just 10,000 followers, and Avni had a lightning-bolt realization: content creation wasn't just a side hustle—it was the exact business model that could fuel her decade-long mission of helping ambitious women reach the top 1% without charging the community she wanted to serve. Now, as founder and CEO of Gen She, she's built a media platform and fund reaching over 1 million ambitious women, proving that the best venture capitalists of the next decade won't just write checks—they'll build audiences around their thesis and use data from their community to make better investment decisions than any traditional fund ever could.

In this episode, you'll discover:

• Why Avni walked away from a corporate product management role after years of trying to force the traditional tech entrepreneur path—and the exact moment she realized content creation was the answer she'd been searching for
• How Gen She evolved from IRL conferences and 100 global chapters into a million-person media platform—and why the pandemic forced a complete reinvention of the business model
• How she uses Instagram Story polls to perform due diligence on potential investments in under 24 hours—accessing data and insights that no traditional VC fund could ever replicate
• Why "capital is not green" anymore—and how the rise of bootstrapping tools means founders will only take your money if you offer asymmetric value beyond the check
• The evolution from celebrity brands to influencer brands to the next wave: tech companies founded by creators—and why software is becoming a commodity just like CPG, making marketing and attention the ultimate moat
• Her hot take on why 99% of content creators should NOT launch their own companies—because being a 10x creator and a 10x operator simultaneously is nearly impossible, and the winning model is creator + operator co-founder pairs
• Why the concept of "celebrity" will cease to exist in the next decade—as social media democratizes fame and devalues the power any single celebrity has to move markets
• Her number one advice for aspiring content creators: "Detach from the outcome and push a level of quantity and consistency that requires separating yourself from what people think—they'll laugh in the beginning, but you'll be laughing when your content slaps and you have the leverage to build the world you want to see"

Chapters:

• 00:00:51 Welcome and Avni's Background
• 00:01:24 From Bay Area Tech to Entrepreneurship
• 00:02:30 The Failed Startup and Accidental Discovery
• 00:03:16 The Lightning Moment: Content as Business Model
• 00:04:54 Content Evolution: From Career Tips to Holistic Success
• 00:07:29 GenShe´s Origin Story: From College Nonprofit to Media Empire
• 00:11:19 Building the GenShe Ecosystem: Platform, Job Board, and Fund
• 00:11:36 The GenShe Fund: Investing in the Next Generation
• 00:14:43 Distribution Strategy: Instagram and LinkedIn Dominate
• 00:15:59 Investment Thesis: Tools to Reach the Top 1%
• 00:17:44 The Creator Advantage in Venture Capital
• 00:20:14 Content as Full-Time Job: The Reality of Building Audience
• 00:21:40 Real-Time Due Diligence: Using Instagram Polls to Validate Deals
• 00:22:46 The Future of Celebrity Brands: Why the Model is Shifting
• 00:23:41 The Impossible Balance: Content vs Operating a Company
• 00:27:09 Tech Companies as the New CPG: Why Creators Will Win
• 00:31:26 What's Next: Scaling GenShe's Global Impact
• 00:32:58 Advice for Content Creators: Detachment and Authenticity
• 00:35:08 Closing and Where to Find Afni

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

Avni Barman

Gen She: https://www.generationshe.co/

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

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/avnibarman/

HotStart VC is a fund that invests in brands founded by celebrities & creators. We're the go-to platform for celebrities and creators launching brands, providing capital, strategic support, and the infrastructure to scale.

When Julia Straus partnered with 15-year-old creator Salish Matter and her father Jordan Matter to launch Sincerely Yours, she had no idea their American Dream Mall debut would draw over 80,000 fans and literally shut down the entire shopping center. But here's what makes this story different from every other celebrity skincare launch flooding Sephora: Julia brought decades of consumer brand expertise from scaling Tula and Sweaty Betty, Salish is genuinely solving a problem she experiences daily as a teenager navigating confusing skincare advice, and they built a community of 60,000 teens who helped shape every decision before a single product hit shelves. This isn't a licensing deal or a quick cash grab—it's a mission-driven business solving a real gap in the market, backed by $7 million in funding, and proving that when you combine authentic creator-product-market-fit with world-class operational expertise, you can break through even the most saturated categories.

In this episode, you'll discover:

• Why Julia walked away from running Sweaty Betty in the UK to return to the US and build a startup from scratch—and what she saw in the teen skincare space that convinced her there was a massive white space opportunity
• How an investor connection led to meeting Jordan and Salish Matter—and the exact moment Julia realized their 35 million YouTube subscribers represented an audience desperately seeking safe, age-appropriate skincare solutions
• Why Salish and Jordan had never launched their own brand despite being among the world's biggest creators—and what made skincare the right authentic fit after years of turning down other opportunities
• The revolutionary community-building approach: assembling a Teen Advisory Board that meets quarterly like a real corporate board, plus a 60,000-person text community for rapid product testing and feedback
• How they sold out of all inventory at Sephora within one hour of the American Dream Mall launch—and why Julia was more nervous about Teen Board meetings than the public company board meetings she'd run in the past
• Why organic celebrity support from people like Khloe Kardashian happened without a single paid partnership—and how years of relationship-building created a "celebrity friends with benefits" effect that money can't buy
• The $7 million fundraising experience and why investors loved the creator co-founder model—even when many had no idea Jordan and Salish had 35 million YouTube subscribers (because they weren't the target demographic)
• The critical balance between building a brand that can stand on its own versus leveraging Salish's massive platform—and why the brand is called Sincerely Yours, not "Salish Skincare"
• Jordan's creative philosophy that transformed Julia's approach to brand building: "If it's been done before, why bother? You have to break boundaries and think outside the box—that's what makes content and brands memorable"
• Her number one advice for founders partnering with creators: "The key word in 'creator co-founder' is CREATOR—respect their creative process, don't hand them a brief, and trust that they know their audience better than any focus group ever could"

Chapters:

• 00:00:00 Introduction: Building a Teen Skincare Brand with Authenticity
• 00:01:10 Julia's Background: From D2C Pioneer to Beauty Executive
• 00:03:20 The Founding Story: When Three Visions Aligned
• 00:08:42 What Makes Sincerely Yours Different
• 00:10:43 Salish's Day-to-Day Involvement as a Teen Co-Founder
• 00:22:23 The Teen Advisory Board: 60,000 Voices Shaping the Brand
• 00:17:20 The American Dream Mall Launch: 80,000 Fans Shut Down the Event
• 00:20:24 Organic Celebrity Support and the Power of Trust
• 00:26:55 Fundraising: The Seven Million Dollar Seed Round
• 00:33:41 Advice for Building with Creator Co-Founders

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

Julia Straus

Julia Straus: https://www.linkedin.com/in/julia-straus-5a98a211/

Sincerely Yours: https://sincerelyyours.com

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

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

Salish Matter & Jordan Matter

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

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.

When Joshua Cohen co-founded Tubefilter in 2007, YouTube was just two years old and the term "creator economy" didn't even exist. While mainstream media dismissed online video as "stupid shit kids are putting online," Joshua saw something different: a fundamental shift in who gets to tell stories, build audiences, and create careers outside the traditional Hollywood gatekeepers. Now, nearly two decades later, Tubefilter has become one of the most trusted platforms covering the creator economy, and Joshua's latest venture—Gospel Stats—is pulling back the curtain on the multi-billion dollar YouTube sponsorship ecosystem that almost nobody has visibility into. But here's what makes this conversation especially compelling: Joshua watched creators evolve from making videos for fun to making a living, to launching businesses, to now becoming the dominant force in entertainment, marketing, and even politics. And he's got the receipts to prove it—Gospel's 2025 report reveals a staggering 54% year-over-year increase in sponsored YouTube videos, signaling that brands can no longer ignore what Joshua knew 18 years ago: creators are the future.

In this episode, you'll discover:

• The exact moment Joshua realized online video would disrupt traditional entertainment—watching a garage-filmed video podcast showcased by Steve Jobs at a Mac event in 2006
• Why Phil DeFranco almost quit YouTube to focus on school until a $112 check from YouTube's new partner program changed everything and helped birth the creator economy
• How Tubefilter became the "Variety and Hollywood Reporter" for creators when nobody else was taking the space seriously—and why that positioning still matters today
• The evolution from wave one creators (doing it for fun) to wave two (doing it for a living) to wave three (building ancillary businesses) to today's wave four (experts using content as distribution for their core business)
• Why 98% of creators should NOT launch their own companies—and what separates the 2% who actually should
• Why follower count is a "fantasy metric" and how a creator with 200K highly engaged followers in the right niche beats one with 10 million disengaged followers every time
• When creators should actually start thinking about raising capital (hint: it's not about hitting a follower threshold—it's about having clear product-market fit and knowing exactly how capital accelerates growth)
• Why being a creator is more like owning a small retail shop than being a celebrity—instant feedback, customer intimacy, and managing both the "front window" and "back office" simultaneously
• How Gospel Stats finds virtually every sponsored video on YouTube and reveals unprecedented detail about the sponsorship landscape—becoming the ultimate lead source for managers, agents, and brands
• The 54% year-over-year increase in sponsored YouTube videos (H1 2025 vs H1 2024) and what it reveals about brands finally waking up to creator power
• Why YouTube niches that were too small to monetize three years ago are now commanding serious sponsorship dollars—and how this creates opportunities for thousands of "undiscovered" creators
• His number one advice for creators launching brands: "Get behind a brand you'll still love three to five years from now—look at Emma Chamberlain and coffee, she can wake up every morning proud of that decision regardless of the financials"

From launching the Streamy Awards in 2009 (honoring creators the way the Oscars honor traditional celebrities) to being the first to interview Ryan from Ryan's World in 2015, Joshua has had a front-row seat to every major shift in the creator economy. Whether you're a creator thinking about launching a brand, an investor evaluating the space, or a brand trying to navigate YouTube sponsorships, this conversation delivers a masterclass in understanding where this industry has been—and where it's headed next.

Chapters:

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

Joshua Cohen

Tubefilter: https://www.tubefilter.com/

Gospel Stats: https://reports.gospelstats.com

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/joshuajcohen/

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.

When Jerome Aceti started uploading content in 2008 at just 14 years old, he had no idea he was beginning a streak that would last over 13 years—publishing at least one piece of content every single day since 2012. Now, with over 8 million subscribers across platforms and a portfolio that includes co-founding multiple startups, investing in others, and even becoming an LP in several venture capital and private equity funds, Jerome represents a new breed of creator: one who builds infrastructure for the industry rather than just another consumer brand. His latest venture, NextTide, is a patent-pending AI platform that protects ad campaigns in real-time at scale—solving a problem that's plagued the streaming industry for nearly two decades and proving that creators are uniquely positioned to build the tech companies that will power the future of content.

In this episode, you'll discover:

• How Jerome went from filming real-life skits with friends to building a family-friendly gaming empire focused on Minecraft and Roblox—and why he's maintained that same niche for over a decade
• The exact moment in his first year of college when his channel exploded and he made the decision to drop out and pursue content creation full-time (spoiler: it took five years from his first upload to get there)
• Why he started looking for alternative revenue streams as early as 2010
• Why he believes creators should save and invest as if their entire career is ending in one year
• What NextTide's patent-pending LiveGuard technology actually does: using AI to monitor tone, context, and chat sentiment in real-time to instantly turn off ads when a stream becomes brand-unsafe—solving the "ad apocalypse" problem that's cost creators billions
• Why traditional ad spend hasn't increased in the streaming market despite billions of hours watched—and how brand safety fears from past incidents still cause innocent family-friendly creators to lose revenue when one random streamer says something controversial
• Why he believes the next wave of creator companies will be tech-focused rather than CPG brands—pointing to MrBeast's Viewstats and Steven Bartlett's Flightcast as proof that creators are uniquely positioned to build infrastructure for their own industry
• Why he'll probably never retire from content creation even if he achieves every financial goal—because his daily mission to "make someone somewhere smile" is so core to his identity that he doesn't know how he'd fill that gap
• What's next for NextTide: Immersive Frames, a new AI technology that detects what's happening on-screen during gameplay and serves contextual advertising at the perfect moment (like a life insurance ad when someone gets eliminated in Fortnite)

From uploading 20,000+ videos over 17 years to co-founding a patent-pending AI company solving a 20-year-old industry problem, Jerome shares the unglamorous reality of building as a creator-turned-founder. Whether you're a creator thinking about launching a company, an investor evaluating the creator economy, or simply curious about the future of streaming and advertising technology, this conversation reveals why the most successful creators of the next decade won't just build brands—they'll build the infrastructure that powers the entire industry.

Chapters:

• 00:01:08 Jerome's Journey: 17 Years of Daily Content
• 00:02:41 The Path to Full-Time Creator: A 5-Year Journey
• 00:04:55 Early Entrepreneurial Spirit: From Golf Balls to Revenue Streams
• 00:06:30 The Creator Career Lifespan: Lessons from Athletes
• 00:08:53 Finding the Right Partners: Merch For All and Beyond
• 00:13:42 Introducing Next Tide: AI-Powered Brand Safety for Streaming
• 00:15:49 Solving the Ad Apocalypse: Why Brands Fear Live Streaming
• 00:24:21 The Creator Advantage in Tech: Why Software Makes Sense
• 00:28:07 Consistency is Key: 20,000 Videos and Counting
• 00:33:15 What's Next: Immersive Frames and Contextual Advertising
• 00:35:20 Final Advice: Stay Creative and Find the Right Partners

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

Jerome Aceti

NextTide: https://www.nextide.io/

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

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jeromeaceti/

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.

When Katie Hunt received a random LinkedIn message asking if he'd ever thought about starting a celebrity brand, he had no idea he was about to co-found a pet care company with Kaley Cuoco—one of the highest-paid actors in television history who made $150 million from The Big Bang Theory. But here's what makes Oh Norman! different from every other celebrity pet brand flooding the market: Kaley runs a rescue farm with over 200 animals, drafted an unprecedented letter for investors stating she's "never leaving" the company, and is so hands-on that she'll drop into vet team Zoom calls unannounced. This isn't a licensing deal or a paid endorsement—it's a mission-driven business built by someone who would have started a pet company regardless of fame, partnered with an operator who's been the third employee at Warby Parker and Chief Brand Officer at Hinge.

In this episode, you'll discover:

• The shocking reality that most pet products—including what you feed your animal—aren't developed by veterinarians, and why only 86 veterinary nutritionists exist in the entire United States (two of them work on Oh Norman!)
• How Katie and Kaley built a community of 150,000 followers before launching a single product—then used surveys to reverse-engineer their product roadmap based on what customers actually wanted
• Why they get 10,000 survey responses in 24 hours when they post questions on Instagram Stories—and how "bad dog breath" became one of their best-selling product lines after the community told them it was their dog's worst trait
• Why Kaley doesn't require hair, makeup, costume, lighting, or photographers—she just shows up in a top-knot bun holding two dogs and creates content in the middle of the night that would cost other brands hundreds of thousands in production
• How Amazon offered them a $250,000 Amazon Live asset for free in exchange for a single Kaley post—and why celebrity partnerships create leapfrog advantages in retail that would take non-celebrity brands years to achieve
• Why they refused to launch on any channel outside direct-to-consumer for one full year—and why every new product stays DTC-only for six months before going to retail or Amazon
• The "what would happen if the celebrity dies tomorrow?" question that every investor should ask—and why Oh Norman's focus on veterinary science, sustainable packaging, and ethical manufacturing means the brand could survive without Kaley (though it never has to)
• How they give back to rescue with every purchase, achieved B-Corp certification, and even put a rescue dog named Hogi on payroll as Chief Treat Officer to test all products
• Why the "overnight success" myth is dead for celebrity brands—and how the real advantage is getting a year ahead of everyone else for less money spent, plus free media placements that would cost competitors millions

From bonding over elder Chihuahuas to launching internationally on iHerb, Katie shares the unglamorous reality of building a venture-backed pet care brand alongside one of Hollywood's biggest stars who treats the business like her full-time job. Whether you're evaluating celebrity partnerships, building in the pet space, or curious about mission-driven CPG, this conversation reveals what authentic celebrity-product market fit actually looks like when the founder would do this work regardless of fame.

Chapters:

• 00:01:05 Kaley's Background: From Warby Parker to Pet Care
• 00:04:55 What Sets Oh Norman Apart: Vet-Approved Innovation
• 00:06:38 Mission-Driven Business: Giving Back to Rescue
• 00:08:32 The Celebrity Advantage: Kaley Cuoco's Authentic Involvement
• 00:16:19 Building Community Before Product: The 150K Follower Strategy
• 00:17:30 Community-Led Product Development: From Feedback to Best-Sellers
• 00:21:27 Raising Capital as a Celebrity Brand
• 00:25:24 Strategic Growth: Why They Waited a Year Before Expanding
• 00:29:51 Lessons from Celebrity Brands: The Honest Company Inspiration
• 00:31:04 What's Next: International Expansion and Future Plans
• 00:33:10 Final Advice: Choosing the Right Celebrity Partner

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

Katie Hunt

Oh Norman: https://ohnorman.com/

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/katie-hunt-659ab350/

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.