I remember that magic moment when I first witnessed the power of a celebrity. I had moved back to London to work at the FinTech startup Nutmeg and was helping my mother, Elaine, move house. Going through her things, she came across a framed piece of paper that read:
“Dear Elaine, Happy Birthday! Love John, Paul, George and Ringo.”
Sheer joy, excitement, and delight spread across her face as she thought back to the time the Beatles signed it for her 50 years ago. Thinking back on this was when it hit me: Cameo is the modern day autograph.
Cameo, in case you haven’t heard of it, is a startup that connects fans directly with their favorite pop culture personalities. Since its launch in March 2017, 275,000 personalized video shoutouts have been created and Cameo has added some 15,000 influencers to its platform, including Charlie Sheen, Caitlin Jenner, and, of course, Snoop Dogg.
First came the autograph, then the in-person appearance at a special event, then the celebrity selfie. Now comes the personalized video message — Cameo!
We lead Cameo’s Series A late last year and are thrilled to announce the company raising a $50m Series B today.
At Lightspeed we often focus on companies that apply technology to inherent consumer behavior in clever ways. Snap is a great example of that, and I believe Cameo is another. The reason I’m excited by Cameo is that it leverages four key trends that are helping to define popular culture.
Experiences are more valuable than objects
We live in the experience economy. Cameo is a marketplace that creates experiences of delight. It generates feelings of joy, excitement, hilarity, shock, and disbelief. It persuades its customers that magic has become reality. As you watch the reactions (also found at the bottom of Cameo’s homepage), you will see the intensity of emotion in the Cameo experience.
Cameo is a true experiential marketplace and one that is constrained by supply, where the supply here is the adored celebrities. Supply constrained marketplaces have seen some tremendous outcomes for venture backed startups. Physical items (Faire, ETSY) and services (Uber, Airbnb) are great examples of what we have seen. We believe the next area of opportunity within marketplaces is experiential.
We use social media to brag about our lives
We use social media of all kinds (but especially Instagram) to boast about our lives and peer into the lives of others. Cameo taps into this trend, allowing you to post Shark Tank’s Keven O’Leary (aka Mr. Wonderful) telling the world how great your business is, or to have Ice T rap you happy birthday. With so many influencers and celebrities now on the platform, you’re limited only by your imagination.
This trend applies to Cameo as well. Its innovative business model is built for social sharing, and the startup has inspired a wide range of traditional media coverage as well. There’s no need to buy Facebook ads when you have the users themselves posting to IG or Ellen DeGeneres talking about Cameo on her show.
It’s an influencer’s world
While some people will tell you the influencer space is done, I would argue that it’s only just beginning. Celebrities are now able to span multiple spaces, whether it’s Gwyneth Paltrow across acting and wellness or Lady Gaga across singing, acting, and now beauty. Tastemakers have always been with us and will only increase in importance as social media continues to grow.
Influencers also want to monetize their celebrity status. Branding deals are certainly one way, but Cameo gives them a much more authentic way to delight their fans while also getting paid for it.
Pop culture reigns
We get excited about companies disrupting popular culture and showing us what is cool. Our Series A blog went deeper into this and showed how Facebook, Snap, and Slack all started off in a similar way.
Cameo is already part of popular culture and it’s only just getting started. It’s an experiential marketplace that’s helping to power the influencer economy. It delights customers and makes them feel fantastic.
“I’ve learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.” — Maya Angelou
We are thrilled to work with the incredible Cameo founders, Steven, Devon and Martin, and the whole Cameo team. If you want to join the company, please check out our careers page on LinkedIn.
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