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LogoThe Fame Game
Oliver Buchannon
Scott Van den Berg

Venture Capital

+7

Why Smart Celebrity Founders Avoid Their Own Name

May 28, 2026

•

6 min read

Why Smart Celebrity Founders Avoid Their Own Name

Why Huda Beauty and Chamberlain Coffee Are Structurally Harder to Scale Than You Think

Scott Van den Berg
Scott Van den Berg

Venture Capital

+7

Fame Gets Celebrities the First Sale. Then What?

May 21, 2026

•

6 min read

Fame Gets Celebrities the First Sale. Then What?

The Metric Nobody Celebrates at Launch, and the One That Actually Determines Whether a Celebrity Brand Lasts

Scott Van den Berg
Scott Van den Berg

Venture Capital

+7

Kevin Hart Proves the Cynics Are Both Right and Wrong

May 14, 2026

•

8 min read

Kevin Hart Proves the Cynics Are Both Right and Wrong

One of the Biggest Celebrity Brand Success Stories and Two Struggles. Same Person. Same Platform.

Scott Van den Berg
Scott Van den Berg

Venture Capital

+7

You Can't Rent Your Way to a Brand

May 7, 2026

•

7 min read

You Can't Rent Your Way to a Brand

Why the Smartest Celebrity-Founded Companies Are Building Audiences They Own

Scott Van den Berg
Scott Van den Berg

Venture Capital

+7

Why Celebrities Can't Launch MVPs

Apr 30, 2026

•

7 min read

Why Celebrities Can't Launch MVPs

The Hidden Tax on Fame That No Startup Book Will Ever Tell You About

Scott Van den Berg
Scott Van den Berg

Venture Capital

+7

You Should Date A Celebrity Before Getting Married

Apr 23, 2026

•

7 min read

You Should Date A Celebrity Before Getting Married

The 20 Million Follower Trap That Kills Most Celebrity Founder Partnerships

Scott Van den Berg
Scott Van den Berg

Venture Capital

+7

I Just Bet $100,000 on Myself. Here's Why.

Apr 16, 2026

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7 min read

I Just Bet $100,000 on Myself. Here's Why.

How HotStart Accidentally Became the Thing We Invest In, And Why I'm Doubling Down

Scott Van den Berg
Scott Van den Berg

Venture Capital

+7

8 Factors That Predict Which Celebrity Brands Actually Win

Apr 9, 2026

•

14 min read

8 Factors That Predict Which Celebrity Brands Actually Win

The HotStart VC Framework for Evaluating Every Celebrity Brand We Invest In

Scott Van den Berg
Scott Van den Berg

Venture Capital

+7

Why Celebrity Brands Are Racing To Open Physical Stores

Apr 2, 2026

•

13 min read

Why Celebrity Brands Are Racing To Open Physical Stores

The Counter-Intuitive Strategy That's Turning D2C Success Into Retail Dominance

Scott Van den Berg
Scott Van den Berg

Venture Capital

+7

Why We Invested in The Absorption Company by Ian Somerhalder & Nikki Reed

Mar 26, 2026

•

11 min read

Why We Invested in The Absorption Company by Ian Somerhalder & Nikki Reed

The supplement brand solving the problem the industry has ignored for decades

Scott Van den Berg
Scott Van den Berg

Venture Capital

+6

The Five Fatal Flaws That Kill Celebrity Brands

Mar 19, 2026

•

14 min read

The Five Fatal Flaws That Kill Celebrity Brands

Why MrBeast, Kevin Hart, and Kristen Bell's Ventures Failed

Scott Van den Berg
Scott Van den Berg

Venture Capital

+7

George Clooney vs. Tom Holland: The Battle for Non-Alcoholic Beer

Mar 12, 2026

•

16 min read

George Clooney vs. Tom Holland: The Battle for Non-Alcoholic Beer

Clooney, Holland, Sheen, Mulaney, they're all launching NA beer brands. But who's actually going to win?

Scott Van den Berg
Scott Van den Berg

Venture Capital

+7

Why Celebrities Don't Need Millions of Followers to Build Billion-Dollar Brands

Mar 5, 2026

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12 min read

Why Celebrities Don't Need Millions of Followers to Build Billion-Dollar Brands

How 140K Engaged Followers Beat 60M Random Ones

Scott Van den Berg
Scott Van den Berg

Venture Capital

+7

The Billion-Dollar Celebrity Brands Nobody Knows Are Celebrity Brands

Feb 26, 2026

•

14 min read

The Billion-Dollar Celebrity Brands Nobody Knows Are Celebrity Brands

The Ultimate Compliment: When Product Quality Eclipses Fame

Scott Van den Berg
Scott Van den Berg

Venture Capital

+7

Why Mature Companies Are Making Celebrities Co-Owners

Feb 19, 2026

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11 min read

Why Mature Companies Are Making Celebrities Co-Owners

The Strategic Math Behind Late-Stage Equity Deals That's Killing Traditional Endorsements

Scott Van den Berg
Scott Van den Berg

Venture Capital

+7

The Billion-Dollar Language Barrier

Feb 12, 2026

•

12 min read

The Billion-Dollar Language Barrier

Why MrBeast can sell chocolate in Tokyo but Anuel AA can't sell anything in Times Square

Scott Van den Berg
Scott Van den Berg

Venture Capital

+7

The Celebrity Focus Crisis

Feb 5, 2026

•

17 min read

The Celebrity Focus Crisis

Why launching multiple brands destroys billion-dollar opportunities

Scott Van den Berg
Scott Van den Berg

Venture Capital

+7

The Celebrity Co-Founder Model Needs a Reset

Jan 29, 2026

•

17 min read

The Celebrity Co-Founder Model Needs a Reset

Why the Success of Casamigos, Skims, and Fenty Is Destroying the Industry

Scott Van den Berg
Scott Van den Berg

Venture Capital

+7

Why Hershey Paid $75.5M for a Fitness Influencer's Candy Brand

Jan 22, 2026

•

15 min read

Why Hershey Paid $75.5M for a Fitness Influencer's Candy Brand

When Creator Skills Beat Creator-Product-Market Fit

Scott Van den Berg
Scott Van den Berg

Venture Capital

+7

Why Celebrities Worth $100M+ Still Raise Capital

Jan 15, 2026

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11 min read

Why Celebrities Worth $100M+ Still Raise Capital

The Counterintuitive Playbook Behind Celebrity Fundraising That Makes Everyone Angry

Scott Van den Berg
Scott Van den Berg

Venture Capital

+7

My 2026 Predictions for Celebrity & Creator Brands

Jan 8, 2026

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11 min read

My 2026 Predictions for Celebrity & Creator Brands

Three Shifts That Will Define the Next Wave of Billion-Dollar Businesses

Scott Van den Berg
Scott Van den Berg

Venture Capital

+7

Why Celebrities Are Launching VC Funds (And Why They're Actually Succeeding)

Dec 18, 2025

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13 min read

Why Celebrities Are Launching VC Funds (And Why They're Actually Succeeding)

The three advantages that make celebrity VCs unbeatable

Scott Van den Berg
Scott Van den Berg

Venture Capital

+7

Why We Invested in Retrograde Co-Founded by Grace Beverley

Dec 11, 2025

•

13 min read

Why We Invested in Retrograde Co-Founded by Grace Beverley

The affordable, AI-powered talent manager in your pocket, available 24/7

Scott Van den Berg
Scott Van den Berg

Venture Capital

+7

Why I'm More Bullish Than Ever on Celebrity-Founded Brands

Dec 4, 2025

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12 min read

Why I'm More Bullish Than Ever on Celebrity-Founded Brands

Why 40+ Major Moves in 60 Days Proves We're Just Getting Started

Scott Van den Berg
Scott Van den Berg

Venture Capital

+7

Key-Celebrity-Risk

Nov 27, 2025

•

17 min read

Key-Celebrity-Risk

Why every celebrity-founded brand is one controversy away from collapse

Scott Van den Berg
Scott Van den Berg
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The Fame Game

The Fame Game

How Celebrities & Creator Build Billion-Dollar Brands sent to your inbox every Thursday


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