The Red Carpet

Here's what triggered this breakdown: Last week alone, three different founders pitched me their "celebrity" co-founder. One had an Oscar winner. Another had a TikToker with 10M followers. The third had an NBA all-star. Each founder assumed these were the same thing: famous people who could sell products. They're not. A Hollywood celebrity and a TikTok creator bring completely different assets, challenges, and opportunities to a brand.

The data shows both models can build billion-dollar companies. But they do it in radically different ways. Today, I'm breaking down exactly what each type brings to the table, what challenges they face, and why understanding these differences is crucial for anyone building in the future of consumer brands.

The Director's Cut

The Two Types of Fame That Build Brands

At HotStart VC, we invest in brands founded by anyone with a following: athletes, actors, musicians, influencers, creators, etc. We've discovered they typically fall into two distinct buckets:

Celebrities gained their following by being exceptional at something: acting, sports, music, modeling. Think LeBron James, Scarlett Johansson, Drake, Gigi Hadid. They became famous for their talent first, which helped them gain an audience online.

Creators built their following by creating content consistently. Think MrBeast, Emma Chamberlain, Charli D'Amelio, Dude Perfect. They turned daily posting into massive audiences.

The fundamental difference? Celebrities became famous for excellence in their craft. Creators became famous by documenting their journey. Both have massive value in scaling companies. But they deliver it in completely different ways.

What Each Type Brings to the Table

Let me break down exactly what you're getting with each type of co-founder, starting with the advantages, then the challenges.

The Celebrity Co-Founder Advantage

Instant Retail Access When Jennifer Aniston calls Target about a new brand, she doesn't go through the vendor portal. She texts the CEO directly. I've watched celebrities get retail meetings in days that take others years to secure. One phone call from an A-lister can unlock doors that creators can't even find.

Premium Pricing Power Celebrity brands command 40-60% price premiums and consumers happily pay. Jessica Alba's Honest Company diapers cost twice as much as Pampers. Rihanna's Fenty Beauty foundation retails for $40 while drugstore alternatives sell for $15. The aspirational value of celebrity creates margins that make unit economics actually work.

Global Recognition Brad Pitt is famous in Bangkok, Buenos Aires, and Berlin. Most creators aren't. If you're building internationally, celebrity recognition removes friction in every market. One celebrity-founded brand expanded to 27 countries in three years. Their creator-founded competitor? Still figuring out Canada.

Media Magnetism Launch with a celebrity and watch the media machine activate. People Magazine, morning shows, business press, they all cover celebrity-founded brands as news, not advertising. One celebrity launch generated 400+ articles with zero PR spend. That's millions in earned media value.

Investor FOMO VCs pretend they make rational decisions. Put Leonardo DiCaprio on your cap table and watch what happens. Same metrics, same market, but now it's a "hot deal." That star power can mean better terms, competitive rounds, and higher valuations.

The Celebrity Co-Founder Challenges

The $50,000 Photo Shoot Problem Celebrities aren't content creators. They're used to Hollywood sets with 30-person crews, not iPhone shoots in a garage. While a creator can film 10 TikToks in their bedroom before breakfast, celebrities need professional photographers, perfect lighting, and approved angles just to post a single Instagram story. They've built careers on polished perfection, not authentic daily content.

One celebrity-founded brand learned this lesson the hard way. Celebrity co-founder requirements for one product shoot:

• First-class flights for team: $20,000

• Five-star accommodations: $8,000

• Celebrity-approved photographer: $12,000

• Hair, makeup, styling: $8,000

• Catering for dietary restrictions: $2,000

Total: $50,000 for 3 hours of work. And she wanted approval on every shot.

Here's the kicker: Another company spent $30,000 on a launch shoot with their celebrity co-founder. Two weeks later? She wanted to redo the entire thing because she didn't like how she looked. That's $30,000 down the drain.

The Million-Dollar Awareness Problem That $50,000 photo shoot? It's just the beginning.

Now you need people to actually see it. The celebrity will post once, maybe twice. Any more and their audience calls it inauthentic. Then what?

Traditional media campaign costs:

• National TV spot: $500,000 minimum

• Billboard campaign (10 cities): $250,000

• Digital display ads: $150,000

• PR agency retainer: $30,000/month

Total: $1M+ just to tell people your celebrity is involved.

Here's the real kicker: Some of the biggest celebrities don't even have social media. Bradley Cooper? No Instagram. Margot Robbie? No social presence. Scarlett Johansson? Deleted everything years ago.

One founder learned this the hard way: "We paid Scarlett's rate thinking we'd get massive organic reach. Then realized we'd need $3M in paid media just to let people know she was involved."

Meanwhile, creators with 5M followers generate more awareness from their daily iPhone content than a celebrity with a $3M media budget. And they do it for free, because promoting their own brand IS authentic to them.

Availability Black Holes Celebrities have day jobs. When your co-founder is filming in Hollywood for 2 months or touring for 3 months, and then "needs a break," your brand becomes an orphan. One founder told me their celebrity co-founder was "unavailable" for 7 consecutive months. That's not partnership. That's abandonment.

The Authenticity Gap When celebrities promote products they don't use, audiences know. One celebrity posted about "their" skincare brand's anti-aging serum while paparazzi photos showed them leaving a cosmetic surgeon's office the same week. Sales plummeted. The internet never forgets.

Management Layer Madness You're not just partnering with the celebrity. You're partnering with:

• Managers taking 20% of everything

• Publicists approving every word

• Lawyers reviewing every decision

• Agents negotiating every appearance

Every layer adds time, cost, and complexity.

The Creator Co-Founder Advantage

Content Velocity Machine Creators don't create content for brands. Creating content IS their existence. Real numbers from 100+ brands founded by celebrities and creators I’ve analysed:

• Celebrity co-founder: 3 posts per month

• Creator co-founder: 24 posts per month

That's 8x more content. For free. Because they're posting anyway, now they just feature their product.

Audience Intimacy The relationship between creators and their audience is fundamentally different. It's not admiration from afar. It's daily conversation. That translates to trust, and trust translates to sales:

• Celebrity endorsement conversion: 2-3%

• Creator recommendation conversion: 8-12%

When Emma Chamberlain recommends a product, her audience doesn't see an ad. They see advice from a friend.

Real-Time Market Intelligence Creators live in their comments. They know instantly what's working, what's failing, what their audience wants next. One creator co-founder redesigned packaging three times before launch based on DM feedback. Try getting that intel through a celebrity's management team.

Cost Efficiency The economics are game-changing:

• Celebrity infrastructure: $500K-2M annually

• Creator infrastructure: Their iPhone

One creator co-founder produced $10M in sales with content shot in their apartment. No photo shoots. No approval processes. Just authentic content that converts.

Platform Native Expertise Creators speak algorithm. They know why videos go viral, when to post, how to hack discovery. They've spent years mastering platforms that celebrities just visit. That expertise compounds daily.

The Creator Co-Founder Challenges

The Recognition Gap Brutal truth: The 55-year-old Walmart buyer doesn't know who Kai Cenat is. They know who Brad Pitt is. That generation gap costs creators billions in missed opportunities. One creator with 10M followers was asked by a retailer: "What movies have you been in?"

Professional Development Needs Many creators built their following from their bedroom. They might not know how to read a P&L, run a board meeting, or negotiate with manufacturers. The skills that built their audience aren't always the skills that build businesses.

Burnout Risk Creators already post constantly. Add running a business and something breaks. We've seen creator co-founders burn out within 12 months, unable to maintain their content velocity while building a company. You can't take a break from being a creator because being a creator gave you the launchpad to start your company in the first place.

Platform Dependence Creators live and die by algorithms. One platform change can crater their reach overnight. TikTok ban? Instagram algorithm shift? Your marketing engine just disappeared. Celebrities have fame beyond platforms. Creators often don't.

Scale Limitations Creators excel at building loyal communities. But those communities have ceilings. A creator with 3M engaged followers might max out at a $50M brand. Celebrities can tap into broader cultural awareness that creators can't access.

The Hidden Value Differences

Beyond the obvious pros and cons, there are fundamental value differences:

Celebrity Value Drivers:

• Doors they open: Retail, investors, partners

• Price premiums: 40-60% above market

• Geographic reach: Instant global recognition

• Media value: Millions in earned coverage

• Halo effect: Everything they touch seems special

Creator Value Drivers:

• Content output: 8-30x more than celebrities

• Conversion rates: 3-4x higher than celebrity endorsements

• Community building: Direct relationship with customers

• Feedback loops: Real-time market intelligence

• Cost efficiency: 10% of celebrity infrastructure

The Evolution We're Witnessing

Here's the fascinating trend: The lines are blurring.

Celebrities Becoming Creators:

• Ryan Reynolds posts memes daily

• Selena Gomez goes live without makeup

• The Rock shares workout videos every morning

• They're learning that presence beats prestige

Creators Becoming Celebrities:

• MrBeast hosting on traditional TV

• Addison Rae starring in movies

• Emma Chamberlain at the Met Gala

• They're converting digital fame to mainstream recognition

The future isn't celebrity OR creator. It's both, in whatever combination serves your mission.

The Market Reality

Both models are building billion-dollar brands:

Celebrity Success Stories:

• Casamigos (Clooney): $1B exit

• Fenty (Rihanna): $2.8B valuation

• Skims (Kardashian): $4B valuation

• Aviation Gin (Reynolds): $610M exit

Creator Success Stories:

• Prime (Logan Paul/KSI): $1.2B revenue

• Feastables (MrBeast): $375M revenue 

• Happy Dad (NELK): $70M revenue

The Bottom Line

Here's what investing in both models taught me: The difference between celebrity and creator co-founders isn't about who's better, it's about what your company actually needs.

Both can build billion-dollar brands. Both can crash and burn spectacularly. The founders who win understand which type of fame solves their specific problem.

Need retail distribution and global credibility? Celebrity fame delivers that instantly. Need authentic content and deep audience trust? Creators have spent years building exactly that.

The biggest mistake founders make is choosing based on follower count or name recognition instead of strategic fit. They get starstruck by celebrity meetings or dismiss creators as "just influencers."

The truth is simpler than most want to admit: Success isn't about the type of co-founder you choose. It's about choosing the right co-founder for what your business needs to achieve.

Before you sign that equity agreement, make sure you know the difference.

The Mic Drop

HotStart VC’s Backstage Pass

Actress Sasha Pieterse Joins HotStart VC as Venture Partner

Actress Sasha Pieterse (best known for Pretty Little Liars) is officially a venture partner at HotStart VC. Beyond Hollywood, Sasha built a platform of 20M followers, launched her bold Women In The Nude podcast, and co-founded Hippie Water, a cannabis-infused beverage brand now sold in 16 states with 185,000+ cans sold. Unlike many celebrity-backed products, Sasha built proprietary formulations with a food scientist and runs Hippie Water as Co-CEO, making real operational decisions. She embodies the next wave of celebrity founders: product-first, platform-powered, and built to last.

Betr Launches Betr Arcade

Portfolio company Betr, co-founded by Jake Paul, just launched Betr Arcade, a new skill games product now live in 29 states. This is only the start, with more games rolling out in the coming weeks and new verticals planned inside the Betr app. The team is building a true one-stop destination for next-gen gaming.

Take #8

The celebrity and creator co-founder models aren't competing strategies; they're different tools for different jobs. And understanding those differences is worth billions.

After investing in both models, here's what matters: Celebrity co-founders bring institutional access, global recognition, and premium positioning. Creator co-founders deliver authentic content, community trust, and rapid feedback loops. Both can build billion-dollar brands. Both require completely different playbooks.

The brands that win understand these aren't flaws to fix, they're features to leverage. They structure deals, set expectations, and build strategies that match the model.

Remember: In a world where both celebrities and creators are building empires, success isn't about the type of fame. It's about understanding what that fame actually delivers.

Welcome to the fame game,

Scott

P.S. Know of a creator or celebrity building something cool? We’d love to learn more.

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About HotStart VC

HotStart VC is launching a new fund to invest in brands founded by celebrities and creators. We’re building the go-to platform for creators and celebrities launching brands, providing capital, strategic support, and the infrastructure to scale.