The Red Carpet

Here's what made me dig into this: When Reynolds sold Mint Mobile to T-Mobile for $1.35 billion just months after his $610 million Aviation Gin exit, VCs started asking the wrong question. They wanted to know what made these companies special. The real question? What makes Reynolds special? Because while other celebrities slap their name on products, Reynolds has cracked a repeatable code for turning unsexy, practical businesses into cultural phenomena. And he does it at 10% of the cost and 10x the speed of traditional marketing.

The data shows this isn't luck. It's a systematic approach to value creation that any celebrity can learn from. Let me show you exactly how he does it.

The Director's Cut

The Night Ryan Reynolds Became a Billionaire

Picture this: It's 2016, and Ryan Reynolds is sitting in a Vancouver bar after another 14-hour day filming Deadpool reshoots. He's exhausted, questioning whether superhero movies are worth the physical toll, when the bartender slides over a Negroni that changes everything.

"What gin is this?" Reynolds asks after his first sip.

"Aviation," the bartender replies. "Small Portland distillery. Not many people know about it."

Reynolds orders another. Then another. By his eighth visit to that bar, he's not thinking like an actor anymore. He's thinking like an entrepreneur.

Two years later, he owns a stake in Aviation Gin. Two years after that, he sells it for $610 million to Diageo. 

But the real story isn't the exit. It's what happened in between, and how that night in Vancouver gave birth to a blueprint that would help him build and sell companies worth billions: Aviation Gin for $610 million, Mint Mobile for $1.35 billion, and turn Wrexham AFC into a half-billion-dollar asset.

From Customer to Owner: The Aviation Gin Experiment

When Reynolds first met Aviation's founder, Ryan Magarian, he didn't pitch himself as a celebrity spokesperson. Instead, he said something unusual: "I've been buying your gin for two years. I think I understand your customers because I am one."

Most celebrities approach brands with media kits and follower counts. Reynolds approached with bar receipts.

In 2018, he became Chief Creative Officer and acquired an undisclosed equity stake, estimated to be in the 15-25% range. Unlike typical celebrity creative directors who show up for photoshoots, Reynolds was in the trenches. Writing scripts at 2 AM. Responding to Twitter comments personally. Turning every piece of feedback into content.

The first ad he created? A simple video of him drinking Aviation and saying, "I own this company, so I'm contractually obligated to say it's delicious. But it actually is."

Sales jumped 540% in 12 months, making it the fastest-growing gin brand in the U.S. Diageo came knocking and acquired the company for $610M, only two years after Reynolds came on board.

The $1.35 Billion Phone Call

Fresh off Aviation's success, Reynolds could have picked any brand to partner with next. Fashion houses were calling. Tech startups were offering equity. Instead, he chose... a budget wireless carrier nobody had heard of.

Reynolds wasn't even looking for an investment. He'd simply tried Mint Mobile to save money on employee phone bills after meeting founder David Glickman at a charity board meeting. The service was excellent. The marketing was nonexistent. Reynolds saw opportunity.

In 2019, Reynolds acquired a 25% stake in Mint Mobile. His first commercial opened with: "I know what you're thinking. Another celebrity-owned business. Because that always goes well." Then he proceeded to mock every celebrity brand cliché while explaining Mint's $15 monthly plans.

The honesty was jarring. The self-awareness was refreshing. Subscribers doubled in three years, and T-Mobile acquired it for $1.35B in 2023, with Reynolds reportedly netting over $300 million from the sale.

But Reynolds wasn't done surprising people.

The Welsh Football Club Nobody Wanted

In 2021, while Hollywood was still shut down from COVID, Reynolds was on a Zoom call with Rob McElhenney and representatives from Wrexham AFC, a struggling Welsh football club in the fifth tier of English football.

The club was bleeding money. The stadium was falling apart. Most players had day jobs to pay bills.

Most investors would have run from this deal. Reynolds and McElhenney saw it differently. Where others saw a dying club in a small Welsh city, they saw untapped potential, a storied team with passionate fans and a compelling underdog narrative that just needed the right backing.

Within months of taking ownership, Reynolds and McElhenney had turned Wrexham into the most-watched fifth-tier football club in history. Disney+ paid millions for documentary rights. Merchandise sales exploded globally.

The club achieved something unprecedented: three consecutive promotions in three years, from non-league to the Championship. No team in the 136-year history of English football had ever done this before. They now play in the Championship, the second tier of English football, just one level below the Premier League.

Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney bought the club in 2021 for $2.5 million. Today, they are reportedly selling a stake in Wrexham, valuing the team at $475 million, a 19,000% increase. And if they achieve one more promotion to reach the Premier League, or even qualify for European competition, the valuation could soar into the billions.

The Maximum Effort Machine

The secret weapon behind all these successes? A production company Reynolds founded called Maximum Effort. But it operates nothing like a traditional agency.

Reynolds plugs Maximum Effort into every company he's involved with, creating a systematic approach to marketing that's revolutionized how brands communicate. The formula: 10x faster, 10% of the cost.

When Peloton's holiday ad became a cultural disaster in 2019, most brands would have spent weeks crafting a response. Maximum Effort had an idea at 9 AM, shot it by noon, and uploaded "The Gift That Doesn't Give Back" featuring the same actress by 5 PM.

Cost: Under $100,000. Views: 11 million. Time from concept to viral: 36 hours.

How do they achieve this? By eliminating bureaucratic layers, shooting content in-house, and trusting creative instincts over focus groups. While traditional agencies might spend millions on campaigns that take months to produce, Maximum Effort captures cultural moments in real-time.

"We move at the speed of the internet, not the speed of bureaucracy," Reynolds explains. "By the time traditional agencies finish their creative brief, we've already captured the moment."

This approach, known as "fastvertising," has become Reynolds' signature, proving that in today's attention economy, being first beats being perfect, and nimble beats bloated every time.

The Billion-Dollar Pattern

By 2023, when T-Mobile acquired Mint Mobile for $1.35 billion, the business world had finally decoded the Reynolds formula. But understanding it and replicating it were two different things.

Because what made Reynolds different wasn't just speed or humor or even authenticity. It was that he'd spent 20 years building something money can't buy: trust.

Every self-deprecating joke, every honest admission of failure, every time he made fun of himself before others could, it all accumulated into a reservoir of credibility that made people actually believe him when he said a product was good.

The Lessons from the Reynolds Playbook

Lesson 1: Be the Customer Before the Owner 

Reynolds never invests in products he doesn't personally use. This isn't due diligence, it's lived experience. When you genuinely understand the customer's pain points, you can speak to them authentically. Aviation Gin, Mint Mobile, and 1Password, Reynolds was a paying customer of each before becoming an owner.

Lesson 2: Speed Beats Perfection 

While competitors spend months perfecting campaigns, Reynolds captures cultural moments in real-time. Maximum Effort operates like a newsroom, not an agency. In the attention economy, being first matters more than being flawless.

Lesson 3: Unsexy is the New Sexy 

Reynolds deliberately targets boring categories: budget wireless, mid-shelf spirits, password managers. Why? Less competition, lower customer acquisition costs, and massive room for personality to differentiate. In crowded markets, you compete on features. In boring markets, you compete on story.

Lesson 4: Commit Like a Founder, Not a Spokesperson 

After investing, Reynolds doesn't disappear. He's in product meetings, writing scripts, and responding to customer complaints. This isn't a side hustle, it's a second career. That level of commitment shows in the results.

Lesson 5: Build Systems, Not Just Moments 

Maximum Effort isn't just Reynolds being funny. It's a repeatable system for creating culture-driving content at internet speed. Every company in his portfolio can tap into this infrastructure. That's how you scale creativity.

The Final Truth

Ryan Reynolds didn't become a billionaire by being the funniest actor in Hollywood. He became one by creating a replicable playbook for building and exiting companies at extraordinary valuations.

His formula is deceptively simple: Find unsexy businesses with solid fundamentals. Become a genuine customer first. Apply world-class storytelling and marketing. Move at the speed of culture. Build trust through radical honesty. Then scale and exit.

The Reynolds playbook has redefined what celebrity entrepreneurship looks like. While others slap their names on products for quick paychecks, Reynolds builds businesses from the inside out, creating value that compounds with every joke, every honest ad, every customer interaction.

In an economy built on attention, authenticity isn't just a nice-to-have; it's the only currency that truly scales. And Reynolds has proven that when you combine that authenticity with systematic execution, operational excellence, and a willingness to commit like a founder, you don't just build companies.

You build an empire.

The Mic Drop

HotStart VC’s Backstage Pass

I Joined the Business Escapades Podcast

I sat down with Abhilasha Mishra, host of Business Escapades, to dive into what separates celebrity-founded brands that scale from those that stall. We talked about what we are building at HotStart VC and why follower count means nothing without product-market fit, how creators like Hailey Bieber and Mr. Beast operate like true founders, and what VCs actually look for in this space. If you're building or investing in brands founded by celebrities and creators, this one's worth a listen. You can find the podcast here.

HotStart VC’s Q2 Deal Flow Funnel: 227 Pitches, 2 Investments

In Q2, we reviewed 227 celebrity and creator-founded brand pitches at HotStart VC. 71 got a first meeting, 22 advanced to a second, 5 made it to due diligence, and only 2 were funded. Most fell short by leading with fame instead of fundamentals, pitching follower counts instead of product-market fit, entering oversaturated categories with no edge, or treating the brand as a side project. The ones we backed had clear celebrity-product-market fit, celebrity involvement, and did the work before launch. Full breakdown here.

We are Looking for Operators to Co-Found Brands with Celebrities

We’re looking for experienced operators to launch the next wave of celebrity and creator-founded companies, not as consultants or advisors but as true co-founders. At HotStart VC, we provide capital and strategic support, and we’re constantly approached by celebrities who want to build real businesses. What they need is someone behind the scenes who can turn attention into execution. Think Fenty with LVMH talent or Skims with shapewear insiders. If you’ve got operational experience and you want to build something lasting with talent who are all in, get in touch.

Take #5

The Reynolds blueprint isn't just changing how celebrities build companies; it's rewriting who gets to play the venture game. Smart celebrities aren't asking "Which brand should I endorse?" anymore. They're asking, "Which problem have I personally suffered through for years?"

Here's the shift: Reynolds didn't invest in mobile because it was trendy. He invested because he was tired of his own $700 phone bills. He didn't buy Aviation for the margins. He bought it because he actually drank gin and thought the category was broken.

At HotStart VC, we're building the playbook for celebrity founders who want to solve real problems, not just slap their name on products. Because the next billion-dollar exit won't come from the celebrity with the biggest platform, it'll come from the one with the biggest pain point.

Remember: In a world where authenticity drives exits, your worst customer experience is your best investment thesis.

Welcome to the fame game,

Scott

P.S. Have a celebrity brand you think I should analyze? Or a founder I should meet? Hit reply. I read everything.

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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.