Episode 286: Ryan Nelson - Partner, Jobi

What do the following brands have in common? Casamigos, Skims, Fenty Beauty, Aviation Gin, and Beats by Dre. Well, they all have a celebrity as a co-founder. While celebrities can land a lucrative endorsement deal, it pales in comparison to what the outcome can be if you own part of a company that is successful. The pairing of a brand with a celebrity founder just makes sense as one of the core ingredients that they typically bring to the table is a massive following. However, you can’t just launch a brand and expect that consumers will be customers, especially over the long haul. It needs to be a quality product that is filling a void for consumers. Plus, it needs to be a match for the celebrity with a compeling story behind it, which I think is the other key ingredient. This is where Jobi comes in and specializes. Its startup venture studio is focused on launching consumer brands in partnership with celebrities and influencers. Ryan is a Co-Founder and board member of Homecourt, a home-focused consumer brand founded by Courteney Cox with a collection of fragrance infused luxury cleaning and household products. In this episode of our podcast, we cover: * Ryan’s advice, as a mixed race professional, on what can be done to improve the diversity numbers across investors and employees at startups. * His background story, plus the details of his own startup and lessons learned. * Jobi’s approach and role it play around building companies, plus how they identify products and partner with celebrities. * The full story of Homecourt and why Courteney Cox was a perfect match. * Information about Jobi’s experiential division and its interactive art experiences like INTER_. * eCommerce predictions and the key elements that go into building a successful consumer brand. * And so much more. If you like the show, please remember to subscribe and review us on iTunes, Soundcloud, Spotify, Stitcher, or Google Play.