Cameo

Unbundle Etsy: spin out custom gifts as a Fiverr/Cameo-style marketplace

Shaan proposes taking one vertical of Etsy — custom gifts — and turning it into a standalone push-button marketplace like Fiverr or Cameo, then hijacking Etsy's search/Google traffic. Same playbook as people unbundling Craigslist and Reddit.

“So here's, that's the, that's the core idea is unbundle one of the verticals of Etsy. What I would do, I was looking at the, the categories, I would do custom gifts. So custom gifts is one of the top categories on Etsy and people go there because they wanna send a thoughtful, kind of like what looks like a homemade handmade gift to somebody”

Steal thisPick the single biggest vertical of a broad marketplace, rebuild just that as a focused product, and rank for its specific search terms.

Club LTV's low-effort monthly playbook: Cameo, groups of 6, recap

Shaan's repeatable format for running a community at ~1 hour prep/month: order a rapper Cameo shouting out the group, break members into groups of 6 to each share one win and one struggle, then collect and email everyone the best takeaways.

“Because the structure of it is we break everybody up into groups of 6. So you're in a group with 6 other store owners who do between $1 and $50 million a year in revenue. And then the format is you say one thing you did in the last month that's really working, it's driving revenue up, and one thing that you're struggling with that you might want help from the group. And so afterwards they all email him the most useful things.”

Steal thisRun monthly breakouts of 6 where each member shares one win and one struggle, then recap the best to the whole group.

'Selfie is the new autograph' - the insight behind Cameo

Shaan recounts the Cameo founder's core insight: fans no longer ask celebrities for autographs, they ask for selfies. A paid personalized video shout-out is the 'super autograph,' and that reframing became the whole company.

“he goes, well, what I realized was that now when people see a celebrity, they go up to them, they don't ask for an autograph, they ask for a selfie. And he goes, selfie is the new autograph. So that was kind of like one of the core insights of, well, what if you could just pay somebody to send you a little selfie video, a personalized shout out? That's like worth, you know, that's like a super autograph basically.”

Steal thisLook for a real-world ritual that has quietly changed (autograph to selfie) and build the digital, paid version of the new behavior.

Kevin from The Office made $1M in a year on Cameo

Shaan cites Brian Baumgartner (Kevin from The Office) earning a million dollars in a single year doing Cameos, used as proof that 'used-to-be-famous' talent can monetize fan access at scale.

“Kevin from The Office who made a million dollars this year doing Cameos. And so for Kevin from The Office, if he was able to make like $800 an hour, $900 an hour, and all you have to do is just sit there and just fans come up and say hi.”

Cameo is 'Social Security for celebrities'

Shaan reframes Cameo as a residual-income engine: celebrities did the work to become famous once, and now collect a steady monthly payout for the rest of their lives by recording short personalized videos.

“Yeah, I called it Social Security for celebrities, right? You retire, but like, here's your little payout you get every month for the rest of your career just because you put in that work once upon a time.”

Disney should run Cameo with its own characters

Shaan loves a listener's idea: Disney builds a Cameo into Disney+ where you pay to have Elsa wish your daughter happy birthday. The characters work 24/7, take zero cut, and carry huge brand value, ideal for any IP-rich company.

“this is this should be a part of Disney Plus. Um, this is a genius idea. You have these characters that can work 24/7, take zero cut, and have incredible brand value with people, especially for the use case of Cameo, which I don't know how other people use it.”

Steal thisIf you own beloved IP, sell personalized character video shoutouts directly; the talent never tires and takes no cut.

Suli quit, got bored, and rode the Facebook platform launch to millions of users

Shaan tells how Suli quit Microsoft, moved home, and the day he quit Facebook announced its developer platform. To knock off the rust he built a silly superlatives app ('which friend ends up in jail'), it went viral to tens of millions of users, and Naval flew him out to invest.

“And so he builds a Facebook app that was stupid. It was like a superlatives app, like which of your friends is most likely to end up in jail or whatever. Boom, goes viral. He ends up with tens of millions of users. And that changed the trajectory of his life where Silicon Valley starts calling him and Naval flies him out to San Francisco and wants to invest in him and shit like that. So he took a bet on the sort of day the platform launched.”

Steal thisWhen a major platform opens its developer API, build something on day one to ride the early distribution wave.

Surprise Postmates gifts: the effortless $20 delight

Shaan shares his gifting hack: instead of a Cameo, he just orders someone food via Postmates to their door on their birthday. It costs about $20, takes no effort, and lands as a delightful surprise.

“another birthday thing instead of Cameos, somebody on my birthday just sent me food via Postmates because they know where I live. And so they just ordered me food and just showed up at my door and it just said, you know, like, This is from this person. And I was like, oh, that was great. That's like a $20 gift. That is awesome and took them no effort.”

Selfies are the new autograph

Cameo's founding insight: fans no longer want a celebrity to scribble their name on a ball, they want a shareable piece of content. The selfie replaced the autograph as proof you met someone famous, and a personalized video is the next step up.

“We had the idea that selfies are the new autograph. So when you see someone famous today, you want to take a selfie with them, put it on Instagram, and share it with your friends. Back in the day, if you could think of our time at Duke, we might have grabbed a basketball and got Lance Thomas to sign it.”

Steal thisFind an old behavior being replaced by a shareable digital one, then build the product that sits on top of the new behavior.

The Cassius Marsh video that birthed Cameo

Co-founder Martin got Seahawks player Cassius Marsh to record a 10-second congratulations video for a super-fan friend who'd just had a son. Despite having met Michael Jordan and Pelé, the dad called it the best gift he'd ever received, proving a no-name player saying your name could be hugely valuable.

“And Martin got this player, Cassius Marsh, who last year was on the 49ers, to record a 10-second video saying, hey, Brandon, congratulations on your son Maverick. This is Cassius Marsh from the Seattle Seahawks. I heard about your son Maverick. If he gets your athletic ability, he'll be playing for the Seahawks one day. Go Hawks! Awesome. And this guy put it on Instagram and said it was the best gift he ever got in his life.”

Choose authentic over high quality

An early Cameo product decision was to favor raw, unedited celebrity videos over polished studio production. The first Cameo they saw was the talent driving shirtless through Southern California, and that rawness is what made it feel genuine.

“We made the product decision early to focus on authentic over high quality. So that was one of the big decisions we made. And by authentic, exactly what you're saying. The very first Cameo we ever saw, Cash was driving his car with no shirt on through Southern California. That's authentic.”

Steal thisFor social/creator content, optimize for authenticity, not production value; raw beats polished.

Personality beats fame for video shoutouts

Cameo found that how good a personality someone has matters more than how famous they are. A magnetic player like Zion or a character like Gilbert Gottfried outperforms a quiet superstar who is just tall and shoots hoops.

“But one thing that we found is it's really more about how good of a personality you are versus how famous you are. So for example, you know, in the Duke case, someone like Brandon Ingram, you know, was a fantastic player but wasn't ever like the personality, or like a Derrick Rose, or someone like a Zion in basketball. It's just such a magnetic personality, right? They're better at making personalized video messages than somebody that's just really tall and shoots hoops, right?”

Average Cameo video sells for $55

Steven Galanis says the average personalized video on Cameo costs $55, putting it within gift-giving range while still feeling unique and special.

“and it was affordable enough because we were selling the small unit of people's time that almost anyone could afford it. Today, the average video is $55, right?”

Average Cameo video sells for $55

Steven Galanis says the average personalized video on Cameo costs $55, putting it within gift-giving range while still feeling unique and special.

“and it was affordable enough because we were selling the small unit of people's time that almost anyone could afford it. Today, the average video is $55, right?”

LinkedIn's 'next play' culture funded his startup

LinkedIn told new sales hires that in two years none of them would be in the same role and to find a better replacement when they leave. Galanis left on his exact 2-year anniversary; his goodbye 'next play' letter reached sales boss Mike Gamson, who three months later led Cameo's first angel round.

“When I wrote my goodbye letter, they called it the next play letter at LinkedIn, I told that story. That got to Gamson. He saw it, he thanked me for the kind words, and then 3 months later he ended up calling me out of nowhere and leading our first angel round in the company.”

Cody Ko unlocked product-market fit

After roughly 6 months of failing to find product-market fit with pro athletes, co-founder Devin suggested putting his roommate Cody Ko (3M YouTube followers) on the platform. The moment Cody joined, Cameo took off, with ex-Vine stars becoming the first great talent.

“Cassius Marsh, who was my co-founder Martin's client and is an NFL player, he was the first talent to come on very quickly after about 6 months of not finding product market fit with pro athletes. Devin one day was like, hey, I think Cody, his roommate with 3 million followers on YouTube, and people like Cody, Cody Ko, would do really well on this platform. And the second we put Cody on, that's when it really kind of blew up”

Supply that markets itself solves cold-start

Cameo's two-sided marketplace solves the chicken-and-egg problem because the supply (famous people) is inherently able to market itself. When talent joins and tweets that they're on Cameo, their fans create demand, kicking off the flywheel.

“Number two, in our marketplace, the supply is inherently famous and can market themselves. So by coming on and tweeting out that they're on Cameo, our supply can beget its own demand, and then that really starts the flywheel going. But really, the big moment for us when we first got it, because like you said, we had a fan marketplace with no fans and a talent marketplace with no talent.”

Steal thisIn a marketplace, recruit a supply side that has its own audience so it generates demand for free.

Turn fans into paid living billboards

Galanis's pitch to talent: a Cameo is a gift, so the recipient ends up liking the celebrity more and sharing the video around, the way wearing a band t-shirt advertises the band. The fan is paying the celebrity to become more popular, turning fans into living, breathing paid billboards.

“Like the value prop of Cameo is that talent is getting paid by the fan to become more popular. They're almost all gifts. So when somebody receives a Cameo from somebody, you like that person more than you like them ever before. You are sharing it in the same way, like when you buy a t-shirt of your favorite band and you wear it all around San Francisco and people on Market Street go like, oh wow, Led Zeppelin.”

Buy foreign talent, resell to diaspora in the US

Galanis sees an arbitrage in signing local international talent (Bollywood, cricket, K-pop) and reselling shoutouts to diaspora communities in the US. He points to 8 million Indian Americans, mostly first-generation, who stay tied to the culture and would buy from that talent without any site localization.

“So for example, You know, there's 8 million Indian Americans living in the United States. Most of them are still immigrants or first generation. They're very tied to the culture. So, you know, your parents probably spend a lot of time watching Indian TV and Bollywood and cricket and all that type of stuff. So we have high conviction that if we got that talent on, even without localizing the site, we could resell it to the United States.”

Steal thisAcquire cheap foreign supply and resell it to the diaspora audience already living in your home market.

Launch night: hoping Google Analytics was broken

On launch night Cameo (then PowerMove.io) had one talent, Cassius Marsh, tweet a link to buy a $20 video, and the founders expected a flood. Google Analytics showed only two dots, the founders themselves in Venice and Scottsdale, so they signed off hoping the tracking was broken.

“He sent the tweet on and we were just expecting this flood of people. And we're looking at Google Analytics and there are two dots, one in Venice, one in Scottsdale. You know, at first we're like, maybe Google isn't working. So I literally remember signing off the site. The Scottsdale dot dropped away and then I came back on and, and nope, it's like that dot came back. Google works, it's not us.”

First investor put in $25K, then wanted out on night one

Cassius Marsh had given the founders $25,000 to start Cameo and was its first talent. After getting trolled for charging $20 for videos on launch night, he wanted his money back and refused to record for a week.

“Cash won't talk to us. He had just given us $25 grand to start the company and now he's telling us, you know, get out of here. You guys don't know what you're doing. You know, I want my money back. Like, it was just such a disaster.”

Capture talent on the way up, not at the top

Rather than fight to sign the most famous people, Cameo focuses on the long tail and mid tail to capture creators while they're rising. Galanis cites Bob Menery, who had 80,000 followers when they signed him and 3 million a year later.

“And we've seen people like Bob Menery, for example, that when we signed, he had 80,000 followers. He has 3 million a year later. So we really believe that by focusing on the long tail and mid tail, we can actually capture people on the way up, and, and that's going to be huge.”

Steal thisRecruit rising mid-tail creators before they peak instead of overpaying for established stars.

Capture talent on the way up, not at the top

Rather than fight to sign the most famous people, Cameo focuses on the long tail and mid tail to capture creators while they're rising. Galanis cites Bob Menery, who had 80,000 followers when they signed him and 3 million a year later.

“And we've seen people like Bob Menery, for example, that when we signed, he had 80,000 followers. He has 3 million a year later. So we really believe that by focusing on the long tail and mid tail, we can actually capture people on the way up, and, and that's going to be huge.”

Steal thisRecruit rising mid-tail creators before they peak instead of overpaying for established stars.