#20 - Reinventing The Autograph

**SPEAKER_1** (0:02)
Hi, Katie, Caitlyn Jenner here. Hello, Martin, Charlie Sheen here.

**SPEAKER_2** (0:05)
I'm Wesley Snipes.

**SPEAKER_1** (0:07)
Gary Busce here.

**Steven Galanis** (0:08)
Hey, Matt and Liz.

**SPEAKER_1** (0:08)
What's up?

**Steven Galanis** (0:09)
It's Tony Hawk.

**Shaan Puri** (0:09)
How's it going, Ashley?

**SPEAKER_1** (0:10)
Lance Bass here.

**Shaan Puri** (0:11)
I got one question for you. What did you build?

**Steven Galanis** (0:14)
We created the new autograph.

**SPEAKER_1** (0:16)
One local business has marketed celebrity personalized shout-outs.

**Shaan Puri** (0:19)
Cameo that allows people to get a special customized message from their favorite celebrity.

**SPEAKER_1** (0:24)
The platform has attracted athletes, musicians, social media influencers since their launch.

**Steven Galanis** (0:31)
The day that we launched, we had one talent on the platform. He sent the tweet on and we were just expecting a flood of people. And we're looking at Google Analytics and there are two dots. Like it was just such a disaster. But then all of a sudden, his dad pops up in Renton, Washington, getting this video and he filmed his daughter's response to it. And that was the moment when we really felt we had something.

**Shaan Puri** (0:52)
Five million is not enough.

**SPEAKER_2** (0:55)
Ten million, twenty million dollars, hundred million dollars, eight hundred and fifty million dollars.

**Shaan Puri** (0:59)
One or two people in a bedroom actually put threats to these giant multi-million dollar companies because you have creativity and you have nothing to lose.

**SPEAKER_2** (1:08)
Add another zero to that price, buddy.

**Shaan Puri** (1:10)
Add two more zeros.
Every week, we sit down with self-made millionaires and ask them, how did you do it? I didn't start a podcast. I started my own personal business school, and the teachers are the successful entrepreneurs behind the biggest brands and businesses that we find today.
I wanted to know the real stories with all the details, like how did you get your first hundred customers? What did it feel like when shit hit the fan? I ask them, how did you spend your money now that you're rich? And what would you do if you were starting over from scratch again today? If you're like me and you want to own your own business instead of living a nine to five job, this is the podcast for you. The Hustle presents My First Million.

**Steven Galanis** (1:58)
All good, all good, all good.

**Shaan Puri** (2:00)
Steven, my Duke brother.

**Steven Galanis** (2:01)
Yes.

**Shaan Puri** (2:02)
He's here. Love it. And I got one question for you. How did you do it? What did you build?

**Steven Galanis** (2:06)
We created the new autograph.

**Shaan Puri** (2:08)
The new autograph. What is the new autograph?

**Steven Galanis** (2:10)
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. But today, if we were in school with Zion Williamson and you need to have an Instagram poster, you never met him. Right.

**Shaan Puri** (2:32)
Exactly. I don't want him scribbling his name on my shirt.
I want a picture. Okay. So you realized selfies are the new autograph. I love that. That's it.
That's the vision. Okay, great. That's the insight that births the company. So how did you realize that? Where did that come from?

**Steven Galanis** (2:48)
My co-founder, Martin, was an NFL agent, and he's a guy that repped, like, imagine the 15th best Seattle Seahawk defender.
So not superstar players, but an average player on a roster. Martin showed me this video that he'd gotten made for his good buddy, Brandon, who at the time was very high up in Nike's consumer marketing department. Brandon loved the Seattle Seahawks like nothing else. Like that was his favorite thing in the world. He's like a super fan. And had just become a father for the first time. 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.
And this guy put it on Instagram and said it was the best gift he ever got in his life.
And earlier that year, you know, he'd done something with Michael Jordan and with Pele and he named his kid Maverick because of Maverick Carter, LeBron's best friend. So you could imagine if you have all the access on Earth like that and you're excited about hearing from Cassius Marsh, like who, you know, I love Cassius. He's our first investor at the company and the first talent on Cameo, so always will be grateful for him. But that was a huge insight that somebody with all the access in the world would be really excited about somebody that just says their name.