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Steven Bartlett and Authentic Brands Collab On OBSN
Steven Bartlett // Illustration by Kate Walker
Creator Steven Bartlett is collabing with Authentic Brands Group on a new venture that plans to invest $400 million in creator-led businesses.
Why It Hits: Creator startups are some of the hottest new businesses in the industry, with a leg up thanks to a popular personality leading the charge. Still, the infrastructure to support their growth is only now being built. Bartlett and Authentic believe they have the right mix of skills to turn viral creators into successful CEOs.
Behind The Venture: The new venture, dubbed OBSN, hopes to put itself at the center of the creator-business economy.
OBSN plans to help fund and develop IP and businesses from creator clients and then co-run the ventures alongside them, according to Variety.
It will also house Obsession, a media platform centered on the creator economy that will feature news analysis and live events.
The company will look to invest in creators working in evergreen product categories who “score highly on traits like resilience, ambition, and the ability to respond to setbacks.” (It’s unclear exactly how the venture plans to test for that.)
Bartlett and Authentic haven’t shared details on which creators they plan to work with or a timeline for releasing the funds, except that it will happen sometime “over the coming years.”
Final Check: Bartlett will co-run the venture through his holding company, Steven.com, which calls itself the “operating system for the creator economy.” Bartlett says he sees OBSN as a way to develop the holistic business identity of creators — an intersection of two worlds he knows a lot about.
Meanwhile, Authentic will focus on the operation’s brand-building, product development, IP licensing, strategic partnerships, and global distribution. That’s Authentic’s bread and butter — the company manages more than 50 brands, ranging from established retailers to celebrity labels.
Prediction: Combining the powers of Bartlett and Authentic could help build a sustainable roster of creator companies without the influencers at their centers needing to be part of the social-media A-list.
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Today’s email was written by David Vendrell.
Edited by Nick Comney. Polled and Copy-edited by Kait Cunniff.
Published by Darline Salazar.