Emailed on May 31th, 2019 in The Friday Forward

Cameo is a Chicago-based startup that lets fans pay for personalized videos from celebrities, and they just raised a Series B investment at around a $300 million valuation.

Basically, Cameo allows you to pay some small amount of money to get a personalized shoutout from a celebrity. For example, Brett Favre ($500), Flavor Flav ($175), and Disco Cowboy ($2). 

At first I thought this was silly, then I went to the site and landed on Snoop Dogg telling a young kid congratulations on his recent soccer game. I can only imagine that made that kid's life, so that's pretty cool. 

But why are the investors excited? Because high-growth applications have inherent value and talent management is a HUGE business.

As it turns out, Cameo has both. 

You probably haven't thought much about the business of managing talent, so here's some perspective: Endeavor Group, Hollywood's largest talent agency, recently filed for an IPO that reportedly could seek to raise around $500 million at a $10 billion valuation.

You can book your own shoutout from Snoop Dogg for $500 here.