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Do you know any celebrities who have managed to build successful tech startups?

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This topic came to my mind after I saw an article about Selena Gomez being sued in connection with her .

I think Hollywood stars, top athletes, and musicians always have a head start when it comes to funding because of their personal brand. (And, of course, they have a completely different type of career that primarily supports them financially.)

Do you know any interesting tech projects or startups that celebrities are involved in?

I’ll start with:

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While I don't usually follow celebrities tied to startups, reading the headline reminded me of a recent episode of Trevor Noah's podcast featuring Tracee Ellis Ross, where they discuss the litigious nature of US culture. He went on to say even in a situation where one wants to be helpful they should consider the risk factor of being sued.

Ashton Kutcher, Dr. Dre, Jessica Alba, and Rihanna are among the most prominent celebrities who have successfully built or significantly scaled tech startups.

  • Ashton Kutcher: Co-founded venture firms A-Grade Investments and Sound Ventures, turning initial investments into hundreds of millions through early stakes in Uber, Airbnb, and Spotify.

  • Dr. Dre: Co-founded Beats Electronics, which revolutionized the audio industry and was acquired by Apple for $3 billion.

  • Jessica Alba: Co-founded The Honest Company, a successful e-commerce startup focused on eco-friendly consumer products that set a new standard for the industry.

  • Rihanna: Her partnership with LVMH created Fenty Beauty, which generated $570 million in revenue within its first 15 months, demonstrating massive commercial success in the tech-enabled consumer space.

  • Nas: Founded Queensbridge Venture Partners, building a high-return portfolio that includes early investments in Coinbase and Robinhood.

  • : Launched +, which pivoted from e-commerce to become a profitable B2B tech startup specializing in AI-powered chatbots.

Milla Jovovich is building a "local-first" AI memory system

Hi Nika,

Not quite on message but close; there was an early 2000's rapper called Chamillionaire that completely left rap to become a VC. But he went through the whole learning process instead of just cutting cheques and he ended up working with big names like Lyft and spacex.

Shaquille O Neal was also an early angel in google but that was just cutting a cheque cos he was in the right place at the right time. And then you also have The Rock with "Insert Product"........

You're spot on about having big names being linked to easy(ier?) funding access but I think the main thing they would bring is an amazing reach and proven distro mechanics (having productized themselves) that a startup could plug into.