Tech start-ups are the next frontier in Celebrity side projects.
Now more than ever celebrities aim to parlay their fame and success into long-term wealth within the business world. Some of today’s biggest tech start-ups are heavily backed by the rich and famous.
The Honest Company:
Hollywood super star Jessica Alba launched e-commerce site The Honest Company alongside ShoeDazzle co-founder Brian Lee in 2011. The Honest Company was founded as a consumer goods e-tailer specializing in non-toxic household products aiming to supply the marketplace with ethical consumerism.
In a turn of extreme success, Alba just celebrated the $1 billion valuation of her Honest Company. Gracing the cover of Forbes’ latest issue, the 34-year-old “Barely Legal” Alba was declared “America’s Richest Self-Made Women.” The owner of 15 -20 percent of the lifestyle company, Alba is now worth an estimated $200 million.
Hang w/: (hangwith.com)
Live-streaming video is the next big thing in the social media space. Hang w/ is a leader in the live streaming broadcast game, and with competitors like Twitter backed Periscope it is no wonder why Hang w/ has pulled some major star power to back their platform.
In particular rapper, actor and business mogul Curtis 50 Cent Jackson has been keen to get in to the live-stream video broadcast game stepping on board as one of Hang w/ biggest celebrity investors. Now with over 1 Million users, and over 3 Million broadcasts to date the app has tapped into the live stream movement
The Hang w/ platform has attracted many other of actors, athletes, musicians and brands including Jared Leto, Timbaland, Common, The UFC, Larry The Cable Guy, Ali Landry, Claudia Jordan, Jamie Kennedy, Kaskade, Lucy Hale, Mike Metzger, Jake Ellenberger, Soulja Boy, Tony Orlando, Terrell Owens and many more.
Tidal:
With music services Pandora, and Spotify now dominating the music industry the celebrities have taken notice of the investment opportunities within music streaming apps .
Tidal having launched in October 2014 and rumored to be a troubled music platform, was presented as the next juggernaut in music streaming subscriptions. Heralded as the first artist-owned streaming service in the world the music streaming service is backed by none other than music mogul Jay Z.
Promises of exclusive content and a roster of A-List talent, the fledgling tech service has yet to hit 1 million subscribers in comparison to Spotify’s 20 million subscribers.
With all the movement happening at the start-up, it remains to be seen if the tides will turn in favor of Jay Z’ latest investment.
Worse case scenario, his amazing and wealthy wife can lend him a few bucks.
Pictured: Alba and Jackson back in 2009 at the premiere of ‘Dead Man Running’