Cameo

Steven Galanis was working at LinkedIn when his co-founder Martin, an NFL agent, showed him a video that changed everything. Martin had commissioned Cassius Marsh, a mid-tier Seattle Seahawks defender, to record a 10-second congratulatory message for Brandon, Martin's friend who had just become a father. Brandon had access to Michael Jordan and Pelé—some of the biggest celebrities on Earth—yet he treasured this simple, raw video from Cassius Marsh above everything else. That insight crystallized the idea: "Selfies are the new autograph." In today's world, what people really want isn't a signed basketball; it's a personalized video they can share on Instagram.

Steven immediately left LinkedIn (his two-year anniversary perfectly aligned with Mike Gampson's famous prediction that no one stays in their original role). He recruited his Duke network: co-founder Martin and engineer Devin Townsend, who had been a Vine star himself with 900 million loops before joining Microsoft. That creative background proved invaluable—Devin understood what creators needed and how to build a product so fun that talent would do it for free but also get paid. The team spent three months building, initially envisioning a broader marketplace for in-person experiences. But they kept returning to the power of that first video. They made a deliberate product decision: authenticity over production quality. No makeup, no camera crew, no filters—just raw celebrity personality.

Launch day, March 2017, was a disaster. They had one talent (Cassius Marsh) on the platform under the name power move.io, with Cassius offering five-minute videos for $20. When Cassius tweeted the link, Google Analytics showed two dots—one in Venice Beach, one in Scottsdale. Twitter users attacked Cassius for charging money, calling him greedy. Cassius walked away furious, and Martin feared they'd lost their only talent and their $25,000 investment. Then a third dot appeared: a father in Washington. The site crashed. No purchase. Minutes later came a Twitter DM: "Your payment process isn't working. My daughter loves Cassius Marsh. Can you still make this happen?" They manually processed the order. The daughter's birthday video arrived a week later (after Cassius reluctantly filmed it), and when the dad recorded his daughter's tearful, ecstatic reaction, that moment crystallized the real product: the emotional connection between fan and celebrity.

For six months, they struggled to find product-market fit with pro athletes. The breakthrough came when Devin mentioned his roommate Cody Ko, a YouTube star with three million followers. The second Cody went live, the platform exploded. The pattern became clear: Vine stars, YouTube creators, and reality TV personalities—people who'd built their followings by making video content—were far better at personalized messages than traditional celebrities. They understood the medium. They could improvise. They were "the best in the world at doing" videos. Equally important, supply-side celebrities could self-promote on Twitter and TikTok, creating their own demand and triggering a marketplace flywheel. The key was the reaction videos—assets they could show to new talent: "Don't you want people to feel like this?" The average video now turns around in 24 hours, and the average price is $55, putting it in affordable gift range while generating meaningful revenue for talent.

By the time of this interview, Cameo had raised $50 million, was valued at $300 million, and hosted 20,000 talent generating hundreds of thousands of videos. Thirty percent of revenue came from international buyers, mostly purchasing American talent. The team hired Stefan, the global head of marketing at TikTok, as CMO. Steven's vision extended beyond one-off videos to repeated, asynchronous fan-celebrity conversations—turning Cameo into a two-way platform. With 2.5 million people on Earth today qualifying as "talent," and that number set to double in five years, the long tail of creators represented enormous upside. The platform had tapped into something fundamental: people's desire to connect with those they admire, and celebrities' hunger to monetize and deepen those relationships in an authentic, low-friction way.