Cameo – captivating hearts and minds

Every so often you find an idea that is so creative and differentiated that it captures your heart and mind. That’s how we felt about Cameo, a celebrity engagement app that allows consumers to interact in a completely new way with their favorite stars and role models.

Cameo’s mission is to "create the most memorable fan experiences in the world" by enabling consumers to purchase short video clips recorded by their chosen celebrity with a curated personalized message for a specific event. Think of birthday wishes to your Mom from Marla Maples, a good luck message from Snoop Dogg, a Valentine’s greeting for your husband from Jennifer Love Hewitt, some words of encouragement from Mr Wonderful to the entrepreneur in your family, or some real talk from Michael Rapaport for your friends. Ellen DeGeneres loves Cameo so much that she regularly features the app on her daytime TV show.

Cameo has captivated consumers (over 86% NPS) and the app has taken off in a big way with ~10x year over year growth. Key to success has been the 15,000+ strong group of talent that Cameo has put together. Born from their own experiences, co-founders Steven, Devon and Martin understood how to build an accessible and inclusive community for all levels of celebrity — there is a star for everyone on the Cameo platform. And this community keeps growing: in the last six months Cameo has been able to add A listers such as Antonio Brown, Tyga, Gilbert Gottfried and football players, Brett Favre and Terrell Owens.

But what excites us the most is the future for Cameo. Talent is global and access to talent needs to be democratized across borders and categories. The way in which we connect with celebrity can be made increasingly more rich and personalized with experiences that go far beyond video messages. Most importantly, the notion of celebrity itself is continuously evolving. Whether it’s athletes and stars, creators and artists, or educators and thought leaders, all have fans that want to engage with them in deep meaningful ways.

We are excited to lead the Cameo Series B and partner with Steven, Devon, Martin and their team to create more delight in the world.

• ilya & mamoon

P.S. They’re hiring