Ovitz: Building tech startups is structurally identical to packaging Hollywood entertainment
Michael Ovitz · Founder of CAA Michael Ovitz: "I Just Knew I Was Going to Outwork Every One of Them" · Aug 9, 2026 · at 9:17
Michael Ovitz, co-founder of CAA, draws parallels between representing creative talent in Hollywood and backing tech founders.
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“A film or a television show or a book or a song is packaged around talent. Talent, creator, engineer, same thing. Talent needs someone to help execute. Engineer needs people around them to help get the business in line and organize, coded, whatever they need done. The creative person making the entertainment then has to get financing. The engineer or founder of a company needs venture capital. With the entertainment maker, he then has to get distribution. Founder has his product. He's got to find a DSP or someone else to distribute his work, or just take it on his own on the internet. Either way, both also need marketing.”
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