The selfie replaced the autograph for shareable social proof
Steven Galanis · His startup Cameo was a unicorn—until it crashed 90%. Here's how he went from near-bankrupt to pr... · PMF Show · Nov 12, 2024 · at 8:01
Steven Galanis, co-founder and CEO of Cameo, explains the foundational consumer behavior insight behind the creation of Cameo.
0:00 / 0:26exact quote · 26.8s
▶ Watch the full episode on YouTube → 720p mp4 · rendered on demand · StarZero watermark
“The selfie is the new autograph. When you see someone famous today, you pull out your phone and you want something to go on your, you know, your Instagram you know, your Instagram grid or your Facebook wall. Like that's what you wanted. Back in the day when you met somebody, you pulled out the Sharpie from your pocket, they signed the menu, they signed their shirt and went on your physical wall. But People in this digital age, they want something that they can share with their social networks.”
quote is from the automated transcript, cleaned for reading: filler sounds and stutters are removed, nothing is rephrased. names can be misheard (the analysis reads context, assessments check outside sources). how →
More from Steven Galanis
Cameo was the fastest-growing consumer marketplace from 2017 to 2019
“In 2017 and 2018, 2019, Cameo was the fastest growing consumer marketplace in the world.”
Lightspeed pitched Cameo as an uncopyable, bigger Snapchat
“Jeremy Liu, who wrote the first check, walked in with Nicole Quinn, the partner that would join our board from Lightspeed. And you said, Hey, Steven, it's unanimous. You know, the Lightspeed partnership wants to help build Cameo. We're gonna offer you a term s…”
Cameo reached over $100M GMV before spending on paid marketing
“We were doing probably north of a hundred million in GMV before we even really started spending money on paid.”
Talent makes more money per minute on Cameo than anywhere else
“One thing that I'll argue is that the talent on Cameo make more money per minute on Cameo than anything else in the world that they do.”