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Justin Bieber, Venture Capitalist

forbes.com

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Re: Justin Bieber, Venture Capitalist

#11

Post by jcampbell1 »

citricsquid wrote: post #8

Justin Bieber blows my mind every time I read about him and I really respect him (mainly because his life is insane and he somehow hasn't screwed it up yet) but his success is much more his management and Justin Bieber (the brand) is a story of how good management can make a success. Just looking at how the entertainment industry works is fascinating, they can create such incredible brands in so little time. Take the…

Off topic, but the whole notion that tech industries "disrupt" other industries outside of tech is confused.

If we list tech companies that massively disrupted non-tech industries, you come up with a list like:

* Napster

* Wikipedia

* Craigslist

* AirBnB

If you list companies that didn't disrupt non-tech industries, and created new value, you come up with a list like:

* Apple

* Microsoft

* Google

* Facebook

* Oracle

* Dropbox

Based on my naive list of companies, disruption of non-tech industries seems overrated.

Re: Justin Bieber, Venture Capitalist

#12

Post by confluence »

jcampbell1 wrote: post #11
citricsquid wrote: post #8

Justin Bieber blows my mind every time I read about him and I really respect him (mainly because his life is insane and he somehow hasn't screwed it up yet) but his success is much more his management and Justin Bieber (the brand) is a story of how good management can make a success. Just looking at how the entertainment industry works is fascinating, they can create such incredible brands in so little time. Take the…

Off topic, but the whole notion that tech industries "disrupt" other industries outside of tech is confused. If we list tech companies that massively disrupted non-tech industries, you come up with a list like: * Napster * Wikipedia * Craigslist * AirBnB If you list companies that didn't disrupt non-tech industries, and created new value, you come up with a list like: * Apple * Microsoft * Google * Facebook * Oracle…

You have to be careful with that list.

You need to look not just at the direct products produced (which may not be disruptive in the classical sense), but also at the positive externalities that they effect.

Apple made the computer personal when it was founded (or at least that is my impression). That didn't disrupt too many people, but think of all the secondary effects. People could learn to program, people could automate things, they could reduce their reliance on word typesetters, photocopiers, radios, television, encyclopedias - the list goes on.

Oracle did kill a lot of big government/company paper waste (not that there isn't any left :), and stuck it into databases, effectively wiping out an industry and creating the new data warehousing/analysts that we know of today.

Google makes research/discovery democratic - instead of editorial. It allows people to directly connect with what they want (information/news/stuff), disintermediating a lot of advertisting channels at a lower cost (TV/Radio/Newspapers especially).

Microsoft got "a PC on every desk", think of all the secondary effects of that (networking/internet/app development/programming tool etc.)

You see my point?

Re: Justin Bieber, Venture Capitalist

#13

Post by wh-uws »

citricsquid wrote: post #8

Justin Bieber blows my mind every time I read about him and I really respect him (mainly because his life is insane and he somehow hasn't screwed it up yet) but his success is much more his management and Justin Bieber (the brand) is a story of how good management can make a success. Just looking at how the entertainment industry works is fascinating, they can create such incredible brands in so little time. Take the…

I think you're discounting the fact that Bieber was discovered because of videos that were on youtube

Re: Justin Bieber, Venture Capitalist

#14

Post by btipling »

jcampbell1 wrote: post #11
citricsquid wrote: post #8

Justin Bieber blows my mind every time I read about him and I really respect him (mainly because his life is insane and he somehow hasn't screwed it up yet) but his success is much more his management and Justin Bieber (the brand) is a story of how good management can make a success. Just looking at how the entertainment industry works is fascinating, they can create such incredible brands in so little time. Take the…

Off topic, but the whole notion that tech industries "disrupt" other industries outside of tech is confused. If we list tech companies that massively disrupted non-tech industries, you come up with a list like: * Napster * Wikipedia * Craigslist * AirBnB If you list companies that didn't disrupt non-tech industries, and created new value, you come up with a list like: * Apple * Microsoft * Google * Facebook * Oracle…

> If you list companies that didn't disrupt non-tech industries

> * Google

...

Libraries and the centuries old librarian profession as well as Yellow Pages, Printed Map books, and oh, privacy.

Also Apple disrupted the record industry with $.99 songs + iTunes and iPod.

Amazon, not on your list, has disrupted retail.

Re: Justin Bieber, Venture Capitalist

#15

Post by citricsquid »

wh-uws wrote: post #13
citricsquid wrote: post #8

Justin Bieber blows my mind every time I read about him and I really respect him (mainly because his life is insane and he somehow hasn't screwed it up yet) but his success is much more his management and Justin Bieber (the brand) is a story of how good management can make a success. Just looking at how the entertainment industry works is fascinating, they can create such incredible brands in so little time. Take the…

I think you're discounting the fact that Bieber was discovered because of videos that were on youtube

No, he was discovered because his videos were on the internet. Scooter Braun misclicked on a link and a video of Justin Bieber played, that link could have been to any website. The value there was the internet, not Youtube. If you want to argue how Youtube plays into the success of Justin Bieber you should look later in the timeline, Youtube was a valuable part after he had gained traction, just like radio and television, it was a platform for distribution (not sure if that's the right word) of the brand.

Re: Justin Bieber, Venture Capitalist

#16

Post by ippisl »

jcampbell1 wrote: post #11
citricsquid wrote: post #8

Justin Bieber blows my mind every time I read about him and I really respect him (mainly because his life is insane and he somehow hasn't screwed it up yet) but his success is much more his management and Justin Bieber (the brand) is a story of how good management can make a success. Just looking at how the entertainment industry works is fascinating, they can create such incredible brands in so little time. Take the…

Off topic, but the whole notion that tech industries "disrupt" other industries outside of tech is confused. If we list tech companies that massively disrupted non-tech industries, you come up with a list like: * Napster * Wikipedia * Craigslist * AirBnB If you list companies that didn't disrupt non-tech industries, and created new value, you come up with a list like: * Apple * Microsoft * Google * Facebook * Oracle…

Look at [1], slides 32-84. There are many disruptive changes mentioned there.

[1]http://www.businessinsider.com/mary-meekers-latest-incredibl...

Re: Justin Bieber, Venture Capitalist

#17

Post by ippisl »

citricsquid wrote: post #8

Justin Bieber blows my mind every time I read about him and I really respect him (mainly because his life is insane and he somehow hasn't screwed it up yet) but his success is much more his management and Justin Bieber (the brand) is a story of how good management can make a success. Just looking at how the entertainment industry works is fascinating, they can create such incredible brands in so little time. Take the…

Let's look at a related industry: amazon made it that 70% of sales are given to the author. Now if the author want he can give money to marketing guys.If he wants to go alone , he can. He controls the process.

This has definitely given more market power to book authors(leaving aside amazon power grab).

Similar models can be offered to the music industry. They'll just enable artists to get more control over the process.

So the boy band will pay high royalty rate to the marketing guys because he is mostly marketing based, but the amazing new musical talent who seems to get a lot of people via viral marketing will share much less of the money.

Re: Justin Bieber, Venture Capitalist

#19

Post by jcampbell1 »

confluence wrote: post #12
jcampbell1 wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Off topic, but the whole notion that tech industries "disrupt" other industries outside of tech is confused. If we list tech companies that massively disrupted non-tech industries, you come up with a list like: * Napster * Wikipedia * Craigslist * AirBnB If you list companies that didn't disrupt non-tech industries, and created new value, you come up with a list like: * Apple * Microsoft * Google * Facebook * Oracle…

You have to be careful with that list. You need to look not just at the direct products produced (which may not be disruptive in the classical sense), but also at the positive externalities that they effect. Apple made the computer personal when it was founded (or at least that is my impression). That didn't disrupt too many people, but think of all the secondary effects. People could learn to program, people could a…

I don't see your point. Your reference to "positive externalities" is the same as what I meant by "new value".

Re: Justin Bieber, Venture Capitalist

#20

Post by DigitalSea »

It's a smart move. You're not the darling of the entertainment industry forever. One day the royalty payments won't be enough to pay the bills, the next flavour of the month has come along and taken your revenue stream, market and fans. Justin Bieber is setting himself up for life, venture capitalism is a good game to get into if you have the cash like Justin to make substantial investments in big tech startups.

Another high profile celebrity doing smart things with their money is Jessica Simpson (she hasn't done any venture capital investing... yet but she has quite a large empire of businesses and investments in the property market). She buys houses, renovates them and then sells them for a profit, not bad for someone who is portrayed as an idiot. She has clothing lines, a perfume range and a whole heap of other pieces of equity.

It always makes me glad to hear celebrities spending their money wisely and at the same time (even if an investment has been given for an expected return much like every other investor would expect) people like Justin are helping the little startup guys get a break and make a difference.

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