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Cameo Cofounder Devon Townsend's Video Messaging Platform Puts Celebrities In Your Inbox | Forbes
Posted
December 18, 2019
Views
6,190
Likes
108
Comments
5
Engagement
1.83%
December 18, 2019
6,190
108
5
1.83%
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2:54Now PlayingWant to send someone a love note from Stormy Daniels or a get-well message from Charlie Sheen? Devon Townsend can hook you up. His marketplace Cameo sells personalized videos from thousands of minor-league celebrities and aging sports stars. A custom video from NFL-great Brett Favre costs $500. One from the guy who played the Soup Nazi on Seinfeld? $60. Celebs name their price and take 75%—Cameo gets the rest and pockets "tens of millions" in revenue a year.
In 2014 Townsend quit his gig as a Microsoft engineer to travel the world with his friend the YouTube star Cody Ko. While globetrotting, they launched a travel and comedy account on Vine that got 3 million followers tens of millions of views. A flood of requests for personalized videos convinced Townsend there was an unmet market. "We've tapped into something in the American psyche," Townsend says. The investor psyche too—Cameo has raised more than $65 million from Kleiner Perkins, the Chernin Group, Bain Capital and more.
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