Sean Kelly’s Post

𝐈𝐧𝐟𝐥𝐞𝐚𝐝: €𝟏 𝐌𝐢𝐥𝐥𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐒𝐭𝐚𝐫𝐭𝐮𝐩 𝐑𝐞𝐯𝐨𝐥𝐮𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧𝐢𝐳𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐈𝐧𝐟𝐥𝐮𝐞𝐧𝐜𝐞𝐫 𝐄𝐯𝐚𝐥𝐮𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧, 𝐁𝐨𝐫𝐧 𝐟𝐫𝐨𝐦 𝐓𝐰𝐨 𝐌𝐈𝐁 𝐀𝐥𝐮𝐦𝐧𝐢 Inflead - Lead the Influence, a startup born from the vision and creativity of our Alumni Giovanni Spinelli and Simone Torre, has recently closed a significant first round of funding of €1 million from BlackSheep MadTech Fund. This is the first European Venture Capital Fund managed by Eureka! Venture SGR focuses on Marketing and Advertising technology sectors. There's no denying that, for better or worse, this is the era of influencers and the multimillion-dollar businesses orbiting around them. In this diverse and debated landscape, Inflead seeks to introduce order and transparency. It has developed a platform specialised in the analysis and evaluation of influencers. Born in 2018, the company is experiencing rapid growth, as evidenced by partnerships with giants like Nike and Disney. While influencer marketing is often seen as a field driven by superficial impressions and fleeting trends, Inflead presents a paradigm shift: evaluations based on numbers and solid analytics. Using complex algorithms and artificial intelligence, Inflead examines tens of millions of influencer profiles, assessing them based on performance, impact, value, and significant social responsibility parameters. Therefore, it is capable of providing companies with an innovative tool that allows them to choose the most impactful and suitable content creators for different campaigns. Moreover, the platform offers a clear picture of the ROI of influencer marketing strategies. Currently, over 4 million influencers are “certified” by Inflead. In a realm where volatility usually reigns, this data-driven approach reveals the profile and training of the two creators. The entrepreneurial idea began to take shape in the Master in Insurance & Risk Management (MIRM) classroom, which Simone and Giovanni attended together, graduating in 2018. The project thus stems from solid quantitative, financial, and managerial skills, enriched by a great dose of talent and creativity. Congratulations, and best of luck to Giovanni, Simone, and the entire Inflead team. #MIBTrieste #Innovation #entrepreneurship #MIBAlumni #MIBers #Inflead #VentureCapital

😎 Shark #1 - Ye Acha hai, Kaafi badhiya product 🤠 Shark #2 - What a taste, I think it can boom in foreign markets too 😏 Shark #3 - Tu rehne de bhai, sab doglapan hai 🤑 Shark #4 - I'll give you an offer to double your valuation 😉 Shark #5 - I'm in for this deal as meri expertise hai Brand (after getting a cheque) - Let's get to work guys. Do Ctrl C + Ctrl V for all the comments and eliminate Shark No. 3 from our social media Ads. 📺 Did you notice that while scrolling your social media for new-age startup brands, you would find an ad like this, where the product promotion is pumped up to a level of high curiosity? Yes, that's true, as new brands have a crunch on their marketing budget, they try to infuse the element of "Recommended" from the well-known entrepreneurs in the market. But how does the brand management work for them? 👨🏫 These sharks have automatically started getting featured as brand ambassadors of these products. The startup ecosystem has changed the advertisement space so much that the brand faces have transitioned from well-known film actors to the founders/CEOs themself. As ‘celebrity founders’ are gaining immense traction through television and OTT, having them be part of ads plays to online trends, relevant topics, and feelings of familiarity among target groups while significantly creating noise about their brands. 📢 It's getting better because you get to know the hunger, vision, and persistence of the company with its future growth and expansion in the product portfolio. 🙈 This is not a new concept. For many years, you might have seen --- "Asli masale sach sach, MDH MDH". This ad featured Mr. Dharampal Gulati (popularly known as MDH wale uncle or the founder himself). Salute to all the impactful deals made in Shark Tank India by 👓 Peyush Bansal (Lenskart.com) 🎵 Aman Gupta (boAt Lifestyle) 👪 Anupam Mittal (Shaadi.com) 💊 Namita Thapar (Emcure Pharmaceuticals Limited) 💄 Vineeta Singh (SUGAR Cosmetics) 🏩 Ritesh Agarwal (OYO) 📰 Azhar Iqubal (Inshorts) 🚗 Amit Jain (CarDekho Group) Kudos to them for building India's most loved products in various categories and fuelling the startup ecosystem with the support of their investments. #sharktank #founders #ceo #investment #advertisement #brandmanagement #sales #marketing #socialmedia #product #vision #

A little introduction on myself! My name is Matthew Elonis… 👔 I love business, it’s my lifeblood and passion. My first company was called “Puppy Palace” at 12 years old - I went to VistaPrint and got lawn signs, a website, business cards and started posting on Craigslist and Google, I was making $1500-$2000 a weekend until my mom got scared and shut down the business. 🍔In college I built and sold a national meal delivery service DTC from $300 to $10M with my brother called Keto Fridge. 📦We then invested in a few CPG brands, helped incubate them. 🧪Currently building Meepo, a nutrition tech startup with IP around 4x protein density for the US military, world governments and everyday consumers with a nice product line called “FitSweets” launching this quarter (stay tuned!) With a big vision for the future of creating personalized nutrition in every consumers home based on their body’s exact needs via sleek 3D printers. 🖼️I’ve made art for most of my life - large paintings, sculptures, digital art. 🎨I also collect art with my brother and by myself. ✈️Travel (and living around the world) has been a huge part of my life and has greatly improved my businesses. Some of my favorite countries are: Mexico, UAE, Greece, Tanzania, Turkey, Macedonia - a favorite city of mine is Sicily. 🏋️♀️I love anything physical. Yoga, lifting weights, jiu-jitsu. ✍️From 17-22 I wrote every single day uploading over 1,000 posts to my blog and probably read 3 books a week - it was foundational as business leader which taught me how to think. 📚I’ll post a book of poems before I die that I’ve written from age 18-23. 🤑I’ve helped founders raise tens of millions of dollars in capital, and this year we’ll help founders raise hundreds of millions of dollars in a formulaic non-luck based way by bringing clear SOPs from start to finish leveraging data, software and a McDonalds fanaticism to processes. 🥼When I reach ~35-37 I’ll enter biotech with very specific goals: safely end human sleep, get humans off the calorie, and humanely create mini elephants through genetic engineering. 🚫I use zero social media except LinkedIn (don’t even have them on my phone.) 🧘🏼♂️As a busy founder I’m not perfect, but transcendental meditation instead of scrolling the phone can dramatically impact the quality of your thinking and is a big part of my life. I’ve gotten almost everyone that works with me to try, many love. It’s hard to encapsulate a human in one post, but here’s a glimpse of who I am! Nice to meet everyone here. 💪😎

I launched the CELEB syndicate because I saw it as an opportunity to extend the Influencer Capital brand. Given that I create a lot of content about celebrity businesses, I get approached by them quite often. They already have an equity deal with a talent in place, so I cannot necessarily serve them with Influencer Capital. Yet, I wanted to be involved! In the conversations, I quickly found out that similar to other startups, most of them are also looking for growth capital to scale. That’s why I saw an opportunity to create a different value proposition to serve them. What if I could start an angel syndicate to invest capital in them? Two months ago, I started to validate the idea. I turned to LinkedIn to run a poll, started to engage with angels, and spoke to celebrity brands. And Monday, the word was finally out. CELEB is launched! It is not only going to help me serve celebrity brands better, but it is also going to help me activate my amazing community of LinkedIn followers. So it was a win-win. CELEB won’t be the only subsidiary of Influencer Capital. I see it as the first of many! We are for example also talking to partners to start a venture studio to incubate our own startups together with talents. What are other subsidiaries that make sense in your opinion? 

Shark Tank India Season 3 is here, and once again, it's capturing the attention of audiences. Sharks and pitchers go head-to-head, showcasing not only amazing products but also sharing inspiring stories. A key ingredient contributing to the show's virality is the learning it provides. Complex business concepts and terms are simplified for the audience, making them easy to understand. Given this, it's worth revisiting our blog, which focuses on "7 Marketing Lessons That Every Business Needs to Know." Here's the link: https://lnkd.in/dRfxBU8Z In this blog post, we've listed some key marketing insights drawn from previous seasons of Shark Tank. Aman Gupta Anupam Mittal Vineeta Singh Peyush Bansal Deepinder Goyal #startuplife #hustle #growthhacking #sharktankindia #sharktank #SharkTankIndia #SharkTankIndiaOnSonyLIV #mastroke #creativeagency

THIS COULD BE YOU? I have couple of extra tickets for #tonicsummit #tonic23 tomorrow, worth 149€+VAT. If you are still missing yours or see this only now - send me a private message to get yours. Also, ping someone who may need to get a ticket. People, this will be party. This will be crazy. Yesterday morning over 400 signups - all around #food and #foodtech. And the tastings will be crazy. I just went through the participant list - startups, VCs, angels, accelerators, food producers, buyers, research institutes, influencers, food celebrities. #foodtech #agtect #circular #biotech #startup #slush2023 #slush

Cristina Nuñez of True Beauty Ventures cites "Connection with a Founder." as a "necessary check" for investing in and partnering with beauty founders. Watch the clip for founder success drivers identified by True Beauty Ventures. In the full episode, Cristina offers a ton of insights and tips to founders on [9:31]-What distinguishes True Beauty Ventures from other funds? [17:42]-What does True Beauty Ventures look for in a potential investment? [24:24]-What beauty founders usually get wrong about retailers? [26:47]-The dating and selection process that TBV follows [35:18]-How does TBV support beauty founders and brands post-investment? [38:29]-Founder traits that scare TBV the most post-investment [41:12]-Winning traits of beauty founders who partner with TBV [44:12]-How to apply to True Beauty Ventures? Watch/listen to the full episode-links in the first comment. ..................................................................... Jump Accelerator: Reimagine Growth: Profit Goal, Cash Fuel Profitable growth on the path to $20M-$50M+ for women-led beauty brands with a fit & fully executable solution using 1st principles W/O Breaking the bank on ads, influencers, reckless distribution Together, let’s create “A Woman’s World.” ..................................................................... 👆 FREE ONLINE COURSE Don’t forget to take your free online course via the website link above! 🌅 Follow me for counter-intutive insights on growing your beauty brand & female founder stories #founders #fundraising #venturecapital #cleanbeauty

I’m excited to announce that I’ve recently joined as a Board Advisor to Palm & Pine Skincare the award winning sports suncare brand. ☀️😎 I was fortunate enough to meet the founder and CEO Sarah Muir through Hatty Fawcett’s Focused For Business accelerator, where I was invited to run a masterclass session on Building A High Performance Board. Sarah immediately struck me as an incredibly smart, driven and decisive founder… someone who was willing to take risks, learn from her mistakes, take counsel, and drive through the challenges that she comes across. That was the first big tick in the box. ✅ And then I took a closer look at the product and the business. Tick tick tick. ✅✅✅ Palm & Pine focuses on a clear niche - high performance suncare for the everyday athlete. The branding and packaging is highly desirable, and the product is functionally excellent, with sustainability credentials that are second to none. A successful rewards based crowdfund proved demand ahead of launch, early revenue growth looks promising from both D2C and through selected retail partners, there’s a strong and growing following on social media, and some stellar endorsements from high profile athletes. Although it’s early days for Sarah, I believe that there is very strong potential for Palm & Pine to become the leading brand in its category. Sports suncare is a large and growing market due to the growth in outdoor sports including #skiing, #snowboarding #cycling and #surfing, and increasing awareness and concern over skin protection. And with the right team around her and sufficient funding, I think Sarah has what it takes to execute. Sarah is currently raising her SEIS investment round to fund marketing, new product development, operational efficiencies and building out the team. If you’re an investor who’s interested in this space, or an advisor who might have real value to bring to the table, either Sarah or I would love to hear from you. #seis #investment #femalefounder #entrepreneur #skincare #sports #cosmetics #suncare

Reflecting on My First Event with Fragrance Forte As I navigate the exciting journey of our startup, every milestone is a valuable lesson. 🌟 Just today, I hosted an event with Fragrance Forte, and here are some key takeaways in this journey of mine: 1. Start at a Realistic Pace: It's tempting to aim for the stars and hit 100 sales, but sometimes, the best approach is to start with natural, organic growth. Rome wasn't built in a day, and neither is a successful startup. 2. Emphasize Brand Awareness: In such events, it's not always about the big-ticket items (your high end products will hardly sell). Building brand awareness is crucial. The more people know about us, the more they'll trust us when they need our products. 3. Leverage Relationships: Collaborate with influencers and fellow startups who've treaded a similar path. We're all in this together, seeking mutual growth and support. Every event is a step forward, and I'm thrilled to continue this journey of learning and growth. 🚀 #StartupJourney #LessonsLearned #Entrepreneurship

I am excited to announce my new company: CELEB! CELEB is an angel syndicate that invests in celebrity-backed brands, and you can join too! I am a firm believer that the next generation of iconic brands is going to be (co-) founded by celebrities. Traditional brands are facing significant challenges these days as a result of rising customer acquisition costs caused by Apple’s iOS privacy update, ad blockers, reduced consumer loyalty, shorter attention span, and inflation. Celebrity-backed brands don’t suffer as much from these challenges. Celebrities have a free viral channel and direct relations with millions of fans who are loyal and engaged. They can drive near-instant traction to their brands by simply posting on their social media. It has resulted in companies like PRIME, Feastables, Chamberlain Coffee, Happy Dad, Teremana Tequila, SKIMS, Fenty, and many more reaching growth traditional consumer brands have never seen before. These celebrity brands start to follow a similar trajectory to traditional VC-backed startups by raising capital (e.g. Feastables $5M, Chamberlain Coffee $17M, De Soi $4M) and getting experienced operators on board. And I want to back these celebrity brands, and hopefully, you will join too! You can invest with amounts as low as $2,500 per startup and decide per deal whether you want to participate or not. If you are interested in joining as an angel, let’s talk! We have the first investment proposition ready, which will be in a brand co-founded by a social media superstar with 32M followers. Website link: https://lnkd.in/eXdGzMYZ