With money and fame it might seem easy to start a business. While many celebrity ventures crash and burn (see Jay Z’s Tidal), we’ve compiled a list of LA celebrities who have made smart investments and crafted successful companies:
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Jessica Alba, The Honest Co.
What better way to start than with a company valued at $1.7 billion that recently received a $100 million round of funding? Alba co-founded the Honest Company in 2011 and has served as its President and Chief Creative Officer. The actress was inspired to create the eco-friendly company after she struggled to find environmentally friendly, non-toxic products for her children. She also invested in Honor in April and Managed by Q in June.
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Dr. Dre, Beats
Sometimes a celebrity's name is enough to get a brand started. The former NWA and Death Row Records front man created Beats Electronics in 2008 and the headphones quickly caught on with athletes and other celebrities. In 2014, Apple purchased beats for $3 billion, catapulting Dr. Dre ahead of Diddy as the “Richest Man in Hip-Hop.”
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Will Ferrell, FunnyOrDie
When “The Landlord” went viral in 2007, it was clear that Ferrell, along with Judd Apatow and Adam McKay, had created something special. Their site, FunnyOrDie, hosts celebrity and user videos (obligatory Drunk History and Between Two Ferns reference) and allows users to vote on whether the sketch is funny or whether it should die. The company has raised over $20 million from HBO, Sequoia Capital, and SV Angel. It is safe to say he's finally made bank, bro.
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Ashton Kutcher, A-Grade Investments
Kutcher’s roles in movies and TV shows may not be critically acclaimed, but his tech investments have most VC’s green with envy. An early investor in Airbnb and Skype, Kutcher started his own angel investment group A-Grade Investments in 2011. To solidify his tech status even further, Kutcher joined Lenovo as a product engineer in 2013 and created the Yoga Tablet 2 Pro a year later.
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Stephen Moyer, Weev
Moyer recently began dabbling in the tech world with his video community app Weev. Unlike other celebrities who have simply backed entrepreneur's ideas, Moyer conceived Weev on his own and brought in CEO Andrew Sachs to bring the app to life. In its first year, the Santa Monica company has seen a steadily growing userbase that averages over 16 minutes per visit.
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Kim Kardashian, ShoeDazzle
You probably thought reading Built In LA would save you from any Kardashian news... unfortunately you were wrong. In 2009, LA entrepreneur Brian Lee teamed up with the reality TV star to create ShoeDazzle, an online showroom for shoes, handbags and jewelry. The company had raised $66 million in funding before merging with JustFab in 2013.
Honorable Mentions
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will.i.am (Director of Creative Innovation at Intel), Lady Gaga (Creative Director for Polaroid)
Yes, you read that correctly. It's not a rare PR move for companies to bring on celebrities as employees, but it rarely amounts to anything more than a press conference. Lady Gaga and Polaroid partnered to design a successful mobile printer, however the singer's not-so-subtle camera glasses eventually led to the two parting ways.
will.i.am’s time with Intel stands out because no one can figure out exactly what a Director of Creative Innovation does. Not to mention the Black Eyed Peas frontman’s rap about cloud computing that he wrote and performed for Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff...
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