Time for a reintroduction. I'm Scott. I’m building a VC fund in public and breaking down how creators and celebrities build empires, so you can steal their playbook. • Dutch founder and investor • Started out selling football phone cases, which failed • Co-founded + exited Straise, helping EU startups raise money • Personally invested in 15+ celebrity and creator-founded brands • Now building HotStart VC, a fund investing exclusively in this space Somewhere along the way, I went from selling phone cases to taking business meetings in celebrities’ hotel rooms because meeting in public attracts a crowd. I’ve also been on calls where I had to ask which person was the celebrity (growing up in the Netherlands means you miss quite a bit of American television). It’s been an unusual route into venture capital, and it’s shaped how I look at businesses today. I’ve spent time helping founders raise money, bringing creators into companies as equity partners, and deciding which businesses to invest in myself. A few beliefs have grown out of that work. 1. Distribution is becoming one of the biggest advantages a company can have. Having a direct relationship with potential customers changes how you can build a business. 2. Ownership changes incentives. How much someone owns, what they’re expected to contribute, and how they earn that ownership deserve serious attention. 3. The product and operating team deserve more scrutiny than the famous name. My investment process has evolved to reflect that. Those ideas are behind HotStart VC, and they’re what I want to explore here. Here’s what I’ll be tweeting about: • How creators and celebrities turn their audiences into companies, and which parts of their playbook you can use yourself • The ownership and deal structures behind those businesses, including how equity partnerships actually work • How I evaluate an investment and what makes me walk away • Why some products fit a creator’s audience so well, and how I assess that fit • What founders can learn about distribution from people who’ve built an audience for a living • What building a VC fund involves, from finding investors and answering their objections to earning their trust • The decisions I’m making as I build HotStart, including where my thinking changes and what I’m still figuring out I’ve become a creator myself while investing in this space. I enjoy the work, and it gives me another reason to pay attention to how an audience becomes part of a business. If you’re building a company, growing an audience, or curious about the money behind the names you know, I think you’ll find something useful here. Follow @Scottvdberg to not miss a single post. I’ll link my longer breakdowns underneath this post so you can find them as they come out.

Beauty creator Mikayla Nogueira’s brand POV Beauty just raised a $15 million Series A round. Mikayla joined TikTok in 2020 and has since built a following of over 20 million across platforms. Before she was a creator, she worked behind the counter at Ulta Beauty. Over the years, she taught herself makeup artistry and shared every technique with her community. In 2025, she turned that trust into her own brand, POV Beauty, focused on skin prep products designed to make makeup look better and last longer. It took off immediately. The brand reportedly did $1 million in sales in its first seven minutes and went on to generate over $20 million in its first year. Now, they just announced a $15 million Series A led by Silas Capital, with Imaginary and RÉDO Capital joining the round. The investor lineup says a lot about the potential. POV was launched in partnership with Imaginary Ventures, who is not new to celebrity- and creator-founded brands. They were early backers in Skims and Good American, and recently helped Tom Holland's Bero and Alix Earle's Reale Actives come to market. Silas Capital has a clear track record in this category as well. Over the last couple of years, they have backed several talent-led brands, including Molly Sims' YSE Beauty, Bella Hadid's 'Ôrəbella, Violette_FR by Violette Serrat, and Rōz by Mara Roszak. They know what to look for in these companies, particularly the ones building a lasting brand rather than relying on fame alone. Congrats to Mikayla, the team, and everyone involved.

Running an investment bank for startups taught me something painful: Access without capital is just watching. We saw generational companies early. We couldn't put a cent into any of them.

I'm Dutch. We're the most direct people in the world. Celebrities are surrounded by yes men. So when one pitches me a bad idea, they hear it. Sometimes the most valuable thing you can give a famous founder is a no.

"Famous for being famous." Meanwhile: - Skims - Kylie Cosmetics - Good American - 818 - Lemme Yes, they've had flops. The Kardashians are still some of the most underestimated entrepreneurs around.

Most expensive lesson I've learned in venture: Don't fall in love with the idea. Fall in love with the operators behind it. Great product + great celebrity + wrong team = out of business.

Will this be the next big celebrity brand? Jennifer Lawrence just announced the launch of her biotech haircare brand Mes. The brand will officially launch on the 27th of Oct.

One of the best things I've heard a celebrity founder say: "I know how important the product is. I'm not a food scientist. So I brought one on as co-founder." Knowing when to delegate is a leadership skill. Fame doesn't replace it.

Red flag in a celebrity brand meeting: "Is the celebrity joining?" "They're not that involved. Mostly the content strategy." When the famous founder never shows up, they usually don't know what's in their own deck.

Where I'm most likely wrong: For every Rhode, Skims and Casamigos there'll be hundreds of failures. We need at least 20 investments. Is there enough real deal flow in this category to support that? I don't know yet.