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The Cassius Marsh video that birthed Cameo
Co-founder Martin got Seahawks player Cassius Marsh to record a 10-second congratulations video for a super-fan friend who'd just had a son. Despite having met Michael Jordan and Pelé, the dad called it the best gift he'd ever received, proving a no-name player saying your name could be hugely valuable.
“And Martin got this player, Cassius Marsh, who last year was on the 49ers, to record a 10-second video saying, hey, Brandon, congratulations on your son Maverick. This is Cassius Marsh from the Seattle Seahawks. I heard about your son Maverick. If he gets your athletic ability, he'll be playing for the Seahawks one day. Go Hawks! Awesome. And this guy put it on Instagram and said it was the best gift he ever got in his life.”
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Choose authentic over high quality
An early Cameo product decision was to favor raw, unedited celebrity videos over polished studio production. The first Cameo they saw was the talent driving shirtless through Southern California, and that rawness is what made it feel genuine.
“We made the product decision early to focus on authentic over high quality. So that was one of the big decisions we made. And by authentic, exactly what you're saying. The very first Cameo we ever saw, Cash was driving his car with no shirt on through Southern California. That's authentic.”
Steal thisFor social/creator content, optimize for authenticity, not production value; raw beats polished.
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Cody Ko unlocked product-market fit
After roughly 6 months of failing to find product-market fit with pro athletes, co-founder Devin suggested putting his roommate Cody Ko (3M YouTube followers) on the platform. The moment Cody joined, Cameo took off, with ex-Vine stars becoming the first great talent.
“Cassius Marsh, who was my co-founder Martin's client and is an NFL player, he was the first talent to come on very quickly after about 6 months of not finding product market fit with pro athletes. Devin one day was like, hey, I think Cody, his roommate with 3 million followers on YouTube, and people like Cody, Cody Ko, would do really well on this platform. And the second we put Cody on, that's when it really kind of blew up”
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Launch night: hoping Google Analytics was broken
On launch night Cameo (then PowerMove.io) had one talent, Cassius Marsh, tweet a link to buy a $20 video, and the founders expected a flood. Google Analytics showed only two dots, the founders themselves in Venice and Scottsdale, so they signed off hoping the tracking was broken.
“He sent the tweet on and we were just expecting this flood of people. And we're looking at Google Analytics and there are two dots, one in Venice, one in Scottsdale. You know, at first we're like, maybe Google isn't working. So I literally remember signing off the site. The Scottsdale dot dropped away and then I came back on and, and nope, it's like that dot came back. Google works, it's not us.”
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First investor put in $25K, then wanted out on night one
Cassius Marsh had given the founders $25,000 to start Cameo and was its first talent. After getting trolled for charging $20 for videos on launch night, he wanted his money back and refused to record for a week.
$25K
First investor's check into Cameo · USD
“Cash won't talk to us. He had just given us $25 grand to start the company and now he's telling us, you know, get out of here. You guys don't know what you're doing. You know, I want my money back. Like, it was just such a disaster.”