Michelle Phan

Ipsy/Honest playbook: give influencers equity for instant distribution

Sam argues the way to crack distribution for a yoga-marketplace is the Ipsy (Michelle Phan) and Honest Company (Jessica Alba) move: sign ~150 creators slightly smaller than Yoga with Adriene as equity-holding brand partners to bring their audiences overnight.

“I would do what these makeup guys like Ipsy did with that Michelle Phan, or what was her name? Yes. Or, uh, what Brian Lee at Honest did with Jessica Alba to get distribution and get users like overnight. I would call Adrian or 150 people very similar to her that are slightly smaller and being like, hey, I'm going to give you equity in the business and you're going to be a brand partner. You in?”

Steal thisRecruit many mid-size creators as equity-holding brand partners to buy distribution overnight instead of paying for ads.