This is Bloomberg Business Week with Carol Messer and Tim Stenebek on Bloomberg Radio.
So, when Carol and I were out in Hollywood earlier this month for Bloomberg's inaugural screen Time event, we interviewed Drew, a fool of wallows. She is the TikTok star. She's got nearly eight million follow ups. So cool, right, very cool. But I was struck by something when we saw her. Carol, her huge team, multiple managers, agents, social media folks, all traveling with her, and it just reminded me. I couldn't get her to tell us just how much money she
made doing this. But needless to say, or suffice it to say, being an influencer is big business.
Yeah, and she's content creator and host of the comments section. You probably know her well with all those followers that are out there. You know, it's a reminder that this is, as you said, big business when it comes to influencers. Jess Huntershen and Emily Ward are the co founders of Shine Ventures. It's an influencer talent management company. They're branching out from focusing on influencers to angel investing with the launch of Shine Ventures, which focuses on early stage startup,
so we got lots to talk about. Just an Emily joining us now on Zoom from Toronto. Guys, welcome, Welcome to Bloomberg Business Week. Curious. First of all, tell us a little about your world and then kind of transitioning or adding on to what you do. Shine Ventures Jess for Emily, feel free to start.
Yeah, thank you, thank you for having us. We appreciate it and you are right, it is big business. So we started first in talent management, so we have Shine Talent Group and now Shine Ventures. But with Shine Talent Group we started that gosh way back. We talk about influencer years being somewhat like dog years. One is seven, right, so we started at about nine years ago, which means
that we're ancient now. But we started in Toronto doing very very small scale talent management with a really big focus on people in the digital content creator space.
Can you give us.
For sure, say some of our our favorite Canadian talent. We have the Birds Papaya, We have Alicia mccaville, We have just Jamie p Which this is such a funny industry because I feel like if you know them, you really really know them. If you're kind of, you know, if this industry is what you live and breathe, but otherwise you might have no idea that these people are out here making, you know, lots and lots of money and doing all kinds of home things.
Okay, how much money are we talking here?
Jima's obsessed with understanding the dynamic.
I want to know how much money are we talking here?
Well, all confidential when it comes to our talent, but I think, you know, every average consumer can discern when they're looking at what some of these social creators are doing today that it's not just the collaborations on Instagram and YouTube, that the industry has expanded and they're.
Doing their own product lines. They are doing you know, mainstream ads. They're involved in product development with major brands as well. You can start to kind of add up the dollars yourself.
It's fascinating. It's just a part of kind of a slice of life, right that we are learning more and more about. I mean, my husband's obsessed with YouTube channels, people who sale and like all the money that they're making, Like can we do this?
I'm like, well, you know, I don't know, probably not build up that following you got.
To build up patrons. Patrons, it's all about patrens. Hey listen. So talk to us about though, getting more involved in investing in early stage startups. And I'm curious, Emily about kind of what you are specifically looking for and where you are what you are looking for and where you're already to investing some money.
Yeah. So, as Jess was saying before, like we're rather ancient in this industry. It is such a new industry.
But Shine Talent Group has been around since twenty fifteen, and honestly, it was always something in conversations between Jess and I that we thought when we got to a different point of success, we really would want to be investing in other businesses and using the skills that we've developed in the talent space, which is truly spotting emerging great talent and translating that into the small business world
as well. So in terms of what we're doing with Shine Ventures, we're very much looking at like early stage startups, and each year we are going to be focusing on a different niche, and that niche will be dictated by the trends that we're seeing in our core business and Shine Talent Group. So this coming year, huge focus in the menstruation through menopause space.
So Jess, I want to kick it on over to you, because the question that I have when it comes to what you're investing in in Shine Ventures is why now. I mean, we're at a point where interest rates are the highest they've.
Been since two thousand and seven, and.
Essentially the era of free money is over, So startups are going to have a tougher time raising capital in this environment and money's quite tighter.
Yeah, they will, But I think that's why we've always been so enamored by the startup phase and you know, somewhat still consider ourselves to be in that. But I think that's the cool thing about startups is they're so scrappy and you know where, like our focus is really on investing in the founders who can tell incredible stories and get people to like understand what it is that they're selling and what need their you know what hole
in the market they might be fixing. So I think startups like where like big big business and interest rates. You're right, obviously they're at an extreme high right now, but startups have the ability to be incredibly nimble and scrappy and that's what we just like. That excites us so much about that space. So we're we're excited to see what they're going to do.
And Emily, I'm curious, like what will be the mix of the business. So is it that venture and angel investing is going to become much more of what you guys focus on or is it still kind of a combination.
Well, I think it will be split. But Shine Talent Group has grown tremendously. We have a amazing team, a great great sceniorallyadership teams. So Justin and are looking for other spaces where we can help to grow and invest. And also there is a relationship between the two Shine Talent Group and itself. The talent who we represent, a
lot of them have interests in their own businesses. We're going to be taking a keen look in terms of the opportunities that they're presenting to us and have a different kind of relationship Undershine Ventures.
Does something you invest in have to have somebody who can be an influence or connected to it. I only ask because I'm kind of my team kind of knows this. I've been obsessed a little bit with Shark Tank and it's so interesting that somebody will come with a business good idea but just doesn't gain traction, and then they talk about either tapping into one of the sharks and their social presence and their ability to influence people to sit up and take notice and then start helping to
essentially help the business grow. So I'm curious, Emily, if that's something that you guys will think about before you make an investment.
I hear that, and I think where we have delineated is about we are looking for people who are good storytellers. So that can be through the skill of influencing, you know, over the years, or it can just be an incredibly passionate founder who has that ability to like bring people into their story and have people drawn to follow them along.
So it's interesting to hear of the timing of this. And I'm also wondering about, Emily, if there's we're stuck.
On high rates right now.
Yeah, it's like it's like what we spend all day talking about.
I'm also wondering about where we are when it comes to the influencer economy because there are so many influencers out there, and I'm wondering if there's any kind of fatigue coming from consumers, they're like, Okay, well, I get that this person has a lot of followers. I get that this person, you know, does these brand partnerships, but are they actually still effective like they were a few years ago.
Yeah, And I think actually some of what helps us sometimes with the fatigue that comes in is it starts to create a line between like the high performance talent and talent that perhaps are just dabbling in this market itself. Also, the style of influencing, the style of content changes over the years. So what was working five years ago, nine years ago when we began is very, very different than
what is working with consumers today. So I think the talent who aren't don't have the ability to kind of change with the times. That way, they do fade out and their consumers do lose interest and traction. But the whole concept behind influencing, I mean, this has been around for like decades and decades and decades. We're just noil playing in the space of social media.
Well, and one thing I want to get to we've about a minute left, just come on back in on the conversation. In terms of you guys, are Shine Ventures focusing on women's the women's health space, in this year and talk to us a little bit about what you are thinking of targeting that you see there. And we're seeing a lot of interesting kind of entrepreneurial ventures and innovation happening. Well.
I think it's also demonstrates like how the two connect, like how Shine Talent Group and Shine Ventures connect in that we're seeing a huge interest in that kind of age demographic of women, Like we're talking the like forty five to fifty five demographic on Instagram and TikTok is an absolutely booming market with people who have very high disposable income and they're getting into that age now where they've grown up on social media, like they understand social media,
they've been a part of that for a long time, and they're now getting into that more like menopause stage of their life and they want to talk about it. So these products that have been very taboo and kind of kept behind closed doors and we didn't really discuss them publicly, we've seen powerhouses in the last number of years start to talk about menopause in a really open way.
So that's where we're really like taking that trend data and looking at like, Okay, what are the businesses going to be that come as a result of that, and what are the business is going to be that will launch themselves on social media and create really aging and interesting conversation consumers will want to take part in.
Well fun to check in with you guys, Jess Hunterton and Emily Ward. They are the co founders of Shine Ventures.