Creator Economy Dynamo Steven Bartlett Partners With Authentic Brands to Launch OBSN Brand Development Venture — SkimNews
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- Steven Bartlett partnered with Authentic Brands to launch OBSN, a venture designed to support creators and facilitate the development of consumer products and services built around top creator-led businesses.
- OBSN will operate as a platform offering "news, analysis and live experiences for the creator economy" while helping nurture IP and business opportunities the company invests in and helps run.
- Bartlett said the partners plan to deploy up to $400 million into creator businesses over the coming years, calling OBSN the centerpiece of that capital strategy.
- Authentic Brands president and CEO Matt Maddox framed creators as "poised to become multigenerational brands" and positioned OBSN as a "once-in-a-generation opportunity" to scale creator-led IP.
- Bartlett, founder of Steven.com (billed as the "operating system for the creator economy"), hosts the digital series "The Diary of a CEO" and counts more than 5 million Instagram followers.
- The OBSN vision will be detailed at a live Sept. 14 conversation in New York with Authentic Brands founder and executive chairman Jamie Salter and Hot Smart Rich founder Maggie Sellers Reum.
Why it matters: Bartlett gains Authentic's licensing, product, and retail muscle to convert creator reach into scaled consumer brands; Authentic gains Bartlett's audience-building playbook. Creators with mass followings but thin business infrastructure become the deal's targets, with up to $400 million in stated deployment potential turning "influence" into "multigenerational brand" equity.
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