Strands of Genius: Remembering the Important Things, Internet Culture, It's Mushrooming and Expected to Grow More
Guest curated by Kira Jackson, Investor, Head of Partnerships @ RX3 Growth Partners
Each year we aim to highlight 50 creative thinkers that have inspired us by giving them the opportunity to guest curate this newsletter, Strands of Genius. This edition is guest curated by Kira Jackson, Investor, Head of Partnerships @ RX3 Growth Partners.
:: A BIT MORE ABOUT GUEST CURATOR, KIRA JACKSON ::
LOCATION: Sherman Oaks, CA
Hi guys! I started my career in the startup agency world as a founding team member, and through a string of acquisitions, matriculated over to the investing world as the Head of Partnerships at RX3 Growth Partners, a consumer-centric growth equity firm investing in companies like Therabody, Hydrow, Orgain, Full Swing, and more. We're technically a celebrity-founded fund (Aaron Rodgers, now of the New York Jets), but in closing our second fund ($150M!!), now count 100+ other celebs, athletes, and influencers as LPs. The idea being we offer differentiated capital through authentic and aligned talent relationships. I run our value add strategy, and have been deeply focused on scale and diversification of that strategy. I am proud to say that we now offer a truly differentiated, full funnel strategy impact, not just names on a cap table - and we're just getting started!
Editor’s Note (Genius Steals): We were first introduced to Kira via her awesome TikTok post that another guest curator, Alana Gleason, shared in her curation. And then we found out Kira is a subscriber to Strands, so we knew we had to invite her to curate :) We love her energy, spunk and links. We are so excited to have her with us today and can’t wait to listen to her podcast on Friday!!
:: THE LINKS ::
REMEMBERING THE IMPORTANT THINGS
Over the course of your career, the more senior you get, the more relationships you have to uphold. Ren is my solution to that seemingly never-ending struggle. It collects all of your contacts via LinkedIn, email, and your phone's contact list, and syndicates a running feed that serves you recent press and articles related to your contact base. From there, AI-generate email templates allow you to reach out with the press of a button, directly through your email client. The copy typically needs a bit of tweaking, but overall, it makes the process of relationship management that much easier! (Ren)
INTERNET CULTURE
This episode features Kai Gayoso, partner and co-head of Digital at Range Media Partners (whose roster includes Valkyrae, Gabrielle Union, Brooklyn Beckham, and M. Night Shyamalan). He goes in depth about the increasing fragmentation of audience interaction across creator platforms, web3 and how creators (and honestly brands if you think about it) can think about leveraging blockchain technology to shift conversations around ownership and funnel fandom into things like digital collectorship, community building, IP, and engagement. Essentially, it's an optimistic conversation on new media models. Will really spin your wheels. Highly recommend! (Apple Podcasts)
IT’S MUSHROOMING AND EXPECTED TO GROW MORE
Sure, creator economy has been a buzzword since 2019, if not earlier, but I think this report is the reason why it's had a resurgence. Goldman Sachs Research expects the 50 million global creators to grow at a 10-20% compound annual growth rate during the next five years, and while creators earn income primarily through brand deals and affiliate marketing currently, I have a feeling that that will transition to subscription models, rev share, and liquidity events via equity ownership in the near future. It's an interesting report that validates a lot of the building that's happening in the space currently IMO! (Goldman Sachs)
Looking for more from Kira Jackson? Coming Friday, look for an interview from her in your inbox!
:: AND NOW… SOME FAST FAVORITES ::
:: Game :: Scrabble - love words and the classics
:: City :: Los Angeles is home, but London has my heart.
:: Book :: American Psycho
:: Podcast :: TSC Him & Her
:: Album :: Changes, Justin Bieber. Honesty is the best policy, right?
:: THIS IS ME ::
I wish I could include a direct link to my episode with The Skinny Confidential, but since it doesn't drop until tomorrow (!!), here's a link to the show so you can listen as soon as it drops:
- Kira
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It's called Genius Steals because we believe ideas are new combinations and that nothing can come from nothing. But copying is lazy. We believe the best way to innovate is to look at the best of that which came before and combine those elements into new solutions.
Co-Founders Faris & Rosie are award-winning strategists and creative directors, writers, consultants and public speakers who have been living on the road/runway since March 2013, working with companies all over the world. Our Director of Operations is nomadic like us, our accounting team is based out of Washington, our company is registered in Tennessee, and our collaborators are all over the world. Being nomadic allows us to go wherever clients need us to be, and to be inspired by the world in between.
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