Welcoming Looped, a platform to connect creators to fans

We are excited to join the Looped team on their journey, and to participate in their $7.7M seed round alongside Will Ventures, Rocketship VC, HOF Capital, and dozens of strategic angels from the industry.

The Pitch

Looped provides tools to creators to produce, interact with, and monetize their digital events and fanbases. Their first core offering is the Virtual Venue that hosts live, 1-on-1 virtual video meet & greets and exclusive livestream events, allowing creators to connect with their fans like never before.

The Finer Details

It’s no secret that the ‘creator economy’ is hotter than ever. In what was once a world controlled by media/Hollywood/celebrities, technology and shifting consumer appetites have democratized content creation, allowing anyone with a phone to put themselves out there and build an audience.

Over the last couple of years, platforms like Instagram, Twitter, Snapchat, and TikTok have created an on-ramp for anyone to create and distribute content to a built-in audience. But ultimately, that audience, and all corresponding data, is owned by the platform, not by the creator. I was amazed to hear that a singer/writer/blogger/YouTuber may not even know who their most rabid fans are.

Additionally, these platforms aren’t set up for the ideal creator/fan interaction. The key components for social now are 1) Live, 2) Interactive, and 3) Video. And while all platforms hit on one or two of these, it’s Looped that brings all three together with its Virtual Venue offering. With it, a creator can replicate the backstage VIP experience, allowing fans to ‘line up’ and receive a live, 1-to-1, recordable video call from anywhere in the world.

The Deal

I was introduced to the founders via Jay Kapoor, an investor always at the center of tech, media, athletes, and celebrities, so I knew the founders already had some street cred on the ‘creator’ side. I was immediately impressed with the depth of the founding team, who seemed to have every relevant core competency checked, even at such a young stage of the company. Co-CEOs Prajit Gopal and Faisel Durrani bring incredible domain expertise (Faisel was a Senior Exec at both DefJam and LiveNation, managing some of the top talent in America), along with Benjamin Kornick, Pranav Maddi, and Sandeep Peddad tackling marketing, operations, and tech.

I also loved the model. Beyond hitting two ‘in vogue’ segments with the ‘creator economy’ and ‘virtual venue/communications,’ I have long believed that distribution is what separates winners from losers. So instead of betting on the next big platform to attract users, Looped is really a b2b tool to better interact with, and monetize, already existing audiences. By partnering with creators and the acquisition partners above them (CAA, WME, Endeavor, Pandora, RocNation, iHeartMedia, Universal, etc) Looped can scale quickly without significant marketing dollars. They have already helped creators make millions of dollars, working with stars like Billie Eilish, Kevin Durant, BTS, Shawn Mendes, Ashley Benson, Bob Saget (a personal favorite), Sam & Colby, Bad Bunny, Diplo, and the Hamilton Cast.

We are excited to follow and support their journey, and hope you do as well. Keep tabs on them through social (Instagram and Twitter) and/or read about their recent funding round in TechCrunch.

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