Night Capital hunts for the next internet superstar

The Future. MrBeast’s manager, Reed Duchscher, and investment firm The Chernin Group are joining forces on Night Capital — an investment firm to back e-commerce companies with digital influencers at the helm. The goal is to build brands that will already come with an audience (and organic marketing). It’s a strategy akin to the more Hollywood-focused Candle Media… showing that modern consumer-product success may only be possible by tapping into fandoms.

Creator and creation

According to NYT, Duchscher and TCG want to invest in the next creator with the potential to become MrBeast.

• TCG is investing $100 million in Duchscher’s new firm, Night Capital, which plans to financially back creators with entrepreneurial ambitions.
• They’ll do so by buying companies that sell products directly to consumers and pairing them with those influencers — creating a venture that now has built-in marketing.
• Instead of making typical VC investments, Night Capital would take significant ownership stakes in the companies, meaning that the creators themselves would have equity in the business… and thus more ambition to make it successful.

If all goes according to plan, the firm could create several more iterations of Mr Beast and MrBeast’s Burger brand… or MrBeast and his Feastables brand… or MrBeast and … you get it.

Influence equity

The plan for Night Capital was hatched over the belief that, in our ad-saturated ecosystem, the only way to break through the noise is by betting on creators who can “cultivate communities around the merchandise” and “pair content with e-commerce.”

That used to be a risky venture when creators were only influential on one platform. The platform’s algorithm would change, and then, all of a sudden, their business would crater.

But that’s not the case today. Instead, creators are typically famous across multiple platforms, with the communities following them wherever they post. When everyone’s paying for their influence, it’s no longer beneficial to put all your eggs in one basket.