Going All In

I have talked with a lot of entrepreneurs about how and where they got the idea for their business, but I have to say your story is pretty unique. You came up with the idea at a funeral of all places. Tell us about that.

It was October 5, 2016, and we were at my grandmother’s funeral where every billion-dollar idea, I guess, is just meant to happen. My co-founder, Martin, then friend, and former business partner, flew in from Los Angeles to Chicago for the day to pay his respects. And as I was driving him home from downtown Chicago back to O’Hare while we were stuck in traffic, we had the idea that changed both of our lives.
He pulled out his phone, he showed me a video he’d gotten made by a Seattle Seahawks player congratulating one of his friends on becoming a first-time father. And in the video, the player, Cassius Marsh, who he was the agent of, is all tatted up, he’s driving, he records a video and it says, “Hey, Brandon, congratulations on Maverick. Heard about Maverick, and if he gets your athletic ability, he’ll be playing for the Seahawks one day. Go Hawks.”
So, he wishes this guy congratulations on becoming a first-time father. Martin shows me this video about four or five months later and immediately I’m like, “That’s the new autograph.” And I dropped him off. The second he got through security at O’Hare, he called me, he’s like, “You need to get on the next flight to Los Angeles.” I flew to Los Angeles the next day and after many, many, many margaritas in Soho House in west Hollywood, we had the idea that became Cameo.