Comment by insanitybit
2 years ago
Musk is a celebrity. Celebrities start successful companies all the time. Is Rihanna a brilliant business woman for starting a successful beauty line? Is she a business genius, which is what Musk gets labeled so often? Maybe she really is, but I don't see her get that label, I think her value add is very clearly "she is famous, people will buy shit that she puts her name on".
What they have in common is that they have fame and money, and it turns out you can do a lot with that.
Many celebrities end up burning out or spending all their money, start failed businesses, etc.
Rihanna imo is very savvy and the Fenty brand was a very successful business, involving a couple pivots from fashion to more lingerie and beauty. The big Savage x Fenty musical production event every year is a smart move that leverages her music industry connections and draws lots of interest and new customers.
Arguably she is doing better than Musk atm, given that he started life with a huge capital advantage and is likely losing big on Twitter right now (as well as tanking his public image).
Fame is like a flywheel with a feedback loop. Once famous everything you do makes you more famous, even bad stuff.
Hence celebrities getting married and divorced every three weeks, it keeps them in the news.
Musk simply does a lot of the basics right and knows how to talk bullshit, had the assets to start at all, is apathetic to social perception (his narcissistic sociopathic tendency) which makes it easier to go against the flow both in a good and bad way, and has the mental ability to work long hours.
His successes just delivered what the market demanded but established powers did not want to pursue for one reason or another. He knows to outsource actual work to experts and offers them attention which is easier due to his interest in tech/science. Of course, he sees them as tools and he doesn't need to care about labor laws but that's a part of the longer list of his flaws and mistakes.
After Tesla/SpaceX took off, it has been as you described.
> I think her value add is very clearly "she is famous, people will buy shit that she puts her name on".
Musk example[1] of this, he sold 1 million USD worth of perfume with smell of burnt hair in a few hours.
https://www.reuters.com/lifestyle/oddly-enough/elon-musk-sel...
They also start moderately but not wildly successful companies and then leak fake tax returns to look more successful, like Kylie Jenner.
This feels disingenuous.
Elon Musk was barely more than a nobody when he got involved with Tesla and started SpaceX.
Fenty was founded after Rihanna had scored countless hits and was basically a household name.
> Elon Musk was barely more than a nobody when he got involved with Tesla and started SpaceX.
He was extremely wealthy and had a lot of connections from buying his way into other companies. He was not yet a household name/ global celebrity, only one in more niche (but very powerful) circles, that changed soon after.
But so were hundreds/thousands of other people, most of whom did not go on to found companies rivaling Tesla and SpaceX.
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You’ve completely moved the goalposts there
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Who is "Rihanna" ?
Rihanna is one of the most successful musical artists of all time. Her net worth is near or at a billion dollars.
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Is her beauty line worth more than (top three classic beauty supply companies)?
Rihanna’s underwear company Savage X Fenty was estimated to be worth $3 billion earlier this year, which is roughly the same as the market cap of Victoria’s Secret.
Probably that estimate would be lower now, given the market downturn. But clearly she’s well on her way to building up a competitor to the established brands.
Don't see any evidence that it's worth 3 billion dollars. All I see is a quote from Rihanna herself saying she thinks her company can raise that much by the time they IPO. Forbes estimates the value of her company at 1 billion on the high end.
And while it's true that VSCO's current market cap is 3 billion, at the time that Rihanna made her comment VSCO's market cap was 5-6 billion. It has dropped significantly in recent months.
Can you just make your point?
Yes. That's what market cap means. I can understand you might disagree with the valuation, but that doesn't change it.
Also, don't forget that Rihanna has something the top three beauty supply companies don't have - a growing brand. That has a massive impact on market cap.
So her brand has a higher market cap than L'Oréal, Estée Lauder, etc?
Does her beauty line rival that of the gods? Because I don’t want another Trojan War starting.