Olympian Investors & The NYC Influencer Agent

A $50 million consumer fund and modern-day Carrie Bradshaws

Author

Sammi Cohen
July 06, 2024

News of the Week

Samyr Laine and his wife, Ayanna Alexander-Laine, started Freedom Trail Capital in 2023 and are working their way toward a $50 million fund. They’ve already invested in a handful of companies ranging from a hair care company by Issa Rae; a pet product company started by Kaley Cuoco; and Kudos, a diaper company backed by Mark Cuban and Gwyneth Paltrow. Fun fact: Samyr was also roommates with Mark Zuckerberg at Harvard.

Shana Davis-Ross, 31, is the founder and CEO of Ponte Firm, a talent-management company focused on social-media influencers that she founded in NYC five years ago. In that time period, she has gone from zero to around 80 clients, for whom she scores lucrative brand deals and advises on social-media posting and long-term business strategies.

L Catterton is the private equity firm behind consumer companies such as Birkenstock, Ganni, Goodles. They’ve just acquired Stripes Beauty (a menopause brand) after an absolute saga went down with Amyris (I put out a video on the Amyris situation a few months ago here). In 2023, Naomi bought back Stripes during the bankruptcy proceeding for $500K, and now L Catterton is the majority owner.

Amazon plans to launch an online storefront for low-priced apparel and home goods, the company’s biggest move to date to counter the rise of discount upstarts like Temu and Shein. What Temu and Shein are proving through their meteoric growth is that US shoppers are willing to wait for deliveries if it saves them money.

Gen Z and #BookTok are revitalizing the love of reading on a kindle in an increasingly digital and video-first world. Kindle sales have grown in double-digit percentages for each of the past two years and they are on track for similar gains this year. People under 45 are Kindle’s fastest-growing customer segment.

One-third of millennials and over 60% of Gen Z consumers say they rely on their parents for at least some degree of financial support. A majority of surveyed millennials and Gen Z'ers agree it is better to treat themselves now rather than hold off for a future "that feels like it could change at any moment." Is everyone okay?!

Bob Iger of Disney and his wife, the journalist Willow Bay, are reportedly set to buy Angels F.C., the Los Angeles soccer team, in a deal that values the club at $250 million — the highest valuation for a pro women’s franchise globally.

Ferrari: The LVMH of Cars?

Chartr

It’s nice to be Ferrari. Ferrari's margins rival luxury titans like LVMH and Hermès, having posted a 27% operating profit margin last year. In contrast, VW and Mitsubishi hover around a 7% margin, Ford is close to 3%, and even rival Porsche only aims for 20%.

Now, Ferrari is planning on launching a much anticipated electric vehicle. Details emerged this week from Reuters that Ferrari’s first electric effort will start at a hefty €500,000 ($535,000). At these rumored price tags, the margins seem likely to stay intact — the challenge will be in scaling production. Ferrari delivered only ~14,000 cars in 2023, but it has plans to ramp capacity up to as much as 20,000 a year to accommodate the new EV models.

While selling cars and parts is its main business, Ferrari also made $600M+ in sponsorship, commercial, and branding revenue last year bolstered by a strong Formula 1 performance. You can read the full rundown on this from Chartr here.

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xx Sammi

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