[Franklin]

Your position was different from mine about the last guys... Not turning out to be so good for those guys... Want to place a friendly lunch wager on this one?

We'll see how this one pans out. This dude is a shark though. Have you ever seen him go easy on anyone on the show? Anyone ever get a "great deal" out of this guy? Does the IOU rate structure support this? If you're WBL, this makes sense everyday and 1,000 times on Sunday... but IOU?

How much will it cost them to process bad (startup) leads? What's the process for processing what will be mostly bad (startup) leads? How many humans involved? How are they paid? Can they use leads, both good and bad to get some semblance of a K-Factor? So many questions...

I'm yet to see any company get really big on the back of a celeb endorsement... I've seen endorsers who were not big become celebs (Dave Thomas, Ronald McDonald, Jared from Subway, etc.)...

Last guys weren't marketers, and Kevin is a Shark, not a marketer either. You can easily funnel out the bad start up leads in a way that doesn't tie up or cost human capital. And if IOU is aligned properly, they'll be able to monetize a large percentage of those leads, and this case, having Kevin would help that.

Nike - Michael Jordan
Apple (iPod) - U2
FUBU - LL Cool J
OPI Products - Serena Williams
Tommy Hilfiger - Grand Puba (from Brand Nubian, and was not compensated).
Numerous NY Times Bestsellers - Oprah - Oprah book club


All of these companies/people increased sales/usage using these celebrities to endorse. Any book Oprah reviews positively goes on NY times best seller. But agreed, 90%+ of celebrity endorsements cannot be linked to an increase in sales and usually result in a waste of money. Much better to align yourself with a partner who compliments your weaknesses and build a relationship where you both stand to gain.