The trend for companies to become their own media outlet is not going away, and the link between Venture Capital and that trend is growing stronger. Our guest today is Erik Huberman, Founder and CEO of Hawke Media, and the recently launched Hawke Ventures. We talk about Erik’s career, why he launched a VC Fund, and where all of this is going.
About Erik Huberman:
Erik is the founder and CEO of Hawke Media, the highly successful marketing agency known as Your Outsourced CMO® that’s helped grow over 3,000 brands worldwide, and is valued at more than $150 million. He is the author of The Hawke Method, which demonstrates that marketing is more than a numbers game: calculations for business growth and sustainability go far beyond systemic analysis.
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In this episode we discuss:
02:32 Erik’s career journey to starting Hawke Media
09:29 Lessons Erik learned from his first startup
15:58 How to spend capital wisely and the dangers of changing for the sake of change
18:29 Early customers for Hawke Media and how they got traction
22:20 Some of Erik’s favorite campaigns
24:49 Examples of ROI from their campaigns
27:14 The reason why Hawke Ventures was launched
33:28 How Hawke Ventures differentiates itself from other funds
36:20 Things he wished he knew prior to launching the fund
40:08 Fundraising in 2022
41:10 Hawke Venture’s investing thesis
43:01 The strategic partnership with Bank of California
Fast Favorites:
🎙- Favorite Podcast: This Week in Startups, Hawke Talk
📰- Favorite Newsletter/Blog: Friday Forward
📲- Favorite Tech Gadget: iPhone
📈- Favorite New Trend: The Rise of TikTok
📚- Favorite Book: Appetite for Self Destruction
🤔 - Favorite Life Lesson: Crazy shit always happens and you need to be resilient
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How Erik Huberman pushed Hawke Media into Venture Capital