Do you think there’s a need for young entrepreneurs to have an agent/manager? In Hollywood, the agent finds the work with the major studios, and the manager makes the deal for the talent. That’s the relationship that Ari Gold (Agent) has with “E” (Manager) for Vincent Chase (Talent) on HBO’s hit show Entourage.
How would this work with entrepreneurs? I think you would have an agent that deals with all the annoying things for the entrepreneurs such as raising capital, looking over business plans, act as a sounding board for the startup team, etc. You can also have a manager that acts as the closer and negotiates and plays hard ball with every single deal. This allows the entrepreneur to focus all of their time building their business.
Also, the “entrepreneur agency” can play connector and hand over their Rolodex for any connections, curate small events for them to network, creatively help them solve their problems, etc. Maybe a simple company structure would revolve around an agent, manager, and client services. The agent would find deals, the manager would close them, and client services would meet with the entrepreneurs every month to stay updated, etc.
Much like the movie industry, the agency would never charge any upfront fees, but a percentage of either capital raised or small percentage of revenue throughout the year. Agents in Hollywood take a 10% cut of all jobs but I think it’s because business is a lot more clean with them (you get a job or you don’t).
But, thinking about it a little more, I think it would work better if this “entrepreneurial agency” acted more as a manager. In Hollywood, a manager’s job is to take raw talent and turn that person’s aspirations and goals and turn them into a successful career. Managers are prohibited from acting as a Talent Agent as I’m sure there are a lot of potential conflicts. They also settle for 15% but can go to a much higher percentage for newer talent.
What do you guys think? Is this something that’s needed for the startup world? As more young talented and inexperienced entrepreneurs launch new companies, who’s there to help guide the all-stars?
Michael Karnjanaprakorn is the Co-Founder of All Day Buffet. You can follow his updates on twitter.com/mikekarnj
8 responses so far ↓
1 Wesley Verhoeve // Aug 11, 2009 at 11:37 am
It would be hugely helpful for the entrepreneurs, but to play devil’s advocate, for someone with those skills this set up would provide a meager payoff vs doing something similar as a venture capitalist getting a bigger ownership cut. no?
2 mikekarnj // Aug 11, 2009 at 11:40 am
@Wesley good point but the difference between this and the VC model is the numbers game. VC’s only invest in a few startups per year and majority of them haven’t performed too well in the market over the past decade. If 9 out of 10 startups fail because of uncontrollable factors such as luck, timing, etc. — why not work with 50-100 startups and diversify your investments?
3 Ari Gold for Entrepreneurs? – // Aug 12, 2009 at 9:15 am
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4 Alain Theriault // Aug 12, 2009 at 9:35 pm
The closest thing to that is a business incubator. Check out the NBIA website to try to find to one nearest you (no I don’t work for those guys)
http://www.NBIA.org
5 Mark Hand // Aug 13, 2009 at 12:46 pm
I’m in. I think the only kinks to be worked out would be when and how the SE agent would get paid, and then how to introduce the concept into the world of SE funding.
6 Spencer Fry // Aug 13, 2009 at 2:47 pm
Interesting concept. I’m pretty sure it wouldn’t work, though.
7 Chris Goh // Aug 14, 2009 at 10:26 am
I like your thinking. Entrepreneurs could probably do with a helping hand such as this. However, wouldn’t this take some element away from budding business owners? Admittedly, raising capital and looking over business plans can be mundane, but doesn’t this also add some texture to their business acumen?
Just a thought…
8 Ari Gold, Entrepreneur Agents and Markets in Ideas and Execution | Taylor Davidson // Aug 21, 2009 at 7:00 am
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