Cameo’s B2B Growth Playbook: How Product-Led Marketing, Reaction Videos and Influencer Strategy Drove Virality

Cameo’s growth engine was built on 2 contrarian bets: that high-touch service for creators was more valuable than automation, and that every customer reaction video could become a viral ad.

In a breakdown on Cody Schneider's In The Pit podcast, Conor, an early growth hire at the celebrity shout-out platform Cameo, explained how these hacks not only fueled Cameo's rise but also forecasted the future of B2B influence and owned media.

Cameo Rejected Silicon Valley Logic in Favor of Real-World Celebrity Ops

From day one, Cameo understood that celebrity partnerships can't be managed like SaaS onboarding.

Stephen, the CEO, had a strong sales background. One of the co-founders was an agent for NFL players. Their credibility and network were crucial to opening doors.

Cameo didn’t try to automate relationships. Instead, it staffed a large Talent Relations team.

Each high-profile creator had a dedicated rep who handled tech troubleshooting, reminders, and account support.

This high-touch service was essential for time-strapped talent who might only have five minutes between takes to record a video.

And it helped the company stay "cool" in a space where most tech brands become "cringey".

Headquarters in Chicago. Core operations in Venice Beach. This physical duality matched the cultural split between Silicon Valley execution and Hollywood rapport.

Every Cameo Purchase Was an Advertisement in Disguise

The growth loop was baked into the product.

Early on, the team realized that every video sold was a potential viral asset.

Customers began sharing "reaction videos"—footage of friends and family responding emotionally to personalized messages from celebrities like Brett Favre.

One memorable example was a die-hard Chicago Bears fan receiving a birthday shout-out from Brett Favre, a longtime rival quarterback.

These moments hit the front page of Reddit and spread organically on social media.

This is similar to the Billions episode where a character pays Kevin Durant $100,000 for a birthday greeting for his kid.

Cameo democratized that exact idea. Suddenly, everyday fans could gift personalized messages from their idols. The emotional impact created genuine word-of-mouth.

Rather than formal referral codes, Cameo’s real advantage was earned media. One emotional reaction could spark ten new signups.

Later, Cameo seeded this behavior intentionally and repurposed content in paid ads.

B2B Influencer Marketing Is About Trust, Not Just Reach

What Cameo did with celebrities now applies to a new class of creators: B2B influencers.

These aren’t full-time entertainers. They’re builders, founders, engineers—like Andy Mukai, who has over 170,000 followers on LinkedIn.

Their brand is their business. Cold DMs don’t work. Flashy checks rarely convert. What works is slow relationship-building. Sharing content publicly. Building trust. Delivering value first.

One smart hack: A founder added his co-founder’s handle to his Twitter bio. That drove 100 new followers per week—a flywheel for hiring, recruiting, and distribution.

Email and Podcast Feeds Are the Last Real Owned Channels

As Customer Acquisition Costs (CAC) rises and platform algorithms shift, startups are racing to build on protocols they can truly own. Enter: email newsletters and podcast RSS feeds.

Social media accounts feel like assets—until you're shadowbanned or the algorithm changes. Email and RSS don’t change overnight. No gatekeepers. No deplatforming.

Jeff Bezos bought The Washington Post. Elon Musk bought Twitter. HubSpot bought The Hustle. The modern power play is buying the audience, not renting it.

If you don’t own the rails, you’ll eventually pay the toll.

Beehiiv, Streamyard, and the Future of Expensive Distribution

When a media channel becomes efficient, someone builds a marketplace. Beehiiv is doing this for newsletters. But ease always comes at a cost: middlemen raise prices.

What’s happening to newsletter sponsorships today already happened in paid ads. Arbitrage disappears. Institutional buyers enter. CPMs rise.

To protect margin, companies are moving upstream:

• Descript acquired Streamyard to control content capture.

• HubSpot added social scheduling to turn into an everything tool.

• Riverside is forcing competitors to build defensively.

If you’re not owning creation, you’re at the mercy of someone who is.

The Real AI Moat Isn’t the Model—It’s UX + Data + Distribution

VCs complain that AI "wrapper" startups won’t last. But that misses the point. Most users don’t want a raw model. They want:

• A tailored workflow

• Familiar UI

• Version history (e.g. searchable prompt logs)

• Faster execution

These tools solve long-tail problems that base models ignore. Think of it like a content ATM: if $1 of input gets $2 in value, users will come back until they get the return.

Incumbents like Google won’t ship fast due to reputational risk. That’s why nimble players win: they ship quicker, listen better, and own the niche.

And when they ship, they’re often built on APIs from models like ChatGPT.

Influencer CEOs, Twitter Polls, and Prompt Logs as Source Code

Influencer founders aren’t just a trend—they’re a structural advantage. Andy Mukai launched two companies using his LinkedIn distribution. Another founder used Twitter polls to validate SaaS ideas. Yet another built hiring pipelines by cross-promoting co-founder accounts.

And now in AI, prompt logs are becoming the new source code. People want tools that:

• Remember their last task

• Link multi-step generations (a.k.a. prompt chaining)

• Automate everything from blog posts to CSVs to Canva graphics

The best software won’t be the most powerful model—it’ll be the one that feels most personalized.

Cameo's Playbook: Speed + Ownership > Everything Else

The final takeaway from Cameo is simple: distribution compounds. It’s expensive if you rent it. It’s priceless if you own it. And you need to move before the cost goes up.

• Speed to market is the edge while channels are cheap.

• Audience ownership is the MOAT when they get expensive.

Cameo built virality into the product itself. The next generation of startups—especially in B2B and AI—will have to do the same. Whether you're building a media pipeline, recruiting engineers, or automating content, the only way out of CAC hell is to own where your audience lives.

And as Conor put it, the biggest lesson of all: the law of shitty clickthroughs is undefeated.

Everyone else will pay to exist.

PS: I did send this yesterday and closed the tab but it turns out, it didn’t get scheduled. The streak ended at 428 days accidentally. Only realized it as I was drafting today’s post and realized the yesterday’s metrics were missing. Alas, breaking streaks sucks but thankfully, been there, done that so doesn’t sting. Anyways, back to our regularly scheduled program.

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Rabbit Holes

1. Reddit Ads AMA: Kris Wojcik’s insights on Scaling to Six-Figure Ad Spend by AdConversion

2. What Is ChatGPT Doing … and Why Does It Work? by Stephen Wolfram

3. The real reason teenage girls are obsessed with influencers. by Caroline Ciaramitaro

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