The New York Times has located a new breed of hustlers trying to convince Hollywood celebrities to make money off startups instead of traditional endorsement deals. It's not even a hard sell, according to Timothy Karunaratne: "I think it's a fair statement to say most people would rather be Mark Zuckerberg than Will Smith."
As part of its annual series on the highest-paid athletes, Fortune.com looks at Floyd Mayweather, Jr.: world champion boxer, fashion critic, and budding tech investor. So far, the only startup Mayweather has ever backed is Shots, a flailing selfie app financed by Justin Bieber and fluffed by TechCrunch.
It used to be that a plodding spot on the celebrity B-list meant endorsements, sad roles, maybe a reality TV gig, or a doomed restaurant—now, of course, the best way to flaunt your former glory is with a superfluous tech company.
If you read Sarah Silverman's recent heart-rending obituary for her dog Duck, then you've probably heard of WhoSay, a startup that began as a social media dashboard ("Hootsuite to the stars!") for celebrities to control the rights to the images and words they shared on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram—and, more importantly, sell ads against them.
Your shared links and mobile uploads are alright, but let's be honest, no one really cares about you. Your Facebook status is going to get like, ten likes, tops. It's not going wide. But if a famous person does anything online, we'll click it—and AllThingsD reports the social network is courting the a-list like never before.
