566: From Celebrity Deals to Creator Empire - Maggie Sellers on Building 'Hot Smart Rich'

The Foundr Podcast with Nathan Chan

Nathan Chan

Marketing, Business, Entrepreneurship

4.8 • 662 Ratings

🗓️ 30 May 2025

⏱️ 53 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

In this episode, Maggie Sellers—founder, investor, creator, and force behind Hot Smart Rich—shares how she turned vulnerability, storytelling, and a scrappy content strategy into a multimillion-dollar movement and investing powerhouse. She shares: • The celebrity deal that taught her the power of owning your narrative • How she built Hot Smart Rich from a TikTok idea into a full-blown venture platform • The moment she knew she had a real business (hint: it wasn’t when she went viral) • Her strategy behind raising and deploying over $1.6M via syndicates • Why she passed on buzzy deals like Spritz Margs—and what she looks for instead • The future of DTC, social selling, and creator-led commerce If you’re a modern founder, creator, or investor—or looking to be all three—this episode is a blueprint for building something meaningful and magnetic in today’s world. Foundr Community Offers Want 1-on-1 mentorship to launch or scale your brand faster? Apply for eCommerce coaching: → Starting your ecom biz? ⁠Click here⁠ → Already selling and want to scale? ⁠Click here⁠ Want all-access to step-by-step training from 7, 8 & 9-figure founders? Start your Foundr+ $1 trial today → ⁠Click here⁠ Omnisend | Get 50% off your first 3 months of email and SMS marketing with Omnisend with the code FOUNDR50. ⁠Click here⁠ to get started. Connect With Nathan Chan Instagram → ⁠Click Here⁠ LinkedIn → ⁠Click here⁠ Connect With Maggie Sellers Instagram → ⁠Click here⁠ Hot Smart Rich→ ⁠Click here⁠ HSR Instagram→ ⁠⁠Click here⁠ Follow Foundr for More Business Growth Strategies YouTube → ⁠Click here⁠ Website → ⁠Click here⁠ Instagram → ⁠Click here⁠ Facebook → ⁠Click here⁠ Twitter → ⁠Click here⁠ LinkedIn → ⁠Click here⁠ Podcast → ⁠Click here

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	Hear the stories. Learn the proven methods and accelerate your growth and future through entrepreneurship.
0:07.4	Welcome to the founder podcast with Nathan Chan.
0:13.5	Well, the first question I wanted to ask you is take us back to the moment you first had the idea for hot, smart, rich.
0:24.5	Where were you?
0:26.1	What was going on at the time with your life?
0:29.3	What was the exact moment you knew this was something you're going to build?
0:32.9	So the exact moment I knew I wanted to build something like this was actually a very
0:37.4	different moment from the naming. But I wanted to build something like this was actually a very different moment
0:38.0	from the naming. But I used to work with celebrities. So kind of going back a little bit,
0:45.2	I had spent my whole life working in startups, one of which went public. I was so lucky,
0:49.8	one of which we raised $100 million in four years, but we always found a way to like work with
0:55.4	celebrity investors because that's just such a great way to bring your product to the market
0:59.1	in a much more affordable way than paying their rates. So I had since left both venture capital
1:05.4	and startups and I was working directly with brands to bring celebrities into the front
1:10.3	of the brand and a name
1:11.1	rule in some capacity.
1:13.2	And I did this entire deal.
1:15.4	It took like two years to actually find the right celebrity to become almost like a co-founder
1:20.2	you can think of it as sorts.
1:22.0	And I structured that all through equity.
1:24.6	So two years of my life, I had done this deal.
1:30.6	And once the deal had gone through,
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Nathan Chan, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of Nathan Chan and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.