The agency engine is already generating revenue with signed, paying clients, including Malbon, one of the most culturally relevant brands in golf. That is the proof. The raise builds the infrastructure, studios and live-selling capacity, to serve demand we can already prove. This is not our first company. It is our first company built to be sold.
3
signed clients on retainer, including Malbon
4
live joint ventures + partnerships
3
board seats inside partner companies
25+
brands and companies engaged
The market is already here
this is not a projection. live commerce is a proven, enormous business everywhere except the US.
Live commerce is a proven, enormous business everywhere except the United States, and that gap is the entire opportunity. Asia approached $370 billion in 2024, with China alone around $350 billion, where live commerce is now more than 18% of total retail e-commerce, a penetration rate unmatched globally. Globally, live commerce is projected to reach $2 trillion by 2030.
The US is where China was years ago. US livestream shopping reached roughly $50 billion and is projected to grow about 36% by 2026, yet only about 12% of US shoppers have bought through a livestream so far. TikTok Shop drove over $1 billion in monthly sales by late 2024, around $13 billion annualized, and enrolled more than 500,000 US sellers by mid-2025.
The stat that should end the debate: at the NRF Big Show, Gary Vaynerchuk asked a packed room of retail professionals how many knew what Whatnot was. Barely 3% raised their hands. Whatnot generated between $7 billion and $10 billion in GMV last year. His words: "I think this is social media all over again." The market is enormous, and the operators are not paying attention yet. That is the window.
And the winners are not influencer vanity projects. In China, merchant-led livestreams made up 70% of all streams in 2024 and grew 113% year over year. The lesson from every mature live-commerce market is the same: this is retail-led, not celebrity-led. It requires studios, content calendars, inventory sync, host training, and real operational muscle. That operating layer does not exist in the United States. Hot Juice is building it.
Different companies are already winning
the smart money has moved from creator tools to creator-led businesses and the infrastructure beneath them
Investors learned the hard way that creators will not pay for tools. So capital moved to where the value actually is: creator-led businesses and the infrastructure under them. The buyers are already active, and they are paying.
$3B
Moonbug, built by acquiring creator IP, sold to Candle Media
$450M+
Beast Industries raised at the holding-company level
$500M
Influential, acquired by Publicis
$45M
Good Good Golf, creator-led, led by Creator Sports Capital
Accenture Song acquired Whalar in the largest creator-economy transaction to date. Publicis acquired BR Media Group (~$99M), Captiv8 (~$150M), and Influential (~$500M). WPP acquired Village Marketing and Goat. These are the exact companies assembling what we are building, and media assets trade at roughly 8 to 17x EBITDA.
The pattern: the winners are holding companies with multiple engines around a creator audience, exactly the structure we have built. Community first, vertical first, then products and services on top, rather than building a product and hunting for customers later. That is precisely the order we have built in.
How an account actually makes money
it is not a single fee. every brand relationship compounds.
This is the part most people miss. We do not sell brands a one-time project. We build a recurring relationship where the account gets more valuable the more it grows, and the upside is ours to share in.
Recurring retainer
monthly maintenance fee for creative strategy, content, and live-selling operations.
$10–40k / mo
Setup fee
one-time build: studio setup, host onboarding, content system, inventory sync.
one-time
Percentage of upside
a cut of live commerce GMV we drive. this is the recurring, scaling piece that grows with the brand.
3–5% of gmv
Upsells that attach
creator management, creator attachment, experiential, production, and activations, added onto the same account.
stacked
Every account compounds
as a brand brings live commerce, activations, events, and creators, one relationship becomes many recurring lines. accounts are worth a multiple of the opening retainer.
One account, compounding
the % of GMV plus upsells is the recurring chunk that expedites everything
illustrative. retainer band from the operating model; % of live GMV is the scaling layer.
The 3 to 5% of live-commerce upside is the piece that changes the trajectory. It is recurring, it scales with the brand rather than with our headcount, and it turns a modest retainer into an account worth far more over its life. This is why turnkey studios and operated live selling matter: they are what let a single account grow into all of it.
The proof: who is already paying
signed, paying, live right now
Malbon
golf apparel / signed
Agreement signed. Content and creative strategy for one of the most culturally relevant golf brands in the world. A brand like Malbon comes to us for creative and content strategy, not a media buy, and that is the whole thesis: we are the creative and commerce engine, not a vendor.
Saint Jō
cosmetics / paying retainer
Agency client on a monthly retainer. Live selling and creator-led commerce, the exact recurring-plus-upside model above.
Medella Springs
supplements + wellness / paying retainer
Agency client on a monthly retainer. Live selling and creator-led commerce.
Joint ventures + inside positions
structural relationships and board seats, not a vendor list
Reach
creator network / 50-50 jv
co-owner of FLAGSHIP creator week, an annualized, sellable event asset.
WhoHasIt.co · Vyre Media
live selling + media / active jvs
live-selling and media JVs already running.
Pebble Beach Junior Golf · Chris Pronger · Cleveland Avenue
board seats
we sit at the table inside the brands and firms we serve. Cleveland Avenue president Joseph McCoy sits on our board.
How we scale without scaling cost
the back office is built and vetted before the raise, not after it
Most teams raise money and then go figure out their cost structure. We built ours first. Our offshore operations layer runs through MultiplyMii, already vetted and operating, which lets us add capacity at a fraction of domestic cost. Combined with one lean team shared across all five engines, it means we can take on many times the work without many times the overhead.
offshore back office, built + vettedone lean team across five enginesoperating leverage by designcapital funds growth, not overhead
Why it matters to an investor: we know exactly what is internal, what is external, and what every engine costs to deliver, and it is already modeled in our financials. Investor capital funds growth here, not discovery. [Marcus, tell me the specifics you want featured here, headcount offshored, the roles, the automation and tools, the cost delta, and I will build this into a real section with numbers.]
The sequence, and why the order matters
each engine is funded by the one before it
1. Agency revenue proves the demand. Signed clients, recurring retainers, and a pipeline of brands that want creator-led commerce and content. Already happening.
2. Capital builds the infrastructure. Studios, live-selling capacity, production, and the operational layer that lets us take on ten times the work without ten times the cost.
3. Infrastructure unlocks the events. Owned space and production turn FLAGSHIP from a once-a-year push into a year-round, ownable, sellable asset.
4. Events feed the ownership circle and production. The creators and brands that come through become members, partners, and the pipeline for owned IP.
The agency is the floodgate. The capital opens it.
Built for exit, on purpose
we are not guessing who buys us. we know them.
Every engine is structured to stand alone and be sold. FLAGSHIP is the clearest example: a co-owned, annualized creator week designed from day one as its own sellable entity, on the same path as Tech Week, Coachella, and South By Southwest.
The comp that proves it: Blackstone acquired Clarion Events in 2017 for £600 million and is now exploring a sale at up to £2 billion, roughly 12x EBITDA. Informa bought Ascential, producer of Cannes Lions, for £1.2 billion. Event platforms are among the most reliably acquired assets in media, and Marcus holds direct relationships inside the strategic buyers, including Clarion, that acquire in this exact category.
Why this team
this is not our first company. it is our first one built for exit.
Most early-stage teams are learning how to build a company on investor money. We are not. We have founded, scaled, and exited businesses in exactly this category, and we have sat on the other side of the table when the acquirers came. We know what they buy, why they buy it, and what a company has to look like to be bought.
Marcus Murphy
founder + ceo / vision, strategy, and the network
Fifteen-plus years across every foundational part of this business: executive producer, personality, creator, and brand strategist. Founded, hosted, and exited definitive industry events, including Creator Economy Live. Seven years on the LinkedIn Advisory Board through the Microsoft acquisition. Advisory roles at HubSpot and Infusionsoft. He has been through the acquisition process in this exact category and holds direct relationships with the strategic buyers who acquire in it.
Vince Garvey
co-founder + coo / operations, culture, and people
Fifteen-plus years building and leading organizations across the nonprofit, NGO, and operational world. Vince owns the infrastructure of the company and the culture inside it: how teams are built, how people are developed, and how strategy is executed. He is the reason the internal engine holds as the business scales.
Elliott Hasson
co-founder + cfo / new business, origination, and the model
Built his career in commercial real estate, which made him lethal at networking and sales. Elliott originates a significant share of our opportunities and owns the financial model, the unit economics, and the capital strategy. Every number in this data room is built bottom-up from monthly assumptions, not backed into from a target.
Jake Herbert
head of brand + creative / the creative who executes
Came up on the brand side at Adidas. An actor, a model, and the most creative person in any room, who does not stop at the idea, he executes. It is the reason a brand like Malbon comes to us for creative and content strategy rather than a media buy. The Hot Juice brand itself is his.
The fuller roster
near-term pipeline and brands we have worked with, across golf, wellness, media, commerce, and events
In negotiation:
1937 International (industrial hemp) · Paul Street (Aaron Paul) · ManyChat (automation platform)
Bad BirdieFlipperPluto GolfBirdies & BeatsSuperwellTrainualEscalaRetention / RetoxPlayer15 GroupBIG & SLiCRetail GlobalMarapostGrow the SocialPursue WholeEvolvBruce Ryder
The partner we are looking for
capital is the beginning of the conversation, not the end of it
Whoever invests takes a significant position on this cap table, and we intend to treat them accordingly. We are not looking for passive money. We are looking for a partner who understands the scope of what is being built, who has infrastructure, resources, and relationships that compress our timeline, and who is genuinely excited to help us capture this window before it closes.
hot juice studios / proof, traction, and timing / private + confidential / not for distribution
