Investors

Founders Fund

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Peter Thiel's Founders Fund is a venture capital firm. Its partners have founded and funded companies including PayPal, Palantir, SpaceX, Anduril, Flexport, Airbnb and Stripe.

Ron Shah

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CEO, Co-founder at Obvi, Co-host at Chew On This, Managing Partner at Gaas for SaaS.

Roman Khan

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President, Founder at Peak21, CMO at Raycon, CMO at Know Beauty, CMO, Co-founder at Linjer, CMO at Nutrition Kitchen.

Scott Wu

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CEO, Co-founder at Cognition (Devin).

Previously: CTO, Co-founder at Lunchclub, Addepar, Harvard.

Walden Yan

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Co-founder at Cognition (Devin).

Previously: Harvard.

Eric Glyman

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CEO, Co-founder at Ramp ($7.6B).

Previously: CEO, Co-founder at Paribus (acquired by Capital One), Y Combinator S15, Harvard.

Karim Atiyeh

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CTO, Co-founder at Ramp ($7.6B).

Previously: CTO, Co-founder at Paribus (acquired by Capital One), Y Combinator S15, Harvard.

Demi Guo

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CEO, Co-founder @Pika.

Previously: Stanford, Facebook (FAIR), Harvard.

Mark Chen

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SVP of Research at OpenAI.

Previously: Jane Street, Microsoft, MIT.

Max Altman

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Managing Partner, Co-founder at Saga Ventures.

Previously: Duke.

Kevin Hartz

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Managing Partner, Co-founder at A* Ventures.

Previously: CEO, Co-founder at Eventbrite (NYSE: EB), Founders Fund, CEO, Co-founder at Xoom, Stanford.

David Petersen

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Co-founder at Flexport ($8B).

Previously: CEO, Co-founder BuildZoom, Y Combinator W13.

Eric Wei

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Co-CEO, Co-founder at Karat Financial.

Previously: Instagram, Facebook, McKinsey, Y Combinator W20, Harvard.

Will Kim

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Co-CEO, Co-founder at Karat Financial.

Previously: Palantir, Goldman, Y Combinator W20, Stanford.

Alexandra Botez

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Pro Chess & Poker Player.

Previously: Y Combinator W18, Stanford.

Jayendra Jog

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CTO, Co-founder at Sei ($3B).

Previously: Robinhood, Pinterest, Facebook, UCLA.

Jimmy Kim

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CIO, Founder at Sendlane.

Tomer Tagrin

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CEO, Co-founder at Yotpo ($1.4B).

Matteo Franceschetti

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CEO, Co-founder at Eight Sleep.

Previously: Y Combinator S15.

Kevin Lee

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CEO, Co-founder at immi.

Previously: Pear VC, Berkeley.

Sara Du

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CEO, Co-founder at Alloy Automation.

Previously: Y Combinator W20, Snap.

Justin Mares

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CEO, Co-founder at TrueMed.

Previously: CEO, Founder at Kettle & Fire, CEO, Co-founder at Surely Wines, CEO, Co-founder at Perfect Keto.

Ash Melwani

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CMO, Co-founder at Obvi, Co-host at Chew On This, Managing Partner at Gaas for SaaS.

Lisa Popovici

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CMO, Co-founder at Siena AI.

Previously: CMO, Co-founder at Cartloop, COO, Co-founder at Relevon.

Nick Shackelford

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CRO, Co-founder at Structured, Partner at BREZ, CRO, Co-founder at Konstant Kreative, CRO, Co-founder at GeekOut Events.

Steph Liu

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CEO, Founder at Levitate Foundry.

Previously: Vayner Commerce, Berkeley.

Danielle Cohen-Shohet

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CEO, Founder at GlossGenius.

Previously: Princeton.

Jason Wong

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CEO, Founder at Paking Duck, Founder at Pughaus, Founder at Doe Lashes.

Previously: Berkeley.

Roger Beaman

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CEO, Co-founder at Novel.

Previously: CEO, Founder at Smartrr.

Yacine Sibous

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CEO, Co-founder at Parker.

Previously: Y Combinator W19.

Martin Mrozowski

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Growth (Founding Team) at Parker.

Greg Dalby

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SVP Omnichannel at Milk Bar.

Adam Gillman

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President, Co-founder at Hiya Health.

Ben Braverman

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Managing Partner, Co-founder at Saga Ventures.

Previously: CRO at Flexport.

Thomson Nguyen

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Managing Partner, Co-founder at Saga Ventures.

Previously: CEO, Founder at Nearside, CEO, Founder at Framed Data, Y Combinator W14, Berkeley.

Kevin Miller

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CEO, Founder at GR0.

Previously: Opendoor, Google.

Jess Cervellon

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Founder at Open Late Collective.

Previously: Feastables.

Stuart Chaney

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CEO, Founder at Rivo.

Brian Tu

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CRO at DCL Logistics.

Previously: Medium.

Dave Tu

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President at DCL Logistics.

Darwish Gani

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CEO, Co-founder at Openborder, Co-founder at Pangaea, Co-founder at Lumin Skin, Co-founder at Horizons School of Technology.

Dan Greenberg

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CRO at MSCHF.

Akshaya Dinesh

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CEO, Founder at Spellbound.

Ankit Patel

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CBO, Co-founder at Obvi, Co-founder at Chew On This, Managing Partner at Gaas for SaaS.

Harry Singh

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Growth at Obvi, Operator at Chew On This, Managing Partner at Gaas for SaaS.

Shabir Nudrat

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Managing Partner at Obvi, Managing Partner at Chew On This, Managing Partner at Gaas for SaaS.

Michael True

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CEO, Co-founder at Prescient AI.

Feifan Wang

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CEO, Founder at Source Medium.

Previously: Resident.

Dan LeBlanc

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CEO, Co-founder at Daasity.

Varun Kundra

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Co-founder at Aftersell (acquired by Rokt).

Armon Shokravi

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Co-founder at Aftersell (acquired by Rokt).

Ben Sharf

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CEO, Co-founder at Platter, Co-host at Turning Pro.

Justin Donovan

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CEO, Co-founder at Reprally.

Adrian Alfieri

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CEO, Founder at Verbatim. Co-host at Turning Pro, Advisor at Melitas.

Previously: The Proof.

Story

Kennan Davison

CEO, Founder

CPO, Chairman, Founder at Skio (CEO 2021-2024, $10M+ ARR in 3 years, profitable).

Previously: Pinterest, Hulu, Wieden+Kennedy (ad agency), League of Legends Challenger (Top 200 North America), Y Combinator S20, Columbia (transfer, dropout).

Hi there, I'm Kennan!

Growing up, my dream was to be a pro gamer: this felt within reach in high school once I ranked top 200 North America in League of Legends (out of 100M players globally).

Despite this, I needed to support myself so I went to college and started learning to code. Coding came naturally (especially with 100 hour weeks) and I was soon skipping class to work at places like Hulu and Wieden+Kennedy (ad agency). Realizing that being paid to work full-time (vs. paying to go to school) sounded quite nice, I dropped out after 1 year and joined Pinterest.

After Pinterest, I started a company called Skio which does subscription management software for brands on Shopify. In just 3 years, we've partnered with 1000+ brands (Liquid I.V., Milk Bar, Polaroid, Barstool, Unilever, KraveBeauty, Boba Tea Protein), reached $10M+ ARR (+profitable), and built an amazing team of 50.

With advancements in generative AI (video specifically), I saw an opportunity to help brands & creators bring their stories to life exponentially faster and make marketing much better (hence Icon).

I love learning how we can help better. Feel free to reach out anytime at kennan@icon.me.

Kennan Davison

CEO, Founder

CPO, Chairman, Founder at Skio (CEO 2021-2024, $10M+ ARR in 3 years, profitable).

Previously: Pinterest, Hulu, Wieden+Kennedy (ad agency), League of Legends Challenger (Top 200 North America), Y Combinator S20, Columbia (transfer, dropout).

Hi there, I'm Kennan!

Growing up, my dream was to be a pro gamer: this felt within reach in high school once I ranked top 200 North America in League of Legends (out of 100M players globally).

With advancements in generative AI (video specifically), I saw an opportunity to help brands & creators bring their stories to life exponentially faster and make marketing much better (hence Icon).

I love learning how we can help better. Feel free to reach out anytime at kennan@icon.me.

Team

Kennan Davison

CEO, Founder

CPO, Chairman, Founder at Skio (CEO 2021-2024, $10M+ ARR in 3 years, profitable).

Previously: Pinterest, Hulu, Wieden+Kennedy (ad agency), League of Legends Challenger (Top 200 North America), Y Combinator S20, Columbia (transfer, dropout).

Yunyu Lin

Founding Board Member

Head of AI at Ramp.

Previously: CEO, Co-founder at Cohere (acquired by Ramp), Nuro, Facebook, Y Combinator S20, Duke (dropout).

Kevin Jin

Engineering

Previously: CTO at Kalder, Compound Labs, Robinhood, Rippling, Impira, Flexport, Google, Tesla, TSM, Vanderbilt.

Max Sidebotham

Engineering

Previously: CTO, Co-founder at Tare, Skio, Robinhood.

Kennan Davison

CEO, Founder

CPO, Chairman, Founder at Skio (CEO 2021-2024, $10M+ ARR in 3 years, profitable).

Previously: Pinterest, Hulu, Wieden+Kennedy (ad agency), League of Legends Challenger (Top 200 North America), Y Combinator S20, Columbia (transfer, dropout).

Yunyu Lin

Founding Board Member

Head of AI at Ramp.

Previously: CEO, Co-founder at Cohere (acquired by Ramp), Nuro, Facebook, Y Combinator S20, Duke (dropout).

Kevin Jin

Engineering

Previously: CTO at Kalder, Compound Labs, Robinhood, Rippling, Impira, Flexport, Google, Tesla, TSM, Vanderbilt.

What they're saying

"Choosing creators can be slow and uncertain. Icon uses key signals to connect you with the right creators faster."

Maneet Khaira

CEO, Backbone

"Manually recording video variants is time-consuming. Icon instantly generates hundreds of variations from a single source video."

Ron Shah

CEO, Obvi

"Slow content creation limits A/B testing. Icon enables rapid generation and testing of messaging for peak performance."

Tim Chen

CEO, Dog Is Human

"Partnering with the right brands can be difficult. Icon matches you with brands that match your following, resulting in more repeat deals."

Alexandra Botez

Pro Chess & Poker Player

@missbotez (4.7M followers)

"Endless reshoots waste time. With Icon, record once and instantly generate AI-generated endorsement videos, saving time and ensuring consistency."

Fred Liu

Lifestyle Creator

@asxpliu (3.3M followers)

"It's hard finding time to do brand deals. Icon solves this by allowing you to instantly create AI-generated endorsement videos."

Reilly Opelka

Pro Tennis Player

@reillyopelka (98K followers)

"Choosing creators can be slow and uncertain. Icon uses key signals to connect you with the right creators faster."

Maneet Khaira

CEO, Backbone

"Manually recording video variants is time-consuming. Icon instantly generates hundreds of variations from a single source video."

Ron Shah

CEO, Obvi

"Partnering with the right brands can be difficult. Icon matches you with brands that match your following, resulting in more repeat deals."

Alexandra Botez

Pro Chess & Poker Player

@missbotez (4.7M followers)

"Endless reshoots waste time. With Icon, record once and instantly generate AI-generated endorsement videos, saving time and ensuring consistency."

Fred Liu

Lifestyle Creator

@asxpliu (3.3M followers)

"Choosing creators can be slow and uncertain. Icon uses key signals to connect you with the right creators faster."

Maneet Khaira

CEO, Backbone

"Partnering with the right brands can be difficult. Icon matches you with brands that match your following, resulting in more repeat deals."

Alexandra Botez

Pro Chess & Poker Player

@missbotez (4.7M followers)

Us vs. them

Other options

Generative AI

AI-generated videos with creators holding your product

vs. holding nothing

AI-generated audio powered by OpenAI Voice Engine

vs. ElevenLabs

Bring your own creator or partner with creators

vs. only stock models

Platform

Creator Marketplace (replaces Billo)

Partner with creators and create AI-generated videos of them (with their permission) for your Creator Library

Creative Library (replaces Google Drive, Frame, Air, Recharm)

Use AI to automatically classify & organize videos, turn text to video (B-roll/A-roll), split full ads into video clips (to use as building blocks), & more

Admaker (for Marketers, Creative Strategists, Editors, Producers)

Enter scripts + get suggested creative to layer on top (uses videos from Creative Library), turn winning ads into templates, generate 20 hook permutations for A/B testing, & more

Creative Analytics (replaces Motion)

See which ads are winning & why and use this to inform your next Admaker iteration ("suggested AI-generated videos")

Ad Monitor (replaces Foreplay)

Monitor & auto-add competitor ads to your Creative Library (e.g. if a competitor has been running an ad for more than 30 days, add it to your Creative Library)

Misc.

Integrations for brands on Shopify

Shopify, Klaviyo, Triple Whale, Northbeam, Amazon, & more

GraphQL & REST API support

For developers, custom integrations, & more

Fundamentals

Tier 1 Engineering Team (helps us build the best product)

vs. overseas contractors with no equity

Tier 1 Tech Investors (helps us hire a Tier 1 Engineering Team)

Funded by Peter Thiel's Founders Fund, Eric Wei & Will Kim (Karat), Alex Botez (Chess), Kevin Hartz (A*, Eventbrite), Max Altman (Saga), Reilly Opelka (Tennis), as well as founders & executives of OpenAI, Ramp, Flexport, Pika, & Cognition (Devin)

Technical CEO/Founder (helps us hire a Tier 1 Engineering Team)

vs. CEO with no engineering background who can't evaluate engineers

Tier 1 Ecommerce Investors (helps us get the best customer feedback)

Funded by Ron Shah & Ash Melvani (Obvi), Roman Khan, Nick Shackelford, Jimmy Kim (Sendlane), Kevin Lee (Immi), Justin Mares (Kettle & Fire), Steph Liu (Levitate), Sara Du (Alloy), Jason Wong, as well as founders of Eight Sleep, Yotpo, Siena AI, Replo, Novel, Parker, GR0, DCL Logistics, Aftersell, Platter, Openborder, Prescient AI, Daasity, & more

2nd time founder with 1st startup being >$10M ARR (helps us avoid growing pains)

Built Skio from $0 to $10M+ ARR in 3 years, profitable, team of 50, growing >100% YoY

2nd time founder in Ecommerce SaaS (helps us navigate ecommerce space)

CEO/Founder of Skio from 2021-2024 (subscription management software for brands on Shopify)

Why us

Track record of things that can't be faked

Icon is the best team helping brands create winning influencer ads with AI.

Our CEO/Founder (who is writing this, sorry for writing in 3rd person) brings experience from Skio, Pinterest, Hulu, Wieden+Kennedy (ad agency), League of Legends (Top 200 North America), & Y Combinator.

At Skio (subscription management software for brands on Shopify), he was CEO/Founder of the company from 2021 to 2024 helping grow revenue from $0 to $10M+ ARR in 3 years (w/ 90% margins) and a team of 50 (on $8.4M raised). Skio is profitable and still growing >100% YoY.

Our tech investors include Peter Thiel's Founders Fund, Eric Wei & Will Kim (Karat), Alex Botez (Chess), Kevin Hartz (A*, Eventbrite), Max Altman (Saga), Reilly Opelka (Tennis), as well as founders & executives of OpenAI, Ramp, Flexport, Pika, & Cognition (Devin).

Our D2C investors include Ron Shah & Ash Melvani (Obvi), Roman Khan, Nick Shackelford, Jimmy Kim (Sendlane), Kevin Lee (Immi), Justin Mares (Kettle & Fire), Steph Liu (Levitate), Sara Du (Alloy), Jason Wong, as well as founders of Eight Sleep, Yotpo, Siena AI, Replo, Novel, Parker, GR0, DCL Logistics, Aftersell, Platter, Openborder, Prescient AI, Daasity, & more.

Our team has also worked with 1000+ brands like Liquid I.V., Milk Bar, Polaroid, Barstool, Unilever, Bulletproof, 100 Thieves, Vega, KOS, KITSCH, True Botanicals, mindbodygreen, Transparent Labs, GHOST, Wild One, OpenStore, The Nue Co., Immi, DRMTLGY, Boba Tea Protein, KraveBeauty, Glamnetic, Doe Lashes, Magic Mind, Remedy Organics, & Siete Foods.

Focused on helping creators & brands partner with AI

Icon is focused on helping creators & brands partner with AI vs. also juggling the underlying AI tech.

We believe our approach is fundamentally better because we're free to choose the best technology partner for a specific job.

To illustrate this, maybe one AI-video partner specializes in face closeups while another partner specializes in body movements (where face doesn't matter as much).

If we built all underlying technology in-house, it would create a fundamental conflict of interest where we can't offer a competitor's tool (that might be better) without losing revenue.

Another weakness of building underlying tech is one will inherently make lots of money from fake AI actors. Icon's mission is helping human creators win so this would be a conflict of interest for us.

Focused on helping human creators win with AI

Icon's mission is helping human creators win with AI and every decision we make is guided by this commitment.

The future of content will inevitably have fake AI actors. Despite this, we believe human creators augmented with AI will win (especially if we're helping).

An example of our mission guiding our decision-making is Icon not partaking in building underlying AI tech (which inevitably will make a lot of money from fake AI actors). This inherently helps us stay more focused on human creators.