00:00That partnership we're talking about is with Stephen Bartlett, the owner of Stephen.com,
00:04a true creator, as he calls himself.
00:07The creator is being the new franchise, and you've got to venture with him.
00:11But that seems like a little bit different than some of the last projects that you've had.
00:15Explain to me what drew you to him.
00:17Yeah, sure. Thanks for having me today.
00:19So Authentic is a global lifestyle and entertainment platform.
00:24Of our $2.2 billion in revenue, about 20% of that is actually in the entertainment space.
00:30And the creator economy is what we think the new media and audience growth engine over the next 10 years.
00:38So we really decided that we wanted to partner with the best, and that is, in our opinion, Stephen Bartlett,
00:44to drive a new partnership around bringing creators on platform to help grow our brands and also grow their brands.
00:50Is that going to have an entertainment focus?
00:52There's no shade to him, but when I think about some of the other people that you've had,
00:54you know, Shaq and Kevin Hart and some of the other people that you partner with,
00:57Stephen Bartlett is obviously a huge deal.
00:59But I don't think of him as entertainment.
01:00I mean, he has a great podcast with the Diary of the CEO and some of the other stuff he
01:04does.
01:04But how do you see that sort of fitting in with some of the more, I guess,
01:08sort of more traditional entertainment celebrities that you partner with?
01:11Sure. So when we think of creators in this new world,
01:15I actually think of people that are known by their audience for the content that they create.
01:21Not because they were an athlete, not because they were a celebrity,
01:24but the content that they create.
01:26That's a new vertical inside our entertainment department.
01:29So how do we really focus on these content creators that are moving and changing media?
01:34Because the eyeballs that they're getting, the millions of people that are following them,
01:38they are shaping culture and they're people that we want to be a part of.
01:43Why do this structure as a joint venture?
01:46I mean, I looked at some of your past deals.
01:47I mean, obviously you bought like Drake's O'Neill thing.
01:50That was bought outright.
01:50I think with Kevin Hart, it's a co-ownership model.
01:53What was the decision to do this more as a joint venture with Bartlett?
01:58All the deals that we work on with people that are living legends are partnerships.
02:03And each partnership is structured a little bit differently.
02:05So Stephen is an expert in media and in audience growth.
02:10We're an expert in global brand awareness, licensing, and live events.
02:16So bringing those two things together is really what allows this joint venture
02:20to provide a platform for the creators to accelerate their growth.
02:24How do you ensure, I mean, particularly when you look at sort of the origins of authentic brands
02:28and what Jamie built it up, particularly with some of the, I guess, legacy celebrities,
02:32particularly those that have passed on, whether we're talking about Elvis and others,
02:36where you kind of have a proven star and a star that has staying power even beyond their lifespan.
02:43When you're in the creator economy, particularly with people that are still in their 20s, 30s,
02:48there's so much runway where things could go wrong.
02:51How do you sort of structure this in a way where you have confidence
02:53that the payoff is not just today, but it will be lasting?
02:57Of course.
02:57So Stephen Bartlett is a creator, but he also has a company, Stephen.com,
03:01that has over 150 people in it.
03:03So what he's bringing to the joint venture is a platform.
03:06He talks about taking the guesswork out of the creation.
03:10It's a technology company first.
03:12When he brings new creators on his platform,
03:14he has multiple creators that come on his platform.
03:16They see 200, 300, 400% growth in their audiences.
03:21So what we're really doing is we're partnering with Stephen not just for the content that he creates,
03:25but for the platform that he has,
03:27and then joining our strengths around global brand building, licensing, and live events
03:32to really provide lots of creators the opportunity to come on our platform.
03:38That's what this is about.
03:39It's about being able to invest in the creator economy,
03:42up and down the value chain of the creators on this platform.
03:46Well, let's talk about the rest of the machine that is authentic brands,
03:50and it's grown into a juggernaut.
03:52When you talk about what your role is, and we should point out you're relatively new.
03:57You joined the company in 2025.
03:58You got the CEO title earlier this year.
04:02What exactly did Jamie Salter, the founder of this company, sort of task you with?
04:06What does he want to see this company become under you?
04:09So the reason I love this company, and it was very similar to my past life,
04:15I'm drawn to companies with strong founders that are visionaries.
04:19That is Jamie Salter.
04:20He sees value where other people do not see it.
04:24He understands where the puck is going, to use a Canadian term.
04:27My job as CEO is to keep the trains on time, to keep the engine running, to grow globally.
04:33We're expanding, we're growing faster around the world than we are in the United States right now.
04:38In fact, 35% of our revenue is coming from outside of the United States,
04:42and that's up from less than 30% just a year ago.
04:45So Jamie sees the vision.
04:47He is out driving the M&A machine, the mergers and acquisitions machine,
04:51and then I'm taking that and growing it inside our platform.
04:55Where does that M&A machine stand right now?
04:58Are you out there right now shopping for deals?
05:00We are always out there shopping for deals.
05:02Just since I've been here, as you pointed out, in the last 18 months,
05:05we have spent over $2 billion in acquisitions from the purchase of guests.
05:10We really wanted to get into character IP and kids, so we purchased Care Bears.
05:14We recently did our partnership with Drake and purchased OVO.
05:18We are constantly looking for things that's not just inside a retail framework or a lifestyle framework.
05:26IP is what we do, and that could be in hospitality.
05:30We have hotels going up under the Sports Illustrated brand.
05:32It can be in food.
05:34We have chefs that we may be working with.
05:36It can really be across the board.
05:38We have $10 billion of IP on our balance sheet,
05:41and I'm hoping to see that double over the next 24 months.
05:45So we should point out that back in May when Jamie kind of unveiled you publicly,
05:50I think one thing he said was he wanted to see an IPO within 12 months.
05:54I know it's only been four months.
05:55Are you any closer to that?
05:56What I can tell you is I did come on to help with the IPO process.
06:00The company is ready.
06:02We are IPO ready.
06:04Our systems are in place.
06:05Our people are in place.
06:06Our story is crisp.
06:08We are ready to go.
06:10That will be up to our board and our shareholders when they decide to hit the button for us to
06:15start that process.
06:17That has not happened yet.
06:18We've been talking about it could be as early as the first half of next year.
06:22Right.
06:22But that decision hasn't been made.
06:24What are they waiting on to make that decision?
06:26Is there some marker they're looking for?
06:28I think there is no marker that we're looking for.
06:32It was really is the company ready?
06:34And just within the last couple of months, we have all the processes and everything in place to actually press
06:40the button and go when the time is right.
06:42I mean, what is the story pitch to investors that this is basically a company that's, you know, just generating
06:48a bunch of royalty streams or is this going to be more of a longer term growth structure type of
06:55story?
06:55Oh, it's a growth company for sure.
06:57So our growth over the last 17 years has been 44 percent compound annual growth.
07:04Our organic growth is between seven and eight percent.
07:07And then if you look at our M&A growth on top of that, just in the last four years,
07:10we've been achieving 24 percent growth top line, 20 percent growth at the EBITDA.
07:15And that translates into $2.2 billion of royalties and $1.8 billion in EBITDA, 81 percent margin.
07:24So not only do you have high growth, you have free, you have EBITDA margins that are better than almost
07:31all companies in the S&P 500.
07:33And the free cash flow conversion is 99 percent because we don't have any CapEx.
07:39Yeah.
07:40While we have $10 billion of IP, we're not making the inventory.
07:44We don't have inventory.
07:46We're not in the supply chain.
07:47We own the IP and we effectively get six to seven percent of everything that's sold with our IP on
07:53it.
07:54Is there any concern that the M&A runway may start to get shorter given how much more competition has
07:59come into this space?
08:00I mean, when authentic brands started doing this, I mean, there were probably only two or three really big players
08:04of consequence.
08:05And now it seems like everybody's popping up, not to mention all these Wall Street firms that have decided they
08:10want to be in the business too.
08:11So I think our mode is our scale.
08:14We have 1,700 partners around the world.
08:16But also, we're not just in one industry.
08:19If you think about entertainment being over $425 million of our revenue, that's something that other people aren't doing.
08:27We just got into character IP.
08:28So we view Paramount as a competitor.
08:32We view Disney as a competitor.
08:33So we're now looking across all different spectrums of IP that we can focus on.
08:39So I think the TAM that you'll see as we're going out, the total adjustable market, is literally in the
08:45trillions.
08:46On the organic revenue side, though, I mean, as you're acquiring this IP, I mean, some of this IP is
08:50pretty valuable.
08:51I would think the organic growth opportunities long term could at some point actually outpace M&A opportunities in terms
08:57of growth.
08:58I want both.
08:59So I think that we're going to continue to be aggressive on the acquisition front.
09:03That is Jamie's secret sauce.
09:05He's one of the best deal guys in the world, actually.
09:09And on the organic side, that's why we're expanding around the country.
09:12We just opened a big office in India.
09:14We're expanding throughout Europe.
09:16We just opened a new office in Indonesia.
09:19So, I mean, we're expanding in Brazil.
09:20So what I really want to see is the authentic footprint and platform all over the world.
09:26So that way we can really drive organic growth in all the markets.
09:30All right.
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