• Unwinding the Thread
  • Posts
  • How Pharrell is Leading the Charge for the New Wave of Creator Entrepreneurs

How Pharrell is Leading the Charge for the New Wave of Creator Entrepreneurs

Joopiter is just the start

Celebrities have been selling off pieces from their personal collections for decades. The sheer fact that a piece was once owned by a star (i.e. provenance) has been known to add a significant premium to any item — whether we're talking watches, jerseys, jewelry, and even Real Estate.

As explained by Real Estate Advisor Susan Smith in Luxury Portfolio International: “There’s definitely an increase in the value of [celebrity} homes, not only because of its intrinsic value, but you do get a much greater pool of buyers”

And while estate sales are nothing new, with everyone from Al Capone to Zsa Zsa Gabor laying their collections on the auction block over the years, Pharrell went about things a bit differently.

Rather than transact through the third-party medium of an auction house, he decided to make his own. It's called JOOPITER and the first auction of Pharrell's collection just completed earlier this month.

It was an eclectic hodgepodge of traditional collector's items like luxury jewelry and watches mixed in with oddities including a Solid Gold Blackberry (the phone, not the fruit) which sold for $45K, and even one of Pharrell's personally owned berets.

According to Robb Report:

"[T]he 47-lot auction raised a total of $5.25 million in sales. The figure surpassed the highest sales estimate of $3.2 million, and approximately 94 percent of the lots were sold. Nearly 66 percent of the items—including exclusive designs by Jacob & Co., Audemars Piguet and Adidas—sold above their high estimate."

The highest-selling piece was Pharell's Jacob & Co.’s N.E.R.D. Character Pendant Chain which notched $2.18M.

The chain is an ode to Pharrell's former group N.E.R.D and was made in 2005.

Obviously, a star selling off some of their flashiest items for eye-popping prices is going to draw attention. But it isn't exactly shocking that someone like Pharrell would have a collection worthy of attracting millions of dollars in bids.

Instead, the fascinating takeaway from the inaugural event is the glimpse of what to come. We've seen a wave of celebrities with major sway take matters into their own hands, bypassing mainstream avenues like music streaming platforms (Jay-Z & Tidal), gatekeepers like Netflix (comedians like Andrew Schulz releasing his special on YouTube), and more. 

This step into the auction game represents a new chapter of empowerment and anti-establishment innovation. Very few have the cultural cache to pull off something like this without suffering massive losses due to the diminished visibility of their auctions (and that number has probably decreased by one, sup Kanye), but as Joopiter moves forward, its success could prove to be yet another example of individuals leveraging their followings to build their own infrastructure.

I didn't mention Mr. Beast in this at all, but he's basically the prototype for this entire idea – building a burger empire off the back of his wildly successful Youtube channel.

The future is creator-led.