Lance Bass: on a mission to market unicorns

“I wish we’d had this when we were on tour with NSYNC because when we went to places like Denver, we needed to have oxygen on each side of the stage.” Lance Bass connects his personal story with the innovations presented on Unicorn Hunters, and that leaves him in awe of CVAC Systems’ fitness “capsule ”, a revolutionary wellness product that could be of particular interest for artists and sportspeople.But his enthusiasm for novel innovations doesn’t prevent Lance from viewing each potential unicorn with caution. His focus is always on the marketing because he’s convinced that big ideas need to be communicated in the best way possible, and ideally by the right “ambassadors”.

This is why, while admiring Vastmindz ’s device for “reading” and analyzing health indicators by studying the face, he takes one step ahead and starts suggesting marketing possibilities: “If you imagine Jennifer Aniston being the face of this: boom! Everyone’s going to know about this pretty quickly!”

The key to diversification

As part of a series that has set out to democratize access to investment from the first episode, Lance says he’s learned “that the diversification of investments is vitally important”. This is a significant point considering that Unicorn Hunters is visited by startups from a range of sectors and backgrounds, and with different ambitions and types of innovations.

While Lance hasn’t hesitated from voicing his objections when something doesn’t convince him, he’s also said that he has huge respect for each and every company that appears on the show. “They come here, they stand here proudly, and we give them the ‘60 second plea’; it’s a lot”, he said, referring to the part of the show in which the CEOs have a minute to deliver the perfect pitch and persuade the Circle of Money.

Advice for a B2B

The variety of companies that seek their big opportunity on Unicorn Hunters demands an analysis that can also consider different business models. Some of the companies that have appeared on the show are business-to-business (B2B) companies – that is, their customers are other businesses, not individual consumers.

Lance Bass has also made contributions when it comes to these. For example, he warned the CEO of Grocery Shopii of the danger that competitors might copy the concept behind the company’s app for grocery stores. Meanwhile, he told Reyad Fezzani, the CEO of Carbon Collect , that he wanted to have his own pollution-reducing “mechanical tree” at home. “You should be B2C, not B2B!,” he said, partly in earnest and partly in jest but emphasizing the potential unicorn’s innovative character.

Known for having been a member of the pop group NSYNC in the 1990s, Lance Bass has vast experience as an entrepreneur and investor. He’s the founder and a partner in catering company Bubble Tap Trailer, a partner in the restaurant Rocco´s WeHo and an investor in Caemo, a company that makes personalized videos of celebrities. He’s also worked on innovative initiatives such as the estate-planning business Modern Trust, Heerio, the online sports database OSDB and the Good Catch alternative food project.