Paris Hilton is one of today’s most recognizable entrepreneurs and international influencers, Paris Hilton is a pioneer in television, podcasting and NFTs and an innovator in building businesses, social media and celebrity branding. With annual press valued at $702M in media spend equivalency, 28B monthly PR impressions, 130,000 press mentions over the last year alone and a global audience of over 54M across all socials, Hilton continues to solidify herself as a prominent tastemaker and powerful business leader.
Since starring in “The Simple Life,” Hilton has built a global empire as a businesswoman, influencer, activist, DJ, designer, investor, recording artist, philanthropist, host, actress, chef, model and author. In 2006, she created Paris Hilton Entertainment (now known as 11:11 Media), a multi-billion-dollar company that started with 45 branded stores and 19 product lines surpassing $4 billion in revenue. Today, 11:11 Media is a full-stop, integrated media and product company with verticals covering TV (Slivington Manor Entertainment), podcasts (London Audio), digital (11:11 Digital), licensing, NFTs, music, impact and more. Always attuned to emerging trends and opportunities, Hilton continues to expand 11:11 Media and use her platform to inspire, empower and create lasting positive impact.
Hilton has also solidified herself as an NFT leader as was recently seen by her being named #7 on Forbes’ NFT 50 most influential people in NFTs and through being awarded “Winner of Best Charity NFT” at the 2020 NFT Awards. In staying true to her goal of fostering empowerment and in collaboration with Sevens Foundation, Paris curated and launched “Empowered By Paris: Empowered Women Empower Women Exhibition”, which is an NFT exhibit dedicated to showcasing and equipping female artists with a platform to succeed.
Moderator Carter Reum is a Partner and Co-Founder of M13, a venture capital platform that invests in and incubates cutting edge consumer technology businesses. M13 now has two top decile funds and recently launched a $400MM Fund III - M13 now has AUM of over $750MM and is currently launching its 10th incubated business.
PRESENTED BY
MODERATOR
SPEAKER
Paris Hilton
Chief Executive Officer
Paris Hilton Entertainment
Carter Reum
Partner & Co-Founder
M13
TIMESTAMPS
EPISODE TRANSCRIPT
Carter Reum: (00:07)
All right. Well, we're going to try to have a little fun here. Just in case there's any skeptics in the crowd that are trying to figure out why Paris Hilton is on stage as a keynote for lunch, let me just run through a few stats. I am going to warn you, they take a few seconds, because she's accomplished a lot, but let's just run through a few things. She has 19 product lines that have done over four billion in revenue the last decade globally. She's the highest-paid female DJ in the world. If any of you are having a birthday party, a bar mitzvah, wedding, she likes seven figures the most when she DJs. She has a social audience globally of over 65 million people, and her #thatshot hashtag on TikTok has been viewed over five billion times. Your PR reach the last 12 months makes you one of the largest 25 advertisers effectively in the country, bigger than Coca-Cola, Citigroup, and Adidas.
Carter Reum: (01:12)
I wish I could tell you I'm close to the end of this list, but I'm still about a third of the way through the list, but I'll try to speed it up a little bit. Your documentary, This Is Paris, was viewed 25 million times globally, you had 175,000 people sign your change.org petition, as a result of your documentary. This is easier though than dancing for 23 seconds on the jumbotron at the US Open on Friday, right? You've launched an audio company with iHeart during the last year, with three podcasts. You launched a production company with three TV shows already with Warner Brothers. You recently were number six on Fortune's top 50 Power Players of the NFT space. You have an investment portfolio with unicorns like Viome, Daily Harvest, things like Podz, and [inaudible 00:02:04]. I'm almost done, you're credited with being the first one to do reality TV, the original influencer, and even created the selfie, and last but not least importantly, you are marrying me this fall. Is that correct? Did I miss anything? Yeah. All right.
Paris Hilton: (02:24)
Thank you.
Carter Reum: (02:24)
Did anyone time that? Was that longer than the 23 seconds of the jumbotron at the Open on Friday? Go ahead, Paris. Did I miss anything?
Paris Hilton: (02:32)
Yes, but I think we'd be here all day if you had to list them all, but I just want to say thank you guys so much. I am so honored to be here today with so many people that I look up to and respect. I want to thank our friend, Anthony Scaramucci, for having me here today, and so many other friends in the room. Mike Novogratz, Dan Loeb, Congressman Ro Khanna, and many others. So thank you all for being here today, and I look forward to doing this with you, mister.
Carter Reum: (03:02)
All right. This is the first time we've ever done this in person, so this is definitely a special moment. Let's start with the easy but important stuff. Let's talk about your documentary, This is Paris. It launched last September. It had the equivalent of 150 million opening box office weekend. As a result of that, seven state laws have changed. The world saw a side of you I don't think they were expecting, very authentic and real, and you opened up about some stuff you never thought you'd talk about. Was that the original intention of the movie, or what was the original intention of the documentary when you were filming it?
Paris Hilton: (03:36)
With my documentary This is Paris, the original intention was just to show the true person I am, the businesswoman I am, how much I've accomplished. I feel that being in this industry for the past two decades, I was playing a character, so there's a lot of misunderstanding about me being underestimated, and I just wanted to show everything that I was very proud of. And then I ended up just getting very close with the director and started opening up to her about things I'd never discussed in my life publicly, and because of that film, it's now changed state laws in seven states, and next, I'm going to be going to Washington, D.C. in October to take this to federal legislation. So it really just shows the power of telling the truth and turning my pain into a purpose, and I'm very proud of using my voice to speak up for others.
Carter Reum: (04:33)
And for those of you who haven't got to watch the documentary yet, I expect you'll be watching it this weekend in between that and Cooking With Paris, which we'll talk about, but she talks about these schools she went to in Utah where children are sent, and physically, emotionally abused, sometimes sexually, thankfully, not in her case, but all kinds of kind of awful schools. And I have to say, it's been pretty awesome. I remember before the documentary launch, you said, "This is going to be great. It's going to shine a light on these awful schools and effectively hopefully encourage change," but I'll never forget, two weeks after the movie came out, you and I sat in our house and you read, I don't know, a thousand letters that had come in, and people just saying how much it had meant to you that you had shared your truth, and whether their truth was similar or something different, how it inspired them. And did you think a year later you would have helped pass seven state laws regulating the industry, and be on your way to D.C. in October? What's it meant to you?
Paris Hilton: (05:35)
This means the world to me, and I'm just so proud just to stand up for others and children, and make that the abuse that happened to myself and so many others no longer happens.
Carter Reum: (05:47)
That's awesome. Maybe one quick round of applause for that.
Paris Hilton: (05:50)
Thank you.
Carter Reum: (05:56)
So just switching gears a little bit here. So obviously, at M13, we kind of invest behind kind of leading consumer tech brands. We try to think about what consumers are going to be doing 10 years into the future, and invest behind the technologies that power that change. Obviously, no one has been two steps ahead of the game more than you, when we talk about things like reality TV, things like the selfie, things like social media. What trend are you most excited about in the future? I have a good feeling you might talk about NFTs, but what are you excited about?
Paris Hilton: (06:30)
There's just so many things that I'm excited about, especially all these virtual worlds and metaverses, and everything I've been doing in the NFT space, something that has just been a huge passion of mine. Back in 2018, I released a documentary called The American Meme, where I basically created this virtual world with avatars where people can come and meet, and now today in 2021, to see all of that really coming to life. So just doing things like that and being involved, and always being an innovator and someone who sees into the future, so that's something I've always been very proud of.
Carter Reum: (07:09)
And just to fill in the gaps for people, when did you do your first NFT and how'd you get to be number six on the list on Fortune?
Paris Hilton: (07:16)
Way before the whole NFT craze started, so I did my first NFT in March of 2020, where 100% of the proceeds went to charity.
Carter Reum: (07:25)
Yeah. I think one of the things that you always tell me what you love about NFTs is it just makes too much sense not to be a technology of the future, and for you, you have the unique ability to think about NFTs. I don't think I said it on my list, but you did set the largest female auction comp of an NFT. If anyone has any digital currencies burning a hole in their wallet, she sold her [inaudible 00:07:49] for 1.2 million. So, but she'll have some drops coming up, but I think it just does make too much sense for you around collectibles, music, the creator economy, kind of all these different things, so it's fun to watch you tackle it.
Carter Reum: (08:03)
Obviously, a big topic of conversation the last two days here has been crypto. People like Michael Saylor and the Winklevosses, and many others were very excited when you changed your Twitter profile about six months ago to you with laser eyes. Some people on Twitter immediately said, "Oh, here she is jumping on the bandwagon," but then a lot of other people on Twitter immediately came due to your defense and pointed out how long you'd been talking about digital currencies. Can you fill in the gaps for us in terms of kind of how you got excited about Bitcoin, and Ethereum, and the different digital currencies?
Paris Hilton: (08:40)
Yes. I have been involved and interested in this since 2016, when I had dinner with the founders of Ethereum when I was in Berlin, and just hearing about it, I just thought it was the future, and now to see today just how it's blown up, is something very exciting. So I'm very grateful that I invested back then.
Carter Reum: (09:02)
Yeah. So just to set the record straight, she was talking about metaverses in 2018, so well before Zuckerberg started talking about them two weeks ago, and she was buying digital currencies in 2016. So if you guys could Tweet that out to set the record straight, that would mean a lot to everybody.
Carter Reum: (09:20)
All right, all right. We're going to insert some light questions along the way too. Let's talk about brand evolution. One of the things people talk about when it comes to you, Paris, is no one understood brand like you did, coming out of The Simple Life. I think some people have said, "She's famous for being famous," but the ones who know you correctly point out that you were famous for being the first one to understand you were a billboard 24/7, and you could be a brand, not just a traditional brand. This year, it was fun to watch you during COVID, you made me lasagna, you put it out on YouTube, the world went nuts for it. Two months later, you had sold a deal with Netflix, and it launched to a lot of fanfare, two weeks, I guess, two or three weeks ago. But what is it that gives you the ability in one second to be cooking lasagna, in the other second to be going to D.C. and introducing federal legislation, in the next minute DJing? How do you think about kind of experimenting or being one step ahead?
Paris Hilton: (10:23)
I just feel very blessed that I get to do so many things that I love and that I'm passionate about, and I feel that I have this ability and this power to really elevate things and share my platform with so many. And even though it's constant, it's 24/7, and travel and working, it doesn't even feel like work because I really love what I'm doing, and I love inspiring and empowering others. And right now, just building my new media company, which is very exciting. So yeah, that's my next focus right now.
Carter Reum: (10:54)
Are you trying to steal my talking points? That's the next question, Paris. We talked about this, don't steal my thunder.
Paris Hilton: (11:00)
I'm psychic. I told you.
Carter Reum: (11:00)
In all seriousness, okay. So most people think you were the first creator. For VCs like me, all we talk about is the golden age of the creator. One or two stats, so far in 2021, 3.3 billion has been invested in creator economy technologies, sponsored influencers are worth about $8 billion today, meaning payments going to creators, and they think that number will be 15 billion by 2022. You just kind of teased it out, but obviously, you've been building a media company. I know your partner, Bruce Gersh is here today. You've hired 10 people during COVID. Why are you going from what you've been doing previously, which was just building on your own, to now building out a media company?
Paris Hilton: (11:46)
I just feel that I'm ready to take this to the next level, and what we're doing is something that's very innovative and exciting, and just seeing people like LeBron, who's built SpringHill, and also Reese Witherspoon who built Hello Sunshine, which was sold for 900 million, I feel that I have the same ability to do the same thing, and that's what we're doing right now. And I want to thank you, Bruce Gersh, so much. You are incredible, and I love having you as a partner and founder with me, and I'm so excited for what we're doing together in the future, so thank you.
Carter Reum: (12:17)
And I'll take the clap. I appreciated that, a little golf clap. Yeah, no, I appreciate that. Yeah, exactly. It's the lunch session, people. We got to keep it light here. Now, I do think it's a really interesting time in the creator economy from where we sit. You kind of have a diverge of kind of of two different types of creators, right? We've never lived in an era where your son or daughter who's kind of funny on TikTok, can somehow figure out how to monetize his influence. So on one hand, you have all these great tools that VCs like me are investing behind on the creator economy. On the other hand, people like Paris, Kevin Durant, Reese Witherspoon, LeBron are building these big media companies, because why should a media company be anchored by a news publication, versus somebody like Paris? I think what's fun to watch is how you can be the heartbeat of that media company, but make it so much bigger than you. All right, let's keep it light here. Which one of my light questions? All right. What is one thing nobody knows about you?
Paris Hilton: (13:13)
There's a lot people don't know about me. Well, one, I'm an undercover nerd. People don't know that. I am a huge tomboy. I love to go fishing, and surfing, skydiving. I was on my high school ice hockey team.
Carter Reum: (13:32)
And that's a true story. If anybody wants to Google that, you will enjoy the photo. It's one of those photos where you're like, "Who doesn't belong in the high school ice hockey team?" Keep going, Paris.
Paris Hilton: (13:45)
Yeah, there's there's lots, but we'll talk about it now in a second.
Carter Reum: (13:49)
I think the one thing that people don't know about you that I always tell people, is it is very well documented that Paris Hilton loves shopping, right? I think everyone knows that. What people don't realize is her favorite store, does anyone know what her favorite store is? Has anyone heard her talk about it? The Hudson Books in the airports. This girl will buy 8, 10, 15 business books. We have a carry-on that we take everywhere with us, just with those books, and I'm like, "Hey, maybe we just bring one or two books. Do we really need all 15?" She goes, "Well, I don't know which business book I'm going to feel like reading today." So everywhere around the world we go, we take that small carry-on with all the business books. All right. Let's do another fun one to keep it light here. Again, this is the lunch session. If you were a weather forecast, what would you be?
Paris Hilton: (14:40)
Hot and sunny.
Carter Reum: (14:43)
Hot and sunny, you heard it here first. It'll probably be on page six tomorrow. All right. Let's keep going on audio and podcasting. So you formed a partnership with Bob Pittman and iHeartRadio, obviously the industry leader in podcasting. You launched This is Paris, your podcast, you have a second podcast, which you can talk to the audience about what that is, and you have a third that will be both a podcast and a television show. Let's just talk about audio, and I'll prompt you along the way. What got you excited about audio and podcasting?
Paris Hilton: (15:17)
I got excited when we had dinner with Bob Pittman and we were talking just about the power of audio, and during the pandemic was the first time I ever even listened to a podcast, and I really loved how you could not only be listening to it, but you could be doing other things at the same time, and I also loved that I could have my own podcasting company. So when Bruce came up with that idea, I was like, "This is genius." So launching my podcast was so much fun because I've been interviewed like a billion times, so I love being able to turn the tables and be the one who gets to ask the questions, and make a really safe space for my friends to come and talk about anything they want, and also being able to control my narrative, because I feel like for so many years, the media has controlled my story, and I want to be able to tell the truth, and when things come out in the media that aren't true, I'm able just to go right on there.
Paris Hilton: (16:10)
And I invented something called Podposts, so it's basically more short form where I can talk about anything that's happening and literally have it up within an hour. And we've been doing a lot of that and correcting a lot of the information, and also being able to share my platform with others. We just launched another podcast with Cindy Eckert who sold her company for a billion dollars, and that one is called DOMINATED, and we are about to launch another one with a TV show along with it, and that is going to be about the social advocacy work and the troubled teen industry. And then some more coming up soon, which I can't announce yet.
Carter Reum: (16:49)
Just so people know whether they should go to your podcast tomorrow, will you be doing a Podpost on the SALT Conference and Anthony?
Paris Hilton: (16:55)
100%.
Carter Reum: (16:57)
All right. Quick show of hands, who's going to download it? Every download counts. Can I count on you? Okay, yep. A little over here. Oh, okay. All right. Every podcast counts, every download counts. All right. Let's switch gears a little bit from audio. I Googled it, because I wanted to see. You have five words in the Urban Dictionary. You actually hold the record from the time you first said a word to the time it showed up in the Urban Dictionary, I think it was two weeks, but you have famous catch phrases like, "That's hot." Actually, funny enough, my cousin Chloe was telling me she read a case study at Georgetown Law School about how you sued Hallmark and won, for infringing on your trademark. You obviously have catch phrases like, "Loves it," and "sliving." why come up with these catch phrases? Is it just that you're really good at creating them, or how did you think about it?
Paris Hilton: (17:48)
I just, I think I'm really good at coming up with words, and I just think it's important, I feel like every brand, they have their slogans and what people remember them for, and I don't know, sometimes when I just say something it catches on, and I think that's just what about being an influencer and a trendsetter is about.
Carter Reum: (18:08)
Cool. Just one thing I wanted to put you on the spot on while I have all my friends here at the lunch session, it was kind of news to me, but when you went on Fallon the other day, you said you have 10 dresses you had custom made for the wedding. Is that right? I thought you promised me this was going to be a low-key affair.
Paris Hilton: (18:25)
Well, it is a three day event, and I do love my outfit changes, so 10 or maybe more.
Carter Reum: (18:31)
So how many tuxes should I be thinking about?
Paris Hilton: (18:33)
Not 10.
Carter Reum: (18:34)
Okay, less than 10. All right, everyone heard it here first. Let's talk about your TV production company, because obviously, you're doing something leading up to the wedding, but you just launched Cooking with Paris on Netflix. For those of you who think she's going to teach you how to cook, you're going to be sorely disappointed. She mostly makes you laugh, with a side of teaching you how to cook. Things like Unicornoli, things like caviar and French toast with Frosted Flakes, so very cooking light. It's been recently in the press that you launched Paris in Love, leading up to the wedding, with NBC Peacock. Can you talk about Paris in Love and that show, and what's it going to kind of chronicle, and why did you decide to launch a production company with Warner Brothers?
Paris Hilton: (19:19)
Well, yes, I'm so excited for my new production company with Warner Brothers called Slivington Manor Entertainment, and to partner with Mike Darnell. He was the one who started out my career with The Simple Life, and being the OG who started reality television, I just thought it was the perfect next step to own my own production company and really just make content not only that I'm in, but also where I can be behind the camera and produce, and really just put out empowering, and inspiring, and thought-provoking content. And Paris in Love, I'm having so much fun. We've been filming it the past few months, every single day, so it's a lot of work. So just the whole lead-up to the wedding, which being a bride is already stressful enough as it is planning a wedding, but having a camera crew follow the whole time makes it even more stressful, but it's going to be a very interesting show, and very excited to partner with Peacock on this, and that will be out in the next few months, so stay tuned.
Carter Reum: (20:19)
Cool. And talk about, because I've heard you mention it plenty of times, why a TV production company now? You obviously had the opportunity to do it over the last 20 years. I know you mentioned just kind of the proliferation of streaming content, but just talk through why now, in terms of why the production company?
Paris Hilton: (20:36)
I just have so many things on my plate. I'm doing so many things and there's not enough time for me to be on camera all the time, so that's why I wanted to really do this so I could create, so that other people I could share my platform with, and really put out content that I think is going to be entertaining and fun, and really part of my brand.
Carter Reum: (20:56)
Cool. One thing that I had written down here to keep it light, let's let's ladder back to The Simple Life. Well before I knew you, I remember seeing a trailer for The Simple Life, and there's this cute little scene that put The Simple Life on the map, when I think you're probably in Arkansas or somewhere nearby, the family you're staying with, they're talking about Walmart, and you say in your cute cartoon, fake voice, "Do they sell walls there?"
Paris Hilton: (21:25)
I said that.
Carter Reum: (21:25)
Did you really not know what they sold at Walmart? Just clear the air for everybody here.
Paris Hilton: (21:31)
I say nothing by mistake. I'm not a dumb blonde, I'm just very good at pretending to be one.
Carter Reum: (21:38)
And for those of you... Okay, I like it. Yeah, yeah. Okay. And we do spend a lot of time. We don't have a Walmart near us, but we do spend a lot of time at Target. So I know that you knew what was Walmart.
Paris Hilton: (21:52)
Yeah, I like Walmart. It's fun.
Carter Reum: (21:54)
All right. Let's talk about investing. Obviously, it's what I spend my day job doing at M13. You've obviously, as I mentioned, you've invested behind great companies like Viome around gut health, Genies around avatar, the unicorn Daily Harvest, and a lot of others, and I think we'll see a lot more of it in the future. In the crypto space, you've been involved with things like Origin Protocol. Why get excited about investing, or how do you think about investing?
Paris Hilton: (22:22)
Well, I have you to thank for that, because you really got me involved in this whole world of investing. I have just been so blown away with everything you guys have done at M13, and just everything that you have ever told me about has always been a winner, so I trust everything that you say.
Carter Reum: (22:38)
No pressure, no pressure. To be fair, the first thing I had her invest in, she hit 18 times her money in four months, and now she said, "That can happen every time, right?" I was like, "Well, not exactly." We have two top decile funds, but that's going to be tough to beat.
Paris Hilton: (22:54)
But yeah, I love investing behind entrepreneurs that I really believe in, especially female entrepreneurs, just because being in this industry for so long, it took a while for people to take me seriously. So that's something that's always been a huge focus of me, and I just love to be involved in things that are innovative and the future, and just projects that again, I want to share my platform with, and that I want to help promote all around the world and get the word out there, and I have the power to do it, so I do it.
Carter Reum: (23:24)
Cool. I think what's been fun for me to watch the last year is the power of your platform is so big, so global. It ranges from teenagers who sing your songs, to adults who grew up watching The Simple Life, and everything in between. But now, I think what is going to make you so powerful the next decade is the fact that you've realized you can use your platform to influence your own companies, you can use your platform to influence companies you invest in, and in this particular case, obviously Congressman Ro Khanna I know is somewhere in the building, but he and others are very excited to see you take your federal legislation to D.C., and see if you can affect change the there.
Carter Reum: (24:04)
So it is really fun for me. I can tell you very proud for me is that people accost us everywhere and say, "Hi," and take a selfie and want to talk to Paris, and a year ago it would be like, "Oh my gosh, I love you, Paris Hilton. Can I take a photo?" And now it's just inspiring to see how many people come up to you and say, "I love what you're doing. I love that you're making the world a better place." So as your future husband and fiancé, I want to tell you I'm extremely proud of you, so I love you.
Paris Hilton: (24:33)
I love you too. Thank you.
Carter Reum: (24:38)
All right. Probably the last two or three minutes here, and maybe even shorter. So we've talked about a lot. We've gone through everything. I do want people to be able to eat their lunch a little bit here. Anything that I didn't talk about? Anything on the horizon or anything you're thinking about for the future?
Paris Hilton: (24:55)
Yes. You know me, I never stop, I keep going, and I'm going to continue to do what I'm doing to expand my brand and my empire all around the world, and my goal is the next time that I'm speaking at this conference, that I'm here to talk about selling my media company for a billion.
Carter Reum: (25:12)
All right. You heard it here first. Thank you.
Paris Hilton: (25:16)
Thank you all. Thank you so much.
Carter Reum: (25:20)
All right, thanks.
Paris Hilton: (25:21)
That was fun.