Sep 20, 2023

Estate Media This story is available exclusively to Insider subscribers. Become an Insider and start reading now. "Million Dollar Listing" star Josh Flagg, media exec Griff O'Brien, and investor Andrew Shanfeld started Estate Media. They want to bring a personality-driven approach to real estate media. See the deck they used to raise $1.65 million from Rich Antoniello, Morning Brew's Austin Rief, and others. Celebrity real estate agent Josh Flagg, media exec Griff O'Brien, and investor Andrew Shanfeld have teamed up to launch Estate Media, a personality-driven media company. Real estate has become a huge pop culture topic, aided by reality TV series like "Selling Sunset" and the "Million Dollar Listing" franchise. The industry got a boost early on in the pandemic with a rash of home buying (which has since subsided ) and a flood of people entering the profession. The business also became more reliant on the web in the pandemic as people went online to tour and buy homes and watch real estate influencer content. This story is available exclusively to Insider subscribers. Become an Insider and start reading now.Have an account? Log in . O'Brien, who appeared on Insider's 2022 list of Rising Stars in the Entertainment Business , said Estate Media grew out of a serendipitous meeting he had with Flagg and Shanfeld, whom he met through a friend, Jack Davis, co-founder of Crypt TV. He took inspiration from other personality-driven companies like Magnolia — the content and merch empire built around former HGTV stars Chip and Joanna Gaines — and The Chernin Group-backed Epic Gardening. "The idea was, can we create an ecosystem play where we bring in all these personalities and create assets around them that we own," O'Brien told Insider. "There were these old real estate pubs and reality programming and there really wasn't anyone in the middle who was creating content that was entertaining and also educating." The company will offer content created with a network of real estate personalities who, Estate Media said, reach a collective 25 million followers. The mission is to be trade-focused while also serving consumers. Initial offerings include a class by Flagg, an original star of Bravo's "Million Dollar Listing Los Angeles," which follows real estate agents as they try to sell high-end properties. There's also a podcast featuring TikTok-famous broker Margot Ettedgui discussing pop-culture trends and celeb real estate gossip; and a video podcast where agent and TikToker Aaron Grushow chats with other big names in the business like Robert Rivani, Glennda Baker, and Ricky Carruth. Other shows for digital and television are in the works. Estate Media believes it can ride the market's ups and downs Bringing media business expertise is O'Brien, who serves as Estate Media's CEO and worked in content acquisition at Roku and Amazon before moving to Pocket.Watch, a studio that tries to turn YouTube stars into global franchises. The company plans to make money through advertising from real estate, financial, and luxury brands; providing leads to real estate companies; and paid membership to communities built around the network of influencers. O'Brien said he expects ad revenue to top $1 million this year and that he sees educational content becoming a "nice seven-figure business." While the real estate industry has come down from its pandemic frenzy, O'Brien believes Estate Media can ride ups and downs in the market. "The number of new people coming in is unsustainable, but it will remain the largest asset class in the world," he said. "There are always going to be buyers and sellers seeking information." Estate Media has raised $1.65 million in seed funding from Adam Weitsman, CEO of Upstate Shredding, a scrap metal processor, and Chris Heller, president of Ojo Labs, a real estate tech company, as well as several investors with media backgrounds: Rich Antoniello , co-founder and former CEO of Complex Networks, Austin Rief, co-founder and CEO of Morning Brew, and Devin Emery, chief content officer of Morning Brew. (Morning Brew shares a corporate parent with Insider.) Brian Goldsmith, co-founder and partner at Avenue Growth Partners; and Powerhouse Capital also participated. Advising the company are Ricky Van Veen, co-founder of CollegeHumor and Vimeo; Justin Killion, former Complex Networks president; Jack Davis; and Spence Markel, co-founder of Pearpop. Scroll down to see the deck Estate Media used to raise its seed round. The founders of Estate Media want to capitalize on real estate's shift online. Estate Media