{"id":43427,"date":"2023-10-20T15:28:30","date_gmt":"2023-10-20T15:28:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/startupsmart.test\/2023\/10\/20\/sociabl-sold-why-a-serial-entrepreneur-bought-a-controlling-stake-in-the-controversial-startup-startupsmart-2\/"},"modified":"2023-10-20T15:28:30","modified_gmt":"2023-10-20T15:28:30","slug":"sociabl-sold-why-a-serial-entrepreneur-bought-a-controlling-stake-in-the-controversial-startup-startupsmart-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/uncategorized\/sociabl-sold-why-a-serial-entrepreneur-bought-a-controlling-stake-in-the-controversial-startup-startupsmart-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Sociabl sold: Why a serial entrepreneur bought a controlling stake in the controversial startup – StartupSmart"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"The<\/div>\n

A serial Australian entrepreneur has bought  controversial startup Sociabl and says he has big plans to take it to Hollywood.<\/p>\n

Shane Yeend\u2019s company, Imagination Entertainment, has acquired a \u201ccontrolling stake\u201d in the Adelaide startup, with the entrepreneur planning to hire a new chief executive, as first reported by the Australian Financial Review.<\/p>\n

Imagination Entertainment is a global games and media company with offices in the US, Canada, Europe, Australia and New Zealand.<\/p>\n

Yeend says he decide to buy the stake in  Sociabl because he is a \u201cserial entrepreneur\u201d that sees promise in the core idea.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s an interesting idea and I\u2019m a big fan of young entrepreneurs,\u201d Yeend tells StartupSmart<\/em>.<\/p>\n

\u201cI love Adelaide too, and we\u2019ve built a business out of Hollywood brands. It\u2019s an interesting play that doesn\u2019t exist today.<\/p>\n

“It\u2019s right in our sweet spot.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sociabl offers a platform allowing users to video chat with celebrities for a price, but the startup was embroiled in controversy after many of the celebrities advertised as having signed on claimed they had never agreed to it<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The issue was brought to light in an interview on The Today Show, <\/em> where host David Campbell – who was listed as available to chat with on the platform – said he had never heard of it.<\/p>\n

The startup also claimed in a press release that minister for industry, innovation and science Christopher Pyne and opposition leader Bill Shorten would be attending its lavish launch party on the Sydney Harbour in January but both politicians denied ever having agreed to this.<\/p>\n

Sociabl co-founder Brandon Reynolds defended himself and the startup in a Medium post, saying  the  Today Show’s <\/em> claims were “false” and his company wasn’t a “major fraud”.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe program aired spread a lot of false claims about Sociabl and myself that were shallowly investigated,\u201d Reynolds said in the post.<\/p>\n

Yeend defends the young entrepreneurs behind the startup, saying the recent controversy was just a \u201chiccup\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cDid they make mistakes? Yes,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

\u201cEntrepreneurs make mistakes \u2013 I did, we all do. Making mistakes is sometimes the best thing you can ever do. It can help you sort out the business model.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe odds are always against startups. We shouldn\u2019t give them a hard time.\u201d<\/p>\n

He adds that Reynolds and Sociabl co-founder Jarrad Hrotek will \u201cmaybe\u201d remain involved with the startup\u2019s operations.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019re not bad kids,\u201d Yeend says.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey worked their asses off for two years and it\u2019s a great idea.\u201d<\/p>\n

Reynolds told  StartupSmart <\/em> he was  unable to comment on the sale of his startup or if he would be remaining involved with it.<\/p>\n

With connections in Hollywood and plans for a relaunch, Yeend says he has big plans for Sociabl.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ll try our best and if it doesn\u2019t work then we\u2019ve tried,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

\u201cWatch this space.\u201d<\/p>\n

Follow StartupSmart on Facebook<\/strong>, Twitter<\/strong>, LinkedIn<\/strong> and SoundCloud<\/strong>.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A serial Australian entrepreneur has bought  controversial startup Sociabl and says he has big plans to take it to Hollywood.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":59805,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14,1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43427"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=43427"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43427\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/59805"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=43427"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=43427"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=43427"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}