west-hollywood
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The Beauty Lab That Builds Brands, Then Lets Them Go
Ben Bennett's West Hollywood accelerator spots gaps on the shelf, hands them to founders with real equity, and points each new brand toward an exit - Naturium sold to e.l.f. Beauty for $355 million.
Will Kim
Will Kim is the co-founder and co-CEO of Karat Financial, the West Hollywood fintech that treats YouTubers, streamers and TikTokers as the businesses they actually are. After watching top creators with great credit scores get rejected for ordinary credit cards because banks called their income 'risky,' Kim and co-founder Eric Wei built a credit card, then a bank, underwritten on social-media metrics instead of W-2s. Karat has issued more than $1.5 billion in credit and advances, counts Alexandra Botez, Ludwig and Nick DiGiovanni on its roster, and raised a $70M Series B in 2023 backed by Union Square Ventures, SignalFire, Will Smith's Dreamers VC, Biz Stone and Steve Chen.