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Christian Blackwell

Co-Founder & COO @ Witz Ventures | Executive Producer of the Rich Habits Podcast | Former Mgmt Consultant @ PwC

Christian Blackwell

Christian Blackwell is the Co-Founder & COO at Witz Ventures and the Executive Producer of the Rich Habits Podcast. He previously worked as a Management Consultant at PwC.12

As Executive Producer of the Rich Habits Podcast, Blackwell leads business development and monetization, helping the show rise to prominence.45 He also serves as the General Manager at GRIT, a financial media company.3

Blackwell's LinkedIn username is j-christian-blackwell.2

Highlights

Feb 15 · linkedin

When frantically printing a paper in college, I sent a pic of the spot below to my family — pumped that it was where Reddit was started!

A few years later, we’re so excited for Witz Ventures to join a round led by Alexis Ohanian Sr. and Seven Seven Six 7️⃣7️⃣6️⃣

Major CONGRATS to Matt (MJ) Joanou and the incredible Stakeholder Labs team! You’re deserving of praise and we’re thankful that you’re having me & Austin Hankwitz along for the ride 📈🔬

Read more about Matt’s journey from Reddit, Inc. to today: https://lnkd.in/gwKDNRWb

Katelin Holloway Cristina Apple Georgoulakis Plug and Play Tech Center Greycroft Elefund Caffeinated Capital FinSight Ventures 1Flourish Capital University of Virginia UVA McIntire School of Commerce

Jan 27 · linkedin

I turn 25 today. I don't care much about birthdays, but 25 is a fun number to reflect on.

I'm also admittedly tired of being asked "What do you even do?" — so it was time to jot this down. If you want to understand the pic of my boy Ralph, read until the end.

For nearly 3 years, I've been the guy behind the curtain. I was given an opportunity to help build a business out of nothing. I barely knew the guy, but I trusted him and said let's do it.

I met Austin Hankwitz by sending him a DM. He was in Nashville and I was in Virginia. We were talking shop about our interests in investing, but we then realized a mutual desire to BUILD during the sleepy Covid times.

Fast forward less than a year, and we quit our jobs. Austin did M&A for Amedisys — a multi-billion dollar healthcare company. I did Management Consulting for PwC — one of the ‘Big 4’ accounting firms. We both took criticism for taking the risk. If we had stayed where we were, things would have been plenty fine.

Instead, we started over. We saw this space of social media that is littered with so much garbage, but is also abundant in life-changing information. We both have a strong passion for writing, so we started with a subscription newsletter.

Within our 1st year of working together, we did nearly half a million in revenue. By the end of our 2nd, we did over $1.5M. But we've taken a completely different path than most 'influencers', 'creators', or whatever you prefer to call them.

We realized that our knowledge in the creator economy was deep. We understood how to set up complex business models, establish new revenue streams, and add value for companies of all sizes.

Our focus shifted from solely making Austin's name big online, to also investing into privately-held companies. Fast-forward to 2023, and we've invested into 26 startups — advising & writing checks alongside names we never could’ve imagined. Instead of paying ourselves now, we’ve placed bets on founders that are doing much bigger things than we are.

The next ‘light bulb’ realization was that many brands have no idea how to work with creators. Sure, they know how to pay a celebrity to put something on social media. But many don’t know how to build relationships with normal folks that got big online & meaningfully penetrate their communities.

This is where the consulting & strategic marketing side of the business came in. We realized that we had a unique perspective — valuable to traditional media, fintechs, and even Fortune 500 companies.

So if you're reading this, Grandma... I'm a Venture Capitalist, Consultant, Marketer, Co-Author of the Rate of Return newsletter (about to hit 10K subs!), and I love you!

Here’s to another year of trying to be better than the last, making new friends while keeping up with old ones, being thankful for the opportunities God has given us, and most importantly — trying to be the guy that my puppy thinks I am.

#smallbusiness #creators #financialwellnessmonth #litrendingtopics

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Christian Blackwell
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Location

West Palm Beach, Florida, United States