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investing with ted murphy text by Hel aina Hovitz Ted Murphy, 37, wears a lot of hats. He is founder and CEO of IZEA, TD Rags, The BUZZ Line, MindComet and Odebo; co-founder and VP of creative services at MindComet; and founder/ partner of Dogfish and Hardhat. It’s a lot to handle, and Murphy lavishes time on each project. Right now, however, his main focus is IZEA, which connects brands with creators who blog, tweet, pin, and post on their behalf. The system works for everyone involved—brands receive influential consumer content, and creators are compensated for their participation. The company has completed more than 3.3 million sponsorships with creators ranging from Kim Kardashian to P. Diddy. Murphy has raised over $24 million in capital to date, including investments from billionaires John Pappajohn and Dr. Phil Frost, and he invests it broadly. Here’s a look at what he does with all his dough. Who is that with you in the photo? That is one of my bearhawks. I raise them on my farm and teach them
“The most rewarding part of my job is when someone comes to us and says, ‘Hey, you put my kid through college.’”
to hunt zombies and politicians. Ads program, but Twitter has valuable data that nobody else does. I could see Twitter charging companies and
What’s your “safe bet?” Berkshire Hathaway. The
well-known individuals a monthly fee to gain access to
stock doesn’t move much from day to day, but it steadily
enhanced analytics and res
climbs over time. Apple and Tesla are much more erratic
So you have pretend pets. Tell me about IZEA—
research tools based on the size of their organization.
on a day-to-day basis. Berkshire is my safety blanket.
what do people come to you for? If Audi wanted to
We’re still actively looking for other targets within Twitter. I
promote a new car, they could come to us and we would
also have a fake Twitter account about a non-existent food
You also invest in something called Lending Club.
essentially pay people to blog about it, tweet about it, post
called a Meatzel, a meat-filled pretzel.
Tell me more about that. It’s a peer-to-peer lending
Do you invest in any art? No, I actually don’t find
people need help consolidating their credit cards; others
bearhawk. Google is sometimes slow when it comes to indexing the animal kingdom. Give it a few months.
on Facebook, et cetera. We have everyone on board, from college students to mommy bloggers to A-list celebrities.
myself buying too much art. Most of the art around the
How did you raise the capital to start it? My
house and the office is art I’ve created. I have two styles,
partner (Mark Marsiglio) and I maxed out our credit
one is graffiti— big, bold, and crazy—and the other is
cards. Then, in 2000, we started another company called
done with a pen that has a tip so fine you have to hold a
MindComet using the capital from Think Creative.
magnifying glass in your other hand just to use it.
What’s the best part of your job? The creative
Where do you invest your stock? Tesla Motors
process itself, for sure. I’m very involved in our products
is currently my biggest holding because I believe very
and in working with our engineering and design teams.
strongly in Elon Musk. He’s the CEO of Tesla and the
I love creating new things, disrupting industries, and
co-founder of PayPal and SpaceX. He is the greatest
backing the next YouTube star. However, the most
entrepreneurial mind of all time.
rewarding part of my job is when someone comes to us and says, “Hey, you put my kid through college.”
You refer to yourself an “Apple fan boy” on
network that crowdsources loans to people. Some need capital in order to start up a business. You can invest as little as $25 and up to as much as you like per loan. I’ve gotten phenomenal returns from Lending Club. It’s a real feelgood investment for me. Tell me about your philanthropic efforts. I love Rock for Hunger, a local organization that gives food to the homeless, and Give Kids the World, an Orlandobased charity that helps bring terminally ill children and their whole families to Disney and on other adventures. IZEA also goes into Ronald McDonald House each year to cook dinner for the families living there.
Twitter. While Steve Jobs is missed, Apple is sitting on
Tell me about your love affair with Twitter: I
10 percent of all corporate cash and still delivers the best
What advice will you give your son, Zane? He’s 14
think Twitter’s biggest opportunity is in data. Everyone is
computing products on the planet. I buy Apple products,
months old, so right now, my investment advice to him is
already using Twitter for marketing outside of the Twitter
so I buy Apple stock.
to stop consuming all of his inheritance in diapers.
—
photo by Richard Johnson
According to Google, there is no such thing as a
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