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Building a character brand for the long game: the VeeFriends strategy
Executive overview
Most brands extract money from parents without giving them anything useful. VeeFriends is built to embed values — resilience, gratitude, accountability — into characters kids actually care about.
The bet is a 50-year brand-building journey in the Walt Disney / Stan Lee framework. Early traction (Topps Chrome deal, YouTube kids show, trading cards) is just the start.
The winning edge is combining maximum distribution width with relentless one-on-one depth — most builders abandon the second as they scale.
The VeeFriends origin and vision
- NFTs provided the initial provenance; the real goal was always a character universe
- Entry points: kids books, comics, cartoons, trading cards
- North star: VeeFriends in every booth at every collector show, not just one
- Gary doodled every character himself to establish creative provenance
- Commitment framing: pass the brand to his daughter's generation, not exit
The width-and-depth growth framework
- Width: post three times a day, seven platforms, podcasts, YouTube — be everywhere
- Depth: non-scalable one-on-one behaviour — six minutes with one person, reply to DMs, stop and acknowledge people
- Most founders start with both, then drop depth as they scale — that's the mistake
- AI makes in-person and one-on-one effort more valuable, not less
- Gary treats a flea market and a stadium stage as the same environment
Signals of early traction
- Topps Chrome partnership secured organically at a trade show when Topps approached the VeeFriends booth
- YouTube kids show performing well
- Comics and cartoons both gaining momentum
- Every collector event is a winning day if new people discover the characters
Mindset for building over decades
- Signed up for a 50-year journey from day one — no premature celebration
- Being equally comfortable in dark periods as in good ones is what makes a builder unstoppable
- "I don't think we've even started yet" — Topps Chrome is a milestone, not an arrival
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