A-Frame Brands CEO Ari Bloom on launching startups with celebrities like John Legend and Naomi Osaka

A-Frame Brands is focused on building brands for underserved communities but with big names behind them. And national retail is a big part of its strategy. According to co-founder and CEO Ari Bloom, there's a lot that goes into making a celebrity brand work. But he thinks he's tapped the formula. So far, A-Frame has launched brands with powerhouse names like Dwayne Wade, Gabrielle Union, Naomi Osaka and John Legend -- and all of these consumer-facing products have launched in major stores like Walmart, Target and CVS. And while it helps to have a celebrity name to catch a big box store's eyes, Bloom thinks it's increasingly difficult to launch online only. Bloom joined the Modern Retail Podcast and spoke about how he's approaching building out the A-Frame portfolio, and the thesis behind all of the brands. The first pillar of A-Frame is finding obvious holes in the market. The first brand launched was Proudly, a baby care product backed by Dwayne Wade and Gabrielle Union, that focuses on children of color. "How is it that you can Google search and find out that over half the kids in this country have a black, brown or Asian parent since 2014, and not see more brands and market dedicated to what is the majority of kids?" he said. "That's insane. So we started with that brand, knowing that there would be other opportunities." After that, A-Frame launched John Legend's skincare brand Loved01 and the Naomi Osaka-affiliated suncare company Kinlo. The tying bind for all these brands, beyond their well-known co-founders, is that they've all sought out big retail partnerships from the get-go. Bloom sees this as a necessity for any new company trying to really grow. Starting with only a website is a behemoth task, that he's just not interested in trying out. "The fact that you're just kind of going to open a door and hope people show up. That's really hard, especially today," he said. Another thing that Bloom is very clear about is that A-Frame isn't using the A-list talent as mere figureheads. "We feel it's very important that the partner is a partner," he said. "So we go 50/50 with them." That means, the celebrity gets equity -- but they don't get anything else up front. As Bloom sees it, this is a way to find true partners -- and celebrities that are actually interested in launching real brands. "It does kind of weed out a lot of folks," he said.