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Four years ago, Rob Fishman and Darren Lachtman launched Niche, a company that matched social media stars with brands that wanted to pay them to promote their products.
That worked well: Two years later, Twitter bought the company for a pile of money.
Now they are getting the band back together. Lachtman, who left Twitter this summer, is rejoining Fishman, who has already launched Brat, a video startup. You can call them both co-founders, if you like.
Fishman and Lachtman have more resources to work with: They’ve just raised $10 million in a round led by A. Capital, the firm led by Ronny Conway, along with previous investors Lerer Ventures, Advancit Capital and Box Group, who had already kicked in $2.5 million.
And, because it’s fun to type the words “Kevin Durant” in a funding story, the Golden State Warriors star is investing as well, via his self-named firm.
Meanwhile, Fishman says Brat’s thesis — that helping people with big social followings make videos on a modest budget could be a good business — is working well so far. He says Brat’s creators have helped the company rack up 300,000 followers on Instagram, and another 650,000 on YouTube.
And that following has helped them launch new shows and keep an audience coming back. Brat’s new favorite show is something called “Chicken Girls,” which has generated 30 million YouTube views.
This article originally appeared on Recode.net.
