Just Go Grind Podcast: How Legion M Created the First Fan-Owned Entertainment Company

Justin Gordon
Justin Gordon is the founder of "Just Go Grind" and host of the "Just Go Grind Podcast," a daily show with more than 200 episodes featuring interviews with entrepreneurs and investors. He has an MBA from USC, is an aspiring runner with a 1:29 half marathon personal best, and wants to help one billion people in his lifetime.
Just Go Grind Podcast: How Legion M Created the First Fan-Owned Entertainment Company
Jeff Bartee Photography

On this week's episode of Just Go Grind, hear from Jeff Annison and Paul Scanlan, co-founders of Legion M, an entertainment company that partners with top Hollywood creators to produce movies, TV and digital content. The startup allows fans to invest in its productions for as little as a $100, leveraging new equity crowdfunding laws.



Key Takeaways:

  • Legion M exists and was inspired by the Jobs Act, which changed equity crowdfunding laws and allowed everyday people to directly invest in startups. The company believes ownership by fans gives them a fundamental competitive advantage over entertainment companies owned by an individual or a corporate conglomerate.
  • Legion M raised $1 million for "Colossal" — a movie starring Anne Hathaway it helped produce — by initially crowdfunding money from 3,500 fans. It's an unimpressive amount of money for Hollywood. But the fact that thousands of investors were baked-in fans "fundamentally changed the calculus" and got Hollywood makers interested in partnering with Legion M.
  • The company believes that involving investors in productions creates a virtuous cycle. Director, producers and investors all win.
"This is this is a moonshot. Our goal is to unite one million entertainment fans, to co-own the company alongside of us and then take over Hollywood." -- Paul Scanlan, Legion M co-founder and CEO

Want to hear more episodes of Just Go Grind? Listen on Apple Podcasts, Stitcher, Spotify, Google Podcasts — or wherever you get your podcasts.

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Decerry Donato is a reporter at dot.LA. Prior to that, she was an editorial fellow at the company. Decerry received her bachelor's degree in literary journalism from the University of California, Irvine. She continues to write stories to inform the community about issues or events that take place in the L.A. area. On the weekends, she can be found hiking in the Angeles National forest or sifting through racks at your local thrift store.

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