Steven Galanis

Steven Galanis (born December 15, 1987) is an American entrepreneur best known as the co-founder and CEO of Cameo along with Martin Blencowe and Devon Townsend. Cameo is a marketplace where fans can book personalized video shoutouts from their favorite celebrities. 
== Early life ==
Galanis was born in Glenview, Illinois, the eldest of two sons to Greek immigrant Themis & Teddi (née Furla) Galanis. His paternal grandfather was a carpenter who immigrated to the United States from Sparta, Greece. His maternal grandfather was photographer and stock broker Spero Furla, founder of Furla Studios. His maternal uncle is Hollywood producer George Furla. While in kindergarten at Winkelman School Galanis received his life-long nickname, "The Mayor." 
== Education and early career ==
Galanis is a 2006 graduate of Glenbrook South High School where he captained the varsity football team and lead the varsity hockey team to the 2006 Illinois State Championship. He was also an award winning debater and class president. At Duke University, Galanis majored in History, minored in Economics, and received a certificate in Markets and Management Studies. While at Duke, Galanis got his first taste of entrepreneurship by co-founding Spartan Entertainment. After graduation Galanis spent four years as an options trader at the CBOE. During his time in the pit, Galanis started raising money to produce film and television projects. He eventually went to work in sales at LinkedIn after getting recruited by Arthur Leopold (future COO of Cameo). 
== Cameo ==
Cameo started with the idea that "selfies are the new autograph." The company has forever altered the way fans can interact with their favorite celebrities. In 2020, Cameo topped Fast Company’s list of the “World’s Most Innovative Social Media Companies” and was named one of the “World’s 50 Most Innovative Companies.” In 2019, Cameo took home the prestigious Momentum Award given annually by 1871 & the Chicagoland Entrepreneurial Center. Cameo was named one of the "50 Most Genius Companies" by Time in 2018. Under Galanis' leadership, Cameo has become well known for its legendary corporate culture centered around five core values (Roll Out the Red Carpet, Run Through Walls, Fight for Simplicity, No Surprises, Make it Fun). Cameo has been named one of America’s Best Startup Employers by Forbes (#19) and LinkedIn (#32). Cameo functions as a distributed team with hubs in Chicago and Los Angeles. To date, Cameo has raised over $65M in venture capital from some of the world’s top investors including Seed (Starting Line, Chicago Ventures, & Origin Ventures), Series A (Lightspeed Venture Partners, Bedrock, Pritzker Group), & Series B (Kleiner Perkins, The Chernin Group, Bain Capital Ventures, & Spark Capital).
== Honors & awards ==
Recognized as one of “Hollywood’s Top Innovators” by THR (The Hollywood Reporter), Steven has been named “40 under 40” by Crain’s Chicago Business and “Inno Blazer of the Year (B2C)” by Chicago Inno.
== Philanthropy ==
Galanis serves on the Board of Directors of Habitat for Humanity Chicago.
==In the media==
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== References ==
==External links==
* Steven Galanis on linkedin
* Steven Galanis on twitter
* Steven Galanis on instagram
* Steven Galanis on facebook
* Steven Galanis on crunchbase
* Steven Galanis on imdb
* Steven Galanis - Cameo
* Steven Galanis / Founder of Cameo - Tech In Chicago
* Steven Galanis | Chicago Business & Financial News & Analysis
Category:1987 births
Category:American entrepreneurs
Category:American businesspeople
Category:Glenbrook North High School alumni
Category:Duke University alumni
Category:People from Chicago