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- The Escobar Family Goes "Legit" š®
The Escobar Family Goes "Legit" š®
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2 minute wacky businesses, you can tell your buddies about š§
Escobar Inc isnāt your typical business story. Founded by Roberto Escobar - yes, Pabloās brother - this company made millions a year while riding on one simple tactic: throw spaghetti at the wall and see what sticks.
Lawsuits and Questionable Phones š§
Founded in 2015, Escobar Inc has sold everything from flamethrowers to folding phones at absurdly low prices, but letās be real, a lot of this has been built on some seriously questionable tactics. Even their website is a mix between ālate-night TV infomercialā and āhow is this not getting shut down by the feds?ā. One of the products is a physical crypto noteā¦
Instead of hiding from controversy, they actively search for it. Openly mocking tech giants like Apple and Samsung. The marketing feels less like a campaign and more like a dare. They have crazy ads on YouTube titled āEscobar Girls show the new $399 foldable phoneā with lines such as āsexy girls not includedā.
What are the nuggets? š
š® The Origin Story: Roberto, fresh out of prison after handling the cash flow for Pabloās drug empire, looked at his brotherās legacy and thought, Why let all this infamy go to waste? In an attempt to recoup some of the lost Escobar fortune, they decided to pivot from crime to ālegitimateā commerce.
š® The Phones: In December 2019, Escobar Inc launched the Escobar Fold 1, which turned out to be just a rebranded Royole FlexPai. Two months later, they dropped the Escobar Fold 2 - basically a Samsung Galaxy Fold with poorly added Escobar branding. There were even rumours they shipped out books instead of phones, to claim the orders were āfulfilled.ā.
By May 2020, they were selling ārefurbishedā gold plated iPhone 11 Pros and even tried suing Apple for $2.6 billion. Roberto Escobar, accused Apple of intentionally selling vulnerable devices that compromised users' security, particularly his own, as he claimed his iPhone had been hacked. One of the listed natures of the suit was āNegligent Infliction of Emotional Distressā... I highly recommend watching this Marques Brownlee video where he goes through the full story.
š® Feuds with Tech Giants: Escobar Inc has made a habit of picking fights with major corporations. From threatening to sue Netflix (for $1 billion!) over the portrayal of Pablo in Narcos, to trying to take down Apple with wild claims/fake lawsuits, and attempts to delay Klanraās IPO theyāre clearly not afraid to use lawsuits (real or fictional) as a way to drum up media attention.
š® Social Media Censorship Battles: In 2020, Escobar Inc went after Facebook with a $100 billion lawsuit. Roberto Escobar claimed the platform let someone create a fake account under his name, which led to serious security threats against him. Claiming that Facebookās failure to control fake accounts put his privacy and life at risk.
š® The NFT Cash Grab: Predictably, they jumped on the NFT train when the hype was at its peak, offering āexclusive Escobar-brandedā NFTs. It wasnāt clear what you were actually buying - probably not ownership of a rare digital asset. It felt more like a sophisticated (or not-so-sophisticated) cash-grab that capitalised on the hype without delivering much substance. They also now sell a physical crypto note on their site.
š® Celebrity Endorsements... or Paid Partnerships?: At one point, Escobar Inc claimed Kanye West was interested in a partnership (because, of course). Whether this was an actual conversation or just a media ploy to grab headlines is anyoneās guess. The stunt worked, thoughāpeople were talking about it everywhere, despite zero evidence anything official ever happened.
š® The Pablo Escobar Rebrand Attempt: Roberto tried to rebrand Pabloās legacy as more of a āRobin Hoodā character than a cartel kingpin. They launched merchandise, biographies, and documentaries that romanticise Pablo's life in a way that conveniently forgets all theā¦ murder and drug trafficking.
š® Funding? Letās Not Pretend: With little-to-no external investment, Escobar Incās āfundingā source is likely... well, interesting. Theyāve been bootstrapped from day one, but you canāt help but wonder if a few bags of cash from the old days helped kick things off. There's no need to knock on VCs when you have other, um, creative financing.
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