The HoldCo We're Sliving For

If you ever owned a juicy tracksuit, you know that Paris Hilton was early 2000s pop culture. For many years, she was a staple of magazine covers, elite nightlife, and reality television…and then, the Paris we thought we knew took a step back from the spotlight.

Her 2020 documentary, “This is Paris,” was a powerful reintroduction; she presents a searingly honest self-portrait, inclusive of the many traumatic experiences she suffered. And, since then, she has been back with a vengeance – shipping product lines, releasing reality tv shows, DJing, and writing “Paris: The Memoir.”

Like us, you may have wondered how is Paris suddenly doing it all? The answer is simple: 11:11 Media.

11:11 is Paris Hilton’s holding company, which comprises Slivington Manor Entertainment (content production), 11:11 Digital (digital media strategy), London Audio (podcast), and 11:11 Licensing (product licensing). We recently had the pleasure of chatting with 11:11’s VP of Growth, Minou Clark, to learn more about the structure Paris has created and how it has supported her creative endeavors.

Clark explained that the idea for 11:11 originated during COVID. Particularly following the release of her documentary, Paris realized that developing and managing each of her projects separately was both onerous and inefficient. In a highly entrepreneurial effort to find synergies and streamline her workflow, Paris wanted to create a single entity that could house her entire current and future portfolio of work - such as brand deals, product lines, live performances and TV shows. And the first, and undoubtedly most important, step was finding a seasoned operator.

Paris quickly identified and hired Bruce Gersh as President of 11:11 Media. A seasoned media executive, Gersh was previously SVP of Strategy & BD at Time, Inc, and EVP/President of People, Entertainment Weekly and People en Espanol. Together, Paris and Gersh worked to build out an organization of ~17 people that could catapult Paris from a celebrity to a major company.

Clark noted that, today, 11:11 allows Paris to operate at the highest possible level. Each silo within the organization both aggressively pursues its own growth and communicates with the others to ensure all decisions are in Paris’ best interest. Because every business unit rolls up to 11:11, Paris always has a holistic picture of her empire – better informing her strategic vision and allowing her team to identify all possible synergies across her endeavors. For example, she released her latest pop single, “Hot One,” while working on a Taco Bell brand campaign promoting the return of the Volcano Menu. Additionally, 11:11 collects and measures data with the precision of a tech company, performing analysis and appropriately adjusting their efforts.

Paris and her 11:11 team ideate in concert, thinking deeply about her next projects and collaborating to ensure the best possible outcome. While Paris is still intimately involved in the details, her team relieves much of the operational burden and, consequently, she is able to authentically ‘scale’ herself as much as possible.

As we consider how Paris has pioneered the HoldCo model, we are equal parts impressed with her incisive business instinct and convinced any multihyphenate would benefit from this type of structure. Without 11:11, Paris would neither be able to pursue the number of projects she is involved with, nor execute them so spectacularly. And though she shows no interest in taking a break, 11:11 is already a robust business that could survive Paris’ reduced involvement. From our perspective, 11:11 demonstrates the transformative potential of establishing a HoldCo…and we think that’s hot.