Overheard, the social media brand with accounts dedicated to sharing eavesdropped conversations in locales like Los Angeles and New York, has been acquired by Doing Things Media.
The all-cash deal will see Doing Things Media — the parent company of other social brands like Recess Therapy, which was behind last summer’s viral “Corn Kid” video — expand the Overheard brand into new cities and across content, products, events, licensing, and advertising.
Overheard was created by Jesse Margolis in 2015 after he shared an absurd conversation he overheard at an Erewhon grocery store in L.A. to Instagram and was encouraged by a friend to create a separate account dedicated to such content. Since then, the brand has expanded across social platforms and includes accounts for New York, London, San Francisco and Austin, as well as two accounts focused on crowdsourced conversations taking place on university campuses and on dating apps.
“Doing Things Media represents the very best of internet culture and empowers its creators to scale and monetize in ways that wouldn’t be possible alone,” Margolis said in a statement. “Overheard has always been an extremely fun, irreverent, and profitable company, and as we look to scale the company, DTM will help get us where we want to be by helping extend the brand across new categories and revenue streams.”
With Doing Things Media, which secured a $21.5 million Series A funding round last year, Overheard will join a portfolio of social and meme accounts like Animals Doing Things, Middle Class Fancy, Shitheadsteve and the aforementioned Recess Therapy.
“We’ve found success building niche communities,” Doing Things Media CEO and co-founder Reid Hailey said. “Overheard fits seamlessly into our portfolio, allowing us to expand into new content verticals while providing the Overheard brand with the infrastructure required to rapidly scale with new opportunities on and off social media.”
