The Top Actors, Rappers, and Athletes Trying to Disrupt the Tech Game

These are the apps and startups you might not know were backed by celebrity money.

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Complex Original

Image via Complex Original

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When you've got so much cash that you can, for example, have your wedding reception—not even your actual wedding—at the Palace of Versailles, something amazing can happen: you can use that money to make even more money in the tech game. (Cue Dr. Evil laugh.)

But it's not as easy as simply putting a $100 bill into a machine and having it spit back out even more Benjamins—you have to invest it, and then pray to the Geek Gods that it comes back to you, either in its full amount or more. If you've watched The Social Network or Jobs, they show how important financing was to Facebook and Apple's development, and the riches that can be made when things go successfully. Investing in anything comes with a risk—the bigger the gamble, the bigger the potential payoff—and investors can always end up losing money when the idea, timing, and eventual product just don't add up. But when it all comes together, boy oh boy is the payoff sweet. 

There's a group of celebrities that have tried their hand at investing in apps and startups, joining the game of strategic gambling that gave Silicon Valley its cutthroat rep. Investing in startups gives celebrities the chance to build something to fall back on when they're done with whatever made them that extra money in the first place—like, say, if they're an athlete with just a few more years left in the tank, or battling through injuries that can end their career at any moment. Staking a claim in a company that could potentially net them cash down the road gives them a safety net. There's a good amount of celebs who've launched or invested in startups (there were nearly 17 of them during the launch of the streaming service, Tidal), and some have been surprisingly successful (we're not counting Dr. Dre and Jimmy Iovine here, since Beats partnered with a larger company, Monster, when it started), while others had their investments flop harder than a floppy disk.

So here they are: the stars who have taken the biggest plunges into the tech world.

Snoop Dogg

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Nas

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Justin Bieber and Floyd Mayweather

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Jessica Alba

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Justin Timberlake

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Will.i.am

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Will.i.am is an interesting cat. You can tell he's passionate about what he does, and though he might think pretty highly of himself as an artist, it's not translating for him in the tech department. In 2012, Will.i.am founded the company i.am.+, which originally focused on iPhone accessories. Then they introduced their first product: a smartwatch called Puls. If you've seen him on stage or at events, he's usually wearing it. (He even wore it to the Apple Watch unveiling back in September). 

It looks like an 80s wrist band with a screen. The Puls was originally given out to people who got an invitation (there are no more invites now), and there's no word on a release date. Some units have been posted on eBay for about $300.

Ashton Kutcher

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Leonardo DiCaprio and Tobey Maguire

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T.I.

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Lindsay Lohan

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Will Ferrell

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Carmelo Anthony

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Will Smith

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MC Hammer

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MC Hammer had high ambitions as a techie. He attempted to go toe-to-toe with Google, Bing, and Yahoo by developing his own search engine, the oddly named website, WireDoo. It was supposed to scan data from across the web and public records to give users a one-look place to see relevant information about what they searched for. As Hammer said, "If it's a car... it's not just about the word 'car,' but it's about insurance, it's about the specs, it's about mileage, it's about style, it's about all these things. So that's the way it works."

But that was 2011, and the search engine didn't work out. And to rub salt in an open wound, Hammer was a co-founder of the social network DanceJam, which also eventually failed.

Jared Leto

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Struggle Mention: Kanye West

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