In the premiere episode of The Licensing Exchange, hosts David Schnider and Greg Pan sit down with Cindy Levitt — former Senior Vice President of Licensing at Hot Topic and 2023 Licensing International Hall of Fame inductee — to talk about the evolution of licensing, creativity, and risk-taking in retail.

Cindy shares how she helped grow Hot Topic from a garage startup into a cultural phenomenon, revealing how a single licensing decision — bringing SpongeBob SquarePants to college campuses — reshaped the business and put pop culture in the mainstream.

💬 They discuss how licensing has evolved from gut instinct to analytics, what today’s licensors can learn from the past, and why relationships still matter more than spreadsheets.

In this episode:

• The inside story of Hot Topic’s rise
• How SpongeBob changed retail licensing
• The balance between creativity and finance
• What the future of licensing could look like

🎙️ Part of The LOOK.Legal Pods from Nolan Heimann LLP — lawyers for creative business makers.