creator-economy
(501)
Andrew Reis and the trouble with a view
From co-founding Tremor to helping form Genesis Media, Andrew Reis has worked on the gap between an audience and a paying customer. His latest ventures bring that question to live shopping and creator commerce.
John West and the sports fans hiding in plain sight
His children liked playing sports. Watching the grown-ups talk about them was another matter. John West built Team Whistle around that gap, after two businesses in rather different fields.
Michael Sanchez keeps changing the game
A junior chess player, a soccer professional and a founder with a long-running partnership. Michael Sanchez’s route to Raptive keeps returning to one question: how do you help a community sustain itself?
Adam Ryan and the business of remembering names
Before he sold newsletter ads, Adam Ryan learned the names of 128 ninth-graders. At Workweek, he is building a business around a related idea: useful knowledge travels further when people know who is speaking.
Anand Kishore and the business of leaving room
The Aspire co-founder built a career around a delicate bargain: give creators space to be themselves, then make the business around them work.
Josh Wand and the business of knowing someone
A chance encounter in a cigar shop led Josh Wand into consumer brands. From ForceBrands to CreatorForce and founder investing, he has kept returning to the same question: who should be in the room?
Eric Lam and the business of the second conversation
Before Aspire became software for creator relationships, Eric Lam learned how much work a relationship takes. His route from finance and mobile games to influencer marketing is a story about what happens after the introduction.
Karen Robinovitz and the business of getting carried away
She helped turn online influence into a profession. With Sloomoo Institute, Karen Robinovitz is putting her eye for culture to work on something people can stretch, squish and take home.
Heat and the price of zero
Heat put payments, course delivery and sales tools in one place for digital creators. Its most revealing detail is the small print beneath a very big zero.
GetCourse and the business behind the lesson
A nail-design course ran into an administrative wall. The software built to get past it now connects the classroom, the checkout, and the next sale.
Influencer makes the backstage business of fame work
A teenage clothing experiment became a creator marketing company. Its revealing trick is making the work behind a post as deliberate as the post itself.
Reid Hailey Jr. and the second life of a joke
An Instagram account started in his parents’ basement put Reid Hailey Jr. in the business of making strangers laugh. At Doing Things, his next question became what those strangers would do together.
Seung Yoon Lee and the price of the next chapter
He sold a fiction app to Kakao for $440 million. From crowdfunded journalism to Story and AI training data, Seung Yoon Lee keeps returning to one question: how does the person who made something get paid?
Jarred Kessler and the price of staying put
He started with a friend who wanted to sell a house quietly. EasyKnock became a much bigger bet on home equity, and its closure left questions that still follow its co-founder.
Aaron DeBevoise and the second life of a video
Before a YouTube archive became something you could finance, Aaron DeBevoise had to learn why people kept watching. His career runs from film deals and gaming networks to a wager on creators becoming their own television business.
Sarah Boyd and the business of knowing someone
A fashion PR career taught Sarah Boyd how much an introduction could change. From SIMPLY’s conferences to The Digital Dept., she has spent the years since finding new ways to put people in the same room.
Roger Patterson and the art of staying small
He helped turn an Instagram scheduling experiment into Later. Along the way, Roger Patterson made a habit of asking who a business should serve - and what it should refuse.
Shana Davis-Ross Knows What Happens After the Post
Before a creator’s name appears on a product, someone has to help the idea survive the calendar. Shana Davis-Ross built Ponte Firm around that part of the job.
Sidon Farris and the art of the second introduction
Before he connected brands with talent, Sidon Farris was the talent. The Onyx Agency founder’s career turns on what happens when a relationship gets a second act.
Rebecca Ding and the distance between a product and a place in your life
After two decades at Samsung, Feng (Rebecca) Ding built WeBranding Global around a problem a shipping label cannot solve: helping unfamiliar technology feel at home in another country.
Lyle Stevens and the arithmetic of being believed
A Facebook argument between his brothers gave Lyle Stevens a question worth building a company around: who actually moves people? From Mavrck to Later, he has spent his career trying to make the answer useful.
Britt St. George and the Work After the Applause
A childhood viewing of Jerry Maguire gave Britt St. George a career idea. Building SMITH&SAINT with her sister taught her what comes after the movie ends: contracts, calculated bets, and careers designed to outlast a moment of fame.
Leanne Perice’s theory of lasting fame
Before she founded MADE BY ALL, Leanne Perice wrote a paper about Jay-Z and the business beyond the music. Her work with creators has been an extended answer to the same question: what can an audience make possible?
Mikael Yang and the trick of getting a reply
Before Manychat, Mikael Yang sold card tricks and built places to share jokes. His next idea was smaller than a social network: help a business start a conversation that somebody actually wants to continue.
Sam Lessin and the trouble with getting what you want
He built an assistant to take the chores out of life. What Sam Lessin learned at Fin now follows him into AI, venture capital, and the awkward business of trusting other people.
Sumit Jain keeps finding a common floor
An apartment network, a voice app, a business for creators. Across Sumit Jain’s changing ventures, the recurring question is how to get people talking - and give them a reason to stay.
Mike Kadin knows what a voice is worth
A physics teacher, musician and former Uber engineer built RedCircle around a stubborn question: how can independent podcasters get paid without losing the voice that made people listen?
Acceleration Partners makes every partnership earn its place
A shoe brand had plenty of creators and too few sellers. Acceleration Partners turned that imbalance into a lesson in what partnership marketing should reward.
SoundBetter: Your next bandmate is a stranger
A song can travel from a bedroom to the world. SoundBetter puts the missing people in between - and gives strangers a reason to trust each other.
Intro puts a price on the right conversation.
A chance meeting helped Raad Mobrem become an entrepreneur. Intro turns that lucky break into something you can book - provided you can afford the person on the other end.