Hello, content creators. Silicon valley investors want to get to know youHello, content creators. Silicon valley investors want to explore youhello, content creators. Silicon valley investors want to get to know you
The culture of network influence is starting to get serious interest from big venture capital firms. But the real money is in digital tools, not personalities.
By taylor lorenz and erin wu
Last summer, tucker schreiber, the 28-year-old co-founder of the video-editing startup combo, noticed that he was getting a lot more emails in his inbox. Despite the fact that his company had no employees or products and was no longer claiming to be looking for money, investors were sending him a flood of messages.
"I started getting five to 10 incoming e-mails a day for weeks on end from investors," he said.
Mr. Schreiber's startup was experiencing a boom in investors focused on the special economy of creators or influencers. The boom in the maker economy has rekindled interest in social media among venture capitalists, who for years thought there was no reason to pursue social newcomers because facebook and snap (which owns snapchat) were sucking all the air out of the market.
Creators are workers who build an audience on the world wide web and look for opportunities to gain a native audience. They are typically the younger generation, the tech-savvy, who seek a livelihood by working on social networks. Large investors from silicon valley are increasingly willing to see in such journeys the next financial vein, which is convenient to develop through the world wide web.
The creator economy, which provides digital tools to the influential society and helps them to do business, in fact, there is a huge, completely unexplored market. According to the venture capital company signalfire, fifty million. Users in the world consider themselves creators of video materials, and according to the results of the technology news site the data, this year, venture capital companies in the silicon valley, which is the largest in the world. Silicon valley seems to be more interested in the digital tools and platforms used by content creators than in investing directly in the creators themselves.
Last month, for example, the venture capital firm founders fund led a $15 million investment round for pietra, a startup designed to help influencers launch a product line. In april, venture capital firm seven seven six, led by alexis ohanian, co-founder of reddit, and bessemer venture partners announced a $16 million investment in pearpop, a platform that helps authors monetize their partnerships and exposure in social media news.
And the list goes on and on. In late winter, renowned venture capital firm andreessen horowitz led an investment in stir, a platform that helps authors take control of their revenue, valuing the company at $100 million.
Dispo, a photo sharing program that mimics digital camera collaboration, received four million dollars in a funding round led by seven seven six and a robust $20 million investment round led by spark capital. Venture capital firm benchmark led an investment round of up to twenty million dollars in the poparazzi app, which gives users' friends the ability to post photos to that profiles, turning their coworkers into "paparazzi."
And in addition: there is clubhouse, a heavyweight in this young market, generating a lot of buzz in silicon valley and throughout the land of press and attractions. Clubhouse, which requires an invitation to join, is an account built on chat rooms using only audio. In april, it raised a two hundred million dollar america component funding round led by andreessen horowitz, which gave the opportunity to see its price somewhere in the $4 billion range.
"When i was just starting to toil with venture capital now, there was a widespread view of which 'another major social network might be quite difficult to emerge,'" says li jin, founder of atelier, a venture capital firm specializing in online creators.
Tiktok has turned all these perceptions upside down. By focusing on influencers, the app has forced a change in traditional social media, one of which includes instagram and twitter, which avoided paying attention to people creating popular article on platforms.
Tiktok has made it easier to spot budding social media personalities and presented them with clearer direct access to what they earn through the organization's creator fund, which pays creators some amount for views.
"The old social platforms were focused on contacting people you knew through the world wide web," said linus walton, a vice president at investment firm chernin group. Now, "its secret is to become an influencer or a new tiktok star that any formed partners follow."
Subscription platforms like onlyfans and patreon, where fans pay creators for a password to premium content, have also helped investors imagine that there is a strong business case for organizing equipment for engineers. Now the word "creator" has become a catch-all term that is applied to all manner of businesses to lure investors. So much so that alexander finden, a tech entrepreneur, coined the term "creatorwash."
"There are more creator economy startups than creators," turner novak, founder of banana capital, which invests in early-stage tech startups, joked on twitter in april.
Rex woodbury, a 27-year-old principal at index ventures, a san francisco investment firm, is a slice of both worlds. He began his own career advancement as an influence professional, building an audience of more than 237,000 followers on instagram with lifestyle publications. At the end of college, he absolutely went into investing, where he has carved out a niche as an authority in this area of the creative economy.
"I've seen a few emails from vps saying, 'eight out of 10 producers, and i've met with them so far, are active companies,' " mr. Woodbury said. "It truly is now vogue."
He settled on index ventures in december, being at this moment when venture capitalists began favoring makers and viewing help from companions that understand this landscape.
"A lot of younger investors feel confident us because we're a high-tech carrier," mr. Woodbury said. "This is the millennial where we grew up."
Now big platforms like spotify, twitter and fb are rushing to catch up with startups, specifically clubhouse. Spotify recently announced its own, surprise live audio greenroom, which is a competitor to clubhouse, created by spotify after buying locker room, a startup specializing in live audio. Twitter has already added its own clubhouse competitor, twitter spaces, and twitter and fb are launching newsletter services to compete with the successful substack service, which makes it easy for visitors to create subscriptions to their own recordings.
As the boundaries between venture capital and the world of creators blur, many traditional venture capitalists are also looking to become creators themselves. Companies such as andreessen horowitz have used their investments in clubhouse to develop their employees through the app's list of recommended users. Knight jones, a partner at andreessen horowitz, has amassed more than two million subscribers to clubhouse and recently signed a deal with such a talent recruitment company wme.
Still, while investors are rushing to put their own money into social networking startups, it's not always clear when many of the apps laid out in the trade will be able to last. Dispo, february's most buzzed-about social media startup, faced backlash a month later once one of its co-founders, youtube star david dobrick, found himself embroiled in a controversy over allegations of erotic abuse by a member of his "vlog squad." Soon after, spark capital announced it was severing all ties with the producer. Seven seven six did not sever ties with the organization, but said it would donate profits to an organization that works with abuse victims.
Poparazzi, which took the top https://x-x-x.tube spot among free apps for iphones in the last week of may, fell to 156th place by mid-june, according to statistics from app research tower sensor. And even though clubhouse had 5.3 million downloads in the primary 14 days of june, according to sensor tower, 4,8000000. Accounted for the android poe, it was available underneath the end of may.
"For a long time, none of them cared about this space or recognized this time as a living means square," says bobby thakkar, 21, co-founder of ampersand, a studio that creates items for creators. "Today, after coins and bills trickle into the industry we will only view more organizations, more competition and higher startups engaging creators in quality business."
Taylor lorenz is a technology reporter in los angeles covering tech culture and networked creators. Prior to stepping into the new york times, she turned out to be a contributor to the tech and culture piece at the atlantic. Details about taylor lorenz
Erin wu is a technology researcher. She is a graduate of stanford university.
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