What We Look For in Creator Investments

The Creator: We bias toward creators who act like founders. They’re an authority in— and are obsessed with their niche. They’re magnetic, great at world-building, and can rally audiences, employees, and investors to come along for the ride. In short: they’ve got rizz and tizz (h/t AZ). Compared with creators who consider themselves “talent” and for whom fame and notability are paramount, creator-entrepreneurs strive to generate and capture enterprise value, rather than creating it solely for others.

The Community: As we’ve previously discussed, our hyper‑connected world has ushered in unprecedented levels of visibility and competition, meaning creators can rise at dramatic rates but only cult‑level communities cut through. We look for a white‑hot core of fanatics bonded by psychographics like shared values, interests, or stories rather than surface demographics. When the center burns bright, growth on the edges gets easier.

The Category: Unsurprisingly, community is closely tied to category and when considered together, they represent a theme. In this context, we ask how niche, durable, and investable the category is. We prefer specific or narrow verticals over broad entertainment or lifestyle, where attention can be ephemeral. It’s also (relatively) easier to build lasting enterprise value in a niche. From there, we look to understand the competitive and commercial dynamics of the category and pattern of consumer behavior.

Scale: Follower counts have lost some signal, but traction and heat still matter. For most opportunities we like to see ~200k–2M+ followers and $500k+ in annual advertising / platform revenue. If the creator is generating revenue off‑platform from product sales, that serves as even stronger proof of conversion. While these numbers guide us, they aren’t hard and fast rules.