Our First Creator Fund Investment: Jonathan Katz-Moses
Context: We made our first investment out of the Creator Fund: $2M into Jonathan Katz-Moses, a creator-entrepreneur with a loyal woodworking community. Jonathan uses his YouTube content (600k subscribers, 75M+ views) to drive demand for KM Tools, a business he bootstrapped from a 120 sq-ft shed to a 33,000 sq-ft facility. His brand is built on trust, authenticity, and a product line he designs, patents, and manufactures in-house.
Market Signal:
Creator-led businesses are evolving into full-scale, venture-backable enterprises.
The global woodworking tools market is projected to surpass $10B by 2030, with strong U.S. demand among hobbyists and prosumers.
Content-commerce flywheels (where education fuels product demand) can scale profitably without traditional ad spend.
Niche creators with deep audience trust can outcompete traditional brands in targeted verticals.
Takeaways:
We’re betting on creators with founder-level discipline and niche market insight, not someone chasing fame.
Jonathan’s vertically integrated approach (content, design, manufacturing, fulfillment) enables strong margins and brand control.
Personal narrative and authenticity remain powerful growth drivers for niche communities.
Creator economies are maturing into sustainable, defensible businesses—blurring the lines between influencer and founder.
Jonathan’s personal journey to $6M in revenue, without needing any sponsors:
More from the announcement:
“I’ve bet on myself too many times to give up the reins now… They answer the phone whenever I call, but they don’t try to run the business for me.” - Jonathan in Forbes by Ian Shepherd
“When we visited him in his 30,000-square-foot shop in Santa Barbara, we were blown away by his serious and long-term commitment to the brand and building a scaled business” - Billy Parks in TechCrunch by Dominic-Madori Davis
“We’d gotten to the point where we were just juggling what things we’d let go out of stock so that we could develop new products… We’d reached an operational cash need that exceeded our bootstrapping abilities.” - Jonathan in The Information by Kaya Yurieff
“You’re as popular as your least-viewed video in a year. And those people will support you in anything you do. So I don’t need 50 million views. I need 100,000 loyal viewers and that’s it.” - Jonathan in The Publish Press by Syd Cohen