Creator Case Study: How three creator-led businesses blew up on social media
Spotify’s bet on “taste”
Tanfluencers, dot cakes, and pigeon rescuers
Illustration by Annelise Capossela/For The Washington Post; iStock
Creators drive small-business growth
Kelly Bozigian experienced the kind of meteoric success that most creators dream of. Within weeks of launching her jewelry company on TikTok, mega-creator Alix Earle shared one of the company’s charm necklaces with her followers. In three weeks, sales rocketed to $100,000; by six months, she had sold $1 million in product.
What she wasn’t prepared for was a lawsuit that also followed, challenging the company’s name. Bozigian settled the suit, and sales have continued to be strong, but it’s an example of how creators have benefitted from — and struggled with — the sudden success of running a small business without much experience.
According to a 2025 Visa survey, 68 percent of creators consider themselves small-business owners. Now, a wake of companies and services — tech platforms, financial institutions, local governments and even Congress — are jumping in, ready to assist their continued growth.
“[Creators] don't have the tools, the resources, and really very often the education around how to run a business, because they got into business to live their passion,” said Ginger Siegel, the North America small and medium business lead at Mastercard. She said she considers a creator a small business as soon as they “set out to turn a passion into a financial opportunity.”
Siegel outlined common challenges for creator-led small businesses that the company is trying to address, a recognition of creators’ economic power: separating personal and business checking accounts, access to capital, and cyber attacks. Creators themselves also pointed to struggles to understand taxes and obtain loans to match their rapid development.
Creators are also changing the makeup of the small business space, as the average age of small-business owners has declined, Siegel said. That is only expected to increase, per Judy Nam, LinkedIn’s vice president of marketing for small business. She said LinkedIn has seen a 70 percent increase in entrepreneurial activity year over year, with a particular rise in young Gen Z founders enabled by AI.
The Takeover: How creators flexed their power this week.
🎥 “Backrooms” creator Kane Parsons is A24’s youngest director ever
☀️ It’s tanfluencers versus dermatologists trying to sway Gen Z
📺 After Stephen Colbert's viral talk show parody, CBS backs down from copyright action
🎂 Dot cakes are selling out in an hour
🏀 NBA’s contract with YouTuber Kenny Beecham a blueprint for sports leagues
Creator Case Study: How three creators built their businesses on TikTok
Jessica Simon, @mississippi.candle.co
@dylanewells @Mississippi Candle Company’s Jessica Simon broke down how #tiktokshop blew up her business and how the company uses creators now for @Was... See more
Rashad Jones, @rashadjonesbbq
@dylanewells I interviewed @Rashad Jones BBQ for @Washington Post Creator about how social media impacted his business at @tiktok creators’ #smallbusin... See more
Abbey Kowalec, @angelbakednyc
@dylanewells I spoke to @Abbey Kowalec for @Washington Post Creator about how she used social media to scale her cookie business at #TikTok’s #smallbus... See more
The Platforms
The Filipino virtual assistants behind LinkedIn’s “thought leadership” content mill
YouTube is crawling with pirated AI audiobooks
Meta laid off 8,000 employees, as AI casualties mount
Roku is expanding its licensing of creator content and launching a creator hub
Twitch tweaked its monetization tools
Spotify bets on taste as differentiator, will set aside concert tickets for superfans
Close Friends: Content I sent my friends this week.
Not my internet: This week I discovered pigeon-tok.
Momfluencers: the boy mom parenting hack going mega-viral.
Office soundtrack: our Washington Post Creator director of business operations Brian Edwards is all in on “Strawberry Sprite.”
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