How much creators are negotiating for at the cap table
A Q+A with wood artist Ike Wynter
Illustration by Annelise Capossela/For The Washington Post; iStock
Building a creator equity playbook
Creators want in as investors in brands and products, and founders and companies are thirsting to get them on board. But the fledgling sector of the creator economy lacks a playbook.
Creators “are wanting to do more than just earn money, they’re wanting to build wealth…they’re creating a lot of enterprise value, and they don’t just want a piece of sales,” said Kate McAndrew, the co-founder of the $100 million pre-seed fund Baukunst who has also become a creator herself. At the same time, founders of startup companies, “want creators on their cap tables. They understand the value of creators.”
Despite the mutual courtship, the existing industry norms around investing are not set up to reflect the unique factors a creator may need to consider when signing on to invest or for sweat equity — from use of their name, image and likeness, to affiliate promotion, to Federal Trade Commission regulations.
Cherub, an app and marketplace that connects founders, creators and angel investors that recently announced raising $4.5 million in pre-seed funding, is attempting to address those challenges to educate both creators and founders about working together. Co-founder and CEO Jaclyn Johnson said that more than $12 million has been deployed through Cherub connections thus far on the angel and founder side, with the creator component just launching last month.
While Cherub is not alone in trying to broker deals between creators and startups, it has focused on trying to set baselines for creator-investor relationships, including a new legal framework dubbed the “Creator Equity Agreement,” that Johnson previewed in an interview and at the platform’s application-only creator summit last month aimed at educating potential investors.
The Takeover: How creators flexed their power this week.
She’s the internet’s most polarizing fashion influencer — and she knows it (Wall Street Journal)
Are polyglot creators capturing real human connection, or gaming social media? (New York Times Magazine)
Dhar Mann announced “Creator City,” a new four-acre Los Angeles production campus
Amelia Dimoldenberg to bring “Chicken Shop Date” final season to Netflix and YouTube (Variety)
Hollywood films and TikTok dramas: sports media’s new “blueprint” (Front Office Sports)
WME unveils Creator Labs to help clients build media businesses (The Hollywood Reporter)
‘How I Built This’ leaves NPR for Vox Media as Guy Raz takes ownership (The Wrap)
Teens who can’t put down TikTok and Instagram are losing their sense of time (Wall Street Journal)
A viewer’s guide to Warren Buffett’s nightly trips down the YouTube rabbit hole (Wall Street Journal)
Creator Q+A: Ike Wynter
Courtesy of Ike Wynter
Ike Wynter (@ike_wynter) is a Milwaukee-based wood artist known for creating sustainable art using reclaimed, unpainted wood found on streets and dumpsters. It started as a hobby, but after going viral on social media during the pandemic, he now creates custom pieces for major clients like Mike Tyson, Crayola and the NFL.
This interview has been edited and condensed.
Shruti Singh: On making a living, because your work is so time-intensive, how do you balance having that versus the financial reality of being a creator? What does your monetization strategy look like?
Ike Wynter: I come from a family of entrepreneurs and risk-takers, so there'd be no other way that I would like to live. I'm the least money-driven person you've ever met. As long as I have enough to keep my lights on and have a studio here and get a cup of coffee every day, I'm pretty simple as a human. I don't get too into the monetization on TikTok or other platforms, I don't rely on that money for views, and I'm grateful that brands see the value in my art and are willing to collaborate with me.
The Platforms:
TikTok says it generated $81 billion in U.S. GDP last year and supported 410,000 American jobs
Meta, TikTok, X challenge UK watchdog over online safety data demands
UK’s Ofcom investigates Meta over Instagram Instants feature
Meta launched Edits assistant, an in-app AI creative assistant
TikTok expands its off-platform ad network to US advertisers
ShopMy announced Spotlights to turn creator content into paid ads
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