Creator economy startups
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quantum1982
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@andyfoundlight We’re building a creator-economy (and B2B) SaaS startup! Would love to connect. We applied to YC S24 and we’re getting ready to launch in the coming days.
andyfoundlight
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@quantum1982 Amazing!! I’ll DM, this sounds awesome, would love to see how I can help!
@andyfoundlight One worry I have with building venture scale startups in the Creator economy is getting distribution in a world where the platforms have such control: they can remove content for myriad reasons, heavily regulate linking to outside the platform etc. This will choke growth. Reminds me of my last startup where we were trying to build on top of the Android ecosystem. One set of plays that might work is if one can marry an office activity with online content - like Airbnb, Uber etc married mobile experience with people activity to get distribution on Mobile platforms.
andyfoundlight
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quintessentialramble
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@andyfoundlight Hey @andyfoundlight, I own Creatorfy and built the product over the course of two years with a team of 3 Engineers. It’s focused on the streamer use case. You can do a few things on it:
Sad thing is we never got the marketing right. 15 months in the journey I launched another startup, RocketDevs.com and got it 100k revenue within 5 months. As a solo founder it just made sense to focus on the more profitable product.
Creatorfy is up but it needs founder attention with a vision. I’m a solo founder (LinkedIn.com/in/thelastsultan). I would be interested in having a conversation about teaming up.
- Queue up and play with your favorite streamer (could be big for chess)
- Lottery mode, where you get chosen by the steamer to play by chance
- Experiences where someone books your time
Sad thing is we never got the marketing right. 15 months in the journey I launched another startup, RocketDevs.com and got it 100k revenue within 5 months. As a solo founder it just made sense to focus on the more profitable product.
Creatorfy is up but it needs founder attention with a vision. I’m a solo founder (LinkedIn.com/in/thelastsultan). I would be interested in having a conversation about teaming up.
@andyfoundlight My startup somewhat incorporates the creator economy model as one of the component.
However we are a vertically integrated platform currently focused on fashion creators. And we have users and revenue.
However we are a vertically integrated platform currently focused on fashion creators. And we have users and revenue.
kingdomsound
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andyfoundlight
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@gloria_ Yoo that’s actually perfect — are you currently working with creators or plan on working with them? We built an AI model that’s measures the strength of relationships between viewers and the creators, and have been experimenting around with how to translate its outputs into insights.
Would love to work more hands on with other startups to see how this could be helpful. Right now it’s great for quality checking YouTube channels to see if they have a real fanbase.
PS: when I say AI model, I mean like an actual model (CNN) and not just a ChatGPT wrapper
Would love to work more hands on with other startups to see how this could be helpful. Right now it’s great for quality checking YouTube channels to see if they have a real fanbase.
PS: when I say AI model, I mean like an actual model (CNN) and not just a ChatGPT wrapper
@andyfoundlight I am not sure if my startup can be purely categorized into creator economy model. However my startup is mostly useful for fashion creators such as designers, bloggers or anyone interested in fashion as a hobby or profession.
If someone wants to launch their own design or a fashion brand, the current avenue is to get a factory or White Label supplier in Asia with their own MOQ (minimum order quantity) while simultaneously setting up the business aspects. This process alone can take between 2-6 months with huge initial investment. (Until and unless it’s DTG t-shirts which is cheaper)..
Now this is where we come in:
Creators can easily submit their outfit designs by selecting their choice of fabric from the app. We charge between $35 - $120 depending on the style category. We produce and ship the design to the original creator while listing the same in our e-com store section inside the app.
The original creator earns 15% commission on sales.
The app is a cross between Instagram, e-commerce & Shopify supported by our own manufacturing, supply chain management and logistics making us a vertically integrated platform.
I have been running my own manufacturing unit for a long time coupled with past experiences in selling t-shirts, DTG and multiple failed attempts at launching my own fashion brand owing to MOQ, capital constraints & other backend complexities.
Hence I started a manufacturing company from where I could help other designers launch their own brand with super low MOQ but sadly the business model wasn’t profitable owing to razor thin margins due to low unit economics and long credit time frame..
Most of the designers were also suffering or closing down due to high operational cost, marketing expenses, logistics etc leaving them with no margins.
Also most new designers or brands don’t sell that many units per design in-order to adhere to factory MOQ, and even when they do they are left with tons of surplus inventory..
I had faced exactly the same problem while trying to launch my fashion company which pushed me to eventual failure..
So the win-win solution was to reduce the MOQ to 1pc but with the cachet that I also be allowed to sell the same design to my customers. Initially we didn’t have a revenue sharing model but after getting good responses; we finally introduced a commission model along with providing the creators with all the needed tools and dashboard.
It’s not only creators who are submitting their designs but regular users too; and the good thing is these regular users are making enough money to cover their submission cost.
And for us, we are able to hedge the design risk to our customers while earning from hit designs.
So I am not sure how my business fits into the creator economy model but it is infact helping fashion creators monetize their designs easily.
We now have over 13000 users and have shipped over 18000 products within 8 months with very minimal marketing.
If someone wants to launch their own design or a fashion brand, the current avenue is to get a factory or White Label supplier in Asia with their own MOQ (minimum order quantity) while simultaneously setting up the business aspects. This process alone can take between 2-6 months with huge initial investment. (Until and unless it’s DTG t-shirts which is cheaper)..
Now this is where we come in:
Creators can easily submit their outfit designs by selecting their choice of fabric from the app. We charge between $35 - $120 depending on the style category. We produce and ship the design to the original creator while listing the same in our e-com store section inside the app.
The original creator earns 15% commission on sales.
The app is a cross between Instagram, e-commerce & Shopify supported by our own manufacturing, supply chain management and logistics making us a vertically integrated platform.
I have been running my own manufacturing unit for a long time coupled with past experiences in selling t-shirts, DTG and multiple failed attempts at launching my own fashion brand owing to MOQ, capital constraints & other backend complexities.
Hence I started a manufacturing company from where I could help other designers launch their own brand with super low MOQ but sadly the business model wasn’t profitable owing to razor thin margins due to low unit economics and long credit time frame..
Most of the designers were also suffering or closing down due to high operational cost, marketing expenses, logistics etc leaving them with no margins.
Also most new designers or brands don’t sell that many units per design in-order to adhere to factory MOQ, and even when they do they are left with tons of surplus inventory..
I had faced exactly the same problem while trying to launch my fashion company which pushed me to eventual failure..
So the win-win solution was to reduce the MOQ to 1pc but with the cachet that I also be allowed to sell the same design to my customers. Initially we didn’t have a revenue sharing model but after getting good responses; we finally introduced a commission model along with providing the creators with all the needed tools and dashboard.
It’s not only creators who are submitting their designs but regular users too; and the good thing is these regular users are making enough money to cover their submission cost.
And for us, we are able to hedge the design risk to our customers while earning from hit designs.
So I am not sure how my business fits into the creator economy model but it is infact helping fashion creators monetize their designs easily.
We now have over 13000 users and have shipped over 18000 products within 8 months with very minimal marketing.
andyfoundlight
New member
@gloria_ Huh this is really interesting. It’s kind of like a take on drop shipping but targeting fashion directly. That’s pretty cool — are you currently reaching out to creators?
I’d actually love to work with you for this use case. Right now we’re able to identify creators with strong communities, but lack the conversion data for what that actually means in terms of ROI — since we haven’t officially launched.
If you’re down for it, I’d be more than happy to go hands on and help you with growth/creator partnerships just as a case study for my startup!
I’d actually love to work with you for this use case. Right now we’re able to identify creators with strong communities, but lack the conversion data for what that actually means in terms of ROI — since we haven’t officially launched.
If you’re down for it, I’d be more than happy to go hands on and help you with growth/creator partnerships just as a case study for my startup!
@andyfoundlight Yes kind of drop shipping, but as far as user case is involved; we have all kind of users from someone with 100 followers to 10000 followers..
The use case is this: Since you are eventually going to spend $50 -$200 on some high street brands, why not spend that same amount in our platform where u can get clothes tailored made to ur measurements in the design and fabric of your choice with the added bonus of earning some money. So the upside is really high here, coz in most cases you only need to sell between 12-15 PCs of your design in order to recoup ur cost which isn’t difficult at all…
We haven’t reached out to any creators for we have very limited bandwidth to take on any more orders.
Even though our business looks like some digital based app platform on the outset, we are originally in the business of manufacturing & supply chain management disguised as something else..
So the challenges we are facing isn’t on the digital side but physical side which by nature is slow moving and investment intensive..
Hence our current priority is profit and sustainability over growth and scaling..
The use case is this: Since you are eventually going to spend $50 -$200 on some high street brands, why not spend that same amount in our platform where u can get clothes tailored made to ur measurements in the design and fabric of your choice with the added bonus of earning some money. So the upside is really high here, coz in most cases you only need to sell between 12-15 PCs of your design in order to recoup ur cost which isn’t difficult at all…
We haven’t reached out to any creators for we have very limited bandwidth to take on any more orders.
Even though our business looks like some digital based app platform on the outset, we are originally in the business of manufacturing & supply chain management disguised as something else..
So the challenges we are facing isn’t on the digital side but physical side which by nature is slow moving and investment intensive..
Hence our current priority is profit and sustainability over growth and scaling..
andyfoundlight
New member
@gloria_ interesting, have you considered a pre-order/waiting list model with creators? You mentioned their regular commission is at 15%.
suppose you can convince them to do a "drop" in which they build up hype around the launch of their designs/products and get their customers to pre-order -- knowing that it wont be fulfilled for another 2-3 months.
You can offer them 25% commission for pre-orders, and while this might cut your margins down, you can make the deal such that they need a minimum of 100 pre-orders for "ink to hit the press" and their designs to be made and shipped.
This way, you can get immediate $$$ to bulk the order. I did a consumer product startup way back when, and that's how I got around the initial investment costs. This also helps you filter out which creators to potentially double down in and understand who has customers. Not every viewer ends up being a fan, and not every fan ends up making a purchase. This way, money comes in first you guys, and every party mitigates risks.
suppose you can convince them to do a "drop" in which they build up hype around the launch of their designs/products and get their customers to pre-order -- knowing that it wont be fulfilled for another 2-3 months.
You can offer them 25% commission for pre-orders, and while this might cut your margins down, you can make the deal such that they need a minimum of 100 pre-orders for "ink to hit the press" and their designs to be made and shipped.
This way, you can get immediate $$$ to bulk the order. I did a consumer product startup way back when, and that's how I got around the initial investment costs. This also helps you filter out which creators to potentially double down in and understand who has customers. Not every viewer ends up being a fan, and not every fan ends up making a purchase. This way, money comes in first you guys, and every party mitigates risks.
@andyfoundlight Ours is pre order basis only. We hold “0” stock and our waiting list is 1-2 months and upto 3 months..
The initial design process is fast 7-10 days (sampling, photoshoot to shipping)..
The issue with running a campaign like kickstarter is that fashion is super fast moving and what is relevant today won’t be relevant in 2 months time..We also have the convenience of our own factory and supply chain access..
Also we have structured the process to be like some regular e-commerce where users can directly order designs from other creators or even our own private label (coz creator’s designs are mostly centered around dresses) hence we produce our own basics and classical designs..
We know which design will sell how many units in one season with 90% accuracy within 1 day of release, and in such cases we try to stock the inventories in advance, but since we have over 500 designs listed in the app, our financial resources doesn’t allow such flexibility in every cases..
The initial design process is fast 7-10 days (sampling, photoshoot to shipping)..
The issue with running a campaign like kickstarter is that fashion is super fast moving and what is relevant today won’t be relevant in 2 months time..We also have the convenience of our own factory and supply chain access..
Also we have structured the process to be like some regular e-commerce where users can directly order designs from other creators or even our own private label (coz creator’s designs are mostly centered around dresses) hence we produce our own basics and classical designs..
We know which design will sell how many units in one season with 90% accuracy within 1 day of release, and in such cases we try to stock the inventories in advance, but since we have over 500 designs listed in the app, our financial resources doesn’t allow such flexibility in every cases..
@andyfoundlight Our design turnaround is 1-2 days and our pricing is similar or lower than SHEIN putting us in the context of Rapid Fashion in terms of pricing and design churn out.. our net margin stands at 30% - 35% so a 25% commission on sales would be an overkill for us..
15% is a very ideal margin coz as far as our data is concerned any number you sell above 16pcs is your profit with only an effort of 10mins and an investment of $35 - $120…
15% is a very ideal margin coz as far as our data is concerned any number you sell above 16pcs is your profit with only an effort of 10mins and an investment of $35 - $120…
andyfoundlight
New member
@andyfoundlight We aren’t having hard time selling stuffs. We have to issue refund on 30% - 40% of the orders since we aren’t able to fulfill those orders..
The physical side is mostly about space, equipments, raw materials and labor..
Since we haven’t take any outside funding and have grown organically supported by our revenue alone; unlike startups with Burn rates, for better or worse we only have earn rates (this is what I like to call it) which means we’ve been funding our today’s operational expenses from today’s revenue. This leaves us with no room for error or growth experimentation.
Here’s how that plays out:
There are 4 main components of our growth followed with multiple sub components:
1. Space (fulfillment unit, space for new machineries)
2. Equipments and devices
3. Raw materials
4. Labor
The profit we generate can only cover 2 components at one given time or the resources are split thinly across all components. Both these options leaves us with tons of inefficiencies, production bottlenecks and leakages..
Here’s the rough math of how it works if we need to increase the production by 200 units per month.
The other option we partially employ is that we partially finance the equipments to some of our labor who in return will create a small team of his own to take on our production. The issue with the model is that once they have repaid the loan in 3-4 months, and provided we can’t give them consistent work, they take on 3rd party wholesale order..
The other medium we employ is that we sub contract other factories esp on designs which are forecasted to sell above 50pcs per style. So the aggregate volume is 400-500 units which is comfortable number for a small factory (MOQ)
And our own factory will take in the responsibility of designs, sampling and single line production/ pack production which is something other factories won’t take on due to the hassle and no margin. Only we can set the margin coz we are selling in retail margin as opposed to wholesale..
We used to incorporate a mix of these 4 models before, but with growth came complexities of handling over 1000 designs (500 are still active and selling) creating a massive bottleneck which can only be addressed via capital injection allowing us to plan a year in advance rather than relocating to new locations every 3 months..
The physical side is mostly about space, equipments, raw materials and labor..
Since we haven’t take any outside funding and have grown organically supported by our revenue alone; unlike startups with Burn rates, for better or worse we only have earn rates (this is what I like to call it) which means we’ve been funding our today’s operational expenses from today’s revenue. This leaves us with no room for error or growth experimentation.
Here’s how that plays out:
There are 4 main components of our growth followed with multiple sub components:
1. Space (fulfillment unit, space for new machineries)
2. Equipments and devices
3. Raw materials
4. Labor
The profit we generate can only cover 2 components at one given time or the resources are split thinly across all components. Both these options leaves us with tons of inefficiencies, production bottlenecks and leakages..
Here’s the rough math of how it works if we need to increase the production by 200 units per month.
- Buy 3 machines (2 single/ 1 overlock), 3 chairs, 3 overhead lights followed by work stations and tools. This alone takes around 100sq ft additional space.
- Hire 2 skilled labors and provide them with accommodation. This again takes space..
The other option we partially employ is that we partially finance the equipments to some of our labor who in return will create a small team of his own to take on our production. The issue with the model is that once they have repaid the loan in 3-4 months, and provided we can’t give them consistent work, they take on 3rd party wholesale order..
The other medium we employ is that we sub contract other factories esp on designs which are forecasted to sell above 50pcs per style. So the aggregate volume is 400-500 units which is comfortable number for a small factory (MOQ)
And our own factory will take in the responsibility of designs, sampling and single line production/ pack production which is something other factories won’t take on due to the hassle and no margin. Only we can set the margin coz we are selling in retail margin as opposed to wholesale..
We used to incorporate a mix of these 4 models before, but with growth came complexities of handling over 1000 designs (500 are still active and selling) creating a massive bottleneck which can only be addressed via capital injection allowing us to plan a year in advance rather than relocating to new locations every 3 months..