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💰 Can Web3 save a cratering creative economy?
The once high flying creator economy is experiencing turbulence.
Twitter reportedly plans to clip the wings of half of its staff—3.7K people—as early as tomorrow. Others popular with the creative class are cutting back: Snapchat, Spotify, Substack, TikTok, MasterClass, and Clubhouse, to name a few.
YouTube, the proverbial canary in the mineshaft, reported it's first ever drop in ad revenue this year, signaling a wakeup call that a pandemic boom that saw the industry soar to $100B is coming to an end. VCs, too, are getting nervous, cutting investments in the industry by over half compared to last year.
What all this means for creators is yet to be seen.
😰 Influencer blues over pay-to-play
Creators, influencers, and celebrities alike are in a tizzy over Twitter’s plans to charge them a monthly service fee for their coveted blue verification check marks. If new overlord Elon Musk has his way, creators apparently will be paying for more things too, maybe even video, in the future.
Some say this is just the beginning of a seismic shift in how the creative class engages online.
“I’m more confident than ever that the world needs a better economic system for creative people,” Patreon’s CEO told his staff in a memo when announcing layoffs.
The economic gloom could lead to innovative new ways for creators to amass, engage, and monetize a fanbase. Founders say Web3 has the promise to deliver on a future untethered to Big Tech platforms—but has failed to live up to its promise so far. One promise that remains intriguing to many: replacing parasocial relationships with new models that share spoils with fans.
If creators have their way, they’ll “own” their fanbase in the future without depending on an intermediary.
🪙 The creator economy is the economy
For creators with the jitters, there’s plenty to be optimistic about, though. For one, the creator economy is the economy. It’s ad revenues that are shrinking—not people’s interest in engaging with creators online.
For those who can’t wait around for Web3 to solve monetization for them, there’s also a bevy of early stage startups eager to scoop up talent to help create the future of the creator economy.
In a future with no-code developing, soft skills like creativity are only rising in importance among tech companies.
🪴 The new plant savers?
But the question looms: Who will install all these new carbon-killing home tech?
It turns out that electricians could be emerging as high-tech planet savers.
⭐ Company feature: why we're excited about Kajabi ⭐
Irvine, Calif.-based Kajabi enables creators to earn money for what they know. The platform, which raised $550M last year, allows anyone to create and sell online courses for whatever skills and knowledge they specialize in. Over 100k businesses have been built on their platform, and the company says creators have earned over $4B to date. The company offers attractive benefits, including a 401k match, flexible PTO, and company-funded mental health resources.
Trending in tech
📈 Growth hacking is always trending
The number of companies looking for growth hackers who understand how to make a needle move continue to, well, grow.
The field is expected to add 10% more jobs by 2030. Part of this growth is due to the need for more specialized forms of marketing needed to tackle the problems a company might be facing.
See our list: 5 Hot Companies Hiring Growth Hackers
🎮 Game on! Gaming industry still scoring
Gaming, one of the bright spots during the pandemic, continues to expand its reach.
Mobile gaming took off during the pandemic and opened doors to new arenas. Online gaming became the method of choice for providing a form of connection that many desperately sought. Now, with companies like The Verse operating at the intersection of gaming and mental health, content creators can choose games and digital experiences made to help their followers with mental health struggles such as anxiety, grief, perspective-taking, and more.
The rapidly expanding social/casual/mobile category of games is helping bring more diverse audiences in, especially among older players. Web-3-based games that allow players to collect in-game items and collectibles via the blockchain are also starting to establish a foothold.
See our list: Game On: 5 Top Gaming Tech Companies Hiring Now
🎧 Can you hear the music?
Musicians have access to an unprecedented number of tools to get their work produced and heard.
That’s a good thing, because it’s an increasingly complex business. The digitization of music through streaming and downloads has tanked music sales, fewer people go to live shows, and it’s harder to keep audiences’ attention with a new song released every second on Spotify.
Thankfully, the music hasn’t died out yet; artists are learning to adapt to the TikTok era of music, and there are plenty of startups dedicated to overcoming the struggles of today’s digital landscape with tech-based solutions.
See our list: Music Tech: 5 Top Companies Hiring Now
📰 In the news
- Munich, Germany-based Software Defined Automation raised a $10M seed round led by Insight Partners. The company’s Industrial-Control-as-a-Service offering manages a business’s existing tech stack from the cloud.
- New York City-based Lama AI, a business banking technology provider, raised a $9M seed round co-led by Viola Ventures and Hetz Ventures. Lama AI’s technology platform grants banks, fintechs, and other industry players access to bank-rate credit opportunities, including term loans, lines of credit, and more.
- San Francisco, Calif.-based Swantide, a cloud-based platform for companies to manage their Go-To-Market tech stack, raised a $7M seed round led by Menlo Ventures. The platform helps ops, sales, marketing, and founding teams design and manage CRM, marketing
- London, UK-based Pixaera, an immersive game-based learning platform, raised a $7M seed round led by LocalGlobe. The gaming platform provides a space for companies such as Shell, GE, and BP to deploy training games focused on everything from safety to leadership, mental health, and more.
- New York City-based Roots Automation, a provider of intelligent digital coworkers for the insurance industry, raised a $10M Series A led by MissionOG. The company’s AI-powered, digitized employees, can read and intuit documents, systems, and processes commonly found in insurance, healthcare, and banking.
🔥 Hot startups hiring now
- Determined AI: Deep learning in hours and minutes, not days and weeks
- Oplus: A healthcare OS company
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Vana: A home for your data