The Creator Economy Map
How attention becomes brand partnerships, owned products, retail shelves, factories, jobs and places, 2005 to 2026, with the failures mapped at the same standing as the successes.
Companion to the interactive map and the node and edge dataset
574 creators, companies, brands, places and funds · 801 connections · 5 layers · 28 metros
Version 1.3.3. Data current through September 2026. Activity after that date is described as announced or scheduled, never as completed.
Value moves, and it leaves a trail
The Japanese Heavy Metal Family Tree traces people, because a scene reproduces through musicians moving between bands. The creator economy reproduces through attention and money, so this map traces value. A creator builds an audience on a platform that pays a share of advertising, a brand pays for access to that audience, the creator turns the relationship into a product of their own, the product needs a factory, a co packer, a warehouse and a shelf, and at each of those steps a company may create employment, supplier demand, taxable sales, property use and other local economic activity. The location and scale of that activity depend on where the operations, the manufacturing, the distribution and the headquarters functions actually sit, which is rarely one place. The chains from a bedroom channel to a bottling line are the lineages here. Unlike a lineage of bands they are paths a reader can take, which is why every node's panel reads as a method: what the creator or company started with, which platform paid first, who intermediated, when the product came, where it is made and sold, and how long each step took.
Every node sits in one of five layers of the economy. Attention holds the platforms and the creators and collectives who make audiences. Intermediaries holds the agencies, multi channel networks, media companies, tools and payment rails that turn audiences into contracts. Goods holds the brands, manufacturers and co packers. Places holds the retailers, venues, studios, headquarters and events where goods and people physically land. Capital holds the investors and acquirers who buy in and, often, buy out. The interactive map stacks the layers top to bottom on a timeline, so pressing Play shows the stack building downward over twenty years: platforms first, then intermediaries, then a wave of owned goods after 2019, then the plants, stores and headquarters those goods require.
Connections come in three weights. Solid lines are money and goods moving: sponsorships, affiliate income, creator owned brands, retail placement, manufacturing, licensing, platform payouts, investment, acquisition, and the spawning of a company or a solo career out of a house or a network. Dashed lines are influence, used only where the copier or the press has said a format or business model was copied. Dotted lines are institutional: representation, events and venues, and the software a brand runs on. Trace the path follows the solid lines upstream and downstream from any node. Edges carry a type and a date, a date range or a timing note, never a dollar weight; figures appear in the notes only where they are publicly disclosed or reported.
Failures have the same standing as successes. The 54 closed, dissolved, bankrupt or wound down nodes wear a red ring, and every one of their notes names the rung that broke. A map of winners teaches survivorship; the failures are where the transferable lessons sit and where a city can see which rungs of the ladder are weakest.
The five layers
Six rungs from attention to a local economy
The same six rungs recur in every complete path on the map. A platform pays first, usually the YouTube Partner Program from 2007, the Twitch Partner Program from 2011, or nothing at all on Vine, Instagram and early TikTok, which is why the Vine generation moved to YouTube and why LTK and the Amazon Influencer Program exist at all. A brand pays second, and the first sponsorship is the moment a creator becomes a business: Quidd's 10,000 dollars to MrBeast in June 2017, Lancome's contract with Michelle Phan in 2010, Louis Vuitton's ambassadorship for Emma Chamberlain in 2019. An intermediary appears third, a manager on commission, a talent agency, or in the earlier decade a multi channel network taking a share of AdSense. The owned product comes fourth, and the gap between first payout and first product is the most useful number on the map: ten years for MrBeast, four to six for Michelle Phan, three and a half for Emma Chamberlain, and about four for Charli D'Amelio, whose first sponsorship came within a year but whose first owned product, D'Amelio Footwear, came in 2023. Manufacturing and retail come fifth, and that is where the map leaves the creator's metro: Feastables is made in Lima and sold from Bentonville, Prime is run from Louisville and was meant to be bottled in Truesdale, Missouri, Happy Dad is canned in Monroe, Wisconsin, Kylie Cosmetics and ColourPop come out of Oxnard. Capital arrives sixth, either as a growth round or as an exit, and the exit is where the physical economy is priced: Celsius paid 1.8 billion dollars for Alani Nu, Coty paid 600 million for half of Kylie Cosmetics, Unilever paid a reported 1.5 billion for Dr. Squatch, and Bitmine put 200 million into Beast Industries at a 5 billion dollar valuation in January 2026.
MrBeast: attention to chocolate
Jimmy Donaldson uploads his first video in February 2012 at age 13 and spends five years on Let's Plays before I Counted to 100,000 breaks through in January 2017. AdSense pays first; the first brand deal comes in June 2017 when the app Quidd pays $10,000 that he gives away on camera, which becomes the format. Night Media manages him from January 2019. MrBeast Burger launches in November 2020 as a ghost kitchen deal with Virtual Dining Concepts, reaches 2,000 locations and ends in a 2023 lawsuit. Feastables, the first product he fully owns, launches chocolate in January 2022 and sits in Walmart and 7 Eleven. Beast Industries raises $45 million in 2022, $105 million in 2024 and a reported $500 million in January 2026 at $5 billion. Beast Games season two airs from January 2026 and he passes 500 million subscribers in June 2026, all run from Greenville, North Carolina.
Jimmy Donaldson incorporates Feastables on July 8, 2021 and launches MrBeast Bar chocolate in January 2022 with Walmart as first retailer, selling about 10 million dollars in the first months. The bars are manufactured in Peru by Machu Picchu Foods SAC. Distribution reaches 7-Eleven and Speedway in May 2023, the UK in July 2023, Canada in April 2024 and India in November 2024. A February 2024 relaunch replaces the logo and formulation and drops the MrBeast Bar name. Gross revenue is a reported 251 million dollars with 20 million profit in 2024, making Feastables the profitable division inside a Beast Industries that lost about 80 million on content the same year. Alexandre Zigliara, formerly of Mondelez and Coca-Cola, is chief executive, and chef Nick DiGiovanni becomes a brand partner in July 2025. Beast Industries is the Greenville, North Carolina holding company for MrBeast's channels, Feastables, Lunchly, merchandise and new ventures, with over 250 employees by 2023 and a single balance sheet under chief executive Jeffrey Housenbold, formerly of SoftBank. Combined sales are a reported 400 million dollars in 2024, with the content arm losing about 80 million while Feastables earned 20 million. Bloomberg reports in February 2025 that the company seeks about 200 million at a 5 billion dollar valuation, and in January 2026 it raises 200 million from Bitmine at that valuation. It acquires the youth fintech app Step in February 2026 and Housenbold talks publicly about an eventual public listing. Its Beast Games contestants sue in September 2024 and a former employee sues in April 2026.
The intermediary on this path is Night. Reed Duchscher founds Night Media in 2015 while running brand deals at Dude Perfect, taking a management commission on sponsorships and later equity in the businesses it helps build. He begins working with MrBeast in February 2018 and signs him in January 2019; Night partners on MrBeast Burger in 2020 and co creates Feastables in January 2022. It forms the 100 million dollar Night Capital with The Chernin Group in September 2022, acquires LFM Management with Kai Cenat and AMP in August 2023, buys The Roost podcast network from Warner Bros. Discovery in April 2024 and Bottle Rocket Management in November 2024. MrBeast ends the exclusive relationship in May 2024 after Duchscher declines to move to Greenville and run Feastables full time. Night buys Experiential Supply Co in October 2025 and raises 70 million dollars in February 2026 to build, operate and acquire businesses in internet culture. It starts in Dallas, sits in Austin during the MrBeast years and lists Santa Monica as its office by 2026.
Prime: the manufacturing rung
Logan Paul and KSI announce Prime on January 4, 2022 as a hydration drink built with Congo Brands of Louisville, Kentucky, which holds a reported 60 percent while the two creators split the rest. Target signs in March 2022, Asda in June 2022, Walmart takes the Hydration+ sticks exclusive in September 2022 and Aldi UK lists it on December 29, 2022. Sales are about 250 million dollars in 2022 and a reported 1.2 billion in 2023. Refresco builds a dedicated line at Truesdale, Missouri under a 2023 contract, then sues Congo for 67 million dollars in 2024 when no orders arrive. UK sales fall 48 percent in 2024 and 71 percent by mid 2025, US sales fall about 40 percent, and 2025 revenue is projected near 300 million. Congo cuts staff in January 2026, its Australian arm enters administration in July 2026, and the brand pushes Prime Protein and ZERO Hydration to hold shelf space.
Congo Brands is the Louisville, Kentucky company co founded by Max Clemons and Trey Steiger that operates Prime Hydration and until 2025 operated Alani Nu, the energy drink founded in 2018 with fitness creator Katy Hearn. Congo handles formulation, co packing contracts, distribution and retail sales for creator fronted beverage brands, which is why Louisville rather than Los Angeles is where Prime's jobs sit. Celsius agrees in February 2025 to buy Alani Nu for 1.8 billion dollars including tax assets and closes on April 1, 2025, with Clemons and Steiger among the sellers. Congo dissolves its field sales organization, cuts jobs across the UK and other countries in January 2026, and its Australian arm enters voluntary administration in July 2026 with about 85,000 Australian dollars in cash against 7.9 million in liabilities. The founding year is not confirmed in a retrieved source. Refresco is a Dutch owned contract bottler whose Truesdale, Missouri plant becomes the documented co packer for Prime Hydration. Under a 2023 three year agreement Congo Brands commits to at least 18.5 million twelve pack cases a year and Refresco installs a dedicated line for Prime's custom bottle, finished in March 2024. Congo never submits orders and Refresco files a 67 million dollar suit in Delaware Chancery Court in 2024. The case shows how a creator brand's demand collapse lands as idle capital equipment in a Missouri town.
The comparison inside the same operator is Alani Nu. Alani Nu is founded in Louisville in 2018 by fitness creator Katy Hearn, now Katy Schneider, and her husband Haydn Schneider with Congo Brands as operator. It reaches about 595 million dollars of net revenue in 2024, partners with Addison Rae on a Berry Pop flavor in 2022, and is sold to Celsius Holdings in a deal announced February 20, 2025 at 1.8 billion dollars including tax assets, a net 1.65 billion in cash, stock and earn out, closing April 1, 2025. It is one of the largest publicly reported exits for a creator founded beverage and the outcome of the Congo model that Prime does not repeat.
Michelle Phan, Kylie Cosmetics and the beauty template
Michelle Phan posts makeup tutorials from May 2007 and her Lady Gaga tutorials pass a million subscribers by 2010, when Lancome makes her its official video makeup artist, widely reported as the first major brand deal for a YouTube beauty creator. She co founds MyGlam in 2011, which becomes Ipsy in September 2012 and raises $100 million in 2015 at a valuation above $500 million. L'Oreal launches Em Cosmetics with her in August 2013; she buys the stake back in 2015 and relaunches Em independently in April 2017 after leaving Ipsy. Endemol Beyond builds the Icon network with her in 2015. Em Cosmetics is her business today. Michelle Phan co founds MyGlam in 2011 with Marcelo Camberos and Jennifer Goldfarb in San Mateo, California, launching the monthly bag in September 2012 and renaming it Ipsy. TPG Growth and Sherpa Capital lead a 100 million dollar round in September 2015 at about 800 million, Phan leaves in 2017 to run EM Cosmetics, and Ipsy buys BoxyCharm for 500 million in October 2020 to form BFA Industries, which raises 96 million from TPG in February 2022. Camberos steps down as chief executive in January 2023 for Scott Gilbertson of TPG, the incubator Madeby Collective is closed the same year, and the two boxes are consolidated under the Ipsy name. No sale or new ownership is confirmed through 2026.
Kylie Jenner is a celebrity rather than a creator, but Kylie Cosmetics is the chain every creator beauty brand copied. Seed Beauty of Oxnard manufactures the first Lip Kits, which sell 15,000 units in under a minute on November 30, 2015 and crash the site, with a company of about twelve employees. Ulta carries the brand from November 2018 in over 1,100 stores, worth an estimated 54.5 million dollars in six weeks. Coty buys 51 percent in November 2019 for 600 million dollars, Coty filings then show trailing revenue of 177 million rather than the claimed 360 million, Seed Beauty sues over trade secrets in 2020, Coty relaunches the line in July 2021 and records 31.4 million in impairments in 2022. Jenner explores buying back Coty's stake in 2023 without a deal, and estimated 2024 revenue is about 339 million. Seed Beauty is founded by siblings Laura and John Nelson in Oxnard, California, and develops, manufactures and ships beauty products from its own plant, launching ColourPop in 2014 and manufacturing Kylie Cosmetics from 2015 and KKW Beauty from 2017. It sues Coty and Kylie Cosmetics in 2020 over trade secrets after Coty's purchase and later drops the case. Seed is the proof that a fast manufacturer near Los Angeles can turn a social following into a shelf product in months, and its Oxnard plant is where the beauty jobs from that model land.
Emma Chamberlain: the small brand that shows the middle rungs
Emma Chamberlain starts her channel in June 2016 in the Bay Area, moves to Los Angeles in June 2018 and signs with UTA that July, about two years in. Louis Vuitton makes her an ambassador in 2019 after a YouTube sponsored trip to Paris Fashion Week in March 2019. Chamberlain Coffee launches online in December 2019, raises close to $20 million over several rounds including $4.6 million in 2024, reaches roughly $22 million revenue in 2024 while losing money on co packer stockouts, and opens cafes in Century City in January 2025 and Venice in May 2025. She becomes co CEO with Gustav Langberg Hossy after Christopher Gallant exits. The podcast Anything Goes runs from April 2019 through Ramble, goes Spotify exclusive in February 2023 and pauses indefinitely in April 2026. Emma Chamberlain launches Chamberlain Coffee in December 2019 as a mail order bag business and grows it into cold brew packets, canned lattes and matcha sold through Target, Walmart and Costco, with roughly 20 million dollars raised from investors. Revenue is 19 million dollars in 2023 and nearly 22 million in 2024 with a loss blamed on co packer stock shortages and executive turnover, and a fall 2024 fundraise draws investor descriptions of desperation. Chief executive Christopher Gallant leaves and Chamberlain becomes co chief executive with Gustav Langberg Hossy. The company opens its first cafe at Westfield Century City in Los Angeles on January 28, 2025 and a second in Venice in May 2025, forecasting 33 million dollars for 2025 while pulling back from some retail. The roaster is not publicly named.
Dude Perfect and the Sidemen: collectives that became companies
Five Texas A&M roommates post Backyard Edition on April 9, 2009, draw 200,000 views in a week and incorporate on September 9, 2009. A CMT series in 2016 moves to Nickelodeon, live tours start in 2019 and the channel passes 60 million subscribers. Highmount Capital announces an investment of more than $100 million on April 9, 2024, and former NBA executive Andrew Yaffe becomes the first CEO in October 2024. An 80,000 square foot, reported $5 million headquarters opens at The Star in Frisco, Texas in January 2025 with the first Trick Shot World Championship in February 2025. Yaffe departs on September 3, 2026 after disagreeing with the founders on the next phase, and investor Patrick Hurley becomes interim CEO. Dude Perfect announces in October 2024 a headquarters at 15900 Gateway Drive off the Dallas North Tollway in Frisco, Texas, described at announcement as a 3 million dollar, 36,000 square foot building with a production studio that chief executive Andrew Yaffe, hired from the NBA that month, says will be open to other creators. Forbes reports the opened headquarters in January 2025 at 5 million dollars and 80,000 square feet, and the first Trick Shot World Championship follows in February 2025. The building is the physical form of the group's shift from a YouTube channel to a company with a hired chief executive, paid for out of Highmount Capital's 2024 investment of more than 100 million dollars. The two sets of figures are both reported and are not reconciled in a company statement.
Seven British YouTubers form the Sidemen as a GTA Online crew in October 2013 in London, with revenue split equally among members. Sidemen Clothing earns £5 million to £7 million a year, Sides fried chicken opens as a delivery brand, XIX Vodka launches in October 2022, Best cereal reaches Tesco in 2024 and Side+ sells subscriptions. The Wembley charity match raises £4.7 million, Netflix airs Inside, and Victor Bengtsson becomes the first outside CEO in January 2026. KSI leaves on May 31, 2026 and the remaining six continue.
The MCN era and what replaced it
Between 2009 and 2014 the multi channel network was the creator economy's main intermediary layer. Maker Studios, Fullscreen, Machinima, StyleHaul, Big Frame, Collective Digital Studio, BroadbandTV and AwesomenessTV signed thousands of channels, took a share of each channel's YouTube ad revenue in exchange for sales, rights management and production help, and sold themselves to media companies that wanted a foothold with the audience television was losing. Disney agreed to pay 500 million dollars for Maker in March 2014 with earnouts to 950 million; DreamWorks paid 33 million for Awesomeness in 2013; RTL paid a reported 107 million for StyleHaul in 2014; Warner Bros. bought Machinima outright in 2016; ProSieben bought Collective Digital Studio in 2015 and merged it into Studio71; the Chernin Group and then AT&T's Otter Media took Fullscreen.
Maker Studios starts in 2009 in Culver City among YouTube creators including Danny Zappin, Lisa Donovan, Ben Donovan, Scott Katz, Kassem Gharaibeh and Philip DeFranco as a network taking a cut of partners' YouTube ad revenue. By June 2012 it reports 1.1 billion monthly views across more than 1,000 channels and closes a 36 million dollar round led by Time Warner Investments. Disney agrees on March 24, 2014 to pay 500 million dollars with earnouts to 950 million; Maker misses the targets and the final price settles at a reported 675 million. Digiday reports 370 million dollars of 2015 ad revenue with only 70 million sold directly, which is the rung that breaks: the business is YouTube's, not Maker's. Disney cuts the roster from tens of thousands of channels to about 300, drops PewDiePie in February 2017 and folds Maker into Disney Digital Network on May 2, 2017.
Defy Media forms in October 2013 by merging Alloy Digital, owner of Smosh and Clevver, with Break Media, with ABS Capital, Wellington, Lionsgate and Viacom as shareholders. It runs a roughly 50 channel network that keeps ten percent of partners' AdSense, sells brand deals and produces originals, employing about 400 people at its peak. Screen Junkies and The Escapist are sold in July 2018, and on November 6, 2018 creditors freeze the accounts and the Beverly Hills office is closed the same day, with about 80 staff receiving WARN notices as they are laid off. Creators including MatPat, Chris Stuckmann and Ryland Adams report September and October ad payments never arrive; MatPat later puts the total owed at 1.7 million dollars. Smosh goes to Mythical in February 2019 and Clevver to Hearst. The rung that breaks is the pass through of platform money, which the network spent before paying out.
Machinima starts in January 2000 as Hugh Hancock's site for game engine films and becomes, under Allen DeBevoise in Los Angeles, the first gaming multi channel network on YouTube, passing one billion monthly views in December 2011 with more than 5,000 partner channels paid from a share of YouTube advertising. Google takes a 35 million dollar equity stake in May 2012, Warner Bros. leads 18 million in 2014 and adds 24 million in 2015, then buys the company outright on November 17, 2016. AT&T's purchase of Time Warner puts Machinima under Otter Media, which sets every video on the channel to private on January 18, 2019, laying off 81 staff and moving partner contracts to Fullscreen. The rung that breaks is the ad share model: perpetual contracts, an FTC settlement over undisclosed paid endorsements in 2015 and a catalog that a corporate parent judged worthless. The archive is never restored.
George Strompolos leaves the YouTube Partner Program team he helped build and founds Fullscreen in Los Angeles in January 2011 as a network that pairs ad share with software for channel management. The Chernin Group invests in May 2011, and in the autumn of 2014 Chernin's Otter Media joint venture with AT&T takes control; the same year Fullscreen buys Rooster Teeth and ScrewAttack. The roster includes Grace Helbig, the Fine Brothers and Tyler Oakley. A subscription app launched in 2016 closes in January 2018, Otter Media absorbs the remaining equity and Strompolos steps back in September 2018. Machinima's partners are handed to Fullscreen in January 2019, then WarnerMedia's November 2020 layoffs remove most of the team and end Fullscreen as an operating company; the brand disappears from AT&T's portfolio over the following year. The rung that breaks is ownership by a telecom that does not want an MCN.
Stephanie Horbaczewski founds StyleHaul in Los Angeles in 2011 with Allen and Aaron DeBevoise of Machinima as a beauty and fashion network that pools women creators' YouTube ad inventory and sells it to cosmetics brands. RTL Group buys a majority for about 107 million dollars in 2014 and the rest in June 2017. The network claims about 5,000 creators including Cameron Dallas and Ashley Tisdale, yet in March 2019 RTL announces the closure of the US office with about 65 layoffs, scraps a plan to run the roster from Europe and shuts the company entirely in May 2019, releasing creators on July 31. In July 2019 its former finance vice president Dennis Blieden is indicted for embezzling 22 million dollars, part of it spent on poker. The rung that breaks is thin margin on resold ad inventory under a parent that no longer wants the exposure.
Brian Robbins and Joe Davola launch AwesomenessTV in July 2012 as a YouTube channel and network for teen audiences, paid at first by YouTube ad share and brand integrations. DreamWorks Animation buys it in May 2013 for 33 million dollars plus earnouts, and the company buys Big Frame for 15 million in April 2014. Hearst pays 81.25 million for 25 percent in December 2014 and Verizon pays 159 million for 24.5 percent in April 2016, a 650 million dollar valuation tied to a 180 million dollar content commitment for the go90 app. When go90 fails and Comcast absorbs DreamWorks, Viacom buys the whole company in July 2018 for a reported 50 million dollars with layoffs. Robbins leaves in February 2017 and later runs Nickelodeon and Paramount Pictures. Awesomeness merges with Nickelodeon's live action unit in 2021 and, after the Skydance merger, is folded into Paramount Television Studios in October 2025.
The successors do not take a share of AdSense. Spotter pays creators cash up front for the future revenue of their back catalog and has raised 762 million dollars to do it. Night takes a management commission and then equity in the businesses it helps build, which is how it came to co create Feastables. Jellysmack re edited back catalogs for Facebook and Snapchat, scaled that back in 2024 and now owns cable news channels. UTA, WME and CAA absorbed the management companies, DBA into UTA in 2019, and the marketing side consolidated into holding companies: Publicis bought Influential for a reported 500 million dollars in 2024 and Captiv8 in 2025, Accenture bought Whalar's agency in 2026, WPP bought Obviously in 2023, Dentsu bought Gleam. The intermediary layer did not disappear; it moved from the platform's revenue line to the brand's marketing budget and the creator's cap table.
Every acquisition on the map
| Year | Acquirer | Target | Terms as disclosed or reported |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2006 | YouTube | Google agrees to buy YouTube for 1.65 billion dollars in stock on October 9, 2006 and closes the purchase on November 13, 2006, both announced in press releases filed with the SEC. | |
| 2006 | IAC | CollegeHumor | IAC buys CollegeHumor in 2006 for 26 million dollars. |
| 2012 | Facebook announces on April 9, 2012 that it will buy Instagram for approximately 1 billion dollars in cash and Facebook shares, closing in September 2012. | ||
| 2012 | IZEA Worldwide | FeaturedUsers | IZEA acquires FeaturedUsers on December 10, 2012 in a cash and stock transaction with terms undisclosed. |
| 2012 | X (Twitter) | Vine | Twitter buys Vine for a reported 30 million dollars in October 2012 and shuts the app in January 2017. |
| 2013 | DreamWorks Animation | AwesomenessTV | DreamWorks Animation announces the AwesomenessTV purchase on May 1, 2013 for 33 million dollars plus up to 117 million dollars in earnouts, closing that month. |
| 2014 | Amazon | Twitch | Amazon announces on August 25, 2014 that it will buy all Twitch shares for about 970 million dollars in cash, closing in the second half of 2014. |
| 2014 | AwesomenessTV | Big Frame | AwesomenessTV announces on April 2, 2014 that it will buy Big Frame for 15 million dollars in cash plus assumed debt. |
| 2014 | Blue Ant Media | Omnia Media | Blue Ant Media invests in Omnia in April 2014, renames its production arm Blue Ant Digital Studios in February 2018 and sells Omnia to Enthusiast Gaming in August 2020. |
| 2014 | Fullscreen | Rooster Teeth | Fullscreen buys Rooster Teeth in November 2014 for an undisclosed sum. |
| 2014 | Otter Media | Fullscreen | Otter Media takes control of Fullscreen in the autumn of 2014 in a deal reported at 200 million to 300 million dollars and completes the buyout in 2018. |
| 2014 | RTL Group | StyleHaul | RTL Group takes control of StyleHaul in November 2014 for a reported 107 million dollars and winds it down in 2019, closing US operations in March and confirming a full shutdown in May. |
| 2014 | The Walt Disney Company | Maker Studios | Disney agrees on March 24, 2014 to buy Maker for 500 million dollars with earnouts to 950 million; the final price is reported at 675 million after missed targets. |
| 2015 | ProSiebenSat.1 Media | Collective Digital Studio | ProSiebenSat.1 takes 20 percent of Collective Digital Studio in March 2014, then on July 8, 2015 pays a reported 83 million dollars for 75 percent of the company merged with Studio71 at a 240 million dollar valuation. |
| 2015 | ProSiebenSat.1 Media | Studio71 | ProSiebenSat.1 merges Collective Digital Studio into Studio71 in July 2015 and the combined network takes the Studio71 name on January 27, 2016. |
| 2016 | CNN | Beme | CNN buys Beme on November 28, 2016 for a reported 25 million dollars, shuts the app in January 2017 and closes the Beme News unit on January 25, 2018 when Casey Neistat and Matt Hackett leave. |
| 2016 | Comcast NBCUniversal | DreamWorks Animation | Comcast announces on April 28, 2016 that it will buy DreamWorks Animation for 3.8 billion dollars, bringing AwesomenessTV with it. |
| 2016 | Custom Ink | Represent | Custom Ink of Fairfax, Virginia announces on February 4, 2016 that it is acquiring the Los Angeles celebrity merch platform Represent; Cameo buys Represent in October 2021 with Custom Ink staying on for production and fulfillment. |
| 2016 | FameBit | Google buys FameBit on October 11, 2016 for an undisclosed price and renames it YouTube BrandConnect on June 16, 2020, closing the self service marketplace. | |
| 2016 | Group Nine Media | The Dodo | The Dodo is one of the founding brands of Group Nine in October 2016 and passes to Vox Media when Vox acquires Group Nine in early 2022. |
| 2016 | Hearst | Complex Networks | Hearst co owns Complex through the Verizon joint venture from April 2016 until the 2021 sale to BuzzFeed. |
| 2016 | Microsoft | Microsoft acquires LinkedIn for 26.2 billion dollars, closing on December 8, 2016. | |
| 2016 | Microsoft | Mixer | Microsoft announces the Beam purchase on August 11, 2016 for an undisclosed sum, runs it as Mixer from May 2017, announces the closure on June 22, 2020 and shuts the service on July 22, 2020, moving users to Facebook Gaming. |
| 2016 | The Chernin Group | Barstool Sports | The Chernin Group buys 51 percent of Barstool in January 2016 at a valuation of 10 million to 15 million dollars and sells its remaining 36 percent to Penn by 2023. |
| 2016 | Verizon | Complex Networks | A Verizon and Hearst joint venture buys Complex in April 2016 for a reported 250 million to 300 million dollars. |
| 2016 | Verizon | Vessel | Verizon acquires Vessel on 26 October 2016 and shuts the service on 31 October 2016. |
| 2016 | Warner Bros. Discovery | Machinima | Warner Bros. buys Machinima outright in November 2016 after 42 million dollars of investment and closes it on February 1, 2019 with 81 layoffs. |
| 2017 | ByteDance | musical.ly | ByteDance buys musical.ly in November 2017 for a reported price of up to 1 billion dollars and merges it into TikTok on August 2, 2018. |
| 2017 | Dallas Cowboys (Jerry Jones) | Complexity Gaming | Jerry Jones and John Goff buy a majority of Complexity in November 2017 and move it to The Star in Frisco; GameSquare buys the company from the Jones and Goff families in 2021 and sells it back to founder Jason Lake's Global Esports Properties on March 1, 2024 for 10.36 million dollars. |
| 2017 | Dentsu | Gleam Futures | Dentsu Aegis buys a majority stake in Gleam on June 20, 2017 and becomes sole owner in 2020. |
| 2018 | AT&T | Otter Media | AT&T buys The Chernin Group's half of Otter Media in August 2018 for a sum believed to be about one billion dollars. |
| 2018 | Otter Media | Machinima | Otter Media takes over Machinima in the 2018 AT&T reorganization and closes it in January 2019, laying off 81 staff. |
| 2018 | Otter Media | Rooster Teeth | Rooster Teeth is consolidated directly under Otter Media in 2018 alongside Crunchyroll before Otter dissolves into WarnerMedia in May 2019. |
| 2018 | Paramount Skydance | AwesomenessTV | Viacom buys AwesomenessTV in July 2018 for about 50 million dollars and Paramount folds it into Paramount Television Studios in October 2025. |
| 2018 | Paramount Skydance | VidCon | Viacom buys VidCon in February 2018 for an undisclosed sum and Paramount sells it to Informa in August 2024. |
| 2018 | Select Management Group | Flip Management | Select Management Group and Flip Management merge on August 10, 2018 under the Select name and the Third Act parent. |
| 2019 | Coty Inc. | Kylie Cosmetics | Coty buys 51 percent of Kylie Cosmetics for 600 million dollars in November 2019. |
| 2019 | Hearst | Clevver | Hearst Magazines buys Clevver's channels in February 2019 after Defy's collapse. |
| 2019 | Logitech | Streamlabs | Logitech announces on September 26, 2019 that it will buy San Francisco based Streamlabs for about 89 million dollars in cash plus up to 29 million dollars in Logitech stock tied to revenue growth targets. |
| 2019 | Mythical Entertainment | Smosh | Mythical Entertainment buys Smosh in February 2019 after Defy Media collapses and keeps a minority after 2023. |
| 2019 | NGL Collective | Hispanicize | NGL Collective buys Hispanicize Media Group in late June 2019 for undisclosed terms and dissolves the company into two NGL divisions. |
| 2019 | Spotify | Gimlet Media | Spotify announces on February 6, 2019 that it will buy Gimlet for 230 million dollars. |
| 2019 | Spotify | Spotify for Creators (Anchor) | Spotify buys Anchor in February 2019 alongside Gimlet for a combined 337 million dollars and turns it into Spotify for Creators. |
| 2019 | United Talent Agency (Digital) | Digital Brand Architects (DBA) | UTA acquires Digital Brand Architects in February 2019 for undisclosed terms and keeps it as a standalone management unit. |
| 2019 | Vobile Group | Zefr | Vobile Group buys Zefr's RightsID and ChannelID businesses on July 19, 2019 for a reported 90 million dollars. |
| 2020 | Amazon | Wondery | Amazon announces the Wondery purchase on December 30, 2020 without a price; the 300 million dollar figure is reported, not filed. The August 2025 fold into Audible with about 110 layoffs is reported. |
| 2020 | Hotmart | Teachable | Hotmart acquires Teachable on 16 March 2020 for a reported price of about 250 million dollars. |
| 2020 | Latido Networks | mitú | Latido Networks buys mitú in February 2020 on undisclosed terms. |
| 2020 | Penn Entertainment | Barstool Sports | Penn closes its 163 million dollar purchase of 36 percent on February 20, 2020, pays about 388 million dollars for the rest in February 2023, then returns the company to Portnoy on August 8, 2023 for non compete covenants and half of any future sale proceeds. |
| 2020 | Spotify | The Ringer | Spotify agrees on February 5, 2020 to buy The Ringer for up to 196 million dollars in cash. |
| 2020 | Stadiumred Group | Mediakix | Stadiumred Group announces on March 25, 2020 that it has acquired Mediakix; the agency suspends campaigns later in 2020 amid unpaid creator fees. |
| 2021 | 100 Thieves | Higround | 100 Thieves announces the Higround acquisition on October 13, 2021 with a capsule drop two days later; terms undisclosed. |
| 2021 | BuzzFeed | Complex Networks | BuzzFeed buys Complex in June 2021 for 300 million dollars and sells it in February 2024 for 108.6 million. |
| 2021 | BuzzFeed | First We Feast (Hot Ones) | BuzzFeed keeps First We Feast after selling Complex and sells it in December 2024 for 82.5 million dollars in cash. |
| 2021 | Cameo | Represent | Cameo acquires Represent from Custom Ink in 2021 for undisclosed terms to bundle merch with video shout outs. |
| 2021 | CreatorIQ | Tribe Dynamics | CreatorIQ acquires Tribe Dynamics on September 21, 2021 for approximately 70 million dollars in cash and stock. |
| 2021 | DAZN | Team Whistle | Eleven Sports buys Team Whistle in March 2021 and DAZN completes its takeover of both in February 2023. |
| 2021 | Electric Monster Media (ZATV) | Fine Brothers (React Media) | Electric Monster Media buys React Media on November 18, 2021 without the Fine brothers; Brat TV later buys Electric Monster in January 2025 and renames the group ZATV. |
| 2021 | Envy Gaming | OpTic Gaming | Envy Gaming and OpTic Gaming merge in November 2021 to form OpTic Texas, and Envy retires its own brand on June 27, 2022, keeping the Dallas Fuel name, with Hector Rodriguez as president and Mike Rufail as chief gaming officer. |
| 2021 | GameSquare Holdings | Complexity Gaming | GameSquare buys Complexity from the Jones and Goff families in 2021 and sells it to Jason Lake's Global Esports Properties on March 1, 2024 for 10.36 million dollars, 750,000 dollars at closing and a 9.61 million dollar three year seller note. |
| 2021 | Songfluencer (Genni) | Preffy | Songfluencer acquires the Preffy contest platform on September 21, 2021; terms are not disclosed. |
| 2021 | Trusted Media Brands | Jukin Media | Trusted Media Brands buys Jukin Media on August 12, 2021 for an undisclosed price. |
| 2021 | Unilever | Onnit | Unilever agrees to acquire Onnit on April 26, 2021 with terms undisclosed. |
| 2021 | Utopia Music (Proper Music Group) | Lyric Financial | Utopia Music acquires Lyric Financial on October 29, 2021 for 8 million dollars including two deferred 1.5 million dollar payments, the last of which becomes the subject of a 2023 lawsuit and a 2024 award of about 1.863 million dollars. |
| 2021 | Vox Media | Group Nine Media | Vox Media buys Group Nine in an all stock deal announced December 13, 2021 and closed February 22, 2022. |
| 2022 | Amaze Holdings | Spring (Teespring) | Amaze Software acquires Spring and its 5.5 million creator stores on 8 November 2022 for undisclosed terms. |
| 2022 | Creative Artists Agency (Creators) | ICM Partners | CAA closes its acquisition of ICM Partners in late June 2022 at a reported value of about 750 million dollars; the Crestview release records the completed deal. |
| 2022 | Kartoon Studios (Genius Brands) | Frederator Networks | Genius Brands, now Kartoon Studios, announces the purchase of Wow Unlimited Media and Frederator on October 27, 2021 for a reported 53 million dollars and closes it on April 7, 2022. |
| 2022 | Mavrck | Later | Mavrck acquires Later on April 29, 2022 using part of the Summit round; the combined company later adopts the Later name. |
| 2022 | SiriusXM | Team Coco | SiriusXM announces the acquisition of Team Coco on May 23, 2022 for a price reported at 150 million dollars; the release does not disclose it. |
| 2022 | Warner Bros. Discovery | Rooster Teeth | Rooster Teeth passes to Warner Bros. Discovery in the April 2022 merger, which closes it in March 2024 with about 150 layoffs. |
| 2023 | Fortress Investment Group | Vice Media | A Fortress led lender group buys Vice's assets out of Chapter 11 for 350 million dollars in June 2023. |
| 2023 | Jefferies and Cerberus | Forma Brands | Jefferies and Cerberus acquire Forma Brands out of Chapter 11 for 690 million dollars. |
| 2023 | Monster Beverage | Bang Energy | Monster completes the purchase of the Bang Energy brand and the Phoenix, Arizona production plant from Vital Pharmaceuticals on July 31, 2023 for about 362 million dollars, subject to adjustments. |
| 2023 | Night | LFM Management | Night acquires LFM Management in August 2023, adding Kai Cenat and AMP to its roster. |
| 2023 | Sprout Social | Tagger Media | Sprout Social acquires Tagger Media on August 3, 2023 for approximately 140 million dollars in cash. |
| 2023 | WPP | Obviously | WPP acquires Obviously on March 27, 2023 for undisclosed terms and places it within VMLY&R. |
| 2024 | GameSquare Holdings | FaZe Clan | GameSquare buys FaZe Holdings for about 17 million dollars in stock, closing March 8, 2024, and divests its last 25.5 percent of FaZe Media as of April 1, 2025 at a 39.2 million dollar valuation. |
| 2024 | Informa | VidCon | Informa buys VidCon from Paramount Global in August 2024 through Fan Expo HQ for an undisclosed price. |
| 2024 | Loaded | GG Talent Group | Loaded acquires GG Talent Group and its 90 gaming creators in March 2024 for undisclosed terms. |
| 2024 | NTWRK | Complex Networks | NTWRK buys Complex from BuzzFeed for 108.6 million dollars in cash on February 21, 2024. |
| 2024 | Night | Bottle Rocket Management | Night acquires Bottle Rocket Management on November 25, 2024. |
| 2024 | Night | The Roost Podcast Network | Night buys The Roost podcast network from Warner Bros. Discovery in April 2024 after the Rooster Teeth shutdown. |
| 2024 | Publicis Groupe | Influential | Publicis Groupe announces the purchase of Influential on July 26, 2024 for a reported 500 million dollars and closes in late August 2024. |
| 2024 | Sprecher Brewing | Juvee | Sprecher Brewing of Milwaukee buys Juvee from 100 Thieves in January 2024 for undisclosed terms and moves production to its own plant. |
| 2024 | The Gersh Agency | A3 Artists Agency (Abrams Artists) | Gersh buys A3's digital and alternative divisions in January 2024, taking 25 agents and 45 staff. |
| 2024 | The Onion (Global Tetrahedron) | Infowars (Free Speech Systems) | The Onion wins the November 2024 bankruptcy auction for Infowars, is shut out by litigation until 2026, and relaunches the site July 2, 2026 while the domain transfer is remanded to Travis County. |
| 2024 | The Team (formerly Wasserman) | Long Haul Management | Wasserman acquires Long Haul Management on September 4, 2024 after a fifteen month sale process advised by RockWater. |
| 2024 | Viz Media | Rooster Teeth | Viz Media announces on July 5, 2024 that it has acquired the RWBY franchise from Warner Bros. Discovery after Rooster Teeth's closure and will explore new chapters. |
| 2025 | Box Canyon Productions | Rooster Teeth | Burnie Burns's Box Canyon Productions acquires the Rooster Teeth brand, YouTube channels and library from Warner Bros. Discovery on February 5, 2025, with terms undisclosed, and relaunches the site August 7, 2025. |
| 2025 | Celsius Holdings | Alani Nu | Celsius announces the purchase of Alani Nu for 1.8 billion dollars in cash and stock in February 2025. |
| 2025 | DarkZero Esports | NRG Esports | DarkZero acquires NRG's esports assets in an undisclosed cash deal that closes on December 1, 2025 and is announced on December 19, 2025; Full Squad Gaming stays with Andy Miller. |
| 2025 | Night | Experiential Supply Co | Night acquires Experiential Supply Co on October 13, 2025. |
| 2025 | Publicis Groupe | Captiv8 | Publicis Groupe acquires Captiv8 on May 21, 2025 for undisclosed terms to pair with Influential. |
| 2025 | Silver Lake | WME (WME Group) | Silver Lake takes Endeavor private at 27.50 dollars a share, closing March 24, 2025, and renames the representation businesses WME Group the same day. |
| 2025 | Unilever | Dr. Squatch | Unilever announces on June 23, 2025 that it will buy Dr. Squatch from Summit Partners for undisclosed terms, reported by the Financial Times at 1.5 billion dollars, and completes the deal on November 16, 2025. |
| 2025 | Wonder | Tastemade | Wonder buys Tastemade for about 90 million dollars on March 12, 2025. |
| 2026 | Accenture (Accenture Song) | Whalar | Accenture announces the purchase of the Whalar agency on June 8, 2026 and closes it on July 31, 2026 for undisclosed terms. |
| 2026 | Allen Media Group | BuzzFeed | Byron Allen's family office buys about 51 percent of BuzzFeed for 120 million dollars, closing May 27, 2026. |
| 2026 | Beast Industries | Step | Beast Industries acquires the fintech app Step in February 2026 for undisclosed terms. |
| 2026 | Fixated | Studio71 | Fixated buys Studio71's North American business from ProSiebenSat.1 on April 21, 2026 for an undisclosed sum. |
| 2026 | Razer | StreamElements | Razer acquires StreamElements' assets from Live Momentum on 31 July 2026 for undisclosed terms after the platform warns of shutdown. |
| 2026 | Super League Enterprise | Misfits Gaming Group | Super League agrees on March 18, 2026 to buy the Misfits Ads division for 1.5 million dollars in cash plus a 19.99 percent stake and earn outs. |
Where the rungs break
Each layer has a characteristic failure. Platforms fail at the payout rung: Vine built the first short form stars and never paid them, so they left; Mixer paid Ninja and Shroud a reported 30 million dollars each and had no audience to sell them to; Quibi paid studios instead of creators and produced content nobody shared; Vessel asked audiences to follow creators behind a paywall and they did not. Intermediaries fail at the pass through: Defy Media spent the platform money it owed to creators and collapsed in a day; Fanjoy and Spring ran out of working capital and left screen printers and creators unpaid; StreamElements carried a SoftBank sized cost base on creator tip jar margins; A3 sold its profitable digital division and the rest of the agency ceased to exist within a month. Goods fail at sell through and at concentration: Item Beauty and Selfless by Hyram both left Sephora in January 2023 because the audience followed the creator once and did not repurchase; Morphe's parent Forma Brands built its revenue on collaborators whose scandals in 2020 and 2021 took the sales with them and filed Chapter 11 in January 2023; MrBeast Burger licensed a name to kitchens the creator did not operate and the reputation absorbed the complaints; Prime's demand collapsed onto a dedicated bottling line that had never shipped a case. Collectives fail at rent and at the exit of the biggest names: the Hype House lost the D'Amelios and Addison Rae within six months, was sued for 300,000 dollars in back rent and dissolved in 2024; the Sway House closed after fourteen months; Team 10 emptied out as members cited treatment in the house; FaZe Clan listed at 725 million dollars in July 2022, fell under a dollar a share by January 2023 and was bought for about 17 million in stock. Places fail when the parent changes: Rooster Teeth's Stage 5 closed with about 150 jobs when Warner Bros. Discovery measured a subscription studio against streaming scale; TikTok's Nashville office, one of the city's largest leases in a decade, closes in 2026 with 250 layoffs after the US joint venture; Playlist Live canceled its 2023 edition and its trademark; the Streamys have not held a ceremony since 2023. The fastest documented full stack reversal on the map is Good Good Golf in Prosper, Texas, an active company that reaches a 45 million dollar round, Callaway manufacturing, Dick's shelves and the first creator PGA Tour title sponsorship and loses those relationships and its chief executive between August 21 and September 3, 2026.
The pattern across the 54 failures is that the rung that breaks is almost never the audience. It is the rung where someone other than the creator holds the money or the lease or the contract: the network holding AdSense, the operator holding the co packer agreement, the landlord holding the mansion, the conglomerate holding the studio. For a city, that is the useful reading. The creators are mobile and the platforms are elsewhere; the rungs a city can strengthen are the co packers, the warehouses, the studios and the retail relationships that sit in the physical economy and outlive any single channel.
Every failure on the map
| Node | Kind | Years | Metro | Status | The rung that broke |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bethany Mota for Aéropostale | brand | 2013 to 2016 | New York | Closed | The end year is not confirmed in a retrieved source. |
| Vessel | platform | 2015 to 2016 | San Francisco Bay Area | Closed | The rung that breaks is audience: creators cannot carry viewers to a paywall. |
| Dart Music | tool or rail | 2015 to 2017 | Nashville | Bankrupt | The rung that breaks is working capital in a niche distribution business. |
| Revelmode | media company | 2016 to 2017 | Los Angeles | Closed | When Disney drops PewDiePie on February 13, 2017 over videos widely described as antisemitic, Maker closes Revelmode with him, ending the only creator led label Disney ever ran. |
| Vine | platform | 2012 to 2017 | New York | Closed | The rung that breaks is the payout rung: attention with no rail to income. |
| Beme | platform | 2014 to 2018 | New York | Closed | The rung that breaks is product: a creator's audience does not transfer to a corporate news product. |
| Clout Gang | collective | 2017 to 2018 | Los Angeles | Dissolved | Founding and end dates are not confirmed. |
| Defy Media | MCN | 2013 to 2018 | Los Angeles | Closed | The rung that breaks is the pass through of platform money, which the network spent before paying out. |
| DreamHack Austin | event | 2016 to 2018 | Austin | Closed | The Dallas move is from general knowledge and is not confirmed in a fetched source. |
| TanaCon | event | 2018 to 2018 | Los Angeles | Closed | Shane Dawson's three part documentary makes it a case study and VidCon features Mongeau in July 2019. |
| Hispanicize | event | 2010 to 2019 | South Florida | Dissolved | No Miami edition follows, so the corridor loses its only dedicated creator conference just before the pandemic; the rung that broke was ownership rather than attendance. |
| Machinima | MCN | 2000 to 2019 | Los Angeles | Closed | The rung that breaks is the ad share model: perpetual contracts, an FTC settlement over undisclosed paid endorsements in 2015 and a catalog that a corporate parent judged worthless. |
| Otter Media | acquirer | 2014 to 2019 | Los Angeles | Dissolved | Crunchyroll is later sold to Sony's Funimation for 1.175 billion dollars in August 2021, the one asset in that portfolio that, on the reported figures, returned more than it cost. |
| StyleHaul | MCN | 2011 to 2019 | Los Angeles | Closed | The rung that breaks is thin margin on resold ad inventory under a parent that no longer wants the exposure. |
| Team 10 house | venue | 2017 to 2019 | Los Angeles | Closed | The collective dissolves through 2018 and its accounts go quiet by September 2019. |
| Clout House | venue | 2017 to 2020 | Los Angeles | Closed | The Clout House era ends in March 2020 when FaZe consolidates into a single 10 bedroom mansion once rented by Justin Bieber at a reported 80,000 dollars a month. |
| FaZe House, Hollywood Hills | venue | 2016 to 2020 | Los Angeles | Closed | Exact lease dates for the first house are not in a fetched source. |
| Fullscreen | MCN | 2011 to 2020 | Los Angeles | Wound down | The rung that breaks is ownership by a telecom that does not want an MCN. |
| Mixer | platform | 2016 to 2020 | Seattle | Closed | The rung that breaks is distribution: paying stars without an audience to sell them to. |
| Quibi | platform | 2020 to 2020 | Los Angeles | Closed | The rung that breaks is audience: paying studios instead of creators produces content nobody shares. |
| Clubhouse BH | collective | 2020 to 2021 | Los Angeles | Wound down | Its 10-K for 2022 states that it closed the physical Clubhouses in 2021 and in 2022 chose to focus only on its digital agency and the creator platform Honeydrip, with a going concern warning from its auditor. |
| Podcast Movement 2021, Nashville | event | 2021 to 2021 | Nashville | Closed | Final attendance is not published. |
| Sway House | collective | 2020 to 2021 | Los Angeles | Dissolved | Members leave by December 2020 and the house closes in February 2021, leaving Sway Fitness supplements and a Facebook reality show. |
| Sway House, Bel Air | venue | 2020 to 2021 | Los Angeles | Closed | Sway LA formally disbands in February 2021, and ReKTGlobal buys TalentX in March 2021, folding Gruen, Richards and about 17 staff into a new ReKTX division. |
| Team 10 | collective | 2016 to 2021 | Los Angeles | Dissolved | Exit years of the last members are not confirmed. |
| YouTube Space LA | venue | 2013 to 2021 | Los Angeles | Closed | The Hughes hangar detail is not in a retrieved source. |
| YouTube Space New York | venue | 2014 to 2021 | New York | Closed | It offers the same free stages and workshops as Los Angeles and closes permanently under the February 18, 2021 announcement. |
| Ani Energy | brand | 2020 to 2022 | Los Angeles | Closed | It reaches 400 Walmart stores by August 2021 after smaller retailers sold out, then fades within about two years without a national footprint, the rung that broke being the step from a first Walmart placement to sustained shelf sales, which Prime later managed with Congo Brands. |
| Bang Energy | brand | 2012 to 2022 | South Florida | Bankrupt | The creator model is also the rung that breaks. |
| FTX | investor | 2019 to 2022 | South Florida | Bankrupt | The Miami footprint is a sponsorship and a lease, not a workforce, which is why almost nothing remains in the corridor after the collapse. |
| Achievement Hunter | collective | 2008 to 2023 | Austin | Closed | The rung that breaks is the parent: the crew's audience survives but the corporate home does not. |
| Byte | platform | 2020 to 2023 | New York | Closed | The rung that breaks is audience: TikTok already owns the format by the time Byte launches. |
| Fanjoy | tool or rail | 2014 to 2023 | Los Angeles | Bankrupt | The rung that breaks is the creator payment rung, as creators move to their own Shopify stores after the pandemic. |
| Gimlet Media | media company | 2014 to 2023 | New York | Closed | The rung that breaks is a narrative studio whose costs the platform would not carry once exclusives stopped adding subscribers. |
| Item Beauty | brand | 2020 to 2023 | San Francisco Bay Area | Closed | The rung that broke was retail sell through: the audience followed Rae but did not repurchase, and an incubator built on subscription box sampling could not carry a standalone shelf brand. |
| Madeby Collective | manufacturer | 2019 to 2023 | San Francisco Bay Area | Closed | BFA Industries disbands it by October 2023, closing Complex Culture and Item Beauty while Treslúce continues at Ulta. |
| Playlist Live | event | 2011 to 2023 | Orlando | Closed | The 2022 edition is the last: the 2023 Orlando event is canceled and the organizers say the event will not continue. |
| RTX | event | 2011 to 2023 | Austin | Closed | Discovery announces on March 6, 2024 that it is closing Rooster Teeth and its roughly 150 staff. |
| Stir | tool or rail | 2020 to 2023 | San Francisco Bay Area | Closed | Stir winds down in 2023 as creator fintech demand proves thin; the rung that breaks is distribution to enough paying creators. |
| Vice Media | media company | 1994 to 2023 | New York | Bankrupt | The rung that breaks is venture priced growth on branded content revenue that never matched the valuation. |
| A3 Artists Agency (Abrams Artists) | agency | 1977 to 2024 | Los Angeles | Closed | The rung that breaks is the sale of the profitable digital business apart from the rest of the agency. |
| CryptoZoo | brand | 2021 to 2024 | Puerto Rico | Closed | A judge dismisses all 27 claims against him in October 2025 and Paul sues his former partners. |
| Gleam Futures | agency | 2010 to 2024 | Outside the United States | Wound down | The rung that breaks is the management business itself, as the creators it made famous outgrow a commission model inside an advertising holding company. |
| Hype House | collective | 2019 to 2024 | Los Angeles | Dissolved | The rung that breaks is rent and property: former landlord Daniel Fitzgerald sues in January 2023 for more than $300,000 in damage and unpaid rent on the earlier Hollywood Hills home, the Moorpark mansion lists for $5. |
| Hype House mansion, Moorpark | venue | 2020 to 2024 | Los Angeles | Closed | The Netflix series filmed there premieres January 7, 2022. |
| MrBeast Burger | brand | 2020 to 2024 | Orlando | Wound down | The rung that broke was quality control: the creator lent a name to kitchens he did not operate, and the licensing model let VDC collect revenue while his reputation absorbed the complaints. |
| Rooster Teeth Stage 5, Austin Studios | venue | 2014 to 2024 | Austin | Closed | Night buys The Roost podcast network, with 47 shows and 20 million monthly downloads, on April 9, 2024; RWBY goes to Viz Media in July 2024 and Burnie Burns's Box Canyon Productions revives the brand in February 2025. |
| Midnight Society | media company | 2021 to 2025 | Los Angeles | Closed | The rung that broke is the founder's exit, which cut off the audience the studio was built to sell to. |
| OpenStore | tool or rail | 2021 to 2025 | South Florida | Wound down | It shows that Miami's relocated capital funded the exit rail for small creator style brands but not a durable operator. |
| Wondery | media company | 2016 to 2025 | Los Angeles | Dissolved | In August 2025 Amazon breaks the company up: narrative shows go to Audible, video to Amazon's creator group, about 110 people are laid off and Sargent leaves, with the Wondery name kept only for celebrity shows such as Armchair Expert and New Heights. |
| Infowars (Free Speech Systems) | media company | 1999 to 2026 | Austin | Bankrupt | The rung that breaks is legal liability consuming the store's cash flow. |
| TikTok Nashville office | venue | 2021 to 2026 | Nashville | Closed | The rung that breaks is a platform lease outliving the platform's ownership. |
| Triller | platform | 2015 to 2026 | Los Angeles | Wound down | The rung that breaks is honest audience data followed by unpaid partners. |
| Unwell Hydration | brand | 2025 to 2026 | Los Angeles | Closed | The rung that broke is the crowded functional drink shelf rather than the podcast audience, and the closure is reported rather than confirmed by the company. |
Where the goods, jobs and events land
Los Angeles holds 200 of the 574 nodes, and the reason is the intermediary layer rather than the creators: Maker, Fullscreen, Machinima, StyleHaul, Collective Digital Studio, Spotter and Jellysmack, the talent agencies, TikTok's US headquarters in Culver City, the Burbank studios of Mythical and Smosh, the creator houses of 2017 to 2021, and VidCon and the Streamys in Anaheim. New York holds the buyers: Coty, SiriusXM, Hearst, Verizon, Tiger Global, Thrive and Vox Media, with BuzzFeed, Complex, Group Nine and Vice built there. The Bay Area supplies the rails, YouTube, Twitch, Patreon, Substack, Google and Andreessen Horowitz, and also the layoffs of the downturn, about 900 at Twitch across 2023 and 2024.
The payoff of the geographic view is the places that are not Los Angeles. Greenville, North Carolina, a city of about 90,000, is the headquarters of the highest valued creator company on the map, with more than 250 employees in warehouses and offices. Louisville is where Congo Brands turns creator names into beverage companies, one of which sold for 1.8 billion dollars and one of which is shrinking. Dallas Fort Worth holds the headquarters layer: Dude Perfect, Complexity and GameSquare at The Star in Frisco, Esports Stadium Arlington, Envy in Victory Park, AT&T, LTK and Preston's TBNR production company, and the Good Good Golf crew in Prosper, still operating, whose Callaway, Dick's and PGA Tour deals all ended within two weeks in 2026. Austin lost Rooster Teeth's 150 jobs and gained Joe Rogan's Comedy Mothership and the OTK collective. Orlando runs the ghost kitchens behind MrBeast Burger and ran Playlist Live until 2022. South Florida built Bang Energy in Weston on paid creator posts before its 2022 bankruptcy, holds Celsius in Boca Raton where the Alani Nu purchase closed, fulfills creator brands from ShipMonk in Fort Lauderdale, and employs hundreds at Valuetainment in Oakland Park and Cardone Enterprises in Aventura, while most of the creators who moved to Miami keep their payrolls elsewhere. Nashville is the rights and production metro: Soundstripe and Songfluencer as rails, Ramsey Solutions in Franklin, Nateland turning a podcast audience into a record tour, and TikTok's Music Row office arriving in 2024 and closing in 2026 with 250 layoffs. The plants sit further out still: Truesdale, Missouri; Monroe, Wisconsin; Oxnard, California; Lima, Peru. A creator's audience is placeless, but the factory that makes the product and the shelf that sells it are not, and those are the assets a city can compete for.
Nodes by metro and layer
| Metro | Nodes | Attention | Intermediaries | Goods | Places | Capital |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Los Angeles | 200 | 63 | 72 | 32 | 16 | 17 |
| Outside the United States | 57 | 11 | 9 | 14 | 5 | 18 |
| New York | 55 | 6 | 20 | 7 | 1 | 21 |
| San Francisco Bay Area | 41 | 10 | 12 | 5 | 4 | 10 |
| Austin | 39 | 16 | 10 | 2 | 9 | 2 |
| South Florida | 36 | 10 | 8 | 8 | 6 | 4 |
| Nashville | 29 | 11 | 8 | 2 | 7 | 1 |
| Dallas Fort Worth | 27 | 7 | 2 | 1 | 13 | 4 |
| Seattle | 7 | 2 | 2 | 0 | 2 | 1 |
| Chicago | 6 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 2 |
| Greenville, NC | 6 | 1 | 0 | 3 | 2 | 0 |
| Las Vegas | 6 | 2 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 1 |
| Boston | 6 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| Orlando | 6 | 0 | 3 | 2 | 1 | 0 |
| Atlanta | 5 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 2 |
| Louisville | 4 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 0 | 1 |
| Puerto Rico | 4 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 |
| San Diego | 3 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 |
| Tampa | 3 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| Philadelphia | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 |
| Detroit | 2 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| Minneapolis | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0 |
| US, location not documented | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 |
| Houston | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Phoenix | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 |
| Portland | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 |
| Raleigh | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 |
| Columbus | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 |
What each metro holds
| Metro | What the creator economy landed there |
|---|---|
| Los Angeles | Los Angeles is where the creator economy's intermediaries concentrate: Maker, Fullscreen, Machinima, StyleHaul and Collective Digital Studio all form and are absorbed here, Disney Digital Network sits in Culver City, YouTube Space LA in Playa Vista, TikTok in Culver City, the Streamys and VidCon in Anaheim. The creator houses of 2017 to 2021 and the Burbank studios of Mythical, Smosh and Rooster Teeth's owners are here too. |
| Outside the United States | Foreign capital and events that shape the US creator economy: ProSiebenSat.1 in Munich, RTL in Luxembourg, L'Oreal and Publicis in Paris, Unilever and Informa in London, SoftBank in Tokyo, ByteDance in Beijing, Logitech in Lausanne, BBTV in Vancouver, musical.ly in Shanghai, TwitchCon Europe in Rotterdam, Summer in the City in London and Creator Ventures in London. Beast Games is shot outside the United States. |
| New York | New York holds the buyers rather than the creators: Coty, SiriusXM, Hearst, Verizon, Tiger Global, Thrive, Vox Media and Trusted Media Brands write the checks, and BuzzFeed, Complex, Group Nine and Barstool in its Chernin years are built here. YouTube Space New York occupied 20,000 square feet of Chelsea Market from 2014 to 2021. |
| San Francisco Bay Area | The Bay Area supplies the rails: YouTube in San Bruno, Twitch at 350 Bush Street, Patreon, Substack and Clubhouse in San Francisco, Google and Andreessen Horowitz on the Peninsula, Streamlabs and Index Ventures. Twitch's 2023 and 2024 layoffs of about 900 people and Patreon's 2022 cuts are the local job losses of the creator downturn. |
| Austin | Austin is a creator media and live format cluster with a rebuilding question. Its assets are independent studios, podcasting, comedy, gaming, SXSW scale convening and a workforce shaped by Rooster Teeth's rise and closure: Joe Rogan's Comedy Mothership and Onnit, Kill Tony and YMH Studios, OTK, Mythic Talent and Starforge, Restream, Atmosphere, and the Regulation Company, Party Up Media and Mikey and Fredo companies that Rooster Teeth alumni built on Patreon, Kickstarter and owned memberships after Warner Bros. Discovery closed Stage 5. The city's next opportunity is to retain the production talent, intellectual property, events and service firms that remain after a major platform or parent company exits. |
| South Florida | South Florida is a creator to consumer goods corridor rather than a single creator district. Miami supplies founder migration, media, finance and attention; Broward and Palm Beach County add consumer brand operators, beverage and wellness businesses, capital and logistics: Celsius in Boca Raton closing the 1.8 billion dollar Alani Nu purchase, Bang Energy built in Weston on paid creator posts before its 2022 bankruptcy, ShipMonk fulfilling creator brands from Fort Lauderdale, Misfits Gaming in Boca Raton, Valuetainment and Cardone Enterprises employing hundreds in Oakland Park and Aventura. The test for the region is not how many creators live here but whether it retains the operating companies, inventory finance, manufacturing contracts, distribution relationships and repeat founders that turn audiences into durable businesses. The map keeps each node's exact city. |
| Nashville | Nashville is the creator economy's rights and production city. Its comparative advantage is not influencer presence but the infrastructure that turns creative work into durable catalog, touring, publishing, recording, licensing, management and brand income: Soundstripe and Songfluencer as rights rails, Lyric Financial's royalty advances, Ramsey Solutions in Franklin, Nateland Entertainment turning a podcast audience into a record tour and a proposed theme park, Uncommon James and Kittenish as creator owned retail, and the CAA and UTA offices with creator departments. TikTok's Music Row lease and its 2026 closure with 250 layoffs show the platform rung arriving and leaving inside two years. |
| Dallas Fort Worth | Dallas Fort Worth is the headquarters and operating system side of the creator economy. Frisco and Dallas combine creator led sports entertainment, esports, retail, telecom, e commerce and corporate operations: Dude Perfect's headquarters, Complexity and GameSquare at The Star in Frisco, Esports Stadium Arlington, Envy's Victory Park base, AT&T's headquarters that funded Otter Media, LTK, 7-Eleven, GameStop, the Good Good Golf crew in Prosper and Preston's TBNR production company. The local value lies less in a single viral channel than in headquarters functions, production facilities, commerce platforms, logistics and the businesses that can scale a creator brand into an employer. The map keeps each node's exact city. |
| Seattle | Seattle is where Amazon and Microsoft decide creator platform fates: Amazon paid 970 million dollars for Twitch in 2014 and about 300 million dollars for Wondery in 2020 and restructured Wondery with 110 layoffs in August 2025, while Microsoft bought Seattle startup Beam in 2016, ran it as Mixer, signed Ninja and Shroud in 2019 and closed it on July 22, 2020. |
| Chicago | Chicago is home to Cameo, founded in March 2017 and valued at 1 billion dollars by SoftBank in 2021 before shrinking to 33 staff by July 2023, to Sprout Social, which bought Tagger Media for about 140 million dollars in 2023, and to Barstool Sports' current listed headquarters after Dave Portnoy bought it back from Penn for 1 dollar in August 2023. |
| Greenville, NC | Greenville, a city of about 90,000 in eastern North Carolina, is the headquarters of Beast Industries, where MrBeast's studios, Feastables and Beast Games teams employ more than 250 people as of 2023 in warehouses and offices rather than a Los Angeles lot. The January 2026 Bitmine round values the company at 5 billion dollars, making this the highest valued creator company in this dataset outside a major metro. |
| Las Vegas | Las Vegas is the base of Influential, the creator marketing platform Publicis bought in 2024 for a reported 500 million dollars, the current site of ComplexCon under NTWRK, and an occasional TwitchCon host city. Its convention space makes it the fallback venue for creator events that outgrow Anaheim and San Diego. |
| Boston | Boston is where Dave Portnoy started Barstool Sports as a free newspaper in 2003 before The Chernin Group moved it to New York in 2016, and it holds one of Slow Ventures' offices. No creator studio or manufacturing site in this cluster is anchored there. |
| Orlando | Orlando hosted Playlist Live from March 2011, the East Coast creator convention that peaked above 13,000 attendees in 2020 and ended after its 2022 edition when the 2023 event was canceled and the trademark lapsed in May 2023. Virtual Dining Concepts, mapped by the goods cluster, is also based here. |
| Atlanta | Atlanta is the origin of the AMP collective around Kai Cenat and the listed home of Bitmine, whose 200 million dollar investment in Beast Industries in January 2026 at a 5 billion dollar valuation is the largest single creator holding company check on the map. Film tax credits make it a production base but no creator studio campus is verified here. |
| Louisville | Louisville is where Congo Brands turns creator names into beverage companies: Alani Nu with Katy Hearn from 2018, sold to Celsius for 1.8 billion dollars in 2025, and Prime with Logan Paul and KSI from January 2022, which reached a reported 1.2 billion dollars of sales in 2023 before falling. The jobs are in brand management, logistics and co packing coordination rather than in a bottling plant of Congo's own. |
| Puerto Rico | Logan Paul and Jake Paul base themselves in Dorado and San Juan, Puerto Rico, where Act 60 tax incentives apply, and Most Valuable Promotions is founded in San Juan in 2021. The creators are here; Prime is run from Louisville and the boxing lands in Texas, New York, Miami and on Netflix. |
| San Diego | San Diego Convention Center is the main North American home of TwitchCon, hosting it repeatedly since 2016 including the 2024 edition with 23,000 attendees and the 2025 edition. Dr. Squatch, sold to Unilever for a reported 1.5 billion dollars in 2025, was founded here in 2013 before moving to Los Angeles. |
| Tampa | Tampa appears through Florida based creators and sports media rather than through an acquirer or venue in this cluster. No capital or places node in this file is headquartered there, and the metro is defined so that other clusters can attach creator and goods nodes to it. |
| Philadelphia | Philadelphia is the headquarters of Comcast, which put 400 million dollars into BuzzFeed in 2015 and 2016 and completed the Versant cable spin off in January 2026, and the nearest metro to Wyomissing, Pennsylvania, where Penn Entertainment ran its 551 million dollar Barstool purchase and 1 dollar resale between 2020 and 2023. |
| Detroit | Detroit is on the map through Dan Gilbert, the Cleveland Cavaliers owner and Detroit developer whose November 2017 investment seeded 100 Thieves, and through automotive brand sponsorships of creators. No capital or places node in this cluster is headquartered there, and the metro is defined so other clusters can attach nodes to it. |
| Minneapolis | Minneapolis is the headquarters of Target, the retailer that carries creator brands mapped by the goods cluster. No capital or places node in this cluster is anchored there; the metro is defined so other clusters can attach nodes to it. |
| US, location not documented | United States companies whose headquarters city is not confirmed in a retrieved source. They sit here rather than at a guessed location until a source places them. |
| Houston | Houston appears on the map through individual creators and podcast studios rather than through a headquartered creator company or acquirer. No capital or places node in this cluster is anchored there; the metro is defined so that other clusters can attach nodes to it. |
| Phoenix | Phoenix holds the manufacturing plant that Vital Pharmaceuticals opened in 2019 to make Bang Energy, the creator marketed drink that went bankrupt in October 2022. Monster Beverage acquired the plant with the brand on July 31, 2023 for 362 million dollars, so the jobs stayed in Phoenix under a new owner. |
| Portland | Portland appears through apparel and footwear brands and the creators they sponsor rather than through an acquirer or venue in this cluster. No capital or places node in this file is headquartered there, and the metro is defined so that other clusters can attach goods and creator nodes to it. |
| Raleigh | Raleigh is the state capital and research hub nearest to Greenville, North Carolina, and the metro where Beast Industries' logistics and hiring spill over as the company grows past 250 employees. No node in this cluster is headquartered there. |
| Columbus | Columbus appears through retail and logistics companies that carry creator goods rather than through an acquirer or venue in this cluster. No capital or places node in this file is headquartered there, and the metro is defined so that other clusters can attach goods and retail nodes to it. |
What a city can capture
The map's practical lesson is that a city does not compete for creators in the abstract. The creators are mobile, the platforms are elsewhere and the audience is placeless, so the durable local value is the operating infrastructure that remains after the audience moves: the co packer, the warehouse, the studio, the retail relationship, the working capital and the people who know how to run a consumer brand. Each rung of the ladder maps to an asset a city either has or can build, and the metros that hold the most value on this map are the ones that hold a rung rather than a name. Greenville holds an operating company, Louisville holds beverage operations, Oxnard holds a plant, Frisco holds a headquarters, Austin held a studio until its parent changed course.
The second lesson is about risk. The failures on this map cluster at the rungs where someone other than the creator holds the money, the lease or the contract, and a city that invests public money or land against a creator brand is taking on exactly that exposure. The Refresco line in Truesdale, built under a three year commitment and never used, is the case to keep in mind before any incentive is tied to influencer driven demand. Demand testing before plant investment, diversified tenants in any creator facility, contract protections on payment and offtake, and working capital due diligence on the operator are the controls that separate a rung a city can hold from a rung that breaks on it.
City assets by rung
| City asset | Rung served | What it looks like in practice |
|---|---|---|
| Affordable filming and editing space, broadband, permitting | Attention | Creator studios, production facilities and residencies of the kind Greenville built around one company and Los Angeles built around many |
| Creator facing local services | Intermediaries | Management, licensing, legal, accounting, marketing, translation, fulfillment and analytics firms that take a commission or a fee rather than a share of a platform's revenue |
| Food, beverage and beauty manufacturing | Goods | Co packing, pilot production, formulation, packaging and quality control; Oxnard and Louisville hold this rung, Truesdale shows its risk |
| Warehouse and fulfillment capacity | Goods and places | E commerce logistics, returns and creator merchandise fulfillment, as at Chatsworth and Casper |
| Retail and distribution relationships | Places | Regional retail launches, market testing and local shelf access before a national listing |
| Event infrastructure | Places | Creator conventions, fan events, live shows and brand activations; Anaheim, Orlando and Austin hold this rung |
| Capital and finance | Capital | Revenue based financing, inventory finance, working capital products and creator business funds; New York and the Bay Area hold this rung, no smaller metro on the map does |
| Workforce and education | Every rung | Production, e commerce, brand operations and media technology programs that supply the operating companies |
Local capture on the major paths
Each question is answered from the documented facts on the map, and Not documented means the map has no source on the point rather than a negative finding.
| Path | Metro | Headquarters | Operating jobs | Manufacturing | Logistics | Retail | Capital | Events | Resilience |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Beast Industries and Feastables | Greenville, North Carolina | Yes | Yes, more than 250 documented | No, Peru | Partly, warehouses in Greenville | No local flagship | No, Bitmine and SoftBank | No, Beast Games shot abroad | Low, one creator |
| Prime Hydration and Congo Brands | Louisville | Yes | Yes, cut in January 2026 | No, contract bottlers | Partly, coordination only | National | No | No | Low, two creators and a demand collapse |
| Alani Nu and Congo Brands | Louisville | Yes | Yes | No | Partly | National | No, exit to Celsius in Boca Raton | No | Medium, sold as a going concern |
| Dude Perfect | Frisco, Texas | Yes, Frisco headquarters | Yes | No physical product line documented | No | Merchandise store at HQ | No, Highmount Capital | Yes, Trick Shot World Championship and tours | Medium, five founders and a hired chief executive |
| Chamberlain Coffee | Los Angeles | Yes | Yes, two cafes | No, unnamed roaster and co packer | Not documented | Yes, cafes plus national retail | Not documented locally | No | Low, one creator |
| Kylie Cosmetics and Seed Beauty | Oxnard, Los Angeles metro | Yes | Yes | Yes, Oxnard plant | Yes, Seed ships | National through Ulta | No, Coty | No | Medium, the plant also makes ColourPop |
| Happy Dad | Orange County, Los Angeles metro | Yes, Newport Beach | Yes | No, Monroe, Wisconsin | No | National | Not documented | No | Medium, a crew rather than one creator |
| Rooster Teeth | Austin | Yes, Stage 5 until 2024 | Yes, about 150 lost in 2024 | Not applicable | No | No | No, Fullscreen, AT&T, then WBD | Yes, RTX | Low, a conglomerate parent |
| MrBeast Burger and Virtual Dining Concepts | Orlando | Yes, the operator | Partly, kitchens nationwide | Not applicable | No | No | No | No | Low, a licensed name |
| Onnit | Austin | Yes | Yes, gym and offices | Not documented locally | Not documented | Yes, Whole Foods, CVS and Amazon nationally | No, exit to Unilever | No | Medium, sold as a going concern in 2021 |
| Good Good Golf | Prosper, Dallas Fort Worth | Yes | Yes | No, Callaway makes the equipment | Not documented | National through Dick's | Partly, Creator Sports Capital round | Yes, televised events and the PGA Tour title | Low, sponsorships and chief executive lost within two weeks in 2026 |
| Nateland Entertainment | Lebanon, Nashville | Yes | Yes | Not applicable | Not documented | Merchandise store | Not documented | Yes, a two million ticket tour and a proposed theme park | Medium, one comedian with a network around him |
| TikTok Nashville | Nashville | Yes, Music Row lease | Yes, then 250 lost in 2026 | Not applicable | No | No | No | No | Low, a platform's regional office |
Failure modes and the response
| Failure mode | Rung | Early warning on this map | Local or business response |
|---|---|---|---|
| Platform payout change | Attention | Revenue concentrated on one platform's program | Owned audience, a second rail such as memberships or commerce, and diversified revenue before any fixed investment |
| Network or agency insolvency | Intermediaries | Delayed payouts and opaque accounting, as at Defy Media and Fanjoy | Escrow or direct payment terms, payment audits, and contracts that let the creator leave with the channel |
| Product sell through failure | Goods | Low repeat purchase and promotional dependence, as at Item Beauty and Selfless | Pilot runs, phased retail and inventory discipline before a national listing |
| Co packer mismatch | Goods and manufacturing | Dedicated line commitments made before demand is proven, as at Refresco and Prime | Demand guarantees, staged capital spending and contract safeguards for the plant |
| Creator house failure | Places | Lease burden and dependence on one or two star members, as at Hype House and Sway House | Flexible space, business governance and ownership clarity before the lease is signed |
| Parent company exit | Capital and intermediaries | Strategic fit deteriorates, layoffs and divestiture, as at Rooster Teeth and Machinima | Local retention of intellectual property, employee transition support and a redevelopment plan for the studio |
The manufacturing and retail rungs, edge by edge
These two tables are the physical economy of the map: every documented relationship between a brand and the company that makes it, and every documented placement of a creator brand on a retailer's shelf.
Manufacturing
| Years | Maker | Brand | Note |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2014 to present | Killer Merch | Jeffree Star Cosmetics | Killer Merch's Chatsworth warehouses house and fulfill Jeffree Star Cosmetics with about 125 staff. |
| 2014 to present | Seed Beauty | ColourPop | Seed Beauty makes ColourPop at Spatz Labs in Oxnard, the family contract manufacturer that now produces only for Seed's brands. |
| 2015 to 2019 | Seed Beauty | Kylie Cosmetics | Seed Beauty manufactures Kylie Cosmetics from the November 2015 Lip Kit launch through the Coty deal. |
| 2018 to 2025 | Congo Brands | Alani Nu | Congo Brands operates and produces Alani Nu from its 2018 founding until the Celsius sale. |
| 2018 to present | Killer Merch | Ninja (Tyler Blevins) | Killer Merch produces Ninja merchandise; the start year is not confirmed in a retrieved source. |
| 2018 to present | Creator Warehouse | LTTStore | Creator Warehouse engineers and sources the screwdriver, backpack and merchandise sold at LTTStore. |
| 2019 to present | Killer Merch | Shane Dawson | Killer Merch produces Shane Dawson merchandise including the Conspiracy collection. |
| 2020 to 2024 | Virtual Dining Concepts | MrBeast Burger | VDC operates MrBeast Burger out of partner restaurant kitchens, reaching about 1,700 locations by end of 2022. |
| 2020 to 2023 | Madeby Collective | Item Beauty | Ipsy's incubator develops and supplies Item Beauty until it is disbanded in 2023. |
| 2021 to present | Minhas Craft Brewery | Happy Dad Hard Seltzer | Minhas Craft Brewery in Monroe, Wisconsin cans the first Happy Dad runs in April 2021. |
| 2021 to present | Reef | Sides | Reef Technology's delivery only kitchens cook Sides from its November 2021 launch across London and the UAE, reaching over 80 UK sites by September 2022; the end of the Reef arrangement as Sides moves to restaurants is not confirmed. |
| 2021 to 2024 | The Inkey List | Selfless by Hyram | The Inkey List develops and produces Selfless by Hyram as a joint venture from June 2021 until Yarbro takes full ownership in March 2024. |
| 2022 to present | Congo Brands | Prime Hydration | Congo Brands formulates Prime and manages its contract bottlers and distribution. |
| 2022 to present | Machu Picchu Foods | Feastables | Peruvian business press identifies Machu Picchu Foods as the maker of Feastables chocolate in June 2025; the company's own site does not name the client. |
| 2023 to 2024 | Refresco | Prime Hydration | Refresco sues Congo Brands and Prime Hydration in Delaware Chancery in July 2024 for at least 67.7 million dollars over a three year take or pay deal to bottle Prime Hydration in custom 16.9 ounce bottles at its Truesdale, Missouri plant, at least 18.5 million cases a year, alleging Congo refused a final test run after the line was finished in March 2024; Congo says the agreement terminated on November 15, 2023. Chancery dismisses for lack of equity jurisdiction on January 16, 2025 and transfers the case to Delaware Superior Court, which on August 28, 2025 dismisses the declaratory count but lets the breach of contract and promissory estoppel claims proceed. |
| 2023 to 2026 | Callaway Golf (Topgolf Callaway Brands) | Good Good Golf | Callaway makes co branded limited edition Good Good equipment from a January 4, 2023 deal until it ends the partnership on August 27, 2026 over the driver ad. |
| 2024 to present | Mornflake | Best Cereal | Mornflake manufactures Best in Crewe. |
| 2024 to present | Congo Brands | Lunchly | Congo Brands is reported to handle Lunchly's beverage component and logistics; the co packer for the kits is unconfirmed. |
| 2026 | ShipMonk | Dr. Squatch | ShipMonk lists Dr. Squatch as a fulfillment customer on its Fort Lauderdale facility page in 2026; the start date of the relationship is not stated. |
Retail placement
| Years | Brand | Retailer | Note |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 to 2020 | Target | Shane Dawson | Target carries Dawson's two Simon & Schuster books until removing them in late June 2020, reported by WWD alongside Morphe's pause on the Conspiracy collection. |
| 2017 to present | ColourPop | Sephora | Sephora announces ColourPop in August 2017 and stocks it from November 2017, the brand's first retail partner after three years online only. |
| 2018 to 2020 | Morphe | Jeffree Star | Morphe stocks Jeffree Star Cosmetics from 2018 and drops the brand in July 2020. |
| 2018 to 2020 | Jeffree Star Cosmetics | Morphe | Morphe stores carry Jeffree Star Cosmetics from 2018, about 22 percent of wholesale, until Morphe drops him in July 2020. |
| 2018 to present | Kylie Cosmetics | Ulta Beauty | Kylie Cosmetics launches in over 1,100 Ulta stores in November 2018. |
| 2018 to present | ColourPop | Ulta Beauty | ColourPop enters Ulta in 2018 according to brand president Vivian Weng. |
| 2019 to present | G Fuel | GameStop | G Fuel's 2026 store locator does not list GameStop among its retailers; the placement is unconfirmed in any retrieved source. |
| 2020 to present | One/Size | Sephora | One/Size launches as a Sephora exclusive online on July 17, 2020 and in 523 stores on July 30, 2020, and remains Sephora exclusive in the United States in 2025. |
| 2020 to present | Chamberlain Coffee | Amazon | Chamberlain Coffee sells on Amazon; not confirmed in a retrieved source. |
| 2020 to 2023 | Item Beauty | Ipsy | Item Beauty samples through Ipsy bags, the incubator's built in distribution. |
| 2021 to 2026 | Morphe | Target | Morphe sells through the Ulta Beauty at Target shop in shop, which ends in August 2026. |
| 2021 to 2023 | Item Beauty | Sephora | Item Beauty enters Sephora in summer 2021 and exits in January 2023. |
| 2021 to 2023 | Selfless by Hyram | Sephora | Sephora exclusive in nearly 700 stores from June 2021 until the January 2023 exit. |
| 2021 to present | First Media | Amazon | First Media sells So Yummy and Blossom branded products through Amazon and Target alongside its shoppable video. |
| 2021 to present | Forvr Mood | Sephora | Forvr Mood enters Sephora stores and online on July 22, 2021. |
| 2021 | Onnit | Amazon | Unilever's announcement lists Amazon among Onnit's retail channels at the time of sale. |
| 2022 to present | Prime Hydration | Target | Target announces a Prime distribution deal in March 2022. |
| 2022 to present | Prime Hydration | Walmart | Prime Hydration+ stick packs arrive first at Walmart in September 2022 at 8.98 dollars a box, with Vitamin Shoppe following; BevNET reports about 500,000 dollars of Walmart sales in the first week. Walmart also lists the bottles. |
| 2022 to present | Prime Hydration | Asda | Asda becomes Prime's first UK retailer in June 2022 and the site of the sellouts; Aldi, Sainsbury's and Spar follow within weeks, so the deal is first mover rather than exclusive. |
| 2022 to present | Prime Hydration | Aldi | Aldi UK lists Prime on December 29, 2022 at 1.99 pounds as a Special Buy. |
| 2022 to present | Prime Hydration | Kroger | Prime reaches about 20,000 US doors by late 2022 including Kroger. |
| 2022 to present | Prime Hydration | Amazon | Prime's ZERO Hydration line launches on Amazon US in December 2025. |
| 2022 to present | Feastables | Walmart | Walmart.com carries the MrBeast Bar at 2.98 dollars from the January 29, 2022 launch alongside feastables.com and Gopuff; store shelves follow in September 2022 with a vegan cookie at 4.48 dollars. |
| 2022 to present | Prime Hydration | 7-Eleven | Prime reaches convenience chains including 7-Eleven during its 2022 US rollout; not confirmed in a retrieved source. |
| 2022 to present | Feastables | Amazon | Feastables sells on Amazon alongside its own site; not confirmed in a retrieved source. |
| 2023 to present | Feastables | 7-Eleven | Feastables is on shelves in every 7-Eleven and Speedway from May 25, 2023, and its November 2025 sweepstakes rules list 7-Eleven, Speedway and Stripes as participating retailers. |
| 2023 to present | Feastables | Target | Feastables reaches Target and other mass retailers after the Walmart launch; the placement year is not confirmed in a retrieved source. |
| 2023 to present | Chamberlain Coffee | Target | Target carries Chamberlain Coffee; the year is not confirmed in a retrieved source. |
| 2023 to present | Chamberlain Coffee | Walmart | Chamberlain Coffee launches a four flavor canned oat and almond latte line as a Walmart exclusive in April 2023 at 2.98 dollars a can, in stores and on Walmart.com. |
| 2023 to present | Morphe | Ulta Beauty | Ulta and direct sales carry Morphe after the 2023 US store closures. |
| 2023 to present | ColourPop | Target | ColourPop enters every Target store in 2023 through the Ulta Beauty at Target shops; Target lists the brand online in 2026. |
| 2023 to present | XIX Vodka | Tesco | XIX holds a national Tesco listing; the start year is not confirmed in a retrieved source. |
| 2023 to present | Be Happy Snacks | Walmart | D'Amelio Foods launches Be Happy Snacks popcorn on October 26, 2023 exclusively at Walmart stores and Walmart.com at 3.98 dollars, with Albertsons banners added in June 2024. |
| 2023 to present | Happy Dad Hard Seltzer | 7-Eleven | Happy Dad reports Nielsen data placing it fourth in United States convenience store hard seltzer for the 13 weeks to September 6, 2025; the release does not name 7-Eleven and the placement rests on third party delivery listings. |
| 2023 | Lunar Beauty | Ulta Beauty | Ulta carries Lunar Beauty online in 2026 with about 20 products; the start year of the placement is not confirmed. |
| 2023 to present | Prime Hydration | Walgreens | Walgreens.com carries Prime Hydration bottles in at least five flavors as live product listings; the start date is not announced. |
| 2023 to present | Dude Perfect | Walmart | Dude Perfect launches a games and toys line, including its first board game, at the front of Walmart stores on October 21, 2023; the licensed manufacturer is not named in the announcement. |
| 2024 to present | Prime Hydration | Costco | Costco carries exclusive Prime flavors through 2026. |
| 2024 to present | Lunchly | Walmart | Lunchly launches in late September 2024 with Kroger and Albertsons named as first stockists and Walmart and Target announced to follow; Walmart.com lists ten Lunchly kits, snack kits and Lil Sammies frozen sandwiches at 2.96 to 6.84 dollars by 2026. The co packer is not identified. |
| 2024 to present | Chamberlain Coffee | Costco | Costco carries Chamberlain Coffee. |
| 2024 to present | Best Cereal | Tesco | Best launches exclusively at Tesco at 2 pounds a box. |
| 2024 to present | W | Walmart | W, co founded by Jake Paul and Geoffrey Woo with chief executive Woodie Hillyard, launches June 12, 2024 exclusively at Walmart and Walmart.com priced under 10 dollars an item after rolling onto shelves from early June. |
| 2024 to present | Feastables | Kroger | Feastables reaches grocery chains including Kroger after the 2024 relaunch; not confirmed in a retrieved source. |
| 2024 to present | Happy Dad Hard Seltzer | Walmart | Walmart.com lists Happy Dad hard seltzer packs, and the brand cites Nielsen four week data to February 7, 2026 showing 436,384 dollars of Walmart sales, up 15 percent on the year. |
| 2024 to present | Higround | Best Buy | Best Buy lists 31 Higround products including 100 Thieves Team Issue keyboards as live listings; the start date of the placement is not announced. |
| 2024 | Joyride Sweets | Target | Joyride's Ryan Trahan sour strips launch direct to consumer in February 2024 and reach Target shelves in June 2024. |
| 2025 | Jeffree Star Cosmetics | Ulta Beauty | A reported 2025 Ulta placement for Jeffree Star Cosmetics is unconfirmed. |
| 2025 to present | Tone | Target | Target introduces Tone in stores and on Target.com on July 7, 2025. |
| 2025 to 2026 | Good Good Golf | Dick's Sporting Goods and Golf Galaxy | Dick's and Golf Galaxy stock Good Good apparel and co branded equipment until pulling it on August 25, 2026. |
| 2025 to present | Jessie James Decker | Walmart | Decker's Just Feed Me cookware line sells in Walmart stores nationwide according to her August 2026 Nashville Lifestyles profile; the launch date is not confirmed. |
| 2026 to present | POV Beauty | Sephora | POV Beauty makes its retail debut at Sephora on September 3, 2026. |
| 2026 | Good Good Golf | Target | Target is among the retailers SGB reports pulling Good Good merchandise in the week of August 24, 2026; the start of the Target placement is not documented. |
Confidence, dates and sources
Every node and edge was checked against at least one reference source in September 2026. 498 of 574 nodes are verified against a source retrieved during compilation, 75 are partly verified, meaning the core facts were confirmed and one or more details rest on a general reference or on the owner's own statement, and 1 could not be confirmed and are kept on the map with that status shown in their panel. Where sources disagree the map takes the company's own filing or announcement over a press report, and a press report over a general reference. Dollar figures are given only where disclosed or reported, and the word reported marks the latter. Edges are never weighted by money. The dataset has 174 partly verified and 19 unverified edges, all flagged in the workbook. Superlatives in this document describe this dataset, not the industry: the largest, the first or the clearest means the largest, first or clearest among the paths documented here.
How connections are dated
Every one of the 801 connections carries a timing field. The field is one of five types, and the workbook records the type on every edge so that undated or approximate connections can be filtered out of any analysis.
| Timing type | Meaning | Edges |
|---|---|---|
| date range | A start year and an end year or the word present, used for representation, retail presence, membership and ongoing production | 500 |
| year | A single year, used where the relationship is documented to a year but not a month | 293 |
| year, approximate | A year with qualifying words, used where only a general period is known | 4 |
| exact date | A day, month and year, used for closings, launches and announced signings, and recorded in the note where known | 0 |
| undated | A relationship documented without a usable year; these edges are counted and flagged, and are shown with an empty timing field | 4 |
Work in progress and public disclosure policy
Work in progress. This map is not exhaustive. It presents the result of documented research at this release and changes as sources are added, corrected, or superseded. Every node is based on at least one public source and carries its sources and confidence class. Corrections and additions go through the Corrections page of the site, creators.businessflare.net/contribute/, and are checked against a public source or an owner authorized statement before anything changes.
Public disclosure policy. This map uses public business records, public corporate filings, property records, public calendars, public civic documents, public press coverage and public listings. It maps commercial infrastructure and documented civic activity, not endorsements, partnerships or private cultural behavior. Inclusion does not require participation, consent or approval. The map corrects factual errors promptly and considers removal requests case by case where a listing is outdated, an entity has closed, publication presents a material safety concern, or the entity is not conducting public facing commercial activity. Public commercial infrastructure is mappable; private cultural behavior is protected.
Timeline placement
On the Layers view and in the Play animation a company, platform or institution enters at its founding year and a person at their first documented activity, taken from the earliest dated relation on the map. A node with no recorded founding year enters at the first year the map documents it and never earlier; the interactive panel labels these under Placed at, and the Nodes sheet carries the basis for every node in its Place year basis column. A node with no dated link at all enters at the cutoff year of 2026, and any such node is named below because it needs a dated connection. Nodes founded or first active before 2005 are shown from the start of the timeline. Influence relations never date a node. 340 nodes are placed at a founding year, 121 at first documented activity, 7 at the first year the map documents them, 106 from the start of the timeline because they were founded or first active before 2005, and 0 at the cutoff year.
No node is placed at the cutoff year: every node on the map carries a founding year, an activity year or a dated connection.
Source tiers
Sources are classed in three tiers. Primary and company sources are filings, court documents, press releases and the company's own pages. Trade and financial press are the publications that report the creator economy and its deals. General reference means an encyclopedia entry, used for discovery and for uncontested history. 196 nodes carry a primary or company source, 260 rest on trade or financial press as their strongest source, 107 on another web source such as a company profile or a product listing, and 11 nodes rest on a general reference alone. The source upgrade pass of September 2026 checked every node that had rested on a general reference against filings, court records, releases, live listings and trade reporting, in the priority order of acquisitions and ownership, valuations and financing, bankruptcies, lawsuits and layoffs, manufacturing and retail placement, and current status. It corrected 164 node notes and 205 edges and left 79 discrepancies it could not resolve, which are listed below and in the workbook. The map is a research map and reference draft: every fact carries its source and its tier, and the flagged items are the open questions.
| Strongest source tier | Nodes |
|---|---|
| trade or financial press | 260 |
| primary or company | 196 |
| other web | 107 |
| general reference | 11 |
Flagged discrepancies
Items where sources disagree, or where nothing above a general reference exists, as recorded by the source upgrade pass. Each is shown on the node's panel.
| Node | Discrepancy |
|---|---|
| 100 Thieves | Nadeshot's CEO end date is unresolved: a March 15, 2024 leadership announcement still names him founder and CEO, while Esports Insider in September 2025 reports he has not served as CEO for nearly two years and attends only quarterly board meetings, so the edge's December 2024 date is unconfirmed. |
| 100 Thieves Cash App Compound | The Culver City location, the December 2021 valuation and the dated layoff rounds are not in a retrieved source. |
| 7-Eleven | Prime's presence in 7-Eleven is not confirmed; BevNET's October 2022 report names Walmart, Kroger and Target for its 20,000 doors and 7-Eleven's own site says 1925 rather than 1927 for its founding. |
| Adidas | The 2021 end year of the Adidas and Ninja partnership has no retrieved source. |
| Alissa Violet | The Hot 100 entry for It's Every Night Sis (June 9, 2017 release, peak of 80 in September 2017) appears only in chart aggregator and fan sites, and no trade or financial source covers her Vine start or later career. |
| Amazon | The 100 million dollar Beast Games license figure, the Prime ZERO Amazon launch in December 2025, the Tastemade Series E and the Chamberlain and Feastables marketplace listings could not be checked against a retrieved source. |
| Anaheim Convention Center | Visit Anaheim states over 1 million square feet of exhibit space and the center's own site 1.6 million, against the prior note's 813,000; the 2015 to 2017 expansion dates are not in a retrieved source. |
| Andreessen Horowitz | The Stir Series A (February 2021) and Teespring Series A (January 2014) edges were not confirmed against any primary or trade page in this pass; the Substack 65 million dollar Series B date and round also rest on the encyclopedia. |
| Ani Energy | No source confirms when Ani Energy stopped selling; the 2022 end year rests on the brand's silence rather than an announcement. |
| Asda | The prior note's 48 percent 2024 fall and 71 percent by mid 2025 do not match the Companies House accounts reported by Marketing Week and Grocery Gazette, which put the 71 percent fall in calendar 2024; the 1949 founding date is the Associated Dairies origin rather than Asda's stated 1960s formation. |
| Beast Games | The prior note's 15 million dollar season two prize pool and Wilmington, Las Vegas, Fiji and Riyadh filming sites are not in the Amazon releases, which state a 5 million dollar pool and do not name locations. |
| Beautycon | The Essence Ventures acquisition year, the 2022 relaunch and any 2024 to 2026 festival could not be confirmed; the site's last listed event is 2023. |
| Bethany Mota | The claim that Forbes reported the Aeropostale line underperforming by mid 2014 was not retrieved; only the launch release and WWD launch coverage were found. |
| Bethany Mota for Aéropostale | Aeropostale's December 6, 2013 release and Tubefilter's December 2014 anniversary collection report describe the line as a success, while the note's claim that it underperformed rests on a Forbes report and a June 2014 remark not retrieved; the end year remains unconfirmed. |
| Bitmine Immersion Technologies | The 5 billion dollar valuation appears only in press coverage; Bitmine's 8-K press release states the 200 million dollar amount but no valuation. |
| Blue Ant Media | The 2018 Blue Ant release renames only Omnia's production arm, not the whole network, and no primary source was found for when Blue Ant moved from minority to controlling ownership. |
| Clout Gang | No trade or financial source covers Clout Gang's formation or end; Teen Vogue confirms only that Alissa Violet moved into FaZe Banks's Clout House in 2017, and founding and end dates stay unconfirmed. |
| Comedy Mothership | The club's own history page gives 2023 for the opening but not the March date; purchase price and capacity are undisclosed. |
| ComplexCon | The Long Beach years and the exact year of the Las Vegas move are not in a retrieved source. |
| Corridor Digital | Tubefilter confirms the Battlefield series Rush with Studio71 and Go90 in 2016, but the October 9, 2009 incorporation date, the 2019 headcount of nine, the Puget Systems deal and the subscriber and view figures were not confirmed above encyclopedia grade in this pass. |
| Dan Gilbert | The only sources found for the November 2017 Gilbert investment in 100 Thieves (cleveland.com, February 2018; Polygon, December 2017) could not be retrieved through the proxy, so nothing above encyclopedia grade was confirmed. |
| Dave Portnoy | The barstool_sports edge gave a 2003 founding while the node gives 2004; the 8-K does not date the founding, so the edge is set to 2004 to match the node pending a better source. |
| Dragun Beauty | A Dragun Beauty site is live in 2026 but no source confirms whether the brand is trading or dormant after 2022. |
| Dude Perfect HQ, Frisco | The October 2024 announcement (Tubefilter) gives 3 million dollars and 36,000 square feet; Forbes reports the opened headquarters in January 2025 at 5 million dollars and 80,000 square feet, and the DPHQ3 name and the sports features are not in a retrieved source. |
| Epic Games | No source above a business directory confirms that Killer Merch of Chatsworth produces Fortnite merchandise or when that began. |
| Evolved Talent Agency | No retrieved source confirms Evolved's 2016 founding year or its status after CAA absorbed ICM in 2022. |
| Full Send | No company, filing or financial press source found for Full Send's launch year or the reported 100 million dollar annual apparel revenue; only aggregator net worth sites repeat the figure. |
| G Fuel | No source confirms a GameStop placement for G Fuel; Target's site lists G Fuel cans in 2026 while the GameStop edge remains unverified. |
| GameStop | The 2019 GameStop sponsorship of Complexity's Frisco performance center and any G Fuel shelf placement could not be checked against a retrieved source. |
| The Kin Community edge (YouTube original channels funding, October 2011) could not be checked because the Tubefilter original channels list did not load; it rests on the encyclopedia. | |
| Hype House | The Moorpark mansion listed in February 2024 and the queue's April 2023 sale date conflict; the August 2024 sale and dissolution date rests on the encyclopedia entry only. |
| Hype House mansion, Moorpark | The January 2023 landlord suit for 300,000 dollars, Thomas Petrou's April 6, 2023 exit announcement and the August 2024 sale could not be checked; only the 5 million dollar mansion and the January 7, 2022 Netflix premiere are confirmed. |
| Hyram Yarbro | Selfless by Hyram's current retail status could not be confirmed; the Sephora brand page returned no product content. |
| Joe Rogan | The 2020 Spotify fee is given as $100 million in the edge and $200 million in the node; both are press reports and Spotify discloses no figure. |
| Kinda Funny | The figure of about 35,000 dollars a month on Patreon within weeks of launch is not confirmed in a retrieved source; Polygon and GamesIndustry.biz confirm only that the January 2015 launch was Patreon funded. |
| The Creator Accelerator 15,000 dollar grant program is not confirmed in any retrieved primary or trade source. | |
| Linus Sebastian | The creator_warehouse edge carries years 2016 to present but its own note gives a September 17, 2018 founding; no registry filing was retrieved to settle the date. |
| Liza Koshy | Her role in The Naked Gun is confirmed only by the IMDb cast listing; the Deadline casting report could not be retrieved. |
| Manny MUA (Manuel Gutierrez) | Lunar Beauty's company page confirms the founder and a live store but not the 2018 launch date or the Maybelline 2017 ambassadorship; no trade source retrieved. |
| Matthew Yglesias | The reported 250,000 dollar Substack Pro advance and the 1.4 million dollar annual figure could not be confirmed in a retrieved source; Business Insider reports only more than 1 million dollars a year. |
| Mediakix | BuzzFeed News and Business Insider report the 2020 payment dispute and suspension of campaigns, but the exact suspension date and whether Mediakix has since dissolved or paid the creators could not be confirmed. |
| Meta creator bonuses and Reels Play | Meta's July 14, 2021 announcement confirms the 1 billion dollar pledge through the end of 2022 and the Reels bonus, but the 35,000 dollar monthly cap, the March 2023 wind down of Reels Play, the 2024 and 2025 invitation only rounds and the October 2024 Content Monetization consolidation rest on the encyclopedia alone in this pass. |
| Mogul Moves | Mogul Money Live in July 2022 at YouTube Theater and the chessboxing event of December 11, 2022 at the Galen Center are confirmed by Tubefilter, but no trade source retrieved confirms Ludwig's Streamer Games in August 2024 or its Streamer Award, and the 2020 founding year rests on the encyclopedia alone. |
| Most Valuable Promotions | The company site names Jake Paul and Nakisa Bidarian as its leaders and lists a November 8, 2026 card, and Tubefilter confirms the Netflix partnership for Paul vs Tyson, but no retrieved source confirms the 2021 founding in San Juan, the Taylor vs Serrano III date or Paul vs Joshua in December 2025. |
| MrBeast studios, Greenville | The 250 employee figure and the 5 billion dollar valuation for the Bitmine round are reported, not filed; Bitmine's release gives no valuation. |
| Nelk | The reported figure of near 100 million dollars in annual Full Send apparel sales appears only in net worth aggregator sites, and no trade or financial source was found; the SteveWillDoIt 15 percent Happy Dad stake is also unsourced above encyclopedia grade. |
| Ninja (Tyler Blevins) | The killer_merch and adidas edges remain unconfirmed by any retrieved source, and the Mixer fee is reported at $20 to $30 million by GameSpot but at $50 million by VGC. |
| Omnia Media | The map needs an enthusiast_gaming to omnia_media acquisition edge for the August 30, 2020 purchase from Blue Ant Media Solutions, confirmed by the Enthusiast Gaming closing release. |
| Patreon headquarters, San Francisco | The 80 million user figure for April 2026 is not in a retrieved source. |
| PayPal Honey | The 2025 and 2026 developments (Google policy change in March 2025, loss of about 8 million Chrome users, dismissal in November 2025, refiling in January 2026, Rakuten dropping Honey) could not be verified against a filing, docket or trade article within this pass. |
| PewDiePie (Felix Kjellberg) | The 110 million subscriber figure for 2026 and the November 2025 end of gaming content rest on general and fan press only; no trade source retrieved. |
| Playlist Live | The 2023 cancellation, the May 19, 2023 trademark cancellation and the Rapid Cat organizer name could not be checked; Tubefilter names AKT Enterprises as organizer. |
| ProSiebenSat.1 Media | The TF1 and Mediaset 30 percent purchase in January 2017 and the Red Arrow to Seven.One Studios rename rest on the encyclopedia; no primary release was retrieved in this pass. |
| RTX | Sydney and London editions and peak attendance figures are not in a retrieved source. |
| Reef | No primary or trade source retrieved for Reef Technology's founding year or for when its Sides kitchen arrangement ended as Sides moved to physical restaurants. |
| Rogue Rocket | Tubefilter reports the Rogue Rocket YouTube channel going live on July 1, 2019 with more than 30 staff, while the note gives April 22, 2019 as the launch; the Patreon figure of about 50,000 dollars a month and the Fourthwall role were not confirmed above encyclopedia grade. |
| Rooster Teeth Stage 5, Austin Studios | The May 15, 2024 final day and the two year lease detail are not in a retrieved source. |
| SXSW | The 1994 film and interactive start and the Penske Media stake are not on the fetched SXSW page. |
| Shopify | Shopify's February 11, 2026 results release and 8-K confirm about 11.6 billion dollars of 2025 revenue and investment in the Universal Commerce Protocol, but the 292 billion dollar 2024 GMV, the 57 percent US share, the 5 million merchant count and the January 2026 protocol launch date were not confirmed in a retrieved page. |
| SipMargs | The 3 million dollar 2025 round and the brand's founding year and location have no source above encyclopedia grade. |
| SiriusXM | The Team Coco 150 million dollar price and the 2022 Crooked Media ad sales deal rest on reported figures no retrieved primary or trade page confirmed in this pass. |
| Sisters Apparel | No press or company source above encyclopedia grade found for Sisters Apparel's November 2018 launch or its current status; a Shopify store using the name is online but its official standing is unverified. |
| Starforge Systems | The claim that Starforge is the largest OTK venture by revenue has no source above encyclopedia grade; no revenue figure is disclosed. |
| Summer in the City | No source above encyclopedia grade was retrieved; sitc-event.co.uk now redirects to megaconlive.com, which lists no Summer in the City edition for 2025 or 2026. |
| Sway House, Bel Air | Tubefilter describes the mansion as Hollywood Hills while the prior note and other press say Bel Air; the 7,800 square foot figure is not in a retrieved source. |
| TPG Capital | The CAA stake edge (53 percent, sold to Groupe Artemis in September 2023 for a reported 7 billion dollars) was not checked against a primary or trade source in this pass. |
| TanaCon | Crowd size is reported as 4,000 to 5,000 in some accounts and as roughly 15,000 waiting outside in Tubefilter and Newsweek; no primary count exists. |
| Team 10 house | Tubefilter places the rented house in West Hollywood while the prior note says Beverly Grove; the Calabasas price is reported, not filed. |
| The Chernin Group | The Night Capital and Night Media edges (100 million dollar commitment, September 2022) were not confirmed against a primary or trade source in this pass. |
| The Dodo | Vox Media's May 2026 sale to James Murdoch and the later sale of other Vox brands to Penske Media are reported by Aftermath, which does not say where The Dodo lands; the brand's current owner needs confirmation. |
| Thomas Petrou | Nothing above encyclopedia grade was found for the 2023 mansion sale, the $300,000 landlord claim or the August 2024 dissolution; Tubefilter coverage stops in 2022. |
| Tiger Global Management | No page confirming the April 2021 Patreon Series F (155 million dollars at 4 billion dollars) could be retrieved in this pass; the figures rest on press reports cited by the encyclopedia. |
| TikTok US headquarters, Culver City | The prior note's 35.1 percent combined Dell and Vastmere share is not in the joint venture release, which lists those holders without percentages. |
| Twitch headquarters, 350 Bush Street | The 185,000 square feet and August 2019 move in date are not in a retrieved source; Twitch's own blog blocks retrieval. |
| TwitchCon | The 2015 and 2024 attendance figures rest on the prior note; the 11,500 Rotterdam figure is not in a retrieved source. |
| Walmart | Chamath Palihapitiya's September 2024 post says Lunchly opened at Kroger and Albertsons with Walmart due by January; no release dates the Walmart arrival precisely. |
| YouTube Space New York | The 2014 opening, 20,000 square feet and Chelsea Market sixth floor location are not in a retrieved source; only the February 18, 2021 permanent closure is confirmed. |
| Zach King | The 25 person staff and 43 million YouTube subscriber figures are not on the company page, which cites 105 million combined followers; no trade source retrieved. |
| musical.ly | The up to 1 billion dollar purchase price is press reported only; retrieved trade sources confirm the November 2017 acquisition and the August 2, 2018 merger into TikTok but not the price. |
Unverified nodes
| Node | What is unconfirmed |
|---|---|
| Clout Gang | Founding and end dates are not confirmed. |
Unverified edges
| Connection | Type | Note |
|---|---|---|
| Team 10 to Hype House | influence | The Hype House follows the Team 10 model of a rented Los Angeles house and shared audience, a lineage the founders and press acknowledge. |
| Team 10 to Clout Gang | spawned | Clout Gang forms around Alissa Violet and RiceGum after their split from Team 10. |
| FaZe Clan to Clout Gang | spawned | FaZe Banks hosts Clout Gang at the FaZe Clout House in Los Angeles. |
| MrBeast (Jimmy Donaldson) to Ryan Trahan | influence | Trahan's charity challenge series follow the MrBeast format of stunt plus giveaway, which the press notes; Trahan's own statement is not confirmed. |
| Virtual Dining Concepts to Dave Portnoy | licensing | VDC runs Pardon My Cheesesteak with Barstool Sports; the year is not confirmed in a retrieved source. |
| Feastables to Kroger | retail placement | Feastables reaches grocery chains including Kroger after the 2024 relaunch; not confirmed in a retrieved source. |
| Jeffree Star Cosmetics to Ulta Beauty | retail placement | A reported 2025 Ulta placement for Jeffree Star Cosmetics is unconfirmed. |
| Congo Brands to Lunchly | manufacturing | Congo Brands is reported to handle Lunchly's beverage component and logistics; the co packer for the kits is unconfirmed. |
| Maker Studios to Epic Rap Battles of History | representation | Epic Rap Battles of History is produced and sold through Maker Studios in its early years. |
| Collective Digital Studio to Rhett & Link | representation | Rhett and Link are represented by Collective Digital Studio in the years before Mythical grows into a studio. |
| Collective Digital Studio to Lilly Singh | representation | Lilly Singh is a Collective Digital Studio partner in its ProSieben years. |
| Collective Digital Studio to Epic Rap Battles of History | representation | Epic Rap Battles of History moves to Collective Digital Studio after Maker. |
| Fullscreen to Dropout | influence | Dropout's paid subscription follows Fullscreen's failed 2016 to 2018 subscription app and succeeds where it did not; the comparison is the press's, not Reich's. |
| WME (WME Group) to Addison Rae | representation | WME signs Addison Rae in January 2020 as her TikTok following passes 10 million; the signing date is not confirmed in a retrieved source. |
| MrBeast (Jimmy Donaldson) to Spotter | licensing | MrBeast licenses back catalog ad revenue to Spotter for an upfront payment whose size is not disclosed. |
| Dude Perfect to Spotter | licensing | Dude Perfect is among the creators that sell back catalog revenue rights to Spotter for upfront cash. |
| Zoella (Zoe Sugg) to Summer in the City | event or venue | Zoella appears at Summer in the City in London in its 2013 and 2014 editions. |
| FaZe Clan to FaZe House, Hollywood Hills | event or venue | FaZe Clan members live and film in a rented Hollywood Hills house in the late 2010s. |
| YouTube to Ramsey Solutions | platform payout | The Ramsey Show and the Ramsey personalities run monetized YouTube channels alongside radio and podcast feeds; the start year of YouTube monetization and its revenue are not confirmed. |
Partly verified nodes
The core facts of each are confirmed. The sentence shown is the detail that rests on a general reference or is not publicly disclosed.
| Node | What is unconfirmed |
|---|---|
| 100 Thieves Cash App Compound | Whether the organization still occupies the building is unconfirmed. |
| Adidas | The end of the partnership is not confirmed in a retrieved source. |
| Alissa Violet | Her Vine start and later career details are not confirmed here. |
| Ampersand Studios Nashville | Investors and rents are not disclosed and the operator's home market is not confirmed in the retrieved source. |
| Ani Energy | The closure date is not confirmed in a retrieved source. |
| Beautycon | Facts rest on a general reference rather than a primary document. |
| Best Buy | Facts rest on a general reference rather than a primary document. |
| Bethany Mota for Aéropostale | The end year is not confirmed in a retrieved source. |
| Bitmine Immersion Technologies | Facts rest on a general reference rather than a primary document. |
| BusinessFlare® | Facts rest on a general reference rather than a primary document. |
| Collective Digital Studio | Facts rest on a general reference rather than a primary document. |
| ComplexCon | Facts rest on a general reference rather than a primary document. |
| Creator Gold | Founding year and format are as stated by the owner and are not confirmed in a retrieved source. |
| Dragun Beauty | The brand goes quiet after Dragun's 2022 arrest and its formal closure is not confirmed, so it is marked dormant. |
| DreamHack | Facts rest on a general reference rather than a primary document. |
| Envy Gaming | Facts rest on a general reference rather than a primary document. |
| Envy Gaming headquarters, Victory Park | Whether OpTic still occupies the Olive Street space after Mike Rufail's January 2025 separation is not confirmed in any source retrieved. |
| Evolved Talent Agency | Its founding year and current roster are not confirmed in a retrieved source. |
| Fixated | Facts rest on a general reference rather than a primary document. |
| Forvr Mood | The manufacturing chain is not disclosed. |
| Fox Creator Studios | The 2025 launch year is from general knowledge and is not confirmed in a fetched source. |
| Full Send | Facts rest on a general reference rather than a primary document. |
| GameStop | G Fuel's own store locator names Target, Walmart, CVS, Amazon, iHerb and Ingles Markets rather than GameStop, so the gaming energy placement here rests on past promotions rather than a current listing, and specific creator brand placements are not confirmed. |
| Facts rest on a general reference rather than a primary document. | |
| Grant Cardone | The starting year is the approximate start of his social video output and is not confirmed. |
| Grant Cardone Enterprises | The founding year of the enterprise and the current headcount are not confirmed. |
| Hyram Yarbro | The line's current status and his base are not confirmed. |
| Insight Partners | Facts rest on a general reference rather than a primary document. |
| Jackie Aina | Facts rest on a general reference rather than a primary document. |
| Jellysmack | Founding and SoftBank details are not confirmed in a retrieved source. |
| Kevin Crowder | Facts rest on a general reference rather than a primary document. |
| Kickstarter | Facts rest on a general reference rather than a primary document. |
| Killer Merch | Its 2024 to 2026 status is not confirmed in a retrieved source. |
| Kin Community | It operates in 2024 with celebrity led series for Tia Mowry and Adrienne Bailon; whether it still trades in 2026 is unconfirmed. |
| Kittenish | Manufacturing locations are not disclosed and the Kohl's collection year is not confirmed in a retrieved source. |
| Kroger | Facts rest on a general reference rather than a primary document. |
| The grant program details are not confirmed in a retrieved source and unconfirmed. | |
| Lunar Beauty | The start of the Ulta placement and 2025 sales are not confirmed in a retrieved source. |
| Machu Picchu Foods | The start date of the Feastables contract is not confirmed. |
| Mavrck | The 2023 date for the rename is not confirmed. |
| Meta creator bonuses and Reels Play | The end date for the current Instagram bonus rounds is unconfirmed. |
| Mikey & Fredo (formerly Dogbark) | Facts rest on a general reference rather than a primary document. |
| Mogul Moves | Facts rest on a general reference rather than a primary document. |
| MrBeast studios, Greenville | Facts rest on a general reference rather than a primary document. |
| Music Cities Radio | Facts rest on a general reference rather than a primary document. |
| Northern Texas PGA | Facts rest on a general reference rather than a primary document. |
| Omnia Media | Facts rest on a general reference rather than a primary document. |
| Party Up Media (Death Battle) | Facts rest on a general reference rather than a primary document. |
| Preffy | Facts rest on a general reference rather than a primary document. |
| ProSiebenSat.1 Media | The 2015 price is from press coverage and is not confirmed in a primary filing. |
| Publicis Groupe | Facts rest on a general reference rather than a primary document. |
| Reef | Facts rest on a general reference rather than a primary document. |
| Regulation Company (Regulation Podcast) | The Austin production base is inferred from the hosts' residence and the former studio and is not confirmed in a fetched source. |
| Rhett Shull | The channel start year and revenue split are not confirmed. |
| Seek Discomfort | Revenue is not disclosed. |
| SipMargs | The founding year and the co packer are not confirmed. |
| Sisters Apparel | Its formal closure is not confirmed. |
| Street Economics® | Facts rest on a general reference rather than a primary document. |
| Street Economics® Television | Facts rest on a general reference rather than a primary document. |
| Summer in the City | Facts rest on a general reference rather than a primary document. |
| Team 10 house | Facts rest on a general reference rather than a primary document. |
| Teddy Fresh | Facts rest on a general reference rather than a primary document. |
| Tether | Facts rest on a general reference rather than a primary document. |
| The Dodo | Vox Media itself is sold in May 2026 to James Murdoch for a reported sum above 300 million dollars, and The Dodo's place in the split up group is unconfirmed. |
| The Inkey List | Facts rest on a general reference rather than a primary document. |
| The Lighthouse | The opening year is not confirmed. |
| The Music Cities™ | Facts rest on a general reference rather than a primary document. |
| The Onion (Global Tetrahedron) | Facts rest on a general reference rather than a primary document. |
| The Vault Conference | The 2025 venue and attendance figures are not confirmed. |
| Thomas Petrou | Facts rest on a general reference rather than a primary document. |
| Tiger Global Management | Facts rest on a general reference rather than a primary document. |
| TikTok US headquarters, Culver City | Facts rest on a general reference rather than a primary document. |
| Walgreens | Facts rest on a general reference rather than a primary document. |
| Zoella Beauty | The range is no longer on shelves by the mid 2020s and its end date is not confirmed. |
| musiccitiesconcerts.com | Facts rest on a general reference rather than a primary document. |
Sources by domain
Counts are the number of node source citations from each domain. The full URL list sits in the workbook's Nodes and Edges sheets and at the foot of every panel on the interactive map.
| Domain | Citations |
|---|---|
| en.wikipedia.org | 485 |
| tubefilter.com | 174 |
| variety.com | 77 |
| prnewswire.com | 36 |
| techcrunch.com | 33 |
| businesswire.com | 32 |
| forbes.com | 31 |
| hollywoodreporter.com | 20 |
| deadline.com | 16 |
| dexerto.com | 15 |
| esportsinsider.com | 15 |
| beautyindependent.com | 12 |
| cnbc.com | 11 |
| axios.com | 10 |
| sec.gov | 9 |
| dallasinnovates.com | 9 |
| dmagazine.com | 9 |
| cosmeticsbusiness.com | 8 |
| musicbusinessworldwide.com | 8 |
| wwd.com | 7 |
| glossy.co | 7 |
| fortune.com | 7 |
| dallasnews.com | 7 |
| bloomberg.com | 6 |
| bevnet.com | 6 |
| globenewswire.com | 6 |
| refreshmiami.com | 6 |
| about.fb.com | 6 |
| musicrow.com | 6 |
| x.com | 5 |
| newsroom.spotify.com | 5 |
| billboard.com | 5 |
| femfounded.org | 5 |
| ir.celsiusholdingsinc.com | 5 |
| adweek.com | 5 |
| wearerockwater.com | 5 |
| digiday.com | 5 |
| kut.org | 5 |
| thewrap.com | 4 |
| fooddive.com | 4 |
Written for The Music Cities™ and BusinessFlare®. Version 1.3, September 2026. Street Economics® is a registered mark of its owner. The interactive map, the workbook and the JSON dataset accompany this document.
Index of nodes
All 574 nodes, grouped by layer and ordered by the year each entered the creator economy. The swatch is the layer. Connections is the node's embeddedness, the count of edges it carries. The last column is blank where the node is fully verified.
| Name | Kind | Years | Metro | Role | Status 2026 | Connections | Confidence |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Alex Jones | creator | 1999 | Austin | Broadcaster, Infowars founder | Active | 1 | |
| Anthony Padilla | creator | 2005 | Los Angeles | Smosh co founder, interviewer | Active | 2 | |
| Complexity Gaming | collective | 2003 | Dallas Fort Worth | Esports organization | Active | 5 | |
| Dave Portnoy | creator | 2004 | New York | Barstool Sports founder, pizza reviewer | Active | 3 | |
| Dave Ramsey | creator | 1992 | Nashville | Personal finance broadcaster and media company founder | Active | 1 | |
| platform | 2004 | San Francisco Bay Area | Social network, Meta Platforms | Active | 3 | ||
| Ian Hecox | creator | 2005 | Los Angeles | Smosh co founder and co owner | Active | 2 | |
| platform | 2003 | San Francisco Bay Area | Professional network, Microsoft owned | Active | 1 | partial | |
| Netflix | platform | 1997 | Los Angeles | Streaming service | Active | 1 | |
| Smosh | collective | 2005 | Los Angeles | Sketch comedy channel and studio | Active | 11 | |
| YouTube | platform | 2005 | San Francisco Bay Area | Video platform, Google owned | Active | 48 | |
| Jeffree Star | creator | 2006 | Casper, Wyoming | Beauty creator, cosmetics founder | Active | 4 | |
| OpTic Gaming | collective | 2006 | Dallas Fort Worth | Esports organization | Active | 5 | |
| Rhett & Link | creator | 2006 | Los Angeles | Comedy duo, Mythical Entertainment founders | Active | 6 | |
| Ryan Higa | creator | 2006 | Las Vegas | YouTube creator, streamer | Active | 1 | |
| Spotify | platform | 2006 | Outside the United States | Audio and video streaming platform, Stockholm with US office in New York | Active | 8 | |
| X (Twitter) | platform | 2006 | Austin | Social platform, xAI and SpaceX owned | Active | 2 | |
| Envy Gaming | collective | 2007 | Dallas Fort Worth | Esports organization | Active | 8 | partial |
| Fine Brothers (React Media) | creator | 2007 to 2021 | Los Angeles | React franchise creators | Acquired | 2 | |
| Michelle Phan | creator | 2007 | Los Angeles | Beauty creator, Ipsy co founder | Active | 5 | |
| Tyler Oakley | creator | 2007 | Los Angeles | YouTube creator, activist | Dormant | 1 | |
| Achievement Hunter | collective | 2008 to 2023 | Austin | Let's Play crew inside Rooster Teeth | Closed | 4 | |
| Colleen Ballinger (Miranda Sings) | creator | 2008 | Los Angeles | Comedy creator, touring performer | Active | 1 | |
| Grace Helbig | creator | 2008 | Los Angeles | Comedy creator, author | Active | 2 | |
| Linus Sebastian | creator | 2008 | Outside the United States | Tech creator, Linus Media Group founder | Active | 3 | |
| Shane Dawson | creator | 2008 | Los Angeles | YouTube creator, documentarian | Active | 6 | |
| Zach King | creator | 2008 | Los Angeles | Video effects creator | Active | 2 | |
| Bethany Mota | creator | 2009 | Los Angeles | Haul creator, jewelry founder | Active | 3 | |
| Dude Perfect | collective | 2009 | Dallas Fort Worth | Sports entertainment group | Active | 12 | |
| Jackie Aina | creator | 2009 | Los Angeles | Beauty creator, candle brand founder | Active | 1 | partial |
| Joe Rogan | creator | 2009 | Austin | Podcaster, comedy club owner | Active | 6 | |
| KSI (Olajide Olatunji) | creator | 2009 | Outside the United States | Creator, musician, boxer, beverage co founder | Active | 4 | |
| Marques Brownlee (MKBHD) | creator | 2009 | New York | Tech reviewer, studio owner | Active | 3 | |
| TSM | collective | 2009 | Los Angeles | Esports organization | Active | 1 | |
| Zoella (Zoe Sugg) | creator | 2009 | Outside the United States | Lifestyle creator, author | Active | 4 | |
| Aubrey Marcus | creator | 2010 | Austin | Podcaster and Onnit founder | Active | 1 | |
| Casey Neistat | creator | 2010 | New York | Filmmaker, vlogger, app founder | Active | 4 | |
| Epic Rap Battles of History | creator | 2010 | Los Angeles | YouTube series | Active | 2 | |
| FaZe Clan | collective | 2010 | Los Angeles | Esports and creator organization | Active | 9 | |
| platform | 2010 | San Francisco Bay Area | Photo and short video platform, Meta owned | Active | 3 | ||
| Jenna Marbles | creator | 2010 to 2020 | Los Angeles | YouTube creator, retired | Dormant | 1 | |
| Lilly Singh | creator | 2010 | Los Angeles | YouTube creator, television host, producer | Active | 1 | |
| Nadeshot (Matthew Haag) | creator | 2010 | Los Angeles | Former Call of Duty pro, 100 Thieves founder | Active | 2 | |
| Nelk | collective | 2010 | South Florida | Prank and lifestyle crew, beverage owners | Active | 2 | |
| PewDiePie (Felix Kjellberg) | creator | 2010 | Outside the United States | YouTube creator | Active | 5 | |
| Preston Arsement (PrestonPlayz) | creator | 2010 | Dallas Fort Worth | Gaming and family creator, TBNR founder | Active | 3 | |
| Tati Westbrook | creator | 2010 | Los Angeles | Beauty creator, supplement and beverage founder | Active | 2 | |
| Tom Segura | creator | 2010 | Austin | Comedian and podcast network founder | Active | 1 | |
| YMH Studios | collective | 2010 | Austin | Independent comedy podcast network | Active | 3 | |
| Ethan Klein (h3h3) | creator | 2011 | Los Angeles | Podcaster, apparel co founder | Active | 1 | |
| MatPat | creator | 2011 | Los Angeles | Game Theory creator, Theorist Media | Active | 1 | |
| Ninja (Tyler Blevins) | creator | 2011 | Detroit | Streamer | Active | 11 | |
| Snapchat | platform | 2011 | Los Angeles | Messaging and short video platform, Snap Inc | Active | 3 | |
| Twitch | platform | 2011 | San Francisco Bay Area | Live streaming platform, Amazon owned | Active | 11 | |
| Grant Cardone | creator | 2012 | South Florida | Sales trainer, real estate syndicator and social media personality | Active | 1 | partial |
| Jacksepticeye (Sean McLoughlin) | creator | 2012 | Outside the United States | YouTube creator, coffee brand founder | Active | 4 | |
| Markiplier (Mark Fischbach) | creator | 2012 | Los Angeles | YouTube creator, filmmaker | Active | 5 | |
| MrBeast (Jimmy Donaldson) | creator | 2012 | Greenville, NC | YouTube creator, holding company founder | Active | 20 | |
| Patrick Bet-David | creator | 2012 | South Florida | Business YouTuber and podcaster, Valuetainment founder | Active | 2 | |
| Vine | platform | 2012 to 2017 | New York | Six second looping video platform, Twitter owned | Closed | 9 | |
| Cameron Dallas | creator | 2013 | Los Angeles | Vine and YouTube creator | Active | 1 | |
| Cloud9 | collective | 2013 | Los Angeles | Esports organization | Active | 2 | |
| Cody Ko | creator | 2013 | Los Angeles | Comedian, podcaster | Dormant | 1 | |
| David Dobrik | creator | 2013 | Los Angeles | Vlogger, Vlog Squad founder, app co founder | Active | 6 | |
| Jake Paul | creator | 2013 | Puerto Rico | Creator, boxer, promoter, betting co founder | Active | 12 | |
| Kevin Crowder | creator | 2013 | South Florida | Economic development consultant and creator | Active | 4 | partial |
| Kill Tony | media company | 2013 | Austin | Live podcast and open mic format, taped weekly in Austin | Active | 6 | |
| Liza Koshy | creator | 2013 | Los Angeles | Vine and YouTube creator turned actor | Active | 1 | |
| Logan Paul | creator | 2013 | Puerto Rico | Creator, WWE wrestler, beverage co founder | Active | 8 | |
| Nikita Dragun | creator | 2013 | Los Angeles | Beauty creator, cosmetics founder | Active | 1 | |
| Patreon | platform | 2013 | San Francisco Bay Area | Membership platform, creator subscriptions | Active | 9 | |
| Patrick Starrr | creator | 2013 | Los Angeles | Beauty creator, One/Size founder | Active | 2 | |
| Pokimane (Imane Anys) | creator | 2013 | Los Angeles | Streamer, snack brand founder | Active | 2 | |
| Rumble | platform | 2013 | Tampa | Video platform, Nasdaq listed | Active | 3 | |
| Ryan Trahan | creator | 2013 | Sugar Land, Texas | YouTube creator, candy brand co owner | Active | 2 | |
| Sidemen | collective | 2013 | Outside the United States | YouTube group and holding company | Active | 8 | |
| Tony Hinchcliffe | creator | 2013 | Austin | Comedian, creator and owner of Kill Tony | Active | 1 | |
| Annie F. Downs | creator | 2014 | Nashville | Faith podcaster and author, network founder | Active | 1 | |
| Asmongold (Zack Hoyt) | creator | 2014 | Austin | Streamer, OTK co founder | Active | 3 | |
| Beme | platform | 2014 to 2018 | New York | Video sharing app and news studio, Casey Neistat co founded | Closed | 2 | |
| Jessie James Decker | creator | 2014 | Nashville | Singer, reality television and social creator, apparel founder | Active | 2 | |
| Manny MUA (Manuel Gutierrez) | creator | 2014 | Los Angeles | Beauty creator, cosmetics founder | Active | 3 | |
| Shroud | creator | 2014 | Los Angeles | Streamer, former Counter Strike pro | Active | 4 | |
| Tfue (Turner Tenney) | creator | 2014 | Tampa | Streamer | Active | 1 | |
| The Try Guys | collective | 2014 | Los Angeles | Comedy group, independent studio owners | Active | 3 | |
| Upchurch | creator | 2014 | Nashville | YouTube and Vine comedian turned independent country rap artist | Active | 3 | |
| musical.ly | platform | 2014 to 2018 | Outside the United States | Lip sync video app, merged into TikTok | Acquired | 2 | |
| xQc | creator | 2014 | Austin | Streamer, former Overwatch pro | Active | 2 | |
| Alissa Violet | creator | 2015 | Los Angeles | Creator, model | Active | 1 | partial |
| Bryce Hall | creator | 2015 | Los Angeles | TikTok creator, boxer | Active | 3 | |
| Dr Disrespect (Guy Beahm) | creator | 2015 | San Diego | Streamer, former game studio co founder | Active | 2 | |
| James Charles | creator | 2015 | Los Angeles | Beauty creator | Active | 4 | |
| Kinda Funny | collective | 2015 | San Francisco Bay Area | Creator owned games media company | Active | 2 | |
| NRG Esports | collective | 2015 | Los Angeles | Esports and content organization | Acquired | 1 | |
| Rhett Shull | creator | 2015 | Nashville | Guitar education YouTuber and podcaster | Active | 1 | partial |
| Tana Mongeau | creator | 2015 | Las Vegas | YouTube creator, podcaster | Active | 4 | |
| Triller | platform | 2015 to 2026 | Los Angeles | Short video app and events group, delisted | Wound down | 2 | |
| Vessel | platform | 2015 to 2016 | San Francisco Bay Area | Early access subscription video platform | Closed | 4 | |
| Vlog Squad | collective | 2015 | Los Angeles | Vlog ensemble | Dormant | 1 | |
| Yes Theory | collective | 2015 | Los Angeles | Travel and challenge crew, apparel owners | Active | 4 | |
| 100 Thieves | collective | 2016 | Los Angeles | Esports and lifestyle brand | Active | 7 | |
| Chase Hudson (Huddy) | creator | 2016 | Los Angeles | TikTok creator, musician, Hype House co founder | Active | 2 | |
| Emma Chamberlain | creator | 2016 | Los Angeles | YouTube creator, coffee company co CEO | Active | 5 | |
| IShowSpeed (Darren Watkins Jr.) | creator | 2016 | Cincinnati | Streamer | Active | 2 | |
| Misfits Gaming Group | collective | 2016 | South Florida | Esports, creator and Roblox game studio group, Boca Raton | Active | 3 | |
| Mixer | platform | 2016 to 2020 | Seattle | Live streaming platform, Microsoft | Closed | 4 | |
| OnlyFans | platform | 2016 | Outside the United States | Subscription content platform, Fenix International, London | Active | 1 | |
| Team 10 | collective | 2016 to 2021 | Los Angeles | Creator collective and management company | Dissolved | 6 | |
| Bobby Bones | creator | 2017 | Nashville | Radio host turned podcast network owner | Active | 1 | |
| Cameo | platform | 2017 | Chicago | Personalized celebrity video marketplace | Active | 2 | |
| Clout Gang | collective | 2017 to 2018 | Los Angeles | Creator house | Dissolved | 2 | unverified |
| Dallas Fuel | collective | 2017 | Dallas Fort Worth | Overwatch League franchise, folded 2023, revived 2025 | Active | 2 | |
| Hyram Yarbro | creator | 2017 | Honolulu | Skincare creator | Active | 2 | partial |
| Kristin Cavallari | creator | 2017 | Nashville | Lifestyle creator, podcaster and jewelry brand founder | Active | 2 | |
| Nashville Podcast Network | collective | 2017 | Nashville | Podcast network, creator owned, iHeart distributed | Active | 2 | |
| Substack | platform | 2017 | San Francisco Bay Area | Newsletter and subscription publishing platform | Active | 4 | |
| TikTok | platform | 2017 | Los Angeles | Short form video platform, ByteDance and TikTok USDS joint venture | Active | 20 | |
| Alex Cooper | creator | 2018 | Los Angeles | Podcaster, network and beverage founder | Active | 6 | |
| Dear Media | collective | 2018 | Los Angeles | Podcast network for female creators, DBA spinout | Active | 2 | |
| Josh Richards | creator | 2018 | Los Angeles | TikTok creator, producer, investor | Active | 6 | |
| Kai Cenat | creator | 2018 | Atlanta | Streamer, AMP member | Active | 8 | |
| Ludwig Ahgren | creator | 2018 | Los Angeles | Streamer, events and media founder | Active | 6 | |
| AMP (Any Means Possible) | collective | 2019 | Atlanta | Streaming crew, skincare owners | Active | 6 | |
| Addison Rae | creator | 2019 | Los Angeles | TikTok creator turned pop musician | Active | 6 | |
| Airrack (Eric Decker) | creator | 2019 | Los Angeles | YouTube creator | Active | 2 | |
| Amazon Live | platform | 2019 | Seattle | Live shopping platform inside Amazon | Active | 1 | |
| Atmosphere | platform | 2019 | Austin | Out of home streaming platform licensing creator video to venues | Active | 3 | |
| Bussin' With The Boys | creator | 2019 | Nashville | Sports podcast duo, creator owned | Active | 3 | |
| Charli D'Amelio | creator | 2019 | Los Angeles | TikTok creator, dancer, Broadway performer | Active | 10 | |
| Dixie D'Amelio | creator | 2019 | Los Angeles | TikTok creator, singer, snack brand founder | Active | 7 | |
| Heather Cox Richardson | creator | 2019 | Boston | Historian and newsletter writer, Letters from an American | Active | 1 | |
| Hype House | collective | 2019 to 2024 | Los Angeles | TikTok content house | Dissolved | 11 | |
| Thomas Petrou | creator | 2019 | Los Angeles | Hype House co founder and manager | Active | 1 | partial |
| Bella Poarch | creator | 2020 | Los Angeles | TikTok creator, musician | Active | 1 | |
| Byte | platform | 2020 to 2023 | New York | Six second video app, Vine successor | Closed | 1 | |
| Clubhouse | platform | 2020 | San Francisco Bay Area | Social audio app | Dormant | 2 | |
| Clubhouse BH | collective | 2020 to 2021 | Los Angeles | TikTok content house, publicly traded parent | Wound down | 1 | |
| Good Good Golf | collective | 2020 | Dallas Fort Worth | YouTube golf crew turned apparel, equipment and events company | Active | 7 | |
| Khaby Lame | creator | 2020 | Outside the United States | TikTok creator | Active | 2 | |
| Matthew Yglesias | creator | 2020 | Washington, DC | Writer, Slow Boring newsletter | Active | 1 | |
| Mikayla Nogueira | creator | 2020 | Boston | Beauty creator, cosmetics co founder | Active | 1 | |
| Nate Bargatze | creator | 2020 | Nashville | Comedian, podcaster and touring company owner | Active | 3 | |
| OTK (One True King) | collective | 2020 | Austin | Streaming organization | Active | 6 | |
| Quibi | platform | 2020 to 2020 | Los Angeles | Mobile short form streaming service | Closed | 1 | |
| Regulation Company (Regulation Podcast) | collective | 2020 | Austin | Independent podcast company formed by Achievement Hunter alumni | Active | 2 | partial |
| Sway House | collective | 2020 to 2021 | Los Angeles | TikTok content house | Dissolved | 7 | |
| That Sounds Fun Network | collective | 2020 | Nashville | Podcast network, creator owned | Active | 2 | |
| The Roost Podcast Network | collective | 2020 | Austin | Podcast network, formerly Rooster Teeth, owned by Night | Active | 2 | |
| Alix Earle | creator | 2022 | South Florida | TikTok creator, beverage and skincare investor | Active | 4 | |
| Kick | platform | 2022 | Outside the United States | Live streaming platform, Easygo and Stake.com founders, Melbourne | Active | 2 | |
| Mikey & Fredo (formerly Dogbark) | creator | 2023 | Austin | YouTube duo formed from Achievement Hunter's Dogbark channel | Active | 1 | partial |
| Bop House | collective | 2024 | South Florida | OnlyFans creator house, Fort Lauderdale then Miami | Active | 2 | |
| Music Cities Radio | channel | 2025 | South Florida | YouTube channel, music discovery station | Active | 3 | partial |
| The Music Cities™ | channel | 2025 | South Florida | YouTube channel and media entity, heavy metal and economic development | Active | 9 | partial |
| Street Economics® Television | channel | 2026 | South Florida | YouTube channel, economic development audience | Active | 4 | partial |
| A3 Artists Agency (Abrams Artists) | agency | 1977 to 2024 | Los Angeles | Talent agency with digital division, closed | Closed | 2 | |
| Amazon Associates | tool or rail | 1996 | Seattle | Affiliate program, the oldest commission rail | Active | 2 | |
| BBTV (BroadbandTV) | MCN | 2005 | Outside the United States | Multi channel network and rights management | Active | 2 | |
| Barstool Sports | media company | 2003 | Chicago | Sports and comedy media company, podcasts | Active | 10 | |
| CollegeHumor | media company | 1999 to 2023 | Los Angeles | Comedy website and video studio | Rebranded | 2 | |
| Complex Networks | media company | 2002 | New York | Youth culture media company, ComplexCon | Acquired | 7 | |
| Creative Artists Agency (Creators) | agency | 1975 | Los Angeles | Talent agency, creators division | Active | 6 | |
| Google AdSense | tool or rail | 2003 | San Francisco Bay Area | Ad network and the payment rail behind YouTube payouts | Active | 1 | |
| ICM Partners | agency | 1975 to 2022 | Los Angeles | Talent agency, merged into CAA | Acquired | 2 | |
| Infowars (Free Speech Systems) | media company | 1999 to 2026 | Austin | Creator owned broadcast and supplement store, South Austin | Bankrupt | 2 | |
| Machinima | MCN | 2000 to 2019 | Los Angeles | Multi channel network, gaming | Closed | 9 | |
| Ramsey Solutions | media company | 1992 | Nashville | Creator owned media, publishing and education company | Active | 3 | |
| Rooster Teeth | media company | 2003 to 2024 | Austin | Digital studio, animation and podcast network | Rebranded | 15 | |
| TYT Network | media company | 2002 | Los Angeles | Online news network | Active | 1 | |
| The Gersh Agency | agency | 1949 | Los Angeles | Talent agency, buyer of A3's digital division | Active | 2 | |
| The Team (formerly Wasserman) | agency | 2002 | Los Angeles | Sports, music and entertainment agency with creators division | Rebranded | 2 | |
| United Talent Agency (Digital) | agency | 1991 | Los Angeles | Talent agency, digital and creators division | Active | 11 | |
| Vice Media | media company | 1994 to 2023 | New York | Youth media company | Bankrupt | 3 | |
| WME (WME Group) | agency | 1898 | Los Angeles | Talent agency, digital department, Endeavor's core agency | Active | 6 | |
| BuzzFeed | media company | 2006 | New York | Digital media company | Acquired | 6 | |
| Clevver | media company | 2006 | Los Angeles | Pop culture news channels | Acquired | 2 | |
| First Media | media company | 2006 | Los Angeles | Social video publisher, So Yummy and Blossom | Active | 1 | |
| IZEA Worldwide | tool or rail | 2006 | Orlando | Creator sponsorship marketplace, public company | Active | 3 | |
| Shopify | tool or rail | 2006 | Outside the United States | E commerce platform, Ottawa | Active | 2 | |
| Ted Murphy | agency | 2006 | Orlando | Executive, founder of IZEA | Active | 2 | |
| Dan Weinstein | agency | 2007 | Los Angeles | Executive, co founder of Collective Digital Studio and Underscore Talent | Active | 2 | |
| Lyric Financial | tool or rail | 2007 to 2021 | Nashville | Royalty advance fintech for artists, songwriters and labels | Acquired | 1 | |
| Reza Izad | agency | 2007 | Los Angeles | Executive, co founder of Collective Digital Studio and Underscore Talent | Active | 2 | |
| YouTube Partner Program | tool or rail | 2007 | San Francisco Bay Area | Ad revenue share program, the original creator payout rail | Active | 1 | |
| iHeartMedia | media company | 2008 | San Antonio | Radio and podcast distributor | Active | 1 | |
| theCHIVE (Chive Media Group) | media company | 2008 | Austin | Digital media company with merchandise and out of home spin out | Active | 1 | |
| Corridor Digital | media company | 2009 | Los Angeles | Creator owned visual effects studio | Active | 1 | |
| Jukin Media | MCN | 2009 | Los Angeles | User generated video licensing and channels | Acquired | 2 | |
| Kickstarter | tool or rail | 2009 | New York | Crowdfunding rail | Active | 1 | partial |
| Maker Studios | MCN | 2009 to 2017 | Los Angeles | Multi channel network | Acquired | 9 | |
| Mythical Entertainment | media company | 2009 | Los Angeles | Creator owned studio, Rhett and Link | Active | 6 | |
| The Joe Rogan Experience | media company | 2009 | Austin | Podcast | Active | 2 | |
| Zefr | tool or rail | 2009 | Los Angeles | Rights management and brand safety software | Active | 1 | |
| Digital Brand Architects (DBA) | agency | 2010 | New York | Creator management company, UTA subsidiary | Acquired | 5 | |
| Dominic Smales | agency | 2010 | Outside the United States | Executive, founder of Gleam Futures | Active | 2 | |
| Gleam Futures | agency | 2010 to 2024 | Outside the United States | UK creator management company, Dentsu owned | Wound down | 4 | |
| TBNR (TBNR Productions) | media company | 2010 | Dallas Fort Worth | Creator owned production company, 16 channels, in house brand deals | Active | 1 | |
| Team Coco | media company | 2010 | Los Angeles | Conan O'Brien digital media company | Acquired | 1 | |
| Big Frame | MCN | 2011 to 2014 | Los Angeles | Multi channel network and talent management | Acquired | 1 | |
| Collective Digital Studio | MCN | 2011 to 2017 | Los Angeles | Multi channel network | Rebranded | 5 | partial |
| Fullscreen | MCN | 2011 to 2020 | Los Angeles | Multi channel network and creator tools | Wound down | 8 | |
| Grant Cardone Enterprises | media company | 2011 | South Florida | Training, media and real estate group, Aventura | Active | 2 | partial |
| Kin Community | MCN | 2011 | Los Angeles | Women's lifestyle creator network | Active | 1 | partial |
| LTK (rewardStyle) | tool or rail | 2011 | Dallas Fort Worth | Creator affiliate commerce platform | Active | 1 | |
| Mediakix | agency | 2011 to 2020 | Los Angeles | Influencer marketing agency, acquired by Stadiumred | Dormant | 1 | |
| Select Management Group | agency | 2011 | Los Angeles | Creator management company | Active | 2 | |
| Spring (Teespring) | tool or rail | 2011 | San Francisco Bay Area | Creator merch platform, Amaze owned | Acquired | 3 | |
| StyleHaul | MCN | 2011 to 2019 | Los Angeles | Fashion and beauty multi channel network | Closed | 5 | |
| AwesomenessTV | MCN | 2012 to 2025 | Los Angeles | Teen focused multi channel network and studio | Acquired | 6 | |
| FeaturedUsers | tool or rail | Orlando | Creator marketing tool, acquired by IZEA | Acquired | 1 | ||
| First We Feast (Hot Ones) | media company | 2012 | New York | Food video studio, Hot Ones | Acquired | 2 | |
| Frederator Networks | MCN | 2012 | New York | Animation multi channel network | Acquired | 1 | |
| PayPal Honey | tool or rail | 2012 | Los Angeles | Browser coupon extension, PayPal, biggest YouTube sponsor of the 2010s | Active | 2 | |
| Tastemade | media company | 2012 | Los Angeles | Food and travel video network | Acquired | 2 | |
| Tribe Dynamics | tool or rail | 2012 to 2021 | San Francisco Bay Area | Earned media value measurement, acquired by CreatorIQ | Acquired | 1 | |
| Valuetainment | media company | 2012 | South Florida | Business media company and studio, Fort Lauderdale | Active | 2 | |
| mitú | MCN | 2012 to 2020 | Los Angeles | Latino digital media company and network | Acquired | 2 | |
| BusinessFlare® | firm | 2013 | South Florida | Economic development consulting firm | Active | 2 | partial |
| Defy Media | MCN | 2013 to 2018 | Los Angeles | Digital studio and multi channel network | Closed | 5 | |
| FameBit | tool or rail | 2013 to 2020 | Los Angeles | Creator sponsorship marketplace, acquired by Google | Rebranded | 3 | |
| Later | tool or rail | 2013 | Outside the United States | Social scheduling and influencer marketing platform | Active | 2 | |
| Long Haul Management | agency | 2013 to 2024 | Los Angeles | Creator management company, acquired by Wasserman | Acquired | 2 | |
| Omnia Media | MCN | 2013 to 2020 | Los Angeles | Gaming multi channel network | Acquired | 1 | partial |
| Studio71 | MCN | 2013 | Los Angeles | Multi channel network and podcast network | Acquired | 8 | |
| Teachable | tool or rail | 2013 | New York | Online course platform, Hotmart owned | Acquired | 1 | |
| Bottle Rocket Management | agency | 2014 to 2024 | Los Angeles | YouTube talent management company, absorbed by Night | Acquired | 3 | |
| Chas Lacaillade | agency | 2014 | Los Angeles | Executive, founder of Bottle Rocket Management | Active | 1 | |
| CreatorIQ | tool or rail | 2014 | Los Angeles | Enterprise creator marketing software | Active | 1 | |
| Fanjoy | tool or rail | 2014 to 2023 | Los Angeles | Creator merch company | Bankrupt | 3 | |
| Gimlet Media | media company | 2014 to 2023 | New York | Narrative podcast studio | Closed | 1 | |
| Influential | agency | 2014 | Las Vegas | Influencer marketing company, Publicis subsidiary | Acquired | 2 | |
| Mavrck | tool or rail | 2014 to 2023 | Boston | Influencer marketing platform, merged into Later | Rebranded | 2 | partial |
| Obviously | agency | 2014 | New York | Influencer marketing agency, WPP subsidiary | Acquired | 1 | |
| Represent | tool or rail | 2014 | Los Angeles | Celebrity merch campaign platform | Acquired | 2 | |
| Ryan Detert | agency | 2014 | Las Vegas | Executive, founder of Influential | Active | 1 | |
| Streamlabs | tool or rail | 2014 | San Francisco Bay Area | Streaming software and tipping rail, Logitech owned | Acquired | 1 | |
| Team Whistle | MCN | 2014 | New York | Sports creator network and media company | Acquired | 2 | |
| The Dodo | media company | 2014 | New York | Animal video publisher | Acquired | 1 | partial |
| Viral Nation | agency | 2014 | Outside the United States | Influencer marketing agency and talent firm | Active | 1 | |
| Captiv8 | tool or rail | 2015 to 2025 | San Francisco Bay Area | Influencer marketing platform, Publicis subsidiary | Acquired | 1 | |
| Dart Music | tool or rail | 2015 to 2017 | Nashville | Classical music distribution and metadata startup, bankrupt | Bankrupt | 1 | |
| Night | agency | 2015 | Los Angeles | Creator management and holding company | Active | 18 | |
| Reed Duchscher | agency | 2015 | Los Angeles | Executive, founder of Night | Active | 2 | |
| Restream | tool or rail | 2015 | Austin | Multi platform live streaming software | Active | 2 | |
| Spotify for Creators (Anchor) | tool or rail | 2015 | New York | Podcast hosting and monetization rail, formerly Anchor | Rebranded | 1 | |
| Tagger Media | tool or rail | 2015 to 2023 | Los Angeles | Influencer marketing software, acquired by Sprout Social | Acquired | 1 | |
| Electric Monster Media (ZATV) | media company | 2016 to 2025 | Los Angeles | Digital media roll up | Acquired | 1 | |
| Evolved Talent Agency | agency | 2016 | Los Angeles | Esports and gaming talent agency | Active | 1 | partial |
| Group Nine Media | media company | 2016 to 2022 | New York | Digital publisher holding company | Acquired | 4 | |
| Jellysmack | MCN | 2016 | Los Angeles | Creator catalog licensing and media company | Active | 2 | partial |
| Linktree | tool or rail | 2016 | Outside the United States | Link in bio platform, Melbourne | Active | 2 | |
| Revelmode | media company | 2016 to 2017 | Los Angeles | Creator sub network within Maker Studios | Closed | 3 | |
| Soundstripe | tool or rail | 2016 | Nashville | Royalty free music and stock licensing subscription for creators | Active | 2 | |
| StreamElements | tool or rail | 2016 to 2026 | Outside the United States | Streamer tools and sponsorship platform, Tel Aviv, sold to Razer | Acquired | 2 | |
| The Ringer | media company | 2016 | Los Angeles | Sports and culture site and podcast network | Acquired | 1 | |
| Whalar | agency | 2016 | New York | Creator and social agency, Accenture subsidiary | Acquired | 4 | |
| Wondery | media company | 2016 to 2025 | Los Angeles | Podcast network | Dissolved | 1 | |
| Amazon Influencer Program | tool or rail | 2017 | Seattle | Creator storefront and shoppable video program | Active | 1 | |
| Brandon Freytag | agency | 2017 | Los Angeles | Executive, founder of Loaded | Active | 2 | |
| Crooked Media | media company | 2017 | Los Angeles | Political podcast network | Active | 2 | |
| Flip Management | agency | 2017 to 2018 | Los Angeles | Creator management company, merged into Select | Acquired | 2 | |
| Grin | tool or rail | 2017 | Sacramento | Creator management software for direct to consumer brands | Active | 1 | |
| Loaded | agency | 2017 | Los Angeles | Gaming and streamer management company | Active | 5 | |
| 2nd Try LLC | media company | 2018 | Los Angeles | Creator owned production company and streaming service | Active | 1 | |
| Call Her Daddy | media company | 2018 | Los Angeles | Podcast | Active | 4 | |
| Dropout | media company | 2018 | Los Angeles | Creator owned comedy streaming service | Active | 3 | |
| Songfluencer (Genni) | agency | 2018 | Nashville | Music creator marketing agency, pays TikTok creators to use songs | Rebranded | 2 | |
| Step | tool or rail | 2018 | San Francisco Bay Area | Youth fintech app, acquired by Beast Industries | Acquired | 1 | |
| Beacons | tool or rail | 2019 | San Francisco Bay Area | Creator storefront and link in bio platform | Active | 1 | |
| Dispo | tool or rail | 2019 | Los Angeles | Photo sharing app | Active | 2 | |
| Fourthwall | tool or rail | 2019 | Los Angeles | Creator storefront and merch platform | Active | 1 | |
| NGL Collective | media company | New York | Latino digital media company, John Leguizamo and David Chitel | Active | 1 | ||
| Nebula | platform | 2019 | New York | Creator owned subscription video platform | Active | 1 | |
| Rogue Rocket | media company | 2019 | Los Angeles | Creator owned news company, Philip DeFranco | Active | 3 | |
| Sixteenth | agency | 2019 | Outside the United States | Creator management company, Whalar Group | Active | 1 | |
| Spotter | MCN | 2019 | Los Angeles | Creator catalog financing and monetization | Active | 10 | |
| TalentX Entertainment | agency | 2019 | Los Angeles | Talent management, Sway House operator | Dormant | 6 | |
| Trend Management | agency | 2019 | Houston | Creator talent management, Nashville office | Active | 1 | |
| Watcher Entertainment | media company | 2019 | Los Angeles | Creator owned digital studio | Active | 2 | |
| Creative Juice | tool or rail | 2020 to 2024 | Austin | Creator banking and funding startup | Acquired | 2 | |
| GG Talent Group | agency | 2020 to 2024 | Naperville, Illinois | Gaming talent management, acquired by Loaded | Acquired | 1 | |
| Michael Gruen | agency | 2020 | Los Angeles | Executive, founder of TalentX Entertainment | Active | 1 | |
| Mogul Moves | media company | 2020 | Los Angeles | Creator owned events and content company | Active | 1 | partial |
| Nateland Entertainment | media company | 2020 | Nashville | Creator owned podcast network, production company and experiences developer | Active | 3 | |
| Preffy | tool or rail | 2020 | Nashville | Creator contest platform for song campaigns | Acquired | 1 | partial |
| Stan Store | tool or rail | 2020 | Los Angeles | Creator storefront for digital products and coaching | Active | 1 | |
| Stir | tool or rail | 2020 to 2023 | San Francisco Bay Area | Creator revenue splitting and payments tool | Closed | 3 | |
| YouTube BrandConnect | tool or rail | 2020 | San Francisco Bay Area | YouTube's in house brand deal program | Active | 2 | |
| Creator Camp (CAMP Film + Fest, Camp Studios) | media company | 2021 | Austin | Creator run film studio and festival | Active | 2 | |
| Holler Boy Records | media company | 2021 to 2022 | Nashville | Creator owned record label, inactive | Dormant | 1 | |
| Meta creator bonuses and Reels Play | tool or rail | 2021 | San Francisco Bay Area | Bonus programs on Facebook and Instagram | Active | 2 | partial |
| Midnight Society | media company | 2021 to 2025 | Los Angeles | Game studio | Closed | 1 | |
| Most Valuable Promotions | media company | 2021 | Puerto Rico | Boxing promoter, creator owned | Active | 2 | |
| OpenStore | tool or rail | 2021 to 2025 | South Florida | Shopify brand aggregator, wound down to a single brand | Wound down | 1 | |
| Underscore Talent | agency | 2021 | Los Angeles | Creator management company | Active | 4 | |
| Whop | tool or rail | 2021 | New York | Digital product and community marketplace | Active | 1 | |
| Offbrand | media company | 2022 | Los Angeles | Creator owned games publisher, events arm closed | Active | 1 | |
| LFM Management | agency | New York | Streamer management company, absorbed by Night | Acquired | 4 | ||
| Mad Mushroom | media company | 2023 | Austin | Creator owned indie game publisher, OTK Network | Active | 1 | |
| Mavn | tool or rail | 2023 | South Florida | Creator management software for festivals and events | Active | 1 | |
| Mythic Talent | agency | 2023 | Austin | Creator talent management, gaming and streaming | Active | 3 | |
| Pixel Playground | media company | 2023 | South Florida | Roblox game studio, Misfits Gaming with Karl Jacobs and KreekCraft | Active | 1 | |
| Street Economics® | tool or rail | 2023 | South Florida | AI economic intelligence platform | Active | 2 | partial |
| Unwell | media company | 2023 | Los Angeles | Creator owned podcast and media network, Alex Cooper | Active | 4 | |
| Monica Khan | person | San Francisco Bay Area | Creator economy executive and advisor | Active | 5 | ||
| Party Up Media (Death Battle) | media company | 2024 | Austin | Creator owned production company for the Death Battle web series | Active | 2 | partial |
| Experiential Supply Co | agency | Los Angeles | Experiential and live events agency, acquired by Night | Acquired | 1 | ||
| Fox Creator Studios | media company | 2025 | Los Angeles | Fox Corporation studio for creator led programming | Active | 1 | partial |
| Versant Media Group | media company | 2026 | New York | Cable network spin off from Comcast | Active | 1 | |
| musiccitiesconcerts.com | media company | 2026 | South Florida | Web property, concert listings and scene references | Active | 1 | partial |
| Adidas | brand | 1949 | Outside the United States | Athletic apparel, Germany, US HQ Portland | Active | 1 | partial |
| Callaway Golf (Topgolf Callaway Brands) | manufacturer | 1982 | San Diego | Golf equipment maker, creator co branded clubs | Active | 1 | |
| CeraVe | brand | 2005 | New York | Skincare brand, L'Oréal, New York | Active | 1 | |
| Chipotle | brand | 1993 | Los Angeles | Restaurant chain, Newport Beach California | Active | 1 | |
| CoverGirl | brand | 1961 | New York | Cosmetics brand, Coty | Active | 1 | |
| Custom Ink | manufacturer | 2000 | Fairfax, Virginia | Custom apparel printer, Fairfax, Virginia | Active | 1 | |
| Epic Games | brand | 1991 | Raleigh | Game developer, Fortnite, Cary North Carolina | Active | 2 | |
| Hollister | brand | 2000 | Columbus | Apparel brand, Abercrombie & Fitch, Columbus Ohio | Active | 3 | |
| Hugo Boss | brand | 1924 | Outside the United States | Fashion house, Metzingen Germany | Active | 1 | |
| Invisalign | brand | 1997 | Phoenix | Clear aligner brand, Align Technology, Tempe Arizona | Active | 1 | |
| Lancome | brand | 1935 | Outside the United States | Cosmetics brand, L'Oreal | Active | 1 | |
| Machu Picchu Foods | manufacturer | 2000 | Outside the United States | Chocolate manufacturer, Lima Peru, makes Feastables bars | Active | 1 | partial |
| Maybelline | brand | 1915 | New York | Mass cosmetics brand, L'Oréal, New York | Active | 1 | |
| Minhas Craft Brewery | manufacturer | 1845 | Monroe, Wisconsin | Contract brewery, Monroe Wisconsin, first producer of Happy Dad | Active | 1 | |
| Mornflake | manufacturer | 1675 | Outside the United States | Cereal manufacturer, Crewe England, makes Best cereal | Active | 1 | |
| Nike | brand | 1964 | Portland | Athletic apparel | Active | 2 | |
| Red Bull | brand | 1987 | Outside the United States | Energy drink, creator sponsor | Active | 4 | |
| Refresco | manufacturer | 1999 | Truesdale, Missouri | Contract beverage bottler, Truesdale Missouri plant | Active | 1 | |
| Sprecher Brewing | manufacturer | 1985 | Milwaukee | Brewery and beverage maker, Milwaukee | Active | 1 | |
| Wingstop | brand | 1994 | Dallas Fort Worth | Restaurant chain, esports sponsor | Active | 1 | |
| Morphe | brand | 2008 | Los Angeles | Cosmetics brand and retailer, creator collaboration model | Active | 8 | |
| FanDuel | brand | 2009 | New York | Sports betting operator, creator sponsor | Active | 1 | |
| Onnit | brand | 2010 to 2021 | Austin | Supplement and fitness brand, podcast built | Acquired | 4 | |
| Ipsy | brand | 2011 | San Francisco Bay Area | Beauty subscription company, creator founded, BFA Industries | Active | 5 | |
| Bang Energy | brand | 2012 to 2022 | South Florida | Energy drink brand, creator marketing driven | Bankrupt | 4 | |
| G Fuel | brand | 2012 | New York | Gaming energy drink, Gamma Labs, Long Island New York | Active | 4 | |
| Bethany Mota for Aéropostale | brand | 2013 to 2016 | New York | Licensed apparel line at Aéropostale, early creator retail | Closed | 2 | partial |
| Dr. Squatch | brand | 2013 | Los Angeles | DTC brand built on creator advertising | Acquired | 2 | |
| EM Cosmetics | brand | 2013 | Los Angeles | Cosmetics brand, creator owned, formerly L'Oréal | Active | 3 | |
| Ridge | brand | 2013 | Los Angeles | Wallet and everyday carry brand, creator equity partner | Active | 2 | |
| ColourPop | brand | 2014 | Los Angeles | Cosmetics brand, Seed Beauty house brand built on creator collaborations | Active | 5 | |
| Jeffree Star Cosmetics | brand | 2014 | Los Angeles | Cosmetics brand, creator owned, direct to consumer | Active | 6 | |
| Killer Merch | manufacturer | 2014 | Los Angeles | Merchandise producer and fulfillment, Chatsworth Los Angeles | Active | 5 | partial |
| Kittenish | brand | 2014 | Nashville | Apparel brand, creator owned | Active | 1 | partial |
| Seed Beauty | manufacturer | 2014 | Los Angeles | Vertically integrated beauty manufacturer, Oxnard California | Active | 2 | |
| ShipMonk | manufacturer | 2014 | South Florida | Third party logistics and fulfillment for direct to consumer brands | Active | 1 | |
| Sidemen Clothing | brand | 2014 | Outside the United States | Apparel brand, creator collective owned, London | Active | 1 | |
| Zoella Beauty | brand | 2014 | Outside the United States | Bath and beauty brand, creator licensed, UK | Dormant | 1 | partial |
| Kylie Cosmetics | brand | 2015 | Los Angeles | Cosmetics brand, celebrity owned, the creator brand template | Active | 6 | |
| Quidd | brand | 2015 | New York | Digital collectibles app | Active | 1 | |
| Congo Brands | manufacturer | 2016 | Louisville | Beverage brand operator and manufacturer, Louisville | Active | 6 | |
| Full Send | brand | 2017 | South Florida | Apparel and drop merchandise brand, Nelk | Active | 2 | partial |
| Maverick by Logan Paul | brand | 2017 | Los Angeles | Apparel brand, creator owned | Active | 2 | |
| Teddy Fresh | brand | 2017 | Los Angeles | Apparel brand, creator owned | Active | 1 | partial |
| Uncommon James | brand | 2017 | Nashville | Jewelry and home brand, creator owned | Active | 1 | |
| Alani Nu | brand | 2018 | Louisville | Energy drink and supplement brand, fitness creator founded | Acquired | 5 | |
| Cloak | brand | 2018 | Los Angeles | Gaming apparel, creator owned | Active | 2 | |
| Creator Warehouse | manufacturer | 2018 | Outside the United States | Product design and merchandise subsidiary, Linus Media Group, Surrey BC | Active | 2 | |
| Halo Beauty | brand | 2018 | Los Angeles | Beauty supplement brand, creator co founded | Active | 1 | |
| LTTStore | brand | 2018 | Outside the United States | Creator merchandise and tools brand, Linus Tech Tips | Active | 2 | |
| Lunar Beauty | brand | 2018 | Los Angeles | Cosmetics brand, creator owned | Active | 2 | partial |
| Reef | manufacturer | 2018 | South Florida | Dark kitchen operator, Miami, produced Sides | Active | 1 | partial |
| Seek Discomfort | brand | 2018 | Los Angeles | Apparel brand, Yes Theory | Active | 1 | partial |
| Sisters Apparel | brand | 2018 | Los Angeles | Apparel brand, creator owned | Dormant | 1 | partial |
| The Inkey List | manufacturer | 2018 | Outside the United States | Skincare company, London, developed Selfless by Hyram | Active | 1 | partial |
| Chamberlain Coffee | brand | 2019 | Los Angeles | Coffee brand, creator owned | Active | 6 | |
| Dragun Beauty | brand | 2019 | Los Angeles | Cosmetics brand, creator owned | Dormant | 1 | partial |
| Forma Brands | brand | 2019 to 2023 | San Francisco Bay Area | Beauty holding company for Morphe, bankrupt 2023 | Acquired | 2 | |
| Madeby Collective | manufacturer | 2019 to 2023 | San Francisco Bay Area | Brand incubator inside Ipsy and BFA Industries | Closed | 2 | |
| Ani Energy | brand | 2020 to 2022 | Los Angeles | Energy drink brand, creator co founded | Closed | 2 | partial |
| Beast Industries | brand | 2020 | Greenville, NC | Creator holding company, Greenville North Carolina | Active | 8 | |
| Forvr Mood | brand | 2020 | Los Angeles | Candle and self care brand, creator owned | Active | 2 | partial |
| Higround | brand | 2020 | Los Angeles | Gaming keyboard brand, acquired by 100 Thieves | Active | 3 | |
| Item Beauty | brand | 2020 to 2023 | San Francisco Bay Area | Cosmetics brand, creator fronted, incubated by Ipsy | Closed | 4 | |
| MrBeast Burger | brand | 2020 to 2024 | Orlando | Virtual restaurant brand, licensed creator name | Wound down | 6 | |
| One/Size | brand | 2020 | Los Angeles | Cosmetics brand, creator co founded with Luxury Brand Partners | Active | 2 | |
| Top of the Mornin' Coffee | brand | 2020 | Los Angeles | Coffee brand, creator owned | Active | 1 | |
| Virtual Dining Concepts | manufacturer | 2020 | Orlando | Virtual restaurant operator, Orlando | Active | 3 | |
| CryptoZoo | brand | 2021 to 2024 | Puerto Rico | NFT game, failed | Closed | 1 | |
| Feastables | brand | 2021 | Greenville, NC | Snack brand, creator owned, Beast Industries | Active | 11 | |
| Happy Dad Hard Seltzer | brand | 2021 | Los Angeles | Hard seltzer brand, creator co owned | Active | 6 | |
| Scorpio Logistics | manufacturer | 2021 | Casper, Wyoming | Fulfillment company, Casper Wyoming | Active | 1 | |
| Selfless by Hyram | brand | 2021 | Honolulu | Skincare brand, creator co owned with The Inkey List | Dormant | 3 | |
| Sides | brand | 2021 | Outside the United States | Chicken restaurant brand, creator collective owned, UK | Active | 4 | |
| XIX Vodka | brand | 2021 | Outside the United States | Vodka brand, creator collective owned, UK | Active | 2 | |
| Betr | brand | 2022 | South Florida | Sports betting and media company, creator co founded | Active | 2 | |
| D'Amelio Brands | brand | 2022 | Los Angeles | Creator family holding company | Active | 4 | |
| Joyride Sweets | brand | 2022 | Sugar Land, Texas | Low sugar candy, creator co owned | Active | 2 | |
| Juvee | brand | 2022 | Los Angeles | Energy drink brand, spun out of 100 Thieves | Acquired | 3 | |
| Prime Hydration | brand | 2022 | Louisville | Beverage brand, creator co owned, operated by Congo Brands | Active | 17 | |
| SipMargs | brand | 2022 | South Florida | Canned margarita brand, creator investor | Active | 4 | partial |
| Starforge Systems | brand | 2022 | Austin | Prebuilt gaming PCs, creator owned | Active | 1 | |
| Be Happy Snacks | brand | 2023 | Los Angeles | Flavored popcorn brand, creator fronted, D'Amelio Brands | Active | 3 | |
| D'Amelio Footwear | brand | 2023 | Los Angeles | Footwear brand, creator family owned | Dormant | 2 | |
| Myna Snacks | brand | 2023 to 2025 | Los Angeles | Snack brand, creator owned | Dormant | 1 | |
| Nex Playground | brand | 2023 | San Francisco Bay Area | Motion gaming console, Dude Perfect licensee | Active | 1 | |
| Ai Energy | brand | 2024 | South Florida | Energy drink, Jack Owoc's post Bang company | Active | 1 | |
| Best Cereal | brand | 2024 | Outside the United States | Breakfast cereal, creator collective owned, UK | Active | 3 | |
| Lunchly | brand | 2024 | Greenville, NC | Packaged lunch kit, creator co owned | Active | 8 | |
| W | brand | 2024 | Los Angeles | Men's body care brand, creator owned, Walmart line | Active | 3 | |
| POV Beauty | brand | 2025 | Boston | Cosmetics, creator co founded | Active | 2 | |
| Tone | brand | 2025 | Atlanta | Skincare, AMP owned | Active | 2 | |
| Unwell Hydration | brand | 2025 to 2026 | Los Angeles | Electrolyte drink, creator owned | Closed | 1 | |
| Reale Actives | brand | 2026 | South Florida | Skincare, creator owned | Active | 2 | |
| 7-Eleven | retailer | 1927 | Dallas Fort Worth | Convenience chain, Irving Texas | Active | 3 | |
| Aldi | retailer | 1946 | Outside the United States | Discount grocer, Germany, US HQ Batavia Illinois | Active | 1 | |
| Amazon | retailer | 1994 | Seattle | E commerce and streaming, Seattle | Active | 13 | |
| Anaheim Convention Center | venue | 1967 | Los Angeles | Convention venue, Anaheim | Active | 1 | |
| Asda | retailer | 1965 | Outside the United States | UK supermarket, Leeds | Active | 1 | |
| Best Buy | retailer | 1966 | Minneapolis | Electronics retailer, Richfield Minnesota | Active | 1 | partial |
| CAA Nashville | venue | 1991 | Nashville | Talent agency office with touring, brand and creators departments | Active | 2 | |
| Costco | retailer | 1983 | Seattle | Warehouse club, Issaquah Washington | Active | 2 | |
| Dick's Sporting Goods and Golf Galaxy | retailer | 1948 | Coraopolis, Pennsylvania | Sporting goods chain, creator golf brand shelf | Active | 1 | |
| DreamHack | event | 1994 | Outside the United States | Gaming festival operator, ESL group | Active | 1 | partial |
| Dunkin' | retailer | 1950 | Boston | Coffee and donut chain, Canton Massachusetts | Active | 1 | |
| GameStop | retailer | 1984 | Dallas Fort Worth | Video game retailer, Grapevine Texas | Active | 2 | partial |
| Kaseya Center | venue | 1999 | South Florida | Miami-Dade County arena, formerly FTX Arena | Active | 1 | |
| Kroger | retailer | 1883 | Cincinnati | Grocery chain, Cincinnati Ohio | Active | 2 | partial |
| Northern Texas PGA | event | 1922 | Dallas Fort Worth | PGA section and junior tour operator headquartered at PGA Frisco | Active | 1 | partial |
| SXSW | event | 1987 | Austin | Festival and conference, Austin | Active | 2 | |
| Sephora | retailer | 1970 | San Francisco Bay Area | Prestige beauty retailer, LVMH, US HQ San Francisco | Active | 6 | |
| South Beach Wine and Food Festival | event | 2002 | South Florida | Food festival with a creator program, FoodieCon | Active | 1 | |
| Target | retailer | 1962 | Minneapolis | Mass retailer, Minneapolis | Active | 10 | |
| Tesco | retailer | 1919 | Outside the United States | UK supermarket, Welwyn Garden City | Active | 2 | |
| Ulta Beauty | retailer | 1990 | Chicago | Beauty retailer, Bolingbrook Illinois | Active | 6 | |
| Walgreens | retailer | 1901 | Chicago | Drugstore chain, Deerfield Illinois | Active | 1 | partial |
| Walmart | retailer | 1962 | Bentonville, Arkansas | Mass retailer, first shelf for creator food and beverage brands | Active | 9 | |
| YouTube headquarters, San Bruno | venue | 2006 | San Francisco Bay Area | Corporate headquarters | Active | 1 | |
| AT&T Stadium | venue | 2009 | Dallas Fort Worth | Cowboys stadium, creator boxing venue | Active | 4 | |
| Streamy Awards | event | 2009 | Los Angeles | Online video awards show | Dormant | 1 | |
| Summer in the City | event | 2009 | Outside the United States | YouTube convention, London | Dormant | 1 | partial |
| Hispanicize | event | 2010 to 2019 | South Florida | Latino creator and media conference, Miami | Dissolved | 1 | |
| VidCon | event | 2010 | Los Angeles | Online video convention, Anaheim | Active | 10 | |
| Playlist Live | event | 2011 to 2023 | Orlando | Creator fan convention, Orlando | Closed | 1 | |
| RTX | event | 2011 to 2023 | Austin | Rooster Teeth fan convention | Closed | 1 | |
| Beautycon | event | 2013 | Los Angeles | Beauty creator festival | Active | 1 | partial |
| Patreon headquarters, San Francisco | venue | 2013 | San Francisco Bay Area | Corporate headquarters | Active | 1 | |
| YouTube Space LA | venue | 2013 to 2021 | Los Angeles | Free production studio for creators, Playa Vista | Closed | 1 | |
| Rooster Teeth Stage 5, Austin Studios | venue | 2014 to 2024 | Austin | Production studio | Closed | 1 | |
| Vulcan Gas Company | venue | 2014 | Austin | Sixth Street club, Kill Tony home 2021 to 2023 | Active | 1 | |
| YouTube Space New York | venue | 2014 to 2021 | New York | Free production studio for creators, Chelsea Market | Closed | 1 | |
| Night Media, Dallas origin office | venue | 2015 | Dallas Fort Worth | Talent management headquarters, MrBeast's first manager | Active | 1 | |
| TwitchCon | event | 2015 | San Diego | Twitch creator and fan convention | Active | 1 | |
| UTA Nashville | venue | 2015 | Nashville | Talent agency office, music and comedy touring | Active | 1 | |
| ComplexCon | event | 2016 | Las Vegas | Streetwear and culture festival | Active | 2 | partial |
| DreamHack Austin | event | 2016 to 2018 | Austin | Gaming and esports festival, Austin Convention Center | Closed | 1 | |
| FaZe House, Hollywood Hills | venue | 2016 to 2020 | Los Angeles | Esports and creator house | Closed | 1 | |
| Mythical Entertainment studio, Burbank | venue | 2016 | Los Angeles | Production studio and headquarters | Active | 2 | |
| The Star in Frisco | venue | 2016 | Dallas Fort Worth | Dallas Cowboys headquarters campus and creator economy office cluster | Active | 4 | |
| 10X Growth Conference | event | 2017 | South Florida | Business conference run by Grant Cardone | Active | 1 | |
| Clout House | venue | 2017 to 2020 | Los Angeles | FaZe Clan creator house, Los Angeles | Closed | 1 | |
| Team 10 house | venue | 2017 to 2019 | Los Angeles | Creator house, Beverly Grove then Calabasas | Closed | 2 | partial |
| Esports Stadium Arlington | venue | 2018 | Dallas Fort Worth | City owned esports arena, 100,000 square feet, 2,500 seats | Active | 3 | |
| MrBeast studios, Greenville | venue | 2018 | Greenville, NC | Production campus and headquarters | Active | 2 | partial |
| TanaCon | event | 2018 to 2018 | Los Angeles | Creator convention, failed | Closed | 5 | |
| Complexity Esports Center at The Star (GameStop Performance Center, later Legion by Lenovo Esports Center) | venue | 2019 | Dallas Fort Worth | Esports training headquarters, naming rights sponsored | Active | 1 | |
| Dude Perfect arena tours (Pound It Noggin, Hero, Squad Games) | event | 2019 | Dallas Fort Worth | Creator arena touring business | Active | 4 | |
| Envy Gaming headquarters, Victory Park | venue | 2019 | Dallas Fort Worth | Esports training facility and headquarters sublease, 20,872 square feet | Active | 1 | partial |
| Twitch headquarters, 350 Bush Street | venue | 2019 | San Francisco Bay Area | Corporate headquarters | Active | 1 | |
| 100 Thieves Cash App Compound | venue | 2020 | Los Angeles | Esports and apparel headquarters, Culver City | Active | 1 | partial |
| Hype House mansion, Moorpark | venue | 2020 to 2024 | Los Angeles | Creator house | Closed | 1 | |
| Sway House, Bel Air | venue | 2020 to 2021 | Los Angeles | TikTok creator house | Closed | 1 | |
| TikTok US headquarters, Culver City | venue | 2020 | Los Angeles | US headquarters | Active | 1 | partial |
| Podcast Movement 2021, Nashville | event | 2021 to 2021 | Nashville | Podcast industry conference edition | Closed | 1 | |
| TikTok Nashville office | venue | 2021 to 2026 | Nashville | Platform regional office, Music Row, closed | Closed | 1 | |
| Dude Perfect World headquarters and entertainment destination (plan) | venue | 2022 to 2024 | Dallas Fort Worth | Planned 100 million dollar creator theme park and headquarters, replaced by a smaller HQ | Dormant | 1 | |
| Moody Center | venue | 2022 | Austin | 15,000 seat arena, creator and podcast tour stop | Active | 1 | |
| Comedy Mothership | venue | 2023 | Austin | Comedy club, creator owned | Active | 3 | |
| POSSIBLE | event | 2023 | South Florida | Marketing conference with a creator economy track, Miami Beach | Active | 2 | |
| The Lighthouse | venue | 2023 | Los Angeles | Creator campus, Whalar Group | Active | 1 | partial |
| The Vault Conference | event | 2023 | South Florida | Business conference run by Bet-David Consulting | Active | 1 | partial |
| TikTok Shop | retailer | 2023 | Los Angeles | In app marketplace with creator affiliate commissions | Active | 1 | |
| Beast Games | event | 2024 | Greenville, NC | Streaming competition series, Prime Video | Active | 1 | |
| TPR (Transparent, Premier, Rush) | event | 2024 | US, location not documented | Faith and family concert promoter, Dude Perfect tour promoter | Active | 1 | |
| Dude Perfect HQ, Frisco | venue | 2025 | Dallas Fort Worth | Headquarters and studio, DPHQ3 | Active | 1 | |
| Duetti Nashville office | venue | 2025 | Nashville | Catalog acquisition office on Music Row | Active | 1 | |
| Envy Gaming Performance Lab, Fairview | venue | 2025 | Dallas Fort Worth | Esports training and wellness lab, rental model | Active | 1 | |
| Nateland theme park | venue | 2025 | Nashville | Creator funded theme park, in planning | Active | 1 | |
| Ampersand Studios Nashville | venue | 2026 | Nashville | Creative coworking with podcast studio and creator memberships | Active | 1 | partial |
| Creator Gold | event | Austin | Creator gathering at SXSW | Active | 3 | partial | |
| Good Good Championship (PGA Tour, Austin) | event | 2026 | Austin | PGA Tour FedExCup Fall event, creator title sponsorship withdrawn | Active | 1 | |
| AT&T | acquirer | 1983 | Dallas Fort Worth | Telecom, Otter Media joint venture partner then owner | Active | 3 | |
| Accenture (Accenture Song) | acquirer | 1989 | Outside the United States | Consulting group, buyer of Whalar | Active | 2 | |
| Allen Media Group | acquirer | 1993 | Los Angeles | Byron Allen's media company | Active | 1 | |
| CNN | acquirer | 1980 | Atlanta | News network, acquirer | Active | 1 | |
| Celsius Holdings | acquirer | 2004 | South Florida | Energy drink company, Alani Nu acquirer, Boca Raton | Active | 4 | |
| Comcast NBCUniversal | investor | 1963 | Philadelphia | Cable and media conglomerate, BuzzFeed investor | Active | 3 | |
| Coty Inc. | acquirer | 1904 | New York | Beauty conglomerate, Kylie Cosmetics majority owner | Active | 2 | |
| Dentsu | acquirer | 1901 | Outside the United States | Advertising holding company | Active | 1 | |
| DreamWorks Animation | acquirer | 1994 to 2016 | Los Angeles | Studio, acquirer of AwesomenessTV | Acquired | 3 | |
| E.W. Scripps Company | investor | 1878 | Cincinnati | Broadcaster, Misfits Gaming investor | Active | 1 | |
| Fortress Investment Group | acquirer | 1998 | New York | Credit investor, owner of Vice | Active | 1 | |
| Founders Fund | investor | 2005 | San Francisco Bay Area | Venture capital firm | Active | 2 | |
| acquirer | 1998 | San Francisco Bay Area | YouTube owner | Active | 5 | partial | |
| Hearst | investor | 1887 | New York | Media conglomerate, digital minority investor | Active | 5 | |
| IAC | acquirer | 1995 | New York | Internet holding company | Active | 2 | |
| Index Ventures | investor | 1996 | San Francisco Bay Area | Venture capital firm, Patreon Series A lead | Active | 1 | |
| Informa | acquirer | 1998 | Outside the United States | Events and publishing group, London, VidCon owner | Active | 1 | |
| Insight Partners | investor | 1995 | New York | Growth equity firm | Active | 1 | partial |
| L'Oreal | investor | 1909 | Outside the United States | Beauty conglomerate, Em Cosmetics launch partner | Active | 2 | |
| Logitech | acquirer | 1981 | Outside the United States | Peripherals maker, Streamlabs owner | Active | 1 | |
| Lone Pine Capital | investor | 1997 | Greenwich, Connecticut | Hedge fund and growth investor | Active | 1 | |
| Microsoft | acquirer | 1975 | Seattle | Xbox owner, Mixer acquirer | Active | 3 | |
| Monster Beverage | acquirer | 2002 | Los Angeles | Energy drink company, Corona, California | Active | 1 | |
| Penn Entertainment | acquirer | 1972 | Philadelphia | Casino operator, Barstool owner 2020 to 2023 | Active | 2 | |
| PepsiCo | investor | 1965 | New York | Beverage company, distributor and minority investor in Celsius | Active | 1 | |
| ProSiebenSat.1 Media | acquirer | 2000 | Outside the United States | German broadcaster, Collective Digital Studio acquirer | Active | 2 | partial |
| Publicis Groupe | acquirer | 1926 | Outside the United States | Advertising holding company, Influential acquirer | Active | 2 | partial |
| RTL Group | acquirer | 2000 | Outside the United States | European broadcaster, MCN investor | Active | 2 | |
| Razer | acquirer | 2005 | Los Angeles | Gaming hardware company, Irvine and Singapore | Active | 1 | |
| Sazerac Company | acquirer | 1850 | Louisville | Spirits company, Buffalo Trace and BuzzBallz owner, SipMargs investor and distributor | Active | 1 | |
| Silver Lake | acquirer | 1999 | San Francisco Bay Area | Private equity firm, owner of Endeavor and WME | Active | 1 | |
| Spark Capital | investor | 2005 | San Francisco Bay Area | Venture capital firm | Active | 1 | |
| Summit Partners | investor | 1984 | Boston | Growth equity firm | Active | 2 | |
| TPG Capital | investor | 1992 | San Francisco Bay Area | Private equity firm | Active | 2 | |
| The Onion (Global Tetrahedron) | acquirer | 1988 | Chicago | Satirical publisher, Infowars buyer | Active | 1 | partial |
| The Walt Disney Company | acquirer | 1923 | Los Angeles | Media conglomerate, Maker Studios acquirer | Active | 3 | |
| Tiger Global Management | investor | 2001 | New York | Hedge fund and growth investor | Active | 1 | partial |
| Trusted Media Brands | acquirer | 1922 | New York | Reader's Digest parent, Jukin owner | Active | 1 | |
| Unilever | acquirer | 1929 | Outside the United States | Consumer goods conglomerate, London | Active | 2 | |
| Verizon | investor | 1983 | New York | Telecom, go90 era digital media investor | Active | 4 | |
| Viz Media | acquirer | 1986 | San Francisco Bay Area | Anime and manga publisher | Active | 1 | |
| Vobile Group | acquirer | 2005 | Outside the United States | Content protection company, Hong Kong listed | Active | 1 | |
| Vox Media | acquirer | 2005 | New York | Digital publisher, Group Nine acquirer | Active | 1 | |
| WPP | acquirer | 1985 | Outside the United States | Advertising holding company | Active | 1 | |
| Kartoon Studios (Genius Brands) | acquirer | 2006 | Los Angeles | Children's animation company | Active | 1 | |
| Stadiumred Group | acquirer | 2007 | New York | Marketing holding company | Active | 1 | |
| TPG Growth | investor | 2007 | San Francisco Bay Area | Growth equity arm of TPG, San Francisco | Active | 1 | |
| Texas Moving Image Industry Incentive Program | investor | 2007 | Austin | State production grant administered by the Texas Film Commission | Active | 1 | |
| SiriusXM | acquirer | 2008 | New York | Satellite radio and podcast company | Active | 6 | |
| Andreessen Horowitz | investor | 2009 | San Francisco Bay Area | Venture capital firm | Active | 4 | |
| Dallas Cowboys (Jerry Jones) | investor | Dallas Fort Worth | NFL franchise, esports owner | Active | 3 | ||
| Thrive Capital | investor | 2009 | New York | Venture capital firm, Patreon Series B lead | Active | 1 | |
| Sprout Social | acquirer | 2010 | Chicago | Social media management software, Tagger owner | Active | 1 | |
| The Chernin Group | investor | 2010 | Los Angeles | Media investment firm, TCG | Active | 8 | |
| Blue Ant Media | acquirer | 2011 | Outside the United States | Toronto media company | Active | 1 | |
| Hotmart | acquirer | 2011 | Outside the United States | Brazilian digital product platform, Belo Horizonte | Active | 1 | |
| Slow Ventures | investor | 2011 | San Francisco Bay Area | Venture capital firm with a dedicated creator fund | Active | 1 | |
| ByteDance | acquirer | 2012 | Outside the United States | TikTok parent, Beijing | Active | 2 | |
| Otter Media | acquirer | 2014 to 2019 | Los Angeles | Digital media holding company, Chernin and AT&T joint venture | Dissolved | 5 | |
| Super League Enterprise | acquirer | 2014 | Los Angeles | Roblox and gaming media company, buyer of Misfits Ads | Active | 1 | |
| Tether | investor | 2014 | Outside the United States | Stablecoin issuer turned investor, El Salvador | Active | 2 | partial |
| Amaze Holdings | acquirer | 2015 | Los Angeles | Creator commerce software company, owner of Spring | Active | 1 | |
| CuriosityStream | investor | 2015 | New York | Documentary streaming service | Active | 1 | |
| Eldridge Industries | investor | 2015 | Greenwich, Connecticut | Holding company, Todd Boehly | Active | 1 | |
| Project Music (Nashville Entrepreneur Center) | investor | 2015 | Nashville | Music technology accelerator, CMA sponsored | Active | 2 | |
| Topmark Partners | investor | 2015 | Tampa | Growth equity firm | Active | 1 | |
| DAZN | acquirer | 2016 | Outside the United States | Sports streaming group, London | Active | 1 | |
| Latido Networks | acquirer | 2016 | Los Angeles | Latino digital media group | Active | 1 | |
| Utopia Music (Proper Music Group) | acquirer | 2016 | Outside the United States | Music fintech acquirer, Switzerland | Rebranded | 1 | |
| Dan Gilbert | investor | Detroit | Investor, Cleveland Cavaliers owner | Active | 1 | ||
| Fuel Venture Capital | investor | 2017 | South Florida | Venture firm, Betr investor | Active | 1 | |
| Hersh Interactive Group (Ken Hersh) | investor | 2017 | Dallas Fort Worth | Family office esports investor | Active | 1 | |
| Imaginary Ventures | investor | 2017 | New York | Consumer brand venture firm, Reale Actives partner | Active | 1 | |
| SoftBank Vision Fund | investor | 2017 | Outside the United States | Growth investor, Tokyo | Active | 5 | |
| DarkZero Esports | acquirer | 2018 | Las Vegas | Esports organization, acquirer | Active | 1 | |
| NTWRK | acquirer | 2018 | Los Angeles | Livestream shopping company, Complex owner | Active | 2 | |
| Wonder | acquirer | 2018 | New York | Food delivery company, Marc Lore | Active | 1 | |
| FTX | investor | 2019 to 2022 | South Florida | Crypto exchange, esports sponsor | Bankrupt | 2 | |
| Paramount Skydance | acquirer | 2019 | New York | Media conglomerate, Viacom successor | Active | 3 | |
| Bitmine Immersion Technologies | investor | 2020 | Atlanta | Cryptocurrency treasury company, Beast Industries investor | Active | 1 | partial |
| GameSquare Holdings | acquirer | 2020 | Dallas Fort Worth | Gaming and esports holding company, Frisco | Active | 3 | |
| Anti Fund | investor | 2021 | Los Angeles | Venture firm, Jake Paul and Logan Paul | Active | 4 | |
| Highmount Capital | investor | 2021 | New York | Private investment firm, Dude Perfect backer | Active | 1 | |
| Breeze | investor | 2022 | Los Angeles | Creator financing firm | Active | 1 | |
| Duetti | investor | 2022 | New York | Catalog buyer and financing platform for independent artists | Active | 1 | |
| Fixated | acquirer | 2022 | Los Angeles | Creator management and production company | Active | 1 | partial |
| Night Capital | investor | 2022 | Los Angeles | Venture fund, Night and The Chernin Group joint venture | Active | 2 | |
| Warner Bros. Discovery | acquirer | 2022 | New York | Media conglomerate, inherited Rooster Teeth and Machinima | Active | 5 | |
| Box Canyon Productions | acquirer | 2023 | Austin | Burnie Burns's production company, Rooster Teeth brand owner | Active | 2 | |
| Jefferies and Cerberus | acquirer | 2023 | New York | Lender group that bought Forma Brands out of bankruptcy | Active | 1 | |
| Creator Sports Capital | investor | 2024 | US, location not documented | Fund at the intersection of creator and sports businesses | Active | 1 | |
| Palm Tree Crew | investor | 2024 | South Florida | Lifestyle, festival and hospitality company with beverage investments, Kygo and Myles Shear | Active | 2 | |
| Compound Creative Holdings | investor | 2026 | Los Angeles | Creator business holding company, CAA and TPG | Active | 2 |