Karat Financial

Everyone focuses on getting more views. You should care less about getting views and more on how to turn views into revenue. I just did a podcast on how to build your content into an actual business with my friend Alex Hormozi. He’s built a creator-driven business worth over $500M - and shares his secrets how with me. Link to the pod in comments- plus comment HORMOZI and I'll send you 21 takeaways from the pod as a timestamped transcript - and an analysis of 10+ other creator talks we've done!

Alex Hormozi may be the first creator billionaire. I interviewed him on the Karat podcast to learn his secrets on how he made over $10M+ last year from content- here's 3 lessons below: 1. Content isn't the business. Content generates *leads* for your business. Most creators are in a broken business model based on volatile brand deals. Hormozi recommends developing a business around a sticky retentive problem - then pumping leads to it through content aka free advertising. He follows this himself - his content drives deal flow for his private equity firm - and also customers for portfolio companies like Skool. Last year, his companies made over $250M in revenue. 2. Hormozi sees 5 distinct ways to make money from content: * Brand deals * Affiliate * Collabs with investment (as he did with Skool, or see PRIME) * White label * Doing your own product in-house (e.g., Feastables) If your content is good at getting impressions but not conversions - do brand deals - and you're basically a media company. But if you have conviction in your conversion- start with affiliate - and then carefully consider deeper partnerships based on your bandwidth. Hormozi knew he only had energy for one real "brand bullet" - and saved it for a deep collaboration with Skool. 3. Most creators are a 97/100 on content - but they're a 0/100 on monetization. Hormozi believes they spend too much time on thumbnails and not enough on learning business. That's the real constraint to their growth. Comment HORMOZI and I'll send you 21 takeaways from the pod as a timestamped transcript - and an analysis of 10+ other creator talks we've done.

I'm speaking at SXSW this year on creator businesses with Ian Shepherd, Megan Lightcap, & Chris Erwin! The panel's going to be amazing- given: * Ian invests in & scales YT channels like Veritasium w Electrify Video Partners * Megan runs a fund investing in startups led by creators w Slow Ventures * Chris advises on creator economy M&A and strategy w RockWater Industries and of course I help lead Karat Financial where we've originated over $1B in credit to creators - and we're launching business banking soon too. We're diving into - what even *is* a creator business in 2025 - what a successful one looks like - and how to fund them. If you want a recap- join our newsletter via link in comments below!

I'm hosting a creator party at SXSW this year with Karat Financial, Epidemic Sound & Thinkific! We have: * a DJ! * drinks! food! * RSVPs from top creators like Jon Youshaei, Zach Justice, & Paddy Galloway; operators like Bluesky's COO and Beacons.ai's CEO, and select agents & managers If you want to learn how to RSVP for the party, comment PARTY here on the post below ?? and I'll DM you if we have room Thank you Gracie Schram Desiree Choquette Melissa Wong for making this happen~

For Day 2 of Karat Financial's Creator Bootcamp- we looked at brand deals- from 3 different perspectives: A freelance creator / solo entrepreneur Grace Lemire who monetizes over six figures from a niche following Lindsey Lee Lugrin of FYPM App who built Glassdoor for brand deals to help creators know how to price themselves better Clayton Jacobs - founder of a top influencer agency that does over $10M in brand deals *every* year and we again had over 100 creators tune in live. Takeaways: 1. Knowledge matters. It's *really* hard as a creator to know if you're doing a good job on brand deals if you have no idea what a brand's usual rates are. Agents & managers can help with this - but that's why FYPM App matters too. 2. Relationships matter. Sometimes the difference between a brand committing to a campaign with you is how well they *know* you and the previous interactions you've had with them. Clayton Jacobs even mentioned that it's highly beneficial for creators to be on LinkedIn- because that's where brands are. 3. Being proactive matters. A lot of creators I work with don't do outbound- they think that if brands care, they reach out to you. In reality - a majority of brand deals can come from outbound and just catching brands at the right time. That's how Zack Honarvar landed the Pizza Hut deal for Airrack. If this is interesting- join the free bootcamp via link in bio! And Justin Moore is going in depth into brand deal negotiation next Thursday 1pm PST Feb 6th~

We just hosted our first ever Creator Bootcamp *online* event - and over 100 creators tuned in live to learn from Zack Honarvar how to build a creator business in 2025. I never believed in online events before. I'm old school - I love hosting IRL mixers & brunches and getting to really *meet* people - but my team pushed to create our new Karat Financial online creator community (link in comments!) - because they're native creators who grew up online in a world where "sliding into DMs" is the easiest way to make new friends - and they knew that Karat Financial had the brand & reach to put together something special. Thank you Quinn Rutledge Langni Zeng Harrison Kwik for organizing our first event today - and look forward to our next one tomorrow at 1pm with Lindsey Lee Lugrin Clayton Jacobs Grace Lemire on creator monetization!

CNBC interviewed me about TikTok! watch the segment via link in comments :) The TikTok brouhaha isn't about just "creators" anymore - and that's not a bad thing. It's become so important because almost *everyone*?today?watches TikToks - and more and more people who aren't really traditional "creators" are making content on it too- since content's becoming the only way to market yourself in a world saturated with ads. and when everyone is watching or making content - the traditional definition of being a "creator" becomes less relevant - and creation just becomes part of everyone's workflow, the same way the Internet is. If you want to learn how to excel at content- my company?Karat Financial is hosting a free bootcamp on content, branding, community & more! Link in description below

TikTok was great at getting you followers- but worse at helping creators make money & build businesses. I don't know what'll happen to TikTok! But if you're a creator who wants to learn how to sustain your content as a business- Karat Financial?& I are hosting a free creator bootcamp on Discord with top experts like * Building creator businesses in 2025 with?Zack Honarvar who managed Yes Theory & Airrack with One Day Entertainment * Creator pay transparency with?Lindsey Lee Lugrin?of?FYPM App * Negotiating with brands with?Justin Moore?of?Creator Wizard * Monetizing your community with?Will Baumann?of?Fourthwall * Creator well being with Healthy Gamer & Lonnie Marts III, MBA oh and yours truly- on creator finances with creator CPA partners like Amanda Marcovitch Varun Bhuchar Kevin J. O'Connell JR, CPA! Link in comments to apply. Or if you run a creator company - DM me for access for your creators to skip the waiting line

TikTok & shortform content almost destroyed the creator economy in 2021. But a new generation of creators figured out how to save it- here's how: TikTok made it easy to get views and distribution. When new creators with millions of followers appeared- we thought we'd entered a creator economy "golden era" - and everyone started dumping money in. We didn't realize that those followers weren't worth much - because they were developed via 30 second clips delivered via algorithm - unlike how past creators like Casey Neistat built audiences over time. Nobody knew how to *monetize* those shortform followers - and everyone who hyped up the creator economy boom then saw a crash when the value wasn't there. That's changing now in 2025. We're seeing a new generation of business-focused individuals develop shortform clips as marketing that then upsells to off-platform ways to make money. Instead of Casey Neistat - we're seeing creators like * Sarah Perl - who made over $1M after college - by doing shortform clips about manifestation that upsold to coaching content on Stan by John Hu * Caitlin O'Neill - who monetized short TikTok sketch clips by growing her IG following and then upselling them to parasocial content on Passes by Lucy Guo * Alex Hormozi - who's built a $250M portfolio with Leila Hormozi as CEO - by doing shortform clips about entrepreneurship that became leads for his business and Skool, which he co-owns This is the new generation of creators - they're content-savvy marketers who figured out shortform monetization. This is what Goldman Sachs means when they say the creator economy will be worth ~$500B in 2 years. If you're a creator and want to learn how to succeed in the new creator economy-?Karat Financial?is hosting a free creator bootcamp with stars like?Zack Honarvar?Justin Moore?Lindsey Lee Lugrin Will Baumann?speaking - link in comments below!

The US Supreme Court just unanimously voted to uphold the TikTok ban. What happens next? 1. TikTok had already planned to restrict access to the app for US users on Sunday. It’s likely this is meant to apply pressure to policymakers via the public - as the law technically wouldn’t require TikTok to go to these lengths to restrict access. 2. Trump’s reportedly exploring ways to bring back TikTok. 3. While creators wil face an immediate short term loss- most of them already diversified their audiences across platforms and will likely shift to Meta & YouTube. While TikTok may or may not be gone- the effects it left on the creator ecosystem will stay. Shortform content & a targeted algorithm have simultaneously made it easier to get followers but harder to build a monetizable community. What do you think happens next?