We started writing checks into creator economy infrastructure in 2019, when the category was not yet named and most LPs looked puzzled when we explained what we were building toward. Seven years and sixteen investments later, it is worth asking honestly: what did the thesis get right, what did it miss, and what does the next chapter look like?
What We Got Right
The infrastructure thesis held. Direct monetization infrastructure — subscription platforms, digital goods commerce, fan membership systems, financial tools for creator businesses — proved to be a real investment category with real exits. The companies we backed in Fund I and Fund II that built infrastructure rather than content have generally fared much better than the content-dependent businesses that were more prominent in the venture narrative of 2020 and 2021. The distinction between infrastructure and content was the right distinction to make.
The pandemic acceleration was beyond our base case but directionally consistent with our thesis. We always believed the shift to creator-owned economics was inevitable. We didn't anticipate that a global disruption would accelerate it by several years. The 2020 acceleration compressed what might have been a decade-long transition into two or three years for a significant segment of professional creators. That worked in our portfolio's favor.
The internationalization opportunity was real. Sofia's work on Latin American creator markets and our subsequent investment and sourcing work in Southeast Asia have confirmed that the infrastructure gap in high-growth international markets is exactly as large as we suspected. The companies building infrastructure for non-North American creator markets are in a position analogous to where the first generation of creator infrastructure companies were in 2018: early in a large market with limited competition from well-capitalized incumbents.
What Surprised Us
The speed of AI's impact on the creator stack was faster and more fundamental than our 2021 models predicted. By 2024, AI-native creator tools were not just features — they were entire new categories. The companies that will define the next chapter of the creator economy infrastructure are building AI-first, not AI-augmented. We've had to update our investment framework significantly to account for what AI changes about the defensibility of traditional creator tools.
Platform consolidation proved less disruptive than we'd feared. We spent considerable time in 2022 and 2023 modeling what would happen to our portfolio if major platforms aggressively entered the direct monetization market. They did enter — YouTube Memberships, Instagram Subscriptions, TikTok's monetization expansion — but the pattern was more complementary than competitive. Platform monetization tools sent creators to dedicated infrastructure platforms for more sophisticated operations. The rising tide of platform creator programs turned out to lift the infrastructure boats rather than displace them.
The Next Chapter
AI infrastructure for the creator economy is the most significant investment opportunity of the next five years. Not AI content tools — AI infrastructure. The difference is what we've always cared about: building the system that powers a thousand creator businesses, not one extraordinary AI-native creator business. The companies that build the AI infrastructure layer for the creator economy will be some of the most valuable companies of the next decade. We're actively investing in this space from Fund III.