What are Creator Conglomerates & How are They Rivaling the Silicon Valley?

Key Takeaways: Creator Conglomerates

• The creator economy is witnessing a shift from content creation to entrepreneurship, with creators launching full-fledged businesses across industries.
• Creator-led ventures thrive on existing loyal following, bypassing traditional funding models and building faster go-to-market success.
• Conglomerates like MrBeast’s Beast Industries and Emma Chamberlain’s coffee brand are great examples of how creators can leverage cultural influence to scale their ventures.
• Unlike VC-backed startups, these businesses are fueled by trust, authenticity, and direct community engagement.
• Traditional companies can learn from creator conglomerates by prioritizing culture, community-driven products, and real-time credibility management.

There has been an evident shift within the creator economy: from creator to entrepreneur. Creators are no longer stopping at creating content and securing partnerships; they are now venturing into opening businesses.

Let’s take the example of Emma Chamberlain and MrBeast. Both started as YouTubers, amassed a loyal viewership, did partnerships, and finally went into business ventures. While Emma opened her own coffee company, MrBeast went into various ventures, such as Lunchly and  Feastables.

Our blog will discuss creator conglomerates, what differentiates them from traditional ventures, and what you can learn from them.

Creator Conglomerates vs Traditional Ventures

With the tech boom, Silicon Valley became the dominating factor in deciding the future of ventures. It decided the funding, the scalability, and the breakthroughs.

For traditional ventures, the route was clear: You have an idea, you create a pitch (preferably a Sand Hill Road pitch deck), get the funding, and then start with the operations. A Stanford or Harvard Degree would help your cause.

However, with the rise of the creator economy, another path to entrepreneurship has opened. Now, podcasters, streamers, and YouTubers are no longer waiting for venture capitalists to show up. They are paving their own path to success.

What’s making it worth their while is the loyal community of followers backing them since day one. With the market already in place for them, they are creating products, making sales, and scaling their business faster than most traditional organizations.

No matter how novel the new model may look, it is working. According to Goldman Sachs, the creator economy will touch $480 billion by 2027. To give you more background, MrBeast’s company, Beast Industries, was valued at $5 billion in 2025. Emma Chamberlain has a net worth of $30 million as of 2025.

Quick Recap:
The rise of the creator economy has created another path to entrepreneurship, which is changing the business world for brands. Now, content creators like YouTubers and streamers are taking on traditional ventures with the support of their loyal following.

What are the Types of Ventures Creators Generally Get Into?

With their community following & expertise in content production, creators generally get into:

1. Agency

One of the best options for content creators has always been opening their own agencies. And, it makes sense. Creators have gone through the grind. What agencies execute as a unit, creators have been doing that as a one-man army. And since they are well in touch with each process that happens within an agency, opening one would come naturally to them.

Let’s take the example of Dhar Mann, here. The YouTuber-turned-business entrepreneur had launched Dhar Mann Studios in 2018. Under the same banner, he also launched a YouTube-centric monetization platform: The 5th Quarter Agency.

The invite-only agency leverages existing YouTube videos of a content creator to generate 25% additional revenue. Moreover, the agency already boasts an impressive clientele like Stokes Twins, Rebecca Zamolo, Royalty Family, and Jordan Matter.

2. Licensing

The creator hustle has brought another venture into the limelight – IP licensing. With a spurt in the creator economy’s growth, the creators have started licensing their original content to generate additional revenue via partnerships.

An excellent example here is, yet again, Dhar Mann. He has a dedicated Samsung TV Plus channel that he has spun into a 13-episode original content deal. Another example is a CTV licensing deal between Jomboy Media and Tubi TV, which was signed in August 2025.

3. Live Events and Tours

Live events have emerged as a major revenue stream for creators, with collectives like Dude Perfect deriving a substantial portion of their revenue via annual tours, which include both ticket sales and sponsorships. For creators who have built their business around video content, live events particularly come across as an appealing content creation option and a direct revenue stream.

4. Consumer Products

Consumer products are a big hit among creators for revenue diversification. Many creators like Kim Kardashian (Skims & SKKN by Kim) and Huda Kattan (Huda Beauty) have tapped into their mass appeal to promote their products. And with their consistent engagement and direct audience relationship, the creator-made consumer products tend to grow faster than the traditional ones.

Quick Recap:
Creators generally get into the following four types of ventures: Opening their own agency, licensing their content, taking part in live events & tours, and launching consumer products. These choices stem from their expertise in the content creation process and audience proximity.

How are Creator-led Ventures Overtaking the Traditional Models?

As we had discussed before, the creator-led ventures are rivalling the traditional business model. They are faring well compared to the latter in many ways, such as:

1. Personal Touch

Unlike traditional ventures, creators provide a personal touch to their services. This is quite understood as the following and the engagement that they have created is around their personal brand, rather than the venture brand itself.

For example, when MrBeast launched MrBeast Burgers, many of his followers tried it. Now, this happened not because of the advertising efforts but because of his direct association with the venture, giving it a personal touch.

2. Already Built Audience cum Audience Proximity

Audience proximity is another factor that has helped creator-led ventures beat their traditional counterparts. Traditional ventures start with no base and have to create their audience with continuous marketing and advertising efforts. 

However, with creator-led ventures, the audience is already there for it in the form of the creator’s following. So, rather than engaging in robust marketing to promote the offering, the creator simply has to announce to their followers to try their product.

This allows them to directly sell their products to their followers or consumers and cut intermediaries. Hence, saving costs and maintaining the personal touch. Kylie Cosmetics by Kylie Jenner is a perfect example of D2C marketing.

3. Credibility+Trust

Credibility and trust are two critical factors that brands will find difficult to create when it comes to consumers. As we have discussed above, conventional businesses have to do everything from the start, which also includes building trust and product credibility among the masses.

But when it comes to creators, their years of content creation, laced with personal experiences and trusted opinions, have already established that trust among the masses.

Quick Recap:
Creator conglomerates are rivaling the traditional ventures in terms of growth due to factors, such as providing a personal touch to their services, already built audience, strong D2C marketing base, and credibility.

What are the Risk Factors Associated with Creator-led Ventures?

Just like any venture, even creator-led ventures come with certain risk factors, like:

1. Overdependence on Platforms

The very source of creators’ wealth (in terms of loyal following and reach) has been various social media platforms. Now, these can be YouTube, Instagram, or even TikTok. What would happen if their account gets hacked or deleted? Such has been the dependence on these platforms.

2. Audience Loss with Creator’s Exit

The main USP of creator conglomerates has always been the creators themselves and the personal touch and brand storytelling they bring with them. 

Rather than the brand itself, many consumers buy their products because they feel relatable with the creator – the face of the company.

However, this scenario can be compared with putting all eggs in one basket. If the creator were to exit the company due to complications, it would automatically lose a good portion of its consumer market. And with the exit, the branding would take a severe hit.

Quick Recap:
There are two major risks associated with creator-led ventures: overdependence on platforms, and the fear of audience loss due to the creator’s exit.

How are Creators Overcoming these Challenges?

Creators are well aware of the challenges that come with a company’s hyperdependence on their personal brand. To overcome these barriers, creators are taking steps, such as:

1. Creating Presence Across Platforms

Reliance on a single platform can be detrimental for creators, as any unforeseen circumstances to that particular platform can put a pause to their content creation endeavor. To mitigate such challenges, creators expand their reach across platforms. 

This ensures that even if the account on one platform faces an issue, the other platforms will help retain the connection with their audiences.

Apart from being a security net, it also allows creators to tap into a diverse pool of audience who may support their content.

2. Building Loyalty Through Owned Channels

Another way creators are adopting to overcome the challenges is by owning direct communication via owned channels like email marketing. Through these channels, creators can subtly position their venture in front of their audience and build loyalty without being too salesy. Moreover, channels like email marketing can also be utilized for sales conversion.

Quick Recap:
However, creators are overcoming these risk factors by diversifying their presence across social media and streaming platforms, and building loyalty through owned channels like email marketing.

Which Platforms Enable Creator Conglomerates?

Platforms enabling creator-led ventures include:

1. TikTok Shops

TikTok Shops is one of the marketplaces where users can buy items with quick clicks. As per a report by TikTok, the TikTok Shop was the fastest-growing online retailer last year. It works just like major e-retailers: search for items, read the reviews, purchase the item, and get it shipped to your place.

However, the social media part of TikTok makes the whole purchasing experience more interesting. So, unlike with marketplaces like Amazon, users can directly shop from the video creators who curate for specific products. They just have to click on the “shop icon” to buy the tools or products used in the video.

2. Instagram D2C Storefronts

Officially called “Shops on Instagram,” these D2C storefronts let creators create customizable digital storefronts within the app for users to discover and buy products directly from their profiles. These storefronts integrate with posts, Stories, Reels, and Lives, and allow creators to tag products for followers to tap on to view product details and make purchases.

This seamless, mobile-first shopping experience merges content discovery with e-commerce, letting creators build a direct sales channel and stronger customer engagement through Instagram’s built-in tools.

Quick Recap:
There are mainly two platforms that are enabling creator conglomerates to achieve success: TikTok Shops and Shops on Instagram. Here, creators can tag products to the videos for users to view and purchase them.

What can Traditional Ventures Learn from Creator Conglomerates?

1. Culture > Finances

Traditional ventures need to understand that creator conglomerates are built around cultural equity. They value people and everything that comes with them: opinions, creativity, and choices. Such ventures keep people at the center of their business operations over finances.

Hence, rather than acquiring them, traditional firms should co-create with them for a fruitful collaboration.

2. Credibility = Currency

With direct interactions with the audience almost on a daily basis, creators have realized how fragile trust and credibility can be. One wrong move and the hard-earned trust and credibility will be lost. Creator conglomerates move accordingly and are quick to compensate if things go wrong.

However, with most of the traditional firms, the consumer feedback takes time to reach the concerned teams due to multiple channels in between. And by the time the teams get to know, the credibility would have already started to erode. Treating credibility as the real business currency by optimizing feedback channels is one of the best takeaways for traditional firms here.

3. Build Products Around Communities

Traditional firms build the products first, and then create a loyal customer base around them through various marketing initiatives. However, the process happens in reverse with creator conglomerates. They build their products around existing communities. This not only saves tons of resources in marketing but also comes across as more community-led and relevant.

Quick Recap:
Creator conglomerates are rivalling the traditional way ventures scale and function. However, there are certain values that the conventional ventures can take note of: cultural equity > finances, credibility = currency, and building products around communities.

FAQs on Creator Conglomerates