Hey! Welcome back to the Creator Economy NYC newsletter, your weekly hit of insights and strategies to help you build, monetize, and scale as a creator.
If you've been in this community for a while, you've probably felt the one-off brand deal treadmill stop matching the business you're actually trying to build.
You've spent years earning your audience's trust, and you're renting it out one ad at a time, often to brands that have nothing to do with where you're headed.
There's a much bigger opportunity out there: having a real hand in building companies. As an advisor. As an ambassador. As a co-owner. Most creators just don't know it's on the table, or how to ask for it.
This week: Jeff Frommer, founder of OWM.ai, on the math behind creator equity deals, when ownership makes sense, when it doesn't, and the checklist for deciding how deep to go with any brand.
And I’m excited to see many of you at our next event happening Tuesday!
Aright, let’s get into it.
Creator Economy Live East is coming to NYC - this week on July 29th!
We're excited to be partnering with Creator Economy Live East, the industry's largest influencer marketing conference, taking place this week on July 29th, in Midtown Manhattan (right after our July 28th event)!
The event brings together creators, agencies, platforms, and brands including Anthropologie, Estée Lauder, Disney, American Express, and many more for a full day of conversations, networking, and industry insights.
As part of our partnership, I was able to secure 20% off any ticket exclusively for the Creator Economy NYC community, just use code CENYC20.
Hope to see you there!
The creator's guide to building equity
Jeff Frommer talks to dozens of founders, creators, and managers a week about one question: how do creators stop being a line item in someone else's marketing budget and start owning a piece of what they promote?
That's the whole premise of OWM.ai, the platform he's building to help brands put creators on their cap tables.
Building a business beyond brand deals
Entrepreneurship is naturally a long-term path for a creator, because a business you own keeps earning whether or not you post this week or the algorithm changes. But you don't have to start a business from scratch to get some skin in the game.
"More and more creators are recognizing that they can build a brand for their audience versus rent their audience to a brand. But zero-to-one entrepreneurship is really hard," Jeff said. "I think the on-ramp to entrepreneurship is investing your influence, your social capital, the trust and attention you've earned with your audience, into a business that's going 1 to 10 or 10 to 100. That already has the operational infrastructure, already has the product. It doesn't have to be your idea."
You put trust you already own into a company that already works, and you take ownership instead of, or on top of, a fee.
To see why that's such a big deal, look at what's actually at stake. A $10,000 sponsored post pays you once, and that's it. A potential 1% equity stake works differently - in the case the company sells for $100 million, that same 1% is worth $1 million. It's a lottery ticket with better odds than most, which is exactly why Jeff treats it that way. That's the difference between renting your attention out and owning a piece of what it builds.
Worth saying up front: that upside only applies to the slice of your deals you can afford to lose entirely. More on the guardrails in a minute, but keep that in your back pocket as you read the examples below.
So how to build equity as a creator
If your interest is piqued but you're not sure where this applies to you, follow Jeff's advice:
1. Know your audience and build from that
"What does your audience know you for? And what value can you have where, instead of you selling them an ad (where they are the product) you sell them something of value (which is the product)?"
This applies no matter what type of creator business you're trying to build. Always build with your audience in mind.
You need to believe in the product, whether it's a clothing line, a beauty brand, or a supplement company, and it needs to align with what your audience follows you for.
2. Decide if you want to be an advisor, ambassador, or co-founder
Equity isn't an all-or-nothing game. You get to decide how much effort and capital you want to risk up front.
Three starting points:
Advisor: the lowest-lift entry point. Maybe you spend 30 minutes a month with the founder in exchange for a small equity stake and a seat at the table.
Ambassador: an agreement to actively promote on a long-term basis (think Poppi and Alix Earle). This is often a monthly cash guarantee plus affiliate revenue share plus vested equity, which is particularly good for creators.
Co-founder: you go all in on building the product. Carries the most risk and the most upside. Think Ryan Reynolds with Mint Mobile, MrBeast with Feastables, Emma Chamberlain with Chamberlain Coffee.
3. Decide when equity makes sense (and when it doesn't)
Let's be clear: you can't feed yourself on equity.
Your cash flow and business health come first. Most startups fail, so go in clear-eyed, the same way you would with any investment. Equity is the asset you buy with money (and time) you can afford to lose, never a replacement for the income that keeps your business alive.
"You have to assume that everything goes to zero. Even the best venture investors in the world are hitting 1 out of 4, maybe 1 out of 8. So as a creator, you've got to be really passionate about the product and think almost like an investor: 80 to 90% of my deals I should take in cash."
The portfolio math for a working creator:
80-90% of your deals: cash. This is your salary. It pays rent. Non-negotiable.
10-20% of your deals: equity plays. Only in products you'd promote for free, priced knowing most go to zero. If top VCs hit 1 in 4, your equity deals are lottery tickets with better odds than most.
But look at the math when it goes right:
"You also have to think: is this brand built to exit, or built to sell? A lot of businesses where creators are the capital and co-founders, are being built to sell. I can go make five or ten million dollars because I have the trust and attention of my audience. Taking equity in something that will never be thought of as an exit, more of a lifestyle business, means you're missing the profit share or rev share you could extract in the earlier stages."
Translation: if it's a great business that'll simply make money forever rather than sell to someone, your ask is revenue share or profit share, money that pays out along the way, not equity that pays out never.
The decision checklist: should you do the deal, and how deep?
Put it all together and you get a filter you can run on any brand that approaches you, or any brand you want to pitch.
Would I write a check? The belief test. If you wouldn't reach into your own pocket for this product, don't take equity in it. Your audience can absolutely tell the difference between grabbing the bag and actual ownership.
Is my audience their customer? Jeff calls this audience-to-customer mapping, and it's where passion and purpose collide: "My audience wants a kitty litter brand. My passion is I want to build dog food. There's just a misalignment there." Your conviction doesn't matter if the fit isn't there.
Is it built to exit or built to sell? Exit path → equity can pay off big. Lifestyle business → ask for rev share or profit share instead.
Does the paperwork check out? Who else is on the cap table? Are they a Delaware C-corp? How much have they raised, and from whom? Read the exclusivity clause twice. You don't want to be locked out of your whole category for a quarter-point of equity while you wait 10 years for an outcome.
What rung matches my lift? Advisor (30 min/month), ambassador (ongoing activation), or co-founder (all in). Inputs should equal outputs. Absolutely don't do co-founder work for advisor equity.
Our next event: July 28th Mixer & Panel
Join Creator Economy NYC and our friends at TopFan for an evening of networking, conversation, and connection with creators, marketers, platforms, and industry leaders shaping what's next.
For our panel, we’re bringing together Hannah Wilson, Varun Rana and Amy Wang for a conversation on what it really means to build a creator business you own.
We’ll dive into:
Building beyond the algorithms
Owning your audience and platform
Scaling through events, products, community, and more
The tech behind it
Whether you’re just getting started or building your next chapter, this one’s for you.
Two free tools top creators use to keep themselves moving
The Creator Goal Setting Guide (FREE): A simple but powerful document to help you declare who you want to BECOME in 2026. Get it here.
The Creator Accountability System (FREE): Your visual companion for consistent creation in 2026. Get it here.
Thanks for reading! This week, run one brand partnership through the five-question filter. If it clears, your next negotiation might look very different.
F*ck It, Create It,
Brett
+ With research, interview and editorial support by Taylor Cromwell - a newsletter and creator economy expert and founder of Creator Diaries. Follow Taylor on LinkedIn.
