As a reminder, I read (and try to respond to) every reply. If you have topics you'd like me to cover — or especially if you have creators we should meet — my DMs are open, as the kids say.
Over the course of an average week, I have countless conversations with creators — many in the early stages of building or ideating a business. Recently, I’ve found myself returning to a similar theme during these conversations: the importance of having a point of view.
A necessary disclosure: creators shouldn’t start companies or step into the founder role just because their peers are or because they can. They should only do so if the idea is worth (and they are ready to spend) many years of their life working on it.
When thinking about about starting a business, creators often default to two paths: 1) packaging and selling what they ostensibly are already giving away for free in their content — typically a course or course-like product; or 2) taking an existing consumer behavior and “wrapping” it in their community without meaningful product differentiation (such as better efficacy, new form factor, etc.). While these can test conversion ability, they usually lack real enterprise value potential. More importantly, neither creates a long-term moat.
What to do instead? Have a point of view. Make a specific bet on where the world is going, grounded in behavioral, structural, technological, or cultural shifts. Identify the opportunity and your role in it. Figure out what is actually worth building.
Some public examples to illustrate what I mean:
Bryan Johnson and Blueprint: the technology now exists to reverse aging and meaningfully extend lifespan (forever, if it were up to him). Progress results from highly measured experiments on Bryan himself.
Jason Levin and Meme Lord: narratives live or die by their mass legibility and, relatedly, their virality. Memetic warfare as the new rules of engagement require digital artillery to support it.
Heck, we can even use the Creator Fund as an example: today, individuals have unprecedented influence and reach, with many becoming brands themselves. This fundamentally changes how value is created and where capital flows.
And some (stealthy) examples being pursued by creators we’re close to:
Physical therapy will follow the trajectory of mental health — evolving from specific, reactive care to holistic, proactive wellness. PT will become part of the standard healthcare stack, and infrastructure will follow.
A tidal wave of energy infrastructure is coming online, and the shortage of skilled maintenance labor to sustain it will become critical and a big opportunity.
These don’t have to be earth shattering bets like colonizing Mars, but they must be grounded in a strong thesis. Consider Poppi and SmartSweets: they recognized that consumers were rapidly becoming aware of sugar’s health risks and slowly shifting away from it. But they also knew that fighting our pesky soda and candy habits was a losing battle. Instead of trying to change existing behavior, they made indulgence far less harmful (and slightly functional). Classic pill in pudding approach.
Creators should take the time to identify the real opportunity worth building against. More importantly, they should leverage their front-row seat to 1) understand the commercial dynamics and opportunities in their niche, and 2) discover what their audience truly cares about and what problems they face. My essay about Adam Sandow describes this process. This vantage point, combined with community trust and distribution, creates the competitive advantage.
The reality is that most creator businesses are built to capitalize on attention, not to solve problems. They extract value from audiences rather than create it. The creators who break this mold — who develop a hypothesis about how the world will work and build against it — will be the ones who create meaningful companies. The next decade will be defined not by who has the biggest following, but by who uses their platform to identify and solve real problems.
— Megan
P.S. for inspiration on trends and insights / where the world might be going, check out UTA’s CultureIQ report from October — it’s a fun read! h/t Steph Smith