When Dipesh Pattni decided to pivot his marketing agency toward TikTok Live, the move looked like a gamble. For more than a decade, he had built a career on digital performance metrics: pay-per-click campaigns, search optimization, and conversion funnels. But when a former colleague introduced him to the fast-growing world of live streaming, he saw something familiar hidden inside the chaos of real-time video: data.

“I realized we could bring years of digital marketing discipline into a space that was still unstructured,” Dipesh says. “Live streaming needed systems, not just content. It needed education.”

Today, that conviction underpins GravitasQ, the London-based live-streaming agency and TikTok Live partner that Dipesh founded in 2018 originally as a digital performance agency. In 2022, they pivoted to LIVE, bringing on co-founder and TikTok Live creator Ben Toye. Today, they are building what Dipesh calls a “sustainable creator ecosystem,” designed to help newcomers become consistent, financially independent streamers rather than social-media hopefuls chasing virality.

From SEO Spreadsheets to Live Streaming

Before launching GravitasQ, Dipesh spent years climbing through the performance-marketing ranks at global media group PHD, where he oversaw digital response and search engine optimization (SEO) teams. The agency background shaped his data-driven instincts: test, measure, iterate. That mindset now forms the foundation of GravitasQ’s training programs.

The company’s live-streaming pivot began when Dipesh’s network introduced him to TikTok Live, still a fledgling feature at the time. “When we first looked at it, the content needed a lot of work,” he recalls. “But we could see what was happening in Asia. Live streaming was already huge there. We thought, ‘This is going to move west.’”

Dipesh partnered with Toye, one of the platform’s early live creators, to fuse two skill sets: Toye’s on-camera experience and Dipesh’s marketing infrastructure. “We’ve combined real traditional digital-marketing skills with Ben’s knowledge and best practices about live, creating a unique approach to accelerate Creators that are serious about LIVE,” Dipesh says. “That’s our secret sauce.”

Ben Toye & Dipesh Pattni

Systemizing the Creator Journey

GravitasQ operates like a cross between a talent accelerator and an educational platform. There is a team of 68 staff members, currently scaling to 72 by the end of the year. New creators enter through its Pathway Program, a seven-day training track that covers the fundamentals of TikTok Live, from audience engagement to stream setup. Each participant is assigned a Pathway Manager who reviews progress daily.

After completion, creators work one-on-one with Creator Managers who provide feedback based on live-stream observations. “They’ll join a session, watch how you interact, and then share what to improve,” Dipesh explains. “Maybe you’re not asking enough questions, or not giving viewers a reason to become part of your community. We want you to get better every week.”

At advanced stages, Senior Creator Managers focus on analytics: tracking follower growth, community engagement, and monetization targets. GravitasQ also offers specialized courses, including public-speaking sessions led by a TEDx coach and gaming-specific tutorials.

The results? According to Dipesh, “managed creators are 17 times more likely to succeed than unmanaged creators. When you have community, education, and accountability around you, everything changes,” he says.

Convincing creators to treat live streaming seriously hasn’t been simple. “Most people still think of social media as posting short videos and getting brand deals,” Dipesh says. “When we tell them they need to go Live regularly and be consistent, that’s a big commitment.”

Unlike short-form video platforms, TikTok Live rewards frequency and duration. Regular streams can drive exponential algorithmic boosts. “You can do really well within 60 to 90 days,” Dipesh says. “But you’ve got to put in the hours and follow best practices.”

Early Days for Brands

If creator adoption requires education, so does brand participation. Dipesh believes marketers are still only beginning to understand live streaming’s commercial potential. “We’re going to see a lot more brands come to the table,” he says. “But it’s still early days.”

The obstacle, he explains, is habit. “Brands know how to work with influencers who post polished videos. Live is different; it’s unscripted. You can’t edit out what happens. But that’s also where the power is: you get real-time interaction. Top LIVE streamers can deliver 50,000-150,000 impressions for a brand in a single LIVE stream, and this can cost brands a lot less than paid ad campaigns.”

He points to Live commerce examples in Asia, where creators demonstrate products and answer viewer questions instantly. “You can’t get that on traditional social media,” Dipesh says. “That’s why we think it’s only a matter of time before Western brands catch up.”

Monetization

On TikTok Live, creators earn through gifting, subscriptions, and brand collaborations. Audience members send digital gifts that convert into real currency or pay monthly to access exclusive content. Dipesh argues that this model shifts power away from traditional gatekeepers.

“Creators don’t need brand deals to get off the ground anymore,” he says. “They can build income directly from their community.” Top creators in GravitasQ earn between $10k-$100,000 a month. “We’ve had singers who used to chase gigs now performing for their online community every night,” Dipesh says. “Even psychic mediums are doing Live readings.”

That direct-to-audience relationship mirrors larger shifts across the creator economy, where platforms like Patreon and Twitch have normalized community-driven revenue. TikTok Live’s addition of monetization features, combined with GravitasQ’s structured training, further lowers the barrier.

Lessons from the Live Frontier

Running a live-streaming network presents unique operational challenges. Streams happen around the clock, often across continents. “It’s not a nine-to-five thing,” Dipesh says. “A good streamer can go live four to six hours a day, sometimes late into the night.”

Managing that scale requires process discipline, something Dipesh believes traditional influencer agencies often overlook. “Traditional influencer agencies focus on creators who already have traction,” he says. “We start earlier, with people who’ve never been live before. For that to work, everything must be systemized – training, analytics, support.”

Dipesh highlights how his agency’s emphasis on process has helped hundreds of new creators achieve monetization milestones within months. “Without systems, growth becomes guesswork,” he says. “With them, you can replicate success.”

Innovation and Internal Tools

GravitasQ’s growth has been steady rather than explosive, shaped by a deliberate focus on infrastructure. The company recently launched its own mobile app on iOS and Android, centralizing training materials, community features, and creator analytics. “A new member can now join, track progress, and get guidance all in one place,” Dipesh says.

The team is also building proprietary tools to deepen data analysis. “We already share performance stats, but we want to go further,” he adds. “How can we help a creator understand why their views dropped last week or what time their audience is most active? The more insight we give them, the faster they grow.”

Campaigns remain a cornerstone of the agency’s community strategy. GravitasQ has competitions and prizes, including a visit to TikTok’s New York HQ, where selected creators will livestream on-site. “We’ve done it in LA before,” Dipesh says. “Now it’s New York’s turn.”

The Horizon

Despite industry accolades—TikTok U.S.’s “Top Creator Network for Incubating Rookies,” and “Top Creator Network for Management of Top Streamers” and “Creator Network of the Year 2025” in the UK—Dipesh says GravitasQ is still only beginning to scale. “We want to close the gap between new creators joining and becoming successful,” he says. “If it takes 60 to 90 days today, can we get it down to 30?”

Long-term, the company plans to expand its brand-partnership arm, connecting advertisers directly with trained live creators. “Brands are starting to ask how they can be part of this,” he says. “We want to give them that bridge.”

He envisions a maturing ecosystem where creators, agencies, and brands collaborate fluidly. “Our goal,” he says, “is to make live streaming for creators sustainable and a breakthrough into new career opportunities for new dedicated creators.”

Dipesh believes that sustainability hinges on infrastructure, the same lesson he learned in his years optimizing ad campaigns. “We’re building the ecosystem around the creator,” he says. “If we can give them the tools, education, and support to make this a real career, then we’re doing our job.”

For him, the transition from spreadsheets to streaming feeds hasn’t dulled his data-driven instincts; it’s simply redirected them. “We’ve always said that digital marketing principles don’t go out of date. You just apply them to new platforms,” he says. “Live is the next one.”

And as live commerce and creator education advance, Dipesh is betting on structure over spontaneity. “In three years,” he says, “I want us to have truly mastered how to coach creators, to help them grow faster, be more sustainable, and create long-term success for the creator economy, including bridging that gap between LIVE creators and Brands on more creative-led partnerships.” 

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