In his work with creators, product strategist Lee Simpson recognized a pattern: growth alone was no longer enough. To build sustainable careers, creators needed business acumen.

He identified three barriers preventing creators from accessing professional help: a discovery problem (“creators don’t know where to find experts”), a trust deficit (too many self-proclaimed “experts” with unproven skills), and “professional awkwardness” (creators feeling they should already know the answers or solve problems themselves, often due to lack of corporate experience).

His answer? Friends We Trust, a platform that connects content creators with vetted business experts who can help them build viable businesses. Founded in 2024 as the expert marketplace of Los Angeles-based Creator Playground, Friends We Trust focuses on mid-tier creators who have built audiences but struggle to transform their following into stable, long-term businesses that extend beyond brand deals.

“The future of the creator economy belongs to independent creators who have the tools to build, grow, and sustain their businesses on their own terms,” says Lee, who spent six months interviewing creators before launching Friends We Trust. “For the average mid-tier creator, brand deals aren’t going to last forever.”

The platform now serves creators by connecting them with approximately 40 specialists in areas like YouTube strategy, membership platforms, and business finances.

How Friends We Trust Works

When creators sign up for Friends We Trust, they complete an onboarding survey about their business status and goals. Lee’s team then analyzes their needs, often discovering that creators require different expertise than they initially thought.

“A lot of creators come to us thinking that they need one thing, and actually we end up matching them with an expert who might be in an area that they might not have expected,” Lee explains. “We get a lot of creators who come to us asking questions about whether or not they need a manager. Management is definitely one option for some creators, but maybe we can prepare you with a brand sponsorship coach, or maybe we can pair you with a content strategist.”

After identifying suitable experts, the platform creates personalized briefs for both parties to facilitate a productive first meeting. The creator receives background on the expert’s relevant experience, along with suggested questions to ask, while the expert receives context about the creator’s specific challenges.

“When we match a creator with an expert, we send the expert an information sheet about the creator,” Lee explains. “The expert gets to know the problems the creator is currently facing, some ways we think they can help, and some expected outputs.” This preparation eliminates the awkwardness that often prevents creators from seeking professional help.

“The feedback we’ve had from creators has been like, ‘I would never have thought to reach out to this person for help because I wouldn’t have known what questions to ask,'” says Lee. “This preparation material has really helped unlock some of those conversations.”

Beyond Management

While Lee acknowledges that managers excel at negotiating brand deals and packaging creators for marketing opportunities, he sees limitations in that approach.

“Managers are really good at negotiating brand deals and packaging a bunch of creators together, going out to agencies and marketing companies,” Lee notes. “But, in my experience, what managers are a lot less capable of is taking a creator and saying, ‘How do we come up with a business idea? How do we turn this into something more sustainable?'”

This distinction points to Lee’s broader mission of helping creators develop independence through business ownership rather than becoming “extensions of some company’s marketing efforts.” Lee believes creators need support in developing businesses that generate revenue directly from their audiences, rather than relying solely on brand sponsorships, and that’s what his company aims to help them with.

“We’re more interested in how we can get creators generating revenue of their own, getting that money directly from their audience or directly from their fans,” he says.

A Vetted Expert Network

Unlike open marketplaces where anyone can register as an expert, Friends We Trust maintains strict quality control to address the trust issues creators face.

“Everybody we have on the network at the moment is someone we’ve reached out to, or they’ve been recommended by someone else on the network,” Lee explains. “We have a vetting process where we look at the work that person has done and understand that they have the abilities they claim to have.”

This focus on professionals with proven track records working with multiple creators distinguishes Friends We Trust from the common creator tendency to seek advice primarily from other successful creators.

“A lot of people look at the MrBeasts or the Colins and Samirs of this world and try to copy their blueprint,” Lee says. “What we talk to creators about is, ‘Hey, those people are definitely successful, but the success they’ve been able to achieve is really grounded in their particular set of circumstances, or being in the right place at the right time.'”

Instead, Lee advocates for working with experts who have helped multiple creators succeed: “The types of people that you should be bringing into your business are more like consultants – experts and professionals who have a proven track record in repeating that process with multiple creators.”

The Business Model

Friends We Trust operates on a straightforward business model, taking a finder’s fee from experts after successful matches. Creators don’t pay to use the service, making it accessible regardless of their career stage.

“We’re currently on a waiting list model,” Lee explains. “Creators sign up all the time, and we’re looking at that list of creators and deciding who we can help.”

The company is developing a more self-service platform, scheduled to launch in September, that will streamline the matchmaking process while maintaining the personal touch that has made their service valuable.

“I’m very interested in trying to explore how we can do as much as possible with as little as possible,” Lee says of his company-building philosophy. “That’s my ethos for building this.”

Currently focused on launching the next version of Friends We Trust, Lee also has ambitions to raise funding in early 2026 to accelerate growth. His vision includes potentially expanding into creator financing and addressing the capital constraints many creators face when trying to build businesses.

“One of the major problems a lot of creators have is that their capital is liquid,” Lee says. “They get this money from brands and sponsorship deals, but they don’t always have large amounts of money to build things of their own.”

Building for Creator Independence

Lee’s ultimate vision for Creator Playground transcends connecting creators with experts or cataloging tools. He aims to foster independence for creators by helping them build businesses with long-term sustainability.

“Our North Stars are about ownership and independence,” Lee explains. “I think it’s easy for creators to get stuck feeling like performers or extensions of some company’s marketing efforts.”

This independence-focused mission grew from Lee’s observations at VidCon, where he noticed how creator conversations had changed from gaining followers to building businesses. He saw an opportunity to apply his expertise in zero-to-one product development – the process of turning nothing (zero) into something (one) – to help creators develop original business ideas.

“If you dedicate a bit of time and energy to going through some processes, then we believe that creators can come up with far more interesting, far more viable ideas,” Lee says. “You don’t always have to launch a snack brand, you don’t always have to launch an energy drink.”

“I do think that given the right team, you could work out how to turn that audience into a viable market,” Lee says.

Subscribe to Our Newsletter

Check Out Our Podcast