For many, being an influencer isn’t enough anymore. Now you need to be a CEO too.
That’s the pivot reshaping the creator economy in recent years, as traditional revenue streams change and digital creators transform into entrepreneurs. This new class of business-minded creators is responding by building commercial empires that transcend their original content channels.
“We’re no longer in the era of influencers, we’re in the era of infrastructure,” Georgie Holt, CEO of media and investment company FlightStory, tells Net Influencer. “Creators aren’t just creators anymore. They’re operators. Brand builders. Investors. And in some cases, they’re outperforming global media companies in speed, scale, and audience loyalty.”
This isn’t just the next phase, it’s a reimagining of what it means to be a digital creator. As platforms like TikTok face uncertainty (evidenced by its brief disappearance in January 2025) and algorithm changes regularly impacting content, forward-thinking creators are building businesses they control completely. The influencer economy hasn’t vanished, but it’s being complemented by something more sustainable: creator entrepreneurship.
From Platform Dependence to Business Independence
The shift is driven by both opportunity and necessity. Kajabi’s “2025 State of Creator Commerce” report reveals that fear around platform volatility has doubled in just 12 months, pushing creators to diversify beyond content alone. But rather than viewing this as a defensive retreat, many creators see it as a natural progression.
“The creator economy was built on creators, not for them,” states the Kajabi report. “Now creators are leveling up from content makers to sophisticated business owners.”
Steven Bartlett, founder of FlightStory and host of “The Diary of a CEO” podcast, embodies this archetype. After dropping out of Manchester Metropolitan University, Bartlett built Social Chain into a publicly traded company valued in the hundreds of millions. Now he’s leveraging that success into new ventures like FlightStory, demonstrating how content creation can serve as the launchpad rather than the destination.
“Creators don’t want one-off deals. They want equity and long-term growth,” notes Georgie. “This shift isn’t a threat to brands, it’s an unlock. If you can collaborate at the level they’re building, you don’t just get reach. You get relevance, resonance, and results from that compound.”
This raises an intriguing question that sits at the heart of the creator economy: are creators building businesses because they want to, or because market forces demand it? The answer appears to be both – necessity and opportunity working in tandem to drive innovation.
Audience Ownership
For creators who successfully navigate the transition to entrepreneurship, the benefits extend beyond just financial gains. Kajabi reports entrepreneurial creators earn 25% more than their social-first counterparts, while those building on owned platforms see earnings up to 200% higher. Beyond income, these creator-CEOs report 42% better work-life balance and 49% greater creative freedom.
The distinction lies in asset building versus attention renting. Emma Chamberlain’s coffee company operates in physical retail space that doesn’t vanish with a platform policy update. MrBeast’s chocolate bars maintain distribution channels independent of his content schedule.
“For brands, the playbook needs rewriting. You’re not collaborating with talent to borrow their audience, you’re partnering with a company in the making,” says Georgie.
This entrepreneurial approach is resonating with consumers, too. Adobe’s recent research reveals 56% of consumers now purchase from creator-led brands, with a quarter having actively switched loyalty from traditional brands to creator ventures. Customer satisfaction rates for creator brands demonstrate that these businesses deliver genuine value beyond creator fame.
The Entrepreneurial Learning Curve
The path from creator to entrepreneur isn’t without challenges. For every Chamberlain Coffee stocked in Target, many creator product lines struggle to gain traction. Building a sustainable business requires different skills than building an audience, from supply chain management to financial planning.
This creates an interesting tension within the creator economy: while entrepreneurship offers greater stability and upside, it also demands a steeper learning curve. Some incredibly talented creators may lack business acumen or interest, while others thrive in the expanded role.
“One of the biggest mistakes brands still make is treating creators like a media channel, not a business partner,” notes Christiana Brenton, CRO of FlightStory. “This shows up as overly prescriptive briefs, transactional requests, and a general lack of creative trust.”
This partnership approach acknowledges a key insight: successful creator-entrepreneurs rarely build alone. Behind every creator-CEO stands an infrastructure of business partners, operations experts, and strategic advisors. The mythology of the solo creator-turned-mogul obscures the reality of ecosystem building.
Technology as Both Challenge and Enabler
Technology plays a dual role in creators’ transformation – both pushing creators toward entrepreneurship and enabling their success.
Platform algorithms have become unpredictable partners, capable of dramatically impacting a creator’s reach overnight. According to Epidemic Sound’s research, 94% of creators are actively preparing for platform disruption, highlighting the strategic thinking now required to build a sustainable creator business.
Simultaneously, AI tools are accelerating the creator-to-entrepreneur transition. Epidemic Sound finds 91% of creators now use AI in their content creation process, up 7% from 2024. Full-time creators push this number to 96%, demonstrating how automation has become essential for scaling beyond individual output limitations.
“In 2025, brands will prioritize tighter collaboration between media and content teams,” states Christiana. “The traditional silos separating paid media execution and content creation are becoming obsolete as the value of integrated strategies comes into focus. Authentic, creator-driven storytelling paired with precision-targeted media will emerge as the most effective way to engage audiences and drive measurable business outcomes.”
Two Paths
As more creators venture into entrepreneurial waters, two complementary futures are emerging:
In one direction, creator-entrepreneurs are pioneering new business formation models in terms of how companies launch and scale. Traditional startups are increasingly adopting creator tactics, while creators are building increasingly sophisticated business operations. The distinction between content and commerce continues to dissolve.
Simultaneously, we’re seeing specialization and ecosystem development. Not every creator needs or wants to be a CEO, and new infrastructure is emerging to support various creator business models, from pure content creation to full-scale entrepreneurship, with numerous hybrid approaches between these poles.
What’s certain is that the creator economy of 2025 offers more pathways to success than its 2020 predecessor.
For creators, the question is shifting from “How many followers do you have?” to “What are you building with them?”
Dragomir is a Serbian freelance blog writer and translator. He is passionate about covering insightful stories and exploring topics such as influencer marketing, the creator economy, technology, business, and cyber fraud.
For many, being an influencer isn’t enough anymore. Now you need to be a CEO too.
That’s the pivot reshaping the creator economy in recent years, as traditional revenue streams change and digital creators transform into entrepreneurs. This new class of business-minded creators is responding by building commercial empires that transcend their original content channels.
“We’re no longer in the era of influencers, we’re in the era of infrastructure,” Georgie Holt, CEO of media and investment company FlightStory, tells Net Influencer. “Creators aren’t just creators anymore. They’re operators. Brand builders. Investors. And in some cases, they’re outperforming global media companies in speed, scale, and audience loyalty.”
This isn’t just the next phase, it’s a reimagining of what it means to be a digital creator. As platforms like TikTok face uncertainty (evidenced by its brief disappearance in January 2025) and algorithm changes regularly impacting content, forward-thinking creators are building businesses they control completely. The influencer economy hasn’t vanished, but it’s being complemented by something more sustainable: creator entrepreneurship.
From Platform Dependence to Business Independence
The shift is driven by both opportunity and necessity. Kajabi’s “2025 State of Creator Commerce” report reveals that fear around platform volatility has doubled in just 12 months, pushing creators to diversify beyond content alone. But rather than viewing this as a defensive retreat, many creators see it as a natural progression.
“The creator economy was built on creators, not for them,” states the Kajabi report. “Now creators are leveling up from content makers to sophisticated business owners.”
Steven Bartlett, founder of FlightStory and host of “The Diary of a CEO” podcast, embodies this archetype. After dropping out of Manchester Metropolitan University, Bartlett built Social Chain into a publicly traded company valued in the hundreds of millions. Now he’s leveraging that success into new ventures like FlightStory, demonstrating how content creation can serve as the launchpad rather than the destination.
“Creators don’t want one-off deals. They want equity and long-term growth,” notes Georgie. “This shift isn’t a threat to brands, it’s an unlock. If you can collaborate at the level they’re building, you don’t just get reach. You get relevance, resonance, and results from that compound.”
This raises an intriguing question that sits at the heart of the creator economy: are creators building businesses because they want to, or because market forces demand it? The answer appears to be both – necessity and opportunity working in tandem to drive innovation.
Audience Ownership
For creators who successfully navigate the transition to entrepreneurship, the benefits extend beyond just financial gains. Kajabi reports entrepreneurial creators earn 25% more than their social-first counterparts, while those building on owned platforms see earnings up to 200% higher. Beyond income, these creator-CEOs report 42% better work-life balance and 49% greater creative freedom.
The distinction lies in asset building versus attention renting. Emma Chamberlain’s coffee company operates in physical retail space that doesn’t vanish with a platform policy update. MrBeast’s chocolate bars maintain distribution channels independent of his content schedule.
“For brands, the playbook needs rewriting. You’re not collaborating with talent to borrow their audience, you’re partnering with a company in the making,” says Georgie.
This entrepreneurial approach is resonating with consumers, too. Adobe’s recent research reveals 56% of consumers now purchase from creator-led brands, with a quarter having actively switched loyalty from traditional brands to creator ventures. Customer satisfaction rates for creator brands demonstrate that these businesses deliver genuine value beyond creator fame.
The Entrepreneurial Learning Curve
The path from creator to entrepreneur isn’t without challenges. For every Chamberlain Coffee stocked in Target, many creator product lines struggle to gain traction. Building a sustainable business requires different skills than building an audience, from supply chain management to financial planning.
This creates an interesting tension within the creator economy: while entrepreneurship offers greater stability and upside, it also demands a steeper learning curve. Some incredibly talented creators may lack business acumen or interest, while others thrive in the expanded role.
“One of the biggest mistakes brands still make is treating creators like a media channel, not a business partner,” notes Christiana Brenton, CRO of FlightStory. “This shows up as overly prescriptive briefs, transactional requests, and a general lack of creative trust.”
This partnership approach acknowledges a key insight: successful creator-entrepreneurs rarely build alone. Behind every creator-CEO stands an infrastructure of business partners, operations experts, and strategic advisors. The mythology of the solo creator-turned-mogul obscures the reality of ecosystem building.
Technology as Both Challenge and Enabler
Technology plays a dual role in creators’ transformation – both pushing creators toward entrepreneurship and enabling their success.
Platform algorithms have become unpredictable partners, capable of dramatically impacting a creator’s reach overnight. According to Epidemic Sound’s research, 94% of creators are actively preparing for platform disruption, highlighting the strategic thinking now required to build a sustainable creator business.
Simultaneously, AI tools are accelerating the creator-to-entrepreneur transition. Epidemic Sound finds 91% of creators now use AI in their content creation process, up 7% from 2024. Full-time creators push this number to 96%, demonstrating how automation has become essential for scaling beyond individual output limitations.
“In 2025, brands will prioritize tighter collaboration between media and content teams,” states Christiana. “The traditional silos separating paid media execution and content creation are becoming obsolete as the value of integrated strategies comes into focus. Authentic, creator-driven storytelling paired with precision-targeted media will emerge as the most effective way to engage audiences and drive measurable business outcomes.”
Two Paths
As more creators venture into entrepreneurial waters, two complementary futures are emerging:
In one direction, creator-entrepreneurs are pioneering new business formation models in terms of how companies launch and scale. Traditional startups are increasingly adopting creator tactics, while creators are building increasingly sophisticated business operations. The distinction between content and commerce continues to dissolve.
Simultaneously, we’re seeing specialization and ecosystem development. Not every creator needs or wants to be a CEO, and new infrastructure is emerging to support various creator business models, from pure content creation to full-scale entrepreneurship, with numerous hybrid approaches between these poles.
What’s certain is that the creator economy of 2025 offers more pathways to success than its 2020 predecessor.
For creators, the question is shifting from “How many followers do you have?” to “What are you building with them?”
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