The Guggenheim family is arguably best known for their art museum in New York. Now one of the heirs of the family is making a new bet on the future of culture: creators.
Dillon Lawson-Johnston, the great-great-grandson of Solomon R. Guggenheim, and media executive Criswell Fiordalis launched a new creator economy fund through their investment firm Guggenheim Brothers Media. As Lawson-Johnston told us: he wants to expand “the family’s influence into these modern cultural frontiers.”
The fund, which is in partnership with Abu-Dhabi based Ethmar International Holding, was announced at the 1 Billion Followers Summit in Dubai last week.
The company plans to raise up to $75 million for the fund, Fiordalis told us in an interview at the creator economy conference. He expects to allocate that money to about 20 to 25 companies, while one-third of the fund will be reserved for follow-on investments. Initial check sizes will range from $1 million to $5 million, with the majority of investments in the US.
Guggenheim Brothers Media isn’t focusing on investing in individual creators. Instead, it’s most interested in companies that provide the infrastructure to help creators grow and build their businesses, such as companies offering production capabilities or analytics technology.
“The majority of the companies we’re pursuing… have seen some problem in the creative community and they’re trying to solve it with the business that they’re building,” Fiordalis said. The other common thread is that these companies must already have revenue coming in.
Guggenheim Brothers Media has separately invested in talent management company Stapleview and The Lighthouse, a physical campus for creators, which is also our business partner.
But investing in creator economy startups has had a mixed track record. We asked Fiordalis what lessons he’s taken from the 2021 funding frenzy that left many investors feeling burned after their bets didn’t pan out.
“Capital at that time was very cheap. Big investors had a bunch of cash on their balance sheet that they needed to deploy,” said Fiordalis. “It’s great that money came into the space, but you don’t want it to come in and go away. You want to build a sustainable relationship with investors.”
We also spoke to Fiordalis about when founders should raise funding, how he thinks about key-person risk when evaluating companies and why they chose to partner with an Abu Dhabi-based company. You can watch the full interview in our latest podcast episode below or on Spotify—or listen wherever you get your podcasts.
In other news…
The Creator Income Gap
The creator economy is starting to resemble Hollywood—and not only because creators are striking deals with streamers and studios.
As more money is flowing into creator marketing, dollars are not being distributed evenly. That means the biggest stars are getting richer, while smaller creators are struggling. Brand sponsorships are generally the top revenue source for creators.
The top 1% of creators earned 21% of ad payments from brands and agencies in 2025, up from 18% in 2024 and 15% in 2023, according to new data from CreatorIQ, which analyzed 65,000 payments made through its software.
The top 10% earned 62% of those payments, while 90% of creators accounted for just 38% of total ad payment volume last year. The average salary of creators who received these payments in 2025 was just $11,400, per the report.
“We’re starting to see similar dynamics as in other industries like entertainment, where top players rake in substantial sums, leaving smaller ones to compete for the leftovers,” Jasmine told Business Insider on Wednesday. (Jasmine also wrote a report on the growing creator pay gap back in August).
The pay gap has worsened in part as top name creators like Alix Earle and Mark Rober have started scoring bigger deals like TV campaigns and Netflix shows, which often come with bigger paychecks. The entrance of big advertisers has also contributed to the income disparity, as they generally want to write fewer, larger checks, instead of spreading their budget out among many small creators.
There are also now more creators than ever! That’s heightening competition for brand deals, especially for new or emerging creators who don’t yet have a proven track record of driving results.
The Round Up
Apple is taking on Adobe with Apple Creator Studio, a new subscription bundle of creative apps including Final Cut Pro, costing $12.99 per month.
Ro Khanna, a Democratic representative from California introduced a “Creator Bill of Rights” on Thursday. The set of policy recommendations addresses a range of issues from AI to healthcare to more predictable revenue-sharing offerings for creators. It’s worth noting that such a House resolution won’t suddenly change US law, but is more likely to start a conversation on the topic in Congress. It was created in partnership with creator economy experts Shira Lazar and Lisandra Vasquez.
Spotify is raising the prices of its ad-free subscription plans in the US, Estonia and Latvia over the next month. In the US, individual plans will increase by $1 to $12.99 per month. That comes roughly six months after the latest price hike in the US in June and after the company issued weak guidance for fourth quarter revenue and premium subscriptions, per CNBC.
TikTok launched “Footy Corner” in the UK. The new creator-led soccer series on TikTok Live is the latest in a string of new sports features on the app. Read more about how the creator economy is preparing for a big year of sports in Tuesday’s newsletter.
It’s 2016 again! Creators and social media users are posting nostalgic photos from ten years ago, including ones of them overlaid with Snapchat’s viral dog filter and in fashion popular at the time, such as lace-up tops and chokers. Searches on TikTok for "2016" have jumped by more than 450% and more than 55 million videos have been created using TikTok’s filter named after the year, the BBC reported. We’re here for it!
Deals, Deals, Deals
Netflix announced its first original video podcasts. The shows from comedian Pete Davidson and former football player Michael Irvin are coming to the streaming site later this month. Other sports-focused podcasts have already debuted on Netflix, including “The Bill Simmons Podcast” and Barstool Sports’ “Pardon My Take.”
Netflix isn’t the only one inking deals for video podcasts. CNN signed a deal with podcast network Lemonada to bring video episodes from some of its shows, including podcasts hosted by Hasan Minaj and Mandy Patinkin, to the CNN app. Unlike the Netflix deals, Lemonada’s shows will still be available on YouTube.
Holywater, a Ukrainian media company that owns microdrama app My Drama, raised $22 million in Series A funding led by European private equity firm Horizon Capital. Read our previous newsletter about an upcoming musical microdrama starring influencer Hannah Stocking, which will premiere on My Drama early this year.
Fixated, a talent management firm, acquired gamer-focused talent agency Ellify, which represents YouTube, Minecraft and Roblox creators. The acquisition follows Fixated’s announcement last month that it raised $50 million.
NowThis, a social media-focused media company founded in 2012, acquired Salary Transparent Street. The short-form video series is hosted by Hannah Williams, who asks people how much money they really make. Williams said her two-person team was limited with resources and time and NowThis will help the brand grow and reach new audiences.
Creator Moves
Matthew McConaughey trademarked himself saying his signature catchphrase “Alright, alright, alright” as a novel way to fight AI deepfakes in court.
Chiara Ferragni, a prominent Italian fashion influencer, was acquitted of aggravated fraud, ending a long-running scandal involving a charity Christmas cake promotion.
Little Chonk, the pet brand from creator Bryan Reisberg and his Instagram-famous corgi Maxine, launched dog supplements, starting with hips and joints. Reisberg says existing options on the market have confusing ingredients. He previously launched a line of dog backpacks.
Katie Gatti Tassin moved her newsletter “Money with Katie” to Substack, buying back the IP rights from media publisher Morning Brew, where she previously worked. “I always suspected building my home within someone else’s mansion was always going to be a long and critical—but ultimately temporary—development strategy,” she wrote in a newsletter outlining her decision.
ICYMI: YouTuber Jon Youshaei produced a new docuseries about MrBeast and how he brought his reality TV show “Beast Games” to life for Amazon. The docuseries premiered—where else—on Prime Video last week. We got the early scoop on the show in December.
Talent Tracker
Bridget Ferris joined the partnerships team at voice AI startup ElevenLabs. Previously, she was an agent and executive at United Talent Agency in music brand partnerships and strategy.
Lindsey Gamble joined influencer marketing firm Izea as vice president of creator strategy and innovation. Previously, he was an independent consultant as well as an associate director of influencer innovation at Later.
Underscore Talent announced 20 new promotions and 44 new hires over the past year, including promoting Mallory Llewellyn to partner of beauty, fashion and lifestyle and elevating Nadi Filsoof to partner of entertainment.
