It was quite the week for Alex Cooper.
First, the “Call Her Daddy” host nabbed a $500 million valuation for her media company Unwell. Then, news broke that the beverage arm of her business will shut down, setting off another wave of headlines.
But what struck us was a detail Cooper revealed in an interview on CNBC that didn’t get much attention: Her creative agency, which launched in October, will financially rival her podcasting business by the end of next year.
Paired with the shutdown of Unwell Beverages, it’s a telling sign of how creator companies are developing.
Even as creators have diversified their businesses, advertising is still where the big money is—and what they know best. This year, the IAB predicts that US advertisers will spend over $44 billion on creator ads. Cooper’s agency already has deals with brands like Google and Sephora. Unwell, which was founded by Cooper and her husband Matt Kaplan in 2023, says the company reaches over 100 million women every month.
The strength of the agency is also good news for Unwell as it continues to build out its business, which also includes TV and film production, other merchandise and philanthropy.
The podcasting division is so closely tied to Cooper’s personal brand, even as she’s brought other talent to the network. For Cooper to effectively scale Unwell and potentially step away in the future, the business must be able to survive without her.
Where Unwell Ranks
Unwell’s $500 million valuation is one of the highest for any creator-founded company. It sits behind MrBeast’s Beast Industries, which was valued at a whopping $5.3 billion in early 2025. Unwell is also just ahead of Steven.com, the holding company founded by podcaster Steven Bartlett, which raised funding at a $425 million valuation last year.
Unwell’s valuation came from the company’s first-ever outside investment from WTSL, a firm led by Hollywood super agent Patrick Whitesell. The total amount of funding was not disclosed.
From a PR standpoint, Cooper couldn’t have timed the news of the investment better. In recent months, Unwell has faced negative headlines over staff complaints and senior executive departures, on top of an ongoing feud between Cooper and Alix Earle, who was part of the Unwell podcast network until February 2025.
Scaling Up
Like Cooper, top creators have long been expanding beyond themselves to build holding companies, media businesses, software or physical products. As they do, many are taking on outside capital rather than continuing to self-fund their businesses.
We counted close to a dozen deals involving traditional investors and well-known creators in the past three years. Among them: MrBeast, true crime podcaster Ashley Flowers, YouTube group Dude Perfect and Earle, who raised an undisclosed amount of funding in March for her skincare brand Reale Actives.
Bartlett, meanwhile, recently used some of the funding he raised to back another creator, Maggie Sellers Reum, who hosts the “Hot Smart Rich” podcast.
Creators who take on investment are often playing a long game. Funding doesn’t just help them grow, it could also help set these creators up for an exit in the future. As we previously reported, buyers are now less interested in data like follower counts and more focused on whether a creator has multiple revenue streams that go beyond income from social platforms. (We go deeper into creator exits in this week’s podcast, publishing Thursday.)
What’s Next
Unwell plans to initially use the new funding from WTSL to expand her creative agency.
“We’re looking at some creative agencies that maybe we could acquire that already have the infrastructure… to add on to what we’ve already built,” Cooper said on CNBC, adding that the agencies it’s looking at are “more non-traditional.”
It makes sense for Cooper to focus her business on the parts that are working. Physical products are a tough business for creators, especially in the crowded beverage market. That helps explain the shutdown of Unwell beverages and why sales of Logan Paul and KSI’s Prime energy drink have fallen off a cliff.
One exception is MrBeast. Beast Industries makes more money from its chocolate business Feastables than it does from content, according to a Bloomberg report last year.
Then there’s Earle. Reale Actives reportedly hit $1 million in sales within five minutes of launching and became one of the most successful skincare brand launches ever. That shows that physical products can still result in success stories when done right.
For more on Cooper’s—and Earle’s—businesses, watch our recent video, embedded below.
The Round Up
Meta kicked off its most consequential youth safety trial yet on Tuesday, with attorneys general from California, Colorado, Kentucky and New Jersey seeking damages that could theoretically top $1 trillion. Financial fines aside, a ruling could force Meta to make major changes to Facebook and Instagram as the lawsuit claims the company knowingly designed features to be addictive to young people. Legal analysts are calling it social media’s “Big Tobacco” moment.
Watch our previous interview with California Attorney General Rob Bonta, who is co-leading the case, or read a recap of the conversation here.
YouTube will now count a view when a video starts to play (or replay) for long-form videos, Shorts and livestreams. The update puts it in line with how views are counted on platforms like Instagram and X, helping creators and brands better compare performance across platforms.
TikTok is considering a new feature that would allow users to send money through direct messages, Bloomberg reported.
Reddit is testing new video and audio posts with select communities. The company has experimented with video before, including a short-form video feed, but it’s taking another whack at it, presumably to better compete with Instagram and TikTok. Separately, Reddit joined the S&P 500 on Tuesday.
Deals, Deals, Deals
The Motion Picture Association reached an agreement with TikTok’s parent company ByteDance to restrict studio IP in AI video and images. The deal comes after the company’s AI video generator Seedance 2.0 created videos that appeared to repurpose copyrighted material from major Hollywood studios, including a deepfake fight between Tom Cruise and Brad Pitt.
Spotify announced a licensing agreement with Kobalt, an independent music publisher, for Spotify’s upcoming tool that will allow fans to create covers and remixes of songs from participating songwriters.
Digital Brand Architects acquired creator management firm V1sion Ventures, which represents creators such as Keith Lee, Leigh Soriano and Joy Burnett. Terms of the deal were not disclosed. DBA is owned by UTA.
Filmhub, a TV and film distribution and sales company, is partnering with talent management company UnderCurrent. As part of the deal, FilmHub will help creators license their content and negotiate film and TV deals. It’s particularly interested in working with creators in the supernatural and true crime genres.
Fuse Create, a Toronto-based creative agency, acquired a strategic stake in influencer marketing firm Sway Group, which was founded in 2011.
Soundbite
We will never use AI in any capacity to disrupt creators. And they’re not disruptable anyway.”
Sagan is the CEO and founder of San Francisco-based Architect Capital, which took a 16% stake in OnlyFans in May. The deal valued the adult content platform at $3 billion.
His comments, in an interview with The Information, come as other social networks grapple with how to deal with AI-generated content—and as creators are trying to figure out their own AI strategies. That includes everything from how they use AI tools to how to best show up in AI search results.
Creator Moves
🍼Alex Cooper, who is pregnant, has been surprising her fans by fulfilling their baby registries over the past week. On Tuesday, Cooper’s Unwell and baby registry company Babylist announced a partnership to expand that effort along with Pampers.
This seems to be an emerging trend? Campbell Puckett, a creator better known as Pookie, bought an item from a fan’s baby registry, according to an Instagram Story she posted on Tuesday. The move is helping Cooper garner some goodwill amid recent controversies. And it’s a cute way for creators, especially those who are moms themselves, to engage with fans!
Jared Freid is premiering his second comedy special on Netflix called “The Family Plan” on September 1. Freid also hosts the podcast “U Up?” with Betches co-founder Jordana Abraham. Read more about Betches and its creator strategy here.
Hasan Piker, a left-wing streamer, is preparing a defamation suit against conservative commentator Scott Jennings and his radio show Salem Media, media newsletter Status reported. Jennings, who is also a CNN commentator, aired an edited compilation of clips from Piker’s livestream claiming the creator wanted to bring back lynchings of Black people. Fact-checking site Snopes has debunked the video.
Anthony Albanese, the Australian prime minister, apologized after playing a game of “shag, marry, date” on a comedy podcast called “Bush Deep,” PodNews reported. Politicians have increasingly been appearing on podcasts to reach younger audiences—and get a softer interview. But these appearances can also backfire.
