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The Information’s Women in Tech, Media and Finance Summit is back October 28-29 in Napa Valley. As AI reshapes business, markets swing wildly, and political instability grows, WTF brings together bold women leading through uncertainty to navigate change and shape what’s next. Reserve your spot. Happy Thursday! Creator management firms help creators ink brand deals, but they typically don’t also have production facilities to help creators launch projects, such as recurring shows made for YouTube or TikTok. Scott Dunn and Chris Gera are taking a different approach with their new startup Unicorn, which is part talent management firm and part content studio. The two co-founders, who officially launched the company earlier this month, split the ownership rights of the shows 50-50 as well as revenue, such as from YouTube ads and brand deals, with the creator of the show. “It’s not a volume game. We want to bet big on fewer talent,” Dunn said in an interview. So far, the New York-based startup has launched an interview show called “Chicken Show” and a dating show called “The Daddy Academy,” with six others in the works. Both show concepts were based on types of content that got consistently high engagement on the creators’ online channels. For example, the “Chicken Show” series was born out of viral videos creator Dave Roffe was making on his social media accounts, under the name Old Jewish Men of New York, that involved “doing crazy rotisserie chicken shenanigans in a Costco,” Dunn said. That show is a counter-culture spoof on popular YouTube shows “Hot Ones” and “Chicken Shop Date” that involve interviews with celebrities and other guests. “Chicken Show” launched three months ago and has amassed more than 7 million impressions and 15,000 followers so far. Unicorn is focused on launching longer-form shows on YouTube, where income from ad revenue is most consistent and audience loyalty is stronger than on short-form apps like TikTok. Unicorn has a studio in Brooklyn with custom sets for each show, which Dunn thinks is key as a lot of creators, especially video podcasters, rent out studio spaces that look the same. “It’s the same microphones. It’s the same aesthetic and backdrop. It’s just like the people changing in those chairs,” Dunn said, which makes it harder to create a unique brand. The startup recently raised $900,000 in seed funding led by Powerhouse Capital, which it will use to expand its team beyond the two of them and hire video editors, producers and writers. Dunn also wants to hire a president to oversee business operations and a head of sales by the end of the year. The concept speaks to the growing popularity of serial shows on social media, made by individual creators as well as social media studios like Mad Realities, which produces a popular TikTok series called Bodega Cats. It’s also a recognition that creators need production resources and financing to make these projects a success. Dunn previously was vice president of talent and business development at Doing Things Media, a venture-backed meme conglomerate, where he helped create the popular web series and accounts Recess Therapy and Bob Does Sports. Gera has been a producer for Doing Things, BuzzFeed and Comedy Central. Another one of Unicorn’s clients is Bryan Reisberg, who has built a business around his Instagram-famous corgi Maxine, which could be a model for other creators who sign with Unicorn. Little Chonk, a company Dunn co-founded with Reisberg that sells dog backpacks and other items like water bottles, is now separately raising $2 million in funding from VCs, after previously raising about $1.3 million in funding from friends and family. The pet brand has plans to expand into new products such as supplements and treats, which result in more frequent, repeat purchases than a backpack. A creator’s show on social media also gives a natural place to promote any products they develop. The company is thinking about “how do we build something on our own and use this show as a dynamic promotional tool to integrate that product or service and push out a thing that we now have a real stake in,” Dunn said. Here’s what else is going on… Food creator Nick DiGiovanni, whom we profiled last year, was ranked as the 2nd most popular arts podcast in the U.S. on Thursday, according to Spotify’s podcasting charts, which update daily. But he doesn’t produce a podcast. Instead, DiGiovanni has been uploading his popular YouTube videos to Spotify since January, the newsletter publication The Ankler reported. This seems to be part of Spotify’s efforts to increase the amount of video content on its streaming service. In a Spotify pitch deck published by The Ankler, the company said it invites creators to “bring your video to Spotify,” without a mention of podcasts. Spotify is also offering some creators who are new to the platform audience development support, such as promotion on its homepage, and up to $5,000 in Spotify ad credits, per The Ankler. Spotify declined to comment to The Information. See The Information’s Creator Economy Database for an exclusive list of private companies and their investors. TikTok and Instagram are working on versions of their apps for smart TVs following the success of YouTube in the living room, Kalley and I report. YouTube raised the minimum age to be able to livestream to 16. The company also said that livestreams featuring 13 to 15 year olds without a visible adult may have their live chat disabled and their account may temporarily lose access to live chat or other features. Previously, 13-year-olds had to be accompanied by an adult to livestream. Suno, a music AI startup that allows people to create songs from text descriptions, acquired WavTool, which offers AI music editing tools. Terms of the deal were not disclosed. Streamlabs, a livestreaming software service owned by Logitech, launched a new feature to help streamers strike brand sponsorship deals. Substack, Pocket.watch and LTK were among the creator economy startups named to Time’s list of the 100 Most Influential Companies in 2025. TikTok parent company ByteDance, Meta Platforms and LinkedIn were also on the list. Aaron Sorkin is developing a sequel to “The Social Network” for Sony Pictures about Meta Platforms, based on the Wall Street Journal’s series of articles known as “The Facebook Files.” Kim Kardashian may play the villain in Amazon MGM’s upcoming “Bratz” movie, Variety reported. Brian Johnson, better known online as the “Liver King,” was arrested in Austin after he made alleged threats against podcaster Joe Rogan on his Instagram profile, according to Gizmodo. The Streamer Prom, a gala event with more than 50 major streamers and creators garnered about 4.49 million hours of live watch time across Twitch channels that covered it. Thank you for reading the Creator Economy Newsletter! I’d love your feedback, ideas and tips: kaya@theinformation.com. If you think someone else might enjoy this newsletter, please pass it forward or they can sign up here: https://www.theinformation.com/newsletters/creator-economy
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