Why Some Creators Break Through and Most Don't

After 100+ conversations with creators on Building Value, the same few patterns keep showing up.

Keynote, 45 to 60 minutes. For creator platforms, brand and marketing teams, and creator conferences.

Most platforms and brands still pick creators on follower count and volume. Neither predicts who'll still be building in five years.

I've seen this from both sides. At Packagd we built for creators and got it wrong before we got it right. At SuperBam I worked the IP-protection side and saw which creators had built something worth protecting. In between came a hundred-plus Building Value conversations, from a corporate chef who found TikTok to a YouTuber's long climb to 100K subscribers. The same few patterns separate who breaks through, and none of them are about production value.

What the room leaves with

The few patterns that separate creators who break through
Why most creator-economy advice misses them
Three questions to ask before you back a creator

How it runs

Two products nobody asked for

Building for creators at Packagd before listening to any of them, and what it cost.
What changed when we started listening

Launching Unboxed Daily and working inside creator culture every day. The pivot that led to the Meta acquisition.
The patterns that repeat

What a hundred-plus Building Value conversations have in common.
Working the other side

What protecting creator IP at SuperBam showed me about which creators had built something worth protecting.
Three questions

The test from The Lens, for platforms and brands deciding who to back.

Where it comes from

Packagd, acquired by Meta, 2017 to 2023

Co-founded a company built for creators, and learned to listen to them the hard way.
Read more →
Building Value

100+ conversations with creators, and the source material for this talk. The three questions are written up in The Lens.
Read more →
SuperBam, CPO then interim CEO, 2024 to 2026

Ran product on the IP-protection side of the creator economy.
Read more →