Happy Halloween!

After competing on "MasterChef" in 2019, Nick DiGiovanni started posting videos on YouTube, including an elaborate dessert he planned if he'd made it to the finale, and on TikTok where he started going viral for making mini gourmet meals for his pet hamster, Pesto.  

Now 28, he turned that TV appearance and initial momentum on social media into a full-time career as a creator. While he makes most of his money from YouTube's ad-revenue sharing program, he's also been able to leverage his success into a kitchen supplies business called Osmo. 

He started out by selling premium salt, but expanded into selling other kitchen essentials, including olive oil and electric salt and pepper grinders. Osmo's "flakey pink Himalayan salt" costs $12.99, while a "creamy pesto sea salt" is priced at $18.99. He's sold more than 1 million jars of Osmo salt, and his products are in about 3,500 Walmart stores. He hopes to expand to other retailers. 

When "making videos online, the only thing you can really do is satisfy people visually," DiGiovanni said in an interview. While producing salt "may not seem like anything crazy," he said he saw an opportunity to shake up the seasoning industry. "I felt like no one had made it exciting for quite some time." 

DiGiovanni's success here shows how creators are honing their niches and expertise to build a new generation of upstart consumer brands, extending their influence and income offline. 

I'd expect to see more of these creator-led brands emerge. And, unlike startups, they're likely to bootstrap this growth. DiGiovanni raised a small amount of funding from family and other creators in the food and beverage industry for Osmo, though didn't disclose how much. 

In other respects, DiGiovanni's income looks a lot like other creators. Beyond YouTube revenue, which he "pumps right back into the videos," he also makes money through partnering with sponsors such as Dunkin' and Nutella and a clothing line called Happy Potato, which sells hoodies and sweatshirts and donates to food banks when customers make a purchase.

DiGiovanni says he spends the most time creating videos for YouTube because he prefers longer videos. "It gives me so much time and so much flexibility to literally film and do whatever you want," he said. Shorter clips "can be really fun and they can get crazy viewership, but you can't really do that much there." 

TikTok, which kicked off social platforms' embrace of short videos, in the last year has been encouraging more creators to produce long-form videos. But creators like DiGiovanni provide a window into the challenges the app, which was built around swiping quickly through vertical clips, faces. 

"As consumers and viewers we're all trained to watch longer pieces of content in a horizontal format," he said. "That horizontal format on YouTube works so well because people have been watching TV like that forever."

Here's what else is going on…

Deals & Debuts

See The Information's Creator Economy Database for an exclusive list of private companies and their investors.

Lucky Hand Capital, a Miami-based fintech firm focused on providing financial solutions for creators, announced a $100 million credit fund that will lend capital to influencers based on their future earnings. 

Spotter, a Los Angeles-based creator startup that provides upfront financing and other tools to YouTubers, raised funding from Amazon. The companies didn't disclose the size of the investment. 

Modash, an Estonia-based influencer marketing startup focused on niche creators, raised $12 million in Series A funding led by henQ, a Dutch VC firm. 

Hummingbirds, a software startup connecting local creators with national and local brands to create city-specific content on social media, announced it raised more than $10 million in seed funding from investors including Allos Ventures, Ground Game and M25 Fund.

TheSoul Publishing, a digital content production and talent management firm, announced the acquisition of a majority stake in Mediacube, a provider of fintech tools, such as early payments, to YouTube and Facebook creators in more than 130 countries. Terms of the deal were not disclosed. 

MagicLinks, an influencer marketing firm, launched the MagicLinks CreatorCare Rewards Program, which offers a monthly stipend toward creators' personal health insurance coverage. 

Substack announced that its app is now the number one source of all subscriptions on the newsletter publishing platform. Previously, recommendations were Substack's largest growth driver, the company said. 

Creator Corner

Charli D'Amelio made her debut on Broadway this week as a dancer in the Tony-nominated musical "& Juliet."

People on the Move

Zoë Schiffer is leaving independent tech newsletter Platformer, founded by reporter Casey Newton, to join Wired as director of business and industry. There, she will oversee business coverage in the U.S. and U.K. and co-host Wired's new tech podcast "Uncanny Valley," which launched Thursday.

Court Docket

Apple privately warned TikTok that the short-form video app hosted content not suitable for users under 17, according to communications revealed as part of a lawsuit. The iPhone maker also urged the company to raise its recommended age from 12 and up to 17 and older.

Overheard

"The first 10 years of my career were just so fast," said pop singer Shawn Mendes in an interview with The New York Times. "I never was able to catch up to the moment."

At age 15, he catapulted to fame on six-second video app Vine and then saw chart-topping success as an artist. But in 2022, he canceled a multi-million dollar international tour, saying his mental health was at a "breaking point." Now, he's returning to the spotlight. On November 15, Mendes will release a new album called "Shawn."  

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

What We're Reading

An Instagram-Famous Dog Inspired Their $500,000 Home Renovation

How Brands Can Navigate The Murky World of Online Streaming

Mark Zuckerberg Has Stopped Talking About Meta's Election Plans

New From Our Reporters

Recommended Newsletter

Upcoming Events

Thursday, November 14 —AI Impact on the IPO Market

Join Anita Ramaswamy and a panel of experts from NYSE, Citi and J.P. Morgan to hear their forecasts for IPOs in the months ahead. Request an invite — space is limited.

More details