Top New York Creator Economy Startups Helping Influencers Make Money

• As the creator economy heats up, New York has become a hub for startups serving influencers.
• From finance to media and advertising, the city is home to a number of creator-adjacent industries.
• Insider compiled a list of 14 New York-based startups shaping the creator economy.

With content houses like the Hype House and creator hot spots like BOA and the Saddle Ranch Chophouse, Los Angeles is often seen as the hub of the creator economy.

But when it comes to creator economy startups, New York is giving the City of Angels and the San Francisco Bay Area a run for their money. In the last year, investors have poured hundreds of millions of dollars into New York-based creator economy startups. 

“Being in New York, what it’s really offered us is maybe a little bit of a different perspective on the space,” said Mike Donoghue, CEO of the text-marketing firm Subtext. “If you are in LA and you are in and around the various hype houses and that type of thing, it’s a little bit easier to get sucked into the glitz and glamour and sheen of the creator economy.”

A number of New York’s creator economy startups are adjacent to the finance or media and advertising spaces, given those industries’ prominence in the city.

Subtext, for example, grew out of media giant Advance Local’s New York-based media and tech incubator, the Alpha Group. Trading.TV, a

streaming

platform for finance influencers that allows users to trade stocks within its app, was started by a former equity trader and analyst who previously worked at Barclays, Morgan Stanley, and Goldman Sachs.

For Lumanu, a financial management platform for creators, being in New York offers access to a rapidly evolving network of talent and tech.

“My being based in NYC is critical due to the mix of creators, fintech, and crypto,” Tony Tran, Lumanu’s cofounder, told Insider. “It’s also an incredibly diverse city with many opportunities to talk to creators of all different ethos.” 

Curastory, meanwhile, taps into New York’s more traditional media and

advertising landscape

. Its founder, Tiffany Kelly, worked at ESPN as a content data scientist before launching the company, which connects video creators to brands, and then allows them to film and edit ads on its platform.

“New York is the media and advertising capital of the world,” Kelly told Insider. For Kelly, the creator economy goes hand in hand with advertising, because ads and brand partnerships are the main source of creator revenue.

“I wouldn’t be anywhere but New York building a creator economy company,” Kelly said.

Insider compiled a list of the top creator economy startups born and bred in the New York area, based on our own reporting, nominations we received, and conversations with industry experts. We considered factors like customer adoption, fundraising success, and a company’s contributions to the creator economy. This list does not include

influencer-marketing

firms, agencies, and creator economy networking groups.

Here are the 14 leading creator economy startups in New York City, listed in alphabetical order: