Danny Lowney’s Sixteenth, a leading UK talent management company, has combined operations with Whalar Group, marking a strategic expansion that strengthens Creator career development. The partnership unites Sixteenth’s proven track record in building sustainable Creator careers with Whalar’s worldwide presence and technical infrastructure, forming one of the industry’s most comprehensive management platforms.

Building a New Model for Creator Success

“I’ve always been obsessed with helping people fulfill their potential,” Danny explains, reflecting on his motivation for founding Sixteenth in 2017. 

“When I mix that with my obsession with Creators, that ends up being how I show up professionally – wanting to find ways of having Creators get the most out of this special opportunity they have,” he adds.

Since its inception, Sixteenth has focused on long-term success rather than viral moments. The company name reflects its core mission: extending beyond the traditional “15 minutes of fame.”

“If the constraint in 2017 was the dominant criticism of influencers that ‘They’ll never last, they’ll just be a flash in the pan,’ that was the shackles, that was the chain that was locking in Creators from being taken seriously,” Danny says.

The combination with Whalar Group developed naturally, beginning with a lunch meeting where Danny presented an entirely different concept focused on preventing Creator burnout. 

“It came about organically,” Danny shares. “It was on no one’s agenda for this to happen.”

The companies discovered their natural alignment through leadership discussions. 

“Sometimes, when you’re looking in the whites of someone’s eyes, you get each other, and sometimes you just don’t. And for some reason, it was just effortless,” Danny recalls. “At first, it was like neither side was taking it very seriously. It was more of just an idea that we were kicking around. But every conversation would feel more like we should do this.”

Maximizing Market Opportunities

The Sixteenth-Whalar Group partnership creates immediate benefits through cross-market possibilities. 

“If you’re a talent in the UK, you automatically have a baked-in leading team in the U.S. and vice versa,” Danny explains. This growth enables Creators to generate revenue across different English-speaking markets without diminishing their primary audience.

“It’s really good for business because although, on average, most brand campaigns want to be working in their local market with local talent, it does mean that you’re expanding your opportunity to make money as a Creator,” Danny elaborates. “If I’m a UK creator, I could do a project in the U.S. that might not be competing for space on my UK inventory. You’re freeing up more inventory in a different country.”

The increased scale also generates new creative possibilities. 

“We’ve already seen the creative cross-pollination,” Danny shares. “It might be that Rick [Bhatia], the talent manager in L.A., has a certain talent, and they have a content format that’s working well. He might spot an opportunity for one of our UK Creators to be inspired by that content format in a non-competitive market. It’s the same language, so lots of it will translate, but it has a different culture and marketplace.”

By 2030, Danny envisions the company becoming the industry standard in Creator management. “I would have expected by 2024 that there would have been a single leader in the Creator representation world, but as I look at the market today, I don’t believe there is one,” he observes. “I can see a world in 2030 where a company has figured out the Creator management thing… I think it’s on us now to make that happen.”

The partnership with Whalar provides enhanced insight into brand collaborations through Whalar’s full-service Creator agency. 

“While there’s a massive separation of church and state, just having a team that is aware of the insights and kind of feedback from brands and what’s important to brands makes us better, it makes us better-informed talent managers,” Danny notes.

For him, watching the immediate results has brought personal satisfaction. 

“What excites me the most has been [seeing] incredible U.S. Creators I admire from afar change their email to Sixteenth. On a personal level, [that was] pretty special,” Danny shares. “From Joe Ando-Hirsh to Ashley Alexander to Drew Ruffalo, [seeing] these top-tier Creators who are in a category of their own become part of the Sixteenth family has been special.”

Technical Advancement Through Partnership

Access to Whalar Group’s technology ecosystem, particularly the Foam platform, provides significant advantages. 

“The developments with Foam, the SaaS platform that Foam is building, are substantial,” Danny explains. “That will be available for every management company, but the proximity to them and the mutually beneficial relationship are great.”

The integration offers what Danny describes as a “secret sauce” – leveraging both companies’ strengths while maintaining distinct identities. 

“They have unfettered access to our global talent management team now and all those insights, and we also have unfettered access to them, their CPO, and their development team,” he says. “It’s almost like we have this extended tech team and product team that is not in our organization but is heavily incentivized to listen to what we’re saying because it will help them build a better product.”

This collaboration extends beyond technology. “By joining forces with Whalar Group, our world gets much bigger. Not just from a resource perspective, but from a reach perspective, even geographically, our world gets bigger at Sixteenth,” Danny notes. “The idea of what’s possible -e our ceiling on our thinking – just becomes much higher.”

Danny views this expanded perspective as essential for advising Creators. “When we do our job well as managers, we’re thought partners,” he explains. “Through conversation and work, we challenge our Creators to think bigger. And so if we have a certain limit on our thinking, we can only be such a good thought partner. We can be a more effective thought partner if that limit is higher.”

Prioritizing Personal Connections

The two companies emphasize relationship-building over rushed operational changes. 

“The first things that started happening in terms of integration were socials, spending time together, and being in the same room together,” Danny explains. “All that stuff has taken precedence over any kind of efficiencies or business operations integrating at all.”

Danny Lowney & Victoria Bachan (formerly President of Whalar Talent, the new president of  Sixteenth)
 

The process focuses on clear communication with team members. 

“We’ve been delicate in that we’ve been making sure to be very conscientious of what we are communicating,” Danny adds. “But what’s been more important is that we are leaning on transparency and over-communication so that our team is taken along the journey, and they know the steps.”

This measured approach applies to operational changes. “We’re taking it slowly,” Danny points out. “We’re delaying all of that stuff so that we can see the two entities, allow them to mold as human beings, and then, as and when we see opportunities for efficiencies or to align processes, we’ll do it.”

The companies share similar cultures, facilitating integration. 

“This is the beauty of merging with a company that’s not a corporate old company, but a similarly aged and similarly scrappy company,” Danny notes. “We can make integrations happen because they make sense, not because of inertia or because we just want to do things the way they’re done in the corporate world.”

Early results show promise. “We’re already seeing the creative cross-pollination,” Danny shares. “When some U.S. talent managers visited London, all that was happening in the room in real-time. They shared concepts with UK talent managers and vice versa. That increases our inventory as a company. It’s like we’re a shop; it’s like we’re adding innovative products to our shelves.”

Reshaping Brand-Creator Relationships

Danny advocates for earlier Creator involvement in brand processes. 

“I want to see Creators taken seriously at the very earliest stages, not just of how do we amplify this one marketing message… but maybe at the product level,” he explains. “Before it gets to the advertising outer layers to be involved at the product development level.”

He points to examples where Sixteenth Creators serve as advisors for major brands like Tangle Teezer and L’Oréal, influencing product decisions rather than just marketing. 

“If you’re paying an influencer 20K for a project, there are insights; there’s knowledge they have, there’s like the finger on the pulse. All of that stuff is valuable. And if you’re just paying for them at the bottom of the funnel, you’re just wasting money,” Danny notes. “To truly invite them to the table earlier on and to listen, I think that would be a huge win-win-win for the brands, the Creator, and the consumer.”

Sixteenth’s strategy centers on providing exceptional support for talent managers. 

“Talent management is a hard gig. It’s often thankless, and it’s very hard work. And you’re so attached to your work, you’re so invested in it,” Danny acknowledges. “If we can create an environment where we are the best place for a talent manager to do their business and work, that will be incredibly powerful.”

Looking toward the future, Danny maintains his core focus: “I want to continue to find ways to push Creators to be their best selves, to be happier, to be more commercially successful. I don’t think those two things are separate. I think they’re intertwined.”