What social media platforms are to content creators, Jacob Shwirtz is to startups in the creator economy – a bearer of opportunities. With his transformative roles at MTV Networks and collaborations with leading creators, Jacob has been instrumental in guiding creator economy startups in developing sustainable businesses that extend beyond platform dependencies.

“These days, I’m taking my vast experience and rolodex to assist creators, influencers, celebrities, investors, entrepreneurs, and brands,” Jacob explains. “I’m connecting the dots across the creator ecosystem, shepherding partnership efforts, crafting content marketing strategies, and building teams that can scale.”

Direct Creator-Fan Connections Transform Business Models

Jacob sees significant potential in creators establishing direct relationships with their audiences, moving beyond social platform intermediaries and algorithmic constraints.

“What excites me the most is the creator-fan relationship, disintermediating the social platforms, the algorithms, and not relying on that,” Jacob explains. “Creators are thirsty and hungry for that more direct relationship with their fans. And fans absolutely want closer relationships with the talent.”

However, Jacob acknowledges that the current system of creator-fan interaction through social platforms creates notable barriers. “The DM section on a creator’s Instagram account is anarchy and not something they can manage,” he points out, adding that this gap creates opportunities for innovative solutions.

He highlights platforms like COY Creator that enable talent to develop their own platforms rather than promoting external services. “Instead of a talent promoting a Cameo or Patreon link, the promotion of which the algorithms also limit on social platforms, the talent just promotes their own site,” Jacob notes.

Breaking Free from Platform Dependencies

Jacob identifies creators’ reliance on social platforms and algorithms as a significant challenge. “It’s amazing how creative a creator can be when they’re not obsessed or worried about the algorithm,” he observes. “YouTube doesn’t have a pause button. If you, as a YouTuber, go on vacation for two weeks, you might lose your account growth and many of your positive metrics.”

This creates what Jacob describes as “an insane level of mental anxiety and stress to keep on that hamster wheel.” He adds that the demand for constant engagement takes a toll on creators: “We see burnout and impaired mental wellness from worrying about the algorithm.”

The industry veteran also notes that platform dependence also restricts business growth potential. “If you want to write a book and promote it, you’re still hoping that the algorithm will promote it, even though it’s different kinds of content compared to what you’ve done until now,” Jacob notes. “It’s crazy that you would need to be so stressed about the algorithm of reaching your own fans.”

Building Sustainable Creator Businesses

For creators aiming to establish lasting businesses, Jacob emphasizes moving beyond viral success to create enduring value. He outlines several essential strategies:

Direct Audience Control

Jacob believes that success begins with maintaining direct control over audience relationships. Social media follower numbers alone no longer sustain careers. “It’s crazy to have millions of fans and not know much about them, not have any way to communicate with them,” he says, recommending creators to prioritize email lists and direct communication channels.

Strategic Platform Presence

Today’s creator success demands thoughtful presence across multiple platforms while, Jacob says, maintaining balance. “Creators who are interested in being more and more professional, doing this long term, doing this for their lives, really need to think about diversifying platforms,” he advises.

Effective Revenue Generation

While many creators rush toward merchandise or product launches, Jacob advocates starting with straightforward revenue streams. “Many creators are starting businesses and launching products, but they’re not all going to succeed,” he notes. 

His recommendation focuses on direct fan monetization: “Before jumping to that, actually figure out a way to monetize your fan relationships. From getting 1% of your super fans to pay $10 a month, creators can make a lot of money, especially if they’re doing it in their own environments on their own websites.”

Strategic Business Development

Creating a sustainable creator business requires thinking beyond content to build lasting infrastructure. Jacob highlights sustainable growth: “I mentioned COY Creator, and there are other tools that creators can and should be looking at as a core part of what they’re doing. As they’re growing, they should be looking at the actual assets they own and control.”

The focus, according to Jacob, lies in taking control of your creator business, owning the data on their fans, and shifting their monetization from ads or brand deals, that start to feel inauthentic, to other avenues.

Transforming Brand-Creator Partnerships

In brand collaborations, Jacob advocates for authentic, long-term partnerships. “Brands working with influencers in the wrong way will face challenges over pushback and negative sentiment,” he warns. “The way to get around that is really to work with creators closely, intimately. A real partnership means creating content together.”

He critiques brands treating creators as distribution channels: “I see so many campaigns where maybe the brand just sends the assets to the creators and asks them to post it, treating them like a media channel for distribution as opposed to actual creative people with their own brains, souls, and audience relationships.”

Brand partnerships have shifted significantly, with Jacob noting, “it’s not the golden age of brand partnerships like a few years ago when influencers were getting paid exorbitantly for certain brand deals.”

Current conditions require sophisticated approaches. “Companies focus more on data and return on investment,” he notes. “They’re not just blindly writing checks and saying, ‘You have a million followers; that means we’re going to pay you $10,000 a post.’ It’s a lot more analytical in terms of the data.”

For emerging companies, Jacob suggests strategic engagement: “If you’re active, a part of the community, and sharing the story and the beliefs of the company, then maybe you should partner with smaller creators who resonate with that and are willing to be a part of it.”

Platform Changes and Data Control

With shifts anticipated for major platforms like TikTok, Jacob stresses creators’ need to maintain content and audience relationship control. “Download your data, save everything, try to move people over,” he advises. “It’s amazing how many creators upload hundreds of videos over the last several years and might not actually have those video files to do anything with in the future.”

Related to this is also the growing concerns over cyber-security. Jacob explains, “It seems like every other week we see a major celebrity or brand getting hacked and their social accounts used to promote crypto scams.” The lack of customer service from the platforms, paired with people’s dependency on access to their social accounts, means that creators are more and more susceptible to malicious actors. Jacob recommends, “startups like Spikerz are worth following as they focus on providing broad cybersecurity services to creators and beyond.”

AI’s Impact on Creator Content

Jacob recognizes AI’s dual role in the creator economy. “We see more AI and virtual creators, as well as more and more content powered by it,” he notes. However, he anticipates “a backlash where the average consumers online are going to look for the places where content clearly isn’t AI.”

AI-generated content affects audience engagement. “If you’re active on LinkedIn, you see so many articles such as ‘Top five interviewing tips’ or ‘Top five leadership tips.’ Do we really need to see that after 20 years of LinkedIn being around?” Jacob posits.

He believes this trend creates concerning dynamics: “Sometimes, it feels like people use AI to write that content just for the algorithm to read it. It’s just robots writing content for other robots to read.” This environment makes authentic, human-created content increasingly valuable. “When you see a post that shows someone’s soul and thoughtfulness and is actually written by a human, I think we appreciate that much more.”

Creating Sustainable Success

As creator opportunities expand, Jacob’s insights highlight the importance of building sustainable, platform-independent businesses that prioritize authentic audience relationships over algorithmic engagement. For brands and platforms working with creators, the message emphasizes treating creators as creative partners, not distribution channels.

“Brands need to remember that creators are human, not robots, not distribution channels, not ad buys at scale,” Jacob concludes. “And creators need to remember that they can say no. If they’re serious, if they want this to be their career and not just become someone who burns out after a few months after going viral or making some money from a few brands, it’s okay to say no.”