Hi, this is Amanda Perelli and welcome back to Insider Influencers, our weekly rundown on the business of influencers, creators, and social-media platforms. Sign up for the newsletter here.
From left: Nigel Egrari, co-founder of Moment House, Dan Dan Li, CEO of Popshop Live, Delane Parnell, founder of PlayVS, and Christina Heller, CEO of Metastage. Moment House; Popshop Live; PlayVS; Metastage; Samantha Lee/Insider
Watch out Silicon Valley: Los Angeles is becoming a hotspot for new startups. In the last year alone, investors have poured $195 million into LA companies transforming entertainment and media.
My colleagues Dan Whateley and JP Mangalindan narrowed down the top 15 startups reimagining the entertainment and tech worlds, and spoke to their leaders about their missions - as well as why launching in LA is a "no-brainer," as Moment House CEO Arjun Mehta said.
Here's a look at the list:
Creator+ is a new production studio and streaming platform producing premium video-on-demand films starring content creators and traditional Hollywood talent.
Thanks to the change in name, image, and likeness rules, student-athletes are cashing in and transitioning their stardom from the field to social media.
Dan Whateley and I spoke with industry insiders who said NIL campaigns on Twitter and Instagram have centered on niche audiences and local brands, given that the more than 460,000 college athletes across the US largely have smaller audiences than social-media stars.
Many local retailers are pairing in-person appearances with Instagram and Twitter posts to drive attention to their businesses. Take Ohio State quarterback C.J. Stroud, who recently promoted a partnership with a local Chevrolet auto dealer on Instagram.
"Those small deals, while they may be small in monetary value, they may go a very long ways for these student-athletes," said Christopher Aumueller, the CEO of the athlete-marketing and brand development upstart FanWord.
Melissa Ong, known by her username "chunkysdead," is a comedian on TikTok who has over 3.8 million followers.
But it wasn't always that way. In 2020, she made a major career shift, leaving her job as a UX developer at Google after facing burnout from the intense pressure.
Kylie Robison spoke with Ong, who shared the story of her rise to fame on TikTok, and how her new social-media career has turned out to be more rewarding than her gig at Google.
A look at what Ong had to say:
Her new career is not only more fulfilling, Ong told Insider, but also more lucrative.
She's been able to secure paid partnerships across TikTok and Instagram with brands like Mercari and FabFitFun.
When she's not on TikTok, she's been working on a TV pitch about a sociopath who gets a job at Google.
Insider Intelligence projects that the number of paid digital audio subscribers in the US will hit 121.9 million this year, up 11% from 2020. Check out the full report here.
The latest viral trend has users analyzing the Netflix film, which stars TikTok creator Addison Rae. The movie is a Gen-Z remake of the popular 1999 film "She's All That" - and has a dismal audience score of 26% on Rotten Tomatoes.
And before you go, check out the top trending songs on TikTok this week to add to your playlist. The data was collected by UTA IQ, the research, analytics, and digital strategy division of United Talent Agency.
