Founded 2021 in Chattanooga by Alex Elsea, Jess Flack, and Brandon Gambucci. $5M seed from Uncork Capital, Dec 2021. Clients: Disney, Lyft, Amazon, Netflix. Acquired by Humanz on Dec 18, 2025.
19M+ TikTok followers (@dermdoctor). Board-certified dermatologist practicing in North Carolina. Co-host of the Dermatology Podcast. The category-anchor for the medical-credentialed creator tier at maximum scale.
7M+ TikTok followers. Hawaii-based, UTA-represented, founder of Selfless by Hyram (launched Aug 2021 with The INKEY List). The reference case that anchored the ingredient-literacy creator category.
16M+ TikTok followers. New England accent, drugstore-adjacent beauty positioning, WME representation, and the January 2023 L'Oréal Telescopic Lift Mascara controversy that became a FTC disclosure reference case.
Cosette Rinab — USC PR grad, 2.5M+ followers — just became ACC's first Creator-in-Residence. Inside the shift from renting creators to embedding them in strategy.
Southeast Asia (700M population) runs on TikTok monoculture. 150M+ active users. Revenue: TikTok Creator Fund (minimal) + livestream gifts + e-commerce affiliate (Shopee/Lazada). Platform ban risk is existential.
Brazil is the second-largest YouTube market and fastest-growing TikTok market outside Asia. Felipe Neto ($20M+ annually, Felipe Neto Produções, Play9). Casimiro on Twitch with CazéTV. Luísa Sonza on the music tier. The revenue architecture, the ECAD regulatory layer, and the AI citation shift now defining the market.
AI engines now serve queries from everywhere. A creator who dominates India doesn't crack the US top 100. Platform dominance shifts by country. Citation infrastructure is radically different. The creator economy is not one market—it's five.
The 2026 gaming influencer playbook — Twitch, YouTube Gaming, Kick, TikTok. Deal structures, exclusivity, FTC compliance, and how creators sell games.
Heinz's "Heinz vs. Everyone" TikTok campaign turned disappointment with off-brand ketchup into a category conversation, proving offense beats defense for category leaders.
