Good morning. Hollywood strikes, cage fights, and creators turning into AI. As Labor Day approaches this weekend, what do you think has been the biggest creator story of the summer? Hit reply and let us know!

— Hannah Doyle & Nate Graber-Lipperman

Financial services company Karat recently launched a new service for its creator clients: helping facilitate angel investing. Karat now allows creators to browse partner startups in the platform's network and connect with founders who complement their content. The founder and the creator then take it from there.

So far, the program has led to three investment deals, Karat Head of Product Shubha Raghvendra told us.

Why’d Karat launch the program? Last fall, the company held its second “Supernova” event—think Shark Tank, but with founders pitching to finance creator Graham Stephan instead of Mark Cuban. Following that event, the excitement around creators angel investing inspired Karat’s latest offering, Raghvendra said.

“Creators are always looking for ways to make their money work for them…and we were getting a lot of interest in this piece of, ‘Hey, can I trade my distribution for equity?’” she told us.

Zoom out: As part of the rollout for this new program, Karat plans to develop resources to educate its community of creators on the risks of angel investing—after all, 90% of startups do fail.

Still, Raghvendra referenced a conversation with a veteran creator that convinced her of the value in angel investing for creators who don’t have the time or interest to start a business outside of their content.

“[This creator] said, ‘I’m always looking at the horizon [of my career] as a creator…and there’s two ways to outrun that horizon. One is to make my own brand, like a Chamberlain Coffee. And the other is to spread my bets across multiple brands,’” Raghvendra told us.

Nearly two years of work and over 100 videos can be hard to walk away from, but that’s what travel creators Vicky and Josh did in February as they shut down their original channel to start fresh with a new one.

And since then? The pair’s new channel has easily topped subscribers and views from their old channel in just two months, according to education creator Matt Koval.

The case for starting fresh:

The results: Their first video received 150,000 views without any promotion to their previous audience, and in just six weeks, their new channel surpassed the number of subs they got in two years on their old channel.

Gaming creators like QTCinderella, Typical Gamer, and Sykkuno will team up with and compete against NFL football players including Fred Warner and Amon-Ra St. Brown in a video game showdown starting next week for the second season of Tuesday Night Gaming (TNG). Rapper Quavo will be hosting the first episode.

The details: The show, made in partnership with the NFL and Enthusiast Gaming, pairs creators with football players to compete in video games including (but not limited to) Madden NFL. TNG will stream live weekly on YouTube starting next Tuesday, with streamers Esfand and Will Neff hosting a weekly pre-show on Mondays through Twitch.

Zoom out: YouTube is using TNG to drum up excitement for its upcoming NFL Sunday Ticket package, while the NFL is forging its own connections with YouTube creators. Already, the league has partnered on content with AMP and RDCWorld in a flag football match and former college athlete Donald “Deestroying” De La Haye in his 1ON1 series.

The content we’re looking forward to reading, watching, and listening to this weekend.

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