Give us equity or forever hold your piece.

Creators are taking influential roles at companies they helped build. What’s behind the trend and what can creators do with these opportunities?

IN TODAY’S ISSUE:

• Why 100Thieves Made One of Their Best Players a Co-Owner

• Why Dunkin’s D’Amelio Double Dip is Risky

• What’s Emma Chamberlain’s Next Chapter?

Why 100 Thieves Made One of Their Best Players a Co-Owner

Esports companies bet big on top talent.

100Thieves, the esports creator collective commonly referred to as “The Supreme of Esports” was valued at $190 million by Forbes. Last week they announced that the newest co-owners to get a piece of that pie are some of the groups most powerful creators, Courage and 29-year-old Valkyrae.

Their role is to:

• Sign new talent → Creators trust Creators when it comes to joining forces and signing deals. Lebron recruited Anthony Davis to the Lakers, and Valkyrae will have the same effect for 100Thieves, especially as a role model for female creators.

• Build the 100Thieves brand → to last forever and sell anything it wants.

Most importantly this deal is about the 100Thieves brand. In a world where people follow people, not brands, this move secures that their most valuable players are committed to building the team and not just the name on the back of the jersey. As co-owners, Courage, and Valkyrae will benefit from the growth and work with talent agency CAA to bring on new talent and build out new products and shows for 100Thieves.

OUR TAKE

People follow people, not brands, but if you want them to follow a brand, make sure the creators that drive the most value are incentivized to keep doing it. Brands and collectives should put infrastructure in place to avoid breaking up the group before it reaches its full potential.

Charli D’Amelio and Dunkin Launch Merch

The collab gives Dunkin more views and Charli more SKUs

The Corporate Creator Merch Drop is here to stay.

We read recently that Travis Scott made 15 million off of his merch collab with McDonald’s in 2020.

Someone at Dunkin must have been paying attention because Dunkin launched a new line of merch last week in partnership with Charli D’Amelio. It’s the third activation of their partnership and the first off-the-menu offering.

• Dunkin gets: digital distribution to Charli’s young audience who are new to coffee looking to declare their allegiance.

• Charli gets: physical distribution and an introduction to new audiences. Charli’s manager also gets a highly successful case study to take to the next corporate client. App downloads and cold brew purchases have surged for Dunkin after each announcement.

OUR TAKE

Whether you’re the biggest creator on the platform or just getting going, collaborations don’t always have to take place online or be between two creators. Physical events and gatherings are just around the corner so get your strategy ready.

What’s Emma Chamberlain’s Next Chapter?

Hitting 10m subscribers unlocks business opportunities.

Some creators spend months and millions of dollars to make a single video on YouTube. Others like Emma just go out for coffee and take a camera. She’s one of a few creators on the YouTube platform succeeding with simplicity and an emphasis on stripped-down relatability.

As Emma’s channel grows, so does her list of business opportunities:

• Chamberlain Coffee → is a healthy direct-to-consumer coffee business now, but there’s a clear path to becoming a full-blown coffee brand like Blue Bottle Coffee (sold to Nestle valuing it at $700m). Starbucks became a household name because it became the place to hang out outside of work. Expanding the Chamberlain Coffee brand to physical locations where young people hang out could make it a Gen Z hotspot.

• Bad Habit → is a cosmetics brand that operates with Emma as a licensing deal. As creative director at the company, Emma is a pivotal part of the brand without needing to run it.

• PacSun → With Emma’s creative direction and the brand’s ad placement across all of her media properties, she could single-handedly make PacSun cool again.

OUR TAKE

Emma has been able to breathe new life into businesses like PacSun and Bad Habit because of her ability to relate to her audience. Social media is a conversation and her 20 minute videos are just that. Emma doesn’t do anything extravagant or extraordinary, but that’s the point. She’s relatable, and being relatable is what every business needs.

🔥 In Other News

• Tech people become big creators with parody of their employers

• Netflix canceled The Patriot Act, but Hasan Minhaj soldiers on with YouTube

• Another NYT writer goes solo with Substack

• Law and policy media brand, Cafe Studios, owned by former Attorney General Preet Bharara, is being acquired by Vox.

• Night Media signs juicy deal with Guga Foods, plans two product launches.

👋🏼 👋🏾 Hey from Colin and Samir

Samir: This week we interviewed Nas Daily, a creator who made 1000 videos in a 1000 days on Facebook. He now has 20 million followers, makes $8 million a year and raised $10 for his new creator startup. Check out the full interview on YouTube and Spotify.

Colin: If you made it this far, you either read the whole thing, or opened the email and scrolled straight to the bottom. Either way, show us you made it by replying to this email. If you have a topic we should cover in our Friday issue go ahead and include it in the reply.