Savvy Creators Make Awesome Products and Build Great Brands

I talk about audience-first product development and company-building for audience-first entrepreneurs. I work at the intersection of creators (who build an audience first) and Silicon Valley startups (who build products first) — sharing the best knowledge and lessons from both worlds.

Creators are forever negotiating brand deals or gaming unpredictable algorithms for ad revenue, but they have a built-in audience. Silicon Valley founders, on the other hand, are completely dependent on venture capital money because they have no audience (which often runs out).

Creators know how to build (and have an audience), but not products. Silicon Valley starts, runs, and scales products, brands, and services but can’t build an audience profitably.

See the issue?

Creators get stuck not maximizing their net worth or long-term financial security (or FU money, in Zuck speak), and 99% of Silicon Valley founders toil away for years and walk away with almost nothing (even if they sell their company).

Creator-founders, on the other hand, get the best from both worlds.

If you’re a creator interested in building your net worth, join other creator-founders in starting, running, and scaling owned products, brands, and services.

Creators: It’s Time to Leverage Your “Unfair Advantage”

It’s true … creators have an unfair advantage that your typical startup founder would love to have.

You have an audience. This powerful asset gives you two key benefits that make your success in creating and selling winning products almost inevitable:

• First, you have real insights from real people about what products to create. 

• Second, your existing fan base is ready, willing, and excited to buy from you.

Hi, I’m Ashley Greene. My mission with Creator to Founder is to help you grow your audience-driven business to new heights by leveraging these unique advantages.

In the seven years I’ve been advising and consulting in Silicon Valley startups, I've seen hundreds of founders get millions from venture capitalists (“VCs”) to build the next generation of legacy brands and companies. These are the startups that the media holds on a pedestal as innovative and crucial to a thriving economy.  

But guess what?

Almost every single one has failed or is failing, wasting millions of dollars. Silicon Valley startups have a failure rate of 90% – not exactly awe-inspiring results from the so-called “smartest business people in the room.”

Here’s How It (Doesn’t) Work in Silicon Valley for Consumer-ish Companies

Silicon Valley founders start with an idea for a consumer product that they think people will want or need.

They then go and project a fantasy to raise six to seven figures in venture capital money to develop that product based on their opinion.

Next, they spend millions of those VC dollars "pushing" it on people who ‘should’ want it.

And then what happens? 

Mostly very little.

The company folds, the investment capital is lost, and the founders return to day jobs. And yet, the process starts once again with another founder with yet another opinion for a consumer product that will net them hundreds of millions.

Now, being a successful founder is a different story.

And I’m here to say that you, creators, have more potential to be a successful consumer product founder than traditional Silicon Valley-bred types.

You have an audience.

And you know how to build an audience.

The lack of audience-building skills is what trips most Silicon Valley consumer product founders up.

That means it’s time to take your audience advantage and go from creator to founder.

And the first step is to realize you’ve already done the hardest part by attracting an audience!

You Are the Platform (Now It’s Time to Own It)

Despite your audience advantage, creators need to understand that being beholden to a certain platform that they don’t own or control is a liability.

Your relationship with the audience is the key to your success, not YouTube, Instagram, or TikTok.

Creators who successfully transition from creator to entrepreneur enjoy a ton of benefits.

And the most important benefit of all is greater control.

• Getting revenue that becomes independent of your time

• Taking vacations without the pressure to record, post, film, or write

• Reducing pressure to create content just for content's sake to feed an algorithm

• Keep some of your life private when you feel like it.

• Not making the same content 500X even if your audience loves it

• Saying no to compromising your audience for sketchy brand deals 

• Worrying a lot less about algorithm changes on platforms you don’t own or control

• Reducing the brands you need to promote to enjoy your lifestyle & save for the future

Plus, you get enhanced income benefits:

• Higher growth potential for revenue and profit

• More stability and predictability of income

• Greater diversification of revenue sources

• Possibility of your independent brand being purchased for a big payout

• Promoting your own brand your audience helped create feels great

We’ll explore all the above and more in the Creator to Founder project, including in-depth “how-to” content, curated business-building resources, and interviews from other creators building successful independent brands and products (there are way more than you think).

Join us today!