• As the creator economy heats up, New York has become a hub for influencer-serving startups.
• From finance to media and advertising, the city is home to a number of creative-adjacent industries.
• Insider has compiled a list of 14 New York-based startups that are shaping the creator economy.

With content houses like the Hype House and designer hotspots like BOA and the Saddle Ranch Chophouse, Los Angeles is often considered the hub of the designer economy.

But when it comes to startups in the creator economy, New York gives the City of Angels and the San Francisco Bay Area a hard time. Over the past year, investors have poured hundreds of millions of dollars into New York-based creator economy startups.

“Being in New York, what it really gives us is maybe a little different perspective on the space,” said Mike Donoghue, CEO of text marketing company Subtext. “If you’re in LA and you’re in and around the various hype houses and that sort of thing, it’s a little easier to get caught up in the glitz and the glamor and the glitz of the economy of creators.”

A number of startups in New York’s creative economy are adjacent to spaces in finance or media and advertising, given the prominence of these industries in the city.

Subtext, for example, was born out of New York-based media giant Advance Local’s media and technology incubator, the Alpha Group. Trading.TV, a

Diffusion

platform for financial influencers that allows users to trade stocks within its app, was started by a former stock trader and analyst who previously worked at Barclays, Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs.

For Lumanu, a financial management platform for creators, being in New York provides access to a rapidly evolving network of talent and technology.

“Being based in New York is essential because of the mix of creators, fintech and crypto,” Tony Tran, co-founder of Lumanu, told Insider. “It’s also an incredibly diverse city with plenty of opportunities to talk to creators from all walks of life.”

Curastory, meanwhile, taps into more traditional New York media and

advertising landscape

. Its founder, Tiffany Kelly, worked at ESPN as a content data scientist before launching the company, which connects video creators to brands, then allows them to film and edit ads on its platform.

“New York is the media and advertising capital of the world,” Kelly told Insider. For Kelly, the creator economy goes hand in hand with advertising, as ads and brand partnerships are the main source of income for creators.

“I wouldn’t be anywhere else but New York to start a creator economy business,” Kelly said.

Insider has compiled a list of the best creator economy startups born and raised in the New York area, based on our own reports, nominations we’ve received, and conversations with industry experts. We considered factors such as customer adoption, fundraising success, and a company’s contributions to the creator economy. This list does not include

influencer marketing

creator economy businesses, agencies and networking groups.

Here are the top 14 creator economy startups in New York City, listed in alphabetical order: