Creatively-led ventures are crushing it. Here’s why.

There’s a new formula for startup success. Here are five brands that are leading the way.

About six months ago, I shared some thoughts on creative leadership and made a prediction for how it would evolve in the 2020’s. Shortly thereafter, people were locked indoors and baking banana bread before taking to the streets and demanding long overdue social change.

At best, this year has been a learning experience and an opportunity to (re)evaluate one’s values, priorities and actions. Personally, I’ve (re)directed time and energy from broadcasting in social media to having more one-on-one interactions — investing in relationships rather than ventures, and putting my privileges to work by having difficult conversations.

I’ve also put a lot of time into supporting founders that have reached out to talk about pressing challenges and new ideas. Many of them have referred to my previous post, so I thought I’d do a follow-up twice a year and see if my prediction holds up.

The prediction

The current exodus of creative talent from the marketing, design, media and PR industry is about to unlock billions of $ in value from new ventures and brands. Not all creatives will become successful founders, but a significant number of successful founders will have a creative background. Why? Because their skill set is perfectly aligned with three critical success factors of entrepreneurship in the 2020’s: find product-zeitgeist fit, excel in brand building, and master distribution in the new media landscape.

Despite being a significant investment opportunity, creatively-led ventures are still overlooked and underfunded by the traditional startup ecosystem, which still favours founders with an engineering or business background. But while engineers tend to focus on the underlying technology and MBA’s zero in on strategy and market dynamics, creative founders always start with 1) building a user-centric experience that solves a problem and 2) crafting a story that has the power to change behaviours. This, ultimately, makes creative talent an indispensable part of every founding team.

5 big things since last time.

We’re still in the very, very beginning — but let’s run through some quick examples of how this is manifesting itself across different industries and markets right now.

Swedish oat milk brand Oatly is valued at $2 billion, after Blackstone leads a $200 million investment round. As with all brand transitions from activist to mainstream, it’s not without controversy. The key takeaway here though, is how a business can completely transform itself and differentiate its brand on a crowded, global market by killing off its marketing department and injecting creative leadership into all operations.

Rihanna’s fashion brand Fenty Beauty (joint venture with Louis Vuitton) is valued at $3 billion, only three years after launch. Some will dismiss this as another celebrity-monetises-social-media-following play, but they’re missing the point: in the new media landscape, pop culture and business have merged, and artists have effectively become franchises. Like Oatly, Fenty really nailed product-zeitgeist fit with an issue that goes beyond beauty.

24-year-old creator and podcast host Harry Stebbings raises a $8.3m micro fund off the back of his popular show The Twenty Minute VC. With so much access to cheap capital, the investor narrative is growing increasingly important for founders. VC’s have traditionally pitched startups with promises of being active investors that support the business, but at the end of the day, the media footprint of a VC is key for building startup momentum.

With $31b in gross merchandise value and 97% year-on-year revenue growth, e-commerce platform Shopify finds itself in the profitable position of selling shovels in a Direct-To-Consumer gold rush. Packy McCormick writes a great piece on the challenges of DTC brands when value chains are modularised and marketing is the only differentiator. The winners? Those with the skills to craft a strong brand experience and build a community around the product.

Kendrick Lamar launches creative platform pgLang, a secretive venture ranging from media to apparel. These kinds of talent collectives will only grow more powerful, as all creators now identify as entrepreneurs. Jarrod Dicker uses the analogy of independent record labels to explain how writers and designers are leaving media conglomerates in bulk to set up their own media companies. Defector Media is another great example of this.

5 emerging ventures to keep an eye on

Below is a brief showcase of five emerging brands and businesses that are creatively-led. All are global brands, but headquartered in the Nordics with founders that have a creative background in the marketing and design field.

Creative director Haisam Mohammed is distilling culture through scent with his fragrance brand UNIFORM. Building on the memories and experiences of the diaspora, the debut collection features three perfume oils — a traditional format of fragrance in East Africa, where Mohammed has roots.

Art director Emelie Jinhee Johnson has co-founded Yagya — the world’s first horse brand inspired by street style. With the vision to broaden what it means to be a rider, it challenges the same-sameness of the equestrian. Yagya has closed its first round of funding and is launching later this year.

Creative directors Tove Langseth and Filip Nilsson led two of the world’s best advertising agencies before leaving the industry to start the sportswear brand Closely — a joint venture with European underwear retailer Lindex set to launch on October 1st.

Creative director Johan Pihl and agency leader Mathias Wikström co-founded booming fintech Doconomy off the back of an idea that won Grand Prix at Cannes Lions back in 2017. With Mastercard as their lead investor, they’re showing that some marketing ideas make even better business ideas.

PR heavyweight Lamin Sonko has co-founded :Part — an inclusive talent network and edtech brand for the next generation of creatives and entrepreneurs. 2,000 talents strong and live in Stockholm and London with plans to open in New York and Los Angeles, it’s off to a flying start.

What’s next?

The above ventures are showcased in the next season of my podcast, where I’ll be interviewing creative founders on how they went from zero to one, and what advice they have for creators thinking of building a brand or a business.

Creators that are setting out to start something of their their own and looking for investors and/or founding partners, are always welcome to reach out. The same goes for investors interested in early access to up-and-coming, creatively-led ventures with strong founder-market fit.

And, as always, you’re welcome to apply to our closed WhatsApp Group, where creators, business leaders and investors share updates on new ventures as well as the latest news on the creator economy.

Thanks for your time,
David

David Orlic is the chairman of Orli&, an R&D company that supports creative leaders in building commercial and social ventures. A five-time founder, he currently leads tech startup Anyone: a marketplace for five-minute advice from the most inspiring people on the planet.