Bay Area Creator Economy Who’s Who

Dive into the latest Bay Area Creator Economy news: Holiday party recap, upcoming 2025 events, creator spotlights, community highlights, and top jobs.

Author

Bay Area Creator Economy
December 31, 2024

Hello, Bay Area Creator Economy! 

Welcome to the sixth issue of our new biweekly newsletter, your go-to destination for the latest events and developments you should know taking place in the San Francisco Bay Area’s creator economy.

If you’ve received this newsletter, then you are either subscribed or someone forwarded it to you. If the latter – and you want to subscribe, get it here and follow us on LinkedIn.

Our final issue of the year recaps the incredible success of our first-ever community holiday party in San Francisco. From the diverse spectrum of creators and industry professionals who attended to the surprise of out-of-town guests flying in, the turnout was nothing short of inspiring. It felt like a ‘who’s who’ of the creator economy, and for the first time, we secured full sponsorship funding for the event—a milestone for our community. Don’t miss the photos and highlights linked in the recap!

The holiday party has made us even more excited and motivated to program our calendar of events for 2025. However, most of our co-founders will be away in January attending major conferences–Cassandra and France will be attending CES while Jim and Rachel are programming the 1 Billion Followers Summit that Cassandra will also be attending–so we won’t be hosting our next event until February at the earliest. Stay tuned for more details about the next event we are planning so you can save the date.

Beyond the event recap, we highlight upcoming events taking place inside and beyond the Bay Area, select news stories relevant to our community, hot Bay Area-based jobs and this issue’s “Hella Bay Area” creator pick.

Let’s dive in. And, wishing you all a wonderful end to the year and a prosperous start to 2025!

Cheers,

Cassandra, France, Jim, Monica & Rachel
The Bay Area Creator Economy Co-Founders 

MAIN STORY

Holiday Party Recap: A Celebration of Creativity and Connection

France Tantiado and Monica Khan, Contributors

On December 19th, we hosted the Bay Area Creator Economy Holiday Party, bringing together 150+ attendees to celebrate this vibrant community. The energy was electric—fueled by meaningful conversations, new collaborations, and shared excitement for what lies ahead in 2025.

🌟 Who Made It Happen
This celebration was the result of the vision and hard work of the Bay Area Creator Economy (BACE) co-founders: Cassandra Bankson, France Tantiado, Jim Louderback, Monica Khan, and Rachel Masters. 

We’re especially grateful to Jeremie Gluckman and the team at Dovetail for hosting us in their incredible venue and providing delicious food that set the perfect tone for a festive and inspiring evening.

From left, Monica Khan, France Tantiado, Jim Louderback, Cassandra Bankson, Rachel Masters, Jeremie Gluckman

🤝 Why We Gathered
The Bay Area has long been a hub for the creator economy. From its roots in YouTube, Twitch, and Meta to its current leadership in creator jobs and venture funding, this region is a powerhouse of creativity, innovation, and collaboration.

This party was more than a celebration—it was about fostering deeper connections, sparking new ideas, and building momentum for the future of the Bay Area Creator Economy.

🏢 The Venue
We couldn’t have asked for a better space than Dovetail’s San Francisco headquarters.

For those unfamiliar, Dovetail is an AI-first customer insights platform that empowers teams worldwide to build better products by turning customer feedback into actionable insights. Their welcoming and collaborative space provided the perfect backdrop for an evening of celebration and connection.

📝 Who Was There
Among the festive drinks and lively photo booth were a mix of local creators and industry leaders who embody the Bay Area’s innovative spirit as well out-of-town guests, including, but not limited to:

It was incredible to see such a dynamic group come together to celebrate and collaborate.

🎉 What Made It Special

  • Festive Treats: A hot chocolate bar provided by Beacons, an innovative platform empowering creators to connect with their audiences and monetize their brands.

  • Clean Beer: Courtesy of Conor Begley, adding a unique touch to the evening’s festivities.

  • Engaging Activities: A lively photo booth capturing fun and memorable moments from the night.

  • Inspiring Conversations: Attendees shared ideas, built connections, and discussed the exciting possibilities for 2025.💡 Finally, we highlight upcoming events inside and beyond the Bay Area, select news stories relevant to our community, and hot Bay Area-based jobs.

📸 Event Photos Now Available!
Check out all the professional photos taken during the event and relive the fun moments from the photo booth.

🗣️ We Want Your Feedback!

Help us make 2025 even better by sharing your ideas and insights. Please take a moment to fill out our quick feedback survey.

Special Recognition: Congratulations to Aditya Nair, winner of the Creator Economy Live raffle, who will attend the February event in Las Vegas!

🙏 Gratitude to Our Sponsors

This event was made possible thanks to the generosity of our sponsors. Your support ensured the party was free for all attendees and reflected the collaborative spirit of the Bay Area Creator Economy.

  • Spotter Studio (Los Angeles, CA): Helps YouTube creators craft winning videos through an integrated suite of ideation tools. (Rob Gabel, CSO)

  • Dovetail (Sydney, AU): The only AI-first customer insights hub, enabling teams to build better products. (Jeremie Gluckman, Global Events Lead, Demand Generation)

  • Beacons (San Francisco, CA): A customizable platform empowering creators to connect with audiences and monetize their brands. (Neal Jean, Co-founder & CEO)

  • Creator Economy Live (Las Vegas, NV): A two-day event uniting content creators, influencers, entrepreneurs, and industry professionals to discuss the creator economy. (Heather James, Portfolio Director — Clarion Events)

  • CreatorsLegal (Oakland, CA): Provides creators with tools to protect themselves and build their businesses, led by former entertainment lawyers and creatives. (Eric Farber, Founder/CEO)

  • Portal A (San Francisco, CA): An award-winning content company creating breakthrough social entertainment with leading brands, platforms, and creators. (Zach Blume, Co-Founder/President)

  • Seismic (Oakland, CA): Delivers data-driven influencer marketing campaigns that connect brands, creators, and audiences. (Brad Murphy, Founder)

  • CrunchLabs (Sunnyvale, CA): A YouTube channel and STEM toy subscription box for kids, created by former NASA engineer Mark Rober. (Jim E. Lee, President/COO)

  • Pure’AM (Tenafly, NJ): Combines Korean beauty techniques with organic ingredients to create safe, effective, and eco-friendly skincare products.

  • Nurilounge (Seoul, South Korea and New York City): Empowers early-stage creators through collaborations with K-brands, fostering growth into industry leaders.

  • Jagalchi (Daly City, CA): Launching a 75,000-square-foot Korean food complex in February 2025, featuring groceries, a restaurant, bakery, seafood market, butcher, bars, and more!

🚀 Looking Ahead

As we head into 2025, the Bay Area Creator Economy is just getting started. Here’s what’s next:
✅ More networking events to bring creators and builders together.
✅ Amplifying the voices of our local community through fresh content.
✅ Creating collaborative opportunities to grow and thrive together.

Thank you to everyone who attended, supported, and contributed to our success in 2024. Your energy and enthusiasm are what make this community so special.

Upcoming events

Inside the Bay Area

JANUARY

January 28th
Silicon Valley Video Summit, Mountain View

Beyond the Bay Area

JANUARY

January 7-10
CES Creator Space, Las Vegas >> our co-founders Cassandra Bankson and France Tantiado will be in attendance. 

January 11-13
1 Billion Followers Summit, Dubai, UAE >> Our co-founders Rachel Masters is producing the Tech Track, Jim Louderback is producing the Economy Track, and Cassandra Bankson is speaking at the largest Creator Economy Summit in the MENA region. Several of our community members, including Marina Mogilko, Paul Bakaus, and others, will also be speaking. Here's a 50% off ticket price link to join.

  • Jim is also hosting an Inside the Creator Economy meetup Thursday night before the summit at his friend Ivan Zeljkovic’s Poddster studios. RSVP here.

FEBRUARY

February 4-5
COMMUNITY PICK! Creator Economy Live, Las Vegas >> If you’re looking to network with all the BIGGEST enterprise and challenger brands, generate over 500 leads, and learn from industry experts, then check out this influencer marketing event in Las Vegas! Join brands like PepsiCo, Fenty, Disney, Google, Playboy, Duolingo, Michaels, Paramount, Kimberly-Clark, MGM Resorts, and hundreds more. AND, as a valued newsletter subscriber, we’re giving you an exclusive 20% off your ticket!

Have an event you’d like us to include here? If so, please send the event URL to [email protected].

Community News

  • Congratulations to San Francisco-based personal finance creator Humphrey Yang who made the Top 24 Knowledge Creators of 2024 list compiled by Kajabi and Course Studio and inspired by a LinkedIn post that our co-founder Monica Khan made a week earlier (Knowledge Creators)

  • YouTube has published its year-end top U.S. trends lists for 2024 and includes Bay Area content creators, including All The Smoke hosted by former Golden State Warriors’ teammates Matt Barnes and Stephen Jackson and the San Mateo-based Roblox’s Dress to Impress game (Mercury News)

  • 17 creator-economy startups raised millions this year in areas, including San Francisco-based startups Substack and AppLovin, from prominent venture capital firms headquartered or having significant operations in the SF Bay Area: Andreessen Horowitz (A16z), Sequoia Capital, Benchmark, SV Angel, Mayfield Fund, Sapphire Ventures, Lightspeed Venture Partners, and Volition Capital (Business Insider)

  • Our co-founder Jim Louderback shared his top 10 predictions and trends for 2025's creator economy in his year-end newsletter issue, covering everything from new KPIs (EGC, RPF, UFP) to wilting events, collapsing products and global frontiers (Inside the Creator Economy)

  • San Francisco hosted a Dev Patel look-alike contest, inspired by NYC’s Timothée Chalamet contest, where Jaipreet Hundal won with a nod to Patel’s “Monkey Man.” (San Francisco Chronicle)

Jobs

Have a job you’d like us to include here? Send the job posting URL to [email protected].

“Hella Bay Area” Creator Pick

As highlighted by KQED, San Francisco-based influencer Kaitlyn Bui, who has gained a substantial following on TikTok and Instagram by sharing videos of her Dungeness crab fishing adventures at Ocean Beach, is inspiring a new generation to engage in the activity. She gave up her medical school plans for good, and she’s been doing crab fishing content full-time ever since.

Here’s Kaitlyn going to the market to buy some fresh squid or mackerel to use as bait.

Are you interested in contributing to the community or sponsoring an event? 

Email us at [email protected]