Alexis Gay, a former Patreon operator turned comedian and podcast host, shares her journey from corporate life to the creator economy. She dives into the struggle of indie creators needing to juggle the roles of CEO and artist, emphasizing the importance of diverse income streams. Alexis critiques the oversimplified views of success in creative work and discusses the pressures of multi-platform engagement. With humor, she reflects on her daily life as a full-time creator and champions the resilience inherent in creative pursuits.
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From Patreon to Creator
Alexis Gay previously worked at Patreon, building BizOps and running creator partnerships.
This experience shaped her perspective on the creator economy.
insights INSIGHT
Early Creator Economy
In 2018, the term "creator economy" was less prevalent, and Patreon focused on educating creators about audience ownership.
This involved emphasizing direct relationships and data portability, contrasting with distribution platforms.
question_answer ANECDOTE
Leaving Patreon
Alexis Gay left Patreon in 2020 to pursue her passion for comedy, prioritizing creative independence.
She acknowledges the creator economy's growth made this transition possible.
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Hello and welcome back to Equity, TechCrunch’s venture capital-focused podcast, where we unpack the numbers behind the headlines.
For this week’s deep dive, Alex and Natasha brought on Alexis Gay, a former operator at Patreon who now makes her living as comedian and podcast host, to talk about the creator economy - including our disdain for that horrid phrasing. You may know her from her cheeky, on point shorts about tech culture (and tech Twitter).
Gay gave us an honest look into the life of creator helper turned creator actual, admitting that her current job path wasn't possible in 2018. Somewhere, somehow, a VC in the distance heard that admittance as an opportunity to back a creator economy startup.
Here's what we got into:
Gay's experience at Patreon, and why she left. Alex had some thoughts on the theme. It appears that growing list of creator-focused tools could increase the vapor pressure of folks who write, talk, art, and otherwise create, regarding their present-day employment.
Why one size doesn't fit all when it comes to the diverse world of folks engaged in creative work. We also dipped our toes into the issue of indie creators needing to be CEOs as well as artists.
We also got into what an average day looks like for a full-time creator-comedian-podcaster, why she's annoyed with how creators are discussed by founders and investors, and the tooling she hopes to see in the future.
And, well, we had to ask her if she's starting a rolling fund too.
All told, if you care about the economics of the creative world and want to add some nuance to your theories about it, it's a fun episode.
Credits: Equity is produced by Theresa Loconsolo with editing by Kell. Bryce Durbin is our Illustrator. We'd also like to thank the audience development team and Henry Pickavet, who manages TechCrunch audio products.
Equity