37: Trevor McFedries - Creative People Should Be Rich

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Jan 20, 2026

Trevor McFedries, a musician and tech entrepreneur known for creating virtual pop stars like Lil Miquela, delves into the disparity between creators and those capturing cultural value. He discusses how the internet has devalued media and advocates for creatives to own their instruments through crypto. Trevor emphasizes the importance of fostering genuine artistic intention while navigating modern complexities. He also highlights the role of emerging markets in reshaping cultural capital and expresses optimism for a future where creators thrive.

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INSIGHT

Creators Need New Financial Instruments

Trevor sees an "instrument problem": creators produce value but lack tools to capture it.
Crypto and new primitives can repatriate value to creative people instead of extractors.

ADVICE

Fund Small Bets To Prove Creative Ideas

Solve the early‑proof funding gap between bootstrapping and VC to unlock creators.
Provide small, de‑risking capital so talent can prove traction before large raises.

INSIGHT

Middle‑Out Culture And Hidden Gatekeepers

Cultural influence shifted from top‑down gatekeepers to middle‑out algorithms.
That makes true indie survival harder and privileges those with financial safety nets.

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All linked references & transcript available at dialectic.fm/trevor-mcfedries.

Trevor McFedries (X, Instagram, Wikipedia) is a musician, technologist, and entrepreneur. Today he is the founder of Runner and 1/2 of electronic dance duo SoFTT. Previously, Trevor was co-founder and CEO of Brud, the company behind Lil Miquela that was acquired by Dapper Labs; Founder of FWB (Friends with Benefits); early artist in residence at Spotify; and a touring DJ who performed as DJ Skeet Skeet, was part of the rap group Shwayze, and produced for a range of artists.

Trevor’s work emerges from a tension he’s lived with throughout his career: the gap between who creates cultural value and who captures it. Growing up poor in Iowa and entering the dying music industry in the late 2000s, he witnessed firsthand how the instruments that capture value rarely benefit the creative people who generate that value. This has run across his entrepreneurial work, from building virtual pop stars to a range of crypto projects that hope to give creative people more upside.

Trevor bridges culture and technology, art and capital, and high and low. I’ve met few people who are as consistently ahead of culture. His perspective challenges both the art world’s disdain for commerce and Silicon Valley’s shallow engagement with culture, arguing instead for creative people to play the game on the field and build the instruments that will make them rich. Today, he’s focused on how that may end up being as much about predicting what’s next with stakes as it is actually making things. We also talk about authenticity and honesty, why he continues to spend time in crypto despite it being low status, why speculation is rational and selling out is punk, how power comes from consensus, his keen nose for weird—especially on the internet, briefly working with Kanye West, and his forever optimistic curiosity.

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