Creative souls build successful startup, but sell to big media/private equity, then instantly regret it when big media/private equity squeezes fun out of it and want ROI. News at 11.
Seems like a lot of the people quitting were just workers and producers that never had any real ownership stake in the business. After Covid they were already working like individual creators, so going and doing their own thing doesn’t seem like that big of a change.
My personal hobbies as well as an off-road race we started amongst friends years ago accidentally becoming insanely popular has lead to me getting to know and becoming friends with auto related content creators, TV personalities, and professional drivers through the last decade.
- A bunch of money came in just before but especially during the pandemic and the capitalists want ROI.
- This means the creators don’t get to do all of the fun stuff they used to do, and now have to justify and get approval for projects that they used to just do on a whim.
- Things get “grown-up” quick and the internal culture goes from likeminded folks “just figuring it out” to planning, meetings, and being forced to produce more repeatable and formulaic content on tighter schedules. Sometimes working with brands you do not want to work with, but have to.
- A lot of these deals happened 2-4 years ago and earn-out clauses have hit their expiration. Now they can bail and realize as much gain as they can.
- Some people are leaving because they realize how royally screwed they’ve gotten.
Finally, the whole industry is a grind. I’m only tangentially related to it as a hobby and seeing what my friends have to do seems EXHAUSTING.
