Game of Thrones’ Maisie Williams backs startup for creators

Although the life of a makeup artist, photographer or model may seem glamorous, most will assure you that the everyday is not. Administrative tasks such as scheduling appointments or chasing payments can strain these creators’ time. And when you’re a creator, time is money.

A whole industry of companies providing infrastructure to facilitate the business side of being a creator – from monetization to programming – has emerged in recent years: a category known as creator economy startups.

The latest to raise venture capital funding is UK-based Contact, which just raised £3m. The company was founded by 25-year-old fashion designer, model and entrepreneur Reuben Selby in 2020. The software platform offers a suite of booking, scheduling, communication and, most importantly, payment tools to help creatives to take control of their products and services. – and eventually, becoming the CEO of their own brands.

The round was led by Vancouver-based venture capital firm Rhino Ventures. Contact advisor and actress Maisie Williams (who is also Selby’s partner in life!), Founders Fund, who led Contact’s funding round, and a handful of angel investors such as the co-founders of the US startup sales of clips Cameo and Depop participate in the funding round. founder Simon Beckermann.

Although the creator economy startup scene in Europe has not been as large as in the United States, there have been some notable increases over the past year. Passionfroot in Germany — a no-code tool that helps creators track their projects, clients, and cash flow — raised 3 million euros preselection round last December. And Superjoi – founded by Europeans but based in the US – also raised last month give creators a platform to monetize projects.

Pippa Lamb, advisor and investor at Contact, says “the creator economy is going through a seismic shift and Contact is playing a vital role in putting creatives back in the driver’s seat, helping them manage and take ownership of their work more directly.”

Streamline interactions

Selby says Contact was born out of his frustration with the fragmented talent booking and payment process. Currently, brands scout for talent through a website, then have to find an email for the creative agent, write a brief, and email it to everyone who needs to know.

“As a creator, you’re lucky if you get all of your booking requests in one email, because often they’ll all be on a separate thread. It’s confusing,” Williams says, joining the call from her hotel room in Paris, where she is on the set of a new film.

Selby hopes that by reducing the time and effort creatives spend scrolling through email – and having multiple interactions with multiple people across multiple touchpoints — creatives will be able to live “a freer, more expressive life.”

“It’s also the difference between turning your passion into a viable job for the rest of your life and struggling to make ends meet,” adds Williams.

So far, Contact has onboarded 1,000 creatives and 2,000 brands and businesses. Currently, the company represents models, hairstylists, makeup artists, and photographers, but plans to roll out the platform to videographers and stylists in due course.

Raising the bar

Another puzzle Contact wants to solve for creators: getting paid on time and fairly.

“When I was doing my photography work, I was working with really big names – who you would expect to pay on time – but who paid late, or sometimes not at all,” says Selby. (The contact has a function in the pipeline to pay each creator immediately after a job, so they don’t have to worry about cash flow.)

He says many creatives enjoy working with agencies that can barter with brands and negotiate prices, whereas negotiating is more difficult as an individual.

“We don’t just connect two parties and say ‘find it out, we’re not involved anymore'”

That’s why Contact has an operations team that vets every job, makes sure the brand is credible, and monitors market rates to ensure creatives are paid a fair amount. The team is also available to talk to talent if they have questions and to offer support in tricky situations.

“We offer a level of support similar to what an agency could offer in this way; we’re not super passive,” says Selby. “We don’t just connect two parties and say ‘find it out, we’re not involved anymore’.”

Focus on talent

But Contact is not here to replace traditional talent agencies; he wants to work with them as partners.

The hope is that the platform will relieve agents of their bookkeeping responsibilities — managing artists’ schedules, accepting or rejecting bookings, managing information — so they can devote more time to artists.

“There will always be a desire to have a personal connection with your agent or manager: someone who can give you personalized career advice,” Williams says. “But right now there’s a lot of scheduling that’s not being fulfilled with this (agent) relationship, and a lot of information is being lost.”

“A talent agent shouldn’t have to do all those things that technology can just do.”

“A talent agent shouldn’t have to do all those things that technology can just do,” she adds.

Contact does not charge a commission for creations. Instead, it charges businesses a 20% booking fee, which is industry-standard agency fees, according to Selby. Contact then splits that fee down the middle, offering half to the agencies it works with.

“So basically every time that talent books on Contact, we pay the agent 10 percent. And they don’t have to do anything but be there for their talent,” Selby says.

Future plans

Contact currently has a team of 35 people and is quickly trying to hire engineers who it says are incredibly hard to find.

Williams says the team has “already split up focusing on the different areas of the product.” Contact therefore focuses on building these teams in order to evolve the company: whether in the development of products, new audiences or new cities.

Selby speculates that since the creator economy is huge in the United States, Contact will eventually expand to the “obvious” cities of Los Angeles and New York. But for now, the company wants to grow slowly: “Build the playbook in Europe, then replicate it elsewhere.”

Miriam Partington is Sifted’s Germany correspondent. It also covers the future of work, co-authors Sifted Startup Life Newsletter and tweets from @mparts_