While the tools of media creation are easier to use than ever, the task of being a media creator has never been more challenging. We are all wearing multiple hats, juggling knives in a high-wind with one hand tied behind our back.
It ain’t easy today.
Brian Freeman, Founder and CEO of Creatorland, is developing a new platform specifically to harness AI technology to enable creative folks to do more. To learn more, I emailed Brian a series of questions.
Here’s our conversation.
Larry: Brian, what is Creatorland and when will it be ready?
Brian: Creatorland is the first professional networking platform exclusively designed for the $100bn creator economy. The beta version is available through invitation only and will open to the world later this year.
Larry: Why did you decide to create it?
Brian: We launched Creatorland to address the pain points of the 300 million professional creators, of which 95% do not use LinkedIn for building their careers and showcasing their work in the creator economy.
Larry: Your website – Creatorland.com – has an extremely vague home page. What types of creative individuals are you targeting?
Brian: Four groups:
Larry: Your website mentions joining a “community.” A Google search for “communities for media creators” returned about a bajillion hits. How do you expect to compete?
Brian: Creatorland is a professional network that has elements of a community nestled within it. We’re building a professional networking solution and take inspiration from other platforms that have built industry specific professional networks like Doximity, a professional network for medical professionals or Stack Overflow, a professional network designed around the specific needs of software developers.
These success stories have highlighted the benefits that targeted industries can reap by joining networks that are exclusively catered to their professionals. Optimizing digital networks leads to higher quality business interactions.
Larry: Why the focus on Artificial Intelligence (AI)?
Brian: AI provides a pathway to build better experiences and more value for users. By incorporating it early, we’re setting ourselves up to produce the highest quality platform available for creators online.
We think about this almost like starting a consumer company in 2011 during the mobile app boom. To give the best possible experience to your users, you’d want to lean into the best available technology to make that part of your product and culture early on, rather than trying to weave it back in at a later date. Building companies on an AI-foundation will soon be the norm.
Larry: What AI tools will you provide?
Brian: I’ll start with our first cool AI tool: the personal networking assistant. Say you’re new to the professional networking game in the creator economy. Our tool is your wingman, spotting the people you already know who [could provide] valuable connections. We’ve trained this tool using ChatGPT, feeding it tons of data, like contacts and domains.
The result? It’s super smart, identifying creator economy contacts from your Gmail with 94% accuracy. So whether you’ve got emails from a talent manager, influencer marketer, executive, or someone working in a creator economy company, our tool helps you invite them to join your network on Creatorland.
We’ve already broken ground on a natural-language search product for our site, and are looking at everything below for introduction in 2023:
We can’t get into some of the big data stuff we’re looking at, but by 2024 we should have some really exciting AI driven products for the enterprise.
Larry: AI is frequently described as threatening creative jobs. How do you see AI – and your platform – as enabling creators?
Brian: AI, particularly as we envision it at Creatorland, is not a threat to creative jobs, but rather a powerful supporter.
Let’s think about our AI-based career companion, “C²”. It’s not replacing creators; instead, it’s offering tools to help them elevate their careers to unprecedented levels.
For instance, C² is designed to give personalized recommendations on connections, content ideas, project descriptions, and even negotiation tactics. By offering these insights, we’re enabling creators to optimize their work, reach a larger audience, and potentially negotiate better deals.
In the coming years, we plan to integrate even more AI-driven features, such as trend analysis and automated actions, to help creators stay ahead of the curve. But at the heart of it all, it’s the creator’s unique talent and vision that drives their success. AI is simply a tool that allows them to channel their creativity more effectively and efficiently.
So, rather than threatening creative jobs, we see AI and Creatorland as a springboard, helping creators leap to new heights and possibilities in their careers. It’s about harnessing AI to amplify human creativity, not replace it.
Larry: What are you providing that isn’t available elsewhere on the web?
Brian: For us it starts with giving content creators a reason to invest in building a professional showcase, network, and controlling their professional reputation online.
This just simply doesn’t exist today. Link-sharing solutions are too simplistic and not designed for the professional audience exclusively and where there are large lists and databases of users (CRM tools for influencer marketing, typically) creators aren’t given significant creative control of their presence there.
LinkedIn doesn’t have the necessary integrations with other social networks to give people who leverage social media to earn a living, nor is the profile designed around project-based career path.
Creatorland provides the following:
Larry: New AI tools are proliferating like drunken rabbits. Why should we pay attention to you?
Brian: When it comes to AI, there are some really exciting products out there, and we’re as excited as the rest of the industry to see what people do with it. I think what’s interesting about how Creatorland is tackling AI is that we have a very large proprietary data set in hand of hundreds of thousands of creators as well as the creators & professionals who are joining the network every day – combined with key leadership on our team, including the CEO’s ten years in the creator economy, we can implement AI specifically around the needs of the users of our platform to make the lives of professionals and creators in the creator economy significantly better.
There are 1001 “AI FOR X” companies out there right now, that’s not Creatorland. Creatorland is a forward-thinking technology company leaning into AI to enhance its experience, and what we have planned we think is pretty exciting, I don’t know that we can say much more than that.
Larry: Brian, you said that “we have a very large proprietary data set in hand of hundreds of thousands of creators as well as the creators & professionals who are joining the network every day…” If you use this for training your AI, how are you respecting copyright and privacy issues?
Brian: Our AI trains on publicly available information that has been shared by creators, agencies and brands online.
Larry: In closing, write a one paragraph commercial for Creatorland.
Brian: The Creatorland platform is a comprehensive tool for creators looking to present their work to a professional audience, continually develop their skills, and network with peers and creator economy career professionals. Creatorland offers exclusive education opportunities, such as masterclass-style materials, to help creators develop the highest quality content and generates premium networking opportunities between creators and industry professionals, making it the essential tool for creators looking to grow their brand and connect with brand buyers.
Larry: Brian, thanks for sharing your time with us.
