The creator economy is already estimated to be a $250 billion industry and is projected to hit $480 billion in just four more years, according to research from Goldman Sachs. However, only around 4% of global creators consider themselves professionals.
Part of the creator economy’s growing pains has been creators learning as they go. The resources for a more formalized approach to developing the craft and business acumen of being a creator is still nascent, which is exactly where Whalar is leaning in.
The creator and talent management company is announcing The Lighthouse, physical campuses for creators to learn, make, and collaborate with their peers.
Lucy Tate, Vice President of Brand and Community, The Lighthouse (left)
Jon Goss, President, The Lighthouse (middle)
Steve Nolte, Vice President of Hospitality and Operations (right) [Photo: The Lighthouse]
“It’s been about helping shine a light on how professional creators are and how much more seriously everyone should be taking them,” says Neil Waller, cofounder of Whalar. “They’re becoming entrepreneurs, small-to-medium sized businesses. How do we help them on that journey?”
Currently, The Lighthouse is opening in spring or summer of next year in Venice, California and Brooklyn, New York, with a third location in London slated for 2025. All campuses will be outfitted with lecture halls meant for classes covering a range of topics such as maximizing an e-commerce strategy, using AI, and navigating taxes and legal as a creator; private offices; audio and video production spaces to create and edit content; dining areas; outdoor spaces; and more.
The Lighthouse is a four-year, application-based membership projected to be around $5,750 per year. In an effort to make The Lighthouse economically accessible, there will also be the Lighthouse Academy, a subsided membership for underrepresented creators from local communities who will have access to the physical spaces, production spaces, and mentorship programs. The Lighthouse has established a creator council, a group of around 15 creators from diverse backgrounds both personally and professionally, who will select the members. They’ll also help to develop the educational components of the program and foster the community.
“Ultimately, The Lighthouse is being built for creators and to serve the needs of creators,” Waller says. “So, if we’re not listening to creators, then we’ll wander off our path.”
Fittingly enough, leading the creator council as co-chairs and creators-in-residence are Colin Rosenblum and Samir Chaudry, aka Colin and Samir, the duo who’s made their career online breaking down the creator economy from creators’ points of view.
“Often people talk about creators and sort of lump us into one big group, but we all are completely different in how we work, what we talk about, what matters to us,” Rosenblum says. “It’s super important for a project like this that there’s a council as a way for creators to have a collective voice to combine the diversity of problems and make sure that we can come to a solution.”
One thing everyone will be on the same page with is The Lighthouse’s mission to help professionalize creators through education and community. “There are a lot of people who desire to do this career, [but] there’s not a lot of clarity on what that means. There are also times where it can be really isolating,” Chaudry says. “That isolation can actually get amplified through the lack of education, lack of information, a lack of understanding what the opportunities are, a lack of understanding of how this can be a sustainable career. My hope is that this is a true space for people to find themselves creatively.”
There have been previous attempts at something like The Lighthouse, most notably YouTube Spaces, which launched in 2012 but shifted to a virtual and pop-up event model after the pandemic forced the company to shutter all its physical locations worldwide. But to Chaudry, The Lighthouse feels like a different endeavor than Spaces given its focus.
“Colin and I have such a big emphasis on education. Everything we do in our business is building something that we wish we had 10 years ago,” he says. “And when we walked the [Lighthouse] space for the first time, we looked around and we thought, ‘Man, this is the space we wish we had when we first started out.’”
The Lighthouse plans to offer some kind of certification after a creator completes a course such as video editing. Waller also notes that they’re considering linking The Lighthouse to universities and colleges where student could earn credits by taking courses at The Lighthouse.
The ultimate goal of the The Lighthouse is to establish a credible foundation for creators to develop their careers further. When Whalar started in 2016, 10% of the creators it worked with were full-time. That number has since leapt to 95%, with 20% having at least one employee. The Lighthouse aims to make those numbers a reality for a wider breadth of creators.
“The mission of Whalar since day one has been empowering creators to make an income through their creative voice,” Waller says. “That’s allowed us to listen to creators more than others, and therefore we’ve built things and tried to serve them.”
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