11 creator economy execs explain why they left TikTok, YouTube, and other big social brands to join startups

Silhouette walking away from Meta logo, Tik Tok logo and Youtube logo towards money signs and likes representing creator economy
Meta; TikTok; YouTube; Insider
  • Creator economy startups have been nabbing talent from TikTok, YouTube, and Meta this year.
  • Dozens of staffers with experience at the big platforms have opted to move to smaller companies.
  • Insider spoke to 11 employees about why they left — and how they feel about the decision. 
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The creator economy is in the midst of a reshuffling.

In the first half of 2022, dozens of employees left roles at companies like YouTube, TikTok, Meta Platforms (formerly Facebook), and Pinterest to work at creator-focused startups like Koji, Creative Juice, and Kajabi, according to an Insider review of job updates on LinkedIn. 

Take Matt Koval, who worked at YouTube for nearly a decade before leaving in March 2022 to join Mighty Networks, a startup that helps creators monetize courses and online communities.

"I looked out at the industry and saw so many exciting things happening in the creator economy that I wanted to be a part of and contribute to," Koval told Insider. "And ironically, it seemed like it wasn't as exciting being a part of one of the big platforms anymore."

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This flurry of departures falls into the broader "Great Resignation" occurring across the US as workers have left their jobs en masse in search of higher pay and better work environments.

Meanwhile, the creator economy has boomed over the past few years, buoyed by a shift toward digital content that accelerated during the pandemic.

Companies like YouTube, TikTok, Instagram, and Snapchat spent hundreds of millions of dollars building out creator-focused revenue streams, and a new crop of startups has emerged to fill in the gaps where the big tech platforms fall short.

These newcomers are designing marketing, engagement, fintech, and teaching tools specifically for content creators —  and many are poaching talent from the big social-media companies to do so. 

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"There's this perfect storm of opportunity," said Aaron DeBevoise, the CEO and founder of creator economy startup Spotter, which recently hired Derek Reynolds (from YouTube) and Monica Khan (from Meta) as executives. 

For startups hiring talent from some of the largest social media platforms, the "why" is quite clear.

"They bring a lot of qualities," DeBevoise said. The talent pool is known to be intelligent, "process-oriented," and to "work well with teams," he added. "It's worth paying them what's necessary to get them."

But why the talent chooses to leave cushy positions at some of the highest-valued companies is not always as obvious.

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Some said they saw creator needs that weren't being addressed by the big platforms, and they figured scrappier startups could solve those problems more quickly. Others said they wanted to join earlier-stage companies where they could have more influence.

In many cases, these employees made the choice to leave big, more stable companies before the global economy — and specifically tech and media sectors — showed signs of a slowdown. Some joined startups that raised sizable war chests from investors in the past year, which they hope will give their companies a better shot at weathering a choppy economy. 

"This is a risk, but it's a calculated risk," said Khan, a product manager who left Meta to join Spotter. Spotter raised a $200 million Series D round led by SoftBank Vision Fund 2 earlier this year.

Insider spoke to 11 creator industry professionals who left their jobs at big social entertainment platforms in 2022 to take a chance on creator-focused startups.

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Here are their stories on why they made the switch:

Note: Insider has edited and shortened some responses for clarity. 

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Paul Bakaus: Google to Koji

Paul Bakaus headshot
Philipp Ammon

Paul Bakaus was the head of creator relations at Google, where he worked closely with web developers and creators. In April, he joined Koji, a link-in-bio startup focused on creator monetization, as the company's head of creators.

Why Bakaus made the switch:

The thing about working at Google is "you can live your life at Google and never exit the office," Bakaus told Insider. 

"I felt like I was too comfortable, I didn't really grow any more — I wasn't challenged enough," Bakaus said. "I wanted to feel discomfort again."

That desire led Bakaus back to the world of startups. Koji was the "sweet spot" with its link-in-bio tool and growing app store that can grow alongside creators using it, Bakaus said.

"The creator economy is evolving at a pace that bigger companies cannot evolve at," he said. "There is so much new stuff happening." 

"If you're not highly adaptive, you're going to lose," Bakaus said.

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Sam Christie: TikTok to Pearpop

Sam Christie, Pearpop
Dillon G Artzer Photography.

Sam Christie worked at TikTok and its parent company ByteDance for nearly four years, most recently serving as a regional vice president for ByteDance's software sales division, and before that as the national lead for the entertainment vertical on the sales team at TikTok.

He left in March to become VP of business development at Pearpop, a marketplace for creators to connect with brands for sponsored content deals, as well as with other creators or fans on sponsored "duets" and collaborative campaigns.

Why Christie made the switch: 

Christie joined TikTok in 2018, shortly after ByteDance began its global push into short-form video by merging the lip-synching app Musical.ly with TikTok.

"I got to see everything," he said. "The full gamut of the first 40 people all the way up to what it is now."

While working on the global business solutions team at the company and pitching its ads platform to entertainment brands like Netflix and Hulu, he saw an opportunity to make it easier for brands and creators to connect directly.

"The way in which creators were partnering with brands and vice versa, the way that brands were partnering with creators, I saw that there were a lot of gaps there," Christie said. "I saw that there was a well of opportunity in terms of making it better for creators."

He also was interested in joining an earlier stage company to help build something from the ground up again.

"This was an opportunity to go solve another problem and to go build new teams and to go really make a big splash in a space that I think a lot of eyeballs are paying attention to," Christie said. 

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Mauricio Costa-Neres: TikTok to Superjoi

Mauricio Costa-Neres stands in black shirt speaking
Courtesy of Mauricio Costa-Neres

Mauricio Costa-Neres left TikTok, where he was a strategic partnerships manager for two years, to join a fresh startup called Superjoi at the end of March.

Costa-Neres is the head of creator partnerships at Superjoi, a platform that will let creators monetize their audience in a similar way to Kickstarter.

Why Costa-Neres made the switch:

A veteran of Twitter, Meta, and TikTok, Costa-Neres is no stranger to large social-media firms.

"These platforms are always leaving a gap for the creators to run the businesses," Costa-Neres told Insider.

For example, they don't always share in-depth data that lets creators identify their most loyal viewers or fans — something Superjoi can help solve, Costa-Neres said. 

Costa-Neres has worked closely with creators throughout his big tech career, receiving plenty of feedback from the creators who were using the actual platforms.

"That feedback, very often, is so hard to bring it up to the decision-makers of a big corporation, let alone implement them," he said. 

At a startup, however, Costa-Neres realized he could leverage those years of creator feedback, as well as his expertise and network, to "shape how that company will move forward."

"The key is to join a startup that you really feel connected to, to the product [and] the problem that it's solving for your target audience," Costa-Neres added. "That will carry you through all the doubts."

And while Costa-Neres believes that "every startup has the potential to succeed," it's crucial to "go in knowing that you might not succeed" and consider an exit strategy.

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Monica Khan: Meta to Spotter

Monica Khan smiling headshot
Courtesy of Spotter

Monica Khan left her post as a product marketing lead at Meta in April to join Spotter, a financing solution for video creators, as the startup's head of creator community.

Why Khan made the switch: 

While at Meta working on the Facebook team, Khan was focused on community partnerships and marketing. But before that, Khan had spent several years working at YouTube. Throughout her career, she's kept her eye on where the industry was going.

"The creator economy blew up in the past two years," Khan told Insider. "As someone on the inside at these big platforms, it was incredible to see how much enterprise was happening."

Khan watched as peers made exits to go to creator-focused startups, including some who Khan  looked up to and would never have imagined leaving big tech platforms.

"It's not just where the money's going," Khan said. "Where are the people going?"

Spotter reached out to her just as she was considering her options, Khan said.

"All of a sudden, it just felt like there was a whole industry of buzz and support for creators," Khan said. "I wanted to see if I could have an impact there."

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Sean Kim: TikTok to Kajabi

Sean Kim, chief product officer and president at Kajabi.
Sean Kim, chief product officer and president at Kajabi. Sean Kim.

Sean Kim left his role as head of product at TikTok in January to become the chief product officer and president at Kajabi, a platform that helps creators monetize digital courses, newsletters, online coaching, podcasts, and other content.

Why Kim made the switch: 

Kim joined TikTok in 2019, heading up product strategy at the company after working on product at Amazon. One of his focus areas at TikTok was building products for creator monetization.

"We've launched things like the Creator Fund," he said. "We launched a video gifting feature, similar to what we have in live gifting, for instance. We launched a tipping feature recently when I was there."

Kim's research on creator monetization at TikTok led him to learn about Kajabi, a creator economy unicorn that raised $550 million last year.

"With Kajabi, I had a chance to come into an earlier stage startup and get really involved with the strategy, and build trust to have a huge impact that could potentially help creators scale their businesses globally," he said.

"I think the demand for online content and information is only going to grow. That's why it's really the perfect time for Kajabi's business, and why I decided to join," he added. "While there are companies out there that provide tools and services for creators, I don't think there's a company out there that provides an all-in-one solution like Kajabi provides."

Read more: TikTok's former head of product is betting on fan monetization as the next big trend as he joins creator economy startup Kajabi

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Matt Koval: YouTube to Mighty Networks

Matt Koval smiling gray background
Courtesy of Matt Koval

Matt Koval left his position as head creator liaison at YouTube in March to join Mighty Networks, a startup that lets creators make money from courses and online communities.

Why Koval made the switch: 

Nearly a decade after Koval went to work at YouTube, he found himself taking a moment to consider his career. 

"I felt like I had learned just about everything I could possibly learn at YouTube, both about the platform and its creators, but also from a professional standpoint," he told Insider. "I learned as many skills as I could there."

But when it came to deciding his next move, he wasn't quite sure about a startup.

"Geez, aren't I supposed to be going to TikTok or some other huge platform?" he asked himself. "There's a lot of security in working for these big platform."

"Ten years later though, I'm willing to take some risks again and experience that rough water," he added.

So Koval decided to bid farewell to "big platform life" and joined Mighty Networks as SVP of creators. 

"Gina [Bianchini], the CEO, and I really hit it off around our concern around creator longevity," said Koval, who used to be a video creator, himself. "Creators on the big entertainment platforms really feel like they have to just keep running on that content treadmill, on that hamster wheel, to make a living."

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Annelies Jansen: Meta to Spring

Annelies Jansen president of spring sits on stool in video
Courtesy of Spring

Annelies Jansen was the vice president of commerce partnerships at Meta (formerly Facebook) for two years before she joined Spring, a creator merchandise and commerce startup, as president and COO in April. 

Why Jansen made the switch: 

"Many roads led to Spring," Jansen told Insider in April. "I've always been obsessed with social commerce."

While at Meta, Jansen said she and her team "fill the store and we enable the store."

Meaning, they would find people to sell their inventory and seek out strategic partners "to help the store run better," she said. 

In the process of seeking out commerce partners for Meta, Jansen met Chris Lamontagne, Spring's CEO, and the startup has partnered with Meta in a variety of ways over the past few years.

"I realized, here was a company that was there to do what I believe in — that digital can really unlock potential for individuals," Jansen said. "And in this case, unlock commercial potential as a creator."

"In Spring, I found a company who made the creator economy real to me," she added.

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Christen Nino De Guzman: TikTok to Clara

Christen Nino De Guzman poses in pink blazer
Alexey Reyes

Christen Nino De Guzman was part of TikTok's creator and community partnerships team before she left to launch her own startup, Clara, in January. Clara is a "Glassdoor for creators," where influencers can share rates, post reviews of brand partners, and make profiles.

Why Nino De Guzman made the switch:

"My entire career I've been building creator communities and that's been my whole job," said Nino De Guzman, who has also worked at Instagram and Pinterest.

Having worked in influencer marketing, at big tech platforms, and as a content creator, herself, Nino De Guzman felt "compelled and confident to go and launch something on my own."

"I wanted to create a platform where creators could be discovered by brands for their skills, talent, and content category niches," she said. 

She also wanted to build a tool that would let creators share reviews of brands and how much those brands pay in an effort to amplify pay transparency in the influencer industry. 

While working closely with creators at platforms like TikTok, "I would see a Hispanic creator getting paid half of what a white creator was being paid and the Hispanic creator would have more followers," Nino De Guzman told Insider in an earlier interview in January.

"It feels like such a turning point and there's so much opportunity," Nino De Guzman said about the creator economy in April. "Why wouldn't you take a chance and pursue something that you know people — creators — need?" 

Read more: How an ex-TikTok employee is using the app to market her new startup to potential users and investors

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Derek Reynolds: YouTube to Spotter

Derek Reynolds headshot smiling
Courtesy of Spotter

Derek Reynolds spent over five years at YouTube as its director and global head of business affairs for YouTube Originals. He joined Spotter in May as EVP of business and legal affairs. 

Why Reynolds made the switch:

Reynolds spent several years working in the entertainment industry, including for companies like Miramax.

"I wanted to move beyond that traditional media space into the creator economy space," Reynolds told Insider.

He added that he took the amount of capital being invested into the space as a sign to make the leap. 

Working at a startup like Spotter also offers him the opportunity for "professional growth," Reynolds said. "I found that I have much more exposure to so many different kinds of legal issues in deals."

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Colleen Stauffer: Pinterest to Creative Juice

Colleen Stauffer, Pinterest exec headshot smiling
Courtesy Pinterest

Colleen Stauffer left her role as global head of creator marketing at Pinterest to join Creative Juice, a fintech creator economy startup, in February. 

Why Stauffer made the switch:

During Stauffer's four-year tenure at Pinterest, she played a crucial role in building the platform's marketing team for creator-facing products and initiatives.

But after receiving a message on LinkedIn from Creative Juice, she took a step back and thought about her career. 

"I built something from the ground up within Pinterest," Stauffer told Insider. "This is an opportunity to build something truly from the ground up without those training wheels with bigger companies."

While she recognized the risk that accompanies joining a startup, Stauffer said she was comforted by who she would be working with, specifically Creative Juice's CEO and cofounder Sima Gandhi.

"There are not many female CEOs in Silicon Valley," Stauffer said. 

Stauffer's decision to leave Pinterest was also swayed by the ebbs and flows of the pandemic, she said. And like many other US workers who were part of the Great Resignation, Stauffer sought out something new.

"I'm just a little bit more of a risk-taker, but I think the pandemic also made me that," she said. "I do think the silver lining of the pandemic is this creator economy."

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Ryan Wyatt: YouTube to Polygon Studios

Ryan Wyatt, Polygon Studios.
Lens & Soul, LLC.

Ryan Wyatt left his role as global head of gaming at YouTube in February to serve as CEO at Polygon Studios, a division of the NFT and Web3 company Polygon that helps developers build games using blockchain infrastructure.

Why Wyatt made the switch:

Wyatt joined YouTube around eight years ago at the age of 27. He was tasked with building out the platform's gaming vertical, a content category that grew rapidly over the last decade.

As he looked beyond YouTube, he was drawn to the idea of joining a company that was still in its building phase. 

"I'm a builder and operator. I'm most excited when I'm doing that," he said. "Companies like YouTube reach a size and scale where you're touching billions of users, and so the building and innovating and operating stuff becomes less of a core focus."

Wyatt said he was drawn to Polygon Studios in particular after becoming an angel investor in Web3 upstarts and seeing demand across the business world for metaverse-style digital products.

"You're seeing more people spend time in these immersive digital worlds," he said. "I got very interested in that as a personal interest of mine."

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