8 recruiters who are helping tech and media talent get hired in creator economy jobs

Four recruiters in the foreground with a green gradient background.
Jennifer DeCastro/True Search, Matt Stevenson/33eleven, Kelly Gordon/Creative People, Calvin Yee/Egon Zehnder, Tyler Le/Insider
  • In our inaugural list, Insider is spotlighting 8 recruiters placing talent in the creator economy.
  • They work with platforms like Twitch, growth-stage startups like Patreon, and creators themselves.
  • Here are the recruiters to know if you are looking to get hired in the creator economy.
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As the creator economy becomes a more established industry nestled between media and tech, the space is burgeoning with rising stars and new talent.

Creators themselves are even building full-fledged companies around their content — take megastar MrBeast, whose media brand had 60 full-time employees as of April 2022, Rolling Stone reported.

Despite widespread layoffs across creator-economy startups and big tech corporations over the past year, there are jobs on the market — and recruiters still headhunting.

Insider is highlighting eight recruiters who are actively searching for leaders and emerging talent in the creator economy in 2023.

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Creative People, a recruitment agency headquartered in New York, has seen an uptick in companies reaching out for social media and influencer marketing roles, according to principal marketing agent Kelly Gordon.

"They really want someone who knows TikTok," Gordon said.

Companies are also on the hunt for senior talent with experience with content as well as scaling and monetizing consumer brands, said Jennifer DeCastro, partner at executive-search firm True Search.

DeCastro, who places talent across the consumer, media, and entertainment industries, and Gordon are among a handful of recruiters who source talent within the creator economy.

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Some startups are using recruiters for the first time.

"Generally, this space has less experience with recruiters since it is so young, so a lot of this job is education," said John McCarus, founder and president of recruitment firm Content Ink.

However, many companies in this space still manage their own recruiting in-house, or rely on word of mouth.

Paddy Galloway, who has been a YouTube consultant and strategist for five years, said that because the space has exploded in the past two years, it doesn't yet have a large professional recruiting infrastructure like other industries do. To help tackle this issue, Galloway built an online platform, YTjobs.co, to centralize recruitment for professionals on YouTube.

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"The biggest issue I keep hearing is companies have trouble finding the right people, maintaining the right people, building systems to retain people," Galloway said.

On top of the creator-led companies and the startups that cater to creator needs, traditional corporate brands are increasingly realizing the importance of hiring talent that has expertise in the social-media realm.

Here are eight recruiters who work with creators, startups in the creator economy, or traditional companies and brands to source talent in the creator space, listed alphabetically by firm:

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33eleven's Matt Stevenson is passionate about the intersection of media and technology — and especially Web3.

Man in plaid button down shirt smiling, pictured is Matt Stevenson of 33eleven
Matt Stevenson is the head of marketing at executive search firm 33eleven. Courtesy Matt Stevenson

Before joining 33eleven in 2021, Stevenson spent more than a decade working in the media industry for giants like Condé Nast and Time Magazine.

During those years, Stevenson said he grew "obsessed" with the "intersection of emerging technology and people." It just so happened that his brother, Al Stevenson, cofounded and ran 33eleven, an executive-search firm based in New York. The firm works with early-stage startups to companies post-IPO.

33eleven places leaders across the tech industry in various roles, including revenue, operations, product, engineering, data science, and partnerships.

Since joining the firm about two years ago, Stevenson has worked closely with the firm's Web3 and media clients, including Cafe Media, an ad-management service for creators, and CommentSold, a live-shopping startup. 

"What I typically look for in people when I'm talking to candidates, it's really about your transferable skillset," Stevenson said. Problem-solving skills and an innate sense of curiosity are the traits he looks for.

How to get in touch: "As recruiters, we are open on all channels, with most activity happening through email, LinkedIn, and Twitter," Stevenson said. But before you hit send on a cold DM or email, "do your research first and then craft thoughtful, specific messages that relate to the potential needs of the organization or search firm you are trying to connect with."

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John McCarus founded Content Ink, which specializes in digital commerce and the creator economy.

Man with glasses in puffer vest and long sleeve button down shirt smiling professionally, pictured is John McCarus of Content Ink
John McCarus is the founder and president of Content Ink. Courtesy John McCarus

Content Ink cares about "three C's" — content, commerce, and community — according to McCarus, founder and president of the New York-based recruitment firm. 

McCarus founded Content Ink in 2016 after working in social content for eight years and cofounding Digital Content Newfronts, a digital-video marketplace event that is now managed by Interactive Advertising Bureau. McCarus also spent years working in traditional media and print magazines.

Since launching, Content Ink has established relationships with creator-economy companies like TikTok, Jellysmack, and influencer-marketing firm Reach Agency, McCarus told Insider. While the firm does not focus on engineering, Content Ink covers everything else from product roles to commerce to marketing.

Recently, McCarus and his team have focused on creators' long-term business needs. 

"There are two niches that we are focused on within the creator economy that I think will continue to grow even during this downturn," McCarus said.

First is the intersection of commerce and content, such as building commercial businesses like their own products. The second is companies that help creators monetize more efficiently, McCarus said, pointing to Jellysmack as an example.

Content Ink is helping some creators directly scale, McCarus added. 

"Despite all of the shrapnel in the creator-economy space, the creators themselves are still growing," McCarus said. "The shift from an advertising-centric monetization to subscriber and commerce monetization that's happened over the last few years will insulate a lot of these businesses."

How to get in touch: Content Ink's website or McCarus' email is the best way to connect. 

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Kelly Gordon oversees recruiting on Creative People's marketing desk.

Woman with brown hair stands against a wall with black shirt and arms crossed; pictured is Kelly Gordon of Creative People
Kelly Gordon is a principal marketing agent at recruiting firm Creative People. Courtesy Kelly Gordon

Gordon is a New York-based principal agent at recruitment firm Creative People, which touts a mission of "humanizing the recruitment experience." Creative People is headquartered in New York, but also operates out of Los Angeles, Seattle, and Miami.

The agency works primarily with "high-growth" startups and brands, Gordon told Insider. Creative People has worked with creator-focused companies like link-in-bio unicorn Linktree, online-course startup Disco, and paid-subscriptions tool Patreon. Beyond creator-economy startups, the agency also places creator-centric roles at other major brands, filling roles in social-media management or influencer marketing.

Creative People also has an executive-search counterpart, Executive People, Gordon added.

Marketing and social media are two of Gordon's key focus areas. These days, brands want social strategists who go above and beyond, Gordon said — somewhere in between a social media manager and content creator. 

Candidates who stand out right now are people "who understand who's gaining traction on the different platforms" and, specifically, know what and who is blowing up on TikTok. Having a finger on the pulse of internet culture and speaking the lingo is crucial, she added, especially as brands seek out strategies for establishing online presences around authenticity. 

When reviewing candidates, Gordon looks at everything. Yes, she looks at work samples, but she wants to know a candidate beyond a resume, she added. Checking social-media accounts and reading what a candidate has written helps Gordon get a better feel for who a candidate is. 

How to get in touch: Reaching out over LinkedIn is a great way to contact Gordon, she said. But if you do, make it worth it — don't be afraid to brag! "Tell me the wins," Gordon said. "Telling as much of your story as possible up front is one of the key things to actually catch my attention."

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JT Barnett runs CreatorX, a headhunting firm that pairs brands with in-house creator talent.

JT Barnett, a content creator, sits at a desk with a hoodie and baseball cap on with hands folded near his laptop
JT Barnett is a creator, strategist, and founder of headhunting firm CreatorX. Diego Garcia

Not all brands go viral because of influencers posting about their products. Sometimes, it is the brand's own in-house content that's driving views and clicks.

CreatorX, a creator recruitment and headhunting firm founded by professional hockey-player-turned-creator JT Barnett, has a mission to find those in-house creators for brands. 

The idea for CreatorX came from Barnett's own experience acting as a consultant for brands through BarnettX. He was asked: "Can you find us creators that would want to run our brand accounts?"

Barnett put out an ask via a video on his own social-media account to gauge creators' interest.

"I woke up the next day with a thousand people that had applied," he said.

CreatorX now has a database of about 10,000 creators, Barnett told Insider. 

"The database that we created isn't people that want to be Jake Paul," he said. "They're people that want to be more like Jake from State Farm."

While a majority of the creators CreatorX places with brands come on as in-house content creators, those roles evolve, Barnett said.

"They go from being the creator to the creator plus the partnerships manager," Barnett said. Other creators have moved on to become a company's go-to influencer-marketing strategist or full-time social-media manager, he added.

CreatorX has placed creator talent at companies ranging from Microsoft to Best Western, Barnett said.

How to get in touch: In true creator fashion, Barnett uses a link-in-bio tool to compile all of the ways to reach him, including his LinkedIn, email, and a form to apply to join the CreatorX database.

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Egon Zehnder's Calvin Yee and Ashley Harding are seeing more consumer companies and CEOs tap creators and their business models.

Egon Zehnder's Calvin Yee and Ashley Harding appear in side by side images.
Egon Zehnder's head of global media and entertainment Calvin Yee (left) and consultant Ashley Harding (right). Egon Zehnder

Yee, who heads up the global media and entertainment practice at executive-search giant Egon Zehnder, advises legacy digital-media, social, and other consumer-facing companies in the creator space. He's placed creators in more traditional creative roles like design — an area his firm does a lot of work in — as well as other creator functions. 

He also has several clients who are prolific investors in tech. And he works with some talent who are looking to break into the space, such as former media CEOs, or emerging creators who are trying to monetize their influence.

Yee said "creator" may seem like this week's "digital" or "video" — pointing to previous trends and terms that have shaken up the corporate world — but it "represents a movement in business toward intention." The creator movement is unique in the fact that "anyone can do it," he added.

He looks at the space through two lenses: the more traditional creative side of the industry, and the emerging creator side that includes talent who are trying to elevate and monetize their influence.

Harding, who joined Egon Zehnder about a year ago from The New York Times after stints at Ralph Lauren, Gilt Groupe, and Procter & Gamble, works with the firm's consumer and chief marketing officer practices. Her work includes advising digital and direct-to-consumer businesses that want to know how they can tap into creators and what they can learn from creator-focused business models.

She said more clients are asking her what they should learn from the TikToks and OnlyFans of the world — "Is a 'there there'?" — and CEOs are trying to figure out how to keep up with the platforms to drive return on investment. There's demand for senior leaders who can answer those questions.

How to get in touch: Yee and Harding can each be reached through their respective bios on Egon Zehnder's website, which list their contact details and where to find them on social media.

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True Search's Jennifer DeCastro helps place senior talent at creator-focused companies like Twitch and Captiv8.

Woman in blouse leaning back in desk chair with medium length brown hair, pictured is Jennifer DeCastro of TrueSearch
True Search's partner Jennifer DeCastro. Courtesy True Search

DeCastro, who has been in the executive-search business for roughly two decades, places VP and C-suite talent across the consumer, media, and entertainment industries. She focuses on the intersection of entertainment and technology, which includes creator-focused companies.

She and her practice at True Search work with big companies including Spotify and Twitch to build out their senior leadership, as well as earlier stage businesses focused on creators, such as influencer-marketing company Captiv8 and music startup Soundstripe. The firm has about eight other staffers globally who are active in this space.

In 2023, DeCastro is seeing more companies that aren't part of the creator economy — such as direct-to-consumer or health and wellness brands — introduce roles or hire talent focused on creators.

"There's a big push for talent that understands the intersection of commercial growth and content innovation," DeCastro told Insider, adding that people with this experience are highly sought after among her clients for C-suite positions such as revenue, creative, or marketing chiefs.

She also said that while many of her clients aren't immune to the external factors causing this tumultuous time in the job market, she's had very "optimistic conversations" with them lately. They want to use this time to innovate and "take advantage of the great talent" they might not have had access to before — particularly at the C-suite level. 

As such, she said she's seeing new execs on the job market "land pretty quickly," including people who lost their jobs as part of the layoffs hitting the media and tech industries. 

"These are people that are high performers … that are very innovative, that are extremely competent," DeCastro said.

How to get in touch: Executive-level talent (senior director and above) can reach DeCastro over email or LinkedIn, or contact True Search's larger Games, Media, Entertainment, and Sports practice through the firm's website.

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Paddy Galloway is helping build a centralized recruiting platform for the YouTube space.

YouTuber and YouTube strategist Paddy Galloway with a YouTube plate celebrating reaching 100,000 subscribers.
YouTube strategist and creator of YT Jobs Paddy Galloway. Paddy Galloway.

Galloway works primarily as a strategist and consultant to some of the biggest YouTube personalities in the world, and a few traditional corporate brands.

Through his consulting work, he often takes on the role of recruiter by tapping into his network of connections within the creator economy.

"When I join a channel, I'll be asked, 'Who should we hire for this channel? Do you know any good COOs? Do you know any good thumbnail designers?'" Galloway told Insider. This has happened with Red Bull and other creator-specific companies, he said.

Because of the steep and quick growth of the space, and the overwhelming presence of young creatives in it, Galloway said clients find it difficult to hire and retain professional talent.

To tackle this issue, he recently started a job platform for YouTube-related roles, called YTJobs. Galloway hopes it will grow into a "one-click-hire" service that will provide YouTube talent for all kinds of companies.

In 2023, Galloway thinks creators and creator-led companies will scale at an even faster rate, growing into full-fledged media brands, despite the broader economic downturn impacting tech.

He also expects a larger number of traditional corporate brands to start hiring for roles that allow them to grow their presences on YouTube and social media broadly.

He sees a gap in the market for quality video-editing services for YouTube.

"There's a lot of people that learn video editing," he said. "But in terms of experience, the YouTube video editors, it's actually frightening how underserved that is."

How to get in touch: Galloway is particularly active on Twitter, @paddyg96. He can also be reached via email at paddy@paddygalloway.com.

Influencers Creator economy
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