← The Digital Executive
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- [00:00]
A
Foreign. Welcome to Coruscant Technologies, home of the Digital Executive podcast. Do you work in emerging tech? Working on something innovative? Maybe an entrepreneur? Apply to be a guest at www.corazon.com brand welcome to the Digital Executive. Today's guest is Billy Wong. Billy Wong is the co founder of CreatorFi, a capital and data infrastructure platform that unlocks credit access for creators, music catalogs and gaming studios by underwriting future earnings. CreatorFi was incubated and developed out of Insomnia Labs, the technology firm Billy co founder that specializes in data, identity and revenue infrastructure for enterprise and digital economies. At Insomnia Labs, Billy built a large scale data and loyalty systems for for global brands like Coca Cola, Under Armour, l', Oreal, the International Cricket Council and Unilever Expertise that now powers CreatorFi's proprietary underwriting engine and creator credit scoring model. A serial entrepreneur with two successful exits, he brings enterprise scaling experience from WeWork and a track record of building products at the intersection of finance and technology. Billy focuses on creating financial access without dependency on platforms or intermediaries, helping creators retain ownership while scaling their businesses. He is also an active investor in fintech, data infrastructure and the emerging creator economy. Well, good afternoon Billy. Welcome to the show.
- [01:37]
B
Hey Ryan, it's great to be here.
- [01:39]
A
Absolutely my friend. I appreciate it. You're in New York, I'm in Kansas City. Appreciate you. Navigating calendars, time zones, etc. To get here makes huge difference to making the world a better place, as I like to say. So Billy, I'm going to jump into your first question. You've built large scale data and loyalty systems for brands like Coca Cola, l' Oreal and Under Armour. How does that enterprise level data Expertise translate into CreatorFi's proprietary underwriting engine and creator credit scoring model?
- [02:07]
B
I think the biggest thing that we've unlocked is using data, mass data to understand consumer behavior and using that in a way that can help us predict future earnings for creators. When we built things for Coca Cola and Under Armour, what we were really trying to understand was engagement loops, trying to predict when is the next time that they will come back and purchase an item. And in reality a lot of that predictive analysis machine learning models is very reusable with what we're building here now at CreatorFi, which is AI driven underwriting to predict future cash flows of creators. Something you think about is traditional credit scoring generally relies on W2s or some sort of how much money do you have a bank do you have in your bank account? And then taking a discount of that really trying to do is getting a little bit deeper, really trying to understand the growth trajectory of these creators using the rich kind of digital behavioral data that already exists on these platforms. And using that we're actually able to unlock significantly more funding, sometimes two to three times more funding for creators that are coming in through our pipeline using these type of predictive analysis.
- [03:20]
A
Thank you, really appreciate that. And your experience lends itself obviously to what you're doing now with creator fi and but using NAS data to of consumer data to do a lot of this purchase predictive analysis is, is really important. Engagement loops is a key factor in repurchase or revisit. So I appreciate those insights. And Billy, CreatorFi is pioneering credit access for creators, music catalogs and gaming studios by underwriting future earnings. What market gap did you see that made this the right moment to build a financial infrastructure layer for for creative ip?
- [03:55]
B
I think there's a couple of reasons and mainly I think the biggest thing is that we already seeing these types of financing products exist in some way, shape or form, but we really think that we can do a lot better. Mainly if you think about companies like Spotter who are effectively using more of a traditional licensing model and not a pure advanced model, we see that creators generally are willing to go down that path, but they actually lose out on significant amounts of revenue that they otherwise wouldn't be able to capture if they just took out a loan or took out an advance and believed in themselves to build out this platform. So one of the bigger things is kind of just the way that incumbents are treating creators, generally speaking. The second thing is that we believe, especially financing across different verticals, that we can create an ecosystem of cross pollination. And what that really means is, I'll give you an example, we have a really big record label that we're currently financing and we're actually helping them put their music inside of Roblox games in order to create more magnified reach for their labels and vice versa. We're seeing content creators reach out to game creators who are effectively using those games to drive traffic or create more content, get exclusive access. And so we kind of see this market as very fragmented in nature as a whole today, where a lot of these creators are, a lot of these existing financiers, look at these market as separate segments. But we really look at it as a whole. And by looking at it as a whole, we think we can really unlock a lot of value. So as a financier we're not simply being extractive, we're Actually helping them generate more revenue across these channels, which we think will be game changing and a big reason why a lot of creators have signed with us today.
- [05:51]
A
Thank you. Appreciate that. And I like how you did see that gap in this market and you took advantage of it and doing so with creator fi. But giving creators more earning opportunities is something that's exciting for them. And I liked your example of you're working with a music artist, putting their music in some of their Roblox games, which again, some more exposure, right. Some more impressions of that, music listens, etc. But the last thing I took away is looking at this holistically. You bring more value to the creator ecosystem here. So I really appreciate that. And Billy, you're working with music catalogs, YouTube creators and even UGC studios and Roblox and Fortnite. What differences and similarities do you see across these digital IP ecosystems when it comes to monetization and financing needs?
- [06:39]
B
Absolutely. I mean, that's a wonderful, wonderful question. I think that. Let's talk about the similarities first. When we think about content creator financing, really anybody with a computer, with a microphone, with a camera can be a content creator. Today we look at game developers just as a content creator, except that their creation aren't games. And it's something that they're able to create with 3D models and animation. But really, at the end of it, from a financing standpoint, it looks like a digital cash flow, right? It looks like a streaming royalty. And so for us, it looks very, very similar, especially on paper. But really where it starts to differ is the strength of the catalog, the strength of the collateral. For us, as financiers, as we kind of give some examples, music has been around for a lot longer, right? And the music industry traditionally has record labels or distributors that exist who are financing these typ of deals. Not to speak ill, but I think there are a lot of deals out there that are pretty predatory by nature where they take a lot of equity away from these musicians and we're giving them kind of an alternative to finance things themselves without diluting their ownership. And really that's the through line for us is we take hard stance on not diluting creators when they're creating this. Because today, yes, it might not be a big slice, but a lot of them are growing exponentially and we want them to capture that upside of their growth. The second thing I think that is very different between our different verticals would be on the type of monetization. So when you think about, for example, Roblox and Fortnite, you can actually bring brands into those games, right? You can actually monetize the sound, the experience, and even the exact gameplay and the core ui. All of those things are what we think is real estate that they can continue to monetize, which I think a lot of developers are not thinking about. For creators, they have something very similar, such as inventory on their TikTok shorts, for example. You can put music behind it, you can have brand placement, but it's a bit more limiting. Right. So based on kind of the diversity of revenue streams that we can see, we can get a lot more comfortable with certain types of underwriting. And so for us, like being able to kind of find all these very interesting nuances, understand what, where they can grow, and using that as the benchmark for our financing allows us to unlock more capital. And I think that's what's very exciting for us and I think how we can see ourselves winning in the space.
- [09:21]
A
Thank you. I appreciate that. You know, it's so cool. I think it's a great time that we're living in where anybody with a device can be a content creator, but you can't always make it big. Sometimes you need some help along the way, which is great. You're able to provide more options for financing or earning potentials through this. And I know you brought up that example, the music industry, and we all know about that. We could talk for hours, but you're offering an alternative here. I think that doesn't box people in and gives them more freedom and more earning potential. There's a lot of areas in social platforms and games you talked about that will bring in more revenue opportunities, and I thought that was great that you highlighted that. And Billy, the last question of the day, as we look ahead, what do you believe the future of the creator economy looks like, especially as AI generated content, decentralized identity, and new digital production tools expand? Who gets to create and monetize ip?
- [10:15]
B
It's such an interesting question. We see this every single day. Creators are using AI, for example, to translate their videos so that it becomes a global content base. We see, especially Roblox developers are leveraging AI to create 3D models, making it cheaper for them to actually create and animate inside their games. And we think this is actually really, really amazing because it's lowering the barrier of entry from. You may have to be technical before in the past, or you may have to have certain areas of expertise, or you need a larger production budget in order to create. AI is coming in and democratizing that, making it more composable and scalable for anybody who just has an idea to come in and create. And we really love that because it really is just going to come down to the imagination.
- [11:12]
A
Right.
- [11:12]
B
Of the creators. And I think that's going to be quite amazing. It does lower the barrier, but raises the quality bar where winners have to invest in the production and the marketing and the community more so than needing to learn how to code. Right. And I think that's very great equalizer in the future state of the creator economy. And I think for us, like how we see ourselves playing into that is being able to allow them to grow with the capital that they need, spending it more on that marketing and community building instead of it all being sunk into production. Right. And so it allows them to just focus more on taking this capital to grow, become more liquid. And I think that's going to be a huge win for creators and especially in this next generation where they can just think it and create it. And I think that's fascinating.
- [12:04]
A
That's awesome. Yeah, there's AI. We talk about this all the time. There's just so much that, so many options, so many things that you can do now in these different platforms. You mentioned developers leveraging AI to expand more creative options at a lower cost. But the big thing I think it's important is this vibe coding. Right. This no code where creators can actually do some of this stuff and not have to worry about hiring expensive developer or companies and allows the creators to focus really on what they do best, which is creating. So I really love your insights on that. Billy. Billy, I just want to let you know it was certainly a pleasure having you on today and I look forward to speaking with you real soon.
- [12:44]
B
Brian, thank you so much for having me. I had a wonderful time here speaking with you. Really excited for what's to come.
- [12:50]
A
Bye for now.