At HotStart VC, we're more bullish on this space than ever. That's why I wanted to share three predictions for what's coming in 2026. These aren't wild guesses - they're patterns we're already seeing in our deal flow and actively investing behind. Some of these shifts are natural progressions of current trends, while others represent complete reversals of traditional celebrity brand playbooks.

While single celebrity or creator founders will continue to dominate headlines, I expect 2026 to see many more brands launched by collectives.

Prime by Logan Paul and KSI proved the model. By combining their audiences, they built a billion-dollar beverage brand faster than any single creator could. Different demographics. Different geographies. Different content styles. All pointing to one brand.

But that was just the beginning. In 2026, we'll see brands launched by 3-10 creators as co-founders, not just two.

Why does this work? Simple math. Ten creators with 2M followers each isn't just 20M in reach. It's 10 different audience segments, 10 different content styles, 10 different trust relationships. The CAC drops to near zero while the authenticity multiplies.

(Spoiler alert: We're incubating one of these multi-creator brands at HotStart VC right now. Details coming soon.)

In addition to more co-founders, I think we'll see more companies implement Creator Stock Option Pools (CSOPs), including celebrity and creator-founded brands themselves.

Instead of granting equity to one celebrity or creator, brands are setting aside 10-15% of their company to onboard multiple creators or celebrities as co-owners. It's like an ESOP, but for influence instead of employment.

One of our portfolio companies, FYR, nailed this model. The live-fire cooking brand was co-founded by Derek Wolf (9M followers). You'd think that was enough reach. Instead, Wolf brought in 20 other top cooking creators as equity partners. Combined reach: 50 million followers generating 1 billion monthly impressions.

What's brilliant about FYR's structure? These creators normally compete for the same brand deals, same audiences, same shelf space. Now they're aligned, building one category-defining brand together.

Creator collectives spread risk, multiply reach, and create competitive moats that single-founder brands can't match. The traditional model - one celebrity, one brand - is becoming just one option among many.

For years, the celebrity brand playbook was predictable: Launch makeup, tequila, or athletic wear. But 2026 marks a fundamental shift. Celebrities and creators are choosing to build software companies instead of CPG brands.

Steven Bartlett didn't launch another supplement brand. He built FlightCast, an all-in-one platform for video podcasters. Grace Beverley, after building successful fashion brands, launched Retrograde, an AI-powered talent management platform.

The economics explain everything:

CPG Reality:

Tech Universe:

But here's what actually changed: The barriers to building tech have collapsed.

What once required millions in funding and teams of developers can now be built in weeks. AI coding assistants write production-ready code. No-code platforms handle complex applications. Cloud infrastructure eliminates upfront costs.

Grace Beverley saw this opportunity firsthand. After years juggling brand deals and agency relationships, she knew the talent management industry was broken. Agencies taking 20% for outdated services. Creators getting terrible deals. Brands struggling to find partnerships.

Her solution? Retrograde uses AI to handle everything from outreach to negotiation at a fraction of traditional costs. She's not selling to consumers - she's rebuilding the infrastructure of her own industry.

Steven Bartlett experienced similar frustration managing his podcast across multiple platforms. So he partnered with ex-MrBeast engineer Rox Codes to build FlightCast, a unified distribution, analytics, and AI tool for podcasters.

These aren't lifestyle businesses. They're infrastructure plays with venture-scale potential.

The first wave of creator & celebrity brands came from tier-ones. The MrBeasts, Kardashians, and Hailey Biebers with hundreds of millions of followers.

But I expect 2026 will see many more niche creators with specific audiences and real problems to solve raising significant funding rounds.

Tayla Cannon just proved this. A physiotherapist with 140K followers - not millions - raised $1.1M from Slow Ventures to launch Rebuildr, reimagining physical therapy delivery.

She grew her audience sharing the integrated rehab approach that fixed her chronic back pain. Demand exploded: 1,000+ DMs, 350 PTs requesting beta access. Now she's modernizing the $48B physical therapy industry.

This is the key insight: Creators don't need millions of followers to build venture-scale companies. They need three things:

When your followers are your actual target market, 140K engaged users beats 140M casual viewers.

Cannon isn't monetizing attention. She's rebuilding healthcare delivery. That's the difference between lifestyle business and infrastructure play.

We'll see this pattern accelerate in 2026. Creators with 50K-500K highly engaged, niche audiences raising $1-3M+ rounds. Why? Because investors finally understand that depth beats width. A creator who owns a specific community can build a billion-dollar business faster than someone with generic mass appeal.

The infrastructure for celebrity and creator brand dominance is being built in real-time.

More operators are entering the space, co-founding companies alongside celebrities and creators. More funds are being raised specifically for this category, including ours. More proven playbooks are emerging from successful exits.

The result? 2026 will see more successful celebrity and creator-founded brands than all previous years combined.

But the winners won't look like the past. They'll be creator collectives, not just solo founders. They'll build software alongside CPG. They'll come from niche communities as much as mass audiences.

The creator economy isn't just growing - it's evolving into something more sophisticated, more valuable, and more permanent than anyone predicted.

The question isn't whether creators will dominate consumer brands. It's which creators will capture the most value in the transition.

What's your prediction for celebrity and creator brands in 2026?

The latest episode of the HotStart VC Podcast is here. This week, I’m joined by Gabriel Jarrosson, founder of Lobster Capital and a YouTuber who used daily content to deploy more than $35M into Y Combinator startups and is now raising a $50M second fund. 

In this episode, Gabriel breaks down how publishing one YouTube video per day helped him mobilise 900 investors, why the angel syndicate model breaks down when YC rounds close in 24 hours, and how media has become his primary competitive moat for accessing the top 2% of YC deals. We also talk about why he walked away from 1,100+ French-language videos and 44,000 subscribers to start over in English, why most VC podcasts fail, and why he believes distribution, not capital, is the real edge in venture going forward. 

Now available on YouTube, Spotify, and Apple Podcasts. 

Excited to announce I'll be doing a keynote at the 1 Billion Followers Summit in Dubai this January. The topic: What Makes Creator-Founded Brands Succeed.

I'll be sharing what I've learned at Hotstart VC about what separates the creator brands that win from the ones that fail. Real examples. Real takeaways. We'll dig into brand authenticity, timing, business fundamentals, and why strategic alignment between the creator's persona and their product matters more than most people think.

If you're going to be at 1BFS or in Dubai and want to connect, let me know. Would love to meet in person.

About HotStart VC

HotStart VC is launching a new fund to invest in brands founded by celebrities and creators. We’re building the go-to platform for creators and celebrities launching brands, providing capital, strategic support, and the infrastructure to scale.