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In 2023, creator and social agency Whalar Group announced an ambitious plan to create physical campuses for content creators to learn, make, and collaborate with their peers. Now the company is opening the doors to its first campus in Venice, Calif. this month with an additional location in Brooklyn launching this spring and a London location slated for 2026. Part production studio, part co-working space, part university, The Lighthouse is membership-based community designed to help creators and their teams level-up both their content and the businesses theyre building around it. If you look at [20th century German art school] Bauhaus, Andy Warhol’s Factory, Silicon Valley, all those moments where you had a gathering space for smart, curious, multi-hyphenate[s] created a generational shift for creative industries, says Jon Goss, president of The Lighthouse. That’s our goal: to be a place where people can find connection, find opportunities to collaborate, learn from experts and thought leaders, and learn from each other. And I think that enables the creator economy to go into its next chapter. The Lighthouses founding cohort in Venice includes 150 creators and creative professionals who will use the facilities for filming, editing, podcasting, screening, performing, and more on top of having access to educational classes and sessions covering topics including business management, how to staff a team, production workshops, wellbeing and personal growth, and more. Memberships will typically run for up to four years and those who have contributed to The Lighthouse by way of education, community building, and programming will have the option to remain members who can mentor the next generation of creators and creatives. [Photo: Yoshihiro Makino] For as long as the creator economy has been around (since 1997, by some suggestions) and for all the money pouring into it (estimates place its total addressable market reaching half-a-trillion by 2027), its still somewhat of the Wild West. Various platforms and agencies have sprouted up in droves to help creators monetize their content, sell products, and score brand deals. But whats often missing is a cohesive path toward professionalizing a creator business, particularly for the middle class of the creator economy. According to Influencer Marketing Hub, more than 50 million people worldwide consider themselves to be creatorsbut only 2 million would say theyre professionals, i.e. earning enough for it to be their full-time career. Granted, some creators will always keep what they do as a side hustle. But for those looking for a more solid foundation to scale up their businessesor even establish one in the first placeGoss sees The Lighthouse as a viable resource. The creator economy is being taken more seriously every year, Goss says. It just feels like centers of gravities going towards creators and the creator economy. I think more and more brands and media platforms and entertainment organizations are recognizing that every single day. It’s just inevitable. [Photo: Yoshihiro Makino] So our mission is to be an ecosystem for all those constituents, he adds, having those people all in the room together, actually having those conversations in real-time versus them happening in their echo chambers. Part of bringing the gap among those constituents are The Lighthouses founding brand partners Shopify, iHeartMedia, and Samsung providing programming and activations throughout the campus. Shopify will have a pop-up for creator brands to showcase their products. iHeartMedia will host a monthly live podcast onsite featuring emerging talent. And Samsung is outfitting the space with TVs and products. Whalar Group also struck a broader partnership with Tribeca Festival to have a vertical within Tribeca dedicated to the intersection of Hollywood and creators. That vertical will also translate into a year-round talk series at the Lighthouse Venice and Brooklyn. The Lighthouses cohorts are selected by a council of their peers. And Goss says they took a similar approach of careful curation with which brands and organizations they chose to partner with. They’re directly relevant to creators, to the creator economy, to the ability for creators to up-level and have a connection to them, Goss says. Brands are still a massive part of creators both in terms of the content they can create and the ability to generate revenue. To be sure, The Lighthouse isnt necessarily a novel concept. In 2012, YouTube launched Spaces which eventually shifted to a virtual and pop-up event model after the the company shuttered its physical locations post-pandemic. Popular content creator Casey Neistat launched his own attempt with Studio 368 in 2018 but a post on its Instagram last year stated it was time to pack it all up. [Photo: Yoshihiro Makino] Goss says theyve studied predecessors to The Lighthouse and he sees the difference being that what theyve built is a design-driven space for creators to do more than produce content. We’ve taken elements of hospitality and membership clubs and shared workspaces where cultural programming happens on a regular basis to keep driving community and conversations, Goss says. He also sees The Lighthouse succeeding by remaining as dynamic as the creator economy itself. This has to be a place of constant evolution, Goss says. When we talk about what will this place become, what will it mean for creators, not knowing the endless possibilities that can come is the exciting bit. Weve doubled down on providing this environment for all sorts of possibilities to happen.
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E-Commerce
Dutch Bros Inc. shares surged more than 27% in premarket trading Thursday after the coffee chain posted better-than-expected fourth-quarter results and announced plans to expand mobile ordering and food offerings. Revenue rose 34.9% to $342.8 million, surpassing Wall Street estimates. Same-store sales grew 6.9%, and adjusted earnings per share reached 7 cents, both exceeding expectations. The company forecasts 2024 sales between $1.555 billion and $1.575 billion, exceeding analyst projections. Our efforts to develop our foundational transaction driversinnovation, paid media, and our Dutch Rewards loyalty programare working, CEO Christine Barone said in a statement. We believe these efforts are contributing to current momentum and that there is considerable runway for further growth. Dutch Bros stock (NYSE: BROS) has risen more than 143% in the last 12 months. Expansion plans and growth strategy The fast-growing Starbucks rival has made significant strides in its expansion. Dutch Bros recently opened its 1,000th store and added 151 locations in 2024 alone, which is on the lower end of projections it had made early last year. With plans to now open at least 160 more shops this year, the company continues its aggressive growth strategy while increasing its advertising efforts and expanding its rewards program. Barone also highlighted future plans for mobile ordering and food offerings. We see a clear path forward, with multi-year transaction-driving initiatives that layer on top of this foundation, with opportunity to unlock throughput and ramp mobile order in 2025, she said. In 2026 and beyond, we are excited about opportunities with expanding our food offerings. Preserving culture amid growth As Dutch Bros continues to expand, the company said it remains committed to preserving its culture of friendly service, courtesy of the “broistas” (Dutch Bros’s term for baristas) who have been key to its success. As we expand [broistas] roles, we must consider how to do so in ways that continue to foster a fun and energetic work experience that assures we continue to attract and retain the very best people, Barone explained.
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E-Commerce
As a candidate last year, Donald Trump suggested he could easily conquer inflation and ease voters’ fears about the economy.“I will very quickly deflate,” he promised at a California rally. “We are going to take inflation, and we are going to deflate it. We are going to deflate inflation. We are going to defeat inflation. We’re going to knock the hell out of inflation.”Wednesday’s consumer price index report showed that inflation is punching back and President Trump could end up facing the same challenges that dragged down his predecessor, President Joe Biden.The annual inflation rate has risen in the three months since the November election to 3%, with gasoline prices climbing despite Trump’s claims that his return to the White House would signal increased oil production that would lower energy costs.Trump frequently makes far-reaching assertions about his power to bring about change only to find that it is no match for market forces. It’s a humbling reminder that even U.S. presidents are subject to the invisible hand of supply and demand, rather than the masters of it.Consumer sentiment measures suggest the public already sees Trump’s plans to expand tariffs as increasing inflation. On Wednesday, the president called for interest rate cuts, even though rate hikes by the Federal Reserve helped lower inflation that spiked at a four-decade high in 2022.The latest consumer price figures have unnerved economists and the financial markets because they suggest that strong consumer spending, solid job gains and a falling unemployment rate could reignite inflation. Steady demand, particularly from wealthier consumers, makes it easier for companies to keep raising prices.The cost of goods including toys and auto parts rose last month even before the imposition of tariffs. Trump has placed 10% tariffs on China, in addition to announcing the removal of exemptions on his 2018 steel and aluminum tariffs. There are also potential tariff hikes on Canada and Mexico and a potential executive order that would increase tariffs to match the import taxes charged by other countries.All of this means that baseline inflationary pressures could be at their highest level in decades.“Disinflation may be dead, and we may be looking at a higher rate of inflation than we observed for the 20 years prior to the pandemic,” said Joseph Brusuelas, chief economist at RSM, a tax and advisory firm.Trump’s call for lower rates puts him in opposition to Fed Chairman Jerome Powell.“If inflation goes up in general, we will use our tools, which is the interest rate, to bring it back down to 2% over time,” Powell told a congressional committee on Wednesday. Powell also said that Trump’s calls to lower rates wouldn’t sway the Fed.So far, the Trump White House’s main response to this challenge has been to blame Biden, an argument with a short lifespan as Trump is exerting more control over economic policy.“The Biden administration indeed left us with a mess to deal with,” White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said at Wednesday’s news briefing. “It’s far worse than I think anybody anticipated.”But Trump allies are also starting to float new ideas for tackling inflation. Standing in the Oval Office on Tuesday, billionaire Elon Musk, the head of the president’s Department of Government Efficiency, proposed $1 trillion in spending cuts this year.Musk, the world’s richest man who continues to control Tesla, X and SpaceX among other companies, wants to eliminate $1 out of every $7 spent by the federal government in order to bring the inflation rate to zero. It’s not clear based on lawsuits and Congress’ responsibility for government funding that Musk can deliver those savings.“If you cut the budget deficit by a trillion between now and next year, there is no inflation,” Musk said. “And if the government is not borrowing as much, it means that interest costs decline. So everyone’s mortgage, their car payment, their credit card bills, anything, their student debt, the monthly payments drop. That’s a fantastic scenario for the average American.”Such a steep cut might bring lower prices but also the pain of a sharp economic downturn.“That would be a roughly 4% of GDP cut to federal spending, all in one year,” said Michael Linden, a senior policy fellow at the Washington Center for Equitable Growth. “It would be an instant recession.”For now, markets are anticipating more inflation as consumer demand stays strong and Trump has yet to show how exactly his policies would keep prices low, as he promised to voters.The yield on the 10-year Treasury note jumped Wednesday to 4.62% in response to the inflation report, a sign that investors expect interest rates, growth and inflation to be higher in the coming months.Consumers also say that inflation will rise. Americans’ expectations of inflation over the next year have soared, according to the University of Michigan’s consumer sentiment survey. The February survey said that inflation this year will be 4.3%, up sharply from 3.3% the previous month. Many respondents mentioned tariffs as a concern.When asked Wednesday why Trump’s call for lower interest rates would temper inflation, Leavitt focused on what the president “wants” instead of what he would do.“He wants interest rates to be lower,” she said. “He wants inflation to be lower. And he believes that the whole of government economic approach that this administration is taking will result in lower inflation.” Josh Boak and Christopher Rugaber, Associated Press
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E-Commerce
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