Creators are asking for equity, not just a fee. Cherub puts the range at 0.1% to 3%

Talent agency Cherub now hands creators a number before they sign: an advisory stake of 0.1% to 3% at seed stage, set by how much work the creator does and how long the shares take to vest. Digiday reported the guideline this week, in a piece on creators who ask for ownership instead of a flat fee.

Cherub sets the advisory range at 0.1% to 3%

The spread is wide because the work behind it varies. A creator who posts twice sits at the bottom. One who helps shape the product, brings a distribution channel and stays for two years sits at the top. Inc. reported a narrower band, 0.1% to 0.5%, as the figure most often discussed at a recent creator summit. Neither range is a standard. Both are starting points in a negotiation that used to be about cost per post.

Alix Earle took a stake in Poppi in 2024

The clearest case is the soda brand Poppi, where Alix Earle came in as a strategic equity investor in 2024. That deal is now the reference other creators point to. It also shows the limit of the model, because a stake only pays if the company sells or raises at a higher price. A fee pays on invoice.

Driptail grew its user base 60 times between March and July

Driptail, a social shopping app for fashion, brought creators in as equity investors and saw its user base grow 60 times from March to July this year, according to Digiday. The company treated the shares as a distribution cost rather than a marketing one. That is the argument founders make: creators who own part of the business keep posting after the campaign budget runs out.

UTA and Baukunst now sit at the same table

The people quoted come from both sides. Aly Grant heads the creator division at UTA. Kate McAndrew is a general partner at the venture firm Baukunst. Maggie Sellers Reum of HSR Ventures put the risk plainly, telling Inc. that equity is the dessert and not the main course, in the original English. Nadya Okamoto, chief creator officer at Cherub, framed it as spreading her income beyond a single industry. Our own reporting on creator payouts passing 300 million dollars at Later shows how large the fee side of the market still is.

The people who gain are founders short of cash and creators with enough other income to wait for a sale. The people who lose are creators without that cushion, who trade a paid invoice for a share that may never convert. Brand marketers sit in between: an equity deal removes a line from the media budget, but it also removes the leverage that comes with paying the rates set at events like the London creator upfront.