This story was originally published in The Creators — a newsletter about the people driving the creator economy. Have it sent to your inbox.
First came the makers. Then the goods came. Many prominent social media personalities profit from their platforms, and one way they do that is by selling products associated with their brands. For example YouTubers MrBeast (103 million subscribers) has published a series of Chocolate bar. TikTok star Charlie D’Amelio (145.4 million) sells enough unique dress that someone could wear a different outfit every day for two months. Even Jonathan Graziano (4.5m)—Owner of Noodle, TikTok’s favorite pug who refuses to get up in the morning—posted Noodle-inspired fan shop including t-shirts, pillows and a children’s book called Noodle and the No Bones Day.
Many startups have entered this new market to streamline the supply chain for goods so developers can do what they do best – create content. This week, The Observer’s Rachyl Jones spoke with Ronak Trivedi, co-founder and CEO of Pietra, one of the companies driving this sector of the creator economy.
What Pietra does
“Pietra provides access to the unsexy back-end infrastructure needed to run a brand,” Trivedi said, as does locating the right manufacturers, warehouses, and shipping services. “So the socially savvy entrepreneur doesn’t have to worry about that.”
Trivedi, a 33-year-old Toronto native, came up with the idea while working as a product manager for Uber Pool, a sub-division of Uber that allows people to share rides at a lower cost. He saw how the next generation of grocery brands thrive on apps like Uber Eats and was inspired by the idea of virtual kitchens or restaurants hyper-optimized for delivery. At the same time, his friends were trying to launch their own product lines and he saw how little support was available to them. He combined this interest in supply chains with the resource gap he noticed to build Pietra.
Creators can launch their products with Pietra in a month or two and spend hundreds of dollars instead of thousands, he said. Creators pay the $39 monthly subscription to Pietra, which works with over 750 factories to create products that may contain Cat eye sunglasses, makeup blushand swimwear made from recycled materials. You can also pay for warehousing services and the $1 per item pick-and-pack fee and shipping. The experience is customizable, allowing a creator to opt out of any segment and take on that responsibility themselves. The company currently employs 20 full-time employees.
A new era of merch
In 2019, Pietra started collaborating with 25 creatives. Now more than 50,000 creators are taking an aspect of Pietra’s offerings, selling tens of millions worth of branded products, he said. Trivedi said he expects that number to double by the end of the year.
Niche products allow developers to build deeper relationships with their audience. Charlie Jordan (8.1m) used her travel experiences to see what people around the world were smoking and developed a business selling from it Smokable blunts filled with rose petals– for mental health.
Launching a consumer goods brand through one of these services isn’t just for celebrities. Isabella Grandic, a student at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, started a card game called “Boob blurb” that tries to normalize talking about women’s bodies and health. She sells the game at Pietra’s Ecommerce Marketplace which works like the online retailer Etsy for homemade products.
This interview was originally published in The Creators, a newsletter about the people who power the creator economy. Get it in your inbox before it’s online.
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