ON MIKE’S MIND:
Creators Redux: The Creator Economy Explosion: A Microcap Investor’s Jackpot
The Creator Economy is rewriting the rules of wealth creation at breakneck speed.
Valued at over $100 billion in 2023 and growing fast, this digital juggernaut turns TikTok stars and Instagram icons into brand titans overnight.
Exhibit A: E.L.F. Beauty’s staggering $1 billion acquisition of Hailey Bieber’s skincare line, Rhode, in 2025. From zero to unicorn in mere years, Rhode leveraged Bieber’s 80 million followers for instant market dominance.
Exhibit B: MrBeast Burger, launched by YouTube kingpin Jimmy Donaldson, which raked in millions through virtual restaurants fueled by his 200 million subscribers.
Exhibit C: Emma Chamberlain’s Chamberlain Coffee, a creator-driven brand now stocked in Walmart, proving personal influence can rival Big Coffee, faster than a Walmart checkout person.
Well, anything is faster than a Walmart checkout person.
The point I want to emphasize this week is that creators aren’t just influencers. They’re not just teens making duck faces into their iPhones.
They are economic disruptors, building empires via authentic audience trust, sponsorships, and product launches—often outpacing legacy corporations.
Are you watching their rise? Are you watching the brands rising with them? We are.
To Our Friends and to Our Co/Success,
Mike
THE MARKETS
Another fairly calm week in the books, I’m starting to miss the wacky volatility from April
S&P 500: +0.82, DJI: +0.76%, NASDAQ Composite: +0.61%
After believing the sky was falling last week, yields seem to be sliding back down instead
The 2-year fell 9 basis points to 3.90, while the 10-year fell 12 basis points to 4.39
Talks this week of Trump Media purchasing 1.5 billion in Bitcoin
BTC: -3.71%, ETH: -0.23%, XRP: -6.77%
WISE WORDS
"Life will have terrible blows, horrible blows, unfair blows, it doesn't matter. And some people recover and others don't. And there I think the attitude of Epictetus is the best. He said that every missed chance in life was an opportunity to behave well, every missed chance in life was an opportunity to learn something."
-Charlie Munger
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Reflections on the Week…
Friday morning, I came across this article from The Wall Street Journal on chocolate.
Cocoa prices, which I’ve been casually tracking since they began their steep ascent over a year ago, have surged into crisis territory. And as I read more about how chocolate makers and consumers are adjusting, a thought hit me: this might not just be a story about sweets.
It might be a preview of what living in a world shaped by tariffs, supply shocks, and economic friction increasingly looks like.
So let’s catch you up to speed.
Approximately 50-60% of all cocoa production occurs in just two countries, the Côte d’Ivoire and Ghana, with no other country even coming close. An exceptionally long rainy season combined with the outbreak of a devastating fungal disease. This one-two punch ruined what was supposed to be one of the biggest yields for the year.
As a result, supply dramatically fell, demand remained constant, and my Econ 101 class predicted that prices would have to rise, and so they did.
Things got even more complicated after the initial shock.
To protect farmers from market volatility, Ghana’s government uses a fixed pricing system for cocoa. However, with global prices now nearly three times higher, many farmers are finding ways to circumvent the system and secure better payouts.
Matching those prices domestically is simply not realistic, given the country’s budget constraints, which leaves the system under pressure and further fragments the supply.
Whether using shrinkflation or simply direct inflation in their pricing, chocolate manufacturers have had to get creative. But in a crowded market full of sweet alternatives, there's only so much pricing power to go around, lest you scare off your loyal customers.
This is what made the rise of Dubai chocolate so interesting to me; if a customer is gonna have to pay big, make it really big.
A Dubai chocolate bar isn’t your typical checkout-line candy. These are glossy, gold-accented confections often infused with ingredients like saffron, rose, pistachio, or 24-karat edible gold, more jewelry than snack. They’re crafted to look and feel expensive, and they rarely disappoint in terms of presentation.
What really set them apart, though, was the marketing. Dubai’s luxury chocolate scene exploded with the help of influencers and lifestyle creators who positioned these bars as status symbols, Instagram-worthy treats that blended indulgence with exclusivity.
In an era where social media can turn a dessert into a luxury item overnight, Dubai chocolate has become less about taste and more about the experience, and people have bought in.
And just recently, I saw these Reese’s PB&J Cups on the shelves. While not my personal preference, it seems to be a fitting response to the current situation with chocolate manufacturers. It’s a clever pivot: repackage a familiar favorite in a way that lowers reliance on cocoa, taps into childhood memories, and still feels like something new.
Moves like this show how brands are getting savvier, not just cutting costs, but reshaping their products in ways that feel intentional rather than compromised.
In a post-tariff world, I believe we’ll see even more inventive adaptations like these.
You can’t fully separate the American or European consumer from chocolate, but what we can do is channel that attachment into creative alternatives that dodge the worst of the supply pressures. Whether it’s the luxury sheen of Dubai chocolate or the nostalgic twist of PB&J Cups, these innovations hint at a broader shift in how we think about indulgence.
As both a consumer and an investor, that evolution excites me. It’s a reminder that disruption doesn’t just create problems, it opens doors for the next great idea.
The Savvy Investor…
Nuclear Stocks extend a rally due to Trump's expectations
Chips in the UAE? TSMC considers expansion
Big Banks want their own Stablecoin to compete
Publisher’s Note: Hollywood’s Future
Creators are shaking up Hollywood, too
Creators are bypassing Tinseltown gatekeepers, crowdfunding films, and streaming direct to fans, slashing production timelines and costs.
Not only that, they are building their own studios.
MrBeast Studios - with over 200 million subscribers, is building in Greenville, North Carolina. – his hometown.
Dhar Mann - a motivational creator and entrepreneur with over 20 million YouTube followers is building in Burbank, California, USA – positioned near Hollywood for access to talent and resources to fill out their inspirational shorts.
Night Studios - by Reed Duchscher, supported by influencers like MrBeast is building in Dallas – an emerging center for digital creators,
And the list goes on.
L.A. while gorgeous (and my home), has its issues. It’s damned expensive. Traffic. It tends to go up in flames now and then which is inconvenient. And California is not the most business friendly state in the nation.
So Hollywood is heading out over the hills and setting up soundstages elsewhere.
And the march is being led by creators, not traditional production houses, studios, agencies or movie moguls.
Industries are shifting, from the rain forests of Africa to the Hollywood Hills - faster than a speeding bullet.
Adam
Publisher, The Co/Investor Club
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