17 Women Founders Innovating in the Creator Economy

2022 was a tough year to be a startup founder, particularly for women entrepreneurs.

Investments in US startups overall fell 35% year-over-year, Morning Brew reported based on data from Crunchbase and Prequin. And companies founded solely by women captured just 2% of the total capital invested in venture-backed startups in the US, down from 2.4% the year before, per PitchBook data.

At the same time, enthusiasm for creator-economy startups cooled — only four unicorns, or startups with a value of over $1 billion, were minted in 2022, as opposed to 11 the year before, data from VC fund Antler shows.

These trends have created a difficult climate for women founders in the creator economy, most notably first-time entrepreneurs who are actively fundraising.

Cynthia Ruff, who cofounded Hashtag Pay Me, a platform to benchmark pay for creators, said she saw a higher response rate from investors after she brought on a male cofounder while seeking investment in recent months.