Co-Founder @ Measure Studio 📈 AI-Powered Social Media Insights

I’m a 3x entrepreneur and M&A advisor who helps founders sell their businesses.

👋 WHY ME?

After I sold my first startup (Paladin), several founder friends reached out to me. They wanted to know what it was like and what I learned in the process.

A few of them were thinking about selling their companies and asked if I would help. After all, I understood the industry and probably knew most of the potential buyers.

So I agreed to help a few of those friends and found myself with a new side hustle as a boutique investment banker.

After cutting my teeth on a few deals, I realized how much I love working with entrepreneurs, so I made it official and launched my own M&A advisory practice: Quartermast Advisors.

🤝 WHAT I OFFER:

I help my clients manage the entire M&A process from start to finish, which includes:

✭ Preparing your materials (management presentation, financials, etc.)
✭ Identifying and getting in touch with the right buyers
✭ Negotiating the deal structure and economics
✭ Coordinating with legal and tax experts to protect your interests
✭ Asking thoughtful questions and providing useful advice along the way

🤔 WHY WORK WITH AN M&A ADVISOR?

Research shows that hiring a banker results in ~25% higher valuation premiums, on average.

It also frees founders up to continue operating the business and hit their targets. There's nothing worse than poor company performance during a sales process, so it's often more valuable for the team to focus on delivering good results rather than managing M&A discussions.

👨‍💻 WHO I HELP:

I stick to what I know: digital media, tech, and the creator economy. I’ve helped sell influencer agencies, talent management firms, enterprise SaaS companies, and more.

If you’ve been approached or are just thinking about selling your company now or in the future, shoot me a note. I’d be happy to chat and answer any questions.

If I’m the right fit, I’d love to help you out. And if I’m not, I’ll gladly point you in the right direction.

💬 I'VE BEEN FEATURED IN:
- Business Insider
- Digiday
- eMarketer
- Forbes
- Net Influencer
- New Economies
- PRWeek
- Scalable
- The Information
- The Publish Press
- TheWrap
- They Got Acquired
- Tubefilter
…and more

📢 I'VE SPOKEN AT:
- 1 Billion Followers Summit
- Consumer Electronics Show (CES)
- Digital Entertainment World (DEW)
- Digital First
- Digital Hollywood
- DMEXCO
- Social Media Week
- VidCon
- Youth Marketing Show (YMS)
…and more

James Creech

That’s a wrap on my first 1 Billion Followers Summit in Dubai! 🇦🇪

Three days of nonstop momentum. Coffee meetings, panels, late nights, and afterparties.

A true whirlwind. I’m leaving with a deeper appreciation for the opportunity in MENA, and more friends than I arrived with.

𝐅𝐑𝐈𝐃𝐀𝐘
Kicked things off with my first panel, “Fixing Creator Payments Globally.” A fantastic conversation with Germán López, Amina Taher, and Kwadwo Owusu-Agyeman.

Hats off to our world-class emcees, AJ Eckstein and Shira Lazar!

Back-to-back meetings that afternoon. Catching up with old friends and making new ones. 

That night, Sebastian Wulff and I hosted an exec networking mixer alongside Althea Lim and Cordell Broadus from Gushcloud International. We ended up WAY over venue capacity… but decided to ask for forgiveness instead of permission.

Big thanks to our sponsors Ilia Dronov (Fundmates) and Arjun Pande (.Store Domains) for making it happen!

After that, it was off to the 1BFS speakers’ dinner in the desert. Certainly an unforgettable experience (IYKYK). Shoutout to Reuven Ashtar, Timothy Goodman, Will Baumann, and Arthur Leopold for being great company throughout.

𝐒𝐀𝐓𝐔𝐑𝐃𝐀𝐘
Meetings. More meetings. And then… a few more meetings.

Snuck away in the afternoon to explore the Museum of the Future and refuel with pistachio gelato. 🍦

Got interviewed for Career Ladder 🪜, then back to the room for emails and a quick nap.

Incredible dinner at Chic Nonna, then off to Sherry Wong’s Creators & Operators party. Loved catching up with Ollie Forsyth, Kathleen Grace, Kimber Mowery, and others.

Assembled a rag-tag band of scoundrels (Jacques Keyser, Ivana Kirkbride, and Sebastian Wulff) and headed to the Palm for the "Inner Circle" after-party. 

Big thanks to Lukas Steiner, Didrik M. A. Svendsen, Philip Madero Hammarskiöld, Lucas Kollmann, and Tobias Hoss for hosting. Those Europeans know how to throw a party!

Back to the hotel. Crash.

𝐒𝐔𝐍𝐃𝐀𝐘
Spontaneous breakfast with Melissa Grabiner and her husband Craig. So great to finally meet in person!

Took the stage for a keynote on the State of Creator Economy M&A. Shared data on recent acquisitions, key trends, and predictions for 2026.

Moderated a panel on “Why Creators Can’t Get Funded." Eric Kullberg, George Gachara, and Criswell Fiordalis dropped some knowledge about funding options for creator-led businesses.

Had a delicious Lebanese lunch, followed by a few final meetings and a fun hang with Brittany Li and Abby Ho.

---
Huge thank you to Jim Louderback, Nizar Salman, and Dina Aylabouni for making the entire event possible. I had an amazing time and am already looking forward to next year!

Founder, Quartermast Advisors 🤝 We help entrepreneurs maximize their M&A outcomes. 🚀 Co-Founder, Measure Studio 📈 AI-powered social media insights.💡

I'm giving a keynote about the State of Global M&A in the Creator Economy tomorrow at the 1 Billion Followers Summit. Here's a preview:

🚀 2025 was a record year for creator economy acquisitions, with 81 deals completed (+17% YoY).

📈 Transaction sizes continue to climb, led by headline deals like Bending Spoons x Vimeo ($1.38B), Later x Mavely ($250M), and Publicis x Captiv8 ($175M).

👩🏻‍💻 Software companies are most in demand (26%), followed by Agencies (21%), Media (16%), and Talent Management (14%).

🌎 The U.S. dominates M&A activity, accounting for 71% of all transactions.

I'll also share typical valuation multiples, buyer archetypes, and practical tips for founders considering an exit.

Please join me tomorrow if you're interested!

Sunday, Jan 11th at 11 am on the Binance Stage.

After my talk, I'll be moderating a panel about Why Creators Can't Get Funded with the incredible Criswell Fiordalis, George Gachara, and Eric Kullberg, so please join us for that as well!

Takeaways from Slow Ventures' Creator CEO Summit:

➊ Depth over breadth. Epic Gardening has proved how obsessing over a niche can unlock outsized scale and long-term value.

➋ Content is the wedge, not necessarily the entire business. Many of the best creator companies use content to earn trust, then evolve into operating businesses with real products, teams, and systems.

➌ Mary Heffernan from Five Marys Ranch gave a masterclass on building and monetizing an online community. Some of her pearls of wisdom:

When it comes to content: "Share the good and the bad, but not the ugly."

"We don't get a lot of haters, but I try really hard not to invite them. We don't soap box."

➍ Timing is everything. Several founders emphasized restraint, waiting for the right product, timing, and capital structure instead of launching too early.

➎ Early-stage progress looks messy, but that's okay. Getting the train moving requires solving real problems for a specific audience, even when the path isn’t linear.

➏ There’s no single creator-to-company playbook. Pet grooming, dental health, and entertainment founders all took different paths. What mattered was alignment with their audience’s needs.

➐ The best creator businesses feel inevitable in hindsight. They start small, stay focused, and earn the right to expand, rather than chasing scale over substance.

Unofficial afterparty at Mao's Kitchen, which is hands down the best Chinese food in LA. 🥡

Shoutout to Megan Lightcap and Billy Parks for organizing such a great event!

Missed my keynote at the 1 Billion Followers Summit?

I broke down the data from all 81 creator economy acquisitions last year. Here are the highlights:

📈 Annual deal volume increased 17% YoY, resulting in the biggest year on record for creator economy M&A.

🌍 North America dominated, with 71% of transactions, followed by Europe (21.5%) and Asia (3.8%).

🤝 Primary acquisition targets included software (26%), agencies
(21%), media (16%), and talent management (14%). Despite rising deal volumes, the category mix remained remarkably consistent YoY, suggesting broad-based conviction rather than a single trend-driven surge.

💰 Average transaction sizes increased meaningfully, and landmark deals like Bending Spoons x Vimeo, Later x Mavely, and Publicis x Captiv8 set strong valuation benchmarks.

🔮 We expect even more deals in 2026, driven by an increase in creator-founded company exits, more picks-and-shovels acquisitions, and non-endemic buyers entering the space.

I also break down typical valuation multiples, buyer archetypes, and practical tips for founders planning for an exit.

🔗 Watch the full presentation here: https://lnkd.in/guN_7sAB

---
I'm James Creech, Founder of Quartermast Advisors. We help media, tech, and creator economy founders maximize their exit outcomes.

👍 Like this post to help me.
🔥 Repost to help others.

It’s been an explosive start to the year for creator economy M&A. 🧨 

16 transactions were announced in the past month alone — a 78% YoY increase compared to Jan 2025.

To be fair, January is typically one of the busiest months for M&A announcements, as many late-Q4 deals are shared after the holidays. Still, the momentum is hard to ignore.

Below is a complete list of creator economy acquisitions from the past month.👇

𝐀𝐠𝐞𝐧𝐜𝐲 🤝
• PMG acquired IM agency Digital Voices
• YKONE and Mirror Mirror Paris merged to form ONE Group
• Gushcloud International acquired IM agency Talent Plus
• Residence acquired creator-first social agency OK COOL
• YKONE acquired social and IM agency FAB STUDIO

𝐂𝐨𝐦𝐦𝐞𝐫𝐜𝐞 🛍️
• Rich Sparkle Holdings acquired Khaby Lame's live commerce co. Step Distinctive for a reported $975M

𝐌𝐞𝐝𝐢𝐚 🎥
• Global acquired sports media co. The Overlap
• NowThis acquired creator media co. Salary Transparent Street for a reported "7-figure acquihire"
• SuperAwesome acquired kids audio co. Starglow Media
• Katie Gatti Tassin bought back her "Money with Katie" blog and podcast from Morning Brew
 
𝐒𝐨𝐟𝐭𝐰𝐚𝐫𝐞 👨‍💻
• Blue Zones acquired creator meal planning & community app Lighter
• Cloudflare acquired AI data marketplace Human Native
• Kolsquare | B Corp acquired IM platform Storyclash
• WSC Sports acquired sports marketing platform Partnerbrite for an estimated $10M

𝐓𝐚𝐥𝐞𝐧𝐭 𝐌𝐚𝐧𝐚𝐠𝐞𝐦𝐞𝐧𝐭 ⭐
• Fixated acquired Ellify Talent Agency
• UnderCurrent Talent acquired Next Step Talent*

*𝘕𝘰𝘵𝘦: 𝘐𝘮𝘢𝘨𝘦 𝘢𝘤𝘤𝘪𝘥𝘦𝘯𝘵𝘢𝘭𝘭𝘺 𝘩𝘢𝘴 𝘣𝘶𝘺𝘦𝘳 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘵𝘢𝘳𝘨𝘦𝘵 𝘳𝘦𝘷𝘦𝘳𝘴𝘦𝘥. 𝘈𝘱𝘰𝘭𝘰𝘨𝘪𝘦𝘴 𝘧𝘰𝘳 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘵𝘺𝘱𝘰! 𝘓𝘪𝘯𝘬𝘦𝘥𝘐𝘯 𝘸𝘰𝘯'𝘵 𝘭𝘦𝘵 𝘮𝘦 𝘦𝘥𝘪𝘵 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘪𝘮𝘢𝘨𝘦 𝘢𝘧𝘵𝘦𝘳 𝘱𝘰𝘴𝘵𝘪𝘯𝘨.

All signs point to another record year for creator economy M&A!

---
👋 I'm James Creech, Founder of Quartermast Advisors. We help media, tech, and creator economy founders maximize their exit outcomes.

👍 Like this post to help me.
🔥 Repost to help others.

Our 2026 Creator Economy M&A Report is out now!

We analyzed all 81 creator economy acquisition from 2025 to understand the key trends shaping the future of this rapidly growing industry.

Here are just some of the highlights:

𝐓𝐫𝐚𝐧𝐬𝐚𝐜𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐕𝐨𝐥𝐮𝐦𝐞 📈
Creator economy M&A activity exploded during the pandemic (2020–2022), and then remained fairly steady in subsequent years. Deal volume surged again in 2025, with a record-setting 81 deals (+17% YoY).

𝐓𝐚𝐫𝐠𝐞𝐭 𝐏𝐫𝐨𝐟𝐢𝐥𝐞𝐬 📋
Software companies are the most popular acquisition targets (26%), followed by Agencies (21%), Media (16%), and Talent Management (14%).

𝐆𝐞𝐨𝐠𝐫𝐚𝐩𝐡𝐢𝐜 𝐃𝐢𝐬𝐭𝐫𝐢𝐛𝐮𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 🌎
North America is the most active M&A market by far. International deal volume dropped last year, but we hope to see it rebound in 2026.

North America: 56 deals (71%)
Europe: 17 deals (21%)
Asia: 3 deals (4%)
Australasia: 2 deals (3%)
South America: 1 deal (1%)
Africa: 0 deals (0%)

𝐕𝐚𝐥𝐮𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐌𝐮𝐥𝐭𝐢𝐩𝐥𝐞𝐬 💰
Software valuations are based on annual recurring revenue (ARR), while service businesses trade on an EBITDA multiple.

Agency: 5.3x - 9.2x EBITDA (7.1x median)
Media: 8.0x - 17.0x EBITDA (11.6x median)
Software: 3.2x - 10.7x ARR (5.8x median)
Talent Management: 4.0x - 8.0x (6.0x median)

👉 Get your free copy of the full 39-page report here: https://lnkd.in/gTd9xP6K

Thank you Sydney Bradley at Business Insider for sharing our latest research!

And special thanks to our sponsors for making this report possible:

𝐆𝐨𝐥𝐝 𝐒𝐩𝐨𝐧𝐬𝐨𝐫𝐬: Electrify Video Partners, NEW ECONOMIES

𝐒𝐢𝐥𝐯𝐞𝐫 𝐒𝐩𝐨𝐧𝐬𝐨𝐫𝐬: .Store Domains, Favikon

𝐁𝐫𝐨𝐧𝐳𝐞 𝐒𝐩𝐨𝐧𝐬𝐨𝐫𝐬: Creator Authority, Fundmates, & They Got Acquired

The creator economy is Wall Street ready.

Ian Shepherd's latest Forbes article emphasizes how our industry is maturing into a scalable, investable ecosystem with strong business models, owned IP, and defensible moats.

It's characterized "not just by explosive growth, but by investor conviction."

Our team at Quartermast Advisors agrees. As we enter 2026, acquirers are prioritizing profitable growth and defensible long-term business models over raw scale or audience reach.

This shift favors companies with operational maturity, diversified revenue streams, and strong unit economics. We expect more high-conviction deals, further cementing the creator economy as a durable and investable asset class.

Thank you, Ian, for sharing your perspective as an active investor in the space and highlighting the research from our 2026 Creator Economy M&A Report!

Read the full article here: https://lnkd.in/gQFBS9k8

Special thanks to our sponsors for making our 2026 Creator Economy M&A Report possible:

𝐆𝐨𝐥𝐝 𝐒𝐩𝐨𝐧𝐬𝐨𝐫𝐬: Electrify Video Partners, NEW ECONOMIES

𝐒𝐢𝐥𝐯𝐞𝐫 𝐒𝐩𝐨𝐧𝐬𝐨𝐫𝐬: .Store Domains, Favikon

𝐁𝐫𝐨𝐧𝐳𝐞 𝐒𝐩𝐨𝐧𝐬𝐨𝐫𝐬: Fundmates, Creator Authority, They Got Acquired

NEW ECONOMIES is hands down one of my favorite newsletters.

Former VC and active angel investor Ollie Forsyth covers technology shifts across AI, the creator economy, and venture capital and shares fascinating founder stories.

That's why we were thrilled to partner with him for our 2026 Creator Economy M&A Report. 

Make sure to subscribe if you're not already! https://lnkd.in/gNX3-dvU

Special thanks to New Economies and all our sponsors who made the report possible:

𝐆𝐨𝐥𝐝 𝐒𝐩𝐨𝐧𝐬𝐨𝐫𝐬: Electrify Video Partners, NEW ECONOMIES

𝐒𝐢𝐥𝐯𝐞𝐫 𝐒𝐩𝐨𝐧𝐬𝐨𝐫𝐬: .Store Domains, Favikon

𝐁𝐫𝐨𝐧𝐳𝐞 𝐒𝐩𝐨𝐧𝐬𝐨𝐫𝐬: Fundmates, Creator Authority, They Got Acquired

Daniel Markovits

Creators + Community + Sports @ LinkedIn | Venture Scout | I help CEOs, execs, VCs, athletes & brands stand out and build authority

I’m a community builder and strategist obsessed with how people - founders, execs, athletes, creators - show up online and build trust at scale.Today, as CCO at Shake, I help B2B founders turn their ideas, experiences, and point of view into a content engine that drives authority, credibility, and long-term organic demand. We call it founder-led marketing: using the founder’s voice as the most powerful acquisition channel a business has. When done right, it makes sales easier, trust faster, and brand-building more human.Before Shake, I spent years at LinkedIn shaping how top leaders show up on the platform. I worked across editorial, product, and creator partnerships. Onboarding world-class talent like Lewis Hamilton, helping executives communicate with clarity and personality, and launching scaled video programs that grew community engagement across markets. I’ve supported 500+ high-impact members, from CEOs to rising operators, helping them grow their audience, sharpen their story, and build influence that actually moves people.My path has never been linear.. I’ve simply followed what made me curious: how communities form, how stories spread, and how the right piece of content can unlock opportunities for people. That curiosity has taken me from Tel Aviv to London and through roles that mix editorial instinct, product thinking, and deep talent partnership.At the core, my work has stayed the same:I help people communicate with more clarity, more confidence, and more humanity - so they can build the kind of presence that opens doors.If you care about founder-led marketing, storytelling, or the future of how leaders build trust online, we’re already speaking the same language.

Co-Founder

Club created to serve as a continuous bond between the diaspora community and the State of Israel.

• Successful crowdfunding campaign & world wide media coverage
• 150+ players from 25 different countries 
• Currently in Liga Gimel (5th division) of the Israeli Football League

Dani Markovits

LinkedIn just became even more important.

AI systems like ChatGPT, Google AI, and Perplexity now cite LinkedIn as their second most-referenced domain

(right after Reddit and ahead of Wikipedia).

This has huge implications for your business.

When potential clients ask AI: 'Who are the leading experts in (your industry)?' or 'what companies should I trust for (your service)?, the answer is being shaped by LinkedIn content right now.

Discovery is shifting:
➡️ From search → to synthesis
➡️ From ads → to authority
➡️ From brand pages → to people with real track records and opinions

This is especially important/relevant for businesses built on trust: B2B, tech, professional services, finance, cyber, healthcare, and more.

Your thought leadership isn't just building your personal brand anymore. It's training the AI systems that are pre-qualifying you before prospects ever reach your website.

The decision is being made in the AI conversation, not on your homepage.

This is exactly why, at Shake Content, we focus so heavily on helping founders and execs show up with real expertise, real stories, and real perspective.

bottom line: your prospects are having conversations with AI whether you like it or not.

The opportunity? This shift is still early. Most of your competitors aren't thinking this way yet.

s/o to Irina Novoselsky & Becca Chambers for already beating this drum👏

CCO @ Shake Content | Ex LinkedIn | I help CEOs, execs, VCs & brands stand out and build authority on LinkedIn

Had a great catch-up with Jason Jung 정세진 at the Netflix office yesterday. 

We first met when I was at LinkedIn and he was at TikTok. Now he’s at Netflix and I’m building Shake. 

Funny how much changes, and how much doesn’t.

Still talking creators, content and platforms… just with different logos behind us.

Grateful for friends who work at places with great offices and free snacks 😆

It's not just you. More people are actually spending time on LinkedIn now.

And I'm weirdly happy about that.

I spent 4 years at LinkedIn, and a big part of what my team pushed for (even if it was never officially called this) was changing the premise that people only used the platform to look for a job.

And you can see it now. 

People scrolling on the tube/subway. Checking in daily (sometimes just for the games). Athletes sharing opinions, not just sponsorships. Founders talking openly about what's working and what isn't.

The WSJ shared an interesting article this week.

Apparently, inside LinkedIn there were constant debates about whether the platform should allow handles instead of real names.

And according to Gyanda Sachdeva (VP of Product), the question kept coming up: “Should we add handles?”

But the team always came back to the same answer — stick with real identities to protect trust.

And I'm glad they did.

Because when your name and reputation are attached to what you post, you show up differently. You think a bit more. You try to add something useful. 

That’s also why founder-led marketing works so well here.

LinkedIn isn’t perfect, but sticking with real identities might be one of the smartest decisions they ever made.

Full article here (worth the read) - https://lnkd.in/ewZ32kXJ

Everyone keeps asking me:

Should we invest in organic or paid on LinkedIn?

(and I think we're asking the wrong question)

They're not competing strategies, they work together.

Organic is your audition.
Test your messages, angles, and formats with 'zero' risk. See what actually makes people stop scrolling. What gets real comments, not just friendly likes. What people save or share.

If something doesn't work organically, paid won't save it. You'll just pay to help more people ignore it.

Paid is your amplifier.
Once you know what resonates, that's when you invest. Put budget behind what's already proven. Extend its reach. Get it in front of more of the right people.

Now you're not guessing (you are just scaling what works).

Most companies do this backwards. They create something, skip the test, and immediately spend money promoting it. Then they're surprised when it underperforms.

The issue usually isn't the targeting. It's that the message was never validated.

Better approach:
Let your audience tell you what's working first. 

Then amplify it.

Adam Mosseri just dropped 1,000+ words on AI's impact on creators and social media.

The most important line (imo) was:

'The internet already shifted power from institutions to individuals'

He's talking about Instagram - but this shift is already happening on LinkedIn.

CEOs are outperforming their company pages by 10x
Founder posts get more engagement than brand campaigns
Executive voices drive more pipeline than corporate content

As AI makes content easy to produce, what becomes scarce is: perspective

Real stories, real insights from real people.

The question shifts from 'can you create?' to 'can you create something only you could create?'

That's exactly what founder-led content does.

Your career pivots
Your failures
Your 3am decisions.

AI can replicate format but it can’t replicate lived experience.

This is the premise behind our work at Shake Content

Not because it’s trendy.. but because when everything looks the same, who it comes from is what matters.

---

Adam's full post here: OP Here: https://t.co/VGruvVXiSQ

The “who” is becoming more important than the “what”

What you say matters. But who says it now matters more.

This is the biggest shift I am seeing in 2026.

In the age of AI, credibility beats content.

Recent data shows that AI systems like ChatGPT and Perplexity are now citing LinkedIn 4–6x more than they were just a few months ago. And around 80% of those citations come from content written by real people on LinkedIn (not company pages).

That’s big.

AI isn’t only asking: Is this information relevant? It is asking: Who is saying this, and should I trust them?

LinkedIn makes that easy. Your role. Your experience. Your track record. Your network. All verifiable in seconds.

Which means the internet is shifting from: 
websites as sources → people as sources.

This is becoming one of the most important priorities for our clients, and exactly why, at Shake Content, we focus so heavily on founder and executive voice.

Source: https://lnkd.in/ezWsTazM

More context. Less urgency.

My friend George Mack once shared this take that went viral.. and honestly, it’s pretty bang on.

For a long time, I saw that as a bad thing about LinkedIn.

Boring. 
Too slow.
Always catching up.
Not where new ideas start.

But lately.. I have started to see it differently.

Maybe LinkedIn isn’t where things break first. But it might be the best place to actually make sense of them.

There are plenty of places to spot trends early: Twitter/X, Reddit, TikTok, Discord, group chats, wherever.

We're drowning in real-time takes. Every platform is racing to be first. Everyone is trying to go viral. 

LinkedIn's 'slowness' is starting to feel like the thing we might actually need.

So yeah, George is right. If it's big on LinkedIn, you're definitely late. 

But late to the hype means early to the insight.

We don't talk enough about the work we do with our clients.

So here's what happened when we partnered with shipshape.vc & Daniel Sawko.

Shipshape is an investor search engine that's helped 4,000+ companies raise over £1bn. They aggregate data from 25,000+ global funds and layer in private growth signals to show founders where capital is actually moving.

Their CEO, Daniel, had a strong LinkedIn presence but was frustrated by how much time quality content required. The platform had genuinely differentiated data, but the challenge was making that value immediately clear to both founders raising capital and institutional buyers.

What we focused on:
We stripped away feature-heavy messaging and built founder-led storytelling around:
- Why private growth signals matter in fundraising
- How attribution and precision targeting translate into ROI
- Making complex value propositions instantly understandable

Content became a dual-purpose asset - educating at the top of the funnel while supporting mid-cycle sales conversations.

The results over 4 months:
60% increase in impressions
44% increase in engagements 
13% follower growth 
30% uplift in platform signups vs. the prior period

That last metric is the one that matters. The content didn't just build awareness.. it drove adoption.

As Daniel put it: "We've got relevant insights to share, but finding the time was always challenging. Working with Shake Content has made content easy - we're producing studio-grade video content and tapping into new channels like YouTube."

This is what happens when you turn a technically powerful product into clear, consistent storytelling. Content becomes a growth driver, not just a brand exercise.

Excited to see where Shipshape goes next.

The full case study is here: https://lnkd.in/e-a_uJHZ

Hot take for 2026:

Your company shouldn’t act like a corporate page.
It should operate like ESPN.

ESPN doesn’t just run one show announcing scores. They have:
1/ First Take (debate and hot takes)
2/ SportsCenter (news + highlights)
3/ 30 for 30 (deep storytelling)
4/ Around the Horn (rotating expert panels)

Each show has distinct personalities. People tune in for Stephen A. Smith not 'ESPN Corporate Communications'

So why is your LinkedIn strategy just one bland corporate feed?

📺 Here’s the play for 2026
- Your VP of Product should be breaking down roadmap decisions like they're analyzing draft picks

- Your Lead Designer should be showing works-in-progress and debating design philosophy like it's film study

- Your Customer Success team should be sharing war stories from the trenches (not just case studies)

- Your Data Scientist should be dropping insights that make people stop scrolling

One corporate voice = changing the channel
Multiple expert voices = must-watch content

Give your experts their own shows. Let them have a point of view. Let them disagree with each other sometimes. Let them be interesting.

Nobody remembers the NBA's official press releases.

But everyone remembers the analysts who had something real to say about the game.

taplio

The Battle

James Creech

Dani Markovits

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Performance ScoreJames Creech's LinkedIn Performance

Performance ScoreDani Markovits's LinkedIn Performance

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taplio

The Battle

James Creech

Dani Markovits

Followers

Posts

Engagements

Likes

Performance Score.css-goub6s{font-size:var(--chakra-fontSizes-md);font-weight:500;color:var(--chakra-colors-gray-600);display:block;margin-top:var(--chakra-space-1);}James Creech's LinkedIn Performance

Performance ScoreDani Markovits's LinkedIn Performance

Ready to grow your LinkedIn presence?

Performance ScoreJames Creech's LinkedIn Performance