Influencer marketing agency Billion Dollar Boy is launching a new membership community that’s “dedicated to empowering emerging creators in the business of being a creator.”
The community, called FiveTwoNine, will have both online and offline components, including a flagship space in London. That space will soon open for a four-month pilot phase where, in partnership with FiveTwoNine’s founding brand partner, Lipton, and six founding creators/creator brands (more on them in a sec), it’ll offer free access to amenities like soundproofed recording rooms, a podcast studio, and meeting spaces.
After the four-month pilot period, access to the London space–and any other future brick-and-morter spaces–will be priced on a tiered basis, “which will be introduced at flexible rates determined by the depth of resources and masterclasses creators wish to access,” Billion Dollar Boy says.
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FiveTwoNine’s online component launches this fall, and will operate on a similar tiered pricing structure. Online resources will include masterclasses from creators and other industry experts, focused on topics like business skills, career trajectory, and brand partnerships.
Billion Dollar Boy says it chose to open FiveTwoNine because research from influencer insights platform CORQ shows that 73% of digital content creators want “fast-track, affordable access to business coaches and consultancy,” and that half of all creators also want affordable creator-centric events.
To build FiveTwoNine, Billion Dollar Boy put together an advisory group of six creators/creator brands, including:
- Food and beverage creators and founders of BOSH!, Henry Firth and Ian Theasby, whose recipes have been viewed by more than 3.5 billion people, with over 1 million copies of their cookbooks sold, and products sold in major UK supermarkets
- Joshua Temple aka Slogo, one of the UK’s biggest gaming creators with 11 million YouTube subscribers, and founder of media production company, Limax Studios
- Beauty and accessibility creator, disability activist, journalist, broadcaster and author, Lucy Edwards. Lucy brings a wealth of knowledge bridging the gap between the creator world and traditional broadcast media with her background in TV and journalism. She is passionate about educating brands and industry on accessibility
- Sophie Butler, fashion, well-being, and disability awareness creator, and founder of The Other Girls Club, an online community for like-minded young women.
- Jack Henderson, co-founder of about:blank; a London-based contemporary streetwear fashion brand which recorded 485% YoY growth in revenue between 2022 and 2023 and which ships to over 100 countries.
- Big Manny, the viral creator making science relatable and accessible to young people. He is also the author of children’s book Science is Lit, and has appeared on the much loved children’s television program CBBC
(Descriptions provided by Billion Dollar Boy.)
“The Club’s creator-led Operations Council is crucial to meeting our vision for a healthier, more sustainable creator economy, ensuring it’s made by creators for creators with accessible pricing and real life, physical connections and a community at its core,” Becky Owen, Global Head of FiveTwoNine and Global CMO of Billion Dollar Boy, said in a statement.
“I feel so excited that I can use my expertise to be a founding member of FiveTwoNine,” Edwards said. “Education and guidance wasn’t there for me, but I want it to be there for other creators when they’re just starting out. It’s so daunting not knowing what an industry is going to give you and how you’re going to be viewed within an industry. You also have to wear many hats to be a creator. You’ve got to be your own everything: editor, producer, director, business owner. It’s about educating people on the hard side of it.”
The desire for collaborative, educational spaces for creators is certainly not new. That was the original idea behind YouTube Spaces, and when those were shuttered, it left a void in the creator economy. But, with FiveTwoNine, that void might be filling up. And there are other entrants, too: Late last year, influencer marketing company Whalar launched its own brick-and-mortar initiative called Lighthouse, which offers similar resources to FiveTwoNine.
