Steven Bartlett’s creator holding company, Steven.com, and brand-management group Authentic have launched OBSN, a venture designed to invest in and build businesses around established creators.
The companies say their wider strategy aims to deploy up to $400 million into creator-led businesses over the coming years. OBSN will combine audience development and media expertise with product creation, licensing, ecommerce and global distribution.
The announcement reflects a wider change in the creator economy: creators are increasingly being treated as founders and intellectual-property owners rather than temporary advertising partners.
Key Takeaways: Steven Bartlett and Authentic Launch OBSN
- Steven.com and Authentic launched OBSN on September 14.
- The companies aim to deploy up to $400 million into creator businesses over the coming years.
- Steven.com will lead media, technology, data and audience growth.
- Authentic will provide product, licensing, partnership, commerce and distribution capabilities.
- OBSN may support creators launching media businesses, products and licensing programs.
- The venture’s creator-economy media platform is already live and has more than one million Instagram followers.
- No initial creator investments, ownership terms or individual investment amounts have been disclosed.
- The $400 million figure is a future target rather than capital already shown to have been invested.
OBSN Combines Audience Growth With Brand Infrastructure
OBSN is intended to address the gap between attracting an audience and operating a scalable company.
Steven Bartlett, founder of Steven.com, said:
A global audience of millions is not yet a company, and it certainly should not be the ceiling of a creator’s potential.
According to the official launch announcement, Steven.com will manage the venture’s media, technology, data and audience-growth operations. Its existing portfolio includes Bartlett’s The Diary of a CEO alongside content, podcasting, technology and investment businesses.
Authentic will contribute experience in brand development, product creation, licensing, strategic partnerships and international distribution. The company owns or manages more than 50 brands, including Reebok, Champion, Sports Illustrated, David Beckham, Shaquille O’Neal and Ted Baker.
Authentic says its network includes more than 1,700 licensees and partners across 150 countries. These are company-supplied figures, but they show the type of commercial infrastructure OBSN wants to make available to participating creators.
Each partnership will be structured around the creator’s ambitions. Potential activity could include expanding a media company, developing products, negotiating licensing agreements, securing investment or entering new markets.
A Large Audience Is Not Automatically a Business
Creators can build substantial audiences without having the operational resources needed to develop products, manage supply chains or negotiate international licensing agreements.
Brand sponsorships provide income, but they normally pay a creator to promote somebody else’s business. Once the campaign ends, the advertiser retains the product, customer relationship and most of the long-term commercial value.
OBSN is proposing a different model. It wants to help creators build companies and intellectual property around the audiences they have already established.
That could give creators income from product sales, licensing, events, media and other owned assets rather than leaving them dependent on platform payments and individual brand campaigns.
The model also expands the questions creators must consider. Investment can provide capital and expertise, but creators will need to understand how much ownership, control and intellectual property they retain when entering these partnerships.
Creator Capital Is Moving Beyond Sponsorships
OBSN arrives as investors and financial businesses experiment with different ways to fund creator-led companies.
CreatorFi, for example, recently announced $45 million in equity and debt financing. Its model provides capital against recurring income earned through platforms such as YouTube, TikTok, Spotify and Roblox. CreatorFi says the money can support new intellectual property, audience acquisition and creator-led media businesses.
The two models approach creator growth differently:
| Model | How It Supports Creators | Primary Commercial Relationship |
|---|---|---|
| OBSN | Builds creator-led brands, media, products and licensing opportunities | Long-term business and investment partnership |
| CreatorFi | Advances capital against recurring creator-platform income | Revenue-based financing |
| Traditional sponsorship | Pays for agreed content, distribution or usage rights | Time-limited advertising campaign |
| Affiliate partnership | Pays commission on attributed and approved sales | Performance-based commercial relationship |
Other investment has focused on the infrastructure brands use to manage creator campaigns. Statusphere’s $18 million funding round supported technology for activating micro-influencers at scale. OBSN moves further toward investing in the businesses built around creators themselves.
Why Affiliate and Performance Teams Should Pay Attention
Creators supported by ventures such as OBSN may eventually operate on several sides of the partnership industry.
A creator who begins as a publisher promoting other companies could launch an owned product, recruit affiliates and pay commissions through a program of their own. Others may combine direct product sales with sponsorships, platform revenue and affiliate income.
This would change how brands and affiliate managers evaluate creator relationships. A creator may be a promotional partner in one category, a merchant in another and a licensing partner elsewhere.
It may also encourage more creators to compare short-term campaign income with the value of retaining ownership. Current uncertainty around creator pricing and performance-based campaign models already shows that fixed fees, affiliate commissions, and usage rights compensate different contributions. Equity, licensing income and owned-product revenue introduce further options.
The $400M Target Still Needs Context
OBSN has not identified its first creator investments or explained how individual agreements will be structured.
The announcement does not disclose:
- How much OBSN expects to invest in each creator business
- Whether creators will give up equity or intellectual-property rights
- How revenue and licensing income will be divided
- Which creator categories or audience sizes will qualify
- How many investments the venture expects to make
- What commercial performance OBSN will use to judge success
The proposed $400 million should therefore be understood as an investment ambition covering the coming years. It does not mean that the full amount has already been raised, committed or deployed.
OBSN’s significance will ultimately depend on the creators it selects, the terms it offers and the businesses those partnerships produce. Its launch nevertheless shows how creator value is being reconsidered: not only as advertising reach, but as the foundation for products, media companies and global brands.