Exclusive: CatGPT takes ownership stake in Smooth Media
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Smooth Media has given creator Cat Goetze, known online as CatGPT, an equity stake in the management company as she joins as a strategic adviser, they exclusively tell Axios.
Why it matters: Creators have been seeking a share of the long-term value their influence helps create, instead of just one-off sponsorship fees.
Zoom in: Goetze is the first outside shareholder in the five-year-old, bootstrapped company, which represents her along with more than 70 other creators across industries including marketing, finance and human resources.
- She will advise co-founders Josh Kaplan and Jenny Rothenberg on Smooth's core management business, new services, branding and internal technology.
- They declined to disclose the size of the stake. Goetze's existing relationship with Smooth, which takes a cut of the deals it brings her, will remain unchanged.
- "I will only let somebody take a percentage of my revenue if they understand the creator economy better than I do, not as well as I do, better than I do," Goetze says. "Nobody ever crossed that threshold until I met Josh and Jenny."
How it works: Smooth isn't planning to raise outside capital, Rothenberg says, adding that the company is more interested in strategic help as it scales.
- Smooth has grown revenue 2.5x year over year since 2024 and is pacing for another 2.5x increase this year.
- The vast majority of Smooth's business comes from brand partnerships, but those deals are expanding beyond sponsored social posts to include events, speaking and consulting, Rothenberg says.
- The company has expanded from nine employees in 2024 to 35.
Zoom out: Goetze has built an audience of more than 1.4 million followers across Instagram and TikTok in part by teaching people how to use AI.
- Goetze's business currently generates about $3 in brand partnership revenue for every $1 in product revenue, she says. She uses money from brand partnerships to fund research and development for products.
- Her Physical Phones, a line of Bluetooth-enabled landline-style phones designed to encourage more intentional technology use, generated $118,000 in sales its first 72 hours and has since surpassed $1 million.
- She's now launching Cat Labs, a physical creator-first product studio in Los Angeles where people can develop products while documenting the process online.
The big picture: Goetze joins a growing group of creators turning their audiences into ownership stakes, investments and their own businesses.
- Alix Earle, a lifestyle creator with more than 14.5 million followers across TikTok and Instagram, took an equity stake in Poppi as part of her partnership with the beverage brand before PepsiCo agreed to acquire it. She launched a skincare brand, Reale Actives, earlier this year.
- Nadya Okamoto, co-founder of period care company August and social networking app Pie, has been advocating for the model through Cherub, which connects creators with startup investment opportunities.
What's next: Live events are Smooth's next big area of expansion. Goetze plans to host a launch party for Cat Labs in Los Angeles later this month as one of her first events with Smooth's team.
- "People are tired of being on their phones," Goetze says. "They're tired of constantly being in the scroll and having to determine if something that they're seeing is real or fake. The one best way to know if something is real is if you're standing right in front of it."
- Smooth is also exploring more services around digital products and has spent the past six months developing its own technology for managing campaigns, invoicing and creator payouts.
