It sometimes feels like Big Tech has gobbled up the creator economy, leaving little room for newcomers.

Platforms like YouTube, Instagram, and TikTok facilitate billions of dollars flowing annually to influencers at a scale no startup is close to matching. Meta and Google have the vast resources to launch and test features quickly.

And yet, a new crop of startups is fighting to develop products that break through the noise and help creators build their businesses. These companies are ambitious and optimistic, even though some startups in the industry have failed to live up to lofty valuations. They see an opportunity to disrupt a part of the industry so long as they work hard and build the right products for their customers (and perhaps get lucky).

"Doing consumer social at any point in history, you have to be a special kind of crazy," said Alejandro Oropeza, CEO of Flavrs, a TikTok-like app built for food creators. "You're trying to capture lightning in a bottle. You're competing with the biggest incumbents."

Goldman Sachs estimated the creator economy could hit $480 billion annually by 2027, driven largely by influencer marketing and advertising revenue.

Venture capitalists and angel investors are scouring the creator-economy-startup pool to find companies that show promise. Influencer-marketing startups are of interest, as they've proven to be a target for M&A activity this year. Creator startups that build with artificial-intelligence tech, such as Delphi and Merse, have also become a focus among investors.

Business Insider asked investors with expertise in the creator space which startups they felt showed promise. We asked them to provide a name of a company they had bet money on, as well as one they had no financial interest in. We omitted a few nominations of companies BI previously featured in earlier versions of this list, such as Beehiiv and Whop.

Here are those 13 creator startups to watch in 2024, listed in alphabetical order: