Canopy Enters the Creator Chat: Innovative Startup Builds Insightful Community at New York Event

Los Angeles may be home to many creators, but the New York City creator scene is a growing force to be reckoned with. Last week, Jellysmack had the opportunity to partner with creator startup Canopy and co-host a Creator Fireside Chat & Mixer and wow, did the New York creator community show up.

Canopy is a community dedicated to helping creators grow their careers. Creators can share their knowledge about the industry, advice, and tips for success, while also getting answers to all of their questions from fellow creators. While fostering a safe space to learn and grow online is Canopy’s mission, coming together IRL is also an important way for creators to connect and get inspired.

Hailing from Manhattan to New Jersey—and even as far as Montreal—over 100 short-form creators with a combined reach of over 14 million fans attended the Canopy event. NYC’s hottest members club, Maxwell Social in Tribeca, set the scene for an evening where the good vibes were palpable. Guests mixed, mingled, and filmed content, then settled in with their cocktails for a lively panel discussion around what it takes to build a sustainable career doing what you love. 

Food creator and Jellysmack partner Wasil Dauod was joined on the couch by comedy creator Benton McClintock and Omika Jikaria of the Indian American culture creator trio the Jikaria sisters. Canopy founder and CEO (and former Jellysmacker!) Ayomi Samaraweera moderated the panel and uncovered invaluable insights about finding success as a creator on TikTok. 

“Everyone’s creator journey is unique. It was great to have the chance to sit down, discuss each other’s stories, and share how we each navigate success in the digital world. The way that Canopy is translating this experience online will be a total game changer for creators.”

Wasil Dauod, food creator and Jellysmack partner 

So what did we learn? Success looks different for everyone but the bottom line is the same: you need to be getting paid to become a career creator, and it takes time to diversify your portfolio, so the sooner you go multi-platform the better. Thankfully there’s a partner to help with that. 

Here are our top three takeaways from the panel discussion:

1. Prioritize Your Passion

Don’t play games with the algorithm because you’ll never win. Make content that you love (even when it flops) because a career lasts a lifetime and you don’t want to lose the joy in creating content and be stuck in one particular content niche.  

2. Think Long Term

If you want to build a career as a creator, then you must invest in building relationships with brands and decision makers. This goes beyond just submitting your deliverables on time. You need to demonstrate that you understand the long-term vision of the brand and want to grow with them as a strategic partner. 

3. Collaboration is Key

Be patient and find your people. Being a creator can be a lonely journey and more times than not it isn’t an overnight success story – it takes years of hard work and discipline to ‘make it’. So try and enjoy the process and find other creators to connect and collaborate with along the way. 

As platforms like TikTok continue to build out their ad revenue programs, the future looks bright for short-form creators to build a sustainable livelihood. Jellysmack also has some exciting things in the pipeline to help even more creators Go Bigger, so keep your eyes on Creator Post for updates.

“Jellysmack is always looking for ways to help our community learn and grow, so it was only fitting that we team up with Canopy to bring creators together and showcase a new opportunity for them to connect with each other.”

Bradley Newman, Jellysmack Creator Success Manager

Overall, Canopy’s inaugural panel proved that creators understand the importance of community and know that nothing sparks creativity more than the chance to connect IRL.

“One thing I’ve realized is that regardless of where you’re at in your creator journey, having a community to lean on can take you from 0 to 1, which is why I’m so passionate about bringing creators together both digitally and physically.”

Ayomi Samaraweera, Canopy Founder and CEO

If you’re looking to meet like minded creators to learn, earn, and grow with, then sign up to get early access to Canopy and join the world’s largest creator group chat.