Jason Wilhelm

7 years ago I walked into Studio71 as Head of Gaming at 21….the youngest executive in the company. Before that I was a college dropout getting rejected from every job I applied to. Every MCN passed on me. Nobody wanted to bet on the kid who’d been making YouTube videos since he was 13. Studio71 was the first place that eventually offered me a job but only after I built my own business working with creators. Yesterday we bought the company. If you told 21-year-old me this would happen, I would’ve called you crazy. Hell, I still kind of can’t believe it typing this out. Work your ass off. Bet on yourself when nobody else will. Don’t take no for an answer. You can make anything happen.

Someone joined their first clipping campaign in our Discord and made $6,000 posting TikTok clips

You used to need thousands of dollars in gear to make money from content. Now creators and brands are paying thousands for people to post clips of their content. All you need is a Phone.

Jason Wilhelm (@general) reveals how early Multi-Channel Networks (MCNs) controlled YouTube by trapping creators in "egregious" perpetuity contracts just to unlock basic monetization. "YouTube didn't have enough resources internally to scale the number of creators they wanted to work with. They worked with MCNs to basically be outsourced management to handle those relationships." "You could not get a channel banner on YouTube unless you were signed to an MCN. If you were a creator and you wanted to make money, you had to sign. There was no other option." "I was offered a contract that was a 50-50 split in their favor and they signed you for life. They were perpetuity contracts. All of these creators were signed to some of the most egregious contracts the space has ever seen."

.@general reveals the "completely false" narrative surrounding the TalentX sale and breaks down how internal mismanagement left the founders with zero profit. "The story that's out there publicly that TalentX sold and it was so amazing is completely false. We did sell, but I made no money from the sale of the deal." "We had this guy in the company who was like a bull in a china shop and he completely blew an amazing opportunity. He tried signing all the creators to a competing platform called Triller because he thought TikTok was going to be banned and Triller was going to be the biggest thing in the world." "The investors basically forced us out. We were the hottest company, competing on every creator and every manager, but it was a total clusterfuck. It was one of the greatest learning lessons I could have ever hoped for."

People are building real incomes from the same clips you scroll past every day. Most people consume content. Clippers get paid to distribute it.

An injection that can double a cat’s lifespan to 30 years has been developed Clinical trials have begun, with regulatory approval projected in 2027

Every generation gets internet opportunities people laugh at early. Then they wish they started sooner.

Jason Wilhelm (@general) explains how he applied the "Vine star" playbook to TikTok to build Talent X, the first major management agency for the platform's biggest creators. "When I saw the engagement rates of these TikTokers, I was like, holy shit. I would go to their Instagram and they would have 200,000 followers and get 200,000 likes. The only time the industry's ever had something like that happen before was the Vine days." "The creators from that era that branched off of Vine and got into long-form YouTube content are some of the biggest creators in the world today. If you could take these TikTokers and do the same thing, then these guys and girls are going to have careers that are here for 15 years." "We turned our management company into Talent X, the first major management company managing TikTok creators. We did it with Josh Richards and started signing a bunch of these TikTokers."

NEW: Jeff Bezos says the bottom half of workers should pay no taxes.

Thanks for having me on the pod @thecaptabletv ‼️‼️If you want to here me talk about my time with SoaR, Sway House, Fixated and everything In between check it out below!

We sat down with Jason Willhouse (@General), founder of @fixatedstudio and one of the godfathers of the modern creator economy, to talk about what it actually takes to build in this space. From cold-emailing Bobby Kotick with hand-built decks to running the Sway House at the peak of TikTok, Jason has been at the center of every major shift in the industry. And he's not shy about setting the record straight on the deals, sales, and platforms most people still get wrong. 2:00 - Building the Sacramento Kings eSports division 4:05 - Applying to Activision and Studio 71 using decks 7:01 - History and evolution of Multi-Channel Networks 15:32 - The Free Time House and shifting to TikTok 17:10 - Launching Talent X and the Sway House era 21:18 - The truth behind the Talent X sale and Triller 25:03 - Why tech products often fail to understand creators 28:39 - Evolution of the creator economy since the pandemic 33:35 - Competitive gaming background and founder DNA 39:12 - Comparing hustle culture in Los Angeles and New York 41:15 - Mastering long-form content versus short-form marketing 45:36 - Back catalog licensing and the reality of Spotter deals 47:50 - Entrepreneurial advice and betting on yourself

40 hours driving Uber. 5 hours clipping. The internet changed everything.

RT @Studio71US: We're thrilled to announce What Happens Next, the first original podcast from #Studio71 partner @dharmann🎙️ Each episode e…

@JoblessGarrett Appreciate you brother 🙏

@General Spoken like a true industry leader 🔥

Agreed but the investor piece is where it gets worse. The “thought leaders” investors lean on are talking heads and mostly came from traditional industries and got into the space early. Most were never creators. Most never operated alongside creators. Most don’t understand content or virality which is the actual engine of how creators win. If you can’t evaluate the craft, you can’t evaluate the businesses serving it. So they import playbooks from media, marketing, or tech and assume it’ll translate. In most cases it doesn’t. Investors trust the wrong voices, skip real diligence, and find out two years in. Jellysmack is the cleanest example. Scaled too fast. Stopped focusing on quality. Overhired. Signed creators to some of the most egregious contracts the space has ever seen. The other example no one says out loud: most management companies are brand deal shops dressed up as platforms. They sell creators on real careers and real businesses. They deliver just brand deals. The value proposition hasn’t meaningfully evolved in years. No product investment, no infrastructure, nothing built around how creators actually grow. One revenue stream. Cyclical. No defensibility. And not what creators were promised. The fix isn’t five thought leaders. It’s operators who’ve actually built something a creator depended on. The good news: all of this leaves enormous room for disruption. For anyone actually willing to innovate and challenge the status quo.

@Ryankia2 Facts

@General totally agree most “thought leaders” are too busy selling newsletter / event sponsorships vs actually working 😂

@ollieforsyth @fixatedstudio Key difference with us is that we built a lot of the infrastructure internally rather than others who are glorified middle men

@ollieforsyth @fixatedstudio We’ve got a whole team dedicated for this. UGC, Clipping and own some of the largest meme pages across IG / X. We’ve done massive campaigns for our creators and brands. Distribution is the future

Chief Clipping Officer might become a huge role in the future. Who are the best independent clippers out there? Add your work below!