How Creative Entrepreneurs Build Investment Capital

The Thriving Artist

Alice Loy is the co-founder and CEO of Creative Startups, an accelerator program with a presence in the US, the Middle East, and Asia. An expert in the creative economy, she recognizes that creative entrepreneurs are an undeniable force in the business world, and offers unique insights into founding and funding a growing startup. In this episode, Alice tells us about navigating the hurdles that all entrepreneurs face, identifying investment opportunities in the creative economy, and what convinced the Creative Startups team that Meow Wolf was going to be a success.

Creatives Change the Business World:

• “Creatives can, and should, own the companies that creatives work at---creative people are uniquely suited to understand opportunities and problems and therefore develop solutions for market opportunities.”
• "Society has thought of artists as people who either work on their own, or get a job at a company, and we question that assumption."
• "Creative entrepreneurs have the unique ability to build a more compassionate and sustainable world."
• "A lot of startup glory goes to tech, but as creatives, we need to say ‘this is ours, and this is how we run a company’."

Build Investment Capital as an Entrepreneur:

• "Most investors tend to write creatives off as artists who probably can’t figure out how to run a business, and that’s because most investors are people who follow the herd."
• “Now we have Kickstarter and Indiegogo and other platforms that have changed where creatives can go to raise money for an early stockpile of capital to get going.”
• "There is a rising awareness about untapped opportunities for investors who are looking at markets in different ways, which will mean more dollars for creatives."

Become a Viable Investment:

• Entrepreneurs "pose a risk and an opportunity to the network. If you perform well, you take that risk off the table and now you have a partner."
• "Meow Wolf came to our Accelerator in 2014...they had a track record and a team of founders—having a team makes all the difference in the world."
• "At the end of the day, entrepreneurship is not about ideas, it’s about getting the job done."