Creator CEO Summit II | Channel to Commerce
The Creator CEO Summit (hosted by Slow Ventures' Creator Fund and The Lighthouse and Powered by Shopify) is for the next generation of creators who aren’t just making content, but building companies beyond the platforms.
The day is structured around the actual arc of company building: going deep in a niche to reach scale, making disciplined early DTC decisions, and expanding from audience into real-world community and ecosystems. Instead of content growth hacks, sessions focus on what truly matters in today’s creator economy: capital, hiring, product strategy, and long-term decision making, from creators who’ve done it.
You’ll hear directly from creator-founders, operators, and investors who’ve built durable, creator-led businesses, with practical frameworks you can apply whether you’re launching your first product or scaling what already works.
Space is very limited for 70 qualified creators and some operators. The format will be intimate, with panels and alive with questions from creators encouraged to interrupt.
Please only RSVP to panels you are going to attend. If you'd like to come purely for networking and to hang, please only RSVP for the 'hang' sessions.
Creator CEO Summit II: Agenda Overview
Food and drinks are provided by our friends at Shopify
8:30–10:00AM | Breakfast and Early Hang
10:00–11:00PM | Cherie Luo and Jean Luo (Tiger Sisters), Kevin Espiritu | Building Epic Gardening: The Niche Road to $100M
Epic Gardening is a case study in going deep, not wide. Join the Tiger Sisters as Kevin walks through how a single niche and newsletter became a scaled operating company—covering hiring, capital decisions, and how the business evolved from content into a $100M-valuation brand.
11:00–12:00PM | Samir Chaudry, Jordan Matter | Launching DTC: How To Build, Sell, and Ship
How creators move from distribution to durable businesses. Samir and Jordan Matter—fresh off the massive launch of Sincerely Yours—break down early-stage decision making: how to evaluate product ideas, choose distribution paths, partner with financing, and decide when not to launch; offering practical frameworks for creators building their first or next company.
12:00–2:00PM | Lunch Break and Hang
2:00–3:00PM | Billy Parks (Slow Ventures), Mary Heffernan (Five Marys Ranch) | World Building: Community Beyond The Screen
From raising four kids and daily ranch life to DTC meat, Whiskey, tallow and courses this panel breaks down how Mary turned a clearly defined niche into a world people want to live inside. A candid look at entrepreneurship built on taste, trust, and long-term thinking—online and offline.
3:15-4:30PM |Megan Lightcap (Slow Ventures), Jess Rona (JRG Salon), Warner Bailey (Assistants Vs Agents), and Dr. V (Rose Code Beauty) | Early Stage: Getting the Train Moving
A candid conversation with three early-stage creator-founders across pet grooming, entertainment, and dental health who are turning audiences into real businesses. Hear how each founder took a distinct path to building products that solve real problems for their communities, with concrete case studies on what it actually looks like to build a business in the early days.
4:30-6:00PM | Drinks, Bites, and Closing Hang
This is the second series following the oversubscribed summit from 2025. You can revisit the content from our first summit here.