The deals & debut section of this newsletter is always hopping—and that’s starting to show up in the numbers. Investors have poured at least $2 billion into U.S.-based creator economy startups so far this year, according to data compiled by The Information. For the full list of VC-backed startups, tune in next week when we launch our creator economy database.

Ahead of then, I talked to Hunter Walk, partner at seed-stage venture capital firm Homebrew, about why investors seem to have suddenly woken up to the sector. Walk attributes some of the influx to a new generation of investors who grew up on Tumblr and YouTube and understand startups serving internet celebrities can get big. 

“Part of venture is trying to figure out, as a young venture capitalist, where you have a competitive advantage against people who have been investing for 5, 10, 15, 20 years,” Walk, 47, said in an interview from San Francisco.