Rex Woodbury, a 27-year-old principal at venture capital firm Index Ventures in San Francisco, started out as an influencer in college, amassing 236,000 Instagram followers. Posts about his daily life led to deals for sponsored posts with BMW, Under Armour and Marriott. 

That experience laid the foundation for his work as an investor, where he’s especially focused on creator economy startups. Woodbury also writes a weekly newsletter on Substack called “Digital Native” and helps run Index’s TikTok account, which shares the backstories of entrepreneurs and advice from founders. 

“The entire ecosystem and infrastructure that was built for small businesses or startups in America needs to be rebuilt for solopreneurs, for creators,” Woodbury said. “The creator economy is an upheaval of work.”