When American Pie star Shannon Elizabeth joined OnlyFans in April, she reportedly grossed more than $1.2 million in her first week. Behind the launch was her manager, Andy Bachman, who’s spent years helping celebrities and digital creators build businesses around their audiences.
His talent and media firm, Creators Inc., now reports more than $2 billion in cumulative creator sales. He’s also expanded into tech with BuzzStar, a paid video-calling platform that the company says has reached a $100 million valuation.
“Fame is easy to measure and hard to monetize,” Bachman said. “Our whole business lives in the gap between the two. We look at the audience someone has built and find opportunities they wouldn’t see on their own.”
That approach has taken him into some unexpected corners of entertainment. Earlier this year, he negotiated a deal for viral wrestler Georgio Poullas that was described as the largest purse ever offered for a competitive wrestling match. The exact payout wasn’t disclosed, though reports put the figure close to seven figures for six minutes on the mat.
Just two years earlier, Poullas was parking cars for a living while building an online following through his “Take Me Down, Win $1,000” wrestling challenges. Creators Inc. discovered him in early 2024 and soon moved him into the company’s house, putting him on salary.
The founder’s own path into the creator economy began far from Hollywood. During an appearance on We’re Out of Time, he recalled working from his parents’ kitchen table on Cape Cod in January 2020 when a friend asked for help with her OnlyFans account. She had roughly 50,000 Instagram followers but was struggling to turn them into income.
With his help, she brought in $250,000 in her first month. Word spread quickly, and Creators Inc. generated $60 million in its first year, according to the company.
“Most creators aren’t short on fans. They’re short on infrastructure,” Bachman said. “A big payday gets people’s attention, but the real work is building a business that can sustain that success.”
These days, his clients are as likely to turn up at fashion week as on a phone screen. In May, Creators Inc. brought Sophie Rain and Piper Rockelle to Miami Swim Week for their runway debuts with its CI Swimwear label. Four months later, Bachman staged a show at Runway 7’s New York Fashion Week showcase at Sony Hall and took home the event’s inaugural Impact & Influence Award.
“Creators Inc. brought us more internet impressions in a single day than I’d seen in years of producing shows,” Runway 7 CEO Anthony Rosa said.
He has also branched into music with Creator Music Group, whose early releases include Alina Rose’s first single, produced by Scott Storch, the hitmaker behind 50 Cent’s “Candy Shop” and Beyoncé’s “Baby Boy.”
BuzzStar marks a different kind of business for the longtime manager. Instead of helping clients earn on someone else’s platform, Bachman now owns one. Fans pay by the minute for live, one-on-one video calls, with creators setting their own rates and availability. The app also offers paid messages and personalized replies.
The roster spans music, reality television and social media, with names including Blac Chyna, Justina Valentine, Markell Washington and The Challenge veteran CT Tamburello.
And fans have shown they’re willing to spend big. In April, social media personality Cole Train reportedly generated nearly six figures in a single hour, setting a BuzzStar record that even Bachman’s team had to double-check. More recently, influencer Fredo Vibez said he’s earning close to $5,000 a day on the platform, while users have offered internet personality Ali C. Lopez as much as $2,000 for a single minute.
Bachman has even bigger ambitions. He believes BuzzStar could eventually become a multibillion-dollar company, particularly as artificial intelligence makes digital content easier to produce and personal interaction increasingly valuable.
“A creator can reach a million people with one post, but they can’t give a million people five minutes of their time,” Bachman said. “That limitation creates real value, and we’re only beginning to understand how much.”
