The creative industry is ever-evolving and talented creatives are looking for new roles to showcase their skills. Brands are constantly looking for talent that can keep their looks current. Creatively, an online professional network and recruitment platform for creatives, connects the two. The platform allows job seekers to showcase their portfolios in an elegant interface that allows brands to walk through a portfolio seamlessly, connect, and hire for full-time roles, internships, and freelance work. Creatively is free for creatives with employers paying a fee to access to post jobs and have access to a suite of recruitment tools. Since launching last year during the pandemic, the company already had 125,000+ creatives on the platform and 650+ employers.
AlleyWatch caught up with CEO Gregory Gittrich to learn more about the experience of launching in the middle of the pandemic, the company’s strategic plans, and recent round of funding.
Who were your investors and how much did you raise?
We raised a $5 million seed round led by Cambridge, Massachusetts-based Link Ventures. They join the Tornante Company, Advancit Capital, and Amplifyher Ventures, among others, as investors.
Tell us about the product or service that Creatively offers.
Creatively is the job platform for creatives. We’re a professional network designed for creatives of all disciplines, ranging from media and entertainment to fashion and art to marketing and advertising and beyond. Creatively’s mission is to help creatives find work: full-time jobs, freelance opportunities, and internships. In less than a year since our beta launch, more than 125,000 creatives have joined Creatively to showcase their portfolios and find work. Some 650 plus companies – HBO, Tom Ford, SKIMS, Nickelodeon, Ro, Beautycounter, Westbrook Media, The Gap, Parsely, and more – have signed up to recruit and hire talent.
What inspired the start of Creatively?
Our mission is to champion creatives and help them find jobs. Creatively was founded by Stacey Bendet, the CEO of alice+olivia. When looking for creative talent at alice+olivia, Stacey realized that there was a significant need for a professional network built expressly for creatives of all disciplines.
If you’re a creative or if you’ve ever hired a creative team, you know that other professional networking sites don’t properly serve the creative community. There really has been no online professional network built expressly for creatives, both to showcase their portfolios and find opportunities. Businesses also are increasingly looking to recruit creatives directly, but lack the network and resources to find the right talent. Simply put: recruiting creatives is as essential as it is inefficient.
How is Creatively different?
Creatively is unique because there’s no other job platform that allows creatives to showcase their portfolios, connect and collaborate, and find work. Our app and website also provide companies with powerful tools to search for talent, review portfolios, and hire.
What market does Creatively target and how big is it?
Creatively is the only professional network truly geared toward creatives of all different mediums and skills: photography, film, fashion design, branding, graphic design, illustration, animation, CGI, app and web design, product development, emerging technologies, interiors and architecture, and much more. Creatives contribute $763 billion to the US economy, more than agriculture, transportation, or warehousing.
What’s your business model?
Creatively is completely free for creatives. Companies pay a subscription fee to post jobs and access a suite of recruiter tools.
How has COVID-19 impacted the business?
We fast-tracked our launch due to the pandemic. We had initially intended to launch in September 2020 but rolled out our beta in May 2020 because the pandemic pushed creatives into remote, at-home work environments where they were reliant on flawed portfolio and networking tools. We wanted to help the creative community network and find jobs during uncertain times.
What was the funding process like?
Fortunately, the fundraising was straightforward, and we ended up being oversubscribed. As with many things during the pandemic, it was different from past experiences–and even included grabbing a quick, masked-up coffee during 29-degree weather so I could meet the Link Ventures team briefly in Brooklyn.
What are the biggest challenges that you faced while raising capital?
The number of hours in the day. We’re a very lean team and are focused on nurturing our creative community and building our product. Fundraising understandably takes time even when the process is smooth, which thankfully was the case.
What factors about your business led your investors to write the check?
Creatively’s strong, organic growth and differentiated product made our platform a great fit for Link Venture’s portfolio. Link invests in disruptive technology companies that leverage big data. We’ll use Link’s relationship with data science studio Cogo Labs to help drive revenue and lower customer acquisition costs.
What are the milestones you plan to achieve in the next six months?
We’re less than a year old and growing fast, but this is very much still the beginning. We’ll continue to nurture and champion our community–and we’re hiring! We’ll invest in our product and engineering team to launch new features as well as implicit personalization of the platform for individual users, all to help creatives connect with brands and find work.
We’re less than a year old and growing fast, but this is very much still the beginning. We’ll continue to nurture and champion our community–and we’re hiring! We’ll invest in our product and engineering team to launch new features as well as implicit personalization of the platform for individual users, all to help creatives connect with brands and find work.
What advice can you offer companies in New York that do not have a fresh injection of capital in the bank?
Focus on the problem you’re solving and stay lean to make the most of your resources.
What’s your favorite outdoor dining restaurant in NYC
I love Evelina in Fort Greene. They have incredible Mediterranean-Italian food. They also brought in wood-burning stoves during the cold months to keep their outside tables warm and toasty. So much better than electric or propane heaters.
