Slow Ventures Backs Three More Creators From Its $64M Fund

Slow Ventures has disclosed equity investments in three more creators from its $64 million Creator Fund, writing checks that range from $1 million to $3 million, according to partner Megan Lightcap.

The new deals, first reported by ADWEEK, back career-advice creator Erin McGoff, textile-manufacturing creator Will Lasry, and commercial-fishing creator Kyle Lee. McGoff received $1.5 million. Lasry raised $2.5 million. Lee's investment fell within the fund's standard range, though the firm did not specify the exact amount.

The deals are not new. Lee raised in 2025, while McGoff and Lasry raised this spring and summer. Slow made all three public for the first time this week.

With the additions, Slow now has seven completed investments from the fund and two more in progress. Lightcap said the firm expects to ultimately back roughly 20 creators in total. The fund debuted in February 2025.

A Bet on Holding Companies, Not Products

Slow does not invest in a specific product. Instead, it takes an equity stake, generally below 15% to 20%, in a holding company the creator controls. The structure lets creators deploy capital across content, team building, and multiple ventures rather than tying the investment to one brand.

Lightcap compared the approach to investing in MrBeast's Beast Industries rather than Feastables. The firm bets on the entrepreneur and the ecosystem of businesses they build, not a single product line.

Once Slow invests, it does not take a board seat or impose performance KPIs, according to Lightcap. The diligence process is unusual: the firm contacts a creator's followers directly to gauge the strength of their community, alongside analysis of audience engagement, commercial traction, and the size of the category the creator operates in.

Sam Lessin, a Slow Ventures co-founder, said the firm sorts creators into two categories. The first is entertainment figures like MrBeast and Alex Cooper. The second is niche creators who function as trusted authorities within smaller audiences. Slow's fund targets the latter.

"I think we're past the moment of mass-market creators, like Beast Industries," Lessin told ADWEEK. "What we invest in are cults. The most valuable cults are not the ones that you can talk about on CNBC."

AI Strengthens the Thesis, Lessin Argues

Lessin argued that the rise of artificial intelligence has reinforced the fund's thesis rather than undercut it. As AI makes products cheaper and easier to build, the product itself becomes less defensible, and trusted distribution becomes more valuable.

"The premium on trust has never been higher," he said. "It is so easy to make a product that having a better product is no longer investable. Trust and community are what is investable."

McGoff, Lasry, and Lee fit that thesis as what Lessin called central "nodes" in their respective fields. None are explicitly building media businesses, Lightcap said. Each monetizes their following partly through advertising and sponsorship, but that is not the priority. Lee's ventures include a direct-to-consumer frozen fish business.

A Growing Institutional Pool

Slow's fund joins a $250 million vehicle raised by CAA and IMC in June as one of the more prominent pools of institutional capital earmarked for the Creator Economy. Both arrived after a boom-and-retrenchment cycle that saw platforms like Jellysmack raise hundreds of millions during the pandemic before pulling back sharply.

Slow's two previously disclosed deals followed the same model. Its first investment was a $2 million stake in woodworking creator Jonathan Katz-Moses, which came after evaluating 700 applicants to the fund. Katz-Moses has since hired product developers and filed patent applications. His business generates mid-seven figures in annual revenue without marketing spend.

In November, Slow put $1.1 million into fitness and rehabilitation creator Tayla Cannon, who is building a HIPAA-compliant platform for rehab professionals called Rebuildr, slated to launch in early 2026.

Slow expects to deploy the full $64 million over two to three years.