Welcome back to our "Build in Public" series! In previous posts, we've shared our journey from naming challenges to building our prototype in 48 frantic hours. Today, we're revealing one of our most surprising discoveries: how we aimed at one market and accidentally hit two; and how that happy accident transformed our business model.

When Your Distribution Channel Becomes Your Client

When we first conceptualized GYST, our vision was laser-focused on individual creators: those talented individuals building audiences across multiple platforms but struggling to optimize their revenue. Talent agencies were on our radar, but primarily as a distribution channel: gatekeepers who could help us reach more creators.

At least, that was the plan.

During our first trip to Dubai for the 1 Billion Followers Summit, we had a conversation with Leanne Perice from Made By All that would ultimately change the trajectory of our business. We were pitching GYST as a creator tool, explaining how it would help her roster monetize more effectively, when she made a comment that stopped us in our tracks.

"You know what my biggest challenge is?" Leanne asked, after listening to our pitch. "Growing my business without increasing headcount."

She went on to explain a fundamental constraint of the talent management industry: there's a direct correlation between roster size and the number of talent managers needed. Each manager can only effectively support a limited number of creators, creating a linear relationship between growth and hiring.

"If your platform could handle the data consolidation and number crunching, my managers could focus on relationship building with talent and brands," she continued. "We could generate additional revenue without adding cost."

We nodded politely in the moment, but inside, our minds were racing. What Leanne had just described wasn't just a feature request; it was an entirely different value proposition for an audience we hadn't been primarily targeting.

The Talent Agency Bottleneck

On the flight home from Dubai, we couldn't stop thinking about Leanne's comment. We began researching the talent management space more deeply and discovered a fascinating industry-wide challenge.

The traditional talent agency model was hitting a scaling wall. Agencies wanted to grow their rosters (and revenues), but each additional creator required precious manager time for:

a) Analyzing performance across multiple platforms

b) Identifying monetization opportunities

c) Comparing deals against industry benchmarks

d) Tracking payment status across platforms

e) Reporting results to creators

This created a brutal math problem: to grow revenue by signing more creators, agencies needed to hire more managers, which increased costs and reduced margins. Many promising creators were left unrepresented because they weren't generating enough revenue to justify a manager's time, creating a chicken-and-egg problem for emerging talent.

What if our AI Chief Revenue Officer could solve this problem?

Two Birds, One Stone

The revelation hit us like a thunderbolt: the same core technology we were building for creators could solve a critical business challenge for talent agencies. Our platform could serve as an AI-powered multiplier for talent managers, allowing them to:

a) Support more creators with the same headcount

b) Focus on high-value activities like relationship building

c) Make data-driven decisions across their entire roster

e) Identify cross-roster opportunities that might otherwise be missed

One talent manager we spoke with estimated that up to 20% of their time was spent on activities our platform could automate; time that could be redirected to revenue-generating activities or expanding their roster.

Even more exciting, this created a virtuous cycle: agencies could serve more creators, creators would get better representation, and both would make more money. Our technology would be the enabler for this expanded ecosystem.

From "Selling Through" to "Selling To"

This insight required us to recalibrate our entire go-to-market strategy. We had been viewing agencies as a channel to reach creators: "selling through" them. Now we needed to develop a strategy for "selling to" them as primary customers.

Our first step was to understand the unique needs of agencies versus individual creators. While the core functionality remained the same, we discovered agencies required additional features:

a) Multi-user access with differentiated permission levels

b) Roster-wide analytics and cross-creator insights

c) Collaborative tools for manager teams

d) Enterprise-grade security and data controls

e) Cross-roster campaign optimization

We quickly adapted our roadmap to incorporate these features, careful to ensure they would enhance rather than detract from the individual creator experience.

The Market Validation We Didn't Expect

The true test came when we began presenting our expanded vision to other talent agencies. We were prepared for polite interest, constructive criticism, or even rejection.

What we weren't prepared for was the enthusiastic response that bordered on desperation.

"You're solving our biggest growth constraint."
"This could transform our business model."
"When can we start using this?"

The hit rate was astonishing: 100% of the agencies we approached expressed strong interest in joining our beta program. We hadn't just discovered a market need; we'd stumbled upon a market starving for a solution.

The Dual-Audience Challenge

Of course, serving two distinct audiences (individual creators and talent agencies) presented new challenges. We needed to:

1. Develop distinct messaging that resonated with both groups without alienating either

2. Design an interface that worked for both individual and enterprise users

3. Create a pricing model that made sense across segments

4. Balance feature priorities between creator and agency needs

Our solution was to develop a three-tiered approach:

a) A free tier for individual creators just getting started

b) A pro subscription for established individual creators

c) An agency subscription with multi-user capabilities and roster-wide analytics

This structure allowed us to serve the entire creator ecosystem, from solo beginners to established agencies, while maintaining a consistent revenue model.

The Unexpected Network Effect

Perhaps the most surprising benefit of our dual-audience approach has been the powerful network effect it can create. As agencies adopt our platform, they introduce it to their creators, who upgrade to the pro tier for additional features. These creators then recommend our platform to their peers, some of whom are picked up by agencies on our platform.

This flywheel effect will accelerate our growth beyond our initial projections and create a more balanced ecosystem than we initially envisioned.

Listening to the Market

If there's one lesson we've learned from this experience, it's the importance of listening to the market, even when it's telling you something different from what you expected to hear.

We started with a clear vision of creating an AI Chief Revenue Officer for individual creators. By keeping our ears open to adjacent opportunities, we discovered an enterprise application for our technology that has the potential to transform both our company and the broader creator management industry.

Had we been rigidly attached to our original vision, we might have missed this opportunity entirely. By remaining flexible and responsive to market feedback, we found ourselves serving not just one audience but two complementary segments of the creator economy.

One Product, Two Value Propositions

As we continue to develop GYST, we're guided by this dual value proposition:

For creators: An AI Chief Revenue Officer that helps you optimize revenue across platforms, identify new monetization opportunities, and make data-driven decisions about your content strategy.

For agencies: A platform that extends your talent managers' capabilities, allowing them to serve more creators more effectively without proportionally increasing headcount or costs.

The core technology remains the same, but the impact is amplified by serving both sides of the creator economy equation.

The Lesson For All Founders

Our experience offers a valuable lesson for other founders: your initial target market might not be your only (or even your best) opportunity. By staying open to market feedback and being willing to adapt your vision, you might discover that your solution solves problems you hadn't even considered.

In our case, what began as a tool for individual creators has evolved into a platform with the potential to transform how the entire talent management industry operates. And it all started with a single comment in a conversation we might easily have overlooked.