Welcome to another installment of our "Build in Public" series! In previous posts, we've shared our journey from Dubai to pivoting our business model. Today, we're taking a step back to reveal the true origin story of GYST: a conversation with teenagers that changed everything.

"So, What Do You Want to Be When You Grow Up?"

It started with what we thought was an innocuous question.

Our daughter and her 15yo friends were hanging out at our house one afternoon. Between pizza slices and TikTok references we didn't quite understand, we asked the classic parent question: "What do you want to pursue as a career?"

We expected the usual mix of answers: doctor, lawyer, engineer, maybe a few ambitious entrepreneurs. Instead, half of them replied without hesitation:

"I want to be a content creator."

As parents with backgrounds in financial services and management consulting, our first instinct was to nod supportively while internally panicking. Content creation? Was that even a real career path? Could they make a stable living? What about benefits, retirement plans, and all those other "adulting" concerns?

But instead of dismissing their ambitions, we got curious.

The Financial Advisors Meet the Creator Economy

Our professional instincts kicked in, and we started asking the questions we'd ask about any industry:

"What's the size of the market?"
"How many people work in this field?"
"What percentage make a sustainable living?"
"What's the revenue distribution like?"

Our daughter and her friends looked at each other blankly. They knew the names of their favorite creators, the content formats that performed best, and the latest platform features. but they had no idea about the business fundamentals.

So we did what any aspiring supportive parents would do: we pulled out laptops and started researching together.

The Numbers That Changed Everything

What we discovered shocked us.

The creator economy is a $250 billion industry projected to reach $480 billion by 2027 (Goldman Sachs). That's larger than the global film industry and professional sports combined.

An estimated 2.2 billion people want to join the creator economy, including 60% of Gen Z and 33% of Gen Alpha. This wasn't just our daughter's friend group, this was an entire generation voting with their career aspirations.

Yet despite the enormous market size, the financial reality was sobering: over 90% of creators make less than $100,000 per year, and only 3% earn more than $500,000 annually.

As we dug deeper, a pattern emerged. The problem wasn't a lack of talent or audience interest. It wasn't even a lack of money flowing through the ecosystem. It was something much more fundamental: a critical shortage of business acumen and business intelligence.

The "Aha Moment" That Birthed GYST

Watching these bright, creative teenagers discuss their career dreams while being completely unaware of the business realities of their chosen industry sparked something in us.

"These kids could actually succeed at this," I said to my co-founder later that night. "They have the creativity, the technical skills, and the cultural fluency. What they're missing is the business infrastructure."

"It's not just them," my co-founder replied. "The vast majority of creators are operating without the business intelligence tools that even small traditional businesses take for granted."

That was our "aha moment."

We didn't want to see a generation of talented young people enter the creator economy only to struggle financially despite their creative success. We didn't want them to become a statistic, part of the 90% who can't make a sustainable living from their passion.

Instead, we envisioned a world where creators of any age could build stable, profitable businesses around their content, where creativity and business success weren't mutually exclusive.

GYST was born from that vision: an AI Chief Revenue Officer for creators who couldn't afford (or didn't know they needed) a human one.

From Skeptics to Believers

Before that afternoon with the teenagers, we held fairly traditional views about career paths. We valued stability, credentials, and established industries. The creator economy seemed like a sideshow: interesting but not "serious."

That conversation fundamentally changed our perspective.

We now believe the creator economy represents the future of work: a massive shift in how people build careers, create value, and establish their economic independence. It's not just a trend; it's a structural transformation of the global workforce.

What's more, we realized that the creator economy democratizes opportunity in unprecedented ways. Anyone with a smartphone and an internet connection can start creating content. The barriers to entry are incredibly low compared to traditional industries.

But that accessibility is a double-edged sword. The ease of getting started masks the difficulty of building a sustainable business. Without the right tools and knowledge, most creators hit income plateaus that keep them from achieving their full potential.

Brutal Teen Feedback: Our First Reality Check

Our daughter and her friends have remained deeply invested in our journey building GYST. They've become our first focus group, our harshest critics, and some of our most enthusiastic supporters.

Their feedback has been... refreshingly unfiltered. Let's just say our early branding concepts didn't exactly resonate with the target demographic. (We'll save the full story of our name and logo evolution for another post, but let's just say that teenagers have no problem telling you when something is "totally cringe.")

But beyond the occasional ego bruising, their input has been invaluable. They've helped ensure that GYST isn't just built for creators but with creators, including the next generation who will define the creator economy's future.

Building for the Next Generation

This origin story has profoundly shaped GYST's culture and values. We're building with a deep awareness of our responsibility to the young creators who inspired us.

For example, we've placed significant emphasis on AI guardrails and safety measures to protect creators, especially minors, from potentially harmful AI outputs or recommendations. We believe in the power of AI to transform creator businesses, but only when it's implemented ethically and responsibly.

We're also committed to transparency about the business realities of the creator economy, not to discourage aspiring creators, but to empower them with the knowledge they need to succeed.

The Future We're Building

Our vision extends far beyond helping individual creators increase their revenue (though that's certainly part of it). We're working to reshape the entire creator economy into an ecosystem where:

a) Creative talent can reliably translate into financial success

b) Creators build sustainable businesses, not just viral moments

c) The next generation has the tools to become the media moguls of tomorrow

d) The wealth generated by the creator economy is distributed more equitably

When we look at our daughter and her friends now, we don't worry about their career ambitions. Instead, we're excited to see how they'll transform the creator economy with their creativity, technological fluency and, with a little help from tools like GYST, their business savvy.

They inspired us to build GYST, and now GYST exists to help make their creative dreams financially viable.