We flew to New York for Press Publish NYC: Colin & Samir's creator economy summit that everyone said we had to attend. What we didn't expect was to learn as much about business from a pizza queue as from a conference hall. But let me start with the hardest part to write.

The Cost of Building Dreams

Startup life looks glamorous on LinkedIn. The truth is it often feels like heartbreak.

My cofounder/husband and I flew to NYC for a week of conferences and meetings. From the outside, friends joke: "What a couples getaway!"

But behind the relationship building and creator collaboration is this moment: We called my mother in Greece at the last minute. She dropped everything, got on a plane, and is now with our kids the week before school starts.

Our children told us this summer: "We miss you. We need more time together."

That sentence stays with you. It hurts. A lot.

As a CEO, I know these weeks are the right investment to build GYST into the backbone for creators. As a founder, conviction means sacrifice. As a daughter, I'm grateful for a mother who shows up without hesitation.

But as a mum… the guilt is crushing.

Conferences give us opportunity. But every stage, every handshake, every "highlight reel" moment comes at a cost families quietly carry.

I needed to say that first because building in public means sharing the downs with the ups.

Press Publish: Where Art Meets Commerce

Over 400 creators and operators joined us in Brooklyn for Colin & Samir's first major event. It started exactly as you'd hope: Richard Branson pouring champagne straight into Colin & Samir's mouths, setting the tone for a day that mixed serious business with authentic community.

The event perfectly captured the creator economy's current moment through its two surprise guests: Casey Neistat and Steven Bartlett. As the hosts put it, they represent "two ends of the creator industry spectrum: the artist and entrepreneur." Every conversation we had landed somewhere between those poles.

The standout insights that will shape how we think about GYST:

Cleo Abram warned against being "led by your own audience rather than your own creativity." The biggest risk creators face when scaling? Losing authenticity by chasing metrics instead of following their vision.

Billy Parks from Slow Ventures nailed the creator product mindset: "Shots on goal is the most important thing. If an advent calendar or video game doesn't work, what's the next thing?" This rapid iteration approach, combined with maintaining audience relationships, defines sustainable creator strategies.

Mustafa Suleyman made the prediction that validates everything we're building: "Voice is the next frontier. The next phase we'll see is interactive podcasting where you can ask a question mid-flow." GYST's voice agent isn't just convenient, it's the future of how creators will manage their businesses.

Steven Bartlett closed the day with advice that every creator needs to hear: "Don't let your words become wallpaper." Overused phrases like "like and subscribe" have lost all meaning. Want your audience to actually do something? Find a way to surprise them.

Adobe's biggest announcement, Premiere coming to iPhone, showed how major platforms are adapting to creators' mobile-first workflows. The free app lets creators start projects on desktop and finish on mobile, exactly the kind of seamless integration GYST provides for business operations.

The Deep Conversations That Matter

Beyond the main stage, the real value was in the conversations between sessions:

Jeremy Zimmer from United Talent Agency and Oscar Höglund from Epidemic Sound gave us insights into how major agencies and platforms think about creator business intelligence. Both confirmed what we've been hearing: creators desperately need better financial and strategic guidance.

We talked about babies with Colin's wife who shared stories about managing family life while building a media empire, and we bonded over hiking trips among centaurs in Greece with Colin's mom (They're planning to come to Portugal with or without Colin's approval.)

We swapped stories with creators from around the globe, and finally met Bricks and Disorder in person after months of Zoom calls.

This is what industry events should be: not just networking, but building genuine relationships that extend beyond business cards.

The Pizza Queue MBA

But our most valuable business education happened completely by accident.

Walking through West Village on Sunday, we spotted a 200-meter queue snaking around two city blocks. As former Londoners (the global queueing champions), we were genuinely impressed by the commitment.

"Supreme drop? Celebrity sighting? New iPhone launch?" we wondered.

Nope. Pizza. L'Industrie Pizzeria, rated "#1 pizza slice in America with ingredients imported directly from Italy."

Mel and I looked at each other and started laughing. For Europeans with access to the common market, that's literally just our neighborhood pizzeria.

Plot twist: The next day in Williamsburg Brooklyn, we found another L'Industrie location. No queue. Walk right in. Same pizza, just okay quality.

The business lessons hit harder than the pizza:

Location creates completely different demand patterns. West Village (median income $206K) versus Williamsburg ($83K) represents two economic universes. Same product, same quality, wildly different customer behavior.

Your USP isn't universal. "Italian ingredients" is premium positioning in America but standard Tuesday in Europe. What's revolutionary in one market is table stakes in another. Building GYST taught us this same principle: creator business intelligence that feels cutting-edge in some markets is basic expectation in others.

Queue psychology is real marketing. That 200-meter line wasn't just social proof, it was a marketing multiplier. Every person waiting signaled value to everyone walking by. The Williamsburg location's empty entrance sent the opposite signal, despite identical food quality.

Hype creates expectation debt. The longer the queue, the higher the bar. "Life-changing pizza" becomes "just okay" when you've waited 90 minutes. Same principle applies to startups: the more you promise, the higher you have to deliver.

Geographic arbitrage opportunities exist everywhere. Smart entrepreneurs recognize when the same product performs differently across locations and adapt their positioning accordingly.

Sometimes being outsiders gives you the perfect perspective to see what locals miss.

The Week That Confirmed Our Strategy

This NYC trip crystallized several strategic decisions for GYST:

Voice-first was the right bet. Every creator we talked to confirmed they want conversation, not more dashboards. Mustafa Suleyman's predictions about interactive voice content validated our approach.

Business intelligence beats business tools. Creators don't want more software, they want guidance. The distinction between providing data and providing insight became clearer through dozens of conversations.

Community drives distribution. The organic networking at Press Publish showed us how creator recommendations spread. Word-of-mouth from trusted peers beats marketing spend every time.

International markets move faster than expected. Creators from around the world shared insights about their local markets that showed us opportunities we hadn't considered.

What's Next

We're back in Lisbon now, processing everything we learned while our kids readjust to having us home. The week generated dozens of follow-up meetings, potential partnerships, and strategic insights that will shape GYST's next phase.

But mostly, I'm grateful. Grateful for the opportunities, the connections, the lessons learned from both conferences and pizza queues.

And especially grateful for the family that makes it all possible, even when it means sacrifice.

The guilt doesn't go away. But neither does the conviction that what we're building will help creators build sustainable businesses instead of just viral content.

That's worth the cost. Even when the cost is higher than you expected.