Whalar's Co-CEO: Mutual Respect Beats 'Authenticity' in Creator Deals

Whalar Group, a creator-focused business that started as an influencer marketing agency in 2016, has grown into a six-company creator ecosystem — and its co-founder says the industry's favorite buzzword is the wrong measuring stick for partnerships.

Speaking on The Speed of Culture podcast with host Matt Britton, Neil Waller, co-founder and co-CEO of Whalar Group, argued that "mutual respect" matters more than "authenticity" in brand-creator deals. Brands need to understand why audiences trust a creator, he said, while creators need to understand what the brand represents and needs to achieve. The strongest collaborations sit somewhere between total brand control and total creative freedom.

It's a tidy framework. But Waller's own history suggests it came from testing, not theory.

What came before the pitch?

Whalar's creator thesis didn't begin with an agency deck. Waller and his co-founder James had already built their own direct-to-consumer brands on Shopify, using early creator partnerships to generate both content and sales. That firsthand evidence — creator-led content moving real purchasing behavior — became the foundation for the business.

Waller rejects the idea that Whalar's early success came from predicting the future. Their watch brand worked because they could test quickly, learn from the market, and lean into what gained traction. Timing helped. Being willing to be wrong before becoming right helped more, he suggested, than any rigid business plan in a market that was still taking shape.

Are creators now business partners?

Ten years ago, brands were still asking why they should be on Instagram. Today, creators sit in strategy conversations from day one, according to Waller — owning stakes in companies and building businesses that increasingly look like media and entertainment companies themselves.

The practical shift: creators are no longer bolted on after campaign strategy is written. They now contribute creative ideas, audience insight, and even business value through deeper partnerships and ownership structures. For brands, that opens relationships beyond sponsored content — though Waller didn't specify how many deals actually reach equity-level depth.

What does execution have to do with it?

Plenty, in Waller's view. Audience connection and great ideas create momentum, but neither compensates for weak execution forever. As creator businesses grow larger and more complex, the infrastructure around them matters more. Professional teams, clear processes, and disciplined execution are what turn attention into sustainable businesses — a caveat attached to every promise of creative independence.

Does AI make tastemakers more valuable?

Waller expects AI to dramatically increase the volume of personalized content while pushing audiences toward trusted people and brands that help them decide what deserves attention. He describes this as a "barbell" view: content abundance grows at one end, human taste and curation become more valuable at the other. The middle — generic content without a clear point of view — could become the hardest place to compete.

That's a prediction, not a measured trend, and Waller presents it as such. Still, if the barbell holds, the practitioners who invested early in distinct voices and operational rigor stand to gain the most as the generic middle gets squeezed.