How? By launching a startup that showcases a community of diverse Creators that come from different backgrounds, orientations, gender, and race.

A closer look around will let people know how things have changed for the better across varied industries of the world. A closer look will show that these changes could become possible due to the efforts of a few business owners and experts who turned their ordinary ventures into extraordinary businesses. However, some entrepreneurs have made a massive impact by creating ventures that aren't just focused on personal wins but are also dedicated to doing something meaningful for others. “Entrepreneurs today need to understand that they can optimize their power and influence to create businesses that can successfully create more opportunities for people who deserve them, especially the ones that have been underestimated and underrepresented for so long,” highlights social media entrepreneur AJ Cartas.

Cartas, a college dropout and first-generation immigrant from the Philippines, is part of the LGBTQ+ community, and for him, it was only natural to empathize with marginalized communities. So in 2012, he accidentally launched his career in the social media world, and by 2015, he was already growing massively with his content, with over 1.2 million followers. Moving to San Francisco, he first became a Social Media Director for ByteDance, the parent company of TikTok, and now, through all these years, has turned into a well-known Creator veteran who has been pushing forward growth in the Creator Economy and runs two mission-driven ventures like Syzygy Social and Divinfluence. The former is growing as a minority-led social media agency, and the latter is making its mark as a discovery tool bringing diverse talent that has been underrepresented, like people from the LGBTQ+ community, women, people of color, etc., and different brands together to recruit them for their marketing campaigns, creating more significant opportunities.

The Creator Economy is where there are already 50 million independent content creators, curators, and community builders, including bloggers, photographers, influencers, and many others. It offers tools for creators to lead towards growth and monetization, and as a new economy, it generates value from relationships between them and their audience. However, even with millions of content creators, the industry needed a discovery tool to help brands find Creators beyond their niche. That is how AJ Cartas decided to launch Divinfluence to fill this gap. Divinfluence focuses on community, which is something Creators can’t change about themselves, whereas niche is chosen.

Some notable Creator who has joined Divinfluence is RuPaul Drag Queen stars Brooke Lynn Hytes & Yuhua Hamasaki, LGBTQ+ content creators 2 Dallas Dads, Lexis Brumback, Broadway Husbands, Chaya Milchtein, Dominic Green, Rob Zimmerman, and lifestyle creator Niké Ojekunle.

The Divinfluence team, which includes Leandro Do Santos as Creative Director and Joaunte Knight as Marketing Manager, aims to do much more in the Creator Economy. Cartas has also cited Anat Yaniv, former Head of Marketing at Depop, and Brendan Gahan, Chief Social Officer at Mekanism, as early supporters and inspirations in the social media space.

The work has just begun.