The new model for Creator-first media.

Cole Bennett founded Lyrical Lemonade in 2013, turning a music-video blog into a channel with more than 24 million YouTube subscribers.

In March 2026, talent firm Whalar Group launched Lighthouse Studios, a new production arm meant to fund and produce creator-led networks. Lyrical Lemonade became its first partner.

The deal funds Lyrical Lemonade TV’s expansion out of Chicago into a daily programming slate filmed in New York and Los Angeles with Bennett staying on as executive producer across the network.

Only about 27 percent of YouTube channels post 12 or more times a month, short of the nearly 60 uploads a month Lyrical Lemonade’s new schedule calls for.

Sustaining that production schedule alone is difficult, while the help that makes it possible usually costs major amounts of equity.

Lighthouse Studios financed the expansion as its first partnership, handling distribution strategy and ad sales behind the scenes while allowing Bennett to keep the brand, the channel, and creative control as executive producer. CEO Akshay Mehta calls the model “transparent capital and ownership of IP.”

Talent firms are acting more like financiers than buyers, now funding the production of a creator instead of taking the channel they built.

Capital has always forced creators to either give up ownership for the resources to grow, or keep control and build their company alone.

This new model offers a third option. Whalar Group built Lighthouse Studios to give creators that infrastructure, then was acquired by Accenture months later.

Creator Sports Capital and Peyton Manning’s Omaha Productions made a similar bet on Good Good Golf, investing $45 million without taking control of the brand.

The next generation of creator capital won’t buy the audience outright. It will help build everything around it.