In 2026, fans increasingly understand that content creators aren't just influencers — they're small businesses.

A growing number of creators are taking that role a step further, launching businesses complete with their own product lines, from clothing lines to candy bars. Creators and industry leaders discussed the shift during a Thursday discussion at VidCon 2026, "Product vs. Content: Why the Smartest Creator Businesses are Shifting the Center of Gravity."

Benefits for creators launching their own products include a diminished reliance on brand deals with companies that don't understand a creator's audience as intimately, moderator Yak Gertmenian said. Gertmenian is the leader of creator innovation at influencer marketing company Influential.

"One of the biggest challenges, and I know everyone's had this if you're a creator, is getting a brand who says, 'Okay, here are the dos and don'ts,' and then after the twelve pages of dos and don'ts, then 'This is exactly what I want you to do,'" Gertmenian said. "'Write this and do this and do this and do this.'"

If a creator follows through with an ill-fitting brand deal or copy, the results can be obvious: "The audience looks at it and goes, 'That doesn't fit at all with what I was expecting,'" Gertmenian said. "And then the brand doesn't look good, the creator's frustrated, the audience is frustrated."

With that in mind, panelists talked about the do's, don'ts, and adjusted expectations required when launching a product.

Low sales from a launch doesn't equal failure

Amy Roberts is the creative director and host for the YouTube channel Style Theory, which has 2.77 million subscribers, and the manager of business development for Team Theorist. She spoke about what to expect from sales during an initial product launch.

" When we think about sales, and we see what the top of the top of the top of creators can sell, a lot of people think, 'I have to sell a million dollars in my first round of merchandise that I put out.' And in reality, you might sell ten thousand, and that is a success," she said.

Roberts went on to explain that success isn't just about achieving your more realistic expectations, but understanding customer data, and using that to inform your next product release.

" It's about setting those goals that you know you can meet and then seeing what works, seeing what didn't, and then setting the goal for the next one."

Having an audience is not the same as having a customer base

" When we think about it from a creative perspective, there's a mindset shift in realizing that audience and followers are not necessarily the same as customers," Gertmenian said.

Jordan Gold, professional musician and co-founder of the Magic Puzzle Company, added that a vocal audience does not necessarily translate to a vocal consumer base.

" Good customers are mostly just quiet," he said.

That said, getting data from your audience and would-be customers doesn't always require a creator to front the cost.

" You should also try a collab," said Megan Lightcap, a partner at Slow Ventures. "The brand is fronting all of the expense. Creators have, like, the best focus group in the world, and you can just really quickly tell what people are buying and what they aren't buying. And if it doesn't work, it's on the brand."

The product is just a new line of the business

Lightcap talked about how creators can become overwhelmed after starting a business, struggling to know the best way to allocate their time between creating content, product development, and customer service. Her solution? Reframing how content and products may coexist.

"The more that [creators] can think about it truly as different business lines within a larger corporation, it removes at least that mental load of, 'I'm ignoring this, so I need to focus on that and vice versa,'" she said.

Delegate, delegate, delegate

Creators can get used to doing it all themselves — more often than not, that's how they built their initial content creation business.

" Realizing where you don't need to spend your time is the hardest skill for most creators to learn, but it's one of the most important, especially if you want to expand into a business," Roberts said.

Where AI fits in

Gertmenian also brought up AI, noting that it is part of any business's considerations these days. All of the panelists talked about its utility when it came to understanding customer data.

When Gold launched his Kickstarter for the Magic Puzzle Company in 2020, his company received over 63,000 backers in one month, he said, with many folks emailing in. He said if he and his staff spent their full work week just answering emails, it would take at least a year.

" Now you can take all that and get a little chatbot that goes, 'Oh, here's your emails that you got this week, and here's what most people are saying,'" he said.

That speed, Lightcap chimed in, can make a huge difference.

" One of the things that surprises creators, I think, when they get into this journey, is just how long everything takes and how much money it takes, right? Because you're relying on other people. They have to have, you know, their flow or whatever. With AI, it sort of...releases that pressure valve a little bit," Lightcap said.

Mashable is reporting live from VidCon 2026 in Anaheim. Follow our coverage for creator interviews, panel highlights, and the biggest moments from the convention floor.