How The Founder Of The Luupe Is Changing The Economic Landscape For Creatives, Photographers – Forbes
Keren Sachs, founder of The Luupe, is changing the landscape of content creation for producers and … [+]
Erin Patrice O’Brien
As the Great Resignation continues to see people leaving their jobs, the creative economy is in a constant growth stage. According to the Policy Circle, the creative economy industries generate annual revenues of $2.25 trillion and account for 30 million jobs worldwide. Additionally, nearly half of these workers are women. But just because more people are deciding to do what they’ve always wanted to do in life doesn’t mean that they are actually generating money from it. During the pandemic, there was an estimated loss of 2.7 million jobs and more than $150 billion in sales of goods and services for creative industries nationwide, representing nearly a third of all jobs in those industries and 9% of annual sales.
Keren Sachs, CEO and founder of The Luupe, is changing the economic landscape for creatives and photographers. Noticing an absence of brands hiring diverse creators and photographers, she started The Luupe with the mission to get more women and non-binary photographers connected with jobs to generate income for themselves. Working with brands such as Facebook and Peloton, individual female photographers have generated over $100,000 in income on their own. This November, Sachs closed a $3 million seed round led by Sara Adler from the Wave, the lead investor into Airbnb.
“I was always looking at different communities that existed and found that communities often were focused on amateur photographers or amateur creators versus professional creators,” Sachs explains. “I always questioned where the professionals go when they want to seek community. Being a creator or being a photographer can be very lonely and isolating. So how do you connect with other people? I started to recognize that there was really no place for professionals to come. And there were certainly very few places for women professionals to come together and connect and be supportive of one another versus competitive with one another. … That’s where the initial idea of The Luupe came from. Seeing this gap, wanting to build community, I reached out to about 40 photographers and told them this idea that I had to bring them together to build this community. But beyond the community, I wanted to help them generate income. I wanted women to be able to put more money in their pockets.”
Sachs’ career journey began at National Geographic as a photo editor supporting the photographers in the field or creating the content behind the scenes. She then transitioned to doing freelance work for the Wall Street Journal before landing a …….