In the 45-minute interview with the Business Journal, Interwoven Studios, a production services company catering to modern content creators and influencers, received four booking requests: one from a local podcast looking to record, one for a birthday photoshoot, another for a stills product shoot and lastly, one for a commercial campaign.

“That’s good demand,” said Chance Horky, co-founder of Interwoven.

Like most successful businesses, high demand served as the genesis of Interwoven and later the fuel to allow the company to expand – recently opening its fourth location within Television City, a 25-acre studio complex in Fairfax. After nearly 70 years of ownership, CBS sold Television City, which has hosted “American Idol,” “The Young and the Restless” and “Hacks,” to Hackman Capital Partners, a Culver City-based real estate investment firm, in 2019.

Horky, along with co-founder Harrison Sheinberg, started Interwoven in 2022 with a vision to create a production space for the many content creators who rose to fame during the pandemic.

“There seems to be a niche for this,” Sheinberg said. “It’s a part of the market that is underserved or not really served at all. You can rent a small space to shoot something, or you can rent a massive stage but no one’s really focusing on the digital content and the branded content.”

Initially viewing the venture almost as an experiment, they began by renting a modest 600 square-foot space along the Wilshire Corridor in Beverly Grove to test whether or not their services would appeal to their desired clients. 

As demand began to outpace supply, Interwoven started opening numerous locations – bringing the firm to four locations across downtown, Beverly Grove, Fairfax and one bordering Culver City and West Adams, encompassing more than 18,000 square feet combined.

Horky and Sheinberg have kept Interwoven as a two-man operation, noting that the company is fully bootstrapped with no outside investor capital.

Influencer surge

Globally, the creator economy market is valued at more than $202 billion, according to March data from Coherent Market Insights. North America holds the largest share of the market, accounting for over 35% of this. And the growth is not expected to slow anytime soon, with market projections reaching nearly $850 billion by 2032.

“The prevalence of that (YouTube, Instagram and TikTok content) are showing that the consumer is enjoying watching and seeing those types of formats,” Horky said “And I think the lag on the development of those formats is catching up.”

Tomm Polos, the Rodric David Chair in Creator Arts at USC School of Dramatic Arts, also views the pandemic as an accelerator for this type of media.

“The lockdown of 2020 fast tracked the short-form marketplace,” Polos said. “Viewership was already growing on short-form apps and as the entertainment industry slowed down production, artists of all stripes began creating at home.”

Polos also cites the owners of major social media apps – Google (YouTube), Meta (Instagram) and ByteDance (TikTok) – as drivers of this massive creator content surge. These companies have the money and resources “to outspend, outdraw and out-innovate anyone in entertainment,” Polos said.

He finds that this has altered studios’ target clients, leading to diversified content production, much like Television City’s partnership with Interwoven.

“The film and television industry has yet to fully gain back that audience that graduated on Zoom and grew up with their phone as their main source of entertainment,” Polos said. “Now, studio rental companies and studios themselves have pivoted from prepping for sitcoms to prepping for the modern family of content creators.”

Production needs for traditional film and television share many similarities to the needs of content creators’ production though Polos described the latter as “leaner,” noting smaller crews and budgets.

Horky agrees that Interwoven’s clients still need art departments, wardrobe, hair and makeup, editors, video equipment and beyond, saying the difference lies in the scale.

‘Embracing the future’

With traditional production being down in Los Angeles, Zach Sokoloff, senior vice president of asset management at Hackman, sees this partnership as a way to generate revenue by bringing in a new client base.

“As a company, we are trying to think outside the box, literally and figuratively, and cater to the production that is here in L.A.,” Sokoloff said. “… Part of the value proposition is taking content creators, folks who work in production, who are maybe looking for their big break, and giving them access to the services and the equipment and the facilities of a major studio.”

Sokoloff described Horky and Sheinberg as “hospitality-oriented,” “innovative,” “authentic hustlers,” noting that their ability to connect with this demographic of creators has been great for Television City.

Despite not serving this population in the past, Sokoloff said Television City’s facilities are equipped for a variety of productions including “smaller format production environments.”

“Interwoven is, in many ways, a bridge between the old and the new… We are really looking to create a modern media ecosystem where folks from the biggest budget blockbuster movies can come and find something that caters to them and the young, up and coming vertical video creators can find space that fits their needs as well,” Sokoloff said.

Sheinberg also stressed that the two companies’ services can complement each other. For example, someone may be a part of a larger format show at Television City, but that person may also have a podcast on the side that they could record in Interwoven’s space.

This can also create opportunities to introduce more short-from media types to film and television talent working in Television City.

“This will attract legacy talent to newer media opportunities – giving artists of all eras a reason to say, ‘I wonder, what if, let’s try,’” Polos said. “…This collaboration is a win-win. It’s refreshing to see a company honor its past while embracing the future.”

Catering to clients

Horky and Sheinberg, both 29, see their age as an advantage for Interwoven, noting that they grew up while these forms of media were taking off and many of the creators are peers.

“It’s our network – it’s our demographic,” Horky said.

At one point marketing themselves as the “content concierge,” the duo said they are committed to providing the same level of services to an everyday person looking to take professional photos as they would for Bella Hadid.

“We see Interwoven as an ecosystem of production support (where we’re) building the infrastructure to be a partner and to empower those digital facing projects,” Horky said.

Fostering an inclusive space that properly serves clients is key, Sheinberg said, especially when the window for impressing clients is shorter by the very nature of the types of content Interwoven develops. 

Of Interwoven’s locations, the Beverly Grove and downtown spaces are geared more for short-term clients and can be booked on an hourly basis, whereas the Culver City and Fairfax spaces typically cater to clients for at least a day and sometimes up to five days.

Notable clients for Interwoven include Ted Danson, Capitol Records, Jake Shane, Kylie Jenner, Celsius, Keke Palmer, Storm Reid, New Balance and Ron Howard.

Given the fast pace at which creators push out content, Horky and Sheinberg don’t expect content creators to produce everything in their spaces but when it comes to large-scale campaigns, major announcements and specialty projects, they find value in Interwoven’s services.

To further enhance business, Polos sees placing extra emphasis on livestream as a smart strategy.

“Not only are platforms like TikTok, Instagram and YouTube pushing livestreams and ‘live’ features, but audiences are actively buying items off of livestreams in addition to watching these revenue generating streams,” he said. “A studio like Interwoven could offer a mutually beneficial revenue share model with their tenants for livestream sales.”

Growth and future goals

The Interwoven duo attributes their success in part to the accessibility of the locations they were able to secure.

“A lot of our growth has come from being located in relevant neighborhoods, and that’s enabled us to get the yes from those decision makers who have a preference to go and work in the neighborhoods that we’re in,” Horky said.

To date, Interwoven has booked more than 1,000 clients totaling 6,500 hours of production, Horky said. Clients’ invoices have ranged from $40 to $40,000. Overall, demand has remained steady. Sheinberg said the only month Interwoven was down was in January, which they attribute to the wildfires.

As for what’s next, Horky and Sheinberg would like to own their own studio one day and potentially expand into other markets like New York, London, Seoul and Tokyo.

“If we could figure out ways to enter into those markets and just replicate what we’ve done here… that would be a fun way to scale and make it accessible for everyone,” Sheinberg said.

Polos sees a realistic pathway to geographic expansion for Interwoven, if the firm continues operating successfully.

“If they can perfect their business model and keep costs down for content creators, who are a thrifty bunch, this could make waves in other cities,” Polos said. “…The demand for this service will be growing for the foreseeable future.”