NYC Tech Week - was it worth the hype? Here's what you need to know

NYC Tech Week in one sentence: exhausting, and full of tech brands making the exact same one mistake.

2 years into building Creator Match and I'm still couch surfing on work trips. 3 couches. 12 days. All over NYC for Tech Week.

Everyone I know is sprinting toward something — the exit, the IPO, the bonus at the end of the year. I keep waiting to feel that way and it hasn't happened yet. It can get exhausting chasing the next goal post, so I've been trying to be more present and just enjoy this wild ride.

This week looked like: 8 AM pilates with a client. Led our Creator Match meeting from the subway. Welcomed 2 new team members. 35+ people at Creator Match now, zero marketing spend, all inbound. Wrote part of this from a founder friend's loft in Flatiron.

Last time I was in the city it was 9 degrees and a blizzard. This week? 75 degrees and immaculate vibes.

And watched the Knicks win (and lose) on the walk home while "Empire State of Mind" blasted from every car on the block. Let's go Knicks 🏀

We all work a lot. If you're not enjoying the climb you're going to hate the summit. Most people are building toward a life they already have. Enjoy the ride.

It was a great week. But one thing kept bugging me.

Brands spent millions across 1,000+ activations. And almost none of them invested in what happens after the event ends.

At Creator Match we call it the IRL to URL bridge. The concept is simple — an event is a content production moment. The creator is your distribution engine. Paid media takes what happened in a room of 200 and puts it in front of 200,000.

The brands who get this right aren't doing anything complicated. They just think about their guest list in four buckets:

• Customers and users — already bought in. Make them feel like insiders.

• General attendees — top of funnel. Give them a reason to remember you.

• Creators and ambassadors — they're going to post anyway. Make it easy and worth their while.

• VIP creators with paid deliverables — brief them, pay them, and boost their content with paid media.

If you're spending six figures to be in the room — spend to make sure the room follows you home.

In addition, one theme that came up was the cultural difference between SF and NYC, especially when it comes to AI adoption. a16z speedrun investor Troy Kirwin observed:

TLDR: Was Tech Week work it? If you're a brand or creator that does anything in tech, I would say this is the place to be. Good thing for you that they do tech weeks all over the world. So YES!!!

If you aren't vibe coding your conference itinerary, wyd? 🚇

Had too much fun building this with Perplexity Computer.

We put together a NYC Tech Week web app — and yes, the little subway car 🚇 at the bottom that moves as you scroll is exactly as fun and on-brand for NYC as it sounds.

🤝 In Partnership with Creator Economy Live (CEL) East

I just got back from NYC Tech Week. 20+ events, two 12-hour hackathons on a Saturday. And just about every brand activated.

And one thing holds true (outside me needing a nap). The energy around creator marketing right now is unlike anything I've seen.

Which is exactly why I'm fired up about what's coming next month on July 29th.

I'm emceeing one of the largest conferences in our space: Creator Economy Live (CEL) East. I attended CEL West in Vegas last year, but let's be real — all of us East Coasters know the real action happens in NYC.

The speaker lineup alone is worth the trip. Senior marketers from the NFL, AG1, Disney, Zillow, and many more. The people actually running creator programs at scale, not just talking about it.

Creator programs are moving from "nice to have" to core go-to-market strategy. CEL East is where that playbook gets built in real time. Don't miss it.

Grab your tickets before they sell out 👇

^{(use code “CREATORMATCH20” for 20% off all passes!)}

They called me crazy. Ad Age named me one of 13 B2B Creators to watch in 2026.

Before anyone files this under overnight success — here's the real story. When I started betting on B2B creators, LinkedIn wasn't even a dropdown on creator platforms. B2B was a joke. I was laughed at in creator communities. We were fighting for $2,000 total budgets — agency fee and multiple creators combined.

We were the first agency to pay $1M+ to Linkedin Creators Now it's six to seven figure campaigns (PER MONTH)!! We're working with close to 20% of the brands on the Forbes 50 AI Company List.

The whole game is about seeing where the hockey puck is going before everyone else does.

They'll call you crazy. Then they'll call you early. Then they'll pretend they always believed.

The #1 reason creators fail — and it's not content.

After working with hundreds of creators and paying out millions, I can tell you: the ones who fail aren't bad at content. They're bad at treating it like a business.

Brands shouldn't have to send five emails, text you, call you, and show up at your door just to pay you. The brand is a business. The agency is a business. Everyone at the table is treating this like a business — except sometimes the creator.

The creators we keep coming back to at Creator Match aren't always the ones with the biggest numbers. They're the ones who respond. Who send content without being chased. Who make the whole process feel like a real partnership.

We have a preferred partner shortlist — especially for last-minute, quick-flip campaigns. You get on that list by being reliable, not just talented.

It doesn't matter if this is your side hustle right now. Treat it like a main hustle. Because brands talk, agencies talk, and reputations travel fast in this industry.

Good things will come.

Speak soon, and see you at Cannes!!

-AJ