There is an age-old dilemma in evolutionary biology about who came first: the chicken or the egg. In today’s business world, the question has taken on a new look, perhaps a little less scientific, but certainly more profitable: Which came first: the influencer who became an entrepreneur or the entrepreneur who became an influencer?
Whatever the answer, this merger isn’t just a passing trend. It represents an expansion mechanism for those who have learned that it is possible to diversify without dispersing (I wouldn’t be surprised, for example, if I discovered that you were reading this article while enjoying a delicious coffee, directly from an artisanal bakery founded by a chef who has a TikTok profile to share gastronomic tips and an online course on fermentation techniques).
The reason?
Statistics show that only a tiny fraction of the millions of creators in Brazil are actually able to pay their bills with advertising alone (less than 10%, according to a study carried out by Wake Creators last year). The base of the pyramid is wide, full of people who barter for burgers, but whose bank accounts are in the red.
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The solution?
Undertake. But this also generated a stir among the elite. Those who were already making millions lending audiences to advertisers realized that it no longer needed to be just about billboards. Large personal brands began to transform into large corporate brand cases. And large social profiles, in turn, in large digital stores.
A ironia?
Entrepreneurship has become the new viral content. When influencers became owners of their own product, the content became more authentic, the narrative more visceral and, consequently, other companies began to covet them even more. After all, who doesn’t want to have a poster boy who, in addition to generating visibility, inspires through his entrepreneurial mentality and converts through his commercial strength?
Shall we give examples?
1) Manu Cit
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Before becoming a “simple girl with a fitness routine”, she already had the “buzz” about entrepreneurship. Tried to sell clothes, bumped heads, made a mistake. Today, she is a partner at Guday (a supplement brand that says it will have revenues of more than R$60 million in 2025) and the most “hyped” gym chain at the moment, The Simple Gym. At the same time, she is an ambassador for large companies that have started to value her ambition in training and business, such as Fila, BTG and Bold.
2) Jade Picon
She was already rich, famous, ex-BBB and with a contract at Globo. He could live off royalties from his image forever, but he had a breakthrough with AURA Beauty. The genius there was not just launching a product with his name, but understanding the dynamics of social commerce. The strategy of using micro-influencers and the “TikTok Shop” to sell the brand created a decentralized sales army. In short: she used her influence to influence others to sell for her.
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3) Diogo Defante
Man is chaos in the form of people. But behind the character who barks on the street, there is a sharp business mind. “Rango Brabo”, which was born as a questionable culinary show in Podpah, became a chain of burger restaurants with experienced investors (the same ones who operate Johnny Rockets and Cabana Burger in Brazil). The meme became a franchise. Chaos turned into cash. And the media asset (also) became an asset of the real economy.
4) This
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The influencer recently launched a drinks brand – My Club Drinks – which works almost as a narrative accessory to her “heiress” character. The product makes the joke tangible. The audience consumes the story and, as a bonus, the drink. It is still too early to say whether the project will be another absolute success on the internet, but, even if that does not happen, it already has a strong contextual appeal to enhance, albeit indirectly, the asset growth of its creator.
5) Toguro
Toguro’s noisy case may not be a sales lesson (yet), but, just from the repercussions, it is a true marketing and branding case. The fitness influencer created the most bubblegum catchphrase of 2026 when he said, in a podcast, that his alcoholic drinks had an “energy flavor”. In the same week, João Adibe (CEO of Cimed) proposed a collab to create Carmed Sabor Energético. For now, the partnership is much more about positioning and buzz than about profit margin. But in the world of attention, noise is also money.
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My guess for today’s “Idea Therapy”?
The influencer was born first, since I start from the Socratic-digital principle that, today, everyone who uses the internet in Brazil influences other people on some scale. But honestly, discussing the origin is irrelevant.
What matters is what lies ahead. If we continue in this vein, ten years from now, “influencer” and “entrepreneur” will be two words – if not semantically, operationally – synonymous. And if you don’t build an audience for your business (or a business for your audience) by then, I’m sorry to inform you: you’ll probably be left arguing alone whether it was the influencer who became an entrepreneur or the entrepreneur who became an influencer who came first.
