It's No Fluke

Tommy Lynch explains why so many brands underestimate the education gap around TikTok Shop, why bigger brands and agencies are finally paying attention, and why the real edge comes from products that are so visually interesting people want to watch them before they even buy them.

Entrepreneurship rarely follows a straight path. For Tommy Lynch, it began at 14, building furniture from discarded shipping pallets, evolved into living and working from a converted school bus, and eventually led to building a career in content and social commerce.

Today, as CEO of Cult Content, Lynch is helping brands navigate TikTok Shop through a model built around content, creators, community, and sustainable commercial strategy. Having helped more than 100 brands navigate the platform and taken four brands from minimal TikTok Shop sales to five figures a month, his approach combines practical experience with a clear understanding of the realities behind social commerce.

His perspective challenges the idea of TikTok Shop as an easy gold rush. Instead, he emphasizes understanding unit economics, measuring ROI, building authentic creator relationships, and treating community as a long-term asset.

Anastasia Leng is the founder & CEO of CreativeX, a technology company that powers creative-decision making for the world’s best brands. CreativeX technology is used globally by Fortune 500 brands like Unilever, Mondelez, Heineken, Google, and more to measure creative efficiency, consistency, representation, and impact across all creatives worldwide.

Anastasia spent 5+ years at Google, where she worked on nearly every ad tech and analytics product and led entrepreneurship efforts in EMEA. She’s been a nomad all her life and has lived in Bahrain, Vietnam, Hungary, Russia, France, England, and the US. She remains a mediocre tennis player and an aspiring writer.

Libby Amber Shayo is a social media creator, strategist, podcast host, and founder based in New York City. With a background in advertising and a BFA in Acting, Libby turned her passion for storytelling and comedy into a full-time career as a creator, building a growing community around Jewish lifestyle, dating, NYC life, humor, weddings, and the realities of being a modern Jewish woman online.

She is the founder of Libby Amber Shayo Creative, where she works with brands, creators, and businesses on social media strategy, content creation, and behind-the-scenes event content. She also works on bridal content brand focused on capturing the candid, behind-the-scenes moments that make weddings unforgettable.

Libby is also the co-host of Schmuckboys on the Jewish Journal Network, where she and Marla Friedson talk about Jewish identity, dating, relationships, culture, and everything in between.

Known for her authentic, funny, and highly relatable approach to content, Libby has built an audience of more than 80,000 across TikTok and Instagram and has worked with major brands while continuing to create content that blends comedy, culture, and real life.

Sam Berlow, co-founder and Executive Chair of The Type Founders, is a respected industry leader, trusted advisor, and one of the most connected figures in the American type industry. For over three decades, Sam has helped build the businesses that shaped modern type design and distribution—co-founding and leading the Font Bureau, serving as a Senior Product Manager at Adobe, and co-founding Webtype, Fonts In Use, and Type Network, where he was CEO. As co-founder of The Type Founders, he advises designers and foundries worldwide to support their growth and innovation. Based in Vermont, Sam is active in the type design community, regularly speaking and collaborating with type leaders around the world.

Aria Kim (@techwitharia) is a DC-based creator covering AI, careers, and tech for an audience of 150K+. Before going full-time on content, she spent years as a security program manager at Meta and Sony, and now helps people build careers that don't follow a straight line. She has partnered with some of the biggest tech companies in the world, including OpenAI, LinkedIn, and Coinbase, and her work on the future of work has been featured in Forbes and Business Insider.

Jason Keehn is the founder of Accompany Creative, the award-winning, impact-driven creative agency recently named Ad Age’s Purpose Agency of the Year. With their motto of “We make good, work” Accompany Creative focuses on transforming brands into change agents through inspiring, mission-led storytelling and design.

The company is a collective of socially conscious branding, marketing, PR, product design, merchandising, and sourcing leaders who work together to help brands authentically connect with values-driven consumers throughout the entire brand experience. Jason’s expertise in both aspirational campaigns and impact-minded products and programs can be seen in their work for a client roster that includes Nespresso, Neiman Marcus, Vestiaire Collective, ABC Carpet & Home, Levi’s, NBC Universal, God’s Love We Deliver, and the YMCA of Greater New York. 

Jason’s entrepreneurial passion centers on harnessing the power of consumer-minded branding, design, and storytelling for brands and business models that are doing not just “less bad” but also “more good.” In 2022, he launched the first-ever mission-driven merchandising with Universal Pictures for the film “Jurassic World” – work that earned the agency its first Clio award.

Prior to launching Accompany Creative, Jason spent 20+ years in brand strategy, identity, and integrated advertising as Chief Growth Officer at independent creative agency Yard NYC. 

With an MS degree in global bioethics from Columbia University, Jason has published his research in academic journals about the ethics of marketing and has spoken about his integrated branding/ethics perspective at prominent venues like the United Nations General Assembly, Columbia University Commencement, US Consulate General in China, SXSW Eco, and Fashion Forward. 

Maria Vorovich and Holland Martini are the co-founders of GoodQues, the “anti-research” research company built around the idea that rigor and creativity shouldn’t be opposites. Maria serves as Chief Strategy Officer and Holland as Chief Insights Officer, combining strategy, psychology, analytics and research to better understand what people actually think, feel and do.

Maria spent much of her career on the receiving end of consumer research and saw the same problem: companies had more data than ever, but the questions and answers had become predictable. Before co-founding GoodQues in 2019, she was Chief Strategy Officer at Air Paris and Global Strategy Director at Grey Group. Her work blends creative strategy, psychology and storytelling to make research more useful and memorable.

Holland comes at the problem from the data side, focused on making research more actionable and human without sacrificing precision. Before GoodQues, she built and led Grey New York’s Data Strategy team and later its Data Center of Excellence. She previously led advanced analytics and business strategy for Johnson & Johnson brands at J3/UM. At GoodQues, she challenges the conventions of research, including whether companies are asking the right questions in the first place.

Together, they’ve built GoodQues into one of ADWEEK’s Fastest Growing Agencies for 2026, working with brands including Adobe, TikTok, PepsiCo, P&G, Mars, PayPal and Unilever. GoodQues grew 2,082% in three years and has appeared multiple times on the Inc. 5000. Their work can mean borrowing techniques from psychology, replacing obvious questions with creative exercises or turning research into a podcast instead of another deck.

What connects Maria and Holland is a belief that better research starts with being more human. They push against an industry that often prioritizes faster and cheaper instead of asking whether the research itself is getting better. For GoodQues, creativity isn’t the enemy of rigor. It’s often what gets a more honest answer, uncovers something the obvious question missed and turns data into an insight people actually remember.

Chris Abraham is a Senior CSM on beehiiv's Ad Network team, where he manages more than $2 million in monthly ad spend across 80-plus active advertiser campaigns and a publisher network of over 30,000. He spends his days matching brands with the right newsletter audiences and helping publishers turn trust into revenue.

Before beehiiv, Chris grew revenue at The Peak, a Canadian business, finance and tech newsletter that was later acquired by a Canadian legacy media brand. When he's not connecting brands and newsletters, Chris is out hiking the Colorado mountains with his wife, Cassidy, and their dog Kirby, a Mini Aussie–Border Collie mix.

Jonathan Chanti is the Founder and CEO of Reign Maker Group, a modern media, talent, and marketing company built at the intersection of culture, creators, sports, entertainment, and brand innovation. Through its portfolio of companies, Reign Maker Group represents top creators, athletes, entertainers, and brands while helping them build scalable businesses beyond traditional endorsement and content opportunities.

Prior to founding Reign Maker Group, Jonathan was an early executive at Viral Nation, where he played a key role in helping grow the company into one of the leading creator and influencer marketing agencies in the world. Throughout his career, he has worked alongside some of the most influential creators, athletes, entertainers, and brands, helping structure partnerships, drive revenue growth, and create long-term business opportunities across the digital landscape.

As an entrepreneur and industry leader, Jonathan has been at the forefront of the rapidly evolving creator economy, helping talent navigate the shift from content creators to business owners. His experience spans talent management, creator monetization, brand partnerships, media, marketing, and business development, with involvement in major creator-led ventures, strategic brand partnerships, and talent-driven businesses across sports, entertainment, and technology.

Jonathan is a sought-after voice on topics including the creator economy, entrepreneurship, talent representation, personal branding, creator-led businesses, digital media trends, and the convergence of entertainment, commerce, and technology. Under his leadership, Reign Maker Group has emerged as a leading force helping creators and talent transform audiences into sustainable businesses and lasting brands.

Melissa Yinger is an editorial leader and storyteller who has enjoyed working with Theorist’s all-star team of writers and creative visionaries since May 2025. She holds a Ph.D. in Literature and brings 15+ years of experience shaping content that ranges from academic essays to No. 1 iTunes documentaries, viral shorts, and long-form shows.

She loves blending deep research and cultural analysis with YouTube pragmatism (translation: the narrative arc matters, but so does the hook). Favorite part of the job? Finding original creators and helping them shine. Also, not quite believing they pay her to do this.