The Securities and Exchange Commission has accused the content monetization startup Curastory of overstating its revenue to investors and misrepresenting its true client numbers. According to paperwork seen by TechCrunch, this led to a settlement with the SEC.
As a result of the settlement, Curastory’s founder and CEO, Tiffany Kelly, resigned from her role. She has been replaced by Dave Dickman, the former CEO of the influencer marketing platform Tagger. Under Dickman’s leadership, the company has begun fundraising, initiated international expansion plans, and is working on product updates.
The settlement agreement specifically bars Kelly for ten years from serving on the board of directors or as an executive at any company that fundraises. A version of this agreement seen by TechCrunch had not yet been finalized. It stated that Kelly agreed to these stipulations without admitting to or denying the allegations.
Although Kelly remains a major shareholder and will stay on as an advisor, she told TechCrunch that stepping aside was the only decision she could make to keep the company alive and thriving. Kelly founded the company in 2021. Curastory is a platform that helps content creators monetize their videos and has grown to about 400,000 creators. It lets advertisers buy in-video ads from creators while tracking metrics and supporting other features like video editing.
The company has raised around three million dollars to date from investors including LightSpeed’s Scout Fund, Feld Ventures, and Mindspring Capital. According to Pitchbook, it has also participated in a few accelerator programs like Techstars and the SPARK Program held by AMEX Ventures and Project W.
As part of the settlement, Kelly also agreed to pay a fine. She stated that she did not know what triggered the SEC investigation. She received a subpoena in June and was issued the violations notice from the SEC in January. She hopes for time and grace, noting that it is interesting being forced to step down. While she still has majority ownership in the company, she is happy that fundraising and finances are no longer her responsibility.
Kelly said she is happy she was able to pick her successor, finding Dickman through an executive recruiter, which many other ousted founders are not able to do. She asked the recruiter to find someone who was a good person, who would not strip and sell the company for quick cash, and who would understand the technology.
Dave Dickman told TechCrunch that early-stage companies have all kinds of challenges and that the situation has been resolved. He compared himself and Kelly to yin and yang, as he has spent decades in the creator space and has worked at a few early-stage startups. He described Kelly as analytical and very product-focused, while he prefers a leadership role. He feels they are a good and complementary combo to drive the company forward.
Kelly is already seeing changes under Dickman, who has been CEO for a few weeks. She said his fundraising deck made it to the desk of a venture capital fund, and they forwarded it to someone else, nudging them to take a look at the product. She said she has not had that experience with fundraising, referring to the challenges women, especially Black women, often face when raising venture money, and called the experience eye-opening.
Under Dickman, she hopes for a bright future for the company. Curastory already has plans to expand into Canada, Australia, and the UK soon. The company is working on new features to target creators on other platforms like Spotify video and to add artificial intelligence to make its advertising technology more agentic. Its current video enablement tools include YouTube, TikTok, and Facebook Watch. It also plans to add a more enhanced attribution model for advertisers that would eliminate the need for influencer promo codes. Kelly described these as the immediate, near-term product, sales, and globalization initiatives.
Despite this shocking end to her run as CEO, Kelly told TechCrunch that being a founder and CEO is one of the most humbling and rewarding experiences anyone can have. She hopes to share her lessons learned and experiences with others, especially women and people of color.