LOST iN is signing creators to be the face of its brand. Here’s how it’s avoiding the BuzzFeed pitfall.

It can be risky building a content brand with a staff of creators–not because people won’t connect with those creators, but because they’ll connect with them a lot. We saw it happen with BuzzFeed especially: It built its video business on the backs of creators like the Try Guys and the trio that later became Watcher Entertainment. When those creators exited to start their own media brands (and, crucially, to have more control over what content they made and the revenue they earned from it…), fan viewership went with them, and BuzzFeed hasn’t done so hot since.

LOST iN is determined to be different.

The travel brand launched this past June by former Jukin Media co-founders and execs Jonathan Skogmo, Mike Skogmo, and Anton Reut with a $4 million seed round of investment from people like pocket.watch founder Chris Williams and Fullscreen founder George Strompolos. It’s made a couple acquisitions so far, including the travel guidebook publisher also named LOST iN, BuzzFeed’s travel vertical Bring Me!, and Facebook group View from My Window.

Now, it’s signing its first batch of creators to content deals. And, by doing so, it’s tapping into a burgeoning market, with TikTok seeing enough globetrotter thirst among its users to try making itself into the “discovery engine” for travelers, and brands like Southwest Airlines doing sweeping brand deals with travel creators.

YouTubers the Vagabrothers (1.1 million subscribers) and Instagrammers Pretty Little London (1.4 million), Jeremy Jacobwitz (519K), Giselle Chusan (200K), and Cedric Wood (85K) have signed agreements that will have them developing original content and branded content, licensing back catalog from their channels, and collaborating with one another both on their own channels and on LOST iN’s accounts.

Jonathan Skogmo tells Tubefilter LOST iN is not interested in a BuzzFeed-style model, where its creators are restricted to only posting on its accounts. They’ll produce some content for its accounts, and will be contracted to post some specific content on their own accounts, but what they post on their accounts outside of contracted content is owned by them, and is not subject to approval from LOST iN.

The company is also not interested in “bringing creators into an exclusive MCN-type network where we’d handle monetization of their channels for a fee,” Skogmo says. “We don’t want to be in that business.”

LOST iN is going into deals with creators assuming its audience “will develop a great affinity” for them, he adds. “But our strategy is not to make the creators full-time LOST iN personalities. [T]hey’ll act as more of a rotating crew, with familiar faces dropping in and out of our programming over time, rather than ‘stars’ that we’ll build formats around.”

Skogmo says the point of these deals is to “invest in creators and we hope that over time we’ll help travel creators further their careers and grow their followings, and that will in turn attract new creators to LOST iN.”

LOST iN chose to do deals with creators in the first place because, in Reut and the Skogmos’ years of experience working with user-generated content, they’ve had “many, many conversations” with travel creators, and think those creators “seem to be in a slightly different situation than most other creators in different genres.”

“They have all the known stressors that come with being a creator (pressure to constantly post, financial stress, etc.), but with the added burden of constantly being away from home and needing to travel to new places all the time,” Skogmo says. “Because of that, they seem to really welcome creative partnerships that will help them maximize the revenue they can earn on trips they’re already taking, or content they’re already capturing, or partnerships that help subsidize their trips.”

LOST iN wants to be that partnership–and content from its first creators will start rolling out soon.