By: Elowen Gray
Let’s be honest, the talent agency model seems a bit outdated. Bloated. Gatekept. Outpaced by TikTok trends and YouTube niches that now influence culture. So when I first heard that a two-time Yale grad and a music executive who’s worked with Beyoncé, J. Cole, John Legend, and Young Thug were teaming up to build an AI platform that could potentially replace talent agencies, I had two thoughts:
- That’s ambitious.
- There’s no way this could fully replace talent agencies, right?
But then I met them.
Rohan Gurram and Gary “Bolo” Sargeant are an unexpected duo. One’s a 25-year-old Indian-American founder who launched a nationwide cultural festival before he even graduated high school. The other’s a music executive who’s spent two decades shaping the soundtracks of our lives from college dorms to stadiums.
Together, they’re building something called Cliqk – The AI Creator Network. Cliqk doesn’t just manage creators. It aims to help amplify their presence and impact. They’re working toward becoming a central platform for the next era of creative talent in the creator economy.
Rohan Gurram isn’t your typical Ivy League MBA.
At 17, he co-founded GuruFest, the first national festival for Indian-American youth. It wasn’t just a party; it was a movement for brown kids to latch onto. He still receives letters from attendees thanking him for helping them find the confidence to speak up, feel seen, or flirt with their first “American” crush.
He attended Yale, first for Economics and later for an MBA. In between, he founded ColdStart, a growth studio that supported creators and startups in scaling to significant revenue. After building two more companies, Rohan co-founded Evenda — a platform that helps brands deploy marketing capital to exclusive events.
Through every iteration, Rohan kept building, learning, and refining.
“What creators lack isn’t talent,” he told me. “It’s structured support. AI lets us deliver that in a fast, scalable, and precise structure.”
On the flip side, Bolo is the puppet master behind the scenes. He doesn’t need the limelight, having spent most of his career making other people famous.
At Columbia Records, he led campaigns for Beyoncé, John Legend, J. Cole, and more. At 300 Entertainment, he helped break Young Thug, Megan Thee Stallion, and Gunna, bridging the underground and the mainstream with instinct and precision.
But today? He says the labels are fixated on TikTok.
“All we talk about now are creators,” Bolo told me. “It’s not about radio spins the way it used to be. It’s about momentum, and creators are where momentum lives.”
What Bolo brings to Cliqk isn’t just relationships. It’s systems. Decades of campaign playbooks, artist development frameworks, and cultural instinct all now feed into Cliqk’s AI model.
“We’re building the cultural operating system for creators,” he said. “And we’re doing it in a way no traditional agency ever could.”
Here’s where the story takes an interesting turn.
One of the most connected people in music is signing their first creator. A mega-celebrity? Someone with 100 million followers? Maybe Beyoncé’s cousin or someone else that Bolo met when he was helping the Pharrell & the Star Trak team?
Cliqk’s first creator isn’t a viral sensation. It’s Ilias Anwar, a rising creator and community builder in NYC who’s carved out a unique space at the intersection of tech, events, and creator culture.
He’s the founder of Tapped AI (a live music data startup), TCC Entertainment (a creative agency and event brand), and Creator Week (a week-long celebration of creators and technology).
He’s thrown over 500 events, built a community of 200K+ followers by showcasing his journey, and recently had all his events acquired by SeedLegals, a startup platform that’s helped over 60,000 companies handle fundraising and legal infrastructure — now expanding into the United States.
Ilias wasn’t referred. He didn’t apply. Cliqk’s AI identified him.
The platform itself spotted early growth signals, cultural influence, and long-term brand potential.
Then Bolo reviewed his profiles and got to know his story.
What stood out wasn’t just his resume.
It was how he talks about the creator economy.
“He’s like a walking encyclopedia,” Bolo said. “He’ll randomly quote a 2014 SoundCloud rapper interview and explain how that moment shifted YouTube’s whole content meta.”
That kind of depth is rare. But paired with his relatability, it’s exactly what Cliqk is focusing on.
Ilias is relatable. He’s not some untouchable creator. He’s a builder. A connector. Someone who’s still on his journey — someone people can grow with and point back to as proof of concept.
“He’s not chasing virality,” Bolo said. “He’s building systems. And he reminds me of my younger self, when hip-hop was just starting to break through, and nobody knew what it would become. The creator economy is the new hip-hop industry. And Ilias gets it.”
At SeedLegals, Ilias is now using that same creator mindset to help founders tell their stories, fundraise, co-host events, and grow. Cliqk sees him as the future: creators who create leverage, not just content.
Over the next year, Cliqk plans to sign 100 breakout creators across music, fashion, livestreaming, AI, gaming, tech, lifestyle, and wellness. Each will be paired with a personalized team of AI agents trained on their voice, monetization goals, and brand DNA — essentially a strategist, growth partner, and digital manager rolled into one.
But starting today, the private beta is open to all creators. Anyone can join the platform, access the same AI infrastructure, and begin building their growth engine. As creators hit key milestones, they’ll unlock the opportunity to be selected into Cliqk’s top 100, gaining deeper support, amplification, and a seat at the table shaping the future of creator growth.
Cliqk isn’t guaranteeing fame. It’s giving creators the tools to grow — and the opportunity to be supported like the next breakout star.
For creators like Ilias, who are juggling jobs, building communities, building their personal brand, and throwing events, it’s a new kind of partner. Not a manager. Not a coach.
A multiplier.
And with Rohan’s systems thinking, Bolo’s cultural intuition, and AI doing the heavy lifting, Cliqk could be the infrastructure this next generation of creators has been waiting for.
Cliqk isn’t just disrupting the talent agency model. It’s evolving it.
And they’re only getting started — with the entire entertainment industry in their sights.
Is this a pipe dream?
I guess we will have to wait and see, but I’m optimistic that we’ll see them making headlines soon and fundraising millions of dollars to bring this to life.
