Runway 7 Taps Andy Bachman for Impact & Influence Award After Creators Inc. Rocks Sony Hall

Carmen Electra, Offset, Donna Mills and Ryan Garcia don't exactly run in the same circles, but Andy Bachman is a regular in all of them. That range just earned him a new honor.

On Monday, September 14, Runway 7 recognized the Creators Inc. founder with its 2026 Impact & Influence Award during the platform’s first-ever Fashion Awards at Sony Hall, citing his work helping creators turn online influence into opportunities beyond the feed.

“Creators Inc. brought us more internet impressions in a single day than I'd seen in years of producing shows,” Runway 7 CEO Anthony Rosa said. “When Andy's creators hit the runway, their fans come right along with them. I've learned a tremendous amount from him about turning that kind of excitement into engagement.”

The Creators Inc. roster has been proving that all year. In May, social media icons Sophie Rain and Piper Rockelle made their runway debuts with Bachman’s CI Swimwear at Miami Swim Week, joining a lineup that also included Alina Rose, Summer Iris, Mariella Gregoria and Virginia Sanhouse. Rain’s first walk kept traveling long after the event ended, with one video eventually pulling in more than 40 million views.

It also opened another door. By July, the OnlyFans star had walked New York Swim Week and was already talking about Victoria’s Secret, Savage X Fenty and eventually launching a line of her own. “I think people are beginning to understand that creators can cross into fashion, acting, business, or anything else we work hard at,” she told Where Is The Buzz.

Two nights before the awards, Bachman was back at Sony Hall with CI Swimwear as Runway 7's NYFW run was winding down. The week had brought 138 designers through the venue, but one person on Saturday night definitely wasn’t on the lineup. Lil Tay, the internet's original “youngest flexer,” crashed the show mid-strut, sharing the spotlight with a model in a metallic gold two-piece for about 18 seconds before security escorted her off.

“I don't condone spoiling months of preparation, but I'll admit that girl mogged the entire room,” Bachman told TMZ. “She should consider a catwalk, preferably with a booking next time.”

Long before fashion week came calling, Bachman was building companies. The Babson grad landed on the inaugural Empact100 list of top entrepreneurs under 30 in 2011 and was honored at the White House for his work with Scambook, the consumer-complaint startup he co-founded that year. Nearly a decade later, he started Creators Inc. with no investors, no partners and a single phone. The company brought in $60 million right out of the gate and has since topped $1 billion in sales and $300 million in EBITDA.

“I've taken a lot of people from literally maybe $100 in their bank account to over seven figures in their bank account,” Bachman said in an April interview with Market Realist.

The award comes amid a run that has been hard to pin to one industry. Bachman signed former ACE Family star Austin McBroom in January, then launched Creator Music Group the following month with Alina Rose’s “Hobby,” featuring Lil Pump and produced by Scott Storch. In March, he negotiated what Sports Illustrated reported was the largest single-match purse in competitive wrestling for Georgio Poullas, with Bachman saying speculation put the six-minute match close to seven figures.

By July, the Creators Inc. Podcast had cracked Apple’s Business top 15 without a network behind it, with guests including former Danity Kane member Aubrey O’Day, Law & Order: SVU star Ice-T and UFC legend Chuck Liddell. Bachman has also been building BuzzStar, where fans can pay to speak live one-on-one with the creators they follow.

“Fans do not just want a video anymore, they want the real thing,” he said while discussing the platform in August. “Everything else is getting easier to make. A creator's time is the one thing that never will be.”

For Bachman, every deal comes back to the same goal: “My job is simple — make sure this moment turns into a lifetime.”