The YouTube exec in charge of working with top creators, Preeya Khanna, is hanging up her “golden handcuffs” after 12 years at the company.
“I was really craving a return back to what it felt like in the earlier days to just build something,” she said. “I had never taken my knowledge and applied it elsewhere.”
The creator economy vet is entering the entrepreneurial fray as an advisor to Hype.bet, a creator-focused iGaming startup founded by her younger brother.
Khanna will harness her expertise to onboard creators for the online gambling platform — building selection criteria and lead lists, as she did during her tenure at YouTube — as Hype.bet seeks to cultivate a more social user experience.
Khanna’s career at YouTube began at 24 as an intern. In her first full-time role as partner manager for breakout creators like Tyler Oakley and Bethany Mota, she saw the legitimacy of the early creator economy crystallize, taking creators to Times Square to see the billboards YouTube had erected in their honor.
Over the years she advanced from an intern to the manager of a sizable team she said she still speaks with regularly. Last January, Khanna was named global head of top creators, celebrities, and athletes — essentially managing the team she started on — and working with the likes of MrBeast, Brittany Broski, and Druski.
“It just started feeling a little bit of what’s old is new again,” she said of her culminating role. “I was ready to leave and get in on something closer to the ground floor — to really be able to shape it.”
She’s also remaining in the corporate world, having separately taken on a role at Airbnb as director of experience supply, working on the company’s experiences business.
Mixing family and business
Khanna’s brother, Shayne, said he’d long admired his sister’s career.
“I used to ask her, ‘What did they put in your water?'” he said.
Shayne was in the midst of his own career transition, having founded the online gambling-focused investment firm S2 Growth.
While fielding deals, Shayne and his business partner discovered Hype.bet — a platform that enables creators to host virtual rooms where they can gamble with followers.
They believed in the idea so strongly that they purchased a 50% stake in the company and began incubating it as co-CEOS, with backing from Yolo Investments and Benjie Cherniak.
Shayne said Hype.bet’s creator bent epitomizes a wave of platforms seeking a more human feeling. And he likened Preeya’s involvement to “having someone who has the exact playbook at the highest level in our back pocket.”
At Hype.bet, Preeya said the team is seeking creators with long-form livestreaming experience and a knack for depth — and who are comfortable in the online gambling space, which is regulated differently around the world. Hype.bet itself is based in Canada and does not operate in the US.
Preeya said mentors at YouTube like Susan Wojcicki, Robert Kyncl, and Neal Mohan had instilled a creator-first mentality that informs her approach.
“Creators know so much more than we do about how products will land in-market, about their audiences, and how to mobilize them,” she said.
Initially, Shayne said there was some trepidation about asking his sister to join Hype.bet, knowing the rate at which startups fail. But while there’s still room for sibling friction, it’s been a smooth transition.
“I think he respects the space that I know, and I fully respect the space that he knows,” Preeya said.
