How This Creator Built an AI Startup to Protect Creators From Bad Deals | Kameron Buckner

0:00Kameron Buckner:This creator is building the platform every creator wishes existed earlier. Introducing Kameron Buckner. While practicing lol, Kameron started reviewing her own brand deals as a creator. Her friends noticed and started asking her to review theirs too. And Kameron kept seeing the same thing. Creators were signing contracts they did not understand, giving away rights they did not know they had, and losing money while they should have earned. So Kameron built Social Docket, an AI-powered legal platform designed specifically for the creator economy. It reviews contracts in minutes, flags missing protections, and help creators negotiate better deals without needing to hire a lawyer.

0:34Kameron Buckner:And on today's episode of the Hot Start podcast, Cameron tells the full story. Cameron, I'm excited to have you. I'm so excited to be here, Chad. Yeah, thank you so much for coming on. I'm really excited to talk about your company, The Social Doghood. But before we do that, I actually want to start with your journey as a content creator, because you have been creating content ever since 2014, which is already more than a decade ago. as a way before it was cool to actually be considered the content creator. So I want to go back to those early days. What initially inspired you to start creating content?

1:04Yeah, this is one of my favorite questions because one, it reminds me of how far I've been in the industry and how long it's been and how far I've gotten. So yeah, in 2014, I was a college student. I was craving creativity because at that point I decided, okay, I'm going to go to law school. So I knew I had to be a little bit more serious when it came to academics, but I wanted to still express myself. So I started a YouTube channel. During that time, we all were just creating like beauty content, fashion content, a little bit of lifestyle and vlogging But we didn't even know or I didn't know that you could make money from it But I remember that first check from youtube was like a hundred dollars and I was so excited I was like, oh my god, I got groceries on me in the dorm I was so excited and there were no contracts.

1:42This was an era where brands were literally paying us through paypal We were just getting products and just really excited then fast forward to 2016. I went to law school So what I love about the journey that I was able to have is that I was early on as a creator, but also early on in understanding the importance of contracts and negotiating through law school during the new era of this creator economy. The word influencer wasn't even a thing back then. I think it got in Webster in like 2017 or 2019. So it was very, very early on. And while I was in law school, I was helping my friends with their contracts because, of course, you have a friend that goes to law school.

2:13you start to pick their brain. So I'm negotiating my contracts, helping them with their contracts, and realizing that it's not just me making the mistakes with contracts, meaning signing terrible contracts, leaving thousands of dollars on the table to the point where I was so excited about getting recognized and things like that. And then I'm like, wait, but like, I still can't pay my rent with this money. So what's happening? Why is my face all over the internet, but like, I'm not getting paid for it. So fast forward to graduating law school, I practice employment law, and I learned a lot more about contracts and more of a traditional legal sense and was able to also help my friends with that as well.

2:44So really just been a journey of me evolving as a creator while always being the core and foundation of what I do, but then learning a lot about this overlap of industries and how I could bridge. Hey, quick one before we get back to the episode. If you love conversations like this one, you would love The Fame Game, our weekly newsletter in which we break down how celebrities and creators build billion dollar brands. Sign up for free via the link in the description. And now back to the episode.

3:08Kameron Buckner:Yeah, no, I love that. And I think the$100 check was actually quite a lot still because I've heard large creators and their first check was like 42 cents of whatsoever. So I think that was quite impressive. And looking at your own content, like what type of content did you initially produce? And how has it evolved over time going from kind of more lifestyle content to actually more focused on a particular niche? Yeah. So in the beginning, I had like an iPhone one. Like, I don't know which iPhone it was. It was like the very first version. I'm in my dorm creating just hair content, sharing about college, giving tips and tricks of being a college student.

3:44And that was it. I wasn't really thinking about it. I was barely editing. I was editing, filming, doing everything on my phone, which is I feel like a lot of people are like, what? I mean, we do it a lot now, but still it's like now there's these full production. We have these cameras and all this fancy equipment. And the goal was really just to connect with my audience. It was like, how can I share these tips and tricks with more people quicker, faster, more efficiently? And YouTube was kind of the outlet for that. And then when I get to law school, it's like naturally I'm not. getting done up as much.

4:11I'm not doing my hair, my makeup and clothes. And I was like, well, what can I share now? Like, I don't have anything else to share. So then I started sharing my law school journey. I would in 2016, 2017 had my camera in law school and people are like, what the heck are you doing? Like, this is not normal. Who are you talking to? I'm like, my friends online. And they're like, what the heck? So I started sharing that, which then turned into sharing being a licensed attorney, then sharing, becoming an entrepreneur and sharing about creator contracts. So I've allowed my content to evolve over the years and it continues to evolve now that I'm in this founder journey as well.

4:40Kameron Buckner:Yeah. And before your founder journey, you actually also working at a law firm. How did they kind of reply to you being a content creator? Because back then, everyone was so secretive, right? You cannot film and talk about your work. And there's a lot of stories of investment bankers doing the same things and them being fired for talking about their job on TikTok or whatsoever. And now you kind of see it being reversed engineers. Now you see actually a lot of these firms looking for obviously qualified employees, but that also have a social presence to add more kind of like a face to the companies.

5:12Kameron Buckner:Could you kind of talk about your experience being so early in the space? Yeah, I think I kind of had a little bit of an advantage because it was so early where before people were like, oh, what is this? For me, because I had been online for so long, it wasn't like I started once I got in law firm land. It was like, this is something that has been a part of me for years before I even started practicing. Like I went to law school in 2016. I started practicing in 2019 right after I graduated and passed the bar. and I at that point it's been like five years so I was just open and honest about it I mean of course everything is public but I shared with them any stage and any opportunity I got from clerking at the district attorney's office they were fine with it I mean I didn't share like you know confidential information and being in law school really teaches you that quick so I learned quickly like what I should share what I should and where my own personal boundaries were with that and what I always tell people is if you're not comfortable explaining what you do online you probably shouldn't be posting it whether it's to an employer to a client to a friend to a family So I learned to like just be confident like hey, no i'm building this platform.

6:07I'm changing people's lives I had creators say like I didn't sign a bad deal because of this one term you explained to me online Or I had people say oh I went to law school because you showed me that law school is more than just working at a law firm So that kind of helps me have that conversation, but I was just honest like this is my platform This is what I post about. I never shared where I worked. I never named the place I shared I did employment a lot at the time I filmed a little bit in the office, but mainly just like typing and that was it And then I would walk away, like show me going to lunch and talking about what I was working on.

6:36So I think finding those boundaries and having the open conversation with your employer really, really help. And then respecting if they do have like a new no moonlighting. Like I have a friend that works in big law and she isn't able to do paid partnerships. So that's just like where their line is. So finding where that line is in your company really helps too.

6:52Kameron Buckner:Yeah, I think that's that's great advice. And then already soon after you kind of landed your job, you actually quit that job to become a full time content creator. and then you also launched your own first company. I believe it was called The Legal Tea. So could you kind of talk about like that transition and what you were actually doing with your own company? Yeah, so it's so funny because The Legal Tea actually first was a playlist on my YouTube channel where I would share creator legal education and I was just sharing like, oh, this is what you shouldn't do, this is what you should do and this is what law school has helped me with and here's tips about law school and tips about contracts and creators and kind of finding where that overlap was.

7:27Then when I was at the law firm, I quickly realized either I can bring my clients in the firm or I need to figure out a way to help them faster. But the moment that really shifted my mindset is I had somebody that wasn't a friend ask me, how much do I charge to do all of her contracts? And I was like, my friends have been getting free work. But also on top of that, it was just very validating to know that, one, she had already hired a lawyer, which I was like, oh, she hired a lawyer, had a not great experience because she was like, even after paying hundreds of thousands of dollars, I still had to edit majority of it and explain to them and educate them.

7:57But with me, it was like, you don't have to do that because I get it. I do brand deals. So then I was able to work with that client moving forward. So that was the unlock I needed in order to quit. And yeah, I quit after one year because that was all I needed to see. But I always tell people I have, I've been in the legal profession since like 2013. So once I made the decision in college that I wanted to become a lawyer, I worked at law firms. So I played every role from legal assistant to intern, to receptionist, to paralegal, to law clerk, to attorney. So I was able to see kind of what that environment was in a variety of different industries from debt collection to personal injury to med mal to I mean employment law criminal law so it was like once I saw that I realized even how bigger the gap was for the creator economy where it felt like it's just still not the right fit to the problem that we were having whether it's the amount of money that you have to charge to get a lawyer or it's the amount of education that you have to educate the person that's supposed to be professional on or even the speed I think the speed was something that I was like okay a law firm isn't really fitting for but a consulting firm would be.

8:55So the legal team became a consulting firm where I started in 2020 and have been helping hundreds of creators through various different contract situations, be able to understand what they're signing, make more money from it and still keep up the speed that's necessary in the industry.

9:08Kameron Buckner:Yeah, but it was also kind of a leap of faith, right? Because like not many creators were actually making money, like not even like enough to pay rent, but like just in general, not even enough to pay groceries. So what was that also that kind of leap of faith where you could have actually specialized in any other law where there's like billions and billions and trillions of kind of contracted work to kind of take a bet on, hey, there's this something called the creator economy. Back then it's just like people picking up their phone and start vlogging their days, unpoliced content. What was that the whole like leap of faith?

9:41Kameron Buckner:Like we're like, hey, I think this could actually be as massive as it is today. Yeah, so I did have a little bit of insider tea. So I mentioned that it was 2020. when I quit. And what was so unique about 2020 on the creator side, but also on the consulting side is I was like, okay, wait, it's not just the creators that see the respect in the industry. It was the first time that people outside of our industry were kind of joining, whether it's the mom and pop that went viral on TikTok. And then they were like, wait a minute, I made$10 ,000 from posting online. So I think it was a moment in time in 2020, where finally everyday people realize how hard it is to grow online, how fast your life can change and become like financially sustainable because of social media.

10:25So conversations were starting to come up and creators that have been doing it for a while were like, okay, let's try to educate these newbies on what you can do with social media, on how you can leverage your social media and become like a media platform. So during that time and when I quit, it felt like the perfect time because creators were like starting to share how much money they're making, started to make more money. And it wasn't just the OGs and the people that's been doing it for so long. It was a new large audience of everyday people that might have looked at influencers like, I don't want to talk about a lip gloss or that.

10:54It was more than that. It was, okay, now there's professionals, there's dentists, there's lawyers, there's teachers that are now online that can make money and supplement their income.

11:02Kameron Buckner:Yeah, I think that's a great story. And like, obviously, doing your work, you have been working with hundreds of creators. What are some of the most common pitfalls that you see or most common mistakes that they make or some of the legal horror stories that you've experienced? Yeah. The first thing that always comes to mind is they don't read contracts. So I was like, okay, why aren't they reading the contract? And I would ask them and they're like, I'm just intimidated and I don't know what to look for. So great. Okay. How do I eliminate that education? But then the second problem was they don't know where to get that.

11:30So it's like, okay, how do I get them to come to me, consultant, legal, before they sign the contract? So that was always it. Like, how do I get them to see the contract, to review the contract? And I have to give the industry credit. It kind of happened without me. That's when creators started to share their bad situations with contracts where it's like, hey, don't sign this because I signed this deal and now my face is on a billboard or I had a terrible situation with managers. So really the industry was kind of keeping up with where I already was predicting it to go with people just having open conversations and sharing things that really in the back end used to be, let's not share, let's hush hush.

12:03And now we started to have conversations. So first it was reading the contracts. And then it was, how do I make more money from this contract? Like, okay, now I have the knowledge and the experience of the terms, but understanding the definition, the outcome are two different things. So teaching creators how to not just know what perpetuity means forever, but what does that mean in the outcome of your contract if you sign that?

12:22Kameron Buckner:Yeah. And last year you also launched a new company, The Social Docket. Could you kind of talk about the whole journey going from the legal team and kind of like the gaps that you saw that your company was not fulfilling and the opportunity that you saw with the social docket and what it is exactly? Yeah. So some of the same questions kept coming up. So every consulting call, every contract revision I would do, and I'm like, okay, there's the same set of problems. I just mentioned how people will come to me after they already signed. And I'm like, ah, we got to eliminate that, right? Our best time to negotiate and to have leverage is beforehand when everyone's excited and wants to work together.

12:55So how do I switch the mindset of being reactive to being and proactive. And lawyers, we're taught to be reactive, right? Client comes in, they have a problem, we fix it. But how do we resolve it before the problem even becomes something? And then also, how do I help more creators in one setting, software? So I met with one of my earliest creator clients who literally trusted me in the very beginning when I was figuring out the whole consulting thing. And she was like, Cameron, I'm going to be honest, I want to talk to you more frequently. Like I want more access. Like, yeah, it's great when I have the monthly calls with you and you help me with the contract revision.

13:26And I've learned a lot. But what if I have just like a one-off simple question that I want answered. And she wasn't the only one that was asking that. And I'm like, okay, well, what could that look like? Should I hire another lawyer? Should I hire more consultants? Should I figure out how to have a group coaching program? And she was like, what if you develop an app? And from that conversation, it just sparked something in me where I'm like, okay, I'm not an engineer. I have no idea what an app is, but here's another lucky moment in my life when AI also was happening. So I can't take full credit from that.

13:52It was like, hey, another industry signal. And I'm like, perfect timing. Thank you for that. I'll take that win. And so I started doing a ton of research on AI, development, software, engineers, and how could I complement these two worlds, so law and the creator economy, with software being the bridge. Because I always knew I wanted to bridge the gap between law and the creator economy, but I didn't understand exactly how. And consulting, there was a cap. It was like it was my time, but how can I scale this to reach more creators to allow them to advocate for themselves in those gaps that they don't need lawyers?

14:21So we built Social Docket. It's an AI native legal operating system to help creators and their teams go from offer to close in one place for the first time.

14:29Kameron Buckner:Yeah. And how does it work practically? Let's say I'm a content creator. Like what are kind of the steps that I need to take on the platform to get to my desired outcome? Love that. So first thing is you upload your contract. And in minutes, you're able to get revisions that usually would take either hours or days for a lawyer to get back to you. You get those revisions drafted to you in minutes. Also, you're able to see the risk flags categorized by high, medium, and low, and the missing protections. So these missing protections are the clause language that I tend to use in contract based on the user's experience.

15:00So, for example, I have a client that works in healthcare. She's a nurse. So there's going to be specific disclaimers that she must include. So now she doesn't have to worry about remembering those things. Social Docket drafts that for you. The next layer of that is the actual negotiating. So we have Doc at IQ, who is our contract specialist or a version of me, but through our AI, where you can ask those questions, those one-off questions that usually would take hundreds of dollars, hours of time, days. You can get feedback immediately, and it knows how to reference the contract that you're talking about.

15:28Versus again, I'm a human. Sometimes I forget. I'm like, which contract was it? Was it the contract from last week or last month? How much did you charge? Now all of your system is in one place. Also, the last thing is it's going to go ahead and draft that email for the brand for you. A lot of times creators get caught up in the language and what you should say and what you should do and how do you say it. And we actually have an amazing user win, which is CrazySignal, where she was able to get an extra five figures on one single deal based on that analysis feature in a combination with the Docket IQ.

15:59She shared with us, we literally just had a call with her a few days. She shared with us that she initially tried to do it on her own with her own language of, hey, I should charge this because X, Y, Z. and they were like, no, we don't charge for that. She literally copied and pasted what social docket told her to say and she got an extra five figures on the deal based on using the right language connected to the right term in the contract.

16:18Kameron Buckner:Well, I think that's amazing. And what is kind of the model and trained on? Is it like the thousands of contracts that you have reviewed and kind of in your career or like are there other sources that you kind of tap into to get to those desired outcomes? Yeah, for right now, we are really focused on what was my experience. So whether it's email threads and conversations, whether it's contracts that I reviewed from the initial contract to how I like redline it. So we're using that to create particular specific prompts in order for our AI to give really, really good specific knowledge. But on top of that, it's reviewing the user's questionnaire.

16:50So when you sign up, you fill out all your information. I'm a micro creator. I work in this industries and this background. So that's able to make that connection between what the revisions would usually be for that particular client user. So that's exciting. And as we progress and as we continue to go, we're making it even more specific by adding additional features such as actually implementing the contract language specifically. A lot of the clauses are drafted by me. So the missing protection section is the clauses that I use, which is nice. So we're trying to find the best way to make it even more specific and eventually even more urgent.

17:22Kameron Buckner:Yeah, I assume that also on the back end, you kind of have your own AI that basically says, hey, we're in here like three or four gaps that we haven't addressed in the system. Can you basically type in the prompt or whatever I need to kind of provide this advice to my clients, I assume, right? Right. So I'm also, of course, reviewing it. So I use it. I use it for my own contracts. I tell them like, hey, it's great because I'm the user. So I get to try like some of the new features and be able to interact with our founding members. So I'm constantly like uploading contracts for my brand deals, reviewing the feedback and going to my engineers and saying, hey, like, why was this response like this?

17:52Or can we update this language? Because the language is a little bit too complex. And then we of course have like legal interns that are amazing. I think right now building in legal tech in the way that we are is the best people to really give us feedback are law students right now. Some of them want to be creators or influencers or want to work in intellectual property. And they're like right now boots on the ground with these policy changes that aren't really changing right now. So they're the ones that are like that may eventually be making these decisions later on with how do we update the Federal Trade Commission, the FTC, or how do we implement AI with social media and have regulations and laws that are actually going to help and protect us.

18:25So it's been really nice working with them on some of these things and having them test things as well.

18:29Kameron Buckner:Yeah, I think that's very exciting. And if you just look at kind of the ideal creator profile, like where are these creators in their journeys that made them best suited for social docket? Yeah, so we're not industry specific. I think that's something we get asked like, oh, do I have to be a fashion creator or a tech creator? And we're not industry specific. What we're focused on is nano and micro creators. So think 1000 followers to 100 ,000 followers. And the reason behind that is in that amount of followers, you are getting the most frequent contracts and also your audience you have the best engagement because you aren't too big where they feel like oh you're a celebrity you're out of touch but you do have a really healthy amount of audience members that you can reach a large group at at any given time and your distribution is still really really healthy also brands are like okay you aren't quite priced us out where we need we know you're going to come at us with more long-term deals you may get like one to three deals at one time as far as like over the course of a month you work with one brand they partner with you for one to three months.

19:24And also in Q3, Q4, you're probably getting the most frequent because holiday season, they know you can turn it around pretty quickly. So that tends to be the amount of followers that get the most frequent contracts.