Curastory's founder quit as CEO under an SEC settlement over inflated metrics

Curastory, founded in 2021, helps video creators monetize their work: advertisers buy in-video ads while the platform tracks metrics and offers editing tools. Kelly said it had grown to about 400,000 creators. The startup had raised around $3 million from Lightspeed's Scout Fund, Feld Ventures and Mindspring Capital, per PitchBook.

The Securities and Exchange Commission accused the company of overstating revenue to investors and misrepresenting its true number of clients, according to settlement paperwork seen by TechCrunch. Kelly received a subpoena in June 2025 and a violations notice from the SEC in January — she said she never learned what triggered the investigation.

The settlement, signed without admitting or denying the allegations, forced Kelly out of the CEO seat she founded: she resigned and installed Dave Dickman, former CEO of influencer-marketing platform Tagger, chosen through an executive recruiter. The agreement bars her for 10 years from serving as an officer or director at any company that fundraises, and she agreed to pay a fine. 'Stepping aside was truly the only decision that I could make just to keep the company alive and thriving,' she told TechCrunch.

The SEC's core allegation was fundraising-period honesty: revenue overstated and client counts misrepresented to investors.

The settlement's structure — a 10-year bar from any fundraising company's board or C-suite — made Kelly's continued CEO role untenable.

Kelly kept majority ownership and an advisory role, trading operational control to remove the legal overhang from the company.

Kelly chose and recruited her own successor, an option most ousted founders never get.

Inflated metrics are a founder's personal liability, not just a company problem: the settlement followed Kelly personally, capping her executive career for a decade.

Under Dickman, Curastory restarted fundraising, planned expansion into Canada, Australia and the UK, and worked on features for Spotify video and AI-driven ad buying; Kelly said his fundraising deck reached a VC desk that forwarded it unprompted — 'I have not had that experience with fundraising,' she said. Kelly remains a major shareholder and adviser.