You might call Shana Davis-Ross a Dr. Frankenstein for the influencer-marketing era. What she’s fashioned isn’t a monster, exactly, but a woman with an algorithmically covetable Manhattan life. Her creation works out at Alo Yoga’s invite-only gym, grabs afternoon Aperol spritzes with her girlfriends, dines at the hottest restaurants and always seems to have a perfect blowout.  

Davis-Ross, 31, is the founder and CEO of Ponte Firm, a talent-management company focused on social-media influencers that she founded in 2019. In five years, she has gone from zero to around 80 clients, for whom she scores lucrative brand deals and advises on social-media posting and long-term business strategies. Notably, many of them are following a similar playbook, living out a certain kind of New York City dream. Her clients Kit Keenan (278,800 TikTok followers), Halley McGookin (1.2 million), Audrey Peters (972,000), Yhasmina Ferrara (43,300), Carly Weinstein (505,200) and Carly Rivlin (325,600) have given new cachet to a neighborhood that has long been among the city’s most desirable: the West Village.