Startups in the Creator Economy

In the last article, we saw creators earning on platforms they have been making content on but now there are so many new products and tools to aid their goal. Creators are decentralizing media, finance, and other sectors. And these startups are helping them to run their businesses:

• Patreon: The OG creator startup that even inspired Twitter to build monetization features. It has monthly membership features by creators for their true fans. Patreon takes a 5–12% cut of monthly income from creators.
• Ko-Fi and Buy Me a Coffee: very similar to each other and use donations in increments of $3. But now, they have included more features like memberships and shop. The best thing is one can include a link anywhere. I am thinking to include it on my resume and ask for a coffee for every rejection 😛.
• Beacons: the Olivia Rodrigo of link-in-bio tools. It is much more than a simple Linktree link and can be attached anywhere. It is a GenZ thematic mobile website builder in links format with features like monetization, marketing, and analytics.
• Karat: it’s a banking system for creators. They provide credit cards to creators without SSN or credit score but on the basis of their subscribers and income from channels.
• Mirror.xyz: this is my favouritest of the lot (I wish I could get onto this). It’s a publishing platform on a crypto-based network where writers can collaborate and get paid in splits.

Major funders

There are so many startups booming and especially with so much media focus that means VC money. Silicon Valley is super excited to invest in creator economy startups and a16z is leading the race. Li Jin is a great investor and resource. Also, noticed that a lot of good creator economy startups graduated from YC over the past 4 years.

In India:

There is a Cameo rip-off called Tring. It charges only Rs 500 for a video message from a small celebrity and the UX of the app is not that great.

Qoohoo is popularised by Tanmay Bhat (comedian and creator). It is pre-launch but the focus is on creators building exclusive communities and monetizing them (much like Patreon).

TagMango, a YC W20 batch startup is building a membership and subscription platform for the Indian creators. There are around 4000+ creators on the platforms. It has exclusive features like paid calls and WhatsApp to distribute content (game-changing for Asian Markets).

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