Hello friends,
A bit of a digression this week — an origin story of sorts. I was catching up with a friend and we ended up talking about our early exposure to the "creator economy". And how that led to Yem and trying to use our experience to help creators grow their businesses.
Starting as a Fan
At some point, I remember trying to pay a bit more attention to my inbox and what I was reading. Less news, more focus on learning. These newsletters became early obsessions:
Farnam Street - mental models for days
Brain Pickings - helped me with all the hand-written letters over the years
Stratechery - a business strategy masterclass
But nothing had as much of an impact on me as Tim Urban's WaitButWhy.
Urban continues to stretch what’s possible for a “blog”. He’s been writing an online book (The Story of Us) for several years. What’s been most awesome to watch is how Urban engages with his community. For example, having 6,000 readers fill out a Myers-Briggs survey, and organizing in-person meet-ups (WaitButHi).
All of the newsletters & sites above are effectively solo-operated media businesses. But there was something special about them. People really cared about the creator and their brand.
Down The Rabbit Hole
Around the time I was becoming a major WaitButWhy fan, we were laser focused on growing Crunchyroll and launching new products. We started searching for ways to work with creators. Often, our pitch was "what have you wanted to do that you've never had the resources to do?" From there, we would try to make it happen.
Early on, we noticed a group of "edutainment" creators we really wanted to work with. It was a special group for a variety of reasons. First, they were all friends with each other and already collaborating in a bunch of different ways.
And they all had super passionate fans. At Crunchyroll, we had this thing called the "t-shirt test". Some fans would wear the (bright orange) Crunchyroll t-shirt as a form of self-expression. When they saw someone rocking the Crunchyroll logo, there was an immediate connection.
These creators passed the t-shirt test with flying colors.
And those fans were willing to directly support the creators. At the time, a large portion of creator earnings came from sponsorships or ad revenue. Patreon was the first time I saw creators paid directly by their fans and supporters. Many of the top creators on Patreon were part of the “edutainment” world.
We were lucky to have an idea for a show pitched to us (called Paradigms) by some of the most talented YouTube creators: Henry from MinutePhysics, the MinuteEarth team, and Derek from Veritasium. Compared to their YouTube content, this would be a series with episodes and a narrative arc. The episodes would be longer than what usually worked well on YouTube. I love Derek’s video talking about the idea of the show.
Paradigms was my first exploration into the creator world — I've been hooked ever since.
I'm a believer in the creator economy and its potential to empower individuals. More and more, creators will become the most influential media brands of the 21st century.
We're in the early stages of proving we can apply our learnings and a data-driven approach to help creators grow their businesses. I'm excited for Yem to play even a small part in helping the creator economy continue to blossom.
I'm curious to hear what you think! And hope this digression wasn't too boring. 😬