The creator economy is booming. Here in Austin, like in so many places globally as we hit 2025, it feels like everyone is a creator, a maker, an innovator. Platforms like Patreon and Kickstarter have been revolutionary, empowering countless artists, musicians, writers, and makers to connect directly with their audience and fund their passions. Let's give credit where it's due: they opened doors, allowing direct patronage and enabling projects that might never have seen the light of day otherwise.
Patreon lets fans become ongoing supporters, providing creators with much-needed recurring income for their regular work – podcasts, webcomics, video series. Kickstarter is fantastic for launching discrete projects – that new album, that indie board game, that innovative gadget – by mobilizing a community for an initial push and offering cool rewards in return.
But... have you ever felt there was something missing?
The Limits of Existing Models
Think about Patreon. You subscribe, you support, you get perks. It's great for consistent creators. But what happens if one specific piece your supported creator makes – say, a deep investigative article series funded partly by your $10/month – goes viral, wins awards, or gets optioned for a movie? Generally, as a backer, your reward remains the same perk level. You supported its creation, but you don't typically share in that specific work's massive upside. The model primarily supports the creator's ongoing effort, not necessarily the variable success of individual works.
Now consider Kickstarter. You back a project, maybe pre-ordering the product or getting a t-shirt. You help bring it to life. But again, if that indie film you backed gets a major streaming deal, or the graphic novel becomes a bestseller, your reward is usually the item you initially pledged for. You were essentially an early customer or a donor with perks. There's generally no mechanism for you to benefit from the project's ongoing revenue – the ad revenue from the film on YouTube, the royalties from book sales, the licensing fees. And your pledge? It's a sunk cost or a purchase; there's no way to get it back or trade your “support” if the project takes off (or even if it doesn’t).
Identifying the Gap
This highlights a few key gaps, especially for ambitious, potentially high-impact, or long-lifecycle creative work:
- Lack of Shared Upside: Backers rarely participate financially in the specific success of the work they fund beyond initial perks. Their interests aren't fully aligned with the project's long-term revenue potential.
- Limited Liquidity: Support is typically a one-way street – a donation or pre-purchase. Backers have no way to recoup their support or benefit from increased value later.
- Poor Fit for Certain Content: How do you crowdfund crucial, time-consuming investigative journalism with t-shirts? How do you sustain long-form serial fiction or documentary work based purely on upfront pledges or fixed monthly support that doesn't scale with success?
- Investment vs. Patronage: Many backers want to feel like partners, truly invested in the success of a project. Current models primarily frame them as patrons or customers.
The Need for New Models
The success of Patreon and Kickstarter proves the public's willingness to directly support creators and projects they believe in. But the limitations show there's room for evolution. We need models that:
- Offer genuine revenue sharing based on the performance of specific creative works.
- Create better alignment between the long-term interests of creators and their backers.
- Explore possibilities for backer liquidity.
- Provide viable funding pathways for vital but difficult-to-monetize work like in-depth journalism or niche artistic endeavors.
These aren't easy challenges. Building systems that blend financial participation with creative passion requires careful thought about technology, regulation, and community trust.
But what if supporting a project felt less like a donation and more like owning a small piece of its potential? What if you could get a return if that investigative series you backed won a Pulitzer and generated significant syndication revenue?
We think new models are possible.