Stir It Up: New Tools for the Creator Economy
Stir is a new tool for creators to control their business from one place
By João Santos
The digital age has allowed everyone to be a content creator, with some studies suggesting that digital platforms have begun to outperform conventional media.
Not only has content creation become one of the most coveted professions, a survey has found, but it also represents “the fastest-growing type of small business”, as reported by the venture capital firm SignalFire.
As such, every day there seems to be a new start-up that provides those content creators with much-needed tools to expand their business. Of these, Stir and Koji have recently taken the spotlight as useful tools in the success of those looking to expand their content creation.
Whether you’re a content creator looking to expand your business, an investor looking for your future venture or simply someone who’s curious about this emerging creator economy, here’s how these two companies may be part of the future of digital content creation.
Stir
Co-founded by experienced product designer Joseph Pero Albanese, and former Google software engineer Kushal Byatnal, Stir has come into the scene with one specific goal in mind: give power back to content creators.
So far, the content creation tool has announced $4 million in seed funding from heavy hitters in the industry such as Homebrew, Ludlow Ventures and XYZ Capital. Amongst its independent backers, however, are YouTube star Casey Neistat, YouTube co-founder Chad Hurley and Patreon CEO Jack Conte.
“The world is amidst a monumental power shift from Institutions to Individuals — the days when an institution could dictate what you create, when you create it, and how much your creation is worth are over.”
How do they do this any better than what already exists, then?
For starters, Stir provides content creators with an organised, in-depth overview of their analytics and growth. Simply enter the website you’re posting your content on, whether it be YouTube, Shopify, or Etsy and, according to Albanese, you’ll “get the most understandable representation of how your business is doing and where your money is coming in from.”
The main feature, however, and the most impressive one at that, is ‘collectives,’ the revenue managing tool that lacks in pretty much every content creation platform. You see, the way ‘collabs’ worked until Stir came around was on a basis of trust and trade - ‘you give me something and I’ll give you something in return, at some point’ - not quite the best formula.
Stir dashboard demo
With Stir, however, creators are able to divide their monetisation with all of those who are involved in the making of the content, whether it be on small collaborations or large-scale ones. All, of course, with a small cut of every transaction going towards Stir.
“With Collectives, creators view financials and analytics in a shared space, allowing for communal management of administrative tasks,” said Albanese.
Not only that, but the service also comes out, every once in a while, with one-off projects called ‘Drops’, all of which further the idea of giving creators a tool that helps them build successful businesses.
Amongst those that have already been unveiled: OnlyTweets has enabled creators to monetise exclusive content on their Twitter profiles - a venture that has been followed by Twitter itself through the ‘Super Follow’ feature announced in February of this year - and PreSubscribe, a service that allows audiences to subscribe to a creator before they even go independent, thereby allowing the latter to test monetisation and help the push towards a content creation future.
Koji
Much like Stir, Koji also provides its creators with built-in analytics and management tools that help them track and optimise their business. However, the similarities between the two services end right about there.
While Stir focuses on the optimisation of revenue streams across digital platforms, Koji’s vision relies on giving everyone a chance at ‘remix culture’ - think a more developed version of TikTok.
The San Diego-based company founded by former Google veteran Dmitry Shapiro has come into this emerging market with the goal of allowing creators to, well, create interactive and easy to use digital content from memes, to videos, music and games, which he calls ‘Kojis’. Anyone from a regular follower to other creators would, then, be able to ‘remix’ these Kojis and change them into something of their own.
Koji homepage screenshot
“Starting from something that already exists and customising it is actually a whole new type of creativity,” said Shapiro.
The word to focus on here is: ‘interactive’. In effect, the whole of Koji’s brand revolves around the ability of non-techy individuals to be able to create something that they then can share with their audiences, and even monetise it through micro-payment features offered by Koji and other firms.
Out of the micro-transactions that are the result of user engagement, 85% of the revenue goes straight into the creator’s ‘Koji Pay Wallet’, while the remaining 15% is part of Koji’s cut.
Already, the service has seen a large amount of support, having raised $10 million in its initial round of venture capital funding led by the venture capital firm Galaxy Interactive. Not only that, but it also has gotten the attention of other industry-savvy individuals such as former Disney CEO Michael Eisner and Zynga founder Mark Pincus.
Koji could become not only a must-have tool for an individual starting out or an established creator, but also a tool for content distribution and brand awareness.