A Creative’s Subscription Revenue: Can you lend against it?

The atomic unit of a media enterprise is the creator. It always has been. But, now armed with new mediums and technologies, more and more creators are becoming standalone businesses.

Ideally, the lending product would create: (1) A tech-enabled window into the creator’s business and (2) a repayment flow from the platform to the lender that mirrors the cash flows of the business. By building predictability into the unprecedented and de-risking the payback, a tech-enabled subscription platform may allow lenders to provide competi... See more

This new tech stack has also empowered creators with new ways to monetize. Salaries are being replaced by advertising, merchandise, subscription fees etc.

I have thought a lot about lending to creators through Substack-like platforms. Why do creators need financing? From a commercial perspective, financing could help creators fund the time required to build a subscription base large enough to replace their income (think pre-seed capital).

However, while some may own a blog that’s worth more than their house, commercial banks don’t see it that way as they have never underwritten the value of a blog before.