Having just an audience doesn’t cut it for creators when building a lasting career and business.
“If you want to become a sustainable creator, you can’t just rely on AdSense anymore,” Jim Louderback, creator-economy expert and former CEO of VidCon, told Business Insider.
Instead, many creators are funneling their followers into new spaces and experiences to build a sense of community — and simultaneously monetize it. Luckily for them, there’s an entire ecosystem of creator-economy and consumer-tech startups with the mission to do just that.
Traditional social-media platforms like Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube have become “awareness engines,” as Louderback put it, to shepherd creators’ most loyal fans into more intimate spaces on and offline.
“Once you have them there, that opportunity is to market to them in a non-cringey way, the sort of additional things that they may want to do to either get closer to you as a creator and deepen the bond, or learn more, or discover more, or buy merch,” Louderback said.
Louderback pointed to a few examples of platforms helping creators do that, like online course platform Kajabi (which acquired community startup Vibely in 2022) or Nas.io, an “all-in-one” tool for monetizing a community founded by content creator Nuseir Yassin.
Other platforms, like Uscreen, which was built for on-demand video content, have become hubs for creators like Adriene Mishler of “Yoga with Adriene,” who hosts her Find What Feels Good community using the platform.
Uscreen’s head of partnerships and community, Rob Balasabas, said fans “come for the content” but “stay for the community.”
To help creators navigate the growing number of community platforms, BI compiled a list of 11 startups that creators use to turn their audiences into communities. BI narrowed down the list based on each company’s presence in the creator economy, tools offered, and reputation among creators and industry experts.
While many creators still use platforms like Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube to connect with their audiences in comments, DMs, and groups, this list is focused on startups building community tools.
Here are 11 platforms helping creators build and monetize communities online:
Note: Startups are listed in alphabetical order.
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