My First Million
The best business ideas come from noticing what's working and doing it better, faster, or for a different audience.
Audience owners taking equity instead of fees
Timeframe: Next 3-5 years will see mainstream adoption
What's Changing
Creators and audience owners are moving from one-time endorsement fees to ongoing equity partnerships with businesses, becoming true co-founders rather than just spokesspeople.
Driving Forces
Creators understanding the long-term value of equity vs fees
Businesses recognizing audience trust as non-fungible competitive advantage
Success stories like Logan Paul with Prime showing massive upside potential
Maturation of creator economy beyond advertising model
Winners
- Audience owners with highly trusted, engaged communities
- Cash-flowing businesses that need distribution acceleration
- Legal/financial services helping structure these deals
- Platforms facilitating discovery and deal-making
Losers
- Traditional advertising agencies
- Creators dependent only on ad revenue
- Businesses relying solely on paid acquisition
- One-time endorsement deal models
How to Position Yourself
Build genuine trust with audience through authentic product usage
Focus on businesses you actually use and understand
Negotiate for meaningful equity stakes, not just affiliate fees
Create ongoing content strategies rather than one-off promotions
Early Signals to Watch
Example Implementation
“A B2B software company gives a relevant podcast host 2% equity in exchange for ongoing promotion through educational content, resulting in that channel becoming their #1 customer acquisition source.”
Related Knowledge
Audience Co-Founder Marketplace
Great businesses struggle to find trusted audience partners, while audience owners don't know which businesses are worth partnering with.
Content creators will increasingly monetize through equity rather than sponsorships
Shift from ad revenue and sponsorships to equity ownership in businesses built around creator's audience
Audience Co-Founder Framework
A business partnership model where someone with a trusted audience becomes an equity partner to provide unfair distribution advantages, essentially acting as a non-fungible go-to-market cheat code.
Curse of Familiar Riches
The mental trap where entrepreneurs can easily envision 1-2x income growth (because they understand those mechanisms) but their brains short-circuit when trying to think of 10x growth paths.
Identify investment opportunities in companies you already pay as a customer
Becoming an equity partner in a business you already use, potentially seeing significant returns as the business grows with your help.
Trust Depth Over Reach Breadth
When evaluating audience partnerships, trust depth (how much influence you actually have) matters exponentially more than reach breadth (total follower count).