0:00

We've talked with many creators who've been

0:02

unhappy with the creator loan models out

0:04

there that have put them in the

0:07

positions where they could potentially lose control

0:09

or lose rights to their

0:11

channel or their channel content. Hey,

0:18

Sara, welcome to the show. How are you? I'm

0:20

great, Alessandro. Thank you for having me. Of

0:23

course, of course. You know, I'm very curious to

0:25

talk about this topic today because it's the first

0:28

time that we talk about investing

0:30

in creators. And it's

0:32

a topic that is still quite new, right?

0:35

I would say, compared to many other things

0:37

in the industry. So very curious to talk

0:39

about that. But before we do that, could

0:43

you please introduce yourself? And we do it in a

0:45

way called the map. Basically, it's

0:47

divided in three different sections. The mission,

0:49

so basically, it is what

0:51

do you aim to achieve with what

0:53

you do, of course, any achievements, you

0:55

know, could be, you know, milestone

0:57

in your life or career, and then the last one

0:59

is the purpose. So why do you do what you

1:02

do? I'm Sara McNab, Chief

1:04

Marketing Officer at Gigastar. I've been

1:06

in financial technology marketing for

1:08

over 20 years, securities, brokerage,

1:11

trading software, and marketing agency

1:13

spaces in Chicago. My mission

1:15

in my career is to

1:18

constantly learn and evolve and

1:20

actively take calculated risks. Joining

1:22

Gigastar has been a notable

1:24

milestone for me. It

1:26

allowed me to take my FinTech marketing experience

1:29

and apply it to a platform

1:31

that serves YouTube creators

1:33

and investors. This is

1:35

actually what Gigastar's mission is, to

1:38

bring YouTube creators and investors together.

1:40

I joined Gigastar in 2022 and

1:43

I do what I do for a

1:45

couple of different reasons. So this is

1:47

the second company where I've worked with

1:49

our brilliant CEO, Hazem Diwani. When he

1:51

approached me with the Gigastar concept, I

1:54

thought it was revolutionary. Everyone

1:56

on the team is genuinely inspired

1:58

by creators. This new

2:00

generation is so courageous and innovative.

2:03

It also helps. My husband's a

2:05

full-time content creator. He's a podcaster.

2:07

So the concept of helping

2:09

creators succeed and thrive is

2:12

very near and dear to my heart.

2:14

So I definitely find purpose in helping

2:16

creators. Fantastic. You know, thank you for

2:18

that. It makes sense, you know, especially if you have

2:20

someone, right, in your life that

2:22

you understand that very well, right? Their position

2:25

in that. So tell me a bit more

2:27

about, you know, the system. So for

2:29

anyone listening, like, how does it work? Like,

2:31

you go on Gigastar and you select an

2:33

influencer or a content creator that you like,

2:35

and then you say, I want to invest.

2:37

Tell me a bit more about that. And

2:40

is it primarily or is it only for

2:42

YouTubers right now? It's just for YouTubers for

2:44

now. We're really going to stay

2:46

focused on that market for now. We

2:49

do try and foster like a win-win

2:52

partnership between YouTube creators

2:54

and investors. So we

2:57

believe that YouTube creators deserve

2:59

access to funding and strategic

3:01

investors, just like traditional entrepreneurs

3:03

do. Our SEC

3:05

registered crowdfunding platform is called Gigastar

3:07

Market. And it's where

3:09

YouTubers can list a percentage of

3:11

their YouTube channels' future revenue in

3:14

a revenue share offering. So

3:16

they can raise capital from a

3:19

database of thousands of strategic

3:21

investors who essentially become an army

3:24

of promoters for them with skin

3:26

in the game. And

3:28

so on the flip side,

3:30

investors can gain access to

3:33

the creator economy, which is

3:35

just fast-growing, $250

3:38

billion economy, where they can share

3:40

YouTube revenue with creators. So

3:43

how it works is during a

3:45

channel drop or an offering, investors

3:47

can buy channel revenue tokens or

3:49

CRTs, which digitally represent

3:52

the revenue share securities of

3:54

the YouTube channel. Ultimately, when

3:56

the YouTube channel's revenue grows,

3:59

creators add in investors will have

4:01

the potential to both earn

4:03

more becoming partners in a

4:05

shared journey. And so that's where we

4:07

really believe that to be a win-win

4:10

partnership. Is this like

4:12

when we talk about investors, right?

4:15

Is that for everyone? Is there like

4:17

a minimum type of like a floor price?

4:20

Do you have to be sort

4:22

of like investors savvy when it comes to

4:24

that? Is this something simple for everyone? I'm

4:27

trying to understand what is the typical persona,

4:29

right? That they usually invest. Is it like

4:31

the biggest fan of the creator they want

4:33

to support but also they believe so much

4:35

in them that they also want somehow to

4:37

get part of the price there? Is

4:40

it like investors that instead

4:43

are somehow are curious about these and

4:45

they're investing in different things and this is one

4:47

of the other avenues. I'm curious to understand a

4:49

bit more what is the typical person, right? That

4:51

is using a Gigastar. Yeah. So,

4:53

if our investors must be age 18

4:56

or older, they don't

4:58

have to be accredited investors

5:00

or highfalutin investors. They can be average

5:02

people. So anybody who's

5:05

interested in supporting a creator but

5:07

also potentially having a return on

5:09

their site too can

5:11

sign up for an account. It

5:13

takes just a few minutes and

5:16

then they can participate in any

5:18

open offerings. Gigastars like pricing goes,

5:20

our offerings for each creator who

5:22

has a drop, there's typically three

5:25

tiers at different price points

5:27

and those tiers can range from the

5:29

lowest tier can be $25 for

5:31

a general revenue token all the way up

5:33

to $1,600 for revenue. So

5:37

we do make it so that it's accessible and

5:41

we try and lower the barrier of entry so

5:43

that anybody who's age

5:45

18 or over who accepts the risks

5:47

of the investment has the opportunity to

5:50

participate. And how are

5:52

these YouTube creators using these funds? Is

5:54

it like for, I don't

5:56

like make their videos better to

5:58

buy better quality? cameras it is

6:00

to fund, I don't like maybe a travel

6:03

or trip for work. Like, have you identified

6:06

anything recurring on how

6:08

they use these phones or

6:11

do they just somehow, I don't like,

6:13

again, see it as an

6:15

investment from other people,

6:17

right? These investors basically somehow

6:19

helping them just to, I don't know, find

6:21

either maybe, or maybe like helping in hiring

6:23

someone for their team. Like, what are the

6:25

things that they are usually used

6:27

for? I love this. This is like the why, right?

6:31

Why raise funds? Creators who list on

6:34

our platform have a

6:36

multitude of reasons as to why they

6:38

would want to raise funds. Whether they're

6:40

just starting out and want to purchase

6:43

equipment, buy

6:45

studio space, buy a house, pay off

6:48

debt, they can use the funds raised

6:50

on Gigastar Market however they need to

6:52

that will sustain their career and sustain

6:54

their life and let them allow them

6:56

to do what they love. And we

6:58

found that anybody can use funds, whether

7:00

you're a beginner or you're in

7:02

the late stage

7:04

of your career. I mean, there's always a

7:07

reason you can use funds regardless.

7:09

And so this is an option

7:11

that we've developed.

7:14

We've talked with many creators who've been

7:16

unhappy with the creator loan models

7:18

out there that have put them

7:20

into positions where they could potentially

7:22

lose control or lose rights to

7:25

their channel or their channel content. For

7:27

example, if they fail to pay on

7:29

a creator loan for

7:31

which their channel is collateral, jeopardize

7:34

their entire career, we do not do

7:36

that. We do not issue loans. We're

7:39

not a fast cash option and we

7:41

don't do licensing of back catalogs. Rather,

7:44

we enable the creators to monetize future

7:46

AdSense revenue while maintaining and having full

7:48

control over their content and their channel

7:50

and keeping 100% of their brand deals

7:55

and sponsorship revenue. So we only

7:58

focus on monetizing. revenue. So

8:02

you said there are different plans that

8:04

you can invest in. How do

8:06

you calculate that? It is based on

8:08

historical data of let's say absence for

8:10

instance and also how transparent is

8:12

that? Because if you want to invest in

8:15

someone, I'm pretty sure that I don't know, do they share

8:18

transparently the historical data from their

8:20

absence with their investors so to

8:22

understand is this the real value,

8:24

valuation of this channel? Is

8:26

this what you expect in terms of forecasting? I'm

8:29

trying to understand how is the

8:31

pricing based on what? Absolutely,

8:34

and it's a great question. And

8:37

so on Gigasur Market, whenever a

8:39

creator lists an offering, it's

8:41

in one single page, but that

8:44

page includes what can

8:46

be considered like an offering memorandum. So

8:49

we call it, it's called Form C. And

8:51

that Form C includes

8:54

lots and lots of information about

8:56

the channel. It reveals, they have

8:58

to disclose the 12 months of

9:00

revenue from which the valuation

9:03

and the channel revenue

9:05

token percentages in pricing is

9:07

derived. So it's all

9:09

laid out very transparently in their

9:12

Form C. Typically when we speak with

9:14

creators, we will talk to them about

9:16

their previous 12 months of YouTube revenue.

9:19

We will verify the revenue that's part

9:21

of our new diligence is to make

9:23

sure that we are setting up an

9:25

offering that is a legitimate

9:27

privatized securities offering in doing a background,

9:29

we do background checks and all of

9:31

the things that are required by

9:33

regulators to set them up. But all

9:36

of the numbers are

9:38

right there and we encourage any

9:40

investor to review them very carefully

9:43

before making an investment in the

9:46

creator's channel. Is your brand ready to

9:48

amplify its reach while the influencer marketing

9:50

factor is here for you? We

9:53

are a global influencer marketing agency

9:55

helping brands ignite their growth. From

9:57

influencer identification to campaign strategy. handling

10:00

legalities and agreements, to managing shipping

10:02

and logistics, we got you

10:05

all covered. We work with hundreds

10:07

of brands across different verticals, from

10:09

Fortune 500 companies to direct-to-consumer brands.

10:12

And we don't just stop there.

10:14

With detailed ROI analysis, we help

10:17

brands like yours measure success, transforming

10:19

impressions into conversions. You

10:21

can find us at theinfluencermarketingfactory.com or

10:24

just searching the Influencer Marketing Factory

10:26

on Google. Based

10:30

on your data so far in the past years,

10:32

do they invest like only once? Do they do

10:34

it like every quarter? Is it something that, you

10:36

know what, let me invest for this year? Can

10:39

you tell me a bit more about that?

10:41

And any metrics like dollar amount that you

10:43

can share, of course? So an offering, we

10:46

call them a drop. We say creator drops.

10:48

It's really an offering period for

10:51

which their revenue, share, securities are available to

10:53

the public. That window is a minimum of

10:55

21 days. Okay.

10:58

That's financial regulation so

11:00

that investors can take their time,

11:03

read through all of the materials and make

11:05

an educated decision whether they want to purchase

11:08

or not. And so if you imagine there's

11:10

a 21-day period in which a

11:13

creator has an offering, an investor can

11:15

go in and make a decision and

11:19

they would just need to choose

11:21

which tier of token they'd like

11:23

to purchase. Every single purchase comes

11:26

with additional special like creator perks

11:28

from the creator, like access to

11:30

a private Discord channel or getting

11:33

a shout out on a video from

11:36

the creator. But the investor would be

11:38

able to just do it all digitally,

11:41

put it in their cart, be able to pay

11:43

for it in several different ways from credit card

11:45

to ACH and so forth. And

11:47

then once the offering closes at

11:49

the end of minimum 21 days,

11:53

the channel revenue tokens are minted

11:55

by Gigaster Technologies and

11:57

delivered to the investor. From there...

12:00

After all the transactions settle,

12:03

the investor receives an

12:05

invitation to access the

12:07

Gigastar portfolio. And

12:09

that's where they would be able

12:11

to track performance, track their CRTs,

12:14

and track channel revenue and everything

12:16

right there within the

12:18

same ecosystem. Do

12:20

you have investors that primarily invest on one,

12:23

two, like a few YouTubers? Or do you

12:25

also have those that let's always call it

12:27

like the S&P right of the YouTubers, right?

12:29

Like do you have anyone that let's say

12:31

invest on 100, let's

12:33

say maybe 50, whatever, like a big chunk

12:36

so that they try to even minimize, you

12:38

know, risk and maximize things? I'm very curious

12:40

to see if they really like only the

12:42

ones that they really believe in or if

12:45

they really seriously like to see that as

12:47

an investor, right? Where I

12:49

want to minimize risk, I want to maximize opportunities

12:51

out there. So we have both of the type

12:53

of investors, are we seeing more one

12:56

of the other or should a bit of a mix? We've

12:59

tried to design our solutions

13:01

so that the YouTube creators

13:03

can earn hundreds, if not

13:05

thousands of individual investors. We

13:07

really don't want one investor

13:09

coming in and stashing up all

13:12

of the channel revenue tokens and all

13:15

of the revenue share securities for the

13:17

creator. We want to make sure that

13:19

that creator has that army of promoters

13:22

because we believe if an investor is

13:24

not familiar with YouTube channel, but finds

13:26

it a compelling channel

13:29

and believes in its growth and invests

13:31

in it, they're going

13:33

to watch the content. They're going to

13:35

share the content. They're going to participate

13:38

as an active follower

13:40

of the channel, which can potentially

13:42

help grow the channel. Earlier, you

13:45

would asked, do the creators invite

13:47

their fans? And that

13:49

is absolutely something we encourage our creators

13:51

to do is to let their audience

13:54

know, let their channel, their fans know

13:56

about this opportunity so that they can

13:58

participate and be part of a solution. journey. Additionally,

14:02

we have a growing database.

14:04

We're about about 15,000 investors

14:07

in our database now, who

14:09

we notify every time there's

14:11

a creator's job goes live. We do

14:13

have it set up so that ideally

14:17

there will be a larger

14:19

distribution of investors and not

14:21

just two or three holding

14:23

everything. I think

14:26

it's very interesting, you know, when you say

14:28

about becoming even more active, because now it's,

14:30

you know, you're part of it. It's your

14:32

asset somehow, you know, like you're even if

14:34

you just only like no small part of

14:36

it. But I like the idea that you're

14:38

not just anymore a passive user watching the

14:40

videos, but it will do help right the

14:43

channel getting better because if that grows, it

14:45

means more revenue and therefore right you get

14:47

your percentage in. So I like that idea

14:49

as well. Yeah, and I can share some

14:51

metrics too. So I mean, Gigastar, we started

14:53

in 2022. We

14:56

launched our first job in

14:58

mid 2023. Today, we've raised over $2.2

15:01

million for YouTube creators.

15:05

Added almost 15,000 investor accounts and

15:07

we've distributed over 129,000 of

15:09

YouTube revenue to

15:13

the investors. We've got 12 creator offerings

15:16

under our belt and we're currently onboarding

15:18

more creators. We also have a growing

15:20

number of case studies or creator stories

15:22

on our website gigastar.io. And each creator

15:24

is a different reason as to why

15:26

they would want a list, but I

15:28

can give one example. So

15:31

one case study is from a family

15:33

channel called the Schlue family. In

15:36

June of 2023, that

15:38

channel raised 56,700 on

15:41

Gigastar market with the goal of

15:43

hiring more team members to increase

15:46

video posting frequency from

15:48

monthly to weekly. And

15:50

in December, they shared on Discord

15:53

that the channel's revenue had actually increased

15:55

by 50% shortly

15:57

after hiring a team. And they shared

16:00

a YouTube revenue graph reflecting a

16:02

dramatic increase in revenue in

16:04

November of 2023, which the

16:07

channel managers attribute to

16:10

their diligent video posting consistency

16:12

after hiring, which was made

16:14

possible after raising money

16:16

on Gigastar Market. And with

16:18

the increase in YouTube channel revenue in

16:20

November 2023, the December 2023 monthly YouTube

16:22

revenue payout to investors increased

16:29

as well in lockstep. We've

16:32

been keeping track and have

16:34

a lot more case studies

16:36

for anyone interested in checking

16:38

them out at gigastar.io. Unfortunately,

16:40

financial regulations prohibit me from

16:42

speaking in specific terms about

16:44

any offering while

16:46

it's currently open. So we do

16:48

have live channel offerings open now

16:50

on Gigastar Market. And you can

16:53

see them by visiting gigastarmarket.io and

16:56

clicking on Explore Drafts. Fantastic. Very

16:58

interesting. So we primarily talk today

17:00

about this, it's quite new, right?

17:03

The concept of investing with YouTube,

17:05

at least with some sort of

17:07

like health facilitation, thanks to a

17:10

platform. In addition to that, is

17:13

there anything else that you believe could be

17:15

not only necessarily on YouTube, but overall in

17:17

the creator economy? Do you

17:19

have any prediction about how it's going to

17:21

change and also the evolution of it? Because

17:24

investing absolutely is part of it. But is

17:26

there anything else that you think is either

17:28

missing or something that could be done better,

17:31

something that you wish was there when we

17:33

look at the creator economy? Again, it could

17:35

be still on the investing or maybe anything

17:37

else. But I'm very curious to hear, especially

17:39

based on your experience now with this platform.

17:42

Predictions are tough. I know. I never

17:44

would have predicted how quickly AI is

17:47

evolving and weaving its way through everything.

17:49

With the fate of TikTok still kind

17:51

of unknown, I think the creator economy

17:53

is going to find that YouTube

17:56

is the most reliable rock

17:58

that creators can cling to. On

18:00

our side, our financial

18:02

technology, particularly how we've

18:05

integrated blockchain technology to

18:07

help creators automate

18:10

payouts to investors.

18:12

By doing that, we have been

18:14

able to lower the cost, lower

18:16

the barrier to entry

18:18

for regular individuals like anyone

18:21

over 18 to participate in the

18:23

creator economy. And I think it's

18:25

just the tip of the iceberg

18:27

in finding these ways to create

18:29

more intimate partnerships between creators

18:32

and individuals and creating more

18:34

financial opportunities for both creators

18:37

and investors to really, really

18:40

be part of turning the wheel of

18:42

the creator economy. Do you

18:44

think that it is also doable like in

18:46

other social media? Because of course, you know,

18:49

with YouTube, with the CPM model, right, we

18:51

said that it's a bit easier to either

18:53

forecast based on historical data and it's also

18:56

a bit easier to manage, right, while on

18:58

other platforms it's more about brand deals or

19:00

like some creator found so that it's a

19:02

bit difficult sometimes to understand, right, every month

19:05

there is a lot of ups and downs.

19:07

So again, focus

19:09

on YouTube for sure. Are

19:11

you also visioning others or is it

19:13

just too difficult because of the nature

19:16

of other social media right now?

19:18

So YouTube is our primary target right now.

19:22

We have leadership team members who

19:24

come from the YouTube creator space

19:27

who have intimate knowledge and understand the

19:29

plight of YouTube creators in a way

19:31

that I think just makes it a

19:33

lower hanging for us to be able

19:35

to grab this first. I

19:37

think in the future, it's certainly possible

19:40

to incorporate other

19:42

platforms, but we certainly want to

19:44

we want to master YouTube first.

19:47

That makes sense. Sarah, anything else that

19:50

you would like to add that I didn't ask you

19:53

today that we didn't touch base on or

19:55

maybe something that just popped in your mind?

19:57

Any YouTube creators who are interested in listing

19:59

an offering? on Gigastar Market to

20:02

raise money. They do have to

20:04

meet a few different thresholds, but they're

20:06

invited to apply for a draw at

20:08

gigastar.io. We, as a team,

20:11

provide white glove onboarding to help set

20:13

up creators' privatized securities offerings. We also

20:15

provide marketing guidance, and we work very

20:17

closely with creators. We want to be

20:19

a long-term partner to them. We don't

20:22

want to be overly transactional, one and

20:24

done. We love creators genuinely. We want

20:26

to be there for them in the

20:28

love hall. And one of the things

20:31

that we are looking forward

20:33

to is our team is currently building

20:35

what's called a secondary market. And in

20:37

the secondary market, which is planning to

20:39

launch at the end of 2024, there's

20:43

further opportunity for the YouTube creators

20:45

to potentially continue earning. Our future

20:47

vision for this third active secondary

20:50

market is that every time a

20:52

YouTube creator's channel revenue tokens train

20:54

in our secondary market, that they

20:56

will receive a fee each

20:58

and every time their CRTs trade. And so

21:01

we are really looking forward to launching that

21:03

at the end of the year. The one

21:05

thing when an investor invests in an offering

21:08

is that because the CRTs are securities

21:10

things, you have to hold onto them

21:12

for 12 months before they're

21:14

able to train them in a secondary

21:16

market. Very interesting. We're going to

21:19

add a couple of links also in the description

21:21

of the episode. So creators can go check it

21:23

out and see also for investors. Sara,

21:26

thank you so much for joining me

21:28

today for sharing your knowledge and also

21:30

all this process that it was very

21:32

curious to hear. So thank you for

21:34

that. Thank you so much. This

21:36

was the Inflats Factor by the Inflats Remarkening factory. And

21:38

I'll see you next week. Bye.