today, the creator economy model mostly consists of a one-way financial relationship: audiences either support their favorite creators directly or creators monetize their followings using sponsorship from brands.

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).

Why can’t a traditional bank do this themselves? 1) They don’t understand how to underwrite using tech industry metrics (ACVs, churn, LTV, engagement, et al.), and 2) they don’t have the tech DNA to underwrite programmatically, which Sand Hill Sachs will have. This may be a new company, an existing fintech player with distribution in tech, a VC fir... See more