Joel Morris, Co-founder & co-CEO, Fanvue

HERE WE GO. Fabrizio Romano is launching his exclusive transfer show on Fanvue.

47M followers on Instagram alone. The most trusted name in football transfers. Every “here we go” moves the entire sports internet.

And now he’s monetising directly. For years the biggest creators on earth rented out their audiences. This is the shift we’ve been building for.

Fanvue is the Infrastructure which makes it all possible.

We were days from bankruptcy. Last week the business crossed $200M run rate.

Jordan helped build the Sidemen from a YouTube group into one of the biggest creator companies in the world. Few people have seen more creator businesses up close.

So when we sat down, I walked him through the whole thing. Walking away from a channel with 2.5M subscribers. The night Will and I paced the street counting how many weeks we had left. Why we bet everything on AI transforming the creator economy, and how we’re building the rails underneath it.

Full episode with Jordan Schwarzenberger on Think Like A Creator. Link in the comments.

Five months ago, we announced crossing $100M. We’ve now hit a $200M annualised run rate.

The creator economy moving from ads to direct is the bigger shift underpinning this. For two decades creators rented their audiences to platforms. That era is ending.

Every shift like this needs infrastructure. Stripe made it possible for anyone to take payments online. Shopify made it possible for anyone to run a store. We’re building that layer for the Creator Economy.

None of this happens without our team. Truly grateful to work with such an incredible group.

Still just the start.

Extremely proud to be named Sunday Times Best Place to Work for a second year running.

This is a testament to the incredible group of people building Fanvue together.

If every person in a company is locked in on being their very best, the greatness of the company is a byproduct. That’s what’s happening here.

Grateful to work alongside such brilliant individuals.

I stayed silent for years because I wanted to build first and explain later.

I started YouTube at 13 and had 2.5 million subscribers by 19. Then I disappeared.

The comments came. “He’s fallen off.” “He’s finished.” But I wasn’t falling off. I was building.

Yesterday I released a documentary telling the full story. Growing up as a competitive swimmer, having those dreams killed by anorexia, finding YouTube and being ridiculed at school for it, the failed app that died with Covid, walking the streets in Spain figuring out how to keep the company alive, cutting everyone’s salary and not a single person quitting.

From nearly going bankrupt to $135M in revenue and 100+ people.

I made this because I wanted to show no matter how tough things get, you can always turn it around. Link in comments.

Honoured to announce I’ve been named on Forbes 30 Under 30.

From making YouTube videos in my bedroom at 13, to scaling Fanvue to $135M+ annualised and 20 million users.

There were points where we genuinely didn’t know if we’d make it through the next few weeks. Now we’re building the AI infrastructure that will define how creators earn in the next decade.

Grateful for everyone who’s been part of the journey so far. Excited for the long road ahead alongside Will Monange, Harry Fitzgerald and the rest of the team.

#Forbes30Under30 #CreatorAIEconomy