Posts by Joel Morris
Joel Morris on building Fanvue, leaving YouTube, and the milestones along the way, from his posts on LinkedIn.
Milestone · 11 Sept 2026
Iggy Azalea launches on Fanvue
After being announced as an investor, Iggy has now launched on Fanvue. Owning your audience and your business model wasn’t previously possible. For twenty years people built an audience and then had no choice but to rent it out. The spread of artificial intelligence is shifting the balance of power. The leverage now sits with the people who hold distribution. We’re building the infrastructure that unlocks it. Constantly the pioneer, Iggy has joined forces with us to drive that shift in the AI era.
Milestone · 26 Aug 2026
Iggy Azalea invests in SHIFT, the company behind Fanvue
We’re very proud to announce that Iggy Azalea is now an investor in SHIFT, the AI infrastructure company behind Fanvue. The four-time Grammy-nominated artist and entrepreneur has invested personally, and joins as the founding member of our Creator Advisory Board. Iggy said: "Every now and then a Stripe or a Shopify comes along and changes who holds the leverage. I'm backing SHIFT to be that company for the creator economy." Delighted to have Iggy backing us. We’re redefining how people make money in the AI era.
Milestone · 16 Jul 2026
Fabrizio Romano launches his transfer show on 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.
Story · 15 Jul 2026
From days from bankruptcy to a $200M run rate, on Think Like A Creator
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.
Milestone · 9 Jul 2026
Fanvue hits a $200M annualised run rate
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.
Milestone · 26 May 2026
Sunday Times Best Place to Work, second year running
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.
Personal development · 14 May 2026
Elite athlete, elite entrepreneur
Elite Athlete = Elite Entrepreneur I think a lot of people like the identity of being a founder, an entrepreneur, a builder. But they don’t always treat it with the seriousness of someone who performs for a living. Elite athletes organise their entire life around performance. One part of Kobe’s legacy is that training was not the only work. Recovery was work. Watching tape was work. Protecting his standard was work. Elite athletes do not just train hard. They design their whole life around performance. Without this, there’s no chance we’d be where we are today. If you want to build something great, you need to do the same.
Story · 7 May 2026
Why I stayed silent for years: the documentary
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.
Personal development · 23 Apr 2026
Q1 was our biggest quarter ever, and our hardest
In Q1 we announced our $135M run rate and Series A. Featured in Forbes 30 Under 30 thanks to the incredible achievements of the Fanvue team. Launched Cardi B, Alabama Barker, and many more incredible creators. By March we’d doubled run rate within 4 months. From the outside, it looks like everything is smooth sailing. But really every day is a fight to keep up. Many things are broken, sub optimal, outdated. But that’s the nature of a scale up, you have to get comfortable with the fact that there will be plenty of things on fire, always. Focusing on what matters, and accepting everything else can wait is key. Q1 was our biggest quarter ever. It was also our hardest.
Milestone · 14 Apr 2026
Named on Forbes 30 Under 30
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
Story · 2 Apr 2026
Millennial Magazine interview: the real bottleneck for creators
I sat down with Millennial Magazine recently and they asked me something most people don’t. “What’s the real bottleneck for creators?” It’s not creativity. It’s time. That's the insight that led us to build Fanvue the way we did. AI isn’t a feature we bolted on, it’s the foundation. The real unlock wasn’t any single tool. It was designing a platform around the belief that creators should be able to make more money in less time. Everything flows from that. Full Article in the Comments ⬇️