Stan chooses checkout over discovery
Vitalii Dodonov, CTO of Stan, on building a creator-aligned store-in-bio
This shows Stan is choosing to be a checkout tool, not a discovery network. Its core job is to help a creator turn existing followers into buyers of a PDF, course, or booking. A recommendation network pulls attention sideways to other creators, which fits newsletter products that optimize for list growth, but clashes with Stan’s role as the page where a creator asks for the sale and keeps the customer focused on their own offer.
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Stan’s customers skew toward education focused creators selling low priced digital downloads, meetings, and simple courses. More than 50% of creator income on Stan comes from digital downloads priced at $4 to $30, so the winning flow is short and direct, click bio link, see offer, buy now.
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Kit and beehiiv benefit more from network features because their product starts at subscriber growth. Kit’s Creator Network lets creators recommend one another during signup, and beehiiv’s recommendation network and ad network are built to help newsletters gain subscribers and monetization partners across the network.
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Stan already has one network effect it likes, word of mouth about Stan itself. Growth has come through creators publicly using the product and an affiliate program that pays 20% of referred subscription revenue, which strengthens distribution without asking creators to send buyers to competing creators inside their storefront.
The next step is likely deeper merchant software, not feed or marketplace mechanics. As the store in bio category matures, the winners are likely to be the products that remove friction from turning audience attention into owned customer revenue, with discovery layers staying more natural in newsletters and media networks than on checkout oriented creator storefronts.