What is the dynamic between big content platforms and infrastructure providers like Gumroad in the creator economy?

Guest: That's a very good and important question to think about. You've seen the economics for YouTube creators get raked over selling directly to their audience.

When you look at the numbers that you can earn on YouTube ads, I think that there are a few things that keep creators on YouTube. Number one, I think just from a behavioral psychology standpoint, we're all guilty of not always making decisions in our best interest. That's part of it. 

The other pieces of it, there are still brands that are willing to pay for sponsorships on YouTube channels and brands that are willing to pay for people to publish posts on Instagram, about their products.

I think that the creators will continue to have presences there. I don't think that brands will want to stop sponsorships and buying sponsored posts from people on social media. But I do think that that space will get increasingly crowded. It's already very crowded. It's going to get even more crowded.

I think many creators just haven't been exposed to the idea or to the possibility of selling directly to your customer. So they're content to rent an audience from Instagram or YouTube or TikTok, rather than build their own.

I think over time what's going to happen is people will see YouTube and Instagram and TikTok and whatever platform emerges after that, I think people will see those as marketing channels. The way that we see radio and billboards now, or even to an extent email, but I think email is a much more powerful marketing channel.

I think creators will see social media as a way to funnel people into their email list so that they can market their paid products to them. Right now, we're already seeing that shift and people wanting to own their relationship with their audience rather than rent it from a large platform. 

But I think over time, it'll be a lot more accepted to run your business in a way where YouTube, Instagram, TikTok and Snapchat, these all live way at the top of the funnel for you. Then you nurture your audience through that funnel and down to a place where they are eventually on your email list where you can own that room.