Users can now build audiences at scale and turn their passions into livelihoods, whether that’s playing video games or producing video content. Gig work isn’t going anywhere-but there are now more ways to capitalize on creativity. These stories are indicative of a larger trend: call it the “creator stack” or the “enterprization of consumer.” Whereas previously, the biggest online labor marketplaces flattened the individuality of workers, new platforms allow anyone to monetize unique skills. And teachers across the US are bringing in thousands of dollars a month teaching live, virtual classes on Outschool and Juni Learning. The top content creator on Podia, a platform for video courses and digital memberships, makes more than $100,000 a month. The top-earning writer on the paid newsletter platform Substack earns more than $500,000 a year from reader subscriptions. The Passion Economy and the Future of Work, by Li Jin We’re seeing a lot of activity across the entire market and it feels like a meaningful addition to add both opportunities for Gig Economy and the Passion Economy together. I love this trend as someone who has worked deeply both in the passion economy - writing this blog combined with investing/advising startups - and also in a more traditional role in the gig economy at Uber. As a society, we are right in the thick of this movement - but it’s helpful to give it a distinct name, although you might argue startups like Udemy, Patreon, Shopify, Substack, and many others have already been blazing this path. If this resonates, it’s because this is a list of the massive trends that are reinventing the way we work. Fintech services that help facilitate both business and personal needs - whether that’s creative financing options, solopreneur banking services, or working capital College aren’t built to teach the skills for the Passion Economy, and people will instead turn to online schools/programs/training for lifelong learning in the ever-changing ecosystem Platforms will need to provide marketplace-like features that lean transactional, or more like an ongoing subscription relationship People need to get found - both by their customers and their audience - and we now can plug into platforms with billions of consumers. Within the platform, there are deep SaaS tools that help people in the Passion Economy actually do their work - particularly key when the work is purely digital in nature, like video streaming or audio broadcasting There will be many new software platforms that allow creators/influencers/service providers to work on what they love and earn income from that work The Passion Economy theme unifies a number of themes that we at a16z have been working on: (And quick plug, if you want to read more essays like this - this article was originally posted on and you can subscribe to the newsletter here) Startups like Uber, Airbnb, Instacart, and others have been able to find product/market fit and scale their businesses.īut what’s the next? The essay below argues: “ The Passion Economy.” And my a16z colleague Li Jin unpacks this idea more thoroughly. In recent years, the Gig Economy has taken over. Consumer startups have gone through many phases: Web 2.0, Facebook apps, Mobile (remember SoLoMo?), and in recent years, some of the best opportunities have been happening in the real world.
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