Will Monange (left) & Joel Morris (right)

Direct fan monetization is on an upward curve, but there’s still a lot of untapped potential for creators to earn at scale. And the barrier isn’t relevance or audience willingness—it’s creator time, says Will Monange, co-founder and co-CEO of social subscription platform Fanvue. 

“These tools out there don’t really give creators the tools they actually need to be able to treat what is a full-blown business correctly,” explains Will. “It takes a lot of time to be able to do this and monetize this way. And only by solving that time input problem can you make sense for someone focused on being a full-time streamer or YouTuber.”

After raising $300,000 for a hospitality industry app, COVID-19 forced Will and his co-founder, YouTuber Joel Morris (JMX), to return the investment, prompting the duo to pivot from their original venture. 

While reconsidering options, they noticed creators who monetized directly from their audiences earned disproportionately more than those relying solely on brand deals and ad revenue. Hence, they decided to build Fanvue around addressing this specific challenge.

AI as the Connection Enabler

Fanvue’s core value proposition focuses on using AI to improve how creators connect with and monetize their audiences. The platform is designed to minimize time investment while enhancing fan connection value.

“We look at that and think about how we innovate and pioneer the way that we enable fans to connect with these creators with whom they hold these parasocial relationships across social media,” Will notes.

Their AI tools serve a specific purpose: reducing the time barrier that has historically limited direct monetization to certain creator categories. The platform captures key information fans share to help creators maintain connections without manual tracking.

“If you mentioned to me you’re from Argentina and the next conversation I say, ‘How are things in Argentina?’ You’re already like, ‘Oh wow, he actually remembered something I mentioned,’” Will explains. “So we enable AI to capture key things that fans share to give that to creators.”

Going further, Fanvue is developing more advanced connection tools, including “AI voice calls between creators and fans” and exploring video generation capabilities that could enable AI-powered “FaceTime calls with a creator.”

From Content to Connection

Fanvue challenges a fundamental assumption in the creator economy—that exclusive content drives monetization. Will’s team has found that connection, not content, is what truly generates revenue.

“Platforms like Fanvue are often over-indexed on the idea of exclusive content. But really, the thing that a platform like Fanvue is about is the idea of exclusive connection,” he states.

This insight shapes their product strategy and is validated by platform data Will shares that shows where revenue comes from: “People often think subscriptions are the revenue engines of these platforms. No, a tremendous amount of the revenue generated on the platform, especially by successful creators, happens in the messages. It happens in the interaction between the fan and the creator.”

The AI Influencer Opportunity

Fanvue’s approach to time efficiency extends beyond helping human creators. The company has been an early partner of AI influencers, working with The Clueless team behind AI personality Aitana Lopez.

“We started working with a team in Barcelona called The Clueless, and they built a creator called Aitana Lopez, which, if you look around AI Influencers, is probably one of the key ones,” Will shares. They’ve collaborated “from the early days of a couple thousand followers on Instagram to over 350,000 today.”

Rather than seeing AI creators as replacing humans, Will views them as expanding the creator economy: “It would allow a much broader range of people who maybe today might not ever want to get in front of a camera to still become part of the creator economy and build something.”

Building a Complete Monetization Ecosystem

Fanvue offers creators multiple revenue channels, including subscriptions with customizable promotions, tips, locked posts, content, and direct connection opportunities.

The platform is expanding these options with plans to integrate merchandise sales and course offerings, aiming to centralize all direct monetization tools creators need.

In Q2 2025, Fanvue will open its APIs to allow developers to build additional tools around the ecosystem.

“We’re also quite eager to look at alternative methods of monetization on platform and unlocking, you know, things like the ability for creators to sell merch, to actually monetize courses, things like that,” Will explains. “Let’s put all the tools a creator needs to directly monetize their audience into one place and make that as simple as possible.”

He adds that this thorough approach recognizes the variety of creator needs across different verticals, from musicians and athletes to traditional social media influencers, all of whom Fanvue aims to serve.

The Future Direction

Fanvue was founded in 2020, and the company has grown from 15 to 80 employees in the last 12 months. 

This year, Will is betting on three key trends: AI’s practical role in the creator economy, the growing importance of real connection between creators and fans, and the democratization of direct monetization across all creator verticals.

“We take the view that there are many verticals of creators that have engaged audiences that wish to connect with them, and they could be monetizing and connecting with that fan base if they knew that they were able to and if it was made simple enough,” he states.

Fanvue’s mission is clear: “What we’re looking to do with Fanvue is to fundamentally enable anyone that has an audience off platform to connect and monetize that audience.” 

With the overall industry reaching new heights each year, Fanvue’s time-efficient approach to creator monetization aims to change how creators of all types build sustainable businesses through direct fan relationships.

“We’re focused on being the central platform that enables all creators,” Will concludes. “Our goal is to have the platform broadly synonymous with where creators go to monetize their fanbase directly.”