What is Slushy?

Slushy is an elite-invite platform for professional creators and their fans that offers superior creative freedom. Many creators are realizing the limitations of using existing social media platforms, which often offer limited monetization options and may change their terms and conditions at any time. Another considerable fear among creators is being banned from a platform on which they spent years building an audience for no particular reason. 

Josh Metz, Co-Founder and CMO at Slushy, shares, “Creators have had a lot of issues with existing social platforms, whether it’s constantly changing guidelines, shadow banning, account deletions, demonetization. We found that creators were just struggling with the options that were out there.”

@slushyapp we know all about turning up the heat 😉 #fyp ♬ original sound – slushyapp

Slushy gives creators a place to monetize their audiences directly, along with advanced engagement tools that allow creators to build a subscription business themselves. 

The name, Slushy, was inspired by a delicious, cold slushy on a hot day. 

David Gross, CEO and Co-Founder of Slushy, notes, “It [the name Slushy] goes with our saying as well. I always say “f******g refreshing because I think it goes in line with what Metz was saying with guidelines and shadow banning and always appeasing the advertising. You’re going to see things in here that you haven’t heard for a while on Slushy, so it’s like a level of excitement and refreshing. A newer, refreshing platform.”

Josh Metz, Co-Founder and CMO at Slushy

How Do You Join Slushy?

Creators are either invited or join the waitlist for Slushy. If you join the waitlist, the Slushy team will look at your application and what you share on other platforms. 

Josh shares, “When they [creators] come on, they immediately get three invites that they could share, and those invites get them 5% for one year and then 1% forever after that. So, it’s a way to get your colleagues on and earn from them and just pay it forward basically.”

He explains that Slushy is for people who want to create content for a living, even if they haven’t previously made content behind a paywall or subscription model. 

David Gross, CEO and Co-Founder of Slushy

What Makes Slushy Different?

Many existing social media platforms have limited monetization options and strict guidelines. 

However, Slushy takes a different approach to monetization than traditional social media platforms. 

David explains, “Typically, how it works now is you’re on TikTok, and you have a Linktree, the Linktree goes to Patreon. It goes to Only Fans. It goes to one of these other payroll sites, and there’s kind of a disjointed user experience. What’s unique about Slushy is we have the feed and monetization built-in. We’re the first platform that merges those things and vertically integrates them.”

Regarding monetization, David adds, “You’re going to have better conversion too… How many people do you lose because of the [sales] funnel? If anyone’s ever done e-commerce, every time someone has to click and go somewhere else. There’s a huge percentage of people that never make it to checkout.”

Slushy streamlines the user experience because everything is on one platform, improving conversion. 

Some of Slushy’s top features include: 

• A trailer or teaser to encourage users to subscribe to unlock a library of content
• Pay-per-view or locked content
• Chat – users can request customer content or tip creators
• Live one-on-ones with creators

Slushy also has less strict community guidelines so that creators can share a wider variety of opinions and content. 

Alternate Revenue Streams for Creators

Josh shares that one of the biggest needs in the creator market today is “the ability to have a range of tools handy to them in order to start monetizing their content.”

He believes that the future of the creator economy will be a world where creators don’t need to rely on existing social platforms and brand deals with third parties. Josh feels the future of influencer marketing will look like greater control over creator finances and earnings.  

David adds, “I think it goes back to those commerce tools. I think there is no website or tool similar to Shopify for social commerce, and what you look at what Shopify did is with all the integrations and tools they had, it really becomes a one-stop-shop to launch your business within minutes.”

Currently, creators need to be on many platforms and use tools like Shopify or Patreon to monetize their content. David believes the future of content creation is centralized platforms like Slushy, where social media and commerce merge. 

Since their recent launch, David shares, “We’re already seeing creators make a significant amount of money on the platform so much, so they could probably do that full-time as their main job, and it’s only been a few weeks that we’re launched. So, I think we’re really seeing [Slushy] changing people’s lives.”

Future Plans & Closing Thoughts

When asked about crypto and NFTs and how they may affect the creator economy, Josh shares, “Crypto and NFTs are always in the back of our mind… It’s going to play a large part in the future and a large part of the creator economy in the future. So, I think for us, we’re always thinking about it, whether it’s including crypto payments or allowing the traders to meet NFTs.”

Josh shares that another huge goal for Slushy is destigmatizing payroll content, which many people feel is exclusively used for adult content. 

He notes, “We really want to pioneer that ship forward and that evolution that we discussed earlier and really show people that anyone can monetize their content and put that content behind a payroll.”

David shares that he is excited about upcoming partnerships that will accelerate Slushy’s growth. 
He adds, “We just look forward to seeing the shifts really happening in the space from advertising to this, and we’re excited to see more verticals come on. It’s just a lot of excitement, and we’re excited to see it accelerate faster and faster.”