Meet The Open-Source Entrepreneur Powering The Billion-Dollar Creator Economy

The creator economy is a burgeoning economic sector well worth over $100 billion. 

Where brands once clamored to get movie stars or pop legends to advertise their products, social media influencers are now the most sought-after figures to act as ambassadors. 

From YouTube to TikTok, Gen Z in particular is enamored with creators making content on the fly and connecting with their audience. Around this central bedrock, an entire ecosystem of companies has sprung up to support creators and help them monetize their social presence. 

MemberPress is one of them, with visionary entrepreneur Blair Williams at the helm. Here’s how he's setting out to power the creator economy. 

Harnessing the Magic of Software to Help Creators 

Based in Utah, Williams is a passionate tech entrepreneur who loves tinkering with new projects. In particular, he has a knack for developing software for WordPress, the largest content management system (CMS) in the world, which powers over 43% of the internet. 

One of the first products Williams launched, back in 2009, was Pretty Links, a link-shortening solution. It allows creators to create short memorable links to add in their blog posts, videos, or podcasts, rather than working with longer links that people have a hard time remembering. 

Working with creators, Blair soon learned that there was a huge need for a system that would allow creators to sell memberships & courses, one of the prime monetization strategies. While some tools existed, they were expensive and had unfair pricing models.

That’s how MemberPress was born. 

It allows creators to sell online courses, memberships, coaching, premium communities, and other exclusive member-only content directly to their audience. It also features a drip content feature and an advanced publisher paywall. 

Launched in 2013, MemberPress has since become the number one membership plugin for WordPress globally. And thanks to strategic acquisitions and funding, it’s continuing its stellar trajectory. 

Expanding MemberPress through Funding and Acquisitions

When Williams first launched MemberPress, he did so without traditional VC funding, choosing to stay bootstrapped and agile instead. 

It was only five years later, in 2018, that he decided to accept outside funding. He received a major investment from Syed Balkhi, founder of Awesome Motive, through the WPBeginner Growth Fund. 

In the five years since this initial investment by Awesome Motive, MemberPress has seen tremendous growth and passed the milestone of over 1 billion dollars in creator earnings on their platform.

Plus, they have strategically expanded by acquiring several complementary and competitor solutions. 

Among the former was Easy Affiliate, which allows creators to add a referral program to their online stores. Among the latter are MemberMouse as well as WishlistMember, both long-time competitors in the membership software market.  

Overall, this strategy has allowed MemberPress to offer an increasingly well-rounded solution to creators looking to monetize their social channels through memberships, and to take up an increasing share in the market. 

Looking to the Future with Creators and their Audiences 

Going forward, MemberPress, under Williams’ guidance, is set to stay agile, keep up with the latest trends, and pursue its mission to help creators. Their new CoachKit solution to help creators launch a coaching business is a great example of that.

Based in Cedar City and working with a dedicated, fully remote team, Williams is uniquely situated to thrive in the creator economy.

Image sourced from Shutterstock

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