Substack just unveiled a $20 million “creator accelerator fund,” designed to support content creators looking for a fresh start. With TikTok’s future still up in the air, the company is among a number of tech firms looking to benefit from the US ban.
On Thursday (Jan. 23), the company announced in a blog post that creators would receive “ongoing strategic and business support,” as well as “early access to new features.”
The company added: “We established this fund because we’ve seen creators who specialize in video, audio, and text expand their audience, revenue, and influence on Substack, where the platform’s network effects amplify the quality and impact of the work they’re doing.”
We've created a fund to help creators with paid audiences migrate to S*bstack so they can take advantage of the growth features. We call it the Creator Accelerator Fund. It provides financial guarantees and white-glove partnerships support for creators.
— Hamish McKenzie (@hamishmckenzie) January 23, 2025
Substack co-founder Hamish McKenzie wrote on X: “It provides financial guarantees and white-glove partnerships support for creators.”
TikTok’s parent company, Beijing-based ByteDance Ltd., is feeling the heat to either sell or shut down the platform to meet US legislation requirements. It has put creators in a tough spot, with their income hanging in the balance. Meanwhile, the whole situation opens the door for other media platforms to swoop in and snag some of TikTok’s top talent.
“The recent tumult of social platforms — facing bans, backlash and policies that change with the political winds — has highlighted the challenges creators face: They cannot rely on social media alone to build their audience or their business,” the company stated in the announcement.
How to join Substack’s Creator Accelerator Fund
Substack’s Creator Accelerator Fund is offering a sweet deal for content creators ready to make the switch. The program will cover 100% of the revenue creators were earning from their previous platform for the first year—making the move a lot easier.
But there’s a catch as participants need to shut down any subscription-based accounts on competing platforms. To qualify, creators must be US-based and already earning at least $2,000 a month in recurring revenue.
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