After raising $1.5M, LitPic is building a social network for creators

There's a new social network — LitPic — tailored specifically to creators.

What’s happening: With $1.5 million in its coffers, LitPic is building a subscription-based social network that mixes elements of Onlyfans and Twitch while helping creators monetize their content via its proprietary currency.

“We believe everyone should be able to monetize their work and be paid for their creativity while also rewarding the fans and supporters with attention and popularity." —Maurice Yi, founder of LitPic

The round: The Seattle-based company raised funds to expand its iOS app, attracting a variety of big tech investors, including ClassPass CEO Fritz Lanman, Brainchild CEO Kal Vepuri, TechCrunch co-founder Michael Arrington, and others.

How it works: Founded in 2021, LitPic’s app enables creators to post photos and videos, explore a discovery reel, and send messages to fans. It currently has 6,000 creators signed up for its beta and it's targeting 300,000 creators over the next few months.

Get Lit: The company created an in-app currency called "Lits" that allows users to tip or subscribe to their favorite creators across the site. Creators can also sign brand deals on the platform. LitPic said creators on the platform will “always keep 100%” of their earnings and can cash out via Stripe, Venmo, and PayPal. LitPic isn’t available on Android yet.

The mission: LitPic said its vision is to create a “pay-it-forward culture” for creators that values diversity, data privacy, and actually valuable sponsored content instead of unwanted ads. It also appears to be vying for a piece of TikTok's market. If you're curious, the startup created a calculator to estimate how much you could earn on the platform.

Capitalizing on trends: The company hopes to profit from the growing interest among younger people to monetize their followings. About 86 percent of Gen Z and Millennials surveyed in a recent poll indicate they’d post sponsored content in exchange for money. Since the app is free, LitPic hopes its platform will remove the "awkwardness" creators experience when asking fans for money.

Incentivizing community: To encourage engagement, the more users send the LitPic’s virtual cash, the more the community sees you and the more social status you earn. Active users also can more directly connect with creators and be the first to hear new songs, learn tips, and get membership access.

Game time: LitPic co-founder Andy Karuza told me that the platform will distinguish itself from competitors with social gamification.

"Unlike other platforms, we designed ours to be gamified and rewarding for both creators and contributing fans. We believe the large platforms lack the social infrastructure for a true creator economy, we've designed ours to solve that problem from scratch. We believe you can't just throw in a tip button and expect people to use it, you need to create value and attention for the users that support creators. — LitPic co-founder Andy Karuza

In-app camera: LitPic also created an in-app camera that will include over 1,000 filters for photos and videos. That media will end up on a user’s profile and can be discovered on LitPic's TikTok-style reel.

No XXX: LitPic said it has no plans to make its platform available to pornographic actors. Karuza told me LitPic is "PG-13," and aims to prove that all types of creators "can build a clean recurring revenue business."

What it means: LitPic is just the latest company to build a business model for creators as the creator economy has seen a record $1.3 billion in funding in 2021. Many social media firms and tech companies are fighting to attract creators and their fans to their platforms by providing them as many tools as possible to generate revenue, including tips, subscriptions, tickets, and grants.

Creator economy wins again: Regardless of LitPic’s success, their launch underscores the value of the creator economy, which is now worth more than $50 billion and has more than 50 million people generating revenue via their fans. Creators are gaining more power in the media ecosystem as fans seek out individuals rather than brands or conventional advertising.

And that’s a win for the creator economy and indie hackers everywhere.

What are your thoughts on LitPic? Does the creator economy need another social media network? Share your thoughts below