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Tuesday, October 10 -- CreatorDAO, the new decentralized community that invests in creators by providing capital, technology, and operational support, is launching a free online bootcamp called Launchpad to help budding creators turn their passions into profitable longform YouTube channels. Applications are open now through October 20, and the program will begin on October 23 with the first of eight weekly lessons. At the end of the program, creators can win cash prizes or ask for an investment and receive one-on-one mentorship from the company’s partners.
Founded by entrepreneur and Liquid 2 Ventures partner Michael Ma, CreatorDAO launched last year with a $20 million seed funding round led by Andreessen Horowitz (a16z) and Initialized Capital. Other investors include Y-Combinator President and CEO Garry Tan, Alchemy CEO Nikil Viswanathan, electronic DJ and production duo The Chainsmokers, media personality Paris Hilton, singer Liam Payne, and musician and entrepreneur Michael Ezinger. "Creators today are businesses, but no one's figured out how to help them realize their growth potential," Ma said when the funding round was announced. "It's an investment vacuum similar to the one that Y Combinator and angel investors filled for tech entrepreneurs 17 years ago."
This will be the first Launchpad open to the public. A private beta version earlier this year, for just 12 hand-selected participants, helped, among others, ZoeUnlimited, who now has over 2.7 million subscribers for her wellness and lifestyle content; John Fish, who now has 1 million subscribers for his books and coding content; and Young Yong Tales, who now has 900 thousand subscribers for his animation content.
Launchpad’s bootcamp instructors are two successful YouTube creators themselves, both partners at CreatorDAO. As a viral content creator himself, Kong Pham reached 2.4 million subscribers on YouTube and generated over $25M in revenue. Working behind the scenes, Kel Livson created video ads that made $50+ million in revenue, wrote YouTube videos with 500+ million organic views, and made digital products (and their funnels!) that generated $20+ million in revenue.
“Going viral is not about ‘getting lucky’—it’s about understanding what makes great content,” says Pham. “If MrBeast had to start over tomorrow with no subscribers, he would go viral immediately.”
Livson adds, “Virality is so much more repeatable than people think - we started a brand new anonymous channel just to prove this and the very first video got 20 million views.”
Topics covered in Launchpad will include how creators can innovate on their channels by utilizing viral psychological triggers, how to come up with viral video concepts using the mentors’ “remix” strategy, and how to make consistent income without depending on YouTube’s ad revenue, even for creators with only a small amount of subscribers.
At the end of the program, 20 creators will be selected to make a small presentation about the success of their channel, what they’ve learned during the course, or what they’ll do with the prize money. All Launchpad participants will be allowed to vote for the creators they think deserve the prize money most. The two biggest vote-getters will each win $10,000, no strings attached, as will a third winner selected by the mentors. Additionally, any Launchpad participant can apply for one on one mentorship and to receive an investment from the CreatorDAO team.
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