Thankroll
closedTipping service that allowed creators to receive recurring support directly on their websites through customizable donation buttons.
| Date | Investors | Amount | Round |
|---|---|---|---|
N/A | Seed | ||
| Total Funding | 000k | ||
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Thankroll was conceived in 2016 by co-founders Cyan Banister and Nadya Lev as a direct response to the monetization challenges faced by digital creators. Their journey began at Zivity, an online community for artistic photography founded by Banister, where they observed firsthand the difficulty artists had in generating consistent income from their work. This insight led to the creation of Thankroll, a service designed to empower creators by enabling them to receive recurring financial support directly from their audience.
The company provided a white-label tipping service, which differentiated it from platform-centric models like Patreon. Its core product was a customizable tipping widget that creators could embed directly onto their own websites, including platforms like WordPress, Tumblr, and Squarespace. This allowed content producers, such as artists and bloggers, to maintain full control over their branding and website experience while offering a seamless contribution method for their fans. Supporters could pledge recurring payments and cancel at any time, fostering a direct financial relationship between the creator and their community.
The business model was based on a 5% transaction fee levied on the payments processed through the widget, with the creators covering the separate credit card processing costs. This structure aimed to provide a sustainable, ongoing revenue stream rather than relying on one-off crowdfunding campaigns. To encourage support, the platform facilitated the offering of perks, such as exclusive content or personal interactions, from the creator to their patrons. The company secured an undisclosed seed investment from Matter Ventures in June 2016 and counted the humor blog Laughing Squid among its initial clients. Despite its promising approach to independent creator monetization, Thankroll is no longer in operation.
Keywords: creator monetization, tipping service, recurring payments, direct fan support, white-label widget, artist revenue, content creator tools, Cyan Banister, Nadya Lev, Zivity, subscription model, digital creators, creator economy, fan funding, embeddable widget, direct-to-creator, patronage platform, creator support, Laughing Squid, Matter Ventures