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- Idea Of The Day - Creators want a velvet rope. You can build the bouncer and cash in.
Idea Of The Day - Creators want a velvet rope. You can build the bouncer and cash in.
Needs To Exist
March 28, 2025
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GM. This is Needs to Exist (aka NTE), delivering a startup ideas to help creators identify and engage with their super fans.
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Here’s what we’ve got for you today.
Daily Idea - Engage. Verify. Reward.
What are you of a fan of? That may be a business.
Own, engage, and reward superfans
Inspired by this tweet
The One Liner
A token to separate your true fans from the rest.
The 140 character tweet (or X) version
Most followers don’t matter. Drop 1,000 tokens to find your real ones—and reward them with perks they’ll never forget.
The Longer Story Version
The Problem
Follower counts are inflated. Engagement is shallow.
Every creator knows the feeling: you’ve built an audience, but when it comes time to sell something, launch a course, or ask for support—crickets.
That’s because 99% of followers are just passing through.
They’ll like your posts, maybe even comment once. But they’re not showing up to your live event. They’re not buying your merch. And they’re definitely not your real community.
The truth? Most creators can’t tell who their true fans are.
There’s no signal. No filtering mechanism. Just a big, messy pile of “followers” with no way to tell who’s actually invested.
And that’s a huge problem.
Because true fans are your power users. They’re your early buyers, your street team, your growth engine. But if you treat them like everyone else, they’ll fade into the crowd.
We’ve built tools to grow audiences, but not to deepen them.
And in the creator economy, depth is everything.
The Solution
Imagine if creators could issue 1,000 “True Fan Tokens” (TFTs) — one-time, non-transferable tokens that act as a badge of loyalty.
Fans earn them, not buy them. Maybe they pass a quiz about your content. Maybe they’ve commented 100 times. Maybe they’ve been following you since day one. However you define “true,” you can verify it.
Once they’ve got a token, that fan is in the circle.
They get access to exclusive content, live chats, limited merch drops, gated courses, or even private updates.
You can airdrop rewards directly to token holders with zero friction.
It’s like Patreon without the paywall.
Soulbound tokens without the crypto headache.
A fan club where only the real ones get in.
This creates digital scarcity.
More importantly, it gives your most loyal fans the status they deserve—and the access they’ve earned.
And for you, the creator?
It’s a new way to engage, reward, and monetize your top 1%.
How We’d Build It
Start simple:
Tap Guild.xyz to verify fan actions and issue tokens.
Use Zora or Manifold to mint the tokens—soulbound and non-transferable by default.
Plug in Privy to make wallet creation dead simple—just an email and a click.
Airdrops powered by Crossmint or Thirdweb, so you can send content, files, or perks right to holders.
Use Paragraph to publish token-gated content, readable via email or wallet login.
MVP done.
Phase two? Add analytics so creators can track engagement.
Phase three? Let brands partner with creators to drop sponsored perks to fans—without ever touching the data.
Why It Needs to Exist
Because we’ve been optimizing for reach, not resonance.
We’ve built loudspeakers, but not campfires.
This platform flips the script.
Instead of chasing a million followers, creators can focus on the thousand that actually matter.
The ones who’ll show up, buy in, and spread the word.
True Fan Tokens don’t just build community—they prove it.
And in a world where attention is cheap, proof is priceless.
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From Stan to Startup
How people built real businesses around what they were already obsessed with.
Most great startups don’t start with spreadsheets.
They start with obsession.
Not "what’s trending" — but "what can I not shut up about?"
Here’s the playbook:
Find a fandom.
Solve a problem they all feel but can’t fix.
Build the thing everyone wishes existed.
Let’s break it down with some real examples — and how you can do it too.
👟 Case Study: Hypebeast
Started as a sneaker blog. Became a $100M+ media + commerce company.
Kevin Ma was just a guy writing about sneakers he loved.
Then it became a blog.
Then it became the sneakerhead Bible.
Now they sell ads, events, eCommerce, a whole media empire.
Lesson: Don’t chase virality. Chase depth. Sneakerheads are deeply emotional about drops, brands, collabs.
How to copy it:
Start with a daily blog or newsletter about a subniche (retro Jordans, collabs, restoration)
Add product drops or affiliate links
Build community (Discord, email list)
Monetize with drops, ads, or your own store
Tools:
Beehiiv (newsletter)
Shopify (to sell your own drops)
Blackmagic.so (to find influencers in the space)
🧶 Case Study: Ravelry
Social network + marketplace for knitters. Millions in revenue.
A married couple built Ravelry for fun.
They were both knitters.
They wanted a way to share patterns, sell them, and vibe with other yarn nerds.
Now it's the go-to platform for millions of crafters.
Lesson: Don’t underestimate “boring” hobbies. Knit, fish, fix old radios? Someone’s obsessed—and willing to pay.
How to copy it:
Go deep on a niche hobby (check Reddit subs or Etsy)
Look for repeated pain points (where do they sell? how do they connect?)
Build a tool, marketplace, or platform for them
Tools:
Subreddit Stats (find active, growing niches)
Gumroad (to test with paid downloads)
🎧 Case Study: DistroKid
Solved a pain point for indie musicians. Now worth over $1B.
Founder was a musician tired of paying yearly fees just to upload music to Spotify.
So he built a simpler, cheaper, flat-fee tool.
Now everyone uses it.
Lesson: The best tools are built out of frustration.
How to copy it:
Hang out in forums/Discords for creators
Look for recurring complaints (“I hate using X”)
Build a better, simpler, cheaper tool
Tools:
How to Find Your Fandom
Here’s how to spot startup ideas inside obsession:
Start with yourself. What subreddit are you in daily? What niche YouTube do you binge?
Hang where superfans hang. Discords, forums, subreddits, niche Facebook groups.
Write down complaints. Every rant is a startup idea in disguise.
Search Etsy + Reddit together. Products people sell + problems people vent = magic.
Go small to go big. Pick a weird niche. If 1,000 people love it, you’re golden.
TL;DR:
Fans build empires.
Fandom isn’t fluff — it’s friction, emotion, identity.
And if you solve a real pain for obsessed people?
That’s not a side hustle.
That’s the seed of a startup.
One More Meme
