Distribution Club

The short version of the whole spec: what Distribution Club is, who it is for, why it is different, the main numbers, where the project stands, and what the other pages cover. Read it first.

Draft v0.1 · Last updated 4 September 2026

On this page

1. 1. The idea in one minute
2. 2. Who it is for
3. 3. What makes it different
4. 4. The numbers at a glance
5. 5. Where the project is today
6. 6. Contents of this spec
7. 7. How to read this spec

1. The idea in one minute

Distribution Club is distribution infrastructure for brands. A brand buys distribution: posts on real creator accounts, views and clicks. Creators (people who make and post content on their own social accounts), matching, dispatch (sending offers to creators), content review, post checks, tracking and payouts are the infrastructure underneath; a brand never has to manage any of it. Simple to buy. Complex to operate. Transparent about results.

The first version (V1) serves indie developers, indie hackers and small SaaS companies, in ten product categories: AI tools; SaaS and web apps; developer tools; productivity apps; fitness apps; health apps; lifestyle apps; education apps; kids apps; and games. The 21-category list on Rate cards is the roadmap for later, not the V1 product. The long-term product is broader than V1: give us your product and budget, and we will optimise its distribution. The outcomes roadmap runs views first, then clicks, then sign-ups, then customers; V1 reports posts, views and clicks, with sign-ups and customers added as the product matures.

Underneath, the mechanism is an on-demand gig marketplace for branded short-form content, run by the platform, not shown to brands as a marketplace. A brand (the paying customer) deposits money and describes what it wants. The system sends the work to matching creators the way Uber sends a ride to a driver or Zomato sends an order to a delivery partner. The creator accepts, makes a short video and uploads it. The platform checks it, the creator posts it on their own account and the platform verifies the live post, and the creator is paid in steps as the video gets views. The aim is to make "doing a content gig" as normal, quick and reliable as driving a ride or delivering an order.

Here is the whole flow, end to end.

1. A brand creates a campaign. A campaign is a brief of up to 300 words, a checklist of 10 items every video must satisfy, a fund, and settings such as platforms and deadline. The brand does not pick creator leagues; it sets a distribution preference instead (see Product spec for the four campaign inputs). The fund is the money the brand deposits; the minimum is $600.
2. The brand pays the fund. Payment is by card or bank transfer through a licensed payments partner (see Payments), which holds the money; the platform never holds it. As soon as the deposit lands, 20% of it becomes the platform's revenue, fixed and never refunded; the other 80% becomes the brand's creator pool. The brand sees an expected range of posts and views for its budget, for example "Expected: 400,000 to 500,000 views," never a single promised number, plus the cost per 1,000 views; the planner turns budget, audience and distribution preference into a league mix behind the scenes, where a gig is one video from one creator.
3. The system matches and dispatches. Dispatch is the process of sending offers to creators. Once the fund is received and ops (the platform's own operations team) has checked the brand, the system lists and ranks creators whose platform, league, category, location and score match.
4. Creators have already set up two things. Each creator has connected one or more of Instagram, YouTube, TikTok or X through the official login, and has set availability hours, the weekly windows in which offers may arrive (default: always).
5. An offer arrives like a ride or order request. An offer is a gig notification the creator can accept or decline. It shows the brand, category, the CPM, the expected earnings, whether a bonus is available, deadline, sample yes or no, platform and a countdown, with Accept and Decline buttons.
6. The creator accepts. Each open slot is offered to 2 to 6 creators at a time, a wave size that adapts to how often creators in that category and league accept (starting at 2 until there is enough data), each offer expires after 30 minutes, and slots fill first come, first served. Fund money is committed to the gig only at this moment; declining costs the creator nothing.
7. The deadline clock starts. The default deadline is 72 hours from acceptance; the brand can instead pick 24 hours, 48 hours, 5 days or 7 days. If a sample product is shipped, the clock starts when the creator marks it delivered.
8. The creator makes and uploads the video. The upload is one file up to 500 MB, MP4 or MOV, plus the caption text; the app checks format, length and orientation before sending.
9. The platform reviews it. At MVP the founder reviews every submission by hand against the checklist, 50 to 100 a day, with a decision within 48 hours of submission; once automated checklist scoring is built, an automated pass transcribes the video, describes the key frames and scores each checklist item pass, fail or unsure, and reaches the creator within 24 hours, with the human decision still inside 48 hours. If an item fails, the creator sees why and has 48 hours for one revision.
10. The creator posts it and the platform verifies it. On approval, the app gives the creator the approved package: the exact video file and caption, with the "#ad" disclosure, the paid-partnership label, the campaign hashtag and the brand tag already in place. The creator posts it on their own account, unchanged, within 24 hours (or on the go-live date if set), then pastes the link back into the app. The platform checks the post is live and matches the approved file, and confirms it. Automatic posting through the platform's own API, where the platform posts for the creator, comes later, per platform, once that platform approves it (target Phase 3).
11. The creator is paid per 1,000 real views into a wallet. The wallet is the creator's balance inside the app. Expected earnings for the gig are the creator's median views times the CPM, and the CPM is set by the creator's audience geography, the platform, the campaign category and the creator's league (see Rate cards). A floor of 20% of expected earnings is released as soon as the post is confirmed live; the rest follows real views, read on day 3, day 7 and day 14 of the 14-day window, up to the maximum payout, which is expected earnings, unless the brand has switched on an optional bonus of up to 1.5 times expected earnings. Views beyond the median do not earn more on that gig, but they raise the creator's median, and so their CPM earnings, for future gigs.
12. Payout every 30 days. A payout is money moved from the wallet to the creator's bank account or payout method. On the 1st of every month, every creator with completed payout setup and a balance of at least $20 is paid automatically: in India by UPI or bank transfer through RazorpayX or Cashfree Payouts, and abroad through Payoneer, with PayPal as a second candidate; smaller balances roll over.

2. Who it is for

Brands use a web dashboard, creators use a mobile app (a mobile web app at MVP, with native iOS and Android apps in the build-out), and ops uses an internal web console. There is no public list of gigs and no brand-creator chat; creators only get work through dispatch, and ops handles support.

2.1 Brands

A brand is the paying customer: a company, an indie software product, a small SaaS business, or an agency acting for a brand, in any country the payments partner can collect from. In V1 the typical brand is an indie developer, an indie hacker or a small SaaS company. Some categories are declined at signup: alcohol, tobacco and vaping, gambling and real-money gaming, crypto and unregulated investment products, political and religious content, adult content, prescription drugs, and weapons. Ops checks every new brand within 2 business hours before its first campaign goes live.

A brand buys distribution and gets posts, views and clicks. What a brand gets is many small, honest videos from real accounts instead of a few big ones, without managing creators. Campaign creation asks for four inputs: product (a short brief, the destination link, an optional promo code and assets), budget (the deposit, minimum $600), audience (a short free-text description plus a country or region picker, for example "US developers", and one of the ten V1 categories: AI tools, SaaS and web apps, developer tools, productivity apps, fitness apps, health apps, lifestyle apps, education apps, kids apps, or games) and distribution preference ("more posts", "fewer, bigger posts", or "auto"). Everything else, including the checklist preset, platforms, formats and deadline, is chosen by the platform with sensible defaults, changeable under advanced options. The dashboard shows simple controls (pause, add budget, change distribution preference) and rich, exportable results: spend, creators used, posts live with links, views, clicks and, from Phase 3, conversions (promo code redemptions and tracked-link conversions once the brand adds a conversion pixel or postback), plus cost per 1,000 views, cost per click and a timeline. Posts, views, clicks and conversions are the outcomes roadmap in order. The brand does not review videos unless it switches on an optional brand approval step, which adds a 24-hour window. It pays per 1,000 views, capped per post at expected earnings (plus a bonus reserve if switched on), and sees an expected range of posts and views for its budget, never a single promised number, then the effective cost per 1,000 views; the platform turns budget, audience and distribution preference into a league mix behind the scenes, never shown to the brand. The platform takes its 20% cut once, at deposit, fixed and never refunded; the rest is the brand's creator pool, which a gig draws down by its expected earnings when a creator accepts. Money reserved for a gig that is not earned by day 14 stays in the creator pool for more gigs or the brand's next campaign; deposits are not refunded.

2.2 Creators

A creator makes and posts the content, as an independent contractor who contracts with the platform, never directly with a brand. To qualify, a creator must be 18 or over, have a median of at least 5,000 views per post over the last 90 days on a connected Instagram, YouTube, TikTok or X account that is at least 90 days old (follower count does not matter), and have at least 10 public posts on it in the last 90 days. A bank account or supported payout method, plus whatever identity or tax detail the payout rail asks for (PAN and bank details for creators in India, an equivalent for creators paid through Payoneer or PayPal abroad), is needed before the first payout, not before the first gig. See Payments.

A creator's league depends on median views per post over the last 90 days on the account used for the gig, so a creator can be a different league on each platform: Bronze 1 is 5,000 to 9,999 median views, Bronze 2 is 10,000 to 14,999, Silver 1 is 15,000 to 24,999, Silver 2 is 25,000 to 49,999, Gold 1 is 50,000 to 99,999, Gold 2 is 100,000 to 149,999, Ruby is 150,000 to 499,999, and Diamond is 500,000 and above. Leagues replace the old follower tiers (Nano, Micro, Mid and Macro) and are recalculated on the 1st of every month, per platform. Each creator picks up to 3 content categories from a list of 21 (see Rate cards).

What a creator gets is work that comes to them, with nothing to apply for. Pay is per 1,000 real views at a CPM set by audience geography, platform, category and league (see Rate cards), the CPM and expected earnings are shown before accepting, and 20% of expected earnings is released as soon as the post is live. There is no fee on creator earnings at launch, and ranking is never sold. Every eligible new creator gets a first offer within 7 days; if no brand campaign matches, a gig funded by Distribution Club itself is sent instead.

2.3 Ops

Ops is the platform's own operations team. At launch it confirms every submission against the checklist, watches dispatch, checks fraud flags and identity, runs the monthly payout batch, handles disputes and brand approvals, supports both sides, and runs the dogfood campaigns described on the Dogfooding page.

3. What makes it different

Two existing products sit closest. Content Rewards, a Whop product, lets brands post a "bounty" campaign anyone can join; creators post to their own accounts and submit the link, the brand approves each post, and the creator is paid per 1,000 views, commonly about $1. SideShift is a creator marketplace and job board where brands post job listings, then invite and hire creators. Distribution Club differs in six ways. Brands never see leagues, rate cards or dispatch; that complexity lives behind the scenes and a brand sees only outcomes.

• Dispatch, not applications. Creators do not apply; offers come to them. Brands do not hire; the system fills the slots. On Content Rewards anyone joins; on SideShift the brand invites and hires each creator.
• Commitment. A gig has an acceptance, a deadline and a creator score, so reliability matters: on-time submission is 40% of the score, and a score below 40 pauses dispatch to that creator. Content Rewards asks for no commitment or deadline, and third parties report creators ghosting SideShift brands after being hired.
• Platform review against a fixed 10-item checklist. Every submission is checked item by item, first automatically and then by ops, and all 10 must pass. Brands do not have to review anything; on Content Rewards the brand does all the reviewing.
• Posts checked, views read from the API. At MVP the creator posts the content, but the platform checks the live post against the approved file before paying it out, and posts automatically where the platform allows it (target Phase 3). Views are read from the platform's own API on day 3, day 7 and day 14 of the 14-day window, so nothing is self-reported. On Content Rewards creators post themselves with no such check; on SideShift performance data is reported by creators.
• CPM pay from a held fund, with a monthly payout cycle. The brand's money is deposited before any creator accepts, so creators get a floor of 20% of expected earnings on publishing and the rest as the post gets real views, up to the maximum payout of expected earnings (the creator's median views times the CPM), unless the brand has switched on an optional bonus of up to 1.5 times expected. Each release sits for a 48-hour fraud hold, and the Available balance is paid out on the 1st of every month.
• Four platforms and a global creator pool from day one. Instagram Reels, YouTube Shorts, TikTok and X are all in the first release, open to creators and brands in any country the payments partner can pay or collect from. The founder wants the largest possible creator pool at launch, so brands find their slots filled. Each has the same gig, the same checklist and the same rate card, in US dollars.

4. The numbers at a glance

The numbers that come up most often, with the page that explains each.

5. Where the project is today

This is Draft v0.1, dated 4 September 2026. No product code exists yet. The founder wants the MVP live two weeks from today: the MVP sprint runs 7 to 20 September 2026 and the first real gig dispatches on 21 September 2026. The day-by-day build, every blocker and its lead time are on the MVP in two weeks page; the Rollout plan and Timeline pages have the rest of the detail.

The MVP sprint ships a live web app by hand: sign-up, real dispatch, review by hand, a real wallet and ledger, payouts and an ops console, while the Indian entity, its bank account, the Razorpay pay-in and payout rails, and every other blocker with a longer lead time start in parallel. Everything a longer plan would have built before the first gig instead ships as build-out in Phase 1, while real gigs are already running: automated review, API-read leagues, native apps, Razorpay Route and Payoneer among them. The first monthly payout run is on 1 October 2026.

The timeline assumes one founder through 2027, doing product, engineering, review, ops and sales, with a chartered accountant and a lawyer paid per job. There is no payroll. Hires happen only when profit pays for them: an ops reviewer when submissions pass about 100 a day, then an engineer when monthly profit covers the salary for three months (assumption). See Rollout plan.

6. Contents of this spec

Fourteen more pages, in reading order; each stands on its own.

• Product spec. User types and surfaces, creator eligibility, leagues, limits and score, brand onboarding, the campaign fields, and the checklist presets. It also lists what the product will not do at MVP.
• How it works. Dispatch in waves, the offer screen, upload, the two-pass review, automatic posting, view tracking, the CPM floor and maximum payout, the fraud hold and the wallet. Read it to follow one gig from offer to payout.
• Business model. The platform's 20% cut of every deposit, taken at deposit, the rate card, how the brand is charged, the add-ons, volume pricing and managed campaigns, and the unit economics of one $6,000 campaign. It also explains why the platform never holds brand money itself.
• Competitors. What Content Rewards and SideShift do today, their pricing, and their reported weak points. It then expands the six differences from section 3.
• Rollout plan. The MVP sprint and the build-out that follows it, what is built in each, the targets for Phase 3 and Phase 4, and the eleven success criteria for the beta, so you know what "done" means at each stage.
• Dogfooding. How Distribution Club acts as its own first brand, creators and ops team: a weekly company-funded campaign, a first-gig guarantee, a referral loop and guardrails. It also lists the programme's metrics.
• Dependencies. Every outside service the product needs: the payments partner, notifications, media storage, review, app stores, the four social platform APIs and legal documents, marked by whether they are needed at MVP or the build-out that follows.
• Challenges. The fourteen main risks, from the two-week MVP itself to API access, money regulation, the cold start, fraud and review cost at scale, each with what the spec does about it.
• Timeline. Absolute dates, month by month from September 2026 to December 2027, plus the critical path, every key date and the review checkpoints. Use it to check whether a date on another page is still true.
• Assumptions. The fifteen assumptions the spec rests on, each with its reason and the pages that depend on it, plus the smaller design choices, the open questions for the founder and what is deliberately deferred. Start here if you disagree with something.
• Payments. Why a merchant of record such as Dodo Payments cannot carry the brand-to-creator fund flow, why Stripe Connect is not available from India today, and why the spec instead recommends Razorpay and Razorpay Route for pay-in and fund-holding, with Payoneer for creators outside India.
• Scenarios. Sixteen months of revenue and profit under four growth paths, where revenue is the platform's 20% of every deposit because brands never pay a subscription. Every scenario is profitable over 2027 on the current rules, base case about $83,000 a month by December 2027, and it says what would change the picture.
• MVP in two weeks. The day-by-day build for the two-week sprint, every blocker with its lead time, and what is deliberately left out until the build-out.
• Rate cards. The full geography, platform, category and league factor tables behind the creator CPM, with worked examples. The other pages state the CPM formula in one sentence and link here for the exact numbers.

7. How to read this spec

• Read this Overview first, then How it works. Together they give the whole product; everything else adds detail to one part of it.
• Every number, date, rate and limit comes from one canonical brief; most live on Product spec, Business model, Rollout plan and Timeline. If two pages disagree, that is a mistake; report it.
• Terms are defined the first time they appear on each page and always mean the same thing.
• Where the brief did not cover a rule, the page states one plainly and ends the sentence with "(assumption)". The main assumptions and design choices are collected on the Assumptions page.
• The draft version and last-updated date sit under the title of every page.
• To suggest a change, name the page, section number and sentence, and give the wording you would use instead; the founder collects changes and reissues the whole site as the next draft version (assumption).