Assumptions and open questions

This spec was written from a short description of the idea and a list of competitors, without a chance to ask the founder anything. This page records every guess we made, what changes if a guess is wrong, and every question we still need answered.

Draft v0.1 · Last updated 19 September 2026

On this page

1. Why this page exists
2. The main assumptions
3. Product design choices we made for you
4. Open questions for the founder
5. Decisions deliberately deferred
6. What to validate as early as possible
7. Change log

1. Why this page exists

A product spec normally starts with a long conversation. This one started from one paragraph describing the idea, a list of four social platforms (X, YouTube Shorts, Instagram Reels and TikTok) and the names of two competitors. Everything else on this site is a decision we made on the founder's behalf.

That is fine as long as every decision is written down and easy to reverse. This page lists the seventeen main assumptions the spec rests on, the smaller design choices we made with the alternative we rejected, and the questions we would have asked first, phrased so that a yes, a no or a number answers each one.

A few words are used in a fixed way across the site. A brand is the paying customer. A creator is the person who makes and posts content. A campaign is what a brand creates: a brief, a 10-item checklist, a fund (the money the brand deposits) and settings. A gig is one unit of work for one creator inside a campaign. An offer is a gig notification a creator can accept or decline; dispatch is the sending of offers. A gig pays a CPM (an amount per 1,000 real views) set by the creator's audience geography, platform, category and league; a floor releases 20% of expected earnings into the creator's wallet at publish, then views read on day 3, day 7 and day 14 release the rest as they come in, up to the maximum payout of expected earnings (the cap is the creator's own median views, not a fixed multiplier), unless the brand adds an optional bonus of up to 1.5 times expected; a payout moves wallet money to the creator's bank account. Ops is the platform's own operations team. A dogfood campaign is one funded by Distribution Club itself to test the product and recruit creators. The MVP is the first working version, built in the two-week MVP sprint (Phase 0, 7 to 20 September 2026), with everything else following as build-out while it is already live.

Each assumption below names the pages that depend on it. If the founder changes an assumption, those are the pages to rewrite. Nothing else should need to change, because every number and rule on every page comes from the same brief.

2. The main assumptions

These seventeen are listed in the order they appear in the brief, not in order of importance. The first-market assumption (2.2) matters most and gets the most space. Items 2.13 to 2.15 come from the founder's third round of decisions on 4 September 2026; items 2.16 and 2.17 come from the V1 scope decision on 5 September 2026 that resolves the start-narrow proposal (brief section 49 item 8) into the binding scope in brief section 50. All five are recorded as assumptions here only where this page cannot verify them directly, such as whether the Indian entity already exists.

2.1 The name is Distribution Club

What we assumed: The company and the product are called Distribution Club, and the website is distribution.club.
Why: The name was taken from the project folder. Nothing else was given.
What changes if it is wrong: Every page header, the dogfood checklist item that asks creators to say "Distribution Club" out loud, and the "Distribution Club campaign" label on dogfood campaigns.
Pages affected: All pages, mainly Overview and Dogfooding.

2.2 The launch is global, not United States first

What we assumed

On 4 September 2026 the founder decided the launch is global from day one, not United States first. Creators and brands can join from any country where the payments partner can pay the creator or collect from the brand, and where the connected platform operates (TikTok is not available in India, for example, so Indian creators connect Instagram, YouTube or X instead). Product language at launch is English; creators may post content in any language, and a brand can filter by language. All money is in US dollars everywhere, for the fund, the rate card, the wallet and the fee; conversion to a creator's local currency happens only at payout, done by the payments partner. Country-specific tax forms, payout rails and disclosure wording are handled through the payments partner and a per-country legal checklist. Non-English product languages and extra local payment rails come in Phase 4.

Why

The founder's reasoning: creator supply is the harder side of the marketplace to build, so the largest possible worldwide creator pool from day one gives brands the best chance of finding their slots filled. Because offers only reach a creator inside their own availability window, what fills a slot is not the size of the whole pool but how many eligible creators there are in one category, one country and one time zone at once; a global pool answers that better than a single-country one.

Keeping the rate card, wallet and fee in one currency (US dollars) everywhere, and pushing local complexity (tax forms, payout rails, disclosure wording) into the payments partner and a per-country legal checklist, keeps dispatch, review and pay the same regardless of which country a creator or brand is in.

What it costs

Launching everywhere at once is not free. Three costs follow directly from the decision.

Thin density risk. A pool that is wide across many countries can still be thin in any one category, country and time zone at once, which can look like a large creator base and still fail to fill a local brand's campaign. The Two-sided cold start challenge on the Challenges page tracks this as dispatch density, not total sign-ups.
More payout rails, and tax that differs by country. Distribution Club is an Indian entity, so Razorpay and RazorpayX or Cashfree Payouts handle Indian brands and creators, while Payoneer Mass Payouts, with PayPal as a second candidate, is needed for creators outside India. TDS (tax deducted at source), most likely under Section 194-O, applies to Indian creator payouts; GST at 18% applies to the platform's 20% cut on gigs sold to Indian brands, taken at deposit, with the cut on gigs sold to brands outside India potentially zero-rated under a Letter of Undertaking. All of this is confirmed by the chartered accountant and handled through the payments partners. See the Payments page for how the rails and the tax handling fit together.
More disclosure regimes at once. Advertising disclosure now has to satisfy several regimes from day one instead of one at a time: the US FTC Endorsement Guides, the UK ASA rules, India's ASCI guidelines and similar rules elsewhere, plus data-privacy rules such as GDPR (EU and UK) and CCPA (California). One automatic disclosure standard is added to every post, and the lawyer keeps a per-country wording checklist.

Pages affected

Product spec, Business model, Competitors, Rollout plan, Dogfooding, Dependencies, Challenges, Timeline.

2.3 All four platforms at launch

What we assumed: Instagram Reels, YouTube Shorts, TikTok and X are all in the MVP. LinkedIn and Facebook Reels come later.
Why: The four were named in the request, and "four platforms from day one with the same gig, the same checklist and the same rate card" is one of the six differences from competitors.
What changes if it is wrong: Fewer platforms shorten the number of API applications made during the MVP sprint (an API is the official programming interface each platform offers for posting and reading views) and the build-out work that replaces manual handles and manual view reads with them. Dropping TikTok would shrink the eligible creator pool in countries where TikTok is the main connected platform, such as India (see 2.2).
Pages affected: Product spec, How it works, Competitors, Dependencies, Challenges, Timeline.

2.4 Three content formats, each with its own fee multiplier

What the founder decided: On 4 September 2026 the founder set three content formats at launch, replacing the earlier single-format assumption (brief section 31). A campaign still has one format. Short vertical video (Instagram Reels, YouTube Shorts, TikTok, X video) pays 100% of the league fee, with the checklist as described elsewhere on this site. Image slideshow or carousel (Instagram carousel, TikTok photo post) pays 60% of the league fee (assumption), with checklist items 4, 7 and 9 rewritten for images rather than video, reviewed image by image with no transcript. A text post, or a thread of 2 to 5 posts, pays 30% of the league fee (assumption), with items 4, 7 and 9 rewritten for text, reviewed by reading. Clipping (Preset F) still comes later, in the build-out beyond MVP.
Why: A single format kept the checklist, the upload rules and the review simple, which is still true for video. The founder wants creators to be able to complete a gig without filming a video, so slideshow and text formats are added with their own checklist variant and review path. Video's 100% figure is the founder's own baseline for the league fee; the 60% and 30% multipliers for the other two formats are not stated as fixed numbers anywhere else in the brief, so this page marks them as assumptions.
What changes if it is wrong: A different pair of multipliers changes what a gig takes from the fund and the unit economics wherever slideshow or text gigs are counted, and what one gig's expected earnings are for each format. Dropping either non-video format returns the site to one content type, simplifying the checklist and review paths again.
Pages affected: Product spec, How it works, Business model, Dependencies.

2.5 Creators are independent contractors

What we assumed: Creators are independent contractors, not employees. Brands and creators never contract with each other; both contract with the platform. The accepted offer plus the brief is the written statement of work.
Why: It is how ride and delivery platforms work, and it lets the platform hold the fund and release pay without brands and creators exchanging money.
What changes if it is wrong: Employee status would change the payout, tax and terms model completely. Direct brand-to-creator contracts would change the held fund and the fee model. Both are lawyer questions in the MVP sprint.
Pages affected: Product spec, Business model, Dependencies, Challenges.

2.6 The platform reviews, not the brand

What we assumed: Ops reviews every submission against the checklist. Brands do not review by default. A brand can switch on an approval step that adds a 24-hour window; no response means approved.
Why: Brand review is where bounty products slow down, and platform review is one of the six differences from competitors.
What changes if it is wrong: The 24-hour automated-result target and the 48-hour decision target, and the beta target for time to first post (median under 72 hours from fund received), both stretch, and review cost moves from ops to the brand.
Pages affected: Product spec, How it works, Business model, Competitors, Challenges.

2.7 Pay follows real views, at a CPM set by geography, platform, category and league

What the founder decided: On 4 September 2026 the founder replaced the fixed gig fee and its five fixed release points with pay per 1,000 real views (a CPM). On 5 September 2026 the founder set the CPM as a formula: geography base (by the creator's audience tier) times platform factor times category factor (the campaign's category) times league factor, with the full factor tables on Rate cards. Expected earnings for a gig are the creator's median views times the CPM. A floor of 20% of expected earnings releases when the post is confirmed live at publish. Views are then read on day 3, day 7 and day 14 of the 14-day window; after each read, earnings to date (views divided by 1,000, times the CPM, minus whatever was already released) go to the wallet. The maximum payout is expected earnings; the cap is the creator's own median views, not a fixed multiplier, unless the brand switches on an optional bonus that pays views beyond the median up to 1.5 times expected. Views beyond the median raise the creator's median, and so future earnings, instead of paying more on the same post. This is not a percentage of the checklist: checklist items are pass or fail at review, so they cannot be reached one at a time.
Why: The original brief said creators are paid in stages without saying what a stage is. Tying pay to real view counts, read from each platform's API (by hand at MVP), pays for what the brand is actually buying: reach that happened, not a percentage of a fixed target. The geography, platform and category factors were added because a Tier 1 audience, a Reels post and a personal finance campaign are worth more to a brand than a Tier 4 audience, an X post and an entertainment campaign, even at the same view count.
What changes if it is wrong: Checklist-based pay would release all money at approval. The 14-day performance window and the 48-hour fraud hold would be rewritten, and the unit economics (which now assume the pool funds a mix of geographies, platforms, categories and leagues at their expected earnings, not a fixed fee per gig) would need a different base rate.
Pages affected: Product spec, How it works, Business model, Competitors, Challenges, Rate cards.

2.8 The 30-day payout cycle is the 1st of the month

What we assumed: "Paid out every 30 days" is one automatic payout on the 1st of every month to every creator with payout setup done and at least $20 Available.
Why: One batch a month is one run for the founder to check, one bank file to reconcile, and one "Payout day" for the dogfood programme.
What changes if it is wrong: A rolling 30 days per creator means a payout run every day. The payout dates on the timeline (1 February, 1 March and 1 April 2027) and the "Payout day" campaign would go.
Pages affected: Product spec, How it works, Dogfooding, Timeline.

2.9 One founder, hires by trigger

What the founder decided: On 4 September 2026 the founder decided Distribution Club is one person through 2027 (brief section 9): the founder does 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: the Rollout plan names the first two hires, an ops reviewer when submissions pass about 100 a day (about 3,000 a month), then an engineer when monthly profit covers the salary for three months (assumption), as triggers, not dates. The earlier seven-person team (a founder, two full-stack engineers, one mobile engineer, one part-time designer, one operations and community lead and one brand sales lead) is withdrawn everywhere.
Why: The founder chose to run the company without payroll and to add people only once the business itself pays for them, rather than staff ahead of revenue.
What changes if it is wrong: If a hire trigger is crossed and the founder does not hire, review speed or engineering pace slips instead of headcount rising on schedule. The dogfood programme also changes: it runs on the founder's own account plus 20 friendly creators, not a seven-person team's accounts.
Pages affected: Business model, Rollout plan, Dogfooding, Challenges, Timeline, Overview.

2.10 Working capital, not a funding round

What the founder decided: No funding round is assumed. Working capital of about $25,000 to $35,000 covers the worst cumulative dip across the scenarios modelled on the Scenarios page (brief section 35), which uses the no-payroll, no-dogfood-spend cost base above.
Why: With no salaries and hires only by trigger, the company's cash needs are small enough that working capital, not a raise, is the realistic plan through 2027.
What changes if it is wrong: A worse-than-modelled dip needs more working capital, or an earlier cut to spend such as the dogfood budget, which is not fixed in any case (brief section 35).
Pages affected: Business model, Rollout plan, Timeline, Scenarios.

2.11 No dependence on a hosting provider

What we assumed: Nothing depends on a specific hosting or deployment vendor, and the spec does not recommend one.
Why: Hosting is a late, easily changed decision. The hard dependencies are the four social APIs and the payments partner.
What changes if it is wrong: Only the Dependencies page, if the founder already has a provider whose limits matter.
Pages affected: Dependencies.

2.12 Preset C opens in any city with 40 eligible creators (later: local distribution)

What we assumed: Preset C, the "Restaurant or store visit" checklist preset, is open in any city worldwide, but a Preset C campaign is only accepted once at least 40 eligible creators have that city in their profile; otherwise the brand is told to widen the area or choose another preset. On 5 September 2026 the founder moved Preset C and all city targeting out of the V1 product to "later: local distribution" (brief section 50 item 4; see 2.16), so this assumption no longer applies to V1 and returns only when local distribution reopens, in Phase 4 at the earliest.
Why: A visit gig needs enough creators in one city, inside their availability hours, to fill slots. A creator-count threshold, rather than a fixed list of cities, lets Preset C open wherever creators actually are, which fits the global launch in 2.2 instead of naming beta cities in advance. This still holds for whenever local distribution reopens; V1 itself matches by audience, not city (2.16).
What changes if it is wrong: A higher or lower threshold than 40 changes how many cities qualify when local distribution reopens and how often a brand is told to widen its area. It would also change the beta fill-rate target (70% of slots within 2 hours) for Preset C campaigns in thinner cities, once Preset C is live again.
Pages affected: Product spec, Rollout plan, Challenges.

2.13 Distribution Club is an Indian entity

What the founder decided: On 4 September 2026 the founder stated that Distribution Club is an Indian entity (brief section 32). This replaces every Stripe Connect reference used earlier in the brief: Stripe has been invite-only for new Indian businesses since May 2024, so pay-in runs on Razorpay, with Cashfree as the alternative; fund-holding runs on Razorpay Route, with RazorpayX as the fallback; Indian creator payouts run on RazorpayX or Cashfree Payouts; and payouts to creators abroad run on Payoneer Mass Payouts, with PayPal as a second candidate.
Why: The founder said so directly. This page still marks it an assumption in the sense that we have not seen incorporation papers ourselves, and several details, such as whether the entity and its bank account exist today, are open questions (section 4.4).
What changes if it is wrong: If the entity is not Indian, or is not yet formed, every rail on the Payments page changes: a different country brings different licensing, tax and payout partners, and Stripe Connect could become available again as the reference example.
Pages affected: Dependencies, Challenges, Payments, Overview.

2.14 The MVP ships in two weeks, as a web app

What the founder decided: On 4 September 2026 the founder set the MVP sprint at 7 to 20 September 2026, with the first real gig dispatched on 21 September 2026, as a web app (mobile web, installable to the home screen), not native apps (brief section 28). Everything in the earlier, longer plan still happens, but as build-out while the product is already live, from 21 September 2026 to 22 January 2027.
Why: A new personal Google Play account must run a 12-tester, 14-day closed test before production, and Apple Developer enrollment plus a first review takes several days to two weeks; neither fits inside two weeks, so native apps wait for the build-out, which runs in the background from week one.
What changes if it is wrong: A longer sprint would let more of the original Phase 0 and Phase 1 work (automated review, API-read leagues, native apps) ship before the first gig instead of around it. A web app that cannot be installed to the home screen, or where web push does not work on a given device, pushes offer delivery back onto SMS and email alone.
Pages affected: All pages, mainly Dependencies, Challenges, Overview.

2.15 The founder reviews every submission by hand at MVP

What the founder decided: At MVP the founder reviews every submission by hand, 50 to 100 a day, against the 10-item checklist as a form, with a decision within 48 hours (brief section 29). Automated checklist scoring is build-out work, added once volume passes what the founder can review inside 48 hours, about 100 a day or 3,000 a month. The Business model page holds review cost at $1.00 per gig in every phase, a founder decision; at MVP that dollar is the founder's time, not cash spent on a vendor.
Why: There is no automated review pipeline that can be built inside a two-week sprint, and the founder decided to review personally rather than delay launch for it.
What changes if it is wrong: If submission volume outpaces the founder before automated scoring is built, dispatch has to slow to match review capacity, or the ops-reviewer hire trigger (Rollout plan, section 10) is pulled forward. See "The two-week MVP" on the Challenges page.
Pages affected: Business model, Dependencies, Challenges.

2.16 V1 scope: indie developer customers, ten categories, audience not location

What the founder decided: On 5 September 2026 the founder decided the V1 scope, resolving the start-narrow proposal (brief section 49 item 8) into a binding decision (brief section 50). V1 customers are indie developers, indie hackers and small SaaS companies; sales, pilot brands and dogfood campaigns all target this group first. V1 accepts only ten campaign categories: AI tools, SaaS and web apps, developer tools, productivity apps, fitness apps, health apps, lifestyle apps, education apps, kids apps and games, all at the "Software, apps and SaaS" factor of 1.6 (assumption; retune with data). A brand describes an audience, for example "US developers," rather than picking creator location; a creator can live anywhere, and the geography tiers in the CPM formula are the audience's, as before. There is no city targeting in V1: the countries-and-cities filter and Preset C are moved to "later: local distribution" (2.12), and the density rule becomes at least 40 eligible creators per audience segment and league (assumption). All four platforms (Instagram Reels, YouTube Shorts, TikTok, X) stay available, but because density is measured per audience segment rather than per country, V1 may in practice run mostly on X, YouTube Shorts and Instagram Reels (assumption). The long-term product, stated on the Overview and the Rollout plan: give us your product and budget, and we will optimise its distribution, with an outcomes roadmap of views, then clicks, then sign-ups, then customers.
Why: Concentrating supply on purpose, rather than spreading a global launch across every audience and category from day one, is how dispatch density (2.2) clears faster. Indie developers, indie hackers and small SaaS are a reachable first customer group with a clear channel (X, Hacker News, Product Hunt, indie hacker communities, developer newsletters) and a natural fit with the founder's own product. Matching by audience rather than creator location keeps the worldwide creator pool from 2.2 intact while still letting a brand target who sees its posts.
What changes if it is wrong: A different starting customer or category set changes the pilot brand profile, the recruitment channels, and which creators dogfood campaigns should target. A lower or higher density threshold than 40 per audience segment and league changes how many audience segments qualify at launch. If audience-based matching cannot source enough creators without city-level detail, Preset C and city targeting may need to return sooner than Phase 4.
Pages affected: Rollout plan, Dogfooding, Timeline, MVP in two weeks, Overview.

2.17 V1 planner range, scenarios mix and the restated success test

What the founder decided: On 5 September 2026, alongside the V1 scope (2.16), the founder set three related numbers. First, every brand-facing range (for example "Expected: 400,000 to 500,000 views") is 80% to 100% of the sum of the matched creators' expected views (assumption); the money rules that pay creators on real views, up to their median, are unchanged. Second, the Scenarios model gets a V1 mix (assumption): audiences 70% Tier 1, 15% Tier 2, 10% Tier 3, 5% Tier 4; platforms 25% each; category factor 1.6 throughout; leagues 60% Bronze, 25% Silver, 15% Gold; giving an average take from fund of $112.83 per gig and revenue of $22.57 per gig, with a niche-volume sensitivity run at 4,000 gigs a month in December 2027 instead of the base case's 10,000, because V1 is a niche (assumption; see Scenarios). Third, the MVP success test is restated with a range: a brand deposits $1,000 and, within 14 days, has at least ten posts live and 200,000 to 250,000 views for a US developer audience, with clicks reported (assumption), replacing the earlier single-number, Tier-1-or-equivalent version.
Why: A range, not a single promised number, matches the rule that brands are never told a guaranteed outcome. The V1 mix and niche-volume sensitivity make the Scenarios model honest about running a smaller, focused audience rather than the original ten-category, worldwide mix. The success test range gives the same honesty to the one number the whole MVP sprint is judged against.
What changes if it is wrong: A narrower or wider range than 80% to 100% changes what the planner promises and how often it is wrong in either direction. A different V1 mix changes the average take from fund and revenue per gig, and so the whole Scenarios model in Scenarios. A success test outside 200,000 to 250,000 views changes when the founder judges the core loop proven and moves toward automation.
Pages affected: Rollout plan, Timeline, Scenarios, MVP in two weeks.

3. Product design choices we made for you

These are smaller than the assumptions above, but each one shapes how the product feels. Any of them can change before the MVP sprint starts building them on 7 September 2026 at little cost. After that, most are built into the ledger and the app within the two weeks, which makes them harder to unwind once the build-out begins on 21 September 2026.

Choice	What we chose	The alternative	Why we chose this
Pay basis	Per 1,000 real views (a CPM) set by the creator's audience geography, the platform, the campaign category and the creator's league.	A fixed fee per league regardless of views.	Ties pay directly to what the brand is buying: real reach, weighted by how much that reach is worth. A view that never happens is never paid for.
Release points	Views are read on day 3, day 7 and day 14, and earnings to date are released after each read.	Five fixed release points of 20% each, tied to percentages of a view target.	Real view counts, not a percentage of a fixed target, decide pay. Three read points are simpler to explain and to audit than five percentage lines.
Floor at publish	20% of expected earnings, released when the post is confirmed live.	No floor, or a flat dollar floor.	Guarantees the creator something for the work of posting, in proportion to what the gig was expected to earn.
Maximum payout	Expected earnings (the creator's own median views times the CPM); the cap is the median, not a fixed multiplier.	A fixed multiplier cap, such as 3 times expected earnings (withdrawn on 5 September 2026).	Protects the brand's pool from one post consuming a disproportionate share if it goes viral, while still letting a strong post raise the creator's median, and so future earnings.
Bonus	Optional, the brand's choice at campaign creation (assumption): pays views beyond the median at the same CPM up to 1.5 times expected earnings; the extra 0.5 times is reserved from the pool per gig and any unused reserve returns to the pool on day 14.	No bonus, so every post is capped at the median regardless of how far it overshoots.	Lets a brand that wants upside from a strong post pay for it, without changing the default economics for every other campaign.
Performance window	14 days from posting, views read on day 3, day 7 and day 14.	A longer window.	Unearned money stays in the creator pool within two weeks, so the brand can reuse it and get a final report.
Fraud hold	Each release sits as Pending for 48 hours while automated checks run.	No hold, or a longer one with manual review.	48 hours is well inside the 3-day gap between reads, enough to see bought views arrive, and the creator still sees money move within two days.
Payout timing	Automatic on the 1st of every month, minimum $20.	Rolling 30 days per creator.	One run a month is easier to check and reconcile, and gives the dogfood "Payout day" its rhythm.
Offer expiry	30 minutes (15 minutes with rush dispatch).	Hours or a day.	Offers only go out inside availability hours, so the creator should be free to answer. A short expiry keeps slots moving to the next wave.
Offers per slot	2 to 6 offers per slot, adapting to the recent acceptance rate for that category and league; default 2 until there is enough data.	Send every offer to every available creator, rejected because most would accept a gig already filled.	The adaptive size sends just enough offers that one is expected to be accepted, so "This gig has been filled" messages stay rare and the responsiveness signal in the score stays meaningful.
Default deadline	72 hours from acceptance (24 hours to 7 days selectable).	24 or 48 hours by default.	Long enough to film around a day job, short enough for the beta target of a median first post within 72 hours of funding.
Revisions	One round with a 48-hour deadline; a second failure cancels the gig at $0.	Unlimited revisions.	Each review pass costs about 6 minutes of ops time. One round caps that cost and ends a failing gig cleanly.
Who reviews	Ops by default; brands can add a 24-hour approval step.	The brand reviews every post.	Brand review is where bounty products stall. One fixed checklist is faster and more consistent.
Posting mode	Creator posts at MVP from an approved package with a link check; automatic posting per platform later.	The platform posts automatically for the creator from day one.	No dependency on publishing audits at launch, and creators keep control of their own account until each platform's automatic-posting permission is approved.
Gig board	None. Creators only receive offers by dispatch.	A public board to browse and apply.	Dispatch is the product's main difference. A board brings back applications and creators who go quiet after being hired.
Chat	None. Ops mediates through support.	Direct brand-to-creator chat.	Chat turns a gig into a negotiation and pushes quality problems onto the brand. The brief and checklist must carry every requirement.
Brand funding	The whole fund, at an all-in price per gig, is paid before dispatch starts.	Pay per post, or a monthly invoice.	Every release of pay is already covered by the fund. No invoices to chase, and no creator is ever owed money by a brand.
Fee basis	The platform keeps 20% of every deposit, taken at once, fixed and never refunded; the other 80% is the creator pool the brand's gigs draw from.	Earning the cut only on pay actually released, rejected on 4 September 2026 because it tied platform revenue to view outcomes the platform does not control.	Revenue is fixed and known the moment a brand funds a campaign. Unearned pay stays in the creator pool for more gigs, or is refunded from the pool on request within 90 days.
Fee level	The platform keeps 20% of every deposit pay as you go, net margin since 5 September 2026; at a typical median (Tier 1 audience, Reels, SaaS and web apps), what one gig takes from the fund (expected earnings plus a $2.00 running cost, divided by 0.8) runs from about $31.80 (Bronze 1) to about $3,225 (Diamond). A brand that deposits $10,000 or more in a calendar month gets 5% of that month's deposits added to its creator pool at month end (assumption), instead of a lower cut. On managed campaigns from Phase 4, the platform keeps 35% of the deposit and creators get 65% (assumption).	Lower or higher; a monthly subscription instead of a per-deposit cut, ruled out on 4 September 2026 because brands never pay a subscription.	Covers collection (about 1.1% blended, Cashfree's published rates), review ($1.00 per gig, held by founder decision in every phase) and payout costs (about $0.15 per gig blended, Cashfree Payouts and Payoneer Mass Payouts), folded since 5 September 2026 into a flat $2.00 running cost per gig paid from the 80% creator pool rather than charged against the platform's 20% cut, giving a contribution margin of 100% of revenue on the worked Acme campaign (was about 79%), unchanged from MVP through Phase 4 since none of these costs falls with automation.
Running cost inside the price	A flat $2.00 per gig (review, payout share, storage, the card fee's share; assumption), folded into what a gig takes from the fund: expected earnings plus $2.00, divided by 0.8. Paid from the 80% creator pool, before creators, and never itemised to the brand.	Charging the running cost separately, or against the platform's 20% cut; a minimum expected pay per gig, both withdrawn on 5 September 2026.	Keeps the platform's 20% cut as pure net margin, and means no split of a deposit, however small the gigs, can ever cost the platform more than the 20% it already kept. Creators still receive exactly their expected earnings.
Minimum fund	$600 or more.	A lower minimum, such as the previous $500.	Keeps early campaigns big enough to run a handful of gigs in the cheapest league without ending on the first one.
Add-on pricing	Add-ons (paid usage rights, rush dispatch) are priced as a percentage of expected earnings, not the internal CPM.	Price add-ons off the internal CPM directly, which would expose the split.	Every number the brand sees stays framed as expected earnings and effective CPM, with the platform's cut already taken the same way as the base amount.
Fee on creator earnings	None; ranking is never sold.	A cut of earnings, or a paid priority tier.	The fee in the offer must be what the creator earns. Paid ranking would corrupt the creator score.
Creator leagues	Eight leagues set by median views per post over the last 90 days (Bronze 1, Bronze 2, Silver 1, Silver 2, Gold 1, Gold 2, Ruby, Diamond), not by followers.	Follower tiers, which we replaced on 4 September 2026 because followers are a poor guide to reach; six leagues, replaced on 5 September 2026 with a finer eight-league cut so the league factor could stay nearly flat.	A creator with many followers can get few views, and a small creator who consistently gets views deserves the higher fee. Leagues are set by results.
Diamond custom deals	Available only from Phase 4, for creators with 1,000,000 or more median views, at negotiated rates above the Diamond CPM (assumption; raised from the old 500,000 threshold because that number is now the Diamond league's own floor).	Open to all Diamond creators at the standard Diamond CPM.	The very largest creators, judged by median views rather than followers, expect negotiated rates, which do not fit a fixed rate card or the automatic fund split.
Rate card across platforms	One formula on all four platforms: geography base times platform factor times category factor times league factor, so the platform factor (Reels 1.25, TikTok 1.00, Shorts 0.85, X 0.60) is the only source of a platform difference, not a separate rate card per platform.	A wholly separate CPM table for each platform.	One offer, one checklist, one formula. A creator's own audience geography, the platform and the campaign category already adjust expected earnings to their real value, without needing four different rate cards.
Upload length	The app accepts uploads from 15 to 90 seconds. Each checklist preset then narrows that range in its own item 4. Preset A requires 20 to 60 seconds.	One fixed length for every preset.	A wide accepted range keeps the on-device check simple, while each preset can still ask for the length that fits its format.
Sample handling	Brand ships and marks dispatched; creator marks delivered; the deadline clock starts at delivery.	The platform runs shipping.	Shipping is a non-goal at MVP. Starting the clock at delivery protects the creator from slow shipping.
Offers below your league	A creator can switch on offers from lower leagues (default off) and take a lower-league slot at that slot's fee, joining dispatch from wave 2.	Pay the creator's own league fee on a lower-league slot, or do not allow it at all.	The slot's fee keeps the brand's cost tied to the slot it is paying for. Allowing the opt-in helps fill quiet Bronze 2 slots without forcing any creator to take work below their league.
Legal shape	Marketplace (agent) model: the creator supplies the brand, the platform only supplies facilitation, and GST applies to the platform's 20% cut only.	The principal (credits) model: the platform holds the money itself and pays GST on the whole price, the shape dating and hosting apps use for their own coins.	Route holding the brand's fund is what keeps the platform out of being the seller of record. The credits model is rejected entirely; the unspent fund balance is not called a credit, per brief section 34.
Brand inputs (four)	A brand only sets product (a short brief, the destination link, optional promo code and assets), budget (the deposit, minimum $600), audience (described in the brand's own words, for example "US developers," not creator location, and one of the ten V1 categories) and distribution preference ("more posts", "fewer, bigger posts" or "auto"). Everything else, the checklist preset, platforms, formats, the 72-hour deadline and the go-live date, is chosen by the platform with sensible defaults, and can be changed under "advanced options".	The old campaign form, where a brand also chose leagues, tiers, formats, platforms and deadlines directly.	Distribution Club is distribution infrastructure for brands: simple to buy, complex to operate. Four inputs are easy to fill in correctly; a dozen fields invite mistakes and abandoned campaigns.
Leagues internal	Leagues are never shown to a brand. The planner turns budget, audience and distribution preference into a league mix behind the scenes, and the brand sees only expected posts, expected views, and the cost per 1,000 views. The Rate cards page stays as internal documentation.	Showing brands the league table and letting them pick leagues directly, the design used through section 45.	A brand buys distribution outcomes, not a rate card. Hiding leagues removes a confusing choice and stops brands from anchoring on the creator's internal fee.
Fraud and pay integrity	A view is simply what the platform's own count reports for the post; nothing else is counted, and no view is ever excluded from what the brand is shown. On top of the 48-hour hold, pay is withheld or clawed back if a post fails checks: velocity within the creator's normal range, audience geography consistent with the creator's insights, engagement ratio within band, no duplicate or recycled content, no shared account or device fingerprint. Only views reported by the platform's official API are ever paid for or reported to the brand; a view is never excluded, only the pay behind it.	Filtering or excluding suspicious views from what is counted or reported, instead of gating pay only.	Bot traffic runs 20% to 30% in Tier 3 and Tier 4 markets (brief section 46 item 7). These checks are what make "expected views" a number a brand can trust, since pay follows real views, not bot ones.
Outcomes roadmap	Posts, then views, then clicks, then sign-ups, then customers. The MVP reports posts, views and clicks (tracked link, promo code). Phase 3 adds conversion tracking (pixel or postback) and cost per conversion. Phase 4 adds budget optimisation toward the brand's chosen outcome.	Building conversion tracking and budget optimisation into the MVP from the start.	Each outcome depends on the one before it working first. Posts and views can be proven with manual operation; conversions need a brand's pixel or postback, which is a Phase 3 dependency, not an MVP one.
MVP success test	The core loop is proven when a brand deposits $1,000 and, within 14 days, has at least ten posts live and 200,000 to 250,000 views for a US developer audience, with clicks reported (assumption). Manual operation is fine until this is proven; automation follows the proof.	Treating the MVP as done once the app ships, without a stated bar for the core loop actually working.	A concrete, checkable target stops the two-week MVP sprint from drifting into building automation the product has not yet earned.

4. Open questions for the founder

Each question can be answered with yes, no or a number. The answers feed straight back into sections 2 and 3.

4.1 Market

Is 40 eligible creators per audience segment and league the right V1 density threshold, or should it be higher or lower for a niche audience?
Is English-only acceptable until Spanish, Hindi and Portuguese campaigns arrive in Phase 4?
Should the V1 ten categories widen sooner than Phase 4 if density allows, or stay narrow as planned?
Which countries should the founder prioritise first for creator recruitment, now that sign-up is open worldwide from day one?

4.2 Money

Are the geography, platform, category and league factors on Rate cards the right numbers, including the near-flat league factor (1.00 up to Silver 2, 1.05 Gold 1 and 2, 1.10 Ruby and Diamond)?
Is a 20% platform cut of every deposit the right rate?
Is $600 the right minimum fund?
Is $10,000 of deposits in a calendar month the right threshold for the volume-pricing addition to start automatically, or should it be higher or lower?
Is 5% the right volume-pricing addition and 35% the right managed-campaign cut?
Will brands accept that deposits are never refunded and unspent balance only carries to future campaigns, and does the payments partner accept that flow?
Should instant payout at a 2% fee wait until Phase 4?
For a creator in a country neither payout rail can reach yet, should the payout be held until a rail exists, or handled another way?

4.3 Product

Do you accept creator-posted mode at MVP, with the platform verifying the posted link, and automatic posting per platform added later once each publishing permission is approved?
How many creators will change the caption or the file before posting the approved package, rather than posting it exactly as approved?
Is a 20% floor at publish right, or should it be a larger or smaller share of expected earnings?
Is letting brands rewrite 3 of the 10 checklist items enough control at MVP?
Do you agree there is no brand-to-creator chat at MVP?
Do you agree there is no public gig board at MVP?
Should sample logistics stay limited to address sharing and a delivered confirmation?
Is an optional go-live date enough, or do brands also need a time of day?

4.4 Legal and finance

Does the Indian entity already exist today, and if not, has incorporation started?
Does the entity already have a bank account, or is that still to open alongside incorporation?
Is Razorpay Route approvable inside the two-week MVP sprint, or should the RazorpayX fallback be assumed from the start?
Can an Indian entity act as the payer of record for Payoneer Mass Payouts, and has that been asked of Payoneer directly?
Has a lawyer confirmed whether Distribution Club needs any registration of its own beyond Razorpay's aggregator licence?
Do you accept that creators and brands both contract only with the platform, never with each other?
Do you accept that "#ad" and the paid-partnership label are added automatically and cannot be removed by the creator?
Is there a chartered accountant who can confirm the TDS section for Indian creator payouts, the GST treatment on the platform's 20% cut, and the Letter of Undertaking for export zero-rating?

4.5 Solo founder and working capital

Is about $25,000 to $35,000 enough working capital to cover the worst dip in the Scenarios model, given the founder's own personal runway?
Is submissions passing about 100 a day the right trigger for the first hire, an ops reviewer, or should it be higher or lower?
Is "monthly profit covers the salary for three months" the right trigger for the second hire, an engineer, or should it be a different test?

4.6 Competitors

Do you know anything about Content Rewards or SideShift beyond their public pages?
Are there other competitors that should be in the comparison, and how many?

5. Decisions deliberately deferred

Some features were left out on purpose. Leaving them out is not a judgement on their value; it is about what one founder can ship by 22 January 2027. Dates for each phase are on the Timeline page.

LinkedIn and Facebook Reels: Phase 4. Each platform is another API audit, another posting integration and another view metric. Applications for the first four already go in during the MVP sprint, even though none of the four sit on the two-week critical path.
Clipping preset (Preset F): Phase 3, at the public launch, not Phase 2. Clipping uses brand-provided footage, so the "all footage is original" item and the duplicate-video check need a different rule first.
Custom checklists: Phase 3. At MVP brands can rewrite up to 3 of items 1, 2, 3 and 5 with their own text. Items 4, 6, 7, 8, 9 and 10 are standard and cannot be changed at MVP. The founder's manual review, and later the automated scoring built in the build-out, both learn one fixed structure first.
Instant payout: Phase 4, at a 2% fee. It needs the payments partner's instant payout product and a fraud hold proven on real gigs.
Managed campaigns: Phase 4, priced per campaign with the platform keeping a 35% cut instead of 20%, with no monthly fee. A campaign manager from ops who writes briefs is a service business, and at MVP ops has no spare hours.
Agencies: Phase 4. Multi-brand accounts, seats and billing add a layer a single brand does not need. An agency can act as one brand at MVP.
Diamond custom deals: Phase 4; available to Diamond creators with 1,000,000 or more median views (assumption). Custom rates do not fit the rate card or the automatic fund split.
Holding customer money ourselves: Not before Phase 4, and only if the payments partner's fees ever justify the cost of licensing it ourselves. A licensed marketplace partner already holds the money, moves it only as we instruct, and lets us see every balance, which is what the product needs today.
Non-English product languages: Phase 4: Spanish, Hindi and Portuguese. The brief, the checklist, transcription and review all run in English first.
Extra local payout rails: Phase 4: rails such as UPI in India and Pix in Brazil, added through the payments partner once volume from those countries justifies them, on top of the second payout rail added in the Phase 1 build-out. India itself is not deferred: creators and brands there can join from day one under the worldwide rules in 2.2, on whichever of the two payout rails already reaches them.
Merchant-of-record payment tools (for example Dodo Payments, Paddle, Lemon Squeezy): Not deferred, ruled out. These services were considered for the fund flow but cannot be used, because a merchant of record bills and pays out on its own behalf, not on behalf of a marketplace passing funds to a third party. Dodo Payments' own merchant acceptance policy, for example, excludes marketplaces, multi-vendor platforms and "taking funds and forwarding them elsewhere", and its payouts go only to the merchant itself, never to a creator. Brands never pay a subscription to Distribution Club, so there is not even a bill a merchant-of-record service could take on; it has no role at all. See the Payments page for the marketplace payments product used instead.
Brand ratings in the creator score: Phase 3, at 10% weight inside the quality part of the creator score, alongside first-pass approval rate at 20%, so quality still totals 30%. Brands rate posts 1 to 5 from the start, but the rating only feeds the score once Phase 3 begins and there is enough volume to be fair.
API for agencies: Phase 4. There are no agencies before then, and an API freezes the data model, which should settle during Phase 3.
Preset C, "Restaurant or store visit," and city targeting (later: local distribution): Moved out of V1 on 5 September 2026 (brief section 50 item 4) to "later: local distribution," reopening in Phase 4 at the earliest, once V1's audience-based density model is proven (assumption; see 2.16).
The 21-category roadmap beyond the ten V1 categories: Phase 4. V1 accepts only AI tools, SaaS and web apps, developer tools, productivity apps, fitness apps, health apps, lifestyle apps, education apps, kids apps and games; the remaining 11 categories on Rate cards open once V1 density is proven (assumption; see 2.16).

6. What to validate as early as possible

The earlier plan set aside a longer Phase 0 for 30 creator interviews and 15 brand interviews before building anything. The two-week MVP sprint (7 to 20 September 2026) is now spent entirely on building and incorporating, with no separate interview phase (brief section 28), so these questions are validated informally, alongside the build and through the first dogfood and pilot-brand gigs from day 13 of the sprint, rather than in a dedicated research phase (assumption). The questions below test the assumptions on this page.

6.1 Ten questions for creators

Would you post an approved package, exactly as reviewed with "#ad" and the paid-partnership label already in place, on your own account within 24 hours of approval?
If an offer arrived during your availability hours, how fast would you answer it, and is a 30-minute expiry fair?
Is $62.50 (Bronze 2, at a typical median, Tier 1 audience, Reels, a V1 category) or $393.75 (Gold 1, at a typical median, Tier 1 audience, Reels, a V1 category) fair expected earnings for one 30-second video, when 20% is paid on publishing and the rest depends on views?
Would you rather have more money at publishing and less tied to views, for the same total?
Which days and hours are you usually free to film and post?
Which platform would you connect first: Instagram Reels, YouTube Shorts, TikTok or X?
Is 72 hours from accepting to submitting enough time?
Is a monthly payout on the 1st acceptable, or would you pay 2% to get money sooner?
Have you done paid clipping or UGC bounty work before, and what did you dislike about it?
Would you keep a sponsored post live for 90 days?

6.2 Ten questions for brands

Would you deposit the whole fund, knowing 20% of it becomes our revenue at once, before any gig starts?
Is a 10-item checklist, with 3 items you can rewrite, enough control over what gets made?
Would you skip reviewing posts yourself and trust platform review?
What time from funding to the first post live is acceptable: 24 hours, 72 hours or a week?
Which creator leagues would you want: Bronze 2, Gold 1 or Diamond?
Is a 20% platform fee taken from every deposit at once acceptable?
Is $600 the right minimum fund, or would you start smaller or larger?
Would you pay 50% of the gig fee extra for 12 months of paid usage rights?
Do your campaigns need product samples shipped to creators?
Which platforms matter most to you: Instagram Reels, YouTube Shorts, TikTok or X?

7. Change log

Every change to an assumption on this page is recorded here. Each row records what was decided at that moment, not what stands now: where a later row changes the same thing, the earlier row describes a version that has since been withdrawn, and the rules in force are the ones in sections 1 to 3.

Date	Version	Change
4 September 2026	Draft v0.1	First draft. Platforms set to X, YouTube Shorts, Instagram Reels and TikTok. Dogfooding strategy added. First market set to the United States as a result of the platform set.
4 September 2026	Draft v0.1	Brief clarifications added after the first drafts, binding for every page: the definition of an active gig for the 3-active-gig limit; the Expired state (missed deadline) versus the Cancelled state (second review failure or ops action), and which one lowers which score; which checklist items brands can edit (only 1, 2, 3 and 5, up to 3 of them); the rule for a sample that never ships (ops alerted at 5 days, gig cancelled with no score change at 7 days); the brand rating's 10% weight inside the 30% quality score; the retry rule for a failed posting API call (every 15 minutes for up to 6 hours, then ops and the creator are alerted, with no deadline or score effect); the offer notification delivery rule (push first, SMS if unopened after 10 minutes, a reminder 5 minutes before expiry); the 180-day video retention rule; and the account deletion rule (Available balance paid at the next payout, everything else removed within 30 days).
4 September 2026	Draft v0.1	Reviewer comments applied: global launch instead of US-first, Google and Apple sign-in, Payments page added, wording fixes on the Product spec page.
4 September 2026	Draft v0.1	Added: higher-league creators can opt in to lower-league offers at the slot fee, from wave 2.
4 September 2026	Draft v0.1	Second round of reviewer comments applied: leagues by median views replace follower tiers; all-in brand prices with the margin kept internal; creator-posted mode with a link check at MVP and automatic posting later; adaptive wave size; explanation of why the platform does not hold customer money; Competitors page weaknesses reworded.
4 September 2026	Draft v0.1	Third round of reviewer comments applied: two-week MVP as a web app with manual operations; Indian entity and Indian payment rails; founder review at MVP; three content formats; merchant-of-record tax handling limited to the subscription.
4 September 2026	Draft v0.1	Fourth round of reviewer comments applied: no subscriptions; volume pricing and per-campaign managed markup replace the plans.
4 September 2026	Draft v0.1	Fifth round: marketplace model with GST on the margin only; Route is a launch blocker; credits model rejected entirely, including as the dashboard word for fund balance.
4 September 2026	Draft v0.1	Sixth round: solo founder through 2027, hires by trigger; Scenarios re-run with no salaries and no dogfood spend.
4 September 2026	Draft v0.1	Seventh round: the platform's cut is 20% of the brand price and creators get 80%; prices $25 to $375 by league; volume pricing is a 5% rebate above $10,000 a month.
4 September 2026	Draft v0.1	Eighth round: brand side is outcome-only (price per gig, expected views, posts, views, clicks); tracked short links and promo codes added; creator fee and platform cut are internal only.
4 September 2026	Draft v0.1	Ninth round: the platform's 20% is taken from every deposit at once and never refunded; the remaining 80% is the creator pool; the term brand price is retired.
4 September 2026	Draft v0.1	Tenth round: review cost held at $1.00 per gig; collection and payout costs set from Cashfree and Payoneer published rates (blended 1.1% and $0.15 per gig).
4 September 2026	Draft v0.1	Eleventh round: creator pay is CPM-based by league with a floor at publish and a cap per post; fixed fees and the five milestones withdrawn; eligibility raised to a 5,000-view median and leagues re-cut.
5 September 2026	Draft v0.1	Twelfth round: eight leagues; CPM set by audience geography, platform, category and league with a nearly flat league factor; maximum payout is the creator's median views times the CPM unless the brand adds a bonus; Rate cards page added.
5 September 2026	Draft v0.1	Thirteenth round: base CPMs and platform factors adjusted to 2026 benchmarks (Tier 1 $2.50, Tier 3 $0.65, TikTok 1.00, Shorts 0.85); examples recomputed.
5 September 2026	Draft v0.1	Fourteenth round: what a gig takes from the fund includes a $2 running cost, so the platform's 20% is net margin; the minimum-expected-pay idea is withdrawn.
5 September 2026	Draft v0.1	Fifteenth round: the ten grouped categories split into 21 individual categories with factors from 2026 niche CPM data.
5 September 2026	Draft v0.1	Sixteenth round: peer review applied: positioned as distribution infrastructure; brand campaign creation reduced to product, budget, audience and distribution preference; leagues internal; fraud and pay integrity defined; outcomes roadmap; MVP success test and payment-flow validation; start-narrow scope recorded as a proposal.
5 September 2026	Draft v0.1	Seventeenth round: V1 scope decided, resolving the start-narrow proposal. V1 customers are indie developers, indie hackers and small SaaS companies. V1 campaigns accept only four categories (AI tools, SaaS and web apps, developer tools, productivity apps), all at factor 1.6. Brands describe an audience rather than picking creator location; no city targeting in V1, Preset C and the countries-and-cities filter move to "later: local distribution"; the density rule becomes 40 eligible creators per audience segment and league. All four platforms stay available. The long-term product statement and the views-to-outcomes roadmap are restated on the Overview and Rollout plan. The planner's expected range is set at 80% to 100% of matched creators' expected views. The Scenarios model gets a V1 mix and a niche-volume sensitivity at 4,000 gigs a month. The MVP success test is restated as a range, 200,000 to 250,000 views for a US developer audience. The running example changes from Acme Cold Brew to Acme Notes, a developer note-taking app.
14 September 2026	Draft v0.1	V1 scope widened: the founder decided V1 now accepts ten campaign categories instead of four, adding fitness apps, health apps, lifestyle apps, education apps, kids apps and games to the existing AI tools, SaaS and web apps, developer tools and productivity apps. All ten stay at the same "Software, apps and SaaS" factor of 1.6 (assumption; retune with data once category-level data exists). The V1 customer description and the 21-category roadmap are unchanged.
19 September 2026	Draft v0.1	No refunds: deposits are never returned; unspent creator pool stays as the brand's fund balance for its next campaign. The 90-day refund window is withdrawn across Product spec, How it works, Business model, Payments, Scenarios, Math, Competitors, Rollout plan, Dependencies and Challenges.