FanHero (YC S13) Helps YouTubers Sell Branded Merch To Their Fans

techcrunch.com

43 points·imkevinxu··7 comments

This looks really cool. I spend a lot of time on YouTube and most of the more popular YouTubers eventually start selling t-shirts or some kind merchandise through sites like Shopify or CafePress. The "pay what you want" option and fan spending leaderboard are interesting features. But at the core, it still looks like another shop creator site. So what makes FanHero different? Is it purely a marketing play to appeal to sellers with a fanbase?

Thanks for the thoughts, founder of FanHero here. A merch store is just the beginning, it was the most easy-to-understand value proposition for a lot of YouTubers but our bigger goal is to disrupt the monetization tools that old Hollywood has held a tight grip on (merch, promotions, sponsors, etc.)

We intend for this to act more like a fan club in the future closing the gap between creator and fan even closer.

How does this differentiate from YouTubers selling their gear on existing online stores like bigcartel, cafepress, zazzle, etc? Not sure there's much you could offer on the basic premise of selling shirts with a logo on them.

Many youtubers also already have existing partnerships with brands that they hawk in the descriptions and by actually wearing them in the videos.

Congrats Kevin and Charlie! Awesome idea

They might as well jump on Twitch.tv as well, it applies just as much there. Rabid Twitch fans will donate $100 to some streams just so the streamer mentions their name live. It makes me wonder how many of them are kids who took mommy's credit card.

We've seen one Twitch fan pay $2889.51 to MaximusBlack to be the top donator of the month, ridiculous stuff

Great product from an amazing team! Best wishes, you guys.

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