In the past few months I’ve been writing on VC Cafe about various aspects of the Creator Economy. From the definition of what is the creator economy and what are its main challenges, who are the creators and how they make money and 5 advancements powering the future of content creation. But underneath all that, there’s a seemingly simple infrastructure challenge that is has become a big opportunity for startups – the link in bio page.
It all starts with identity
Creators come from different walks of life. The can be gamers, models, teachers, performing artists, makers, etc. To share their craft with their audience, they typically create some sort of content/ media – text, video, audio, images, etc. They distribute the content via established Platforms that help them reach and grow an audience such as Twitch, Youtube, Tiktok, SubStack, OnlyFans etc, and more often than not, they build following in more than one of these channels and benefit from cross promotion (i.e. link from TikTok page to Instagram profile).
Several creators have also opted to sell/promote products, which is not always possible on the platforms or incurs a high take rate that they would rather avoid (think Apple’s 30% take on in-app purchases, more on this in my next post).
The fragmentation of media creates a challenge for the creators. What’s “home”? do they care about driving users to a personal website that doesn’t add to their community size or engagement? or would they rather engage with their fans/community on the platforms themselves?
So, where’s the creators ‘Homepage’?
In Oct 2009, during the web 2.0 explosion, when new social networks were popping up on a weekly basis, About.me was launched as a hosting service for personal websites. It was meant to be the ‘online directory’, where users could post a short bio and all the links to their social media profiles: at the time MySpace, Tumblr, Flickr, Google+ and some that fared better with time like Pinterest, Twitter and Facebook.
The rise of Instagram meant that ‘influencers’ built huge audiences on the platform, but links were not clickable in the descriptions and every account was limited to one permanent link on the profile bio. In order to leverage that Instagram fandom to drive purchases, eye balls or build following on other networks, Instagram users started adding “link in bio to read more” as part of their captions.
On Instagram, accounts with 10,000+ followers have the option to share links through their Stories, but others with less following, rely on that single ‘link in bio’ to direct followers to a product page or a piece of content. The same challenge exists on other social platforms like TikTok, ClubHouse, Youtube, Twitch, etc.
Enter Linktree
Linktree, an Australian startup founded in 2016, saw the opportunity to create a custom landing page for that seemingly limited, but hugely valuable single URL space on the Instagram bio page. Linktree essentially transforms a single link to multiple links in a branded environment where brands, influencers and creators can highlight their content, commerce and additional social channels.
“part of the uniqueness of Linktree is its deceptively simple design”
According to one of the co-founders, Alex Zaccaria, Linktree’s site was developed in 6 hours but was bootstrapped and cash flow positive from the very beginning. Linktree operates a freemium model. The basic Linktree product is free, but in April 2017 the company launched PRO accounts, a $6 a month subscription unlocking additional features including commerce suite, analytics, customisation, third party integrations, support and more.
Fast forward to 2021, Linktree has more than 8 million users and raised $45M series B a month ago co-led by Index Ventures and Coatue, less than a year after raising $10M series A from AirTree Ventures and Insight Partners. In the founding announcement on March 26th 2021, Linktree shared that 4 million new users, a third of their total users (12M) signed up within the last three months.
In the words of Zaccaria:
“We started Linktree to solve a problem we thought to be uniquely our own, and quickly learned that not only was it a pain point felt globally, but one that’s escalating as social media further fragments…. We’ve focused on building a product that reduces friction and helps users get their content seen, at the right time and in the right place – something that is arguably more essential now than ever before.”
Bootstrapped and Global from Day One: The Story of Linktree
Competitors Join the Party
Linktree’s rise in popularity didn’t go unnoticed. As social media fragmentation continues to grow, the need for better linking a number of pages to a single person has become more clear. There are several startups competing on becoming the ‘personal identity’ page for the Internet, and for creators in particular.
Some of the more prominent contenders for the coveted “link in bio” real estate:
- Shorby – enables to retarget anyone who clicked on your shared link
- Linkin.bio by later.com – mainly focused on Instagram, closely integrated with Shopify
- Beacons – a mobile website builder for creators on TikTok and Instagram, with e-commerce and monetisation built in. Founded in 2019 and raised $150K according to Crunchbase. SF Based.
- Koji – offers a similar personal page, but developed an ‘app store’ of addons like running a giveaway, sharing music recommendations or allowing fans to request videos. San Diego based, founded in 2016 and started as a meme creator. Venture backed ($16M).
I believe we will continue to see more innovation in the tools available for creators to build and engage their communities. Mighty Networks, a startup founded in 2017 by Gina Bianchini, previously the co-founder on Ning together with Marc Andreessen, offers tools to start and grow niche communities. The company announced a $50M series B earlier this week to help create the “creator middle class” and pivoted to focus on creators, enabling them to offer community memberships, events and live online courses.
In my next post, I’ll dive a bit deeper into the latest innovations in the creator monetisation toolbox.
I'm a former general partner at google ventures, head of Google for Entrepreneurs in Europe and founding head of Campus London, Google's first physical hub for startups.
I'm also the founder of Techbikers, a non-profit bringing together the startup ecosystem on cycling challenges in support of Room to Read. Since inception in 2012 we've built 11 schools and 50 libraries in the developing world.
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