Our storythe marketplace, not the agency
Trust between brands
and creators, middleman removed.
We built ViewStage so a brand and a creator can make a deal directly — agreed terms, held money, an AI review on every video — without an agency quietly taking a cut nobody gets to see.
№ 02Who built ViewStage
“They don't have to tell you what the deal is actually worth — as long as you agree to your number, they keep the difference.”
A creator who kept getting burned.
Duke has spent eight years on YouTube — hardcore Minecraft “100 Days” runs and a channel past 300,000 subscribers. Brand deals were part of the job. The middle of those deals was the problem.
A payment nearly lost to an agency's own broken link — a month of chasing and a legal threat, for a video that was already live. Notes that arrived as “they want changes,” with no what and no where. Offers that only made sense if, somewhere above him, 20 to 50 percent of what the brand actually paid was staying in the middle2 — a number he was never shown.
So he built the thing he couldn't find: a marketplace where the deal happens between the two people actually in it. The price is agreed in the open, the money is held before filming starts, the review criteria are published — and the fee is printed on the receipt: 5% each side, nothing else.1
Things ViewStage refuses to do
- Take a cut that isn't printed on the receipt both sides see.
- Charge a subscription, a retainer, or a per-seat licence.
- Force scripts — briefs set guardrails, the creative read stays with the creator.
- Make audience size a requirement. There's no follower minimum to join.
№ 03What we set out to fix
Both sides were losing.
For creators
Cuts you never see
A deal gets agreed somewhere above you, and what reaches your account is whatever's left after the middle takes its share.
Payments you have to chase
The video's live, the invoice is sent, and now you wait — emailing for an update on money you already earned.
Revision rounds with no map
Notes relayed through someone who can't say what to fix or where — "they want changes" and nothing more.
For brands
Reach you can't verify
Screenshots and a media kit only tell you so much. The fit between a creator and your campaign is mostly guesswork.
Hours lost to manual review
Every submission watched end to end, checked for disclosure and safety by hand, before anyone decides if it's even usable.
Middlemen between you and the work
The person making your video and the person paying for it rarely speak — so intent gets lost in translation.
№ 04How the pieces fit
Three jobs, no agency.
One loop carries every deal: a brand briefs a campaign with a per-creator budget, matching ranks creators by fit, a creator applies with their rate, the agreed amount is held, the AI screens the video, and approval releases the payment. Three systems do the work — the full loop, step by step, is here.
AI matching
Paired by fit, not by size
The engine ranks creators against a campaign by how well the work fits the brief. Audience size counts, but it's a deliberately capped signal — a bigger channel doesn't simply win.3
AI review
Every video checked first
Before a brand sees it, each submission is screened for FTC disclosure, brand safety, competitor conflicts, sponsor presence, production quality, and the campaign's do's and don'ts.4 Humans make the final call — and when a check fails, the creator sees what, where, and how to fix it.
Payments
Held, then released
The brand sets a per-creator budget, the creator proposes their rate, and the number both sides agree on goes into payment hold before filming. Approval releases it, processed by Stripe.1 No invoicing, no chasing.
We're onboarding in waves — signing up puts you in line.
The fine print (we mean it)
- 1.ViewStage's standard rate is 5% added on the brand's side and 5% deducted on the creator's side of the agreed price — about 10% of a deal combined, all of it disclosed to both parties. Payments and holds are processed by Stripe, and payment-processing costs come out of our share, not yours.
- 2.Duke's lived experience across years of sponsored video — not a market survey. Talent agencies are not required to disclose the value of the underlying deal to the creator, so the share kept in the middle varies and is rarely shown.
- 3.A match score is mostly fit: most of the weight is the semantic and structured match between a campaign and what a creator makes (niche, format, budget, platform). Audience size is a deliberately capped signal — past roughly 500K subscribers a bigger channel stops scoring higher — and is never a requirement to join.
- 4.Automated checks cover FTC disclosure, brand safety, competitor conflicts, sponsor presence, production quality, and the campaign's do's, don'ts, and required hashtags. They set guardrails, not scripts; humans make the final approval call, and a failed check returns the specific findings so the creator can revise and resubmit.