The Announcement That Got Everyone Talking

On January 24, 2025, Substack made headlines with their $20 million Creator Fund—a bold move to attract high-profile creators from other platforms. The tech press called it ambitious. The creator community?

Well, that's where things got interesting.

As founders building EazySites, we watched this unfold with fascination. Not because we're planning our own eight-figure war chest (we're not), but because the creator response revealed something profound about what's broken in the current platform economy and what independent creators actually want.

What the Comments Really Said

We dove deep into the 270+ comments on Substack's announcement, and the sentiment was overwhelmingly clear. This wasn't a celebration, it was frustration:

"Existing creators feel overlooked" - Long-time Substack writers felt like the platform was prioritising flashy new acquisitions over the community that built it.

"New customer bonus syndrome" - Creators compared it to banks offering better deals to new customers while ignoring loyal ones. One called it "a slap in the face."

"Platform identity crisis" - Many worried about Substack shifting from thoughtful writing toward short-form, video-first content to chase TikTok creators.

"Where's our support?" - Instead of million-dollar guarantees for outsiders, existing creators wanted better discovery tools, improved analytics, and help growing their audiences.

The minority who supported the move were drowned out by creators asking a simple question: "What about us?"

The Deeper Problem

Substack's move reveals something fundamental about platform-dependent businesses: you're always one strategic pivot away from irrelevance. When platforms need to pay creators to join instead of building tools they can't live without, it signals that the value proposition isn't strong enough on its own.

Think about the pattern:

Medium pivoted away from individual creators
Twitter/X changed monetisation overnight
YouTube constantly shifts algorithms
TikTok faces regulatory uncertainty

When you build on someone else's platform, you're not building a business—you're building someone else's business.

Building Something Different

This is exactly why we're building EazySites differently. While other platforms play the same extraction game, we're focused on a simple principle: creators should own their racecourse, not just rent space on someone else's track.

Here's what that means in practice:

No Revenue Share: Unlike Substack's 10% cut, we charge a flat monthly rate. Your revenue stays your revenue.

Your Domain, Your Brand: Every EazySite lives on your custom domain. No subdomains, no platform branding you can't control.

Built for Independence: Integrated blog, newsletter, and upcoming monetisation tools—all designed to reduce platform dependency, not increase it.

Constraint as a Feature: Instead of overwhelming you with endless options, we provide structured flexibility that helps you focus on creating and shipping consistently.

The Long Game vs. The Headlines

We'll be honest: we're early. We don't have every feature yet (portable content exports are coming, along with advanced monetisation tools and email capabilities). We don't have Substack's user base or their $20 million marketing budget.

But we have something different: a vision for what the creator economy could look like when platforms serve creators instead of extracting from them.

Right now, we're focused on the fundamentals:

Making it dead simple to launch a professional site
Building tools that encourage consistent publishing
Creating systems that help creators own their audience
Developing features based on actual creator feedback, not boardroom speculation

The Community We're Building

Instead of throwing money at established creators, we're taking a different approach. We believe in supporting the independent creator community, the coaches, consultants, writers, and solopreneurs who are building something meaningful but don't have millions of followers.

Our Community Fund rewards creators for building in public and sharing their journey, not for having existing follower counts. We'd rather invest in creators who believe in what we're building than pay for temporary attention.

Long-term, we're exploring something unique: a creator marketplace where EazySites creators can be discovered without sacrificing their independence. Think less like Substack's centralised feed, more like a curated directory where each creator maintains their own brand and website while benefiting from community discovery.

We'll work closely with our creators to figure out how this works because the best features come from listening to the people actually using your platform, not from trying to copy what worked somewhere else.

What Creators Actually Want

The Substack comments revealed what creators really need:

Better discovery for smaller voices
Tools that help them grow, not just publish
Transparent, predictable pricing
Platforms that invest in creator success, not just headline-grabbing acquisitions
Ownership of their content and audience

These aren't revolutionary requests. They're basic expectations that most platforms have forgotten in their rush to scale.

The Reality Check

We're not naive. Building a platform from scratch is hard. We'll probably need to run ads on the big platforms initially (Google, LinkedIn, Facebook) to get discovered. The irony isn't lost on us—using the attention economy to build something that helps creators escape it.

But that's a means to an end. Our goal is to build a community strong enough that our creators become our best marketing. When you build tools people genuinely love, they tell their friends. When you help creators succeed, they help you grow.

Why This Matters Now

The creator economy is at an inflection point. Platforms are consolidating, algorithms are getting more opaque, and creators are realising that viral growth doesn't always translate to sustainable income.

Meanwhile, there's a growing movement of creators who want something different:

Ownership over virality
Sustainability over scale-at-all-costs
Community over algorithms
Independence over platform dependency

These creators don't need $20 million guarantees. They need tools that work, pricing that's fair, and platforms that grow with them instead of extracting from them.

The Opportunity Ahead

Substack's $20 million bet has created an unexpected gift: thousands of creators actively questioning platform dependency. Every frustrated comment represents someone ready to try something different.

But this isn't about poaching Substack users. It's about serving the creators that platform-first companies consistently overlook: the independent voices building sustainable businesses without chasing viral growth.

What We're Building Toward

Our vision is simple: a platform where creators don't need to be bought because they choose to stay.

For new creators: Start free, publish when ready, scale without platform dependency
For existing creators: Migration tools, no revenue sharing, full ownership of your audience
For everyone: A community that values independence, consistency, and sustainable growth

We're not trying to be the next Substack. We're trying to be the first EazySites—a platform built for creators who want to own their future.

The Bottom Line

Substack's $20 million fund isn't a sign of strength—it's a symptom of a platform economy that's forgotten its purpose. When you have to pay creators to use your platform, you're admitting your value proposition isn't strong enough to earn that loyalty organically.

The real opportunity isn't in competing for the creators Substack is buying. It's in serving the creators they're ignoring: the independent voices who want to build something sustainable without platform dependency.

That's what we're building. Not because we have millions to throw around, but because we believe creators deserve better than digital sharecropping.

The question isn't whether you can afford to own your platform. The question is whether you can afford not to.

Ready to start building something you actually own? EazySites is launching with tools designed for independent creators who value ownership over algorithms. No revenue sharing, no platform dependency—just the foundation you need to build something that's truly yours.

Join our early community and help shape what creator independence looks like.

Why Substack's $20M Creator Fund Misses the Point (And What Independent Creators Actually Need)