UGC creators

UGC work has a payment problem rather than a content problem. The deliverable is finished, sent, and then the invoice sits for thirty or sixty days — or longer, if the brand’s finance process is slow. The creative work is done; the getting-paid work has barely started. Meanwhile the raw footage that took the most time to shoot is usually handed over for nothing.

A paid link inverts the order. The brand pays, and the files unlock. There is no invoice to chase and no ambiguity about whether access has been granted, and the record of the transaction is the link itself. Raw footage and an exclusivity window become separate lines rather than favours: the first is an add-on the brand often wants later, the second is a period of time, which is exactly what an expiring link prices.

It is not an invoicing system, and brands with procurement processes will still want a purchase order. What it removes is the gap between delivering and being paid, which is where most of the friction in this work actually lives.