Exly is one of India's leading creator economy platforms — a SaaS product used by over 100,000 coaches, educators, and content creators to run their online businesses. By the time I joined, the platform was mature, the user base was large, and the product was loved. But the revenue model had a ceiling baked in.
Subscription SaaS for creators tops out. The best way to grow alongside creators — and generate far more revenue per user — is to participate in their success. I identified this opportunity and pitched what became the Creator Incubation Model: Exly would select high-potential creators, invest in building their business, and take a revenue share on the GMV they generate.
I built this vertical from scratch. That meant designing the creator selection process, the GTM framework for the incubation program, the operational systems for onboarding and supporting creators, and the CxO-level collaboration needed to get a new business unit funded and resourced inside an existing SaaS company.
In 18 months, the Creator Incubation vertical generated ₹10 Crore in GMV — a completely net-new revenue stream for Exly that didn't cannibalise the core SaaS business. More importantly, it validated a model that could scale 10x from where it started: a revenue-share engine aligned with the very creators it was designed to serve.