We're excited to introduce Bearstore for independent teachers

For many video creators, the main source of funding comes from video sponsorships and brand deals. In most cases, we think this makes a lot of sense, but for various reasons, this model might feel misaligned with the goals of your channel.

The idea is that when people who get value out of the videos pay for them directly, you can maintain high quality while avoiding mixed incentives. Paywalls would defeat the point of having openly accessible lessons for all, so instead things work based on some people choosing to pay, and getting a few perks in the process, while the vast majority of viewers don't need to pay to get all the lessons.

It's hard to overstate how liberating it is when the only factor influencing the choice of what project to pursue is whether people will find the project itself valuable. It makes it much easier to justify making videos that you know will reach fewer people, but which hopefully are very useful to the people it does reach.

If you're uncomfortable with monthly support, there's also a one-time contribution feature. Just know that the Bearstore page is where all supporter benefits, like early releases, are organized and published, and that monthly support is most helpful for planning future projects.

Direct, optional support really is the best incentive alignment we can see for content creation. Even with something like a book, where people have to decide they value it to buy it, that decision is made before actually consuming the content and making the judgment for value. With a culture like the one Bearstore wants to create, money only ever flows in a response to the core content itself.