Introducing Ghost Knowledge – a startupy.world drop

Knowledge from the people that don't write enough

Hi, I’m Sari Azout and this is the the 61st edition of Check your Pulse, a tech and startups newsletter designed to make you feel human.

Hello, hello!

Last year, when I decided to take a step back from the consulting world, I made a promise to myself: I was going to use my expanded brain real estate to build cool, creative, values-aligned Internet experiments.

Today, I’m excited to launch Ghost Knowledge, a 1-week crowdfunding experiment to get the people who don’t normally write online to share their knowledge. 👻 🧠

---

Why does this matter?

Human evolution can be seen through the lens of publishing advancements; from oral language and the printing press, to ad-funded Internet writing.

Recently, subscription media has made great strides, with Substack popularizing newsletter subscriptions as the dominant business model for writing online.

But the paid newsletter model only works for a certain kind of writer – one that wants to primarily dedicate themselves to sharing their ideas online, consistently. The model doesn’t work for the inspired one-timer, busy founder, or expert practitioner that doesn’t want the pressure to publish often.

Sari Azout @sariazout

It's crazy to think that 99% of the content we consume comes from people in the business of commenting, complaining, and hot takes, NOT from people in the business of making, creating, or fixing things.

There's a leaky pipeline of knowledge from expert communities to the outside world – too much knowledge remains locked behind in emails and private exchanges or behind company walls. 

We call this “ghost knowledge”.

---

How does Ghost Knowledge work?

Ghost Knowledge was created to experiment with a new way to fund quality, one-off writing that’s not part of a subscription or newsletter. How does it work? SIMPLE.

1. Submit an idea for an essay you’d want to read along with whom you'd want the author to be OR support other people's requests.

2. Pledge $ to the crowdfund.

3. If the crowdfund meets a minimum of $500, we reach out to the author. If the author agrees to write the piece, we’ll reach out to collect your payment. 

❤️ Oh, and if you’re the original requester, you get 10% of the proceeds of the crowdfund – a fun experiment in shared upside!

What’s in it for…

Authors
A path to being paid for one-off work that's not part of a subscription or newsletter, and that remains a public good (no paywall).

Patrons
Access to insights from people that don’t normally share their knowledge + the social and utilitarian benefits of supporting the creators you believe in. 

Everyone else
Knowledge without paywalls.

---

As a bootstrapped project, there are a lot of things on our wishlist we couldn’t get to. But constraints breed creativity and many hours deep in the Airtable and Zapier forums later, we are proud preachers of the no-code gospel.

What a time to be alive! What a time to be making things online!

---

If you’re feeling the Ghost Knowledge vibe and believe in what the small and mighty Startupy crew is doing, here’s how you can help 👇

Cheers to a world with fewer, better content 👊
Cheers to making the Internet a more delightful place 👊
And cheers to normalizing Zoom meetings with your camera off 👊

A million times, thank you!
Sari ✌️

David Perell @david_perell

Think of all the knowledge that isn’t shared because people think that all their best ideas have been written down before and they have nothing new to contribute

This newsletter is free but not cheap. I don’t expect you to pay me anything, but if you’re feeling extra thankful, my venmo is @sari-azout

If you’re wondering who’s behind this newsletter:

My name is Sari Azout. I am a design-thinker, strategist, early stage startup investor at Level Ventures, and founder of Startupy. My mission is to bring more humanity and creativity to technology and business.

Want more?

Follow me on Twitter and Instagram. Or get access to my second brain. 🧠

Thanks for being here!