The creator economy has exploded. In 2024 alone, it was valued at more than $200 billion, and analysts expect it to nearly quadruple by 2032, according to a new report. Full-time digital creators in the U.S. grew from around 200,000 in 2020 to 1.5 million in 2024, a whopping 7.5-fold increase. Millions more create part-time or earn side income.
Traditional platforms designed to discover talent — like TikTok, YouTube, Twitch — and newer apps such as Patreon and OnlyFans are fueling that growth. They let creators skip gatekeepers and allow fans to consume, reward, engage, and sometimes even own a piece of what they love. Yet many of these platforms still treat creators as vendors, and not partners.
For creators, brand partnerships dominate income via sponsorships, brand deals, and product collaborations. This now makes up the majority of their earnings.
This is the world Chris Arakelian stepped into when she founded YouBallin. As CEO of YouBallin, she’s using her expertise and experience to redefine digital participation, betting that the future of entertainment isn’t about passive views but shared value.
Arakelian has spent three decades helping the world’s biggest brands find their voice. From Uber, Instacart, andGillette Venus to Wild Turkey, her fingerprints are on products that have shaped modern culture. With a background spanning design, brand strategy, and growth leadership, she knows how to build brands that last.
This conversation unpacks the spark that launched YouBallin, the business model that sustains it, how she and her team are reimagining engagement, and what it takes to build a platform where all win.
1. Take me back to the beginning. What was the spark or moment that led you to create YouBallin, and what problem did you see in the market that others overlooked?
The spark came from watching how fans behave in real time — they don’t just want to watch, they want to decide. Whether it’s a rap battle, a pickup game, or a viral dance, fans were already debating outcomes in the comments, but nobody had built a platform where that engagement was the engine of value.
Traditional platforms gave likes and views, but no real ownership. The overlooked gap was participation with upside. YouBallin was born to fill it by turning fans from spectators into decision-makers and giving talent and brands a more authentic way to connect.
2. Many startups experiment with business models before they find the right one. How did YouBallin land on its revenue strategy, and what makes it sustainable?
We tested everything — ticketing, sponsorships, subscription layers. The breakthrough was when the team mapped what we now call the “YouBallin square.” Fans want access and ownership, while Talent wants direct upside without middlemen. Brands need measurable, high-trust engagement, and Legends want a way to activate their influence authentically.
With my team of Lexie Kier leading brand and growth, Patrick Heinz shaping product mechanics, Muhannad grounding it in market reality, and myself applying my brand and design expertise, we built a revenue model around digital events, tokenized rewards, brand activations, and fractional ownership. It’s sustainable because each side extracts more value than they put in.
3. The entertainment industry has been going through massive disruption. How did those shifts shape your early decisions around product design and monetization?
Streaming, TikTok, and now AI have blown up the traditional entertainment industry. For us, that wasn’t a threat — it was a blueprint. Muhannad had already seen the cracks as a brand operator, and I had been inside global agencies watching how brands struggled to cut through authentically. Patrick designed the product so creators and fans could capture value directly, while Lexie built the brand strategy and growth playbook to position us in culture. From day one, we focused on ownership, transparency, and community as the true currencies of this new era.
4. YouBallin operates in a crowded space where creators, fans, and brands are constantly searching for value. How do you differentiate the platform while keeping the business model attractive to all three groups?
Our differentiation comes down to alignment. Fans don’t just watch, they decide outcomes and share in rewards. Talent isn’t buried by algorithms, they monetize directly. Brands don’t buy impressions, they plug into communities with proven engagement. Legends don’t risk diluting their brand, they scale their influence in a measurable way. By keeping all four sides of the square balanced, YouBallin stands out in a crowded field. Each founder brought a piece of that puzzle: Lexie’s brand and growth strategy, Patrick’s product design, Chris’s brand and design insight, and Muhannad’s FMCG and market expertise.
5. Startup life often involves both scrappy improvisation and calculated risk. Can you share a pivotal moment where you had to make a tough financial or strategic choice that defined YouBallin’s path?
One pivotal moment was committing to tokenized rewards at a time when the crypto market was shaky and advice from some corners was “stay away.” Playing it safe would’ve made us look like another events or content app. Instead, we leaned into the harder path because real ownership was non-negotiable. That decision, to center rewards and fractionalized assets, has become one of the reasons fans, talent, and legends choose us. It was a risk, but it defined the DNA of the company.
6. Looking ahead, what’s next for YouBallin?
The next chapter is scale. We’re expanding across sports and music, onboarding bigger legends, and deepening global brand partnerships. Each of us has a role to play in that: Lexie Kier leading brand growth, Patrick Heinz scaling product, Chris Arakelian applying her brand and design expertise at scale, and Muhannad Akrin opening markets. But the bigger picture is proving the square at scale — more fans earning, more talent monetizing, more brands seeing ROI, more legends activated. That’s the future we’re building.
Safaque Kagdi is an Independent Publicist and Freelance Journalist with more than a decade of experience covering startups, entrepreneurship, leadership, business and the creative economy. A member of the Grit Daily Leadership Network and the Online News Association, she has spent 12 years helping founders and creatives tell their stories. In 2018, Silicon India magazine named her one of the Top 10 Women Entrepreneurs.
