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Simon Ellington

Ko-fi - A free and friendly way to receive donations from fans ❤️☕

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If you make art, run a blog, write code or simply want to make some money from your side hustle, Ko-fi.com has already helped people just like you receive $2.2m in direct donations.

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Devon Bradley
Very cool. Super curious what the business model is? How does Ko-fi make money? I know payment processing gets expensive.
Simon Ellington
Maker
@dbradleyfl thanks for your interest in Ko-fi. We don’t process the payments in ko-fi we simply pass the supporter to the creators PayPal account and they directly receive the funds. We have our own ko-fi page and both creators and supporters regularly donate to us for the service. I think they call it ‘eating your own dog food’ - either way we are super grateful for the donations we receive to support the service
Abadesi
Great to see you here @simonellington @nigelpickles could you tell us more about the story behind this project? 🙂
Simon Ellington
Maker
@nigelpickles @abadesi Absolutely, more than happy to share the story. About 6 years ago Nigel the original founder of Ko-fi.com was interested in how appreciation gets shown differently online vs offline. In the offline world a show of appreciation might see somebody say 'I'll buy you a coffee'. This form of appreciation is small, but tangible. It's human and relationship building, whereas a 'like' or a 'tweet' can still feel a little impersonal and likely less valuable to the recipient (both emotionally and financially). Ko-fi.com was born as an idea to help the large majority of creators on the web connect with their supporters in a more meaningful and personal way. The idea caught on fast and now over 100k creators use Ko-fi as a way to connect with fans who leave messages, contribute to the financial goals of the creator and can feel much closer to the people and the content they appreciate on the web. The service started as simply a 'buy me a coffee' button for users to place on their Tumblr sites and other places arount the web and has grown through user requests to much more than that. Users can set goals, receive messages, reward fans and we have lots planned for 2018 and beyond.
Abadesi
@nigelpickles @simonellington I love this, I have so many friends who are creators who struggle to make ends meet... I'm often sad that our world doesn't optimize for good or creative pursuits. Ko-fi helps solve that 🙂 ☕️ 💰
Simon Ellington
Maker
I couldn't have said it better myself @abadesi ko-fi is all about supporing the 99%+ creators who need donations and encouragement to help them continue their work. Glad you are a fan!
Viktor Hanacek
This is nice! I have free stock photo site and this is what I'm looking for! Goals, comments, no fees & simplicity.
Simon Ellington
Maker
@viktorhanacek we look forward to welcoming you!
Viktor Hanacek
@simonellington DONE! https://www.ko-fi.com/picjumbo It looks people like it. Also shared some feedback via Google Forms ;) And it looks like the Top Supporters box doesn't work, it's just three latest supporters. Good luck!
Nigel Pickles
Maker
@viktorhanacek Amazing! Thank you for the kind words. Glad you like it! And congratulations on receiving so many donations so quickly! We will read through your feedback. We are working on improving every aspect of it. Thanks again and welcome to Ko-fi! ☕❤️
Erni Hdz
Totally free! That’s the real selling point here. Bye bye www.buymeacoffe.com
Joseph Sunny
@erni www.BuyMeACoffee.com is 100% free for all early users :) We plan to charge 5% platform fee sometime down the road to support future development and growth of the platform, as is the case for any healthy business. However, no early users will be charged, ever. 🎉
Germán Castaño
This is a really great idea and a very useful tool to motivate creators to share and to users to help those creators they follow. The business model is very interesting as well.
Simon Ellington
Maker
@germancastano Thank you for your kind words, glad to have you as a fan!
Oumaima Bouassami

This platform is the best way to make us work it's a support and motivation thank you

Pros:

Loving ko-fi

Cons:

Nothing right now

Ion Prodan
Thank you for this platform, that's what I looking for! Very nice.
Nigel Pickles
Maker
@ionprodan Happy to hear that, Ion. Welcome to Ko-fi! 🙂 ☕️
Simon Ellington
Maker
Hi Everyone, Simon from Ko-fi.com here. I really hope you like ko-fi.com. We have been working hard to create a fee-free way for creators to receive money to support their work for many years now. Check out some trending creators https://ko-fi.com/home/trending
Flatline Koopa

Awesome microdonation platform based in the "coffee tip" concept. Ideal for artists or content creators in general

Pros:

Nice and beautiful microdonation platform

Cons:

Nothing for the moment

i.am.krishnam

I love this idea of gifting a coffee or appreciating someone for their work.

Pros:

Great way to gift a coffee to our friends as well as to those whom we appreciate

Cons:

Nothing as of now.

Krisztina Szerovay

I love the idea: you are not giving / asking for money, instead, you can buy or ask for a nice cup of coffee. It feels so much better to send someone a coffee or ask for coffee to fuel my creativity than just to ask for 3 dollars. Thanks Ko-fi Team!

Pros:

Awesome way to give and ask for support!

Cons:

Nothing

Chun Wee Ping

I just started my ko-fi page - www.ko-fi.com/wpchun. I am a 4th stage cancer patient, hope this will get me some support to fund my art and cancer journey. Do visit my page and enjoy my artworks (hope so):)

Pros:

Very easy to use. Nice page layout.

Cons:

So far, have not found any.

Ismet Osman

I like the design, user experience has been well thought out

Pros:

Quick and simple to use. Great support

Cons:

none for me personally

Kyra
Letting underage girls post nsfw content of themselves without a way to flag it or report it, from what I've seen. Multiple girls ranging from 14-17. Might just be me unable to find out how to flag it, I'm not sure but it's pretty disgusting
B. Colwell
@kyra1 this was my first thought upon encountering the site, was let's see how this becomes pornified for lack of a word. I did not see NSFW by minors, but that is worse than I thought. Ko-fi would definitely need to shut that down or the FBI will. That is straight up child porn. Letting users flag it would be the smart thing to do, but they have bigger legal concerns at that point.
Vinod S

....

Pros:

A free and nicely built platform!

Cons:

Membership for recurring payments!

B. Colwell
I had a problem where I registered a card and was composing a note to sent via $12 donation to a creator, and I put my phone down for a sec and when I came back note was gone. I didn't want note sent and I certainly did not want to be charged if my rough draft had gone through. I looked for a help feature and went to Twitter to send a message to Ko-fi for help. 24 hours later no word. Strange when your Twitter response time is worse than Uber's (legendary for being unreachable for help). I'm not impressed.
Sami-Jo Perruzza
I have friends who use this product, a great idea!
🚀 Pierre-Henry 💡
Looks to be a really great platform! 💫 Well done Simon! 👌
Il Cacciatore di Tool
I'd like to use Ko-fi. Is italian language available or will be available soon?