This story was originally published on Passionfruit.
We’re sitting down with leaders on the business side of the creator economy to get their best advice for creators looking to launch and develop their careers. This week, we spoke with Aron Levin, the chief marketing officer and co-founder of Willa.
Willa is a fintech company founded in 2019, which allows creators and freelancers on its app to cash out early—for a fee—from “Net 30+” contracts with agencies and brands. Net 30, 60, and 90 brand deals are common in the creator-brand partnership landscape, and require brands to pay creators 30, 60, or 90 days after sponsored ad work is completed.
Willa also recently launched a debit card, which comes with a certified public account to complete a card holder’s 2022 income taxes—so long as they spend over $10,000 on the card in 2022 and qualify as a “sole proprietor, LLC, partnership or corporation.”
In addition to its financial services, the company recently launched a controversial airline which allowed a select group of creators to fly for free to Coachella in a luxury private plane—including complimentary post-trip IV drips, a “detox” juice bar, and a “champagne breakfast equipped with adaptogenic beverages,” according to the Willa Air website.
In an interview with Passionfruit, Levin discussed his experience in the influencer marketing world, how it informed the creation of Willa, the downsides of Net 30+ payments, his advice for creators raising rates amid inflation, and more.
Willa was founded by four tech gurus—chief executive officer Kristofer Sommedstad, chief product officer Peter Blom, chief technology officer Stefan Pettersson, and chief marketing officer Aron Levin. Three of the co-founders—Sommedstad, Blom, and Levin—worked at Spotify in its early days. Another three—Blom, Pettersson, and Levin—co-founded an influencer marketing company called Relatable back in 2016. Relatable worked with high-profile brands like Adobe, Spotify, Uber, Samsung, and Lego. It was eventually acquired by tech company Bambuser in 2021.
Levin told Passionfruit his time at Relatable greatly informed the founding of Willa—as he and his co-founders knew first-hand that creators and freelancers were struggling to get payments from brands in a timely manner.
