Five months after announcing its creators have collectively earned $9 billion in sales, Kajabi is announcing another milestone: $10 billion. The company’s CEO Ahad Khan isn’t surprised by that exponential growth.
“It’s an indicator that, hopefully, the creator economy in general is strong and thriving,” Khan told TheWrap. “We’re really proud of it, but we think it’s a function of what the platform enables our creators and entrepreneurs to do. Our job is provide great software, provide good service, but if they’re providing real value to their customers, they’ll make money.”
A tech unicorn — the nickname given to a company that’s been valued at over $1 billion — Kajabi offers a solution to the often volatile creator economy. For a monthly fee, the company gives creators the tools and platform to create online courses, coaching, podcasts, email newsletters, personalized communities, mobile apps and landing pages. All of these offerings allow creators to passively make money off of their content, meaning they’re not as beholden to the ever-changing whims of social media algorithms.
“[Social media platforms] are always tweaking the algorithm because their business is actually serving ads and making money off of ads. So they’re constantly going to tweak the algorithm to make sure that the way they make money is optimized. But if you’re a creator and you’re used to a certain rules of the game and that changes, your business can go upside down overnight,” Khan explained. “With Kajabi, you’re able to develop that direct relationship with your audience. You’re not at the whim of an algorithm change as much as you would be if you’re just building on YouTube.”
Since the company’s founding in 2010, nearly 1,800 Kajabi creators have reached millionaire status, and more than 70 creators have crossed the $10 million threshold. One creator even broke the $100 million mark.
But on average, creators using the platform make $190,000. That’s not a shabby salary. Of those Kajabi creators who are in the six-figure range, they often have between 1,000 and 10,000 followers as well as email lists of around 4,000 people and 309 customers paying for digital products. Additionally, more than 75% of Kajabi’s six-figure earners have more than one revenue stream on the platform with many averaging five revenue streams.
It’s a reality that runs counter to the idea you need hundreds of thousands of followers to make a living on social media. But these numbers are consistent with the growing rise of micro-influencers, creators who have between 1,000 and 10,000 followers but incredibly high engagement numbers. This subset of the creator economy is increasingly becoming more responsible for the industry’s overall advertising boom. Micro-influencers are also the ones Khan sees as primality driving this multi-billion dollar sales figure.
“You can have a modest follower count on any social platform, but if you’re able to convert a percentage of those people into customers … hundreds of customers can turn into a $100,000 business,” Khan said. “When you break down the math like that, it doesn’t feel unreachable. It’s a very sustainable way to make a living, if you do it right.”
Part of these big returns have to do with the specific kinds of creators who flock to Kajabi, entrepreneurs in spaces where selling supplementary materials is commonplace. The health and fitness space accounts for the largest share of creator-driven industries on Kajabi, clocking in at $1.6 billion. That’s followed by business and finance as well as personal development, both of which account for $1.4 billion each. But really profitability with Kajabi boils down to each creator’s individual drive.
“People always ask me what’s the secret formula to become a successful creator. I just don’t think there’s one specific formula that actually works,” Khan said. “It really depends on the entrepreneurial essence of what that creator is doing, how well they know the audience and what kind of stuff they put in front of their audience.”
