DFTBA, But Make It Infrastructure
A Letter to Hank Green
Dear Hank,
You’ve spent fifteen years proving that creators can build businesses that don’t exploit their audiences. DFTBA, Complexly, the whole nerdfighteria economy — you showed that “Don’t Forget To Be Awesome” could be a business model, not just a slogan.
I’m building something similar, but for everyone. And I think you might want to know about it.
The Problem You’ve Already Solved (For Yourself)
You and John built an ecosystem where:
- Creators keep meaningful ownership of their work
- Audiences are customers, not products
- Success is shared with the people who make it possible
- The mission doesn’t get sacrificed when the money shows up
But you could do that because you had reach, capital, and credibility before you started. Most creators don’t.
The waitress writing songs on her break. The kid making videos in his bedroom. The artist selling prints at conventions. They’re stuck choosing between platforms that extract 30-50% or going alone with no infrastructure at all.
What We Built
Liana Banyan is the infrastructure layer you built for yourselves, but available to everyone from day one.
Cost + 20%. That’s our margin. Not “up to” — exactly. A creator selling a $100 product keeps $83+, not $65-70.
Ownership, not just payment. Every creator earns medallions — blockchain-verified equity in the platform itself. The more you contribute, the more you own. And you can split that ownership with collaborators, mentors, or your community.
No investor capture. There’s no Series A coming that forces us to “find additional revenue opportunities” in our creator base. The users own it.
Why I’m Writing You Specifically
You’ve thought about this more than almost anyone. You’ve talked publicly about creator economics, about platform dependency, about what happens when YouTube changes the algorithm or Patreon changes the terms.
I’d value your scrutiny more than your endorsement. If there’s a flaw in the structure — something that breaks at scale, something I’m not seeing — I’d rather hear it from you than discover it when real people are depending on it.
The Ask
Look at it. The economics are at Cephas.LianaBanyan.org.
Tell me what’s naive. Tell me what’s been tried. Tell me what kills this.
Or if it holds up — tell the creators in your orbit that there might be another option.
DFTBA,
Jonathan Jones Founding Manager, Liana Banyan Corporation November 2025
P.S. — The first 50 medallions are going to people who would never otherwise have access to this kind of opportunity. Bus drivers, waitresses, laborers. Nerdfighteria energy, but starting from scratch.
406-578-1232 Support@LianaBanyan.org