I'm researching the gap between how creators earn and how the financial system treats that income. This page explains what I'm doing and why — and invites you to be part of the conversation.
A YouTube creator earning €8,000 a month consistently for two years walks into a bank. The bank sees irregular deposits from a company called "Google Ireland" — no salary, no employer, no traditional income record — and declines the mortgage application.
This happens constantly, across Europe, across platforms. The problem isn't the creator's income. The problem is that the financial system was built for payslips, not platform earnings.
I want to understand exactly how this plays out in practice — from banking to lending to tax — by talking directly to creators who have lived it. Not to sell them anything. To understand if the problem is as significant as I think it is.
Each conversation is around 20 minutes. Informal, no agenda beyond listening. These are the areas I'm exploring:
Topics covered
There are no right or wrong answers. I'm not testing a product. I genuinely don't know yet what the data will show, and that's the point.
Everyone who participates receives a full summary of the research findings — anonymised and aggregated — once I've completed all 20 conversations. You'll see how your experience compares to peers across Europe, which platforms show the largest income-banking gap, and what patterns emerge around financial access for creators at different income levels.
The conversation stays completely confidential. Your name and specific details will never appear in any summary. I will not add you to any mailing list or contact you again without permission.
I'm Damian — a fintech builder based in the Netherlands. For the past several years I've been building lending, origination, and banking infrastructure for financial institutions across Europe and Southeast Asia.
I know how the financial plumbing works — and I know where it breaks. This research is about understanding whether creators experience those breaks the way I suspect they do, before deciding whether it's worth building something to fix it.
I am not currently running a startup, pitching a product, or looking for investment. This is genuine research, at the earliest possible stage.
A relaxed conversation. No pitch. No product demo. Just an honest exchange about your experience with money as a creator.
Book a time that works for you