Impact
Paid Attention redistributes advertising dollars to the people who actually make ads valuable — the viewers. The digital ad industry generates over $258 billion a year in the US alone, and virtually none of that flows to the people whose attention is being sold. We change that equation.
For viewers, it means getting paid for something they already do. Even modest engagement can add up to meaningful supplemental income — a few dollars a day for watching content you'd watch anyway.
For creators, it means earning significantly more from their audiences. Our model pays creators roughly 25x what Twitch's native ad splits pay per viewer. That's the difference between a hobby and a livelihood for thousands of mid-tier streamers who are currently stuck in the gap between "too small for brand deals" and "too big to ignore."
For advertisers, it means only paying for real human attention — not bots, not background tabs, not ads that technically loaded but nobody saw. Better results, less waste.
And for West Michigan specifically — this is the kind of AI-native, tech-forward company that can grow here. Low overhead, remote-friendly, and built to scale from anywhere.
What I'll do with $5,000
$5,000 funds our first live pilot campaigns with real Twitch creators this spring. Specifically:
First, creator pilot campaigns (~$3,000). We'll run 3-5 paid test campaigns with local and mid-tier Twitch streamers. This means real advertisers, real viewer rewards, real data. These pilots are the single most important thing we need — they prove the unit economics work and give us the numbers to raise real funding.
Second, entity formation and legal basics (~$1,000). We need to incorporate, set up a business bank account, and get basic terms of service in place before we can process real money through the platform. Right now we're a working product with no legal wrapper.
Third, platform infrastructure (~$1,000). Scaling from a proof-of-concept MVP to handling live campaigns requires upgraded hosting, database capacity, and API integrations with Twitch for creator onboarding and viewer tracking.
The goal is straightforward: use the $5,000 to generate the real-world validation data that makes Paid Attention fundable at the next level. Every dollar goes toward proving this works with real users, real creators, and real advertisers.
Quick Bio
Connor Timlowski, founder of Paid Attention. Deloitte finance, $1M+ in creator brand deals at CarterPulse, AI-driven ops experience. Based in Holland, MI.