JellyFi —
Financial Tools
for Creators

The Hook

Creators are running businesses. The tools haven't caught up.

Content creators are running businesses. But the financial infrastructure built for traditional businesses doesn't map well to how creators actually earn: royalties, licensing deals, platform ad revenue, brand partnerships. Variable, sometimes unpredictable, often multi-source income streams.

JellyFi was Jellysmack's bet on fixing that: a suite of financial tools built specifically for the creator economy. My job was to design the product that would help creators find licensing deals, manage the negotiation and signing process, and eventually access financial products built around their catalog's value.

The Problem

A valuable catalog, with no way to navigate what it was worth.

Jellysmack works with thousands of creators whose YouTube catalogs have significant licensing value. But connecting those creators to the right licensing deals — and then closing those deals efficiently — required navigating a complex, information-dense process that had no dedicated product surface.

The existing experience was largely manual and opaque. Creators couldn't easily see which of their videos were eligible for licensing, what deals were available, or what a deal was actually worth. The deal-closing process was fragmented across tools. And there was no financial layer that helped creators turn their catalog value into accessible cash flow.

Before JellyFi: a complex, high-value process managed across disconnected tools with no dedicated product surface.

My Role & Approach

Making complex information navigable without oversimplifying it.

I led design across the full JellyFi product scope: from discovery (how do you find the right deal?) through closing (how do you review and sign?) and into future financial products (what can you do with your catalog's value?).

The central design challenge was making complex information navigable without oversimplifying it. These are real financial transactions with real contract terms. Creators needed to understand what they were agreeing to — but they also needed to be able to move quickly when the right deal appeared.

My approach was to design for progressive disclosure: surface the most relevant signal first (is this deal worth looking at?), then layer in deal detail as the creator moves toward commitment.

The core JellyFi journey: discovery → evaluation → commitment. Progressive disclosure at each stage.

The Work

From deal cards to creator finance.

JellyOffers: Catalog Licensing Marketplace

The primary surface was JellyOffers: a marketplace view that let creators see all available licensing opportunities for their catalog. The key design challenge was surfacing the right deals prominently without burying the rest, since deal quality was highly variable and creators needed to be able to quickly assess fit.

I designed a deal card system that led with the most decision-relevant information (estimated value, content match, deal type) and used progressive disclosure to surface contract details only when the creator was actively evaluating a specific deal.

JellyOffers marketplace: deal cards designed to surface the most decision-relevant information first.

Deal Review & Signing

The deal review flow needed to balance speed with confidence. Creators needed to feel sure about what they were signing: this was a real contract with real revenue implications — while not getting lost in legal language.

I designed a review surface that translated contract terms into plain-language summaries, with the full legal text available but secondary. Status indicators made it clear at each step what was pending, what required action, and what was already settled.

Deal review: contract terms translated into plain language, full text available but secondary.

Creator Card & Savings Account (Concept)

Going further, I explored what a creator-specific financial product could look like: a card with cash back on creator expenses (equipment, editing services, software), a savings account that connected to catalog earnings, and a "JellyFi Connections" hub that surfaced partner offers relevant to a creator's specific business needs.

This work explored how Jellysmack could evolve from a licensing platform into a more complete financial partner for creators.

Concept: a creator-specific financial product suite: card, savings, and partner connections built around catalog earnings.

Impact

A foundation for creator finance at scale.

The JellyFi work demonstrated that financial products designed around how creators actually earn — not how traditional businesses earn — require a fundamentally different product approach. The licensing marketplace gave Jellysmack's BD team a single surface to manage what had been a fragmented, manual process. The financial product concepts established the design direction for where Jellysmack could go next.

What I'd Do Differently

Regulatory awareness earlier saves rework later.