Yancey Strickler
Yancey Strickler
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About

Hello 👋.

My name is Yancey. I'm a writer and entrepreneur who explores new creative forms. My work spans founding companies, writing books and essays, and creating frameworks that help people see the world differently.

Currently I'm Cofounder and Director of Metalabel, which is establishing new ways for creative people to create value together. I'm also the cofounder of Artist Corporations, a new structure for creative work. Previously I was Cofounder and CEO of Kickstarter, which pioneered crowdfunding and helped creators raise more than $8 billion for their projects. I cofounded The Creative Independent, a resource of emotional and practical guidance for artists. I started eMusic Selects, an early digital-only record label.

My writing explores creativity, systems, and ways of being. My book This Could Be Our Future: A Manifesto for a More Generous World (2019) introduced Bentoism, a framework for widening our scope of self-interest. My essay "The Dark Forest Theory of the Internet" (2019) articulates why we feel afraid to be ourselves online, now also a book, The Dark Forest Anthology of the Internet (2024), with a dozen other writers. On the Creative Life (2025) is a transcription of a dozen interviews between Yancey and artist Joshua Citarella.

Recent writing projects include The Post-Individual (2024), an examination of identity in the internet age, and Nine Creative Meditations (2024), a digital publication sharing personal creative lessons.

My career began as a music critic writing for Pitchfork, Spin, and The Village Voice. I grew up on a farm in Clover Hollow, Virginia, and now live in New York City.

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Yancey Strickler is a writer and entrepreneur who explores new creative forms. He's the Cofounder and Director of Metalabel, which is establishing new ways for creative people to create value together; cofounder of Artist Corporations, a new structure for creative work; cofounder and former CEO of Kickstarter, which pioneered crowdfunding and helped creators raise more than $8 billion for their projects; and cofounder of The Creative Independent, a resource of emotional and practical guidance for artists. He's the author of "This Could Be Our Future: A Manifesto for a More Generous World" (2019); the essay "The Dark Forest Theory of the Internet" (2019), which became a book, "The Dark Forest Anthology of the Internet" (2024), with a dozen other writers; and "On the Creative Life," a book of conversations with artist Joshua Citarella about how we develop our creative practices. His career began as a music critic writing for Pitchfork, Spin, and The Village Voice.