The marketplace that turns an audience into a business - storefronts, payments, and communities in one place.
Whop's wordmark in "Whop Orange." The New York company was built by three friends who met, as middle-schoolers, in a Facebook group for reselling sneakers.
Whop is a social commerce platform and online marketplace where creators, influencers, and small businesses sell digital products, memberships, courses, software, and access to private communities - with the payments and the storefront handled for them.
The pitch is deceptively plain: you bring the audience, Whop brings the business. A fitness coach can package a meal plan, a trader can gate a Discord, a designer can sell a course, and a hobbyist can charge for a members-only feed - all without writing code. Behind each of those "whops," as the storefronts are called, sits a stack most solo operators would never build for themselves: subscriptions, installment plans, regional payment methods, dispute handling, fraud checks, affiliate tools, and analytics.
The company reports it has moved $2.67 billion in cumulative sales for its sellers and grown to more than 18 million users. It also makes a bolder claim - that it has minted over 650 millionaires, people who crossed seven figures selling everything from coaching programs and skills courses to meal kits and vitamins. Those numbers are the company's own; the underlying idea, that ordinary people can build real income from what they know, is the thing Whop is really selling.
"The only thing that really matters is: has this person built something? Is it impressive and cool? And if so, then welcome to the team." Steven Schwartz, Co-Founder & CEO
Steven Schwartz and Cameron Zoub met as teenagers in a Facebook group devoted to reselling limited-edition sneakers. Before they were founders, they were the kids writing bots to snap up scarce footwear the moment it dropped, then running an IT agency and a string of other small ventures. When they teamed up with software developer Jack Sharkey in 2021 - the same year Schwartz graduated from NYU's Stern School of Business - the first version of Whop was a niche marketplace for renting out those very bots.
That origin is more than trivia. It explains the company's instincts. Whop's founders came from the world they now sell to: young, digital-native operators turning internet skills into cash. The product reflects a builder's understanding of what that grind actually needs - not a course platform bolted onto a payments processor, but the whole toolkit, tuned for people who move fast and don't want to touch infrastructure.
Whop keeps the engineering surprisingly lean. By its own account, the platform reached a $1.2 billion-plus GMV run rate with roughly 20 engineers - a ratio that says as much about focus as it does about talent.
"The idea that people can have fun while working is very foreign to most people, but has been solved by some. We just want to bring it to the rest." Steven Schwartz
The "Discover" storefront where consumers browse and buy products, communities, and memberships, sending millions of monthly visitors to sellers.
Customizable "whops" that list digital products, gate access, and manage members - launched in minutes, no developer required.
Subscriptions, installments, regional payment methods, dispute handling, and fraud prevention built into every checkout.
Private communities, chat, real-time feeds, live streams, and course hosting with membership-based access controls.
Pays creators and clippers to promote products and campaigns - a pay-per-view marketing channel for discovery.
Enterprise licensing, merchant tools, affiliate programs, analytics, and API integrations for larger sellers and brands.
Whop is a transaction business. It takes a base fee of roughly 3% on direct sales made through a creator's own links, and historically charged a far higher rate - up to 30% - on sales it sourced through its Discover marketplace. In 2025 it cut that marketplace take rate sharply to prioritize gross merchandise volume and pull in more creators, a bet that trust and volume compound faster than a fat fee.
The rest of the revenue comes from the edges: Whop Payments captures margin on currency conversion and fraud protection, paid promotional placements and advertising tools give creators a way to buy visibility, and Whop for Business licenses the infrastructure to larger merchants.
Figures are company-reported or estimated. Bars scaled for illustration, not to a single axis.
Whop's customers are creators, coaches, course sellers, community operators, resellers, and small digital businesses - largely younger, internet-first entrepreneurs who already have an audience and want to charge for it. The problem it solves is the unglamorous gap between attention and income: collecting payments, gating access, handling refunds and chargebacks, and staying discoverable. Most creators have neither the time nor the desire to build that plumbing, and stitching together five separate tools is its own tax.
By folding storefront, payments, community, and a discovery marketplace into one platform, Whop removes the reason to leave. A seller can launch a product, run a members-only community around it, get found by new buyers, and pay affiliates - without ever exporting their audience to someone else's checkout.
Whop sits in a crowded neighborhood - Kajabi, Gumroad, Patreon, Skool, Teachable, and Podia all sell creators a way to make money online. Most of them hand you a branded page and stop there. Whop's distinguishing move is the discovery marketplace: it doesn't just host your store, it can send buyers to it, while also giving you community tools and a large ecosystem of third-party apps in the same platform.
| Platform | Model | Fees (approx.) | Marketplace discovery |
|---|---|---|---|
| Whop | Marketplace + storefront + community | ~3% direct | Yes |
| Kajabi | All-in-one course platform | From ~$71/mo | No |
| Gumroad | Simple digital storefront | ~10% flat | Limited |
| Patreon | Membership / fan support | 8-12% | Limited |
| Skool | Community + courses | Flat monthly | Limited |
Fees and models are approximate and change over time. Compare current terms before choosing a platform.
Steven Schwartz, Cameron Zoub, and Jack Sharkey launch Whop as a marketplace for digital goods, starting with software bots.
Insight Partners leads an early venture round as the digital-products marketplace gains traction.
A $50M round, backed by Peter Thiel and others, values the company at roughly $800 million.
Whop lowers its marketplace take rate to accelerate GMV and attract more creators.
Tether puts in $200M; Whop reports 650+ millionaires minted and $2.67B in lifetime GMV.
$17M led by Insight Partners.
$50M at ~$800M valuation, backed by Peter Thiel and Bain Capital Ventures.
$200M investment at a $1.6B valuation.
Other named backers over time include Kevin O'Leary, Justin Mateen, Justin Kan, The Chainsmokers, and NBA star James Harden - a roster that blends institutional venture money with celebrity and operator angels.
"The future's gonna look like everyone is complete of their own agency, and spending their days doing the work that they find way more fun than what they're doing today."
Steven Schwartz"We look at energy. How fun is it to be with this person? Do you find yourself wanting to spend a lot of time with them?"
Steven Schwartz, on hiringThe founders met as middle-schoolers in a Facebook sneaker-reselling group.
As teens they wrote bots to buy limited-edition footwear.
Whop started as a marketplace for renting out those very bots.
It reached a $1.2B+ GMV run rate with only about 20 engineers.
The brand color is "Whop Orange," a vermilion red-orange.
Backers include James Harden and The Chainsmokers.
Whop is a marketplace and platform where creators and small businesses sell digital products, memberships, courses, software, and access to private communities, with built-in payments and storefronts.
It was founded in 2021 by Steven Schwartz (CEO), Cameron Zoub, and Jack Sharkey (CTO), who met as teenagers in a sneaker-reselling community.
It takes a fee on transactions - roughly 3% on direct sales and historically more on marketplace-sourced sales - plus revenue from payments, promotional placements, and enterprise licensing.
Whop was valued at $1.6 billion in February 2026 after a $200M investment from Tether, up from about $800 million at its 2024 Series B.
Unlike pure storefront or membership tools, Whop pairs owned, customizable storefronts with a discovery marketplace, community features, and a large ecosystem of third-party apps in one platform.