FilterGrade
👤 Mike and Matt Moloney (Two brothers who built a photo-editing blog first; that audience (blog + 195K YouTube views/mo) is what powers the marketplace.)🌐 sitemoloneycreativeagency.comLinkedIn
A marketplace where creators sell Lightroom presets, LUTs and templates to photographers and video editors, since 2013.
Will it work? · our read
Distribution wins. They didn't invent presets — they built the audience first (blog + YouTube), so sellers come to them and they keep half. But traffic leans on Google, and presets now sell anywhere.
01How the money moves
Creators upload presets, LUTs and templates
→
Photographers and editors browse and buy
→
FilterGrade keeps about 50% of each sale
02The numbers
$30K
/mo · self-reported
Starter Story
200K+
customers · all-time
founder
about 2K
active sellers
founder
Then traffic fell hard — organic Google search dropped and presets got easy to sell anywhere. An honest, documented decline, not a straight-up story. starterstory.com
Revenue about $30K/mo (Mike Moloney, Starter Story self-reported) — first-party but not audited, and unclear if gross or net of the 50% seller split. No VC known.
03Weight class — CENTStap an axis
Control Mid
Own the brand, email list and YouTube channel, but traffic leans on Google organic — one algo shift tanked it.
04The key move
Own the demand
Most sellers fight for traffic. FilterGrade flipped it — it built the buyer audience first (blog + YouTube). Creators bring the products; FilterGrade brings the buyers, and keeps 50% of every sale.
fact
The counter-intuitive move
The 50% take looks greedy until you see the trade: sellers get instant buyers and zero marketing. Distribution, not the files, is what they're paying for.
our read
05Where the moat is
Not the presets (they sell everywhere now). It's:
Audience · blog + YouTube (195K views/mo) built firstTwo-sided supply · about 2,000 sellers listingTrust · a curated store, not a random file dumpBrand · 12+ yrs as the go-to preset name
06How it diesmedium confidence
It dies if the audience thins — Google organic keeps sliding, YouTube stalls — while presets become a commodity anyone sells on Gumroad or Etsy. Then the 50% take can't be justified, and sellers go direct. our read
Show evidence · counter
Evidence: Founder reported traffic "declined immensely" from Google search drops, plus it is "now a lot easier to sell digital products online" (fact).
Counter: But 12 yrs of brand, 200K past buyers, an email list and a 2,000-seller catalog give real switching cost — the audience can be rebuilt on video and email.
07Against rivals
Gumroad, Payhip and Etsy are far cheaper — but you supply the buyers. FilterGrade costs half because it hands you a ready photo/video audience. ★You pay for distribution. our read
08Who uses it
📸 Photographers wanting one-click Lightroom looks🎬 Video editors buying LUTs and overlays🎨 Preset makers who want buyers, not just a store📱 Creators grabbing motion-graphics templates
★Would it work for you?
Do you already own an audience in some niche — followers, a blog, a channel — that a marketplace could sit on top of?
FilterGrade's edge was audience first. If you have distribution, you take the bigger cut. We don't score you — you answer.
🚀Use it as a launchpada prompt for your own AI
Copy → paste into your AI → then develop it freely in the conversation.
You are a sharp, honest startup strategist. Use the proven case below as a launchpad for MY idea — help me find my own angle, not copy it.
<my_profile>
Domain I know: [your domain]
My unfair advantage (access/audience): [your edge]
Interests: [your interests]
Resources & goal: [your resources] · [your goal]
</my_profile>
<case name="FilterGrade" model="marketplace">
What it does: a marketplace where creators sell Lightroom presets, LUTs, overlays and templates to photographers and video editors; FilterGrade keeps about 50% of each sale; bootstrapped by 2 brothers since 2013, about $30K/mo, 200K+ customers, about 2,000 sellers
Why it won (moat): the buyer audience they built first (blog + YouTube, 195K views/mo) + brand + a curated catalog — not the presets, which sell anywhere
Weakest axis (CENTS): Entry/Control — presets are easy to sell on Gumroad/Etsy/Payhip, and buyer traffic leans on Google organic (which dropped)
How it could die: buyer audience thins (Google/YouTube slide) while presets commoditize, so the 50% take can't be justified and sellers go direct
</case>
<task>
Be a skeptical operator, not a cheerleader. No generic startup platitudes. If my angle is weak, say so plainly.
First, a reality check: markets like this mostly fail. State the honest base rate (how crowded/hard is this?) and the ONE specific thing that would have to be true for ME to be the exception — grounded in my profile above.
Then a compact table:
- Fit — does this pattern suit my edge, or fight my gap?
- Angle — my sharpest differentiation vs FilterGrade (concrete, not "better UX")
- Distribution — exactly where my first 100 users come from (this is the hardest part — be specific, not "content marketing")
- Risk — its "how it dies" (above) in MY situation
Finish with one line: "The single thing to do next."
Use only the facts above; if data is thin, say so — never invent numbers.
Then stay with me and go deeper on whatever I ask — tech stack, rough cost & time, the smallest MVP to test, pricing, or timing.
</task>
✓ Copied — paste into your AI
👤Placeholders like [your domain] auto-fill from your profile — example values for now.Set up profile →
Sourcesupdated · daily
· Founder & story — filtergrade.com/about· Revenue ($30K/mo), about 2K sellers & the traffic decline — Starter Story update (founder interview)· 200K+ customers & acquisition channels — indieniche.substack.com· 50/50 seller split — filtergrade.com/sell (their seller terms)· Founder — LinkedIn (Mike Moloney) & moloneycreativeagency.com
Revenue (about $30K/mo) is founder-stated in a Starter Story interview — first-party but self-reported, and it's unclear if it's gross or net of the 50% split. Sellers (about 2,000), 200K+ customers and the traffic decline are also his own words. The 50/50 take is from FilterGrade's seller page (fact). CENTS, moat and "how it dies" are our read. No VC known. We never score you.