Why Vinivia Founder Marcello Genovese Is Passionate About Compensating Creators

With his background as a wedding singer and DJ, it’s not surprising Vinivia founder Marcello Genovese wants to ensure entertainers using his platform get paid.

Tech moguls often have big aspirations when they launch a new social media app. Ensuring that the creators who use their platform are fairly compensated for their content usually doesn’t top that wish list, though.

That’s not the case for Vinivia co-founder Marcello Genovese. His vision for Vinivia, the new livestreaming app that’s already changing the industry, was absolutely about making sure talented content creators could easily earn real money by showcasing their creativity and talents.

“I love livestreaming; it’s a multibillion-dollar market, and we want to do something for the world, for the creators in a different way,” he says. “Our app is designed for creators, by creators – allowing them to monetise their passions.”

Keep The Money Your Content Makes

First and foremost, Genovese set out to adjust the typical monetisation model that other livestreaming platforms have used. That meant changing up the numbers game.

“We have a better way of monetisation,” he says. “Other platforms are paying out only 50% to 60% of the revenues to the content creators. We are paying out 80% of the revenues to the content creators. We are really giving our technology for a cheap price to the creators and helping them to make revenue and monetise their content.”

Obviously, allowing creators to keep 80 cents of every dollar their content generates is a huge boon, but unlike other platforms that maintain partial or exclusive rights to content posted on their platforms, Vinivia also allows creators to maintain the rights to all their streams.

It’s all about transparency, another value Genovese holds dear. Vinivia is committed to being upfront about its business model, so creators and users know exactly what to expect when they post livestreams with no unpleasant surprises hidden behind legal jargon or ultralong agreements.

Genovese also ensured that Vinivia was designed with an easy-to-use interface that anyone could use, not just the tech savvy. With a few clicks, creators can start a stream.

Likewise, Genovese was adamant that Vinivia work for all aspiring creators. If you’re coming to the platform with an established following and huge brand recognition, that’s great, but it’s hardly a requirement.

“We are enabling users to be creators from day one,” Genovese states. “You don’t need to have 10,000 followers to become a livestreamer or 50,000 followers to monetise your content. You can start today with one follower or even zero followers to monetise your content and to become a livestreamer at Vinivia.”

An Unconventional Path to Tech

When you look at Genovese’s own backstory, it’s not hard to understand why he’s so committed to making sure creators can get paid for sharing their talents on his app. Unlike many in the tech sector, Genovese didn’t come from an Ivy League MBA program or have an extensive background in coding. Nope, his first jobs were in show business.

His father was a professional singer and artist, and Genovese would often tag along.

“My father was always my mentor,” Marcello Genovese shares. “Since I was a little kid, I was always going with him to events where he was singing. Instead of going hiking or skiing or whatever, we were going to events, making music, and doing business. This influenced me a lot, and is one of the reasons I am who I am now.”

Indeed, it wasn’t long before Genovese himself was the main event. While still a teenager, he began performing at events as a wedding singer (yes, just like the Adam Sandler movie) and DJing under the name DJ MarciG. Soon he was working at some of the biggest event venues in his native Germany.

“I’m an entertainer, I love to entertain people,” he says. “That’s what I’ve done when I was a singer, that’s what I’ve done when I was a DJ, I was entertaining people.”

Understanding The Entertainment Economy

Having shadowed his father all those years, Genovese was keenly aware that making a living as an entertainer took a lot more than simply possessing raw talent. He knew firsthand it’s also crucial to promote yourself and get your name out there. Even as a child, Genovese had an understanding of how the internet could help market the talent of creatives, and he began designing websites before he reached double digits.

“I started to make my first website when I was 8 years old,” he says. That first client was none other than his own father’s artist agency.

Word of his ability spread quickly. “I built my first website, and then I was doing websites for friends,” he recalls. “I was working, and I discovered working was my passion.” Indeed, by the time he was a teenager, Genovese was so busy creating websites and performing at singing and DJing gigs, his school work had begun to take a back seat.

“I have this introverted, nerdy side, where if I go into something, I want to learn [all about it], and I can if I want to, but if I don’t want to learn all about it, like with school, I could never do that,” he admits. “I was doing so many things instead of going to school. I tried to avoid going to the exams and to the lessons.”

So Genovese made a bold decision to drop out of high school at 15 to start his own web design business, making him one of Germany’s youngest-ever entrepreneurs.

Marcello Genovese: Coming Full Circle

Within a few years, Genovese met Vinivia co-founder Stefan Graf, and the two started multiple companies together. But in 2018, the duo shifted their focus to livestreaming and the idea for Vinivia was born. Unsurprisingly, given Genovese’s background, the project quickly became his own passion.

“In the end, it’s all entertainment,” Genovese says. “For me, Vinivia is the perfect place because you can be a singer, and you can be a DJ, and you can be a photographer, and you can entertain people through livestreaming.”

And because of Genovese, you can also get paid fairly for it.