OnlyFans CEO Keily Blair is making the case that the platform’s value extends well beyond the adult content it is best known for, arguing in a Fast Company video interview that building a direct, paid relationship with an audience is the next frontier of personal branding for creators, entrepreneurs and executives alike.

In the interview, Blair contrasts the conventional personal-branding approach, building an audience on someone else’s platform, with what she describes as OnlyFans’ proposition: creators build a direct relationship with their audience and get paid for it. She argues that creators, entrepreneurs, and experts can use the platform to control their content, cultivate a loyal community, and convert influence into a business, and raises the question of whether professionals beyond traditional creators, including executives, should consider building an OnlyFans presence of their own.

Blair made a related argument this summer about the platform’s reach beyond adult content. According to PRWeek, she discussed OnlyFans’ evolving creator roster at Fast Company’s Innovation Festival, framing the company’s growth as an expansion from sex workers to Grammy Award-nominated musicians, alongside comedians, actors and athletes. OnlyFans’ own creator blog has promoted non-adult entertainment talent, including stand-up comic Olivia Stadler, a 2025 “Just for Laughs New Face” and a writer on “Letterkenny” and “Shoresy,” and actor-host-comedian Matt Richards, whose credits include Showtime, HBO Max, Starz and A&E.

The pitch comes months after Fenix International Ltd., OnlyFans’ UK-based parent company, sold a 16% minority stake to San Francisco-based Architect Capital for $535 million, in a deal valuing the platform at $3.15 billion. Architect Capital said it would support OnlyFans in expanding financial services for creators, citing creators’ limited access to traditional banking products as a driver of the investment.

OnlyFans reported $7.22 billion in gross payments for fiscal 2024, up 9% year over year, with net revenue of $1.41 billion and pre-tax profit of $684 million, for the fiscal year ended November 30, 2024.

The platform counts more than 4 million registered creator accounts and 377 million registered fan accounts worldwide, and has facilitated more than $25 billion in total payments to creators since launching in 2016.

Blair’s public framing of OnlyFans as a broader creator-monetization tool follows a years-long effort by the company to diversify its identity. In 2021, OnlyFans reversed a planned ban on sexually explicit content days after announcing it, following backlash from creators who said the change threatened their income; founder Tim Stokely said at the time that the initial decision had come under pressure from banking partners.

Subscribe to Our Newsletter

Check Out Our Podcast