DUPAY is a payment protection platform designed to help creators, agencies, and small businesses recover unpaid invoices and prevent payment disputes before they escalate. Founded in May 2023, DUPAY operates on a subscription model rather than contingency fees or hourly legal billing. While headquartered in the United States, the company works globally and has helped creators across 16 countries recover unpaid earnings. The platform combines demand-letter advocacy with contract review tools, invoice generation and tracking, and an internal AI system that streamlines the recovery process.

“Our main goal is to protect income,” says Grace Tabib, DUPAY founder and Head of Advocacy. “To protect agency income, creatives’ income, creators’ income, because the Creator Economy is sort of the ‘Wild West.’”

Grace, a Columbia Law School-trained attorney barred in California, launched the company after noticing a recurring pattern across freelance industries: creators were delivering work, but many weren’t getting paid. The problem, she argues, is not simply bad actors. It’s informality, unclear contracts, inconsistent payment terms, and a lingering assumption that delayed or missing payments are just part of the job.

“You shouldn’t just allow unpaid invoices to happen because that’s how the industry has always worked,” she says. “If you complete work, especially if there’s a contract or agreed-upon term, you deserve to get paid within that window.”

A Legal Background Reapplied to the Creator Economy

Before launching DUPAY, Grace built a career in advocacy law, working in women’s rights, immigration, and sustainability. After stepping away from legal practice to raise her children, she began exploring ways to create a business aligned with her background in advocacy.

She recalls reading about freelance writers struggling to recover relatively small invoices with few practical recourse options. Hiring an attorney would cost more than the disputed amount. Small claims court could confirm that money was owed, but would not collect it.

“We decided that we wanted to make a new way for people to protect their income,” Grace explains. “We’re essentially doing what lawyers do, but we don’t charge as lawyers. It’s a subscription service because we want people to be protected from beginning to end.”

Initially, Grace expected writers to be her primary audience. Instead, creators flooded the platform. Influencers and UGC (user-generated content) creators often juggle multiple brands, varied payment schedules, and informal deal structures, frequently negotiated over direct messages rather than formal contracts.

“They have so many invoices, so many different payment terms, so many different brands,” she says. “If they do work, they’re going to get paid.”

Success Rate and the Demand Letter Protocol

DUPAY reports an 81% success rate for subscribers pursuing unpaid invoices. Grace attributes that performance to a structured escalation process refined over two years.

“We have a very simple, but effective demand letter that we’ve honed,” she says. “If it’s a five-page demand letter with every possible detail, nobody’s going to read it.”

The company uses a three-letter protocol calibrated for timing and tone. After subscribers submit contracts, communications, and invoices through the dashboard, DUPAY’s internal AI system drafts a demand letter within a business day. Grace and her team review it before sending.

But the process doesn’t stop there. When non-paying clients respond with disputes, objections, or administrative explanations, DUPAY engages directly.

“We’re not just sending off demand letters,” Grace says. “If there’s a dispute, an objection, or some kind of admin problem, we are actually advocating on behalf of our subscribers.”

That can mean clarifying contract terms, responding to claims about deliverables, negotiating payment plans, or continuing structured follow-ups when emails go unanswered. In some cases, payment is immediate. In others, it requires sustained back-and-forth.

Grace describes one instance that stretched over a year before payment was secured, plus late fees. “There was one woman … It took us an entire year because they were just ghosting us,” she says. “Finally, a year later, they paid her invoice plus a year’s worth of late fees.”

Why Unpaid Invoices Start at the Beginning

Over time, Grace realized that invoice disputes often originate in weak contracts or informal negotiations.

“The unpaid invoice doesn’t happen after you deliver your work,” she says. “It happens at the beginning.”

To address that, DUPAY expanded beyond recovery into prevention. The platform now includes:

• A contract check tool that flags 15 payment-related risk areas
  
• A contract generator attached to standardized DUPAY-approved terms and conditions
  
• An invoice generator and tracking system
  
• A “Protected by DUPAY” stamp for invoices

Grace notes that many creators sign contracts without fully reviewing licensing clauses, AI usage rights, or payment triggers. “We’ve seen that creators are not reviewing the contract and – all of a sudden – they’ve licensed their image to the world,” she says.

The broader aim is to professionalize payment practices within the Creator Economy. While brands and agencies develop internal systems for creator marketing, Grace argues that creators must build their own business infrastructure.

“While the brand and agency side are putting in systems, creators should be putting systems in place,” she says. “You’re still a business.”

Power Imbalances and Psychological Impact

In Grace’s experience, payment disputes are rarely just financial. She frequently hears from creators who feel powerless or embarrassed chasing overdue invoices.

“People spend a lot of time worrying about unpaid invoices,” she says. “It’s emotional stress, mental stress, financial stress.”

She observes that creators sometimes question whether it’s “worth it” to pursue smaller amounts. Her answer is consistent. “Everything is worthwhile because you took the time to do this work,” she says. “Everybody’s time is valuable.”

Grace reports that approximately 85% of DUPAY’s clients are women, and many of the platform’s agencies are women-owned. She views this as an extension of her advocacy background. “When women see that there’s another woman out there advocating for them, I think that gives them confidence in their work,” she says.

She also rejects the fear that formal escalation “burns bridges.” In multiple cases, brands that initially delayed payment later became clients or collaborators after the dispute was resolved professionally.

“It doesn’t burn bridges to have an advocate on your side,” she says. “It actually just makes everything more professional.”

Subscription Over Contingency

Rather than charging a percentage of recovered funds or billing by the hour like a traditional law firm, DUPAY operates on a flat subscription, currently $19 per month for creators and $99 per month for agencies and small businesses.

“If you wanted [traditional legal services], I’d be charging you $500  an hour,” Grace says. 

The subscription model reflects both strategy and philosophy. Grace wants creators to view income protection as ongoing infrastructure, not emergency intervention. “We’re giving people a whole payment protection platform as opposed to just this unpaid invoice chasing,” she says.

She also purposefully avoids positioning DUPAY as a collections agency.

“We’re intentionally not a collections agency,” she says. “We’re intentionally creating this third lane.”

Building Embedded Infrastructure Through Partnerships

Grace envisions DUPAY integrated directly into creator workflows, through fintech platforms, accounting services, or community partnerships.

“Definitely embedded infrastructure,” she reveals where the company will be in five years.

Her current focus is on partnerships that allow DUPAY to serve as a built-in benefit for creator-focused credit unions, accounting firms, or platforms.

“We’d like to be a benefit,” she says. “If it’s a credit card for creators or an accounting firm for creators, that’s what my focus is right now.”

The goal is scale without sacrificing affordability. Growth, she says, allows the company to maintain accessible pricing rather than shifting toward higher legal fees.

Resetting Expectations in the Creator Economy

For brands and agencies, Grace’s message is simple: honor contracts and payment terms.

“If something is in a contract, it is not optional,” she says. “It should be respected, and it should be taken seriously.”

As creator marketing budgets expand and influencer campaigns increasingly resemble traditional media buys, Grace argues that payment systems must change accordingly.

“There shouldn’t be a hierarchy,” she says. “People should be treated with respect, their work should be treated with respect, and their time should be treated with respect.”

For Grace, the mission is not only financial recovery, but structural change. The creator economy, she believes, is mature enough to professionalize its payment practices.

“We’re trying to create a new lane,” she says. “We want to protect everybody’s income.”