For more than a decade, Jon Youshaei has helped creators understand how platforms work. Now, he is focused on helping them understand how their businesses work.

On December 9, Jon launched Boring Stuff, a creator-focused accounting and operations company designed to handle what he describes as “all the paperwork creators hate.” Built over the course of 2025 alongside business partner Amanda Marcovitch and a team with deep experience in creator operations, it provides bookkeeping, tax preparation, financial reporting, and back-office support tailored specifically to creator businesses.

The premise is straightforward: as creators professionalize, financial mismanagement, not creative burnout, has become one of the most overlooked threats to sustainability.

“Needing to balance everything, including things that you are just not well versed at – like the paperwork, the taxes, the accounting – absolutely contributes to burnout for many creators,” Jon says. “We’re hoping to take that off their plate and make it more sustainable.”

Jon brings an uncommon vantage point to the problem. Before becoming a full-time creator, he worked inside both YouTube and Instagram, leading creator monetization and product marketing teams. Today, he describes himself simply as a “YouTube journalist” and full-time creator, but one whose career has consistently revolved around education.

“Education has always been the through line,” he says. “When I was at YouTube, it was about how we educate creators and build products that help them grow their communities and make more money. Instagram was similar. And now, there’s so much opportunity to help creators by providing education and tools.”

Boring Stuff emerged from that same impulse, grounded in lived experience rather than platform theory. Over the past year, Jon and his team have quietly supported creators ranging from early-stage independents to some of the largest channels on YouTube, while Jon himself acted as what he calls a “guinea pig” for the service.

“There hasn’t been a creator-led accounting company at our scale where I’m going through the service myself,” he says. “For the monthly reports, are we making it clear how much creators are making versus spending? Are we optimizing write-offs? Are we making onboarding as easy as possible? All of those things, I’ve gone through personally.”

From Creator Conversations to a Business Case

The idea for Boring Stuff did not originate in spreadsheets or market research decks. It surfaced during informal conversations with creators, often after interviews wrapped.

“When you do interviews in person, you end up hanging out and talking about the ups and downs of being a creator,” Jon says. “We heard so many stories about taxes and finances and things going wrong. And I was like, ‘Wait, this is the best of the best who are struggling with this.’”

Those conversations revealed a pattern. Creators at every stage relied on accountants who did not understand creator revenue models, managed their finances through family connections, or attempted to piece things together themselves.

“A lot of creators go through their uncle or family accountant,” he says. “Or they do it themselves and make mistakes because they didn’t get into being a creator to do paperwork.”

For Jon, that gap became impossible to ignore once he recognized how widespread the problem was.

“When different people feel the pain in different ways, that probably means there’s a real problem,” he says. “Then it comes down to execution.”

Financial Burnout as a Creative Constraint

While creator burnout is often framed as an output problem (too many uploads, too much pressure), Jon argues the root cause is frequently operational.

“Your operations and finances influence your creativity in a big way,” he says. “If you don’t have a solution or somebody helping you on that front, your creativity is going to suffer.”

In practice, that strain shows up in subtle but costly ways. According to Jon, creators struggle to understand whether individual videos are profitable. They do not know how much a shoot truly costs. They miss deductions. They delay filings. Over time, those blind spots compound.

“Do you know how much an individual video costs and how much it got you in AdSense and sponsorships?” Jon asks. “A lot of creators don’t know the per-video return, and that’s really important.”

This lack of visibility, he says, is not a failure of ambition, but of infrastructure.

“Creators are so focused on the content that their taxes are not optimized, or they’re working with someone who doesn’t understand a creator business or is too slow, and that puts them in a tough situation,” he says.

Why the Market Wasn’t Ready Before

Despite years of growth in the creator economy, Jon believes Boring Stuff would not have worked a decade ago.

“This company would not have been as successful 10 years ago,” he says. “We’re riding the wave of the professionalization of the creator economy.”

Early creators treated content as a hobby. Today, many operate as small media companies with contractors, studios, and diversified revenue streams, often without the financial infrastructure to match. “People weren’t really thinking about being a creator as a small business, even though it’s true,” Jon says. “Now, creators are getting more professional. They’ll need these services.”

He adds that the cost of not having them is already visible. “Creators are paying way too much in penalties and overages,” he says. “That money should be going back into their pocket.”

What Boring Stuff Actually Does

At its core, Boring Stuff focuses on accounting and bookkeeping. As Jon notes, everything else is secondary.

“Accounting and bookkeeping are the primary services. That’s what most creators need,” he says. “If they need business formation, payroll, or hiring help, we can do that too – but we’re not trying to expand into everything on day one.”

The company is structured as a modular service rather than a fixed package. “We’re not one-size-fits-all. It’s more of a buffet of options,” he says. “Creators can add on what they need as their business becomes more complex.”

Jon believes that flexibility enables Boring Stuff to serve both established creators and those early in their careers, provided there is real income to manage.

A White-Glove Model Built on Trust

The first interaction with Boring Stuff is deliberately hands-on.

“We’re trying to offer a white-glove, VIP experience, no matter what size creator you are,” Jon says.

Creators begin with a short intake form, followed by a consultation call designed to diagnose, not sell. “We offer a free consultation just to understand if it’s a fit,” he says. “And if nothing else, we give advice on their current tax situation.”

As Jon shares, most creators arrive with similar anxieties. “A lot of people are behind. Their books aren’t clean. There’s catch-up work,” he says. “The biggest issue is they’re working with someone who doesn’t understand a creator business.”

The outcome, he says, is often relief rather than excitement. “One creator told us, ‘I’m breathing easier,’” Jon says. “I hope Boring Stuff can give creators more oxygen to be more creative.”

‘Dogfooding’ as a Design Principle

One of the company’s defining features is that its founders have been actively using the service themselves, pre- and post-launch.

“At Google, we had this term, ‘dogfooding,’ where you try the product internally before it goes public,” Jon says. “We’re big believers in that.”

Every report, dashboard, and communication flow is tested against a simple question. “Does this meet our standard, and can I go through it myself?” he says.

Jon also stresses that design and clarity are non-negotiable, even in an industry known for opacity. “Design and speaking visually matter, even for accounting and taxes,” he says. “We always think about how clearly we’re communicating.”

Measuring Success Without Rushing Scale

Unlike many creator-led startups, Boring Stuff is not built around quick expansion.

“It’s slow and steady,” Jon says. “We’re not trying to exit. I just want to serve our existing customers really well.”

For him, success looks like becoming a default choice rather than a viral one. “I want Boring Stuff to become the industry standard,” he says. “A cornerstone company creators trust as they grow.”

Distribution helps, but only if the service earns its place. “We’re lucky to have an audience,” he says. “But now we’re offering something I really believe in.”

What a Healthier Creator Economy Requires

When it comes to the future of the creator economy, Jon resists sweeping predictions.

“I don’t know what it looks like on a macro level,” he says. “It’s more about individual creators and their well-being.”

Still, his hope is clear. “I want to see creators making better financial decisions,” he says. “There are so many great artists who struggle financially, not because of their work, but because of how the business is handled.”

For Jon, Boring Stuff is not about removing creativity from the equation; it is about protecting it. “Your operations and finances influence your creativity,” he says. “They’re completely related.”

And if creators can understand that relationship earlier, he believes the entire ecosystem becomes more sustainable.

“Hopefully, having this company makes that possible,” Jon concludes.

Photo source: Boring Stuff

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