Crowdaa aims to remind the middle-class creator economy that power can be in their hands.

The French-American startup, founded by musician and psychologist Vigile Hoareau and American composer and producer Jimmy Thomas, understands the potential of technology to level the playing field for creators. The company aims to empower users to take greater control of their creative freedoms and challenge the status quo often perpetuated on social media platforms like TikTok—which faces a potential ban on January 19 unless sold to a U.S.-based company—and Instagram, as well as on music platforms like Spotify and Apple Music.

This includes moving away from traditional revenue models on these platforms, which often benefit the platforms more than the creators, especially regarding compensation.

Even Snoop Dogg has voiced concerns about the low payouts from Spotify, despite achieving 1 billion streams. He reportedly received less than $45,000, as AFROTECH™ previously reported.

“When you look at Spotify, when you look at Apple Music, all of these are tech companies. None of these guys are creative, and they take hard-working people that’s out there spending their money at their jobs buying keyboards and drum machines, making music, and recording. Then they’re paying them beyond, not even pennies. You used to be paying pennies on dollars, but it’s not even pennies no more because it’s 0.0039 of a cent for a stream. Nobody’s gonna ever make a living off of doing that,” Thomas told AFROTECH™ during CES (Consumer Electronics Show) 2025.

He added, “This was not to say that we hate those things. We just need to reteach people to use them for what they are worth. They are for discovery, marketing, and promotion. Once you market and promote your crowd, then you gotta send them somewhere.”

Crowdaa allows users to start for free by using its platform, enabling them to transform their ideas into fully functional applications. By doing so, they can unlock access to features that include:

  • live video streaming
  • custom playlists
  • scheduled posts
  • interactive polls and comments
  • chat groups
  • merchandising
  • in-app purchases

“So our whole concept was, let’s give them the tech. They already got the crowd. They already got the followers. They already got the fans. They just don’t have the tech,” Thomas said.

The platform initially attracted the attention of artists, aligning with the co-founders’ backgrounds in music. This includes entertainer and songwriter Keith Sweat, who is an avid user of the platform. Thanks to Crowdaa, Sweat’s fans are currently subscribing to his app, purchasing event tickets and merchandise, and gaining access to his music, among other features.

“Social currency in 2025 is almost as physical currency because you can turn it into physical currency. Right now, you take some of the biggest artists [and] they have stuff on all of the other platforms, the Instagrams, the Twitters, and they don’t own that,” Thomas explained. “But if I create your app, and you go get 100,000 people to download your app, the going rate for CPMs per 1,000 for video ad on a direct apps, it’s $20. Imagine if you was making that as your ownapp…So what we did was put you in the tech game. Keep in mind, when those people download your app, that’s an acquisition. Acquisition is way more valuable than a follower.”

He later mentioned, “Keith Sweat is a tech entrepreneur now. He is in the business using his social currency to build the value of his brand.”

Crowdaa’s reach has extended beyond the confines of the entertainment industry to include other “crowds” from congregations, restaurants, barbershops, and more. Becoming more accessible is also built into Crowdaa’s DNA, as no coding experience is required to get started. Users no longer need to be stressed about the inner workings of creating and funding an application, which involves computing, coding, writing, and building. Instead, it leverages a drag-and-drop interface.

“You don’t have to know any of those operating things to create a beautiful app that actually works, and you can do it in minutes,” mentioned Thomas.

Thomas adds that the application’s ultimate goal, which was largely bootstrapped outside of a $1.2 million seed round led by Apicap, is to prioritize the middle creator economy.

“We want to be able to swing the pendulum for creators and people that have crowds and want to be able to directly access the overall arc of that middle-class creator economy directly. I should be able to be in all Mobile, Alabama, and be an artist and have 2,000 fans, and I should be able to generate $2,000 a month off that to be able to supplement income and create a living,” Thomas said. “It easily can be done. Nobody has just ever created a way for them to do that…We are a solution. We want to swing the pendulum, but also to make other companies and other people to look and say, ‘Hey. Look what people are doing on their own. In order for us to play, we gotta treat them right.’ That’s all we’re asking for is for people to be treated fairly.”