It is hard being a creative genius. I hate being so talented. Combined with my ADHD brain, every time I explore a new interest or skill, I end up being really good at it. Whether it's painting, DJing, designing clothes, photo / video editing, web dev, or more -- I can naturally pick anything up. I wanted one place, one landing place, one checkout to manage all my projects.
That's the honest beginning, I just wanted one centralized place.
But here's what i kept running into, and here's what i actually believe: the queer community needs real infrastructure.
Here's my thesis: In the age of AI, the moat around software is basically zero. Knowledge is free. Anything can be built. Systems of real scale can be stood up now, Which means, for the first time, a community that was never handed infrastructure can build its own.
And we need it. We are constantly in a fight for resources. Money. Healthcare. Everything. Protecting the dolls matters, and paying them is how you actually do it. The only way that lasts is a system where financial wealth and well-being compound over time. Not a moment. Not a fundraiser. A system.
Think about where our money actually goes. We run a GoFundMe and hand the platform fees to strangers. We buy tickets to our own parties and RA takes a cut, Dice takes a cut, Ticketmaster takes a cut. How much do we spend on going out, on tickets, on merch? And every single time, the fees leave. They go to people who have nothing to do with us. We are making everyone else rich but ourselves. Why? For what?
So why aren't we building our own model? Our own systems, where the revenue stays in the community, and then we take that money and invest it back into trans artists and creators?
That's what PAY THE DØLLS is.
An online marketplace for artists, brands, creators, dolls, divas, and every ally who wants to support the community. i didn't build it just for the dolls, because this is bigger than that. It's a queer marketplace. One shop where everybody goes, so nobody has to figure it out alone, everybody builds together, and you can find a bunch of really cool queer artists doing really cool things.
Here's how the money works, and i want to be straight with you about it.
When you subscribe, $5 a month, that money goes into our internal savings account. We call it Vers Capital. It's cheeky. Dolls have always been well-versed. One day i hope it's a real capital fund. Right now it's a savings account, and i'm good with that, because it's the truth.
That money does three things. It hires dolls to help build this platform. It funds artist grants. And it goes toward partnering with nonprofits and organizations that support the trans community. Do i have those partnerships signed yet? No. That's the point. i'm starting. And that's okay.
i also went and got the trademark. PAY THE DØLLS™ is a federally registered mark with the USPTO, Reg. No. 8,365,768 on the Principal Register, and the vision is that brands who actually want to support the community can license it. A collab, a packaging line, a PAY THE DØLLS lip gloss, whatever it is. When you see the mark, you know the money from that product is flowing into Vers Capital and out to trans artists, divas, and creators. The mark means the money moves right.
My first brand on the platform is CRÜZØR, my footwear house. It exists because i always wanted a rave platform boot, and nobody makes cool shoes past size 10. i know a lot of dolls bigger than a size 10 who deserve access to beautiful, hard, cunty footwear. So that's the first drop. That's where it starts.
The whole idea is the vessel. In Buddhism, you build the container first, so that things can flow in and out of it. That's what this is. PAY THE DØLLS is the vessel: a container our community operates, uses, and leverages, so that money, work, art, and support can flow through it and back to us. You don't get the flow without building the container. So i'm building the container.
i'm not doing this alone. i started this over a year ago, and this past month my partner Taylor has helped me so much with the operations, building things out, turning the vision into something that runs. We're two transgender divas in New York City. We both work in finance. And we're building something for the queer community, and especially for the dolls.
And i'll be honest with you. Maybe this blows up. Maybe it goes to zero. But i'm trying, and i'm putting it out there, because it's a real opportunity to build something really cool. i hope it grows over time. i think it will. But this is where i'm starting, and now the doors are open. Let's see what happens.
i want to end with the real why.
i'm fortunate. i live in New York City. i have a great job with resources that carried me through my transition: medical costs, a salary, stability. i know i'm blessed. Not every doll is in the same situation. So i wanted to build a platform where, whatever a doll is going through, she knows there's funding, there's support, there's a way in. And honestly, wouldn't it be something if there was a company that just hired dolls? Gave them jobs, healthcare, insurance? So we could live the lives we want to live in a really, really messed up world?
That's the company i'm building toward.
So for $5 a month, you're backing a trans founder, and that money builds the infrastructure that benefits the queer community and compounds for the next doll after that.
That's the vision. That's the pitch. That's the idea.
Pay the dolls. Then pay the next one.