Most creators spend years trying to build a revenue stream that pays the bills. Cole Steiner did it in 60 minutes.
The social media star, known online as Cole Train, broke BuzzStar's hourly revenue record on Tuesday, April 7, pulling in close to six figures in a single hour of live, one-on-one paid video calls with fans. The number stunned even the platform's own team.
"When we saw Cole's numbers come in, we had to double-check them," BuzzStar CEO Andy Bachman said during the livestream. "He just showed up as himself and his audience met him there. That's the power of giving creators a direct line to their fans."
BuzzStar is built around direct access. Fans pay by the minute to connect with creators in real time, while creators control when they’re available and what those interactions look like. Each session can be downloaded afterward, and the platform has already attracted names like Austin McBroom, N3on, Blueface, Scott Storch, and Johnny Dang since launching earlier this year.
Steiner, who has over 1.3 million followers on Instagram, didn't rely on anything scripted or produced. In clips posted to Instagram from the session, he can be seen chugging beers with callers, cracking jokes, and signing off with his signature “stay friggin' dirty.”
"The difference between BuzzStar and traditional social media is simple," Bachman said. "On TikTok or Instagram, you're at the mercy of an algorithm. On BuzzStar, your audience is choosing to be there. They're not scrolling past you, they're sitting across from you. And that's where the real money is."
Bachman, whose company Creators Inc. has done over a billion dollars in creator sales, says Steiner's session is proof that the model works at scale. "Creators lose because they don't control how they get paid," he told Market Realist earlier this year. "BuzzStar gives them that control back." If Steiner's record-breaking hour is any indication, that message is landing.
