Numal started from a mismatch anyone who has worked a shift will recognise. The people who make the content that works for a business — the barista doing latte art at six in the morning, the mechanic filming a repair nobody else would touch — are almost never the people who get paid for it.
Meanwhile the business is often paying someone else. A part-time social media manager costs most small businesses $1,000 to $2,500 a month, paid in full whether or not anything landed that month. That person then has to persuade staff to stop mid-shift and film, which is a favour nobody is compensated for and enthusiasm runs out around the third video.
Numal removes the middle of that arrangement. The business sets what a milestone is worth. Staff post whatever they want, from their own accounts, on their own schedule. When a video crosses a view threshold, the money moves.
What we actually do
Numal is payment infrastructure, not a content tool. We don't write briefs, we don't schedule posts and we don't teach anyone to shoot video. Three things happen behind the scenes:
- Verification. We confirm the account belongs to the person, and that the video is genuinely about the business.
- Measurement. We read view counts from the platforms and filter out bought traffic before a milestone counts.
- Payment. Once a month, we move money from the business's balance to the people whose videos travelled.
What we won't do
These are constraints we designed in, not gaps we haven't filled yet.
- We don't take a cut from employees. The platform fee is paid by the business. What an employee sees on their ladder is what reaches their account.
- We don't take ownership of anyone's account. Staff keep their handle, their followers and every payout already made, whether or not they still work there.
- We don't let an employer compel a post. They set what counts. They can't require anyone to film, or make anyone delete something from a personal page.
- We don't read anything we don't need. View counts and captions on tagged videos. Not messages, not followers, not anything posted outside work.
What we believe
Pay should follow results, not hours
A month where nothing travels should cost a business almost nothing. A video that reaches half a million people should pay the person who made it properly. Most arrangements get this exactly backwards.
The person holding the phone should be the person who gets paid
Employee content works because it isn't commissioned. That authenticity is worth money, and the value should reach the person creating it rather than stopping at the business that benefits from it.
Numbers should be visible to both sides
Employers and employees see the same ledger — the same view counts, the same amounts, updated whether the news is good or bad. Most disputes in this space come from one side having numbers the other can't check.
Where we are. Numal is early. We're building in the open with a small number of businesses, mostly coffee shops, restaurants, gyms and salons. If that's you, we'd rather hear from you now than after we've made decisions without you.