While growing up in Puerto Rico, Maria Luna saw many artists give up on their dreams in favor of finding work that they could make money on. FAMIGO, the company she co-founded, provides a way for artists to do just that.

Growing up, she can remember when her mother worked for only a dollar an hour. She says of her upbringing, “I was born with scarce resources, material resources, but I was a billionaire in community and family support and love.” 

Her mother taught her and her siblings the value of knowing how to stretch a dollar, as well as the value of getting an education to get themselves out of poverty. This value in education was further cemented by her teachers who encouraged her to go to college. 

Luna eventually went to the University of Puerto Rico and earned a bachelor's degree in public communications. She then went onto the University of Texas at Austin to pursue her MBA in business. 

Luna has always had an entrepreneurial spirit. While in college she was always finding something to sell, including homemade meals for her roommates. 

Launched in September 2021 in 55 countries, the platform aims for a more fair and user-friendly approach to content creation and monetization. Unlike similar sites or creator funds, FAMIGO provides the same tools and opportunities to all content creators whether they have one fan or 1 million. 

So far, there are 3,000 content creators and 300,000 fans on the platform. The site gives creators a unique URL that can act as a website or be linked to the user’s own. Users are able to make the content they upload available for fans in one of three ways: free, as a one-time purchase, or as part of a subscription.

The name came from an unnamed 15-year-old participant in Alice Cooper’s Solid Rock program. 

After having the site’s goal explained to him, he said, “Oh, it’s like a fan, a family, and a friend. And then he said, ‘why don’t you name it FAMIGO?’” 

The name itself is a combination of all three words. 

There are plans to add more features in the future, like the ability to text a creator, live performances, and Non-fungible tokens (NFTs). Luna sees a bright future ahead for content creators as more companies like FAMIGO that focus on helping creators pop up. 

“For too long everybody makes money out of your creativity except for the creative mind. And that has lasted too long… I’m super excited to be part of that good revolution where the creative mind is going to make the majority of the money from their creativity,” she said.