$600M Earned, Zero Commission: Why Stan Gives Away the Money

Stan has helped over 100,000 creators and entrepreneurs earn more than $600M online — and takes $0 in commission on any of it. Vitalii Dodonov, co-founder and CTO of Stan, explains why the team made that call on purpose, and what it's built on top of it since.

Vitalii traces his path from arriving in Grand Prairie, Alberta not speaking English, to self-teaching his way into a software career at eBay, to co-founding Stan with John Hu after a chance customer introduction. We get into why Stan walked away from transaction fees, how founder-led content became their only real marketing channel, and the "Hacker House" method Stan uses to build entire products from zero in 14 days — including the honeymoon-prep trip to London that became the origin story for Stanley, Stan's AI content partner, which negotiates its own price with every user.

CHAPTERS 00:00 - Who is Vitali Donov? (Stan's Mission) 00:48 - Moving from Russia to Canada (The Grand Prairie Start) 01:44 - From Chemical Engineering to eBay (The Power of Building) 03:32 - Dealing with Self-Doubt vs. Confidence 04:42 - Meeting My Co-Founder, John (The Stanford Dropout Story) 08:10 - Being "In the Arena": How to Stumble Upon Luck 11:00 - Helping 100,000+ Creators Earn $600M+ 12:50 - Why Stan Charges Zero Commission (The Anti-Middleman Philosophy) 18:35 - Helping the "Invisible" Experts Get Seen 20:20 - The Future of Content: Documentation vs. Creation 27:05 - The 14-Day Hacker House Strategy (Building in London) 35:25 - A Radical New Business Model: Negotiating with AI 41:10 - The Next 10 Years: Why Being Invisible is a Risk

Learn more about Stan: https://www.stan.store (and their Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCQ1wox_PP5Lds__fQdy6NvQ) Connect with Vitalii: https://ca.linkedin.com/in/vitddnv