Rachel Shillcock | Creative Mentor

Hiii! It's been a while since I've been here & used this space. I only hop on to keep track of a couple of my fave people that use this more than other platforms. But, with 🧵 appearing - it feels like here used to. So you can find me over there ➡️ @rachilli" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">threads.net/@rachilli

@jrfarr Would really, really love that access to try it out if possible lovely! That one-time payment support is 😍

We shipped updates to Managed Payments, Stripe's merchant of record solution: 📱 Redirect customers from your iOS app to a mobile checkout page ☝️ One-time payment support, in addition to subscriptions All with one line of code (managed_payments=true)

@jrfarr eee, the bestest of best news!! thanks lovely 🥰

@MissRachilli Love it! We are shipping this at the end of September and will definitely get you off the waitlist ;)

On this flight thinking: “How can I help @stripe and @lemonsqueezy users more?” If you’re building, I’ve probably been there. Ask away.

@polar_sh so excited for this! Will inclusive VAT be coming later along with the other requested features? ✨

big milestone ✨ this week, we're beta-testing our very own billing engine in the sandbox environment it's the biggest refactor we've done since launching last september, which will greatly improve our ability to offer unique features in the billing space. stripe will no longer be used for subscriptions, prorations, discounts, payment retries, etc — only for pure payments.

@jrfarr Hey lovely! Will we be able to sell one-time digital products & courses through this eventually, not just subscriptions?

Stripe Managed Payments beta invites start rolling out tomorrow. It’s a new era for merchant of record. Built from scratch inside Stripe. Worth the wait and we’re just getting started.

@jrfarr Hey lovely! SO exciting seeing all the stuff happening! Is the idea that this will integrate long term with *anything* that integrates with Stripe? So we can set up Stripe MoR and then use it with any platform that uses Stripe for payments? If so... when can we get on it?! 🥹🤓

still processing this only 9 months after being acquired by Stripe, we are already here much more on the way

@JohnONolan @Ghost It's incredible to see how bloomin' far you've come with this! I remember when you were first launching... just incredible. I'm hoping to set up with Ghost soon for a project I've been working on and super excited to start.

Another year, and several milestones all at once. 12 years since @Ghost launched on Kickstarter, now at $8M ARR, and powering almost $100M in revenue for independent publishers 📈 A few thoughts and reflections on building an open source publishing platform, for a long time. I was 24 when I first started working on the idea for Ghost, and back then I had no idea what I was doing. Fast forward to 2025 and I still have no idea what I'm doing, but we've come a long way. What started as little more than an idealistic open source pipedream has blossomed into a sustainable non-profit org with a full-time team of 34. The core idea behind Ghost, in 2013, was a simple one. I've always believed that independent publishing on the web is essential, and that the technology behind it plays a significant role in its ultimate success or failure. Back then, Vox and Buzzfeed were at the forefront of a major shift in the publishing industry. Being technology startups as much as media companies, their proprietary software was a distribution lever to which the rest of the industry had no answer. They were miles ahead of traditional media orgs, many of whom had only recently been convinced of the need for a website. It was as if a couple of outlets had built the world's first printing press, while everyone else was still sitting around writing out news bulletins by hand. The ambition for Ghost was to create a dedicated open technology stack for independent publishers, from solo-creators to large newsrooms, to compete in a fast-moving digital media landscape – without becoming beholden to closed networks owned and controlled by private companies like Facebook and Medium. A small band of loyal early adopters understood our ideas from the very start, but many were less convinced. They saw these large tech platforms as neutral, benevolent infrastructure providers, unlikely to screw anyone over, for it would not be in their interest to do so. That outlook has shifted substantially after twelve years of algorithm changes, data capture, privacy scandals, and business model pivots. So, as awareness and interest in independent technology have grown, so has interest in Ghost. Over the years, we've focused consistently on building the best tools for publishing on the web. In the past 5 years, in particular, we've also focused heavily on building ways for creators, journalists, and publishers to run a sustainable business on the web. We added paid subscriptions in Ghost a few years ago to allow publishers to charge for their work and, since then, our own growth has primarily been a side-effect of our work to help others grow. In fact, we're about to pass $100Million in revenue earned by independent media businesses using Ghost. Along the way, we've seen a fantastic group of publishers adopt the product. From hard-hitting journalism of @404mediaco and @platformer, to political coverage from @TangleNews and @LeverNews. From @HarvardIR to @StanfordReview, and @JSTOR in academia. From local journalism at @HellGateNY, @KyivIndependent, @millmediauk, @BerkeleyScanner, @DublinInquirer, and @51stnews, to the latest in music from @hearingthingsco and @DrownedinSound. @ycombinator runs on Ghost, as do @firstround and The Diff (by @ByrneHobart), along with the media arms of @Duolingo, @WealthSimple, @Kalshi, @Cloudflare, @DuckDuckGo, @dominos, and (fittingly) @Kickstarter. @OpenAI, originally a research lab, first launched as a Ghost publication before it grew into the $300billion behemoth it is today. At one point, around the launch of ChatGPT, Ghost served more traffic for OpenAI each month than all our other publishers... combined. I'm incredibly proud of how far we've come as a small, independent non-profit organisation shipping free, open source software. As ever, we're competing with prominent, VC-funded platforms with tens of millions of dollars and hundreds of employees, playing zero-sum games to try and control the entire media industry. Now, though, it feels like there's more appetite than ever for something different.

@jrfarr Thought this would be some sort of automated system for replying 😅 would love to have a chat and a demo if you're up for it!

After 20+ demo's of the new Stripe MoR solution — I'm learning more about what users want Picture this: ✅ No setup required ✅ Works w/ every Stripe product ✅ Add product, create checkout — voilà ✅ The best part? It's natively built inside of Stripe Something BIG is coming

@jrfarr demo

If you want a demo, reply with "demo" and I'll send you a DM with my calendar link.

@brendandawes @charlotteed____ @lgnnelson Absolutely stunning work, what a collaboration!

✨ ANNOUNCEMENT ✨ The Lemon Squeezy affiliate platform is live! Every Lemon Squeezy merchant can now create their very own affiliate program within minutes Easy-peasy style Keep reading to find out more about the affiliate platform and how you can get started: ↓

@RebeccaComms @Flickadonkeys Cornwall just grabs you like that, eh? ☺️

Our last few days in Falmouth. Family visiting, blue skies between showers, adjusting to the sea temperature. Found @CaroGilesWrites in @falmouthbooks. Nearly a year of nomad life. It’s easy for us to imagine being here permanently.

@mattragland Loved this. I've never really focused on list growth over the years up until recently. Love the bit about referrals, have been toying with upgrading CK to take advantage of SparkLoop but not sure if that's better than another strategy in the meantime. 😅 So many decisions!

I've been writing my own email newsletter since 2013 and have managed or worked directly with hundreds (if not thousands) of creators on their newsletters. Here are 4 simple growth levers for your newsletter that really work.

@piccalilli_ @setstudiotweets Huge congrats, love! That branding 😍

@jrfarr I did, but not on the beta yet - though wasn't sure if anyone was yet! Who do I have to bribe/ask nicely? 🤪

Did you get the email? #affiliates #beta

@jrfarr 👀 never wanted to be on a beta more if I’m honest 😅

@pie6k It’s bumpy but can see the end of the tunnel. Beta invites are set go out next week. 🤞

Can't wait to see these go live!

@AndrewAndPete Hi loves! I sent a rather urgent email about my Atomicon ticket earlier - if someone could reply, that would be great :) Thank you!

@laurium @hover Thank you! It took a while for my sites to load back on but thankfully they're back now 😅

@MissRachilli @hover Yes we had this earlier with Client Portal which uses Hover - seems to have been fixed for us though.

I'm in the process of quitting Twitter, but this is what I always come here for so... here we are😅Are multiple sites down for anyone else? So far I'm struggling with @hover rendering multiple of mine and my client's sites offline but apparently there's an Instagram outage too?!

@hover I guess I'm trying to figure out if this is local to @hover only, or if there's a more widespread outage issue!