RightsOS

I kept hearing this from creators: "10 brand deals and couldn't tell you which one owes me money or whose content is live past its window." So I built RightsOS, a deal tracker for creators tired of Gmail threads and contract_FINAL_v7.xlsx. Free in beta. Love feedback.

@ugc_sarahd @Cohley_ @jaclynforero Jan-approved, March-paid, multiple reminders sent manually — this is way too common and it shouldn't be on you to chase. Built RightsOS (rightsos.app) to automate exactly this — payment tracking + reminders per deal. Free in beta 🙌

@Cohley_ @jaclynforero Thanks for checking in! Not at this time but I had some brands that got approved to work with in January and didn't get paid out until March where I needed to send several reminders to the brand after content was submitted. Hope this improves this year :)

I am not getting a good feeling about the Cohley platform right now. Brands are unresponsive, payments are extremely delayed. I'm being inundated with influencer deals that don't pay enough. I have contacted support multiple times. I'm worried. @Cohley_

@nickcastle_ugc 100%. The payment-sent-to-wrong-account story is classic, every creator has a version of it. The one thing Asana/sheets miss is the usage rights window ticking in parallel. Track payment status all you want but the content is still running and you don't know it.

I was waiting on a payment from an agency for months. I finally reached out to follow up and they insisted that they did send the payment. Turns out they did… it was just sent to an account that was not listed on the invoice I provided. 😅 I track all of my collabs/payments in Asana for my personal UGC work and another space for agency work. But whether it’s a spreadsheet, google doc, just make sure you are tracking.

@closermethod Most contracts don't say perpetual loudly. It's buried: non-exclusive license for marketing purposes, no end date, no platform limit. Always push for a hard expiry date: 90 or 180 days. Forces the conversation before it becomes a problem.

I booked a brand deal in my first month of UGC. Two videos. $200. I thought I was winning. Then I watched my content run as paid ads for six straight months. They probably spent $12K+ promoting my work. I got $200. Now I always ask: Will this be for ads? For how long? Which platforms? Usage rights aren't a bonus question. They're the whole negotiation. Don't make my $200 mistake.

Creators — genuinely asking: How do you track which brand deals you've got going? Gmail search? Notion? Sheets? Memory? I want to hear what's actually working (or not).

Talked to 40 UGC creators this month. 31 had a brand deal where content stayed live past the usage window. Not one caught it in real time. They found out by accident months later — or never. Usage rights are the most undervalued leverage creators have. Nobody's tracking them.

@DomMorace This is exactly why we started building RightsOS. Watched agencies lose money because usage rights lived in email threads. No visibility, no expiry dates, no paper trail. At 1200+ creators, that problem compounds fast 👀 rightsos.app

A brand just stole one of our creator's videos. No contract. No permission. No usage rights agreed upon. They just downloaded it from TikTok and reposted it on their own page.

@explorewithjene @closermethod google docs does the job until you have 3-4 deals going at once, then you lose track of who signed and who didn't. if you want something simple without paying docusign prices check out rightsos.app, built it exactly for this

@closermethod How do you recommend sending your contract through? Is there a service you use to get a signature or is sending it via Gdocs good enough?

No contract. No filming. Full stop. I don't care how nice they seem on the call. I don't care if it's a small indie brand you love. I don't care if they say "we never do contracts, we just trust each other." Verbal agreements are not agreements. A DM is not a contract. Contracts protect you from: scope creep, non-payment, unauthorized usage, unlimited revisions, retroactive rate changes, and being held liable for brand claims you didn't make. Every single one of these happens to creators without contracts. Regularly.

@nirave @robertoblake same pain point here. scattered docs, lost follow ups, no single view of what's active. been building something for exactly this. still early but would love feedback if you want to try it and tell me what's missing

@robertoblake Agreed re the final statement! I'd love to see your crm, solves a pain point of mine!

I didn’t go for building AGENTS I went for building infrastructure. Every time I find myself frustrated with an issue as a content creator I have been building a tool that gives me a better way to deal with it. My agency asked for my rate card… I hadn’t updated that in 2 years… I built and entire calculator to generate my rate card across more than 10 Offers across multiple platforms. I then built a variation of this for every type of creator revenue stream. They wanted to know what other brands I wanted to work with? I built a CRM any content creator can use to track brand deals, and sent them a CSV with notes on brands that have reached out to me and once I want to work with. I needed to send of a quick invoice and was having an issue with PayPal, I built a free invoice tool any creator can use. I built a project management system for keeping track of all my Creator task and projects. No more losing track of these things. Every time there is a data point for YouTube content I want to visualize I put it into CreatorScoreCards I wanted something that wasn’t a Title Generator, I wanted to know the characteristics of success to titles and I wanted title formulas that were checked by data… and a dedicated Title Assistant… I built TitleScoreCard The Creator Economy has endless Swiss Army Knives… sometimes you need a Knife to just be a Knife…

@JamestheUGCguy a creator i help had the same thing. started keeping all his pitches and deal terms in one place so he knows exactly what to send each time. game changer for not over-pitching

just lost a $800 gig because I was too confident in the pitch brand reached out, asked for my process, and I went full strategist mode sent them a page breakdown of the exact angles I'd test, the objection-handling framework, awareness level targeting, the whole thing thought I crushed it they ghosted me and hired someone else found out later they went with a creator who just said "yeah I can do that, here's my rate and turnaround time" I was out here trying to prove I'm the smartest person in the room meanwhile they just wanted someone who could film a video and not overthink it lesson I learned the hard way: not every brand wants a creative strategist some brands just need a reliable person with a camera who delivers on time I was solving for a problem they didn't have now when a brand reaches out, I gauge what they actually need first if they're asking about "authentic content" and "quick turnaround" - they want simple and fast if they're asking about "testing angles" and "ad performance" - then I go strategist mode biggest mistake creators make isn't being under-qualified it's over-complicating what the brand actually wants

@TJiMTS This is why tracking payment due dates from day one matters. If you know exactly what's unpaid and when, you can chase it before it becomes a tax problem too.

Did you know HMRC still wants tax on your brand deal even though the brand hasn’t paid yet? That £10,000 invoice you’re chasing? If the year ends and it’s unpaid, you could still owe tax on it. Here’s how the system works, and what you need to know as a UK content creator: 🧵 👇

@closermethod Hey Elisabeth! Sorry for the late reply , I've been in China on a business trip and getting access to Western apps here is a whole adventure in itself 😅 I'd love to have that strategic call. Let me know when works for you!

@rights_os i actually created a ton of interactive tools and a deal tracker CRM as products that could be quite complimentary to yours. it could be valuable to have a strategic call. DM me if you're keen :)

A UGC creator asked me an interesting question today: “Do you send your own contract to brands, or just modify theirs?” This is actually one of the biggest blind spots I see among creators.

@Alina_UGC_ Tracking those usage rights after the deal is signed , that's #5. Most creators don't realize they've lost control of their content until it's too late. That's why we're building RightsOS.

Things I wish someone told me before becoming a UGC creator 🧵 1.Filming is the easiest part 2.Editing takes 3x longer than expected 3.Admin work never ends 4.Usage rights matter more than most beginners think Did I miss anything? #ugc #ugccommunity

@justinbrianugc @tynaishabugc Smart approach! For the perpetual ones you're right , not much to track. But as you scale and start mixing perpetual + time limited deals, a spreadsheet gets messy fast. That's exactly why we're building RightsOS , so it's all in one place when you need it. 👀"

@rights_os @tynaishabugc I try to avoid specific usage rights so don’t have many to track I build in perpetual in most my deals. The little bit I have to track is in a spread sheet. I’m not overly concerned at this point.

Charging for usage rights is SO important. I remember doing a video for a brand when I was starting out in UGC while pregnant with my second. It was a gifted collab I believe. That was over 2 years ago. They are STILL running that ad🥲 #ugc

@elisabeth_ugc hat's exactly why we built RightsOS,most creators handle it with spreadsheets or notes, and things fall through the cracks fast. We're building a dedicated space to track deal terms, usage windows and payouts in one place. Would love your take on what creators struggle with most.

Usage rights are often where the real value of a deal lives. Curious... how do other creators handle contracts when working with brands?

@TeeDevh C

@tjbxii Exactly. Usage rights are one thing in the contract. Tracking post-expiry use is the real gap.

@rights_os Totally agree. Usage rights is a whole different beast that creators are still losing money on today while companies are generating billions of views from essentially “stolen” assets.

unpopular opinion in the creator economy: taking the brand deal is sometimes the worst move you can make.

@CharlesaNoel That makes total sense , giving full usage rights upfront is the cleanest way to handle it. Respect for keeping it simple for your clients! 🙌

@rights_os Yeah we give our clients full usage rights of all the content created during the time of the campaign

Most people think UGC doesn’t work in tech. They’re wrong. A tech company came to us wanting to grow their site. Everyone in their space was burning through ad budgets just to stay visible. They took a different bet and trusted us instead. No paid distribution. No boosting. Just content people actually wanted to watch and share. 9.7 million organic views in 2 months in a space many think it can’t be done. If your app is great but nobody knows about it, that’s not a budget problem. That’s a content problem.

@BacLeodiv building RightsOS , helps creators and agencies track brand deal usage rights, catch expired content still running, and recover overdue payments. in private beta now. if you manage creators or run an agency, would love your feedback.