The recent Brian Epstein biopic “Midas Man,” a film about the manager of The Beatles, debuted not on a platform like Netflix or Amazon, but on a startup that bills itself as “Shopify for filmmakers.” So what, you might ask?

The answer is that the new platform, Olyn, claims to offer a new model for film and video distribution that leans on the power of social referrals to spread “à la carte” streaming content. Although any size of production — from Hollywood blockbuster downwards — can use the platform, the company claims it could be a game changer for the independent film industry, which tends to struggle against the marketing budgets of the bigger movies distributed on mainstream streaming platforms.  

California-based Olyn — founded by Ana Maria Jipa, Jeremias Buireo, Kiran Thomas, and Malcolm Wood — allows filmmakers to retain up to 90% of their revenue while giving audiences access to a streaming experience. Instead of films being sold to platforms like Netflix, the model hinges on the marketing budget of the filmmakers themselves, combined with influencers, film critics, and content creators acting as distribution partners by embedding purchase links within their content, blogs, and social channels.

This peer-to-peer approach does away with the platform as a middleman and turns movie distribution into more of an e-commerce-style engagement. 

Jipa, Olyn’s CEO and co-founder, told TechCrunch that the company provides filmmakers with the equivalent of a full-blown streaming platform. “We provide all the tech that implies: from DRM, 4K streaming, casting, a full landing page that presents the film in the same way that it might appear on Netflix or Apple TV, plus all the other tools such as geo-targeting, analytics, and audience data. They promote their movie with PR, journalists, bloggers, film critics, etc,” she said, adding that a recommendation from someone you trust carries far more weight than a suggestion by an algorithm on a streaming platform.

Olyn also gives filmmakers analytics on viewership, such as which country the movie is doing well in, as well as minutes watched, and a database of users that have watched the movies. “Filmmakers can spend years making a film but don’t ever get to meet or own their audience at all. So we see this as a very powerful tool. It becomes an audience that you can directly address for your next movies and then grow from there,” said Jipa. 

The question is, can Olyn compete with the convenience and scale of major streamers? While its model offers much higher revenue shares for filmmakers, it also means all the weight is placed on the shoulders of production teams to drive marketing and partnerships. 

Perry Trevers, a producer at Studio POW, which used Olyn to distribute “Midas Man,” sees the platform as a helpful step in the right direction. “Olyn has enabled us to think beyond traditional platforms, letting us become our own streaming service […] It’s about empowering filmmakers to market and distribute films in a way that mirrors the direct-to-consumer success of e-commerce […] It’s a chance to retain control over our work and redefine how movies reach their viewers,” he said in a statement. 

One of the most pressing issues in the film industry is piracy. Many users turn to illegal sources simply because a movie is unavailable in their country. Jipa argues that Olyn’s global reach can help combat this issue, because if someone can pay for a movie and watch it instantly, they’re much more likely to do so.

Olyn’s foray into film streaming came about partly when entrepreneur and filmmaker Wood joined as a co-founder of the platform, which initially launched as a way to catalog physical assets. Wood launched his own film, “The Last Glaciers,” on the platform.

“Independent filmmakers have already taken the financial risk to produce their movies themselves. Studio POW is self-financed. They created the “Midas Man” movie. They have the freedom to be able to sell those rights to whoever they want. They did a deal in the U.K. market with Amazon, but they felt that it was more profitable to go direct to their audience in the U.S. market using Olyn as a tool,” he said.

Wood feels Olyn can be best thought of as “Shopify for filmmakers with a referral link.”

He noted the average film on Amazon in the U.K. gets only around 2,000 views per year. “So there’s a bunch of films that are getting millions of views, but the majority of films fall below the 2,000 view mark,” he added.

Major streaming services typically offer a lump-sum licensing deal, meaning filmmakers receive a one-time payment regardless of how many times their film is watched. Olyn flips this model on its head by allowing filmmakers to monetize directly based on viewership. 

“With Olyn, a filmmaker can still sell their rights to the U.S. market and use that to pre-fund the film, but then also capitalize on going direct-to-consumer in, say, Asia,” said Wood.

But could the platform be used by the adult film industry to distribute pornography? 

Jipa acknowledged the challenge: “Right now, this is not the tone we want to set, and it would be easy to attract that category,” she said. “At the beginning, we are setting the tone by ensuring that the films featured on Olyn are high quality.” 

“But in the long term, we aim to create a space where filmmakers, not the platform, decide what gets distributed,” she added. “We don’t want to act as gatekeepers. Our vision is to allow filmmakers to have full control over what they distribute, eventually moving to a full SaaS model.”

Olyn has so far raised only a small amount of funding — a total of $2.8 million — in a combination of $1.8 million from U.S. VC firm Hard Yaka and a number of angel investors.