In this week's @Inc42+ newsletter, #TheOutline, I spoke to about half a dozen creators, in an attempt to understand the possibilities and drivers of India's Newfound Passion Economy. https://inc42.com/features/the-outline-by-inc42-indias-newfound-passion-economy/

While the gig economy commoditised your skills, passion economy is focussing on monetising your individuality and personality.

eg: GOQii founder @vishalgondal Gondal hosts the podcast ‘The Vishal Gondal Show’, historian @vedicakant and engineer @anmolm_ co-write a newsletter 'Keeping Up With India’, veterans in the corporate world, @TheHolyKau and Anupriya Singhal run a blog 'gyaanokplease' and more.

Perhaps unsurprisingly these creators all have other day jobs. So what drove them to start these side projects? The answer is twofold.

@vivekraju93 and @zhr_jafri who run a newsletter called Simplanations said, “This is a way to showcase our skills (and strengthen them side-by-side) which has many soft benefits like meeting interesting people and finding potential future gigs.

Fintech executive @Rahul_J_Mathur too started InsurTech, a newsletter on insurance technology to gain ‘fresh engagement’ beyond his regular professional circle.

On the other hand, @RavBhatia who runs a podcast (Use Case) and a newsletter (Turnaround) on startups, said “The fact that every week I needed to prepare and research on a new topic to talk on with an expert VC/founder meant that I had to push myself to learn new things."

Similarly, @TheHolyKau and Anupriya Singhal, both senior level executives at large consumer companies, saw a gap in business and management education and started a blog. Subramanian says there is no plan to monetise the blog as it is simply their way of paying it forward.

Also, did a mapping of passion economy landscape. It is inspired by @ljin18 @a16z but have added some Indian platforms as well. :)

Is it possible to earn a living of your passion project?

In my interactions, one resounding reply to the monetisation question was that passion projects work better in niches.

something similar to what @kevin2kelly wrote about a decade ago. "To be a successful creator you don’t need millions of dollars or millions of customers, or millions of fans. To make a living as a creator... you need only thousands of true fans.”

@RavBhatia also pointed towards Kelly’s ‘1000 True Fans’ mantra when he said that passion projects are hardly meant to be mass products — it’s best to get a small niche capable of paying for one’s product.

@vivekraju93 and @zhr_jafri, who gained 2,000 subscribers for Simplanations in the past two months, also noted that once they gained a sizable reader base, they will try to convert a small percentage of the free readers into paying subscribers.

@a16z has also suggested a similar model for monetising passion projects.. start with building a sizeable reader base and then convert a portion of it to paid customers.

But will Indians pay for passion projects? Moreover, will passion economy flourish in a country where individual thought and expression are not usually rewarded?

Interestingly, @anmolm_ and @vedicakant newsletter ‘Keeping Up With India’ was started as an experiment to see if Indians would pay for curated content. Today, they have 400 subscribers on the paid WhatsApp newsletter, and 1300 subscribers on the free Substack publication.

However, Maini added that it’ll take some time before passion projects becomes a realistic career path in India. "I think currently there just aren’t enough people who pay for content in India. So mostly will remain a way for people to build up their brand and credibility."