About Yancey Strickler
Yancey Strickler is an American writer and entrepreneur best known as a co-founder of Kickstarter, the crowdfunding platform for creative projects, and as the author of the essay "The Dark Forest Theory of the Internet" and the book This Could Be Our Future. His work since Kickstarter has focused on what he calls infrastructure for creative life: tools, organizations and legal structures that help creative people work and earn together.
Strickler grew up in rural Virginia, became interested in journalism in high school, and studied English and literary and cultural studies at the College of William & Mary. He then moved to New York and worked as a music journalist, writing for publications including Spin and The Village Voice and for the music site eMusic.
In 2009 he co-founded Kickstarter, and he served as its chief executive from 2014 to 2017. In 2015 he co-founded The Creative Independent, a resource of practical and emotional advice for creative people, and in 2021 he co-founded Metalabel, a platform for releasing and selling work in small groups, inspired by independent record labels. In 2025 he introduced Artist Corporations, or A-Corps, a proposed legal structure for artists first presented at TED; his website reports that Colorado enacted an Artist Company Act in June 2026.
His 2019 book This Could Be Our Future, from Penguin Random House, argues for a society that looks beyond profit maximization as its main organizing principle and introduces Bentoism, a framework for decisions that weighs four perspectives: Now Me, Future Me, Now Us and Future Us. The same year, "The Dark Forest Theory of the Internet," first sent to a small newsletter list, spread widely; it described people retreating from the public, ad-driven internet into private spaces like group chats, newsletters and podcasts. He later turned it into The Dark Forest Anthology of the Internet (2024) with a group of fellow writers, and he continues to publish essays and a monthly newsletter on his website.
What Yancey Strickler is known for
- Co-founding Kickstarter
- "The Dark Forest Theory of the Internet" (2019)
- This Could Be Our Future and the Bentoism framework
- Metalabel and The Creative Independent
- Artist Corporations (A-Corps)
Works by Yancey Strickler
1 essay to practice
More notable works
Defining groupcore (opens in a new tab)
Essay · 2025
Defines groupcore, his term for the loose, rotating circles of collaboration the internet makes possible.
Starts from filmmaker Hollis Frampton's 1973 letter asking why everyone but the artist was paid, and traces how creative work gets compensated.
The Post-Individual (opens in a new tab)
Essay · 2024
A long essay that names post-individualism, his term for how computing and the internet are reshaping what it means to be an individual.
This Could Be Our Future
Book · 2019
Makes the case for a society that looks beyond profit as its core organizing principle and introduces the Bentoism decision framework.
The Dark Forest Anthology of the Internet
Book · 2024
An anthology expanding his dark forest essay, with contributions from Venkatesh Rao, Maggie Appleton and others.
Yancey Strickler’s writing style
Strickler combines practical business experience with ethical philosophy. His writing is characterized by clear frameworks for understanding value beyond financial metrics. He excels at presenting alternative economic models through accessible language.
- Big metaphor, borrowed and applied
- His best-known essay takes the dark forest idea from The Three-Body Problem and uses it as a lens on the internet, letting one image carry the whole argument.
- Short, declarative paragraphs
- He moves in brief paragraphs and single-sentence turns, such as "This is also what the internet is becoming: a dark forest."
- Coining terms
- He names the patterns he describes, from Bentoism to groupcore to A-Corps, then defines each one carefully, sometimes by saying what it is not.
- Self-referential examples
- He uses the piece itself as evidence, as when he notes that the dark forest essay was being sent privately to about 500 people.
- Builder's optimism
- Even critical essays tend to end in proposals for new structures, reflecting his work as a founder rather than only a commentator.
How to write like Yancey Strickler
Look for one strong metaphor that explains a change people can feel but haven't named, and build the essay around it. Strickler introduces the image plainly, explains it in a few sentences, then turns it with a single line onto the subject he cares about. After that, every example should fit inside the metaphor.
Keep paragraphs short and let key sentences stand alone. When you describe a new pattern, give it a name and define it, including what it is not, so readers can pick it up and use it. Use your own situation as evidence where it helps, and if you are critical of how things work, end with what could be built instead.
The quickest way to absorb these habits is to retype one of Yancey Strickler’s essays above, word for word, then write a paragraph of your own in the same voice. New to this? Read what copywork is and how to do it.
Frequently asked questions about Yancey Strickler
- Who is Yancey Strickler?
- Yancey Strickler is a writer and entrepreneur who co-founded Kickstarter in 2009 and was its CEO from 2014 to 2017. A former music journalist, he later co-founded The Creative Independent and Metalabel, wrote the book This Could Be Our Future (2019) and the essay "The Dark Forest Theory of the Internet," and introduced Artist Corporations.
- What is This Could Be Our Future about?
- This Could Be Our Future (2019) argues that society has come to treat financial maximization as its main goal and makes the case for a future that values more than profit. Strickler offers Bentoism as a practical tool for weighing decisions not just by immediate self-interest but by their effects on our future selves and on others.
- What is Bentoism?
- Bentoism is a decision-making framework Strickler introduced in This Could Be Our Future. It divides self-interest into four perspectives: Now Me, Future Me, Now Us and Future Us. The idea is to consider all four, rather than only short-term personal gain, when making choices.
- What is the Dark Forest Theory of the Internet?
- In a 2019 essay, Strickler borrowed the dark forest idea from Liu Cixin's science fiction to describe how people were retreating from the ads, tracking and trolling of the public internet into quieter, private spaces such as newsletters, podcasts, group chats and invite-only communities, which are non-indexed, non-optimized and non-gamified.
- What is Yancey Strickler's writing style?
- Strickler writes clear, compact essays built around a single strong metaphor or newly named concept. He uses short paragraphs and standalone sentences for emphasis, defines his terms carefully, and draws on his own experience as evidence. His tone is reflective but practical, and his essays usually point toward something that could be built.