OnlyFans operates with just 42 employees despite 400 million users

Keily Blair, chief executive officer of OnlyFans, recently revealed that the company runs with only 42 full-time employees, despite having more than 400 million users worldwide and hosting almost 4 million content creators.

Talking to Jeff Berman on the Masters of Scale podcast during the November Web Summit in Lisbon, Blair described that the platform’s intentionally lean workforce is part of a planned approach to eliminate middle-management positions. She discussed the logic behind this strategy.

Company Overview and Revenue

Founded in 2016, OnlyFans is a subscription-based content platform generating almost $7 billion in yearly revenue. Berman explained that the company’s output as “very powerful” given its small team. Blair agreed, referring to her team a “pretty efficient bunch,” according to Business Insider.

Blair outlined the organization's hiring philosophy: “So we hire incredibly senior talent, and then we hire incredibly hungry junior talent, and we look for attitude and aptitude in hiring rather than experience.” She cited, “And we do not have that sort of squidgy layer of middle management in the middle, because nobody’s ever had a really good middle manager in my experience.”

She mentioned that several large companies incorrectly evaluate leaders by the number of employees reporting to them. At OnlyFans, Blair stated, performance, not team size, defines success.

“We’ve said to our teams, ‘You can be a team of one and deliver exceptional results, and that will be so valued,’” she described. She also mentioned that there is no “manager track” for career progression at the organization, and every employee is considered as an individual contributor.

CEO Background

Blair, who became CEO of OnlyFans in 2023 after working many years as a lawyer, also addressed the platform’s identity. While it started as a tool for creators to monetize paywalled content, OnlyFans is currently widely connected with adult and NSFW material. She highlighted that the company has 400 million users worldwide and 4 million content creators. She added that the organisational structure shows a broader trend in Big Tech, where middle-management positions have been minimized in recent years.

FAQs:

Q1. How many employees does OnlyFans have?
OnlyFans runs with just 42 full-time employees. Despite the small team, it supports millions of users globally.

Q2. How many users does OnlyFans have?
The platform has more than 400 million global users. It also hosts almost 4 million content creators.