Funnel teardown: Polar (Creator monetization and payments)
Founder(s): Birk Jernström and team

Polar bundled MoR plus creator monetization into a single sell. The funnel targets the open-source maintainer specifically.

TL;DR: Polar combined Merchant of Record payments with creator monetization features (subscriptions, sponsorships, licensing) and pointed the entire funnel at open-source maintainers. The lesson: bundling two compatible categories at a named buyer segment can create a category of one.

What they sell: A Merchant of Record platform with subscription, sponsorship, and licensing features designed for open-source maintainers and creators.
Who it's for: Open-source maintainers, creators, and indie developers who want monetization plus compliance without separately wiring Stripe and a tax platform.
Pricing: Percentage-based pricing per transaction with MoR included. Lower base percentage than some MoR alternatives in exchange for narrower feature surface (verified 2026-05-17).

Hook pattern: Named-segment bundle hook
The hero names open-source maintainers as the buyer and bundles payment, subscription, and sponsorship features at that named segment. A maintainer reading the page sees a tool built for them rather than for generic creators.

Story pattern: Maintainer narratives plus GitHub-native UX
The story is told through GitHub integration, repo-linked monetization, and maintainer-flavored examples. The product itself sits inside the maintainer's workflow, which functions as story by removing the friction the reader expects.

Offer pattern: Single price line for a bundled outcome
Pricing is a single percentage with MoR included. There is no per-feature breakdown to compare against Stripe, Lemon Squeezy, or GitHub Sponsors directly. The single line forces the buyer to evaluate on the bundle outcome.

What's working:
Named-segment positioning (open-source maintainers) makes the funnel feel custom-built.|GitHub-native integration removes a setup friction every maintainer expects to deal with.|MoR bundling escapes the per-transaction shootout against Stripe.|Simple percentage pricing collapses the comparison work into one number.|Creator-side and customer-side features (subscriptions, licensing, sponsorships) cover the multi-stream monetization the modern maintainer wants.

What to adapt:
If you can credibly serve a named buyer segment better than a generalist tool, lead the funnel with the named segment.|Bundle compatible categories under one price line to escape per-feature comparison.|Embed your product in your buyer's existing workflow surface (GitHub, Slack, Notion, Linear) rather than asking them to come to yours.

What to avoid:
Do not name a segment you cannot serve better than the generalist. The named-segment promise is fragile.|Do not bundle categories you do not ship at production quality. A bundle of mediocrities is worse than one good specialist tool.

Brunson lens:
Hook: Dream Customer naming (open-source maintainers) plus a New Opportunity (bundled monetization stack) — Brunson Expert Secrets canonical move.
Story: Workflow-embed story: the product sits inside the buyer's existing tool, so the story is the absence of friction.
Offer: Bundled outcome at a single price line — Brunson 'Stack' compressed to one number.
Value ladder tier: Front-end transactional core (per-payment MoR) plus subscription mechanics for sponsorships and recurring monetization.