Attention Capital is a private credit platform founded by Josh Stein. The platform originates senior secured loans to creator economy and digital media businesses, publishes financial research, and provides underwriting and advisory services. Underwriting runs on the Attention Quality Score (AQS), a composite analytics framework for attention-driven businesses in the creator economy and media sectors. AQS measures three pillars: Durability, Cohesion, and Conversion. A proprietary underwriting framework.
Attention Capital is not a registered investment adviser and does not offer or sell securities. Nothing on this site constitutes an offer to sell any security or a solicitation of any investment.
Josh Stein's background includes leveraged finance at Bear Stearns, leveraged finance law at Cahill Gordon & Reindel, and senior operating roles at VICE Media, Univision/El Rey Network, Dr. Phil, and Guillermo del Toro's Mirada Studios.
AQS Research is the institutional intelligence product of Attention Capital. Reports apply the Attention Quality Score to live deals, M&A transactions, and credit situations. Reports are available individually starting at $750 or via annual subscription at $5,000 per year. Contact [email protected] for bespoke engagements.
The platform publishes long-form writing on attention as an asset class at attncap.substack.com and attncap.com/writing.
Private credit discipline applied to attention as an asset class. Audience behavior that repeats under stress is collateral. The rest is noise.
Nothing on this site constitutes an offer to sell any security or a solicitation of any investment.
Does attention persist without paid support or platform favors? A viewer who returns without a notification is working capital. One who needs a push costs money every time.
Is the audience a community or a crowd? Communities recover from disruption. Crowds disperse. A community that buys whatever you launch is collateral you can lend against.
Does behavior translate into cash across multiple revenue lines? Attention without action is noise. When you ask the audience to act, the response rate is the credit signal.
We originate senior secured loans to creator economy and digital media businesses. Facilities are sized to contracted revenue and proven audience behavior. Short duration, first lien, covenants tied to performance.
We advise lenders, allocators, and operators on underwriting methodology, credit structure, and the financial evaluation of attention-driven businesses. Diligence, risk assessment, and creditworthiness analysis under engagement.
A composite scoring and underwriting framework that normalizes platform-native signals into a comparable credit view. Retention curves, conversion reliability, platform dependency, content defensibility. Built for risk assessment and loan monitoring.
Short-duration structuring. Downside-first analysis. Covenant packages tied to behavioral triggers. The methodology of leveraged credit applied to audience behavior and cultural assets. Same logic, different collateral.
We also publish financial research applying the framework to live deals and credit situations. Private credit discipline applied to an asset class financed like venture but behaving like cash flow. This site is the public record of the thesis and the methodology.
Platforms are repricing distribution. Fragmentation is accelerating. The gap between durable attention and rented reach is widening. The companies and creators who own their audience will command premium valuations. The ones leasing it from algorithms will not.
The question is no longer whether attention is financeable. The question is how you price it.
AQS is the standard for pricing attention. Standards decide how the next generation of media, entertainment, and creator businesses gets financed.
I originate credit and structure businesses where attention determines enterprise value. My work centers on when audience behavior becomes durable enough to support capital structure, repeatability, and long-term ownership.
My background spans finance, law, and senior operating roles inside media businesses where revenue quality depends on repeat behavior. Leveraged finance at Bear Stearns. Leveraged finance lawyer at Cahill Gordon & Reindel. Executive roles across Univision/El Rey Network, VICE Media, Dr. Phil, and Guillermo del Toro's Mirada Studios.
The throughline is consistent: apply capital discipline to assets the market still treats loosely, and build businesses that last because behavior sustains them.
The methodology applied to live deals. Capital allocators, credit desks, media operators. From $750. Annual subscription at $5,000.