Attention Capital is a research and credit infrastructure platform founded by Josh Stein. The platform develops the Attention Quality Score (AQS), a composite analytics framework for underwriting 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 currently operating as a registered investment adviser or offering securities. This site shares research and frameworks. Nothing here constitutes an offer to provide financial services or to sell any security.
Josh Stein's background includes leveraged finance at Bear Stearns, credit law at Cahill Gordon and Reindel, and senior operating roles at VICE Media, Univision/El Rey Network, Dr. Phil, and Guillermo del Toro's Mirada Studios. He is Co-Founder and President of Fewture 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.
This site shares research and frameworks. Nothing here constitutes an offer to provide financial services or to sell any security.
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.
A composite scoring and underwriting framework that normalizes platform-native signals into a comparable credit view. Retention curves, conversion reliability, platform dependency, content defensibility. Designed for risk assessment and ongoing monitoring, not engagement optimization.
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.
Bringing private credit discipline to an asset class that has been financed like venture but behaves like cash flow. The platform is in active development. This site is the public record of the thesis and the methodology as they evolve.
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.
The infrastructure for pricing attention is still emerging. Whoever builds the standards will shape how the next generation of media, entertainment, and creator businesses gets financed.
I build 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. Executive roles across Univision/El Rey Network, VICE Media, Dr. Phil, and Guillermo del Toro's Mirada Studios. Co-Founder and President of Fewture Studios, a venture studio partnering with creator-led platforms across content, experiences, games, and consumer IP.
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.