SkillHQ now ships with no-KYC seller onboarding (60 seconds, PayPal payouts) and free skill support — here's why we changed direction
Hey IH 👋 — quick update from the SkillHQ build.
Six weeks ago I launched here as a paid-only marketplace for Claude Code SKILL.md packages with 85% revenue share and Stripe Connect KYC for sellers. Today we're shipping two changes that I think materially shift the product:
1. Starter tier — no KYC, 60-second seller onboarding
Default sellers no longer go through Stripe Connect verification. PayPal email is the only requirement. Live in under 60 seconds.
- 80% revenue share (was 85% with required KYC)
- PayPal payouts on demand: €20 minimum, 1 free per calendar month
- SkillHQ acts as Merchant of Record (we collect Stripe Tax, handle cross-border)
- Auto-upgrade to Pro tier (the original 85% / Stripe Connect setup) at the DAC7 threshold
2. Free skills supported
Sellers can publish €0 listings now. Free and paid live in the same catalog. Useful for audience building or for builders who want discoverability without monetizing.
Why we changed:
Almost every prospective seller conversation ended with the same objection: "I'd try this but I don't want to do full KYC just to find out if my skill will sell." That's a fair concern. Expected revenue from a brand-new listing doesn't justify a 30-minute compliance flow.
The original framing — paid-only, 85% revenue share, Stripe Connect for everyone — was built around the seller who already knows their skill is worth selling. That seller exists, but they're not the median seller. The median seller is testing the waters.
The Merchant of Record decision:
Letting Starter sellers skip KYC means SkillHQ becomes the legal seller-of-record for those transactions. That puts the tax/compliance burden on us, not on each individual seller. It's more work for us. It's a 5% commission swap (Starter 20% vs Pro 15%) to fund it.
The bet: more sellers listing → more catalog supply → more buyer interest → tier-upgrades when sellers cross DAC7 anyway. We'd rather take the marketplace economics than the compliance margin.
What hasn't changed:
- Anti-piracy fingerprinting on every install
- Multi-layered automated validation
- One-command CLI install for buyers
- 45+ countries supported
Honest ask:
For other marketplace builders here — has anyone else tried the MoR-for-default-tier model? Curious what edges I'm not anticipating, especially around tax remittance at scale and the Pro upgrade pathway.
For potential sellers — what's still in the way? If "no KYC + 60 seconds + free skills supported" still doesn't move you to list, I want to know what would.
