Stan Launches $250k ‘Dare to Dream’ Challenge to Empower Self-Made Entrepreneurs
What if you could wake up tomorrow free from bills and spend the year building your dream business? This is your chance.
LOS ANGELES, Jan. 7, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — Maybe you’ve thought about ditching the 9-to-5. Maybe you’ve watched Creators build careers from nothing but a phone and an idea and wondered whether you could do it too. Maybe you’re stuck between what the American Dream used to promise and what your reality looks like now.
Enter the Dare to Dream Challenge. Stan, the all-in-one platform helping Entrepreneurs turn their knowledge into income, today announced the return of its flagship initiative. Now in its second year, Dare to Dream tackles the biggest obstacle for new Entrepreneurs: financial runway. The company is offering $100,000 to the grand winner, and $10,000 to each runner up, as well as mentorship, a subscription to Stan’s tools, and access to a community built to help them not only do well, but also do good.
“Dare to Dream is our mission manifest. We all grew up with very little, and now it’s our chance to pay it forward to the younger version of ourselves. I mean, giving out $250,000 to fund people pursuing their dreams?! How cool is that!?” said John Hu, Co-Founder and CEO of Stan. “We’re going to build Stan to be so good that it helps anyone, anywhere build an audience for themselves and then monetize it.”
Since 2021, more than $400 million has been earned by Creators on Stan through digital products, coaching, and memberships, evidence of a growing class of Creator-Entrepreneurs building sustainable online businesses. With 80,000 active Creators, the platform has become one of the most significant drivers of direct-to-consumer income in the space.
“The biggest thing Dare to Dream gave me was belief,” said Joel Roache, last year’s Grand Prize winner and a former engineer turned filmmaker whose short film on creative collaboration went viral after the 2025 challenge. “Winning gave me the safety net I needed to take real risks – to stop treating my dream like a side project and start building it for real. It gave me confidence, stability, and the push to bet on myself.”
With the Creator economy now valued at more than $250 billion globally, Stan continues to position itself as the platform built for the next era of work – one defined by autonomy, resilience, and community. Through Dare to Dream 2026, Stan aims to help more people turn possibility into purpose and dreams into sustainable, independent businesses.
Learn more or enter the Dare to Dream Challenge at stan.store/daretodream.
About Stan
Stan was built to empower anyone to work for themselves. The platform helps people build their personal brand, ideate content, and monetize their audience. Trusted by more than 80,000 Creator-Entrepreneurs, Stan makes it possible to turn expertise into income and grow a business on your own terms.
How to Enter
Step 1: If you have not already, sign up for a free trial for Stanley IG at stan.store/daretodream
Step 2: Upload a two-minute video to Instagram or TikTok that details how the Contest will impact your life, your community and your business, and how winning can promote the growth of your business. Ensure that you include the hashtag #StanDareToDream26 and tag @StanForCreators on Instagram or TikTok .
Step 3: Complete the form at daretodream.stan.store/form and provide your date of birth, place of residence, email address, social media handle and acknowledgment and agreement of these Official Rules.
Dare to Dream Challenge Rules
Read the Official Rules and learn more and enter the Dare to Dream Challenge at stan.store/daretodream. No purchases necessary. Void where prohibited. Open to legal residents of the United States (excluding Puerto Rico and all U.S. territories and possessions), Australia, Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Canada, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estoria, France, Finland, Germany, Greece, Hong Kong, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxemburg, Malta, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Singapore, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, United Arab Emirates (within a Free Zone Establishment), or United Kingdom and who are at least 18 years of age.
Dare to Dream Challenge Prizes
The grand prize winner will receive a $100,000 cash prize, a one year subscription to Stan Pro, Stanley IG and Stanley LinkedIn, 5 one-hour coaching sessions, and $5,000 advertising media spend per month for three months to be used to whitelist the Grand Prize Winner’s handle and promote their content and business through ads created and managed by Stan. An additional 5 runners up will each receive a $10,000 cash prize, a free one year subscription to either Stan Pro, Stanley IG or Stanley LinkedIn, and 5 one-hour coaching sessions. The ARV of all prizes is $250,000.
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SOURCE Stan
