Info-Products Are Over
AI collapsed the value of generic information. The new creator economy separates commodified knowledge from operational systems. One is worthless. The other is your moat. Add some layers to your hustle.
TL;DR: AI collapsed the value of generic information. The new creator economy has three revenue layers: Free Content (audience), Paid Systems (battle-tested tools), and Physical Products (what AI can’t commoditize). Gary Vee calls it the Individual Empire. I’ve been building it since October.
This weekend, I showed you the receipts. I predicted the collapse of “niche down” and the rise of the Interest Graph three months before Gary Vaynerchuk confirmed it in his 2026 trends piece. (here’s that article’s link)
Today, I’m showing you the other half of what I saw coming back in October and November: the death of the info-product gold rush and the birth of the three-layer empire.
And just like the Interest Graph prediction, I didn’t learn this from Gary. I built VengaDragon around this thesis from day one. He just gave you permission to believe me.
What Gary Got Right (And What I Saw First)
Gary’s Trend #1 in his 2026 manifesto is called “The Individual Empire.” He argues that influencers are no longer just making money from brand deals and Patreon subscriptions. They’re launching consumer packaged goods. The Kelce brothers raised a $200 million valuation on their beer brand. Emma Chamberlain launched coffee. Charli D’Amelio sells popcorn.
Gary’s point is simple: creators with audiences can now build empires that extend beyond digital content into physical products.
He’s absolutely right. But here’s what he didn’t say clearly enough, and what I recognized months ago when I started building this publication.
The shift isn’t just about adding a CPG brand to your Instagram bio. It’s about understanding that AI has fundamentally restructured what has value in the creator economy. Generic information is now free. If someone can get a customized answer from Claude or ChatGPT in four seconds, why would they pay $27 for your PDF guide?
They wouldn’t.
The market for commodified knowledge collapsed the moment AI became accessible. If your revenue model is built on selling information that an AI can generate, you don’t have a business. You have a ticking clock.
The Three-Layer Empire (Content, Systems, Atoms)
When I started VengaDragon back in October and November, I knew two things were inevitable. The first was the Interest Graph replacing the Social Graph (I proved that prediction this weekend). The second was the collapse of the generic info-product model and the rise of what I now call the three-layer empire.
Here’s the stack:
Layer 1: Free Content (The Foundation)
This is the Magazine. The posts. The social presence. The content that builds audience, establishes trust, and creates the digital campfire where people gather. VengaDragon exists here. This layer never goes away. It’s the soil everything else grows from.
Layer 2: Paid Systems (The Infrastructure)
This isn’t selling “information.” This is selling operational architecture. Battle-tested tools. The exact protocols I use to run my business at 55-year-old wisdom with 35-year-old execution speed. The Review Analysis Protocol I just added to the VIP bundle isn’t a generic “how-to guide on product research.” It’s the actual manual-plus-AI workflow I use to identify validated product gaps in 15-30 minutes per category. That’s not theory. That’s infrastructure.
Layer 3: Physical Products (The Expansion)
This is where AI changes everything. In the old economy, launching a physical product required guesswork, massive capital, and crossing your fingers that 5,000 units would sell. Today, we don’t guess. We weaponize data. We analyze reviews for the “but I wish it had…” patterns. We examine viral video comments for the “where can I get that?” signals with no answer. We simulate demand before we manufacture a single unit. AI didn’t kill the physical product opportunity. It made it accessible to creators who know how to read the signals.
Gary calls this the Individual Empire. I call it operational reality. The creators who win in 2026 aren’t launching another course on how to use Notion. They’re using their digital foundation to launch products their audience is already asking for.
The 55/35 Advantage in the Empire Economy
This is where the 55/35 Protocol becomes the structural edge. The “55” (wisdom) remembers that real businesses have moats. You can’t right-click and save a bottle of olive oil or a custom mechanical keyboard. The “35” (speed) knows that AI just collapsed the barrier to entry for building these things.
Most 25-year-olds have execution speed but lack the pattern recognition to know which opportunities are real and which are shiny distractions. Most 55-year-olds have the wisdom but lack the operational stamina to ship at volume.
The 55/35 Protocol is the arbitrage. I know what to build because I’ve watched three decades of market cycles. I can execute at speed because AI handles the grunt work. Strategy is mine. Execution velocity is borrowed.
VengaDragon is the proof. Without the 55/35 Protocol, this publication wouldn’t exist. I’d have the ideas but not the stamina for a four-day-per-week publishing cadence. I’d have the frameworks but not the energy to format, research, and structure at scale.
The same principle applies to physical products. I can see the gaps because I have decades of consumer behavior pattern recognition. I can execute the research and manufacturing logistics because AI handles the data synthesis, supplier analysis, and operational workflows I no longer want to grind through manually.
Wisdom without speed is just expensive advice nobody acts on. Speed without wisdom is just noise at scale. The combination is the edge.
The New Revenue Reality
I’m not telling you to delete your Substack or abandon your digital presence. I’m certainly not deleting mine. VengaDragon is my digital foundation, and it always will be.
But I am telling you to stop pretending that selling repackaged Google searches in PDF form is a viable 2026 business model. It isn’t.
If you’re still trying to sell generic knowledge, you’re selling ice to people who own freezers. Stop. Sell them the freezer (the operational system they can’t build themselves) or sell them the drink (the physical product they’re already asking for).
The empire isn’t one or the other. It’s the stack. Content feeds the audience. Systems monetize the operators who want your exact tools. Products scale revenue into markets AI can’t commoditize.
Gary Vee just told you this is the future. I’ve been building it since October. The only question now is whether you’re going to keep theorizing or start stacking.
Question for the comments: If you had to turn your current audience into a physical product they’re already asking for, what would it be? What gap are they telling you exists?
VIP ACCESS
I don’t sell information. I sell operational systems.
Paid subscribers get instant access to three foundational PDFs on AI strategy, plus one new exclusive protocol every month (dropped today!) and content that never hits the free feed.
This month’s protocol: the Review Analysis Protocol I use to identify validated product gaps in 15-30 minutes per category. It’s live in the VIP server and ready to download now.
You can subscribe for free and still get value. But if you want to support VengaDragon and get the actual infrastructure I use to operate at 55/35 speed, the VIP tier is where that lives.
See you in the comments and around the community.
-Venga! Mark