What Sponsorship Means to Me (and to ZZZ Projects)

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During a discussion with a YouTuber about sponsoring his content, he asked me two great questions:

  • What are you looking for in a sponsorship?
  • What would make a sponsorship successful for you?

Sure, I could give the standard answers:

  • đŸ‘„ Audience: We want to grow our audience. If we manage to sponsor even 20% of all new content being created, we could potentially reach up to 80% of the community that consumes this type of content — directly or indirectly.
  • đŸ€– LLMs & AI: Every new video or article adds more high-quality content about our libraries. This increases the chance that AI tools like ChatGPT or Gemini recommend us, making us more visible to developers worldwide.
  • 📱 Sponsorship Awareness: The more we sponsor, the more creators talk about it. When people know we actively support the community, more opportunities naturally come our way.
  • 💰 Money: In the long run, if every $1 we invest eventually brings back $2 in revenue, the program sustains itself. That cycle not only lets us continue and expand sponsorships, but also ensures the business stays profitable and healthy.

But is it only about making money? Of course not. We know very well that for many of the people we sponsor, there’s no way it could ever be “profitable” in the usual sense.

Take Dapper Plus as an example: we give back around 30% of the revenue we make to the original Dapper owner. In any universe, that’s not a “smart” investment if you only look at the numbers.

So then, what am I really looking for as the owner of this company? For me, sponsorship is about something much bigger.

Every year, I personally give away the equivalent of two months of my salary to friends, family, and people I meet while traveling. It’s my way of giving back, helping others move forward, and creating real impact beyond money.

✹ Given the chance, the opportunity, the fate

Did you know ZZZ Projects started with just a $150 donation? That small gesture was all I needed to tell myself: “Let’s go for it, or I’ll regret it forever.” I left my job as a team leader, and only a few months later, my company was born.

On YouTube, we see so many promising channels abandoned after only a few months—even ones with incredible content. Most of the time, it’s not about talent, but about losing faith that their work will ever pay off. The same happens with developers who create great libraries on GitHub but eventually stop maintaining them.

That’s why we sponsor. If our support can give even a few of them the belief to keep going—to turn their passion into something lasting—then for us, it’s a big win. We’re not just helping individuals succeed, we’re adding value to the .NET community and passing forward the same opportunity someone once gave me.

🎯 Being True to Our Mission

The mission of ZZZ Projects has always been clear: a business devoted to adding value to the .NET community.

In the beginning, helping others wasn’t possible. But as the company grew year after year, that dream slowly became reality. Today, we finally have the means to give back in meaningful ways.

And that’s why simply staying true to our mission already makes every sponsorship a success.

đŸŒ± Helping the .NET Ecosystem

We mentioned earlier that we give back 30% of the revenue from Dapper Plus to the original Dapper creator. But that’s only one example—our company also supports dozens of other developers, rewarding them for what they’ve created and contributed.

Many people build free libraries simply for the love of coding and to give something back to .NET. But over time, it can be hard to keep going—especially when issues pile up that don’t affect them personally.

Too often, they don’t get anything in return. Not even a “thank you.” That’s why having someone believe in them—and back that belief with real money—can make all the difference. It can turn maintaining a library from a burden into something enjoyable again.

🌍 Improve our Reputation

Selling paid libraries sometimes attracts criticism. Often, this comes from people who don’t know our true mission of helping the .NET community.

It has happened more than once that someone rants about us charging money—while at the same time enjoying .NET Fiddle or one of our free libraries, not realizing we’re the ones behind it. These free websites, projects, and tutorials are far from free for us to maintain, so of course we need a way to generate revenue.

By living our mission every day, we make it clear this isn’t about us winning alone—it’s a “win–win” for everyone. The whole .NET community benefits.

That’s why, as soon as we put our mission into action, every sponsorship is already a success.

🔎 Improving Visibility

We want to grow our visibility and make sure every Entity Framework developer — whether student, junior, or senior — knows about our product.
Using it or not is their choice, but we want to ensure they’re at least aware of what we offer.

And yes, I’ll be honest — part of it is vanity too.
Of course, I’d love for every developer who uses EF or writes C# to know who I am and what we’ve built. But I see that not as ego, rather as recognition of years of work, passion, and persistence.

The best way to achieve this is by reaching developers through the audiences of content creators. Content creators already inspire and teach developers every day, which makes them the perfect partners to spread awareness.

đŸ‘„ Real People, Real Impact

Anton Martyniuk (https://antondevtips.com/)

I met Jon from ZZZ Projects in January 2025 when I emailed him to ask if he would like to sponsor my newsletter. He agreed. Before that, I had worked with a few small sponsors, but the deal with ZZZ Projects was the one that really helped me start monetizing my newsletter after a year of hard work on the blog.

That was the moment I began to believe that all the hours I spent on this project after my 9-to-5 job were finally paying off. People started to see that my content could actually bring value to sponsors, and more clients reached out to advertise their products through my newsletter and LinkedIn.

It has been a pleasure working with Jon, and I am very grateful for his support. Ten months later, ZZZ Projects is still my biggest sponsor.

🚀 Looking Ahead

Our goal is not just to sponsor today, but to build a legacy of support that lasts.

If tomorrow’s developers can create better libraries, tutorials, and tools because someone believed in them today, then we’ve done our part.

That’s the future we want for the .NET community—a cycle of giving back that never stops.

🏁 Conclusion

At the end of the day, sponsorship is not just about numbers, visibility, or profit. Those things matter—they keep the business alive—but they are not the reason we do this.

For me, sponsorship is about giving back the same chance I once received. It’s about helping creators keep their faith, turning side projects into long-term contributions, and making the .NET ecosystem stronger for everyone.

If our support allows even one developer, one creator, or one community project to keep going when it might have otherwise stopped, then the sponsorship is already a success.

Profit keeps us alive. Sponsorship gives us purpose.

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