The plan is to rebuild the brand as a social hub for chefs and fans, blending professional programming with creator videos and one-click carts.
Aaron Day
Amaze, the creator-powered commerce platform, is buying the Food Channel, a long-running digital brand (unrelated to Food Network) that lived inside USA Today’s ecosystem and built a loyal following around recipes, live video and cooking culture. The deal pulls Amaze from pure platform into content ownership and, if chief executive Aaron Day has his way, into a more interactive, shoppable version of food media.
Day’s path into this moment wasn’t typical. He started in tech, ran a large printing business, then returned to software, including a stint helping integrate Canva across high-traffic platforms. That mix of operations and product thinking shows up in how he describes Amaze: a toolset that lets people move from “I have an idea” to “it’s for sale” in seconds across social and web. “We want to be the software engine that lets creators sell at the moment of inspiration,” he says. A quick proof point: within months of founding the company in 2021, Amaze signed Walmart and “took off quickly.” Day admits: “That validated us in every room we walked into.”
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Inside Amaze’s data, food creators kept popping. Day says the company sees more than 12m creator stores, with thousands of new sign-ups daily, and the food vertical has been “glaring” as under-served. At the same time, Food Channel’s tech home changed when its distribution relationship with USA Today changed. The majority owners asked Day for a modern platform; Amaze countered with a bigger idea: buy the brand, rebuild it and funnel a critical mass of food creators into it.
“We’ve announced an LOI and are already building phase one,” Day says. The plan is two-track. First, professional programming produced by Food Channel’s team and studio partners. Second, a social feed that surfaces creator videos alongside live shopping and tighter fan interaction. Think watch parties with chefs, recipe streams where you can buy the exact tools and ingredients and community spaces that feel more intimate than the big social platforms. “YouTube is great for reach. Food Channel can be where the relationship gets personal.”
Amaze is bullish on commerce that flows naturally from content. Day points to adjacent trends like Tastemade’s sale and the rise of micro-studios that host live creators city by city. The twist he wants to add is participatory shopping and feedback loops. Viewers can buy mid-stream, then share their own versions back to the original creator or chef. That two-way flow is designed to help smaller brands break through without burning budgets on paid media.
He offers a simple example. One yoga instructor may have 8,000 followers; 40,000 such instructors across Amaze add up to 8-10 million people who care about a lifestyle, not just a product. “Those communities are authentic. They will pick two or three products they actually believe in.” For emerging food brands, including healthier options that match changing habits, that authenticity can be a distribution model. Amaze wants Food Channel to be the front door for those matches.
Creators will not be told to abandon YouTube, TikTok or Instagram. Day says Amaze’s approach is about “keeping the reach, but adding depth.” Food Channel will give creators a place to host private watch parties, build paid or free micro-communities and sell directly to fans without breaking the flow of conversation. “YouTube is an amazing platform for reach,” he says, “but it doesn’t let you talk to your fans in an intimate way. Food Channel can be where that relationship gets personal.” Behind the scenes, Amaze’s tools will handle storefronts, fulfillment and real-time trend tracking, letting creators focus on their content rather than logistics.
Data is the quiet engine powering all of it. “We’re a massive data company,” Day says, noting that Amaze sees just shy of 2bn visits across creator stores each year. “When we see a trend – pumpkin spice, air-fryer bread, a new vegan frosting – we can build content around it within hours instead of months.” That speed is one reason the company went public: to fund creators through its own venture arm and pursue more acquisitions in categories where data shows clear momentum. “The data tells us where to go next,” Day says. “Food just happens to be one of the most passionate spaces we’ve ever seen.”
Food Channel has been around since 1989. In the week since the LOI was announced, Day says the team has heard from national grocers, CPG brands, chefs and fans offering to pitch in. The near-term mandate is to modernize the tech, protect what people love and make the experience more social. “The history is the foundation,” Day says. “The upgrade is giving fans a way to participate.”
If it works, the format could feel more like a living, always-on community than a traditional network, with live shows and one-click ingredient carts, after-hours Q&As for superfans, local creator takeovers and classroom-style streams where a dozen people cook the same dish together and share results. It is food media rebuilt around community energy and a checkout button that never feels bolted on.
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Amaze is careful to say it serves small and midsize brands first. That stance pairs neatly with Food Channel’s plan to be more open than prescriptive. Creators keep their audiences on the big platforms and gain a new, tighter venue to gather fans who want a deeper relationship. Brands get clear lanes into communities that genuinely care. And Food Channel gets a new shot at relevance without pretending to be its cable cousin.
Day sounds most excited about speed. With studios in-house and creators on tap, Food Channel can react in real-time to what the data shows people want to cook, taste and talk about next. “We can see what’s trending before it even hits social feeds. If we know thousands of people are searching for a fall sweater or a new soup recipe, we can spin up content around that trend almost instantly.”
For a category that lives and dies on what’s trending by dinner, that responsiveness could be the difference between another recipe site and a real food movement.
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