Alexa Speed, founder of Cut Off The Spigot, started out just like any other frustrated consumer, angry at money hungry corporations that will do anything for a dollar. Out of this frustration grew the opportunity to create real change, thus beginning the story of her platform. Through Cut Off The Spigot, Speed shares alternatives for all categories of badly behaving corporations. To learn more about Alexa Speed and Cut Off The Spigot, read on.

Where are you based?
Out of beautiful Brooklyn, NY.

Can you tell us a little about your background in digital and social media marketing?
Before starting Cut Off the Spigot in April 2025, I had worked for 15 years in marketing across various specialities with a focus on digital. I was a Social Media Subject Matter Expert for a couple years in one role, but also led social media advertising & content strategies across several companies/clients.

Working for advertising agencies and across my in-house roles I’ve touched a lot of industries — consumer packaged goods, health and financial services, defense contracting, publishing, tech, even a Kim Kardashian-endorsed cellphone case company. Having that broad exposure to many different types of business has given me the ability to quickly learn what’s essential across categories to provide good alternatives.

I’ve also worked at small start-up companies, massive multinational ones, and everything in between. That’s given me a good sense of what companies’ internal constraints are — for example, you may not be thinking about a diversity policy when you only have 25 employees, but if you’re a massive corporation you’ve had plenty of time to think about and promote diversity internally.

You’re the creator of Cut Off The Spigot. Can you tell us a bit about what it is and what inspired you to start it?
Cut Off the Spigot is a platform I built to share my research on alternatives to badly behaving companies, big corporations, and private equity firms. I publish category-by-category articles and video recaps to share options across everyday items, tech, and media.

I started Cut Off the Spigot because I was frustrated and angry. I had wanted to stop using Amazon for a while, but I never had the time to research alternatives when I was working full time. I quit my job in February 2025 to start my own business, but ended up pivoting to create Cut Off the Spigot instead. I was doing the research for myself and realized I could share this with people to make it easier for everyone. I had made newsletters and created video concepts for previous jobs, so I thought “why not try this?” and it’s really taken off from there.

Your main theme is finding alternative ways to spend one’s money to help support different populations and stop funding certain brands. Why is protesting with our dollars so important?
I think it’s one of the only things massive corporations and politicians pay attention to.

If you look at the enshittification of Amazon — it used to be an amazing company with great customer service — I loved Amazon 10+ years ago. But Amazon and the entire corporate business culture in the US feels like it’s shifted to get-rich-quick schemes, not making actual good products or services. Corporations care about being able to lock you into their ecosystem (often because they're the only choice due to consolidation or tech domination) and suck your money away. We see this enshittification in tech companies, like Google, whose search results were noticeably getting worse even back in 2023, but also in clothing quality, appliances, practically everything.

As one TikTok user (@sophs_space) put so succinctly — “It’s like these corporations are mad that they have to get through you to get to your money.”

On the political side, Trump’s administration is rampant with corruption — look at all the companies, especially tech giants, that lined up to donate to his ballroom. Even beyond Republicans, the centrist Democrats are more concerned with keeping their corporate donors happy than what people actually want. The only reason these corporations have power is because we give them our money or our data. By shifting to alternatives, we’re chipping away slowly but surely at their dominance.

Beyond the political or economic considerations, I think moving away from companies that make you frustrated and angry is good for your mental health! Shopping local, shopping small, repairing versus replacing, thrifting, and similar methods can bring more joy and happiness into your life. If every time you shop at Amazon you feel guilty and don’t really want to be doing it, even making small changes like reducing your overall shopping with them can help lift that mental burden.

How do you go about evaluating companies? Why are each of these criteria important for companies to hit?
I evaluate companies on four main categories — ownership, lobbying spend, DEI support, and ties to Israel.

Ownership: Who is benefiting from your purchase or platform usage? It’s important to follow the corporate ownership chain to see who’s actually getting your money at the end of the day. For example, a lot of people didn’t know Blink security cameras were also owned by Amazon, not just Ring.

Lobbying: If corporations or their leadership are turning around and using the profits from your spending to lobby the government for more pro-corporation policies while our basic needs as Americans aren’t being met, I think that’s a problem! Despite what the Supreme Court says, I don’t think corporations are people, and it’s important to see how much and on what they’re spending on lobbying.

DEI: Has a company removed their diversity policies because of political pressures? Do they have one clearly listed?

Ties to Israel: I define this as an Israeli-owned or funded company, the executives/owners of a company promoting or supporting Israel’s genocide, or if the company is included on the BDS boycott list. To be clear, I have nothing against the people of Israel that recognize what’s happening is genocide. In terms of recommendations though, unless an Israeli company or business has an incredibly clear public policy that states that they do not support the war, that Israel is committing genocide, and ideally something about how they are working to help Palestinians, I cannot be sure whether or not they’re complicit in the Israeli government’s actions.

Pro- and anti-union behavior, class-action lawsuits, and other controversies are also reviewed when available.

Why is it so important we hold companies and corporations accountable?
Because they won’t stop if we don’t!

If we keep giving them our money, what is their incentive to change? They only pay attention to their bottom line. Bad press, complaints of bad products or services, their own employees’ objections — none of these matter to the CEOs and leadership, they just keep focusing on increasing their profit and revenue. This leads to even more consolidation and lack of consumer power and options, which means increased company and monopolistic power and oligarchy.

How do you go about finding alternatives?
I start with a category, like TV/movie streaming, or focus on a specific company, like Spotify alternatives. This is informed by a mix of requests, what I see people talking about, and what I’m interested in for my own life.

I make a list of a bunch of potential alternatives from what people have shared with me, searching Reddit, and my own category knowledge if I have any. I also make a list of what is important for that category so when I go through I can make sure I’m evaluating on the right criteria.

From there I go into research mode and sort through the list of potentials into recommended, questionable, and not recommended. If I can’t find any good alternatives from my initial list, I go back and find more until there’s at least one decent option.

Why is it important we support local businesses owned by individuals from diverse backgrounds?
We’re only free when everyone is free! I want people from all backgrounds to thrive, and I think diverse options as a consumer gives us more choice. Think about going out to eat — do you only want burgers and fries restaurants, or would you want to have the option between burgers, Mexican, Indian, Middle Eastern, Brazilian, Peruvian, and other cuisines?

Beyond options, historically diverse businesses (women, Black, Latin, disabled, queer, etc owned/founded) have not gotten the funding or support that they deserve. The percentage of venture capital funds going to woman-only founded companies has stayed flat at 2-3% from 2015 to 2023, despite women continuing to be half the population. That drops further if you’re a minority — Black start-ups only received 1% of all venture capital funding in 2022.

What are some companies and/or streaming services we’d be surprised aren’t up to your evaluation standards?
Criterion Channel is one that I put in my “questionable” category that might be more surprising. Criterion’s billionaire owner since 2024, Steven Rales, made his money as a corporate raider in the 80s with his brother, aggressively cost-cutting at acquired companies. Rales’s stepdaughter, Amaryllis Fox Kennedy is married to RFK Jr’s son, Bobby Kennedy III, and was appointed by the Trump administration to be the Associate Director of the Office of Management and Budget for Intelligence and International Affairs and the Deputy Director of National Intelligence for Policy & Capabilities.

Rales does not seem to share his stepdaughter’s enthusiasm for the current administration, but it’s frustrating to me that a collection of some of the finest films is owned by a reclusive billionaire versus a non-profit or similar type organization that truly celebrates and upholds greatness in filmmaking. Beyond the ownership issues, they have historically done a terrible job with elevating black directors.

Why is physical media something we should invest more in?
Physical media is simple — you buy the record, CD, book, whatever, and its yours.

With digital media you’re generally held to the whims of the company you purchase or stream from. If you take streaming for example — your favorite TV show or movie franchise all of the sudden is gone because the streaming company reworked a licensing deal. Even if you purchase a digital copy of a movie, it may just be a “limited-license for viewing access”, not a digital copy you own forever. If you do have your own digital copies, you’re still at the whim of tech companies to be able to access those files in an easily viewable way like watching it on your TV.

Physical media cuts out all of that complexity and makes it yours in a much easier way. While you still may need a DVD or record player, you can get one of those fairly easily from a thrift store or second hand shop.

What do you hope your content inspires within viewers?
That change is possible and things can be different!

I hope that people can see that we’re not trapped to use only corporations that have no interest in making a decent product or service. There are alternatives — they may not be well-known, and sometimes may have some kinks, but they exist!

What advice do you have for someone who may not be able to cut a lot of these major companies out?
Give yourself grace! Everyone has a unique set of needs and you should focus on what you can change, not beat yourself up for not being perfect.

With Cut Off the Spigot there is no shame and blame game. You may live in a small town with limited local options, or may have a strict budget and can’t spend more for the alternative, or may be disabled and limited in what you can do or switch to based on your needs. That’s all okay — you do what you can, and don’t guilt yourself for not being able to do more. We’re all trying to survive and stay sane in this crazy world, so focus on what you can do, not what you can’t.

If people are unable to change their shopping habits for whatever reason but still have some bandwidth to help in other ways, that’s also incredibly important. Boycotting is only one piece of the resistance puzzle. You can connect more with local neighbors to build community and support networks, volunteer with local organizations, attend a protest, get involved in political organizing with groups like the Democratic Socialists of America or the Working Families Party, you could even run for local office yourself! These are all important things that we need to be doing in tandem with boycotting and shifting our spending.

Do you have any go to companies that might surprise others or are just your favorites?
That’s a hard one! I research so many different types of categories it really depends.

I love Qobuz and Radio Paradise. I’ve found a ton of amazing playlists curated by Qobuz, and it has a wide variety of international artists which I love. Radio Paradise is perfect for my indecisive AuDHD brain — I can just put it on instead of standing there for 10 minutes thinking about what I want to play. I’ve discovered and actually enjoyed listening to music way more with Qobuz and Radio Paradise than I did the last few years with Spotify.

Dropout is one of my favorite companies and I think they’re a shining example of what entertainment companies can be. Dropout profit shares with everyone involved — employees, talent, & crew, and they even pay for auditions! Their regular performers and shows are diverse in a multitude of ways, they actually make funny series instead of executive-note-laden garbage, and I’m so excited that they’re expanding into licensing and adult animation. Dropout focuses on comedy, but I wish there was a Dropout for dramas, mysteries, and other TV genres. (Though I do have alternatives for other genres too! 😊)

Source for Dropout info.

Are there any upcoming projects you are currently working on that we should be on the lookout for?
I’m kicking off my de-Google series this month, which will be a big project! In April it’ll be one year of Cut Off the Spigot, so there’ll be some exciting announcements to coincide with the anniversary.

It has been a crazy few years, and we expect at least three more. How have you been staying positive?
I am incredibly hopeful! I’ve seen through Cut Off the Spigot that there’s a lot of people that have never taken any political or boycotting action before who are becoming involved in resistance measures. People are waking up to the problems in our political system and corporate environment and want change. It may take time to fully enact that change in the way we want, but we’re getting more and more people on our side every day.

For my personal mental health, I get off my phone/social media/news/etc and touch grass. I’ve gotten into bird watching this past year — I love McGlorick Bird Club’s philosophy and approach. I look at the stars at night, I try to be outside more often even if it’s just going for a walk. It’s not anything crazy either, I live in New York City which is a heavily urban environment. But if you take a second to look around and actually observe your surroundings you can see so many things.

Learning about nature also gives me those glimmer moments — the world is a wonderful, beautiful, amazing, and fascinating place that us humans are only beginning to scratch the surface of. I recommend reading nature books An Immense World by Ed Yong, The Light Eaters by Zoe Schlanger, or The Color of North by Maggie M Fink and Shahir S Rizk.

I also love reading sci-fi and imagining completely different worlds, which I think is a healthy form of escapism. Semiosis is an amazing sci-fi novel that truly broadens your perspective.

What is your motto in life?
Excelsior! Latin for “ever upward.” To me, it embodies the idea that no matter what, you can move forward and learn from your experiences to grow and develop. Every experience is a step on your path forward, even the bad ones. It is also the New York State motto, which is where I learned it staring at the state flag in gym class 😂

I also love “Winter never fails to turn into spring.” It’s a quote from Nichiren Daishonin, the founder of Nichiren Buddhism, which I practice daily. I grew up outside of Buffalo with terrible winters that seemed like they would never end, but they did. Spring always came. It reminds me that even in the worst of times, spring will come.

To learn more about Alexa Speed, please check out the links below:
Cut Off The Spigot
Substack
Instagram: @cutoffthespigot
TikTok: @cutoffthespigot
BlueSky: @cutofthespigot.bsky.social
UpScrolled: @cutoffthespigot
YouTube: @CutOffTheSpigot

Alexa Speed: Cutting Off Careless Corporations