How to Work with Creators/Influencers (a different way)
Hey all - I see a lot of posts here (and even more on Reddit + founder forums) about working with influencers and creators. Why? Well, they control attention, and we all need it!
I used to run creators at adidas (there it’s anyone from an artist to an athlete to an influencer). After that I was at TikTok (where creators = the product - without them, the algo has nothing to match).
So I think about creators a lot! Even more now with @Meet-Ting as we try to find, build and get audience to stick.
Here are a few ways I think about creators outside of pure transactions, maybe useful to reframe how you work with them too:
Founding creators
At Ting we identified a handful of creators (top LinkedIn voices, 'KOLs' in their fields like sales, marketing, branding, freelancing) who we knew we wanted to work with long-term and who mapped closely to our ICP hypothesis.
We offered them fractional equity - so they had skin in the game and we stayed capital efficient.
It wasn’t just “here’s equity.” We presented creds (our Google backing, investment, team) and a vision. That helped them see upside and de-risk the trade-off of posting about us instead of another company and losing out on cash in the present.
R&D for storytelling
I said this on a podcast recently and the host liked it, so now I’m leaning into it: you can also consider creator calls as R&D for storytelling.
When you’re early-stage, talking to creators about your product is fascinating - because they immediately think about how to tell the story to their audience. That teaches you a ton about:
a) how to communicate clearly
b) what actually catches attention
Remember: to be a creator, you need command of audience + algorithm. That’s an elevated POV most startups don’t have in-house.
Audience
Obvious one, but worth saying: don’t chase views and impressions, chase quality views.
Look at the makeup of their following, engagement, activity. Do their followers trust them? Or is it a passive audience?
One of our creators posted about Ting and you could see the immediate trust convert directly into signups. That doesn’t happen unless you spend time reviewing their history deeply. Are they bot comments, real people, constantly a lot of engagement, is it hit or miss, do views/comments look on the up or down generally?
The real deal
If you pick the right creator for your product/audience, chances are they’re also a potential customer.
If they’re not using your product, it’s just a transaction. That can work (!) - but it’s better when they test and understand it first.
The content comes out stronger, plus they’ll give feedback and feature requests. Suddenly the “branding deal” turns into a product improvement conversation, so you can walk away feeling like you got an even sweeter deal.
Replies
Lancepilot
It's really solid breakdown, Dan. I like the “founding creators” idea treating them more like long-term partners vs just transactions feels way more sustainable. And that R&D for storytelling angle is gold. You’re right, creators see narratives we’d probably miss as founders. Thanks for sharing this perspective.
Meet-Ting
@priyankamandal 100%, also got an email the other day with the founder saying the five things they didn't like and what we could do better, was gold. Thanks for the good vibes and energy!
Really like the framing of creator calls as R&D for storytelling, I hadn’t thought about it that way before.
We haven’t worked with influencers yet at Escape Velocity AI (we’re still early), but I can already see how that angle would be valuable, especially since the product itself is about helping people structure and communicate strategy clearly.
Do you think this approach works better with niche creators who know the space deeply, or with broader voices who can simplify it for bigger audiences?
Meet-Ting
@andreitudor14 Escape Velocity AI is a great name! We went to what you would consider more niche creators, but still with a big following for those categories, so a well-known name in the UK marketing community or a Top Voice for EAs on LinkedIn. Right now we're looking for more deeply engaged users, so staying small and efficient works well, but could be totally different for some types of apps and products like a social media app getting an instant community from a big name could be healthy exercise.
@dbul That makes a lot of sense, going niche but still picking voices that carry weight in their category. Feels like the depth of engagement matters more than sheer reach, especially early on when you’re still shaping the story.
When you worked with those niche creators, did you involve them mainly for distribution, or did they also influence product direction/positioning through their feedback?
Ah, and thanks for appreciating the name! Let me know if you have time to check the product too, would be curious to hear your feedback/thoughts.
Meet-Ting
@andreitudor14 The main objective was about distribution so when we're ready we could quickly gain audience, but in the end the feedback was rich and them using the product meant they were very early, so developed into a bit of both, still focused on deliverables, at least from an equity agreement standpoint! What's the link, I can check out this weekend?
@dbul That sounds super smooth! Congrats on the approach 🔥
Also, thanks for wanting to check the product. The link is here: https://www.escape-velocity.tech/
And, if you have time, this is the (short) feedback form (helps us better understand your use case): https://forms.gle/GQfMQAVGoGMqeptt7
I'm curious how you approach situations where the creators you collaborate with don't deliver as expected, or as promised. Do you work with them again a couple more times before deciding to end the collaboration because, on paper, they still seem to be the right fit? Or if they don't deliver once, that's the moment you part ways?
Thanks for this opinion, really helpful!
Meet-Ting
@anastasiia_kiosieva Any time - hope it helps. Shout if any questions or need advice in any way!
Totally agree with everything you shared, Dan, especially about avoiding purely transactional relationships. When a creator genuinely connects with what you're building, it shows in how they talk about it and how their audience reacts. The part about using those conversations as R\&D for storytelling really resonated with me, creators often reflect back a much clearer, more powerful way to explain your product.
In my case, I’m part of Protofy. We have some presence on social media, and any collaboration we do is always based on trust, clarity, and being honest with the community. That approach has worked way better for us than any “loud” campaign. When there’s real alignment, everything else just flows.
Meet-Ting
@lacope Love, love, love this - 'when there's real alignment, everything else just flows' should be a slogan or strategic statement. I think your approach also reduces churn and gets to signal much quicker, we definitely made some mistakes and brought in people who wanted to take a look, but not stick around.
@dbul Absolutely, Dan — and I really appreciate you saying that. It’s not always easy to stick to that quieter, more genuine path when the loud tactics seem to win short-term. But in the long run, real alignment is what makes everything more sustainable and fulfilling. Also, thank you for sharing the missteps too — that’s honestly the most helpful part when you’re figuring things out along the way.