Turning Influencers to Investors (without the wire transfers)
I've seen a couple of influencer platforms around ecommerce, but very little or non exist for backing founders - closest is probably https://gigastar.io/. So I've been toying with an idea and finally built a rough version at kovant.club (bigger current concept at https://kovant.club/home).
The core concept is a closed club where founders get distribution without upfront cash, and influencers earn a royalty on the actual lifetime value of customers they refer – for up to 2 years. If the startup wins, the influencer wins big. If not, they still get 1/10x of the delivered value. The key is an SDK that tracks every referral's LTV over time primarily scoped to 3 months (still working out the maths).
The signal is intentionally high: founders would need a 60%+ score on something like https://www.build-check.com by @german_merlo1 and must also be referred by an existing influencer/founder.
Would love to get your honest takes. Of course it doesn't work for all influencers/founders but I feel it will genuinely help a lot of founders who have real value to offer.
Two questions I have for PH founders:
Would you pay a $500/yr membership fee + (waived to 250$/year with referral) for this kind of distribution?
Do you know an influencer today that could help promote your product but you never had a platform to encourage you approach them?
What model works best for you for influencer attributions e.g.
- base value for min total time spent +10% of money spent in first 3 mos by referral + actual usage/downstream referrals enhancers OR
- 20% of money spent in first 3 months as a base + total time spent and total money gained + as enhancers?
- Something else
Hope this is not too demanding but I appreciate every input/feedback.
Tagging a few folks whose opinions I'd love to hear - @aaronoleary @benln @chrismessina @fmerian, @byalexai, @thisiskp_, @rohanrecommends ..honestly anyone who's built or promoted something, I'd love your take.
Replies
ZeroHuman.
Interesting direction Opata. Let me give you the TweetHunter example: I was a huge fan of theirs.
@thibaultll is the genius behind it: strong programming and business chops, built the product with another dev. And JK Molina, who was growing his audience at an insane pace at the time, genuinely loved the product before any deal was on the table.
That's the foundation the partnership was built on. JK came in with equity as a real co-founder, not a promoter. His coaching business fed TweetHunter and vice versa. Separately, later on Tibo gave 17 creators 0.1% equity each with zero obligations: just hoping they'd share. 1.7% total given away. The company eventually exited to Lemlist in an 8-figure deal (up to $10M with earn-outs).
I've also seen this play out on the other side of the table: a friend of mine (business owners) wanted to get into the newsletter space. Instead of building an audience from scratch, they reached out to an influencer whose writing style they genuinely admired and offered him strong terms to come in as a partner. That newsletter is now at 250k subs.
Common thread in both cases: genuine fit between the creator and the product/business. The influencer actually wanted to be there. That's what makes these deals work, not the comp structure.
My honest read on your model: LTV-tracked royalties over 2 years assume the influencer will invest real time for backend upside. Most won't. The ones who will are basically co-founders in disguise and they pick products that fit their own thesis and audience, not ones gated behind a $500 membership.
I strongly believe in this kind of partnership (influencer-founder). Just not at this structure.
Thanks so much for this @byalexai
I actually align with you and I roughly believe the same. The best case scenarios work at 100% alignment like rooting for you. It's also possible to make the structure more flexible so the relationship fit can be fine tuned.. e.g. All In Option + where the founder has to explicitly agree to proposed term templates... But what if @thibaultll didn't know JK Molina... He may have still been able to find 3- 4 backers who will deliver the same result or more.. I'm open to different structures but not sure it's either here or there.
Fascinating concept for founder/influencer alignment!
Quick answers as a PH founder launching soon: Yes, I'd consider $500/yr (or $250 referred) for real distribution firepower. Definitely know edtech influencers I'd love to tap but haven't had a structured way. On models, lean toward 20% of first 3 months base + time/money/downstream enhancers.
Will check out kovant.club.
If you're up for it, launching The Sponge on PH soon...AI flashcard app that turns webpages into spaced repetition study material to make knowledge stick. Would appreciate a follow (PRODUCT HUNT LAUNCH link in profile).
@rianbrob Cool idea that could replace 'bookmark' and 'save for later' features... Feel it's probably better for financial/news digetss delvered by AI..