What Works for Startups Like Yours?

Victor Richie founded TrendPie in April 2015, an influencer marketing agency that connects brands (primarily app developers) with mid-tier influencers on Twitter and Instagram. Instead of paying influencers to post, TrendPie pays them per share at a CPM of $25 per 100,000 impressions, significantly reducing costs. The company grew from $330K in 2015 to $900K in 2016 while bootstrapping entirely from revenue, working with 75+ clients and ~1,000 influencers, with 50% client retention.

First customers: Direct outreach; Drunk Mode was their first client, an app for college students that aligned with their demographic from the start.

Funded Today is a crowdfunding agency co-founded by Zach Smith that has raised over $40 million for 300+ campaigns on Kickstarter and Indiegogo. The company started when Zach's consulting client proposed paying via revenue share instead of upfront fees, which evolved into a three-tiered service offering paid media, press landing, and cross-collaborations. With 31 remote employees and $8M in 2015 revenue, Funded Today takes a 30-35% percentage of funds raised and operates with a unique due diligence testing phase to predict campaign success.

First customers: Direct referral from small business consulting client who needed crowdfunding campaign management