Influencer

Aidan Narcisse came to the US as an immigrant at age 20 with very little, but big ambitions. He found himself working at a large market research company where he saw a fundamental problem: market research was inefficient and expensive. Meanwhile, his business partner was experiencing similar frustrations at a sampling and marketing services company—an industry stuck in the past where brands desperately needed consumer feedback. In 2010, they decided to combine both worlds and build a platform that could simultaneously run product sampling campaigns, collect consumer insights, and generate marketing buzz.

The initial concept was straightforward: target consumers interested in product testing, send them samples, gather detailed feedback, and sell that insight to brands. But as they executed, something unexpected happened. Brands weren't just excited about the research data—they were thrilled about the social media buzz generated every time products were shipped to influencers. This insight triggered a pivot. The platform began evolving from a pure market research panel into a social media-powered network of micro-influencers (defined as anyone with a platform to share opinions about products). By the late 2010s, it had matured into a full product review platform.

Their acquisition strategy was elegant and unconventional: they simply gave away the first campaigns. "We signed on clients for free. We gave them free trials. We just said include your products in our box and we're not gonna charge you," Aidan explained. This worked brilliantly because it simultaneously grew their influencer network and proved ROI to brands. As trust built, those free trial customers converted into paying relationships. The recipe proved so effective that some of their early free customers—like L'Oreal—eventually became seven-figure annual relationships.

The platform's growth engine ran on two flywheels. First, every product campaign sent boxes to their influencer network, naturally acquiring new members at near-zero cost—revenue from brand campaigns actually funded member acquisition. Second, their massive library of 21 million user-generated product reviews became a moat; they recently launched a SaaS product allowing brands to syndicate these reviews onto their own sites, adding recurring revenue. On the acquisition side, typical brand contracts ran $80-150K annually, with top-tier relationships reaching seven figures. They were still experimenting with paid marketing (roughly $500K annually B2B budget) and event sponsorships, struggling to nail CAC metrics. By mid-2024, they had processed 2 million products in 12 months and generated billions of impressions across 150+ logos, running ~200 campaigns annually with repeat customer rates exceeding 90%.

With bootstrapped beginnings followed by a $1M friends-and-family round and an $8M Series A from Ebates in late 2015, Influencer had reached $12M in bookings and $10-11M in recognized revenue at their fiscal year midpoint (March 2024), tracking to $15-18M in bookings and $15-16M in revenue by year-end. That represented healthy growth from the previous year's ~$10M in revenue. Their team had grown to 65 people, mostly based in New York with satellite offices in Toronto and Chicago, plus some overseas engineers. Aidan remained obsessed with metrics—particularly their 10% month-over-month traffic growth—and deeply focused on three-year customer lifetime value. The simple formula remained powerful: sign prestigious brands at discounted rates to generate buzz and new members, let the flywheel compound, and gradually raise prices as relationships matured.