[ Our team ]
Our team
Two people built this and we both built it because we got burned by the way this business normally runs. Dennis sold sponsorships for creators before he ever bought a single one for a brand, so he knows where the padding is hiding inside a rate, and he built the database of more than 700,000 sponsorships that we price every deal against now. Alice started two brands of her own and lost both of them, which is honestly the fastest way anybody learns what it feels like to spend your own money on an ad that goes nowhere.
So we built the agency the way we wish somebody had built it for us. Most agencies keep you in the dark, they only take brands that already have an in house influencer team, and the only thing they really know how to sell is wellness and supplements. We do the opposite of all that because we are a data company first, and what you pay extra for is the way we check people, the real rates the market is paying, and sales for each creator every single week instead of one summary at the end of the quarter.
We build the program around what you actually sell and that includes the regulated stuff and B2B, and when it has to be built from scratch we go and find the famous name that changes how your market sees you and we negotiate the whole thing from the ground up, which is why we spend so much of our time out in Los Angeles.
More than 50 brands so far, and more than 70 percent of them are still here past 90 days.
Dennis Ksendzov
Senior Partnerships Manager, Toronto, Canada
Brands were paying $30,000 for one sponsored video that did not hit a single KPI.
I am the numbers guy. I have been through a huge amount of data so I know what is normal for an industry, what is overpriced and what is underpriced, where the value is sitting and where you can buy low and sell high.
Along with one of the founders I helped build this agency into something that has worked with more than 50 brands, and most of them come back and buy again.
We built our own database and our own tools, and the bigger thing is we worked out how to measure what influencers do over a long stretch of time, including what it does to what a company is worth, how to get earned media out of a stunt, and how to run a creator dinner.
Before that I worked with YouTube creators directly at YouTube Advisor, helping them build their own products and make money off their audience. As a creative director I worked with fitness and health YouTubers like Football Fundamental and Ground Glory on their thumbnails and their hooks and the creative, so I know what goes into an ad that actually works.
When I am not working you will find me camping or learning a language or cooking.
Alice Ksendzova
CEO, Greater Toronto Area
I run Influencer Advisory and I have been kicking around this whole start your own thing world for a while now. My first one was an e-commerce brand that launched and just did not work, then the second one did start to grow but really slowly. After that I went into startups and helped grow the teams at a few names you might know, GetCove and Fireflies.ai and Fixon AI, which goes up against Stan Store, plus Willow, which is backed by Y Combinator, and a bunch of other creator startups. What I kept noticing was that partnerships were only ever a small slice of the work, so I figured I could help brands way more directly by doing this instead.
Most of my time now goes on the strategy, making sure the people you are trying to reach actually match the creative and the creators we are using.
What I am good at is getting customers in cheap and then getting the most out of them over time, with offers and promotions put in the right spot and a bit of automation behind it.
When I am not working you will find me at the beach or journaling.
Recording an episode with a creator
We run the podcast ourselves, so we are sat on the same side of the table as the creators we are asking a brand to pay.
Alice presenting the audience numbers at an industry talk
We run on data, which is why every number on this page comes out of a system we built and not a spreadsheet somebody kept by hand.
Working the Hourglass brand event inside Sephora
And we have got good relationships, the kind where a talent manager picks up the phone because they already know who we are.
At the MaRS District in Toronto, after a startup event.
At the co-working space, which is our office.
A guest on someone else's podcast.
Recording one of our own.
Running the desk while the episode records.
In the chair, on the other side of the microphone.
In the studio with a creator.
At Canarts Studios, where we record.
In the booth, on the other side of the glass.
Our own podcast, other people's stages, brand activations and the studio. Same two people in all of it.