Hi from a flight traveling from Wisconsin -> New York!
I lecture at the University of Wisconsin-Madison (shoutout Big-10) business school once and it’s my favvvvorite way to give back. On Friday, I spoke to ~200 juniors and seniors in, Morgridge Auditorium, the largest hall in the business school.
When I was in college, I wish someone had shown (okay, forced) a different point of view in my sight.
I wish I knew that you could build anything on your own and make it category-defining and world-changing.
That some personalities aren’t meant for the corporate world.
That there’s more out there for you, and you might not even know it.
I wrapped all of this into a lecture on pricing and how we’re iterating on our product at Knight Vision.
But here’s what’s stayed the same across three years of lecturing:
Only 1 to 3 students (out of ~200) are actively building a company
Zero tell me they’re considering dropping out to pursue a company
As always, they’re deeply curious but their exposure to what building actually looks like is still so limited
And that’s why this matters.
We need to keep doing our part to make students understand our world of startups and show up for them.
Time and time again, kids line up after my lecture to tell me they relate. And every semester I can’t wait to come back.
Everyone has their own journey. The reason I go back is to share my POV and give students as much exposure as possible.
P.S. I bite my tongue when I consider telling people to drop out (not sure how well that would go over with the school haha). And truthfully, I’m not sure how into the dropout narrative I am. College will teach you a lot about who you are and how to socialize = figure out how to get deals done.
Lecturing on Friday at the University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Business
Every company needs to build an authentic distribution moat. This is a highly used lever in B2C and is now just transferring to B2B.
A custom creator program that functions in-house growth lever is my absolute favorite tried-and-tested way to get there.
Let me break down for you exactly what this means and what it looks like (in terms that are relevant to all of us building companies).
Creator: A person or page online who has followers who trust their POV about a topic. Creators influence behavior, like how people think and what they buy.
B2B Creator: An operator or expert with a highly concentrated audience of professionals who all work in the same industry or have the same interests. Their content influences business decisions, product adoption and category narrative (vs. just consumer purchases). For example:
Wall Street Oasis: 700K followers, mostly finance
Audience makeup: Analysts, associates, IB/PE/VC track
Used by: fintech companies, finance recruiting firms
Kyle Poyar: 80K newsletter subs, mostly GTM and product-focused
Audience makeup: marketers, founders, PMs
Customers include: ChartMogul, Airops
Sebastian Jefferies: 700K IG followers, all about Gen AI workflows
Audience makeup: AI engineers, video editors
Customers include: Google & Adobe
Btw, I love and know all 3 of these people, so ask me if you want an intro!
Creator Program: Operating a hand-selected group of creators, on a contract and budget, to consistently produce content that drives demand and brings in qualified customers
It’s easy to find creators. It’s hard to find good creators who drive truly retentive customers at strong prices.
When Tyler came to Knight Vision & we started building together, we hit this lever hard and fast. We’re obsessed and were literally talking about it just tonight, too:
B2B creators compress the entire funnel. They build trust, create demand, and drive qualified customers all in one motion… and they do it at a velocity you cannot replicate with paid or traditional SDRs. Once you see the quality of customer a creator brings in, you can’t unsee it.
Here are the top 3 things you need to do to make sure creators stick around:
Find creators who are organic fans of your product.
This always ups the incentive for them to work with you. If you are earlier stage, expose a creator to your product with a free account and see if it sticks.
How:
Search who is already talking about it
Through existing users
Or ask creators on intro calls if they know/like your product
On your initial outreach when you propose working together, they will likely respond and let you know their thoughts about the product.
Payment aligns with your incentive:
Top creators will always charge flat fee. This is very negotiable, esp if they want to work with your brand (because you have a good reputation)
How:
Bake in affiliate commission to incentivize upside and more posting
Incentivize bonuses based on # of pieces of content made
Customize the content they make for you:
Get ad & usage rights (shoutout Brian from beehiiv who hammers this home), full stats from the creator, a long product mention vs. just a short lil shoutout
Platforms matter: Know if a long-form YouTube video showing off your product and breaking it down (YES, even for B2B) converts more customers vs. a newsletter integration
How:
Define platforms upfront in the contract
Ask the creators which platforms they think will be most successful for your goal (customer acquisition vs. brand building) and use their engagement stats
Most creators have a media kit where they feature past work and stats like impressions and engagement. Ask for this. If they don’t have one, ask what their best channels are + for number of subscribers/followers, average views, CTR, and audience demographics.
You should outright ask the creator if you think your brand would be a good fit for customer acquisition. They will tell you since they don’t want low-performing content, either.
Okay, cool. Now I’ll walk you through two creator programs I custom-built for 2 hot companies.
Citizen (B2C mainly; some B2B/B2G): Built from zero while running marketing, starting with a Google spreadsheet
Creator Type: 100+ highly trafficked and trusted local city account pages, like
Street People of Los Angeles (we started working tg when he was at 150K; he’s now at 715K!!!)
NY Scoop (started working together when he was at 40K; now he’s at 300K)
Program turned out to be one of the highest company growth levers ever for so many reasons (will explain below)
Made it into every board deck & was a favorite for my cool partners at 8VC, Greycroft, Goodwater
(Hi to all VCs from those firms reading!! You guys rock)
Spoke to board members’ other founders & heads of marketing about it and how to recreate across their products
beehiiv (B2B): Currently building, sourcing, negotiating, closing all creator deals through Knight Vision.
65%+ response rate to all creator reachouts
20M+ followers combined across creators currently signed and set to flight, all with followers that fit the ICP (ideal customer profile)
Super sick creators that are now migrating and/or deepening their relationship with beehiiv and <3 us, like Gohar Khan and School of Hard Knocks
Do I give my personal cell number out to too many creators? Probably lol.
Is it easier for us to all text, close deals, become friends, and build together….100%.
B2B creators will specialize in a vertical (GTM, finance, AI, SaaS, engineering, product) and their followers hold budget, authority and even influence inside meaningful companies.
Creator programs are the highest ROI initiatives I’ve seen B2B companies invest in recently.
I know that because the creators tell me their B2B acquisition stats from their videos and lead magnets (and the brands lock them in for quarters, not one-off deals).
If you aren’t doing this, you’re behind.
Why Should You Care and Spend $ Here?
Before creators: you’re shouting into feeds with paid ads or burning founder leads
After creators: your ICP hears your name repeatedly from voices they trust
Here are the top reasons why building a creator program is where you want to invest and grow:
The creator already has an audience filled with your ICP
CACs are typically lower than paid ads
People already trust these creators = feels organic + authentic
Creator content lives forever and resurfaces naturally via long-tail discovery on most media platforms (vs. paid ads or sales reps, where deals die once momentum stops)
Deeper overall ecosystem penetration bc they are trusted voices here
Perfect example users & your larger customer base can mimic their work
Army of voices with growing followers that can be activated for product launches, in-person events, testimonials, landing page content, etc.
Creators generate demand where little or none existed (great for seed stage) and bring content to why someone should care, vs. a “sign up now” paid ad
B2B creators now explain faster and more clearly than any consultant.
B2B creator content starts with trust baked in because the creator has already earned credibility with their audience through value, insight, and proven experience.
The moment you sign a B2B creator, you’re buying exclusivity of attention. If they’re telling your story, you can automatically mute your competitors to their audience.
This locks in differentiation you cannot replicate through paid media alone.
So many B2C brands missed this window with lifestyle influencers and had to overpay later.
B2B is about to hit the same curve.
Right now, the B2B creator world is just getting started. Current creators are:
underpriced
undervalued
growing fast
signing long-term partnerships
Brands that lock in early will ride the upside for years. Just look at the growth in the creators I signed at Citizen vs. where they are now (detailed above, in sum ~5B+ impressions more YoY).
I am seeing the growth stats from these B2B creators firsthand while building out this program at beehiiv.
They are quitting lucrative jobs to make more content (newsletters, podcasts, YouTube series, LinkedIn content) for B2B customers because everyone wants to consume it.
You need to be smart about your marketing budget, pay attention and lock in now.
Well, How’d I Do:
Your competitors are not waiting for you. They are already paying creators, locking in distribution, and owning the mindshare in your category.
2026 is right around the corner.
The top B2B companies are thinking smarter, harder and trying growth levers that have both short-term and long-term gains.
As you map out your 2026 budget, it’s critical for you to know that your competitors are investing in creators and capturing B2B revenue.
Repeatedly showing up alongside voices of authority and growing trusted sources is one of the most killer ways to seed your product into the market.
If you have any questions on B2B creator programs or are considering a B2B creator program, reply here. I’ll walk you through how to structure it, who to target, and how to scale it.
I hope you have an incredible and productive week ahead.
Julia
