Creator-economy ad sales
An ad-sales firm for podcasters and YouTubers
We met the salespeople where the value was concrete on day one, and once the workflow they cared about was working, the data plumbing got built in behind it without anyone having to ask for it.
What we did, by area
Before
The client sells advertising on behalf of more than a hundred podcasters, YouTubers, and newsletter writers. Before we started, their data lived across hundreds of Airtable tables and Google Sheets, with thousands of automations layered on top, Airtable used as a notepad, Sheets used the same way, and nobody clear on which version of any record was actually true. It was costing them speed on RFPs, confidence in conversations with creators, and probably some deals they didn't even know they'd lost.
The first bet
Help the salespeople win an RFP without leaving their desk
We started where they could feel the value on day one. When a brand sends an RFP, the system reads it, finds the matching shows in the roster, and drafts a personalized vetting email to each creator the salesperson can send with one click. When the replies come back, the system reads those too and logs each creator's preferences forever. The data work happened underneath, where they didn't have to worry about it.
Where the leverage shows up
What the salespeople didn't have time to do, the system does in the background.
Always the right data
Before
Before, getting a list of available creators meant cross-checking three different Sheets and hoping nothing had changed since yesterday.
Now
Now the system pulls from the canonical roster every time, automatically. The salesperson never has to second-guess it.
Dozens of vetting emails at once
Before
Vetting used to mean writing one email at a time, by hand. A single RFP could eat a whole afternoon.
Now
A personalized email goes out to every relevant creator in parallel, drafted and ready to send with one click.
Custom rationalization that sells
Before
There was rarely time to write a tailored pitch, so most emails leaned on the same boilerplate.
Now
The system writes a real argument for why each creator fits this brand, written one creator at a time.
Custom research per creator
Before
Research was whatever the salesperson happened to remember, plus five minutes of Googling between calls.
Now
Each email comes with fresh facts, recent context, and the angle on why this creator is the right fit for this brand.
The data work happened underneath. The salespeople just got their afternoons back.
What we built next
A single source of truth
Behind the scenes, all the brand records, creator records, and inventory now live in one place. The platform-specific Airtables still exist, but they feed the main system, and nobody on the team has to think about that anymore.
A roster the brands can browse
Brands and ad agencies can log into a private gallery and see the full roster, filtered by what they're looking for. We built it almost by accident, because the data was already there.
Inventory in plain English
Salespeople can ask the system in normal English what's available, like 'show me all the podcasts about parenting that have a slot in March,' and the system answers because the data underneath knows what those words mean.
A creator dashboard
The creators we represent are getting their own login, where they can see their bookings, the talking points for each one, and what they've earned. This replaces the dozens of separate Airtable bases that used to track each creator individually, and it changes the relationship.
An assistant inside Slack
Sales reps can also do most of this from inside Slack now, adding an RFP, looking something up, or taking an action without opening a browser tab. Slack is where their work already happens, so meeting them there made sense.
What's now possible
The Slack assistant only works because the data and the workflows underneath it are already running. Without the months of unglamorous plumbing first, an agent in Slack would have been a demo nobody wanted to use. Now it's a tool the salespeople rely on without thinking about how it gets the answers it gets.
“We'd been trying to find a solution for that for years — this is perfect.”
Client executive
These are real quotes from real clients. We anonymize on the site until each one says yes to being named. Most are in the queue. References available now.