We Bet on UGC Creators First. We Were Right. But Not Done.

When I started Popfly, the idea was simple:

Make it easier for brands to tap into the power of UGC creators...

Why? Because I kept seeing the same thing happen again and again: brands would spend six figures on polished content that looked beautiful… but didn’t perform. Meanwhile, a scrappy creator with an iPhone and a great hook was out here driving conversions, building community, and selling product.

UGC creators were doing more with less. And nobody was making it easier for brands to work with them at scale.

So we built Popfly to change that. We connected brands with creators who could make authentic, effective content that actually moved the needle - without all the chaos.

It worked.

Campaigns crushed. Brands came back. Creators got paid.

One of the first brands to give us a shot was ALPAKA. They make sleek, functional travel gear and UGC was the perfect fit. Their creators didn’t need slow-mo drone shots and expensive studios. They needed a backpack, a destination, and a story. The content they created was real, relatable, and incredibly effective in ads.

But after running a bunch of campaigns in those early days, I started hearing the same questions from brands over and over:

“Can these creators also post on their own channels?”
“Do you have affiliates who can actually drive sales?”
“Is there someone we can work with long-term and not just for one-off content?”

At first, I brushed it off. We were built for UGC. That was our thing. But the more I listened, the clearer it became: UGC was just the start.

What brands actually needed was a system. A way to work with the right mix of creators across their entire funnel. And what creators needed was a platform that didn’t just hand them a brief and a deadline, but opened up real opportunities to grow, influence, and earn.

So we started building for that.

ALPAKA was one of the first to lean in.

They went beyond UGC and started layering in:

• Paid influencer campaigns to launch new products
  
  
• An affiliate program to reward and scale top performers (and continues to absolutely CRUSH IT - see the insane stats here)
  
  
• Always-on content from a trusted group of creators
  
  

All of it? Still powered by Popfly.

And this is just the beginning.

We’re doubling down on what works, making it easier for brands to scale performance through creator partnerships. That includes building affiliate functionality right into the platform, so brands can seamlessly turn top creators into revenue-driving partners without needing a second tool.

Because the future of marketing isn’t just creator-led. It’s creator-connected. And we’re just getting started.

<3 Taylor

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