Brief Product Overview: Sponsorship Marketplace & Social Network where Creators and Brands connect. Newsletters, Content Creators, Athletes & Podcasts post their rates to get paid. Live chat and socialize with brands & creators, join groups, partake in brand campaigns, and more.
What was the inspiration for building your Product?
Sponsora was born from a genuine desire to transform the world of brand-creator partnerships. Though not just creators, but makers and all forms of talent. As both a business owner of DTC brands and a past athlete, I saw a huge disconnect:In my e-commerce experience since 2011 & owning multiple consumer facing brands, I've witnessed the importance of connecting with the right creators who can authentically represent a brand. However, finding these creators, especially in niche markets, was a daunting task.Emailing and DMing thousands of creators for one of my brands, only to receive silence, made it clear that a more efficient way was needed for small brands like Vesta to reach content creation and sponsorship marketing goals.My experience as a past athlete in search of sponsors was often monotonous and depersonalized. It felt like a spreadsheet of athletes receiving generic discount codes rather than genuine sponsorships. This disconnect needed fixing.
What was the biggest challenge you faced while building your product?
Learning advanced WordPress functions & creating my own plugins and features. Integrating Stripe toa custom Connect webhook for a certain feature also took a while.
What was a key win you achieved while building your product?
Once the brand campaign system was in place, everything else was pretty easy compared to that
What did you use for your Tech Stack?
WordPress, JS, jQuery, PHP
How long did development initially take?
11
Months
How long did it take for you to get your first users after launching?
1
Days
What is your next goal for growth?
Growing the platform with Creators & simultaneously doing Brand outreach
What are your future plans for your product & company as a whole?
Would love to build Sponsora to 10,000 Creators and 1,000 Brands. Those are the numerical goals. End goal would be to get acquired I think
What's your favorite tech tool (Besides your own, of course)?
WordPress, duh!
Is there a fun fact or something you'd like everyone to know about you?
I come from a graphic design, printmaking & action sports background
Anyone you want to thank on your journey? Give them a shout out!
My friends & family and all of the indie hackers who I got inspiration from
Sponsora
