Clout Kitchen - 2/12

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📰 Today's Edition

Let's face it: going viral is the dream for any marketer.

But for most startups, capturing lightning in a bottle once, let alone repeatedly, feels about as realistic as hippocorn sightings.

That's why when a company like Cluey, founded by 21-year-old Columbia student Roy Lee, explodes from zero to $500K in monthly recurring revenue in just a couple of months, raises a $5.3 million seed round, and then quickly secures a $15 million Series A, people take notice.

Their secret is a team split evenly between builders and content creators with each creator bringing at least 100,000 followers to the table.

Most startups simply don't have the capital to hire an army of established creators.

And most VCs remain skeptical about viral marketing as a repeatable growth strategy.

It's really hard to know what posts are going to do really well, and it can be hard to attribute those posts to conversion since often viral content marketing is super top of the funnel and more focused on brand awareness than actual conversion.

So what's a cash-conscious startup to do?

Enter Clout Kitchen: The Virality Engine

This is where Clout Kitchen enters the picture – a Hustle Fund portfolio company that's changing the game by making viral marketing accessible and affordable for startups of all sizes.

Social media has fundamentally shifted from follower-based social graphs to algorithm-based distribution.

What does that mean for your marketing strategy?

It means success isn't just about who follows you anymore. It's about creating content that feeds the algorithm.

And not just one piece of content. Lots of variants, testing different:

• Text approaches

• Design elements

• Color schemes

• Music choices

By systematically testing these variables, Clout Kitchen has discovered something remarkable: virality becomes more predictable.

Instead of gambling on expensive influencers with uncertain returns, startups can now take a data-driven approach to content that spreads organically.

How Clout Kitchen Works: Clipping at Scale

Clout Kitchen has developed a surprisingly straightforward but powerful approach they call "Clipping."

Here's how it works:

1. Brands provide a content library (product demos, UGC, influencer videos, etc.)

2. Clout Kitchen connects these brands with thousands of content creators

3. Creators ("clippers") join campaigns and produce viral-optimized content following high-level guidelines

4. The platform tests multiple variants to see what resonates

5. The best-performing content gets amplified

What's particularly innovative is how they're gradually automating these guidelines, creating plug-and-play content formats that lower costs while maintaining effectiveness.

When Adriel Yong, one of Clout Kitchen's co-founders and a former VC, spoke with us, he shared an eye-opening comparison:

Traditional advertising often costs around $10 per 1,000 impressions (CPM).

Clout Kitchen? They're delivering the same reach at a fraction of the cost. We're talking millions of impressions at just one-tenth the price of conventional channels.

This is game-changing for startups in competitive markets who need to build brand equity without the massive war chests of their larger competitors.

B2B Decision-Makers Have Personal Lives Too

The people making B2B purchasing decisions don't spend all day on LinkedIn.

They're real humans who scroll through Instagram and TikTok in their personal time. This approach to viral content creation works surprisingly well for B2B startups too.

Clout Kitchen has already helped notable brands including Illenium (a well-known band), House of Feelings (a show), and &Friends Festival (the largest EDM festival in the Philippines) achieve remarkable results. They're delivering 5-10x more impressions than traditional influencer marketing at the same cost.

For startups, the model is refreshingly straightforward: buy credits, access AI features, and launch campaigns without the overhead of building an in-house viral content team.

The Future of Growth/Marketing is Distribution

The landscape of marketing is evolving rapidly. What Clout Kitchen represents is the democratization of viral marketing.

This isn't about replacing your entire marketing strategy with viral content. As we noted earlier, VCs still want to see predictable, repeatable growth channels when you're raising serious money.

But as one powerful tool in your growth arsenal? The ability to generate massive brand awareness at a fraction of traditional costs is hard to ignore.

What Clout Kitchen has recognized is that in today's algorithm-driven world, virality isn't just about creative lightning strikes. There's a science to it. One that can be tested, measured, and optimized.

For founders building in competitive spaces who need to make limited marketing dollars stretch further, this represents an exciting new frontier.

The viral success that once required massive teams and budgets is becoming increasingly accessible.

And that's something worth paying attention to.

-Dunky from Hustle Fund

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