How Much Does It Cost To Start An Influencer Platform? (In 2024)

"The Big Talk has zero, and right away I spent three thousand dollars on a coach."

Tricia Brouk is the founder of The Big Talk Academy, a speaker and thought leadership incubator that has grown into a 7-figure company within three years.

"One of the ideas was to launch a platform that allowed pro players and influencers to make money while playing or engaging with their followers during live streams on Twitch. Basically, viewers would either get a free ticket or donate to increase their chances of paying for an opportunity to play together with the gaming celebrities during show matches. Our platform would take a small commission of the donations generating an additional revenue stream for creators. The idea looked intriguing, so I gathered a small team and launched an MVP before we raised our first funding for the project. That’s how we started Organization.GG in 2020-2021."

Dima Okhrimchuk is the founder of Drope.me, an AI-enabled influencer marketing platform that connects gaming companies, micro-streamers, and their communities in performance marketing campaigns.

"Starting this business with just $6,000 from my savings was a risk. Fortunately, the ongoing costs were minimal; initial hosting was under $100 per month, and other expenses totaled at most $500."

Spence Patterson is the founder of a SaaS paywall platform for content creators, launched in 2019, and which grew to generate between $125,000 - $142,000 in Monthly Recurring Revenue.

"Starting Costs: Office Setup: Rent and setup costs for a small office space in Dubai costed us $10,000. Equipment: Computers, software licenses, and office furniture was purchased for $7,000. Website Development: Initial version of the website was launched under the budget of $8,000. Legal and Licensing Fees: Registering the business in the UAE costed us $5,000. Marketing and Branding: Initial marketing materials and branding efforts were done under the budget $6,000. Total Approximate Starting Costs: $42,000."

Aun Ali is the founder of Aun Digital, a web design company in the UAE that offers a range of digital marketing and IT services.

"Because we built MM from scratch, our startup costs were very low, literally nothing more than a $12 USD domain registration fee and about $0.50/month of infrastructure costs."

Aleksey Weyman is the founder of Millennial Moderator, an online publication that shares valuable tips across various topics, attracting an average of $500/month in revenue and about 3000 monthly readers.

"A friend of mine who runs a Bid Consultancy business called Thornton & Lowe in Bolton offered to back me. He was willing to fund 6 months of the company if needed before it got on its own feet."

Matt Tomkin is the founder of Tao Digital Marketing, a search engine marketing specialist agency that has been profitable since day one and is now turning over £12-15k per month.

"In fact, launching our agency as a 100% remote-working based company reduced the initial starting costs, and opting for freelancers instead of hired workers helped us scaling up gradually and allowed us a certain degree of flexibility in business management. *In the first years, our costs have been mostly around freelancers and online tools.***"

Francesco and Valerio are the founders of Loop, an Online Advertising Agency that achieves $35K/Mo, focusing on Paid Advertising services and recently expanding to chatbot projects.

"Re: financing, this is my third company and I’ve bootstrapped all three. The first one I loaded up the credit cards. Startup two we had three co-founders and we all worked for free for a few years. Startup three it’s just me, and working for free isn’t enough. :) So it is out-of-pocket cash from me to fund the operation."

Brett Owens is the founder of Afluencer, an influencer marketing platform that matches brands with influencers and has grown rapidly since its inception.

"Since it's a cash flow positive business it took less than $10,000 to get started."

Vikas Chawla is the founder of Social Beat, a digital marketing agency that has grown significantly over the last decade.