Building a $10 million-a-year business in just 24 months sounds like a silicon valley pipe dream, but for David Park, founder of Jenni AI, it was the result of a precise, repeatable short-form video engine. In the modern creator economy for startups, growth isn't about massive ad budgets; it's about mastering the art of distribution through creators who understand how to manipulate the algorithm. This guide breaks down the exact tactical playbook Jenni AI used to scale from zero to millions of users by rethinking the traditional influencer marketing strategy.
The 'Lead Account' Hack: Algorithmic Discovery
Most marketers start their search for influencers by browsing generic databases or looking at the top charts. David Park’s approach is different. He suggests a method called the 'Lead Account' hack. To find truly effective leads, you first need to gather your "ingredients" by understanding exactly what your users are already watching on platforms like TikTok and Instagram.
Start by explicitly asking your existing users for their social media handles. Once you have a handful of users, look at who they follow. Find 3-5 influencers who overlap across your user base. This is where the hack begins: create a completely fresh social media account dedicated solely to research. Follow those 3-5 creators and nothing else. Within minutes, the platform’s algorithm will begin serving you "suggested similar accounts."
"The most boring part of the process—researching who your users follow—will save you months of work and increase your odds of virality by a significant margin."
By using the algorithm to do your sourcing, you ensure that the influencers you find are already being favored by the discovery engine. These creators are "hot leads" because they are currently appearing on the For You Pages (FYP) of your target demographic. This is far more effective than manually searching hashtags like #edtech or #AI, which often return saturated or outdated accounts. Using an AI search engine can also help identify these high-growth creators across multiple platforms simultaneously.
Ceiling vs. Floor: Optimizing for Virality
When evaluating creators, most brands look at the "floor"—the average number of views a creator gets per post. They want consistency. However, the Jenni AI influencer marketing strategy flips this on its head. In the world of short-form video, you aren't paying for averages; you are optimizing for the ceiling.
A "high ceiling" creator is someone who has shown the ability to hit 1 million, 2 million, or 10 million views on a single video, even if their average is much lower. Because the cost of an influencer is often tied to their follower count or average views, creators with high volatility are often undervalued. One viral hit from a high-ceiling creator can drive more conversions than 50 "consistent" posts from a mid-tier influencer. You can track these peaks using Google Analytics to see how specific viral spikes correlate with site traffic.
| Metric Type | Focus | Why it Matters for Startups |
|---|---|---|
| The Floor | Average Views (e.g., 10k-20k) | Predictable but rarely provides the 10x ROI needed for rapid scale. |
| The Ceiling | Peak Performance (e.g., 2M+ views) | One viral hit can pay for the entire month's marketing budget. |
When vetting, look at their sponsored content specifically. If their organic videos get 500k views but their sponsored videos consistently flop at 5k, they likely don't know how to integrate a product naturally. You want creators whose sponsored content maintains the same "high ceiling" potential as their organic posts. Using platforms like Stormy AI allows founders to quickly vet these creators, detecting fake followers and analyzing engagement quality before a single dollar is spent.
Outreach Frameworks: The DM and Email Combo
The biggest barrier to influencer negotiation tactics is actually getting a response. David Park notes that many creators are not "business people"—they are artists who may not check their professional email every day. To double your response rates, you must use a multi-channel approach combining personalized emails with direct messages (DMs).
Effective influencer outreach templates should be concise, tailored, and demonstrate genuine fandom. Avoid cold, corporate language. Instead of mentioning your fundraising round or TechCrunch features—which creators don't care about—focus on their content. Mention a specific video, a specific message they shared, or a recurring joke in their feed.
"The hardest part of influencer marketing was always yesterday. You are constantly learning how to write better emails and spreading the word about your product."
When you send an email through a tool like Lemlist or Instantly, follow it up immediately with an Instagram DM. A simple message like: "Hey [Name], huge fan of your series on [Topic]. Just sent a detailed partnership proposal to your email! Would love to chat about working together on Jenni AI," can move you to the top of their inbox. Tools like Stormy AI can streamline this by automating the discovery of creator emails and managing the follow-up sequences so you can focus on the actual deal-making.
The Jenni AI Negotiation Tactic: Unbundling the Deal
Negotiation is where most startups lose their margin. The Jenni AI method involves a "reverse engineering" approach to pricing. Instead of asking for a flat fee for a "package," ask the creator for their most expensive, all-inclusive price. This usually includes exclusivity (they won't work with competitors), usage rights (you can use the video for ads), and a permanent link in bio.
Once you have that high anchor price, start removing the items you don't actually need. Most startups don't need 12 months of exclusivity or full usage rights for every single video. By stripping these away, you can often drive the base cost down by 30-50% while still getting the core value: the post on their feed. You can manage these contracts and deal stages in a specialized Notion workspace or a dedicated creator CRM.
Another powerful tactic is the multi-platform upsell. If a creator is posting a Reel, they likely also have a TikTok and YouTube Shorts presence. Offer an additional 20-30% on top of the base fee to have them repost the same video to those other platforms. It’s minimal work for the creator but doubles or triples your reach for a fraction of the cost.
Structuring Performance-Based Incentives
To align incentives, Jenni AI avoids paying 100% of the fee upfront. Instead, they structure deals where the creator has "skin in the game." This can be done through a 50/50 split (half upfront, half upon delivery) or by adding performance bonuses. These bonuses are the secret sauce of the creator economy for startups.
- Conversion Bonuses: Use a unique coupon code or a tracking link from a tool like AppsFlyer or Adjust. Offer a fixed dollar amount for every new subscriber.
- LTV-Based Bonuses: Offer the creator 20-30% of the Lifetime Value (LTV) for every customer they bring in, tracked via Stripe.
- View Incentives: If a video hits a certain milestone (e.g., 100k views), trigger an automatic bonus payment.
This ensures the creator doesn't just "phone it in." When they know a viral video could double their payout, they put more effort into the hook, the editing, and the call to action. For long-term scale, many brands transition these successful influencers into in-house UGC creators, paying a stable base salary (typically $2,000–$5,000/month) plus these performance incentives. Payments can be handled seamlessly through LemonSqueezy or similar platforms.
Milking Virality: The Series Strategy
The most shocking part of the Jenni AI playbook is what happens after a video goes viral. Most brands move on to the next idea. Jenni AI milks the discovery. If a specific format—like their famous "POV: You have an essay due" series—works, they don't change it. They recreate it with slight variations over and over again.
David Park explains that humans are creatures of habit. If they liked a video of someone running to their computer to use AI at a library, they will likely like a version of that same video set at a restaurant or while walking a dog. Jenni AI posted the same core concept twice a week for six months, generating hundreds of millions of views and over half a million dollars in revenue from a single "hook." Editors often use CapCut to quickly iterate on these viral templates.
"You don't need a hundred viral ideas. You need one viral series that you can milk into 100x the initial views by tweaking one small variable at a time."
Once a series is proven, you can scale it using a multi-account strategy. Create accounts for different regions (Jenni AI USA, Jenni AI Germany, Jenni AI Mandarin) and have different creators perform the exact same script. The power of a viral format often transcends language and culture, much like the global growth strategies documented by Shopify.
Conclusion: The compounding power of effort
Winning at influencer marketing is not about luck; it’s about putting in the extra effort that competitors avoid. Finding the rising stars before they have agents, writing personalized scripts that match a creator's unique voice, and meticulously tracking which hooks convert into users is what builds a $10M engine. While the first few partnerships might feel painful or result in losses, the data you gain is invaluable. You only need one amazing influencer partnership to make up for ten failed ones.
By combining these tactical influencer negotiation tactics with a focus on high-ceiling virality and performance-based rewards, any startup can build a distribution channel that rivals the world’s biggest brands. Start your journey today by sourcing your first "ingredients" and building the relationships that will define your brand's growth.