Running the platform brands use to find their influencers
Kevin Creusy spends his days at the center of a market that most brands can no longer ignore. As co-founder and co-CEO of Upfluence, he helps run the software that companies use to discover creators, manage campaigns, pay influencers and measure whether any of it drove revenue. The platform now serves more than 1,600 clients and runs out of offices in New York, Lyon, Madrid and Mexico City.
His current focus is where influence meets commerce. Upfluence has leaned into eCommerce, building integrations with tools like Klaviyo and adding features that let brands turn their own influential customers into ambassadors. When ChatGPT arrived, Creusy folded it into the product's outreach system - a practical bet aimed at the thousands of hours brands spend writing to creators.
"Our clients spend thousands of hours each year communicating with influencers. By integrating AI-powered technology into our emailing system, we're saving countless hours and yielding better campaign outreach and ROI."
— Kevin Creusy, on Upfluence's ChatGPT integrationBetting that influencer marketing grew up
Creusy's core thesis is that influencer marketing has moved past vanity metrics into a measurable, revenue-driven channel. As eCommerce grew and marketing shifted online, he has argued, the tooling caught up: brands can now attribute results, track ROI and treat creators like any other performance channel.
That framing shapes the product. Upfluence positions itself for "data-centric marketers," folding influencer discovery, campaign management and payments into one system, and connecting to the eCommerce stacks brands already run. The message is consistent - data is the point, and influence is something you can actually count.
"Digital channels have changed how campaigns are run - with better performance insights and the ability to attribute success to different channels, making it easier to measure ROI."
— Kevin CreusyHow a side-project became a company
Upfluence did not start as a grand plan. In 2011 and 2012, Creusy and his co-founder Vivien Garnes were running a small e-commerce business on the side while holding day jobs. What worked, almost by accident, was reaching out to bloggers and sending them products for reviews. That signal pointed them toward influencer marketing, and Upfluence began life as an agency before growing a software arm.
Around 2016, Creusy shifted his attention to building out the SaaS division - the decision that turned a services business into a product company. By 2018, Upfluence had been named the fastest-growing influencer marketing company in the world by the Inc. 5000, with more than 1,200% growth over three years. Notably, the founders scaled without leaning on a large war chest of outside capital.
A serial founder before the platform
By the time Upfluence took off, Creusy had already started several companies. He launched his first at 20 - Pass Trio, a coupon service for students in Lyon. He co-founded Trip Nation, a travel network for backpackers, an idea that fit his own taste for backpacking. He ran Tieboo, selling handmade Italian ties, and helped launch what he has described as one of Europe's first tea and coffee subscription boxes.
His education tracks the same international, entrepreneurial streak: a master's in project management and development from ESDES Business School in Lyon, a stint at the Founder Institute in Silicon Valley, and study-abroad time at Anglia Ruskin University and Korea University. He is fluent in French, English and Spanish - a useful trait for a company built across four countries.
Hiring a Shakespearean actor to sell software
One detail says a lot about how Creusy thinks. To lead sales, he brought on a former Shakespearean actor - a choice rooted in the belief that selling is, at its heart, storytelling. It is an unusual hire for a data-first martech company, and a reminder that behind the dashboards and attribution models, Upfluence is still a business about persuasion.
That blend - hard metrics on one side, narrative craft on the other - runs through the company Creusy has built. The pitch is measurable ROI. The method, often, is a good story well told.