Vicky Boudreau noticed a significant gap in the market: connecting major brands with content creators with fewer than 10,000 followers. As CEO and co-founder of Heylist, she’s developed a platform that connects these authentic voices with companies seeking genuine brand advocates.

Building on PR Expertise and Community

Vicky’s first venture, bicom, a PR and marketing firm operating in Montreal, Toronto, Paris, and New York, provided crucial insights into managing influencer campaigns. The shift from PR to a tech startup presented unexpected challenges.

“It’s my second business, so I thought this was going to be a walk in the park,” Vicky says. “I had two to three days to decide, and now I have two to three minutes. With all the algorithms, everything changed so fast that you must always be on the tip of your toes.”

Heylist emerged from practical challenges in campaign management. “We tested many tools; some were doing the research, others tracking and reporting, but we couldn’t find one solution that would do what we’re doing in Excel sheet from A to Z,” Vicky explains. “That was one of the first signals, and the other one was that we started as a pilot project to activate what we called early year on nano Influencers.”

Heylist distinguishes itself through its community-building approach. “Try to call someone who doesn’t know you have their number; they’re not likely to respond and want to collaborate with you,” Vicky notes. “We are more of a community. People register, and they give us access to their data freely.”

The platform reflects Vicky’s marketing expertise. “We’re marketers ourselves, so we’re building what we would have loved to have access to,” she explains. Developing a product from a user’s perspective differs greatly from many people surfing on the influencer marketing trend and the market opportunity.”

She highlights Heylist’s practicality: “Sometimes what you see is super techy and very deep, but it doesn’t make sense for the user, or the product is beautiful, but it’s not useful.”

Discovering the Power of Nano-Influencers

The platform’s focus on smaller creators yielded unexpected results. “At the beginning, I was telling them we’re going raw, the pictures will be so-so, and there will be typos. But the pictures were beautiful, there were no mistakes, and the content was amazing,” Vicky shares. “Early on, people saw that as a great way to get the UGC with authentic voices and feedback.”

This success demonstrated the value of smaller creators. “There are more and more people who see the value that they’re bringing to brands, and many clients are super interested in talking to them, but they’re harder to find,” Vicky says. “They’re not necessarily very used to doing that, so we’re helping them with the platform and all the steps to guide them in creating their content.”

Different influencer tiers serve distinct purposes. “As a marketer, I like to say that I believe in all types of influencers if my clients can afford it,” Vicky notes. “I still suggest that you have one big spokesperson, experts, like dermatologists for skin care, and regular product users. Nano influencers are part of the marketing mix.”

Left to right: Heylist founders Alex Borgia (CTO), Vicky Boudreau, Nico LeBlanc (CXO) 

The effectiveness varies by product category. “Celebrity influencers are very aspirational,” Vicky explains. “But if I have a zit, I want to know what my best friend used as a product to fix it. Tech – you don’t want to know what the tech journalist thinks about the new iPhone. You want to know if the battery is going to last.”

Market maturity affects nano influencer impact. “There are some markets [U.S., UK, France] where influencer marketing is more mature,” Vicky observes. “I see a lot of opportunities in North Africa, Morocco, and Tunisia, where the big brands are starting to invest heavily and where the women are empowering themselves by becoming influencers. There will always be smaller creators somewhere rising, but today, some markets are already more mature.”

Streamlining Creator Campaigns

Heylist’s sophisticated filtering system enables precise targeting. Vicky shares that the startup recently found 300 people with dandruff in 24 hours. “The client was like, ‘Oh my, how am I gonna find TikTokers with dandruff?’ And we’re like, ‘We have 300 of them.'”

The platform guides users through structured campaigns. “Afterwards, we prepare a brief, so there are very segmented key messages. A mood board about the brand is also created, and of course, compensation,” Vicky explains. 

“The brief is sent to the influencers,” she adds. “They have 72 hours to say yes or no. If they decline, other people get invited from your first pick, and then the campaign starts, and it’s all tracked with the calendars.”

Heylist preserves ephemeral content: “When they create the content, it’s all gathered in the platform in real time because we’re connected to their social,” Vicky says. “One amazing thing is that we capture stories forever. Instagram Stories disappear, and we can capture and keep them. On [our] platform, it’s all gathered, and the report is automated.”

The platform addresses payment delays: “We implemented Stripe, and we pay influencers within 48 hours,” Vicky notes. “Working with big corporations, people would get paid 30, 60, or 90 days later. For the creators, it’s one of the great assets we’re providing them.”

Product seeding is strategic: “One of our approaches differs from what many clients tend to do themselves… they blind seed, and then they send all these boxes to people who might not be interested.

Vicky explains, “One of the key things is that nobody gets a package if they don’t agree to create content for it first. So I would say the rate of people that say yes, get something, and post about it would be 90%.”

Heylist offers additional support services: “Let’s say a client comes and says, ‘Oh, I want to do a Christmas campaign, and my team is overwhelmed.’ I have an internal team who can still do white glove service,” Vicky says. “If someone wants a campaign and they don’t have the bandwidth or want to test it, we can take it.”

Creating Economic Opportunities

The expanding creator economy presents significant potential. “I think [it will reach] $24 billion globally this year,” Vicky notes. “If we can take a bit of that and have people earn a few hundred bucks a month, that is a game changer for them. That’s why I’m doing all these hours of work.”

Heylist prioritizes diversity: “Our database is super inclusive. We ensure that we gather all types of profiles from body diversity to ethnicity to gender,” Vicky emphasizes. “We want to be inclusive so your brand will speak through these real people. Those messages will be shared via authentic people.”

With a team that’s 70% female, including technical roles, Heylist develops AI thoughtfully: “We’re working on providing suggestions of influencers like influencer recommendation, but not based on the person’s look, but on the audience,” Vicky shares. 

“We want to ensure we’re working on diversity and inclusivity, even by providing lists that people would have not necessarily picked solely based on the looks,” she notes.

International Expansion

Heylist’s growth continues as the startup closes its first deals in the U.S. 

“We already have some influencers organically registered in the U.S.,” Vicky reveals. “It’s very interesting because we’re online. We’re having people register from across the globe.”

Her mission extends beyond platform growth: “I would like the industry to be more structured. I feel like there’s still a lot of people being taken advantage of,” Vicky says. “I would like to honestly democratize this industry and allow as many people as possible to monetize their image.”

“I would like to invite people curious about content creation to get started,” she says. “You don’t need the 50,000 followers, or you don’t need to be a perfect videographer… give it a try. Everyone is an influencer today.”