As co-founder and CEO of Lionize, Chris Buetti has built an AI-powered platform that makes influencer marketing more accessible and measurable for businesses of all sizes. By combining his expertise in data science with practical market needs, Chris developed a solution that streamlines how brands and creators collaborate.

From NBA Interview to Innovation

Chris’s path to founding Lionize began during his interview process at the NBA in 2018. “As part of my interview for the NBA, they told me to do a project that revolved around programming and coding, but they left the topic up to me,” he recalls. “At first, I was going to do something more basketball-related, but I realized that’s probably what everyone else is doing. So maybe I could try to be more unique.”

The project gained significant attention. “It went pretty viral. It was on BuzzFeed, Cheddar, NPR, etc.,” he explains. “I had many people reaching out to me saying, ‘Hey, this tool you built, we want to use it, we want to buy it, we want to license it.’ That’s when I realized the market for this type of thing was big.” 

This response prompted Chris to take action: “I decided to leave my dream job in 2019 and pursue it. And that’s how we got to where we are today.”

Recognizing Market Opportunities

Chris launched his influencer marketing platform when the industry showed significant growth potential. While existing platforms concentrated on celebrity-level influencers, he identified opportunities in the expanding micro-influencer segment.

“Back in 2017/18, when you heard the word social media influencer, you only thought about the celebrities: the Kim Kardashians and the Logan Pauls of the world,” Chris explains. “But then social media became very prevalent, and everyone started to be considered a potential influencer because people started garnering followers in specific areas.”

“Whether it was like a local dance teacher or a baker or someone showing off their knitting or karate or something like that, they had very curated audiences,” he notes. “Although they never considered themselves influencers, many companies and brands wanted to work with them and tap into them.”

The issue became apparent: “These potential influencers were hard to find. They weren’t very educated on how to work with a brand and weren’t signed up for the existing platforms. The process of trying to work with them is challenging. You have to spend time looking for them, reach out to them on your own, and explain what you want them to do.”

Innovation Through AI: Introducing Lilly

Lionize’s key innovation is Lilly, an AI influencer recruiter and manager who automates time-consuming aspects of influencer marketing. 

“Lilly is doing all the work you would normally do on another platform,” Chris explains. “Lilly is going out and sourcing the influencers, reaching out to them, speaking with them, answering all their questions, showing you the interested influencers, and negotiating on your behalf.”

The platform differs significantly from traditional influencer marketplaces. “We’re not this just closed marketplace,” Chris points out. “Many things that exist have brands on one side and influencers on the other, and they work together in that ecosystem. That’s not how we handle things because finding micro influencers most likely wouldn’t be on those platforms.”

This automation produces significant results. “We have a client that’s had over 300 creators post about their product with that trust Lilly setting, and they haven’t even needed to log into the platform,” Chris shares. “You could sit back and watch all these creators post about your product, talking about your product without you even having to lift a finger.”

Balancing Automation with Human Oversight

The platform maintains human oversight while maximizing efficiency. “We have Lilly and other campaign tools to get it to the point where you, as the user, have to check it and give approval,” Chris explains. “So, we do all the work and then just flash it in front of you and say, ‘Good’ or ‘Not good, do you want to change it?’ And if it’s the former, then we handle the rest.”

Chris adds that the platform is “very hands-off.” “We’ve figured out how to scale working with these non-professional creators, the creators that have only done this once or never before. We have done this for so long that we know exactly where the confusion may be, their questions, and what they’re looking for upfront. We could run that process with it, and our brands can sit back and relax.”

The platform significantly reduces workload: “To work with thousands of influencers would take 50 times the amount of work on another platform,” notes. “Although they’re there for you, working with those creators on other platforms is still a lot of work. On our platform, you only have to onboard, sign up, fill out a couple of forms, sit back, wait for Lilly to show you the potential creators, and either approve or deny them.”

Technology Built on Real Data

Lionize distinguishes itself through its foundation in practical AI applications. “I know AI is a trendy buzzword nowadays, and many people throw it around without having anything,” Chris notes. “I would say we’re one of the unique companies in the space in that our founders came from a real AI background. We were doing AI before all these cool models like ChatGPT came along.”

“The most important thing in an AI or machine learning model is not the model itself; it’s the data you can use to power it,” Chris explains. “You could have the best model ever, but if it doesn’t have the data to support it, it won’t do anything that impressive. Having done this with thousands of brands, run tens of thousands of campaigns with hundreds of thousands of creators, we’re sitting on a lot of data that no one else can access.”

According to Chris, Lionize shows sophisticated understanding: “Our system can recognize if a new brand is looking to sell products in a saturated market and get creative in how it pushes those products. It will create a holiday fashion guide where you give ten holiday gift suggestions, one of them being the product you’re selling. That’s much more creative than just sending it to an influencer and getting them to talk about how great it is.”

Simplifying Creator Engagement

Lionize prioritizes accessibility for creators. “When we originally built the product, we saw that we’re working with smaller creators that haven’t done this before,” Chris explains. “As soon as you require the creator to create this big profile, perform two-factor authentication, fill out their page, etc., there are many drop-offs. They don’t want to do that again, especially if they don’t know this will result in anything.”

Chris notes that Lionize streamlines communication: “Our system can do everything over email and text with the influencers. First, we email them. If they’re interested, we get their phone numbers, and Lilly then texts and emails these people. It automatically creates a little profile on our account, but they don’t need to spend all this time looking and logging into it.”

“We pride ourselves on being able to find a grandma who uses social media, who has never done this before and doesn’t want to spend the time creating a profile or signing up,” he adds. “It’s very streamlined and could pull all the information needed from their conversations.”

Impact Beyond Metrics

For Chris, success means creating efficient processes at scale. “My goal is to make working with many influencers easy,” he says. “If I see a brand came on our platform, spent hours and hours on it, and only worked with two creators, that’s a terrible sign. Even if they might have gotten a good ROI monetarily.”

He shares a success story about a food product client: “They use influencers in local areas to go into stores and create content around making a trip to Whole Foods to buy their product. They’ve been able to generate enough buzz around it not only to get acceptance in every single trial store but also to have the CEO of one of these major chains reach out to them and ask, ‘What’s going on here? Why are all these people parading around our stores?'”

Strategic Approach to Creator Partnerships

Looking toward future developments, Chris highlights strategic planning over basic execution. “Working with influencers is just the vehicle,” he notes. “Many brands have seen a news headline or heard somewhere that influencer marketing has this high ROI, and it definitely does, but it doesn’t just stop at partnering with an influencer and sending them a product and calling it there. It still requires a strategy.”

His guidance for new brands? “You need to prioritize which is the most important for you: revenue, content, or brand awareness,” he explains. “If you choose ROI and sales, you need to put yourself in the shoes of a consumer and say, if I saw this, would I run to the store and buy it?”

Chris concludes with a call for greater recognition of creator contributions: “Many people think, ‘This person made money for posting something on social media.’ For these creators, it’s a full-time job. They’re working on it from sunrise to sundown. They’re spending a lot of time doing it, creating good content, and engaging with their audience. Many people don’t understand that. It’s difficult, and they should be valued for their work.”