“Reviews are great for digital word of mouth,” explains Vanessa Franz, founder and CEO of Privy Reviews. “They’re powerful because brands are basically putting their opinion and reputation online.”

For Vanessa, this is exactly what the creator economy has been missing. 

Founded in 2021, Privy Reviews aims to become the “Rotten Tomatoes for creators” – a platform where brands can share honest feedback about their experiences working with influencers and content creators while creators build credibility through verified testimonials.

The Vancouver-based startup emerged from Vanessa’s firsthand experience with a significant challenge in influencer marketing. As a digital marketing professional helping brands transition to online operations during the pandemic, she consistently encountered a pressing question: how to effectively evaluate creators before hiring them for campaigns.

“In 2020, many of my clients suddenly had to close their doors,” Vanessa recalls. “We really started to heavily rely on influencers and creators to make content to help them monetize and get eyes and brand awareness on them.” However, there was no systematic method to assess creators’ reliability and work quality beforehand.

“I really kept coming across the same pain point so many times,” Vanessa explains. “Being on that digital marketing side and knowing how to market a business, how we market a business is collect reviews in order to gain credibility and trust.”

After discovering that a similar platform had briefly existed in 2016 but was discontinued when its founder pursued other opportunities, Vanessa recognized the opportunity to address this market need.

How Privy Reviews Works

At its core, Privy Reviews offers creators a free landing page to collect and showcase reviews from brands they’ve collaborated with. “Our database of creators is free to view, searchable by anybody. You do not have to sign up, you do not have to pay,” Vanessa emphasizes. “We wanted to make it very easy for anybody to read reviews on creators and influencers. We don’t want to pay wall or gatekeep it in any way.”

The platform’s architecture prioritizes transparency while maintaining robust protections for all users. Every review must come from a verified brand account, ensuring accountability and preventing anonymous feedback. 

Behind the scenes, the system automatically screens for inappropriate language and harmful content. The platform empowers its community through a flagging system where users can report questionable reviews for further evaluation. 

Creators maintain agency in the process through a dispute resolution system, allowing them to contest reviews that misrepresent their work or violate platform guidelines. Throughout all these features runs a strong commitment to mental health protection, with comprehensive safeguards against harassment and malicious reviews.

“I would never want somebody’s mental health to be challenged and hurt because of a nasty review or being doxed or harassed on my platform,” Vanessa emphasizes. “Because content is very personal, I want to make sure that it comes from a genuine place.”

Benefits for Brands

For brands investing in creator partnerships, Privy Reviews addresses a critical industry challenge. According to Vanessa’s experience with agencies, approximately 50% of influencers historically disappeared after signing contracts, never delivering promised content. 

“For brands, it’s wasted time. Time is money,” she emphasizes. “When you have a campaign that has to go out in two or three weeks and 50% of the people you’ve contacted no-show, that’s extremely frustrating and that’s money loss at the end of the day.”

The platform provides brands with comprehensive tools for creator assessment and collaboration management. Through the platform, brands can search a wide variety of content niches and read detailed feedback from previous brand collaborations. This significantly reduces risk in campaign planning and saves valuable time in the vetting process. 

Brands benefit from access to a searchable database of reviewed creators, while also gaining tools to document their own experiences with creators, contributing to the ecosystem of trust.

Creator Success Stories and Use Cases

Privy Reviews serves creators at every stage of their professional development. For newcomers, the platform offers a structured way to build credibility. “They could start by pitching to a brand and saying, ‘I’ll make you this video for free. I’ll make this UGC video for free. But in exchange, could you write me a review?'” Vanessa suggests.

The platform’s impact scales with creator growth. One success story involves creator Nadine, who integrated Privy reviews into her Squarespace website. This professional presentation of verified brand testimonials significantly increased her partnership opportunities, demonstrating how review integration enhances a creator’s market position.

An unexpected measure of creator influence has emerged through the platform: the ability to mobilize audience reviews. 

“We see that creators have the influence to ask their audience for reviews because it’s again, leaving the platform, getting them to sign up and leave a review, that’s a lot of work,” Vanessa explains. “If a creator is able to ask their audience, ‘Hey, can you review my content?’ And if they’re able to do that shows and signals to a brand you actually hold influence. Because that’s actually a big ask.”

Premium Features and Professional Tools

While maintaining free access to core features, Privy Reviews offers an array of premium capabilities for professional creators. 

The advanced set of tools includes website integration functionality, allowing creators to embed verified reviews directly into their personal websites. Users can access sophisticated analytics to track review patterns and engagement metrics. 

The premium tier also provides enhanced profile customization options to showcase work and achievements more effectively. Professional users receive priority support, ensuring dedicated assistance when needed.

The Future of Creator Verification

Vanessa is developing the next phase of creator verification. “It’s essentially like an AI tool that will analyze influencer accounts and see if they’re actually brand safe,” she details the upcoming Creator Score platform. “So they’ll like to measure them out of 100 based on their comment section, the sentiment of their comments, and how they act on their social media. Right. Like are they trolling other creators? Like their content, is it brand safe?”

This development arrives as social media platforms compete for creator attention. “I think there’s going to be, I call it, the social media platform wars where people are fighting for people’s attention. It’s the attention fight right now,” Vanessa predicts. “You see meta paying creators $5,000 to start making content on their platform… I think creators and influencers will be fought over in the next forever, and they’re doing it right now.”

Looking forward, Vanessa sees Privy becoming the primary platform for creator reviews. “I see it just being the place to trust reviews,” she says. “It’s going to be the pinnacle.” While acknowledging potential competition, she focuses on establishing Privy as the most trusted name in creator verification.

Her message to creators reflects current market dynamics: “You have to be everywhere, or else you’re nowhere sometimes.” She encourages creators to approach their work as businesses, implementing professional practices like review collection and maintaining presence across multiple platforms.

“As we evolve as an industry, there’s so much room to be more transparent,” Vanessa concludes.