Cami Tellez, the entrepreneur who built Parade into a Gen Z-era intimates phenomenon, has unveiled Devotion, a creator economy marketing platform designed to help big brands manage thousands of influencers with algorithm-ready precision. The company emerged from stealth with $4 million in funding led by Basecase and Will Ventures, co-founded with former TikTok executive Jon Kroopf.
A Platform Built For The Algorithmic Era
Tellez argues the first wave of influencer marketing leaned too heavily on a handful of macro creators. That model underdelivered in the feed-first world where content performance, not follower count, decides reach. A 2025 report from the Interactive Advertising Bureau found creators still represent roughly 2% of overall ad spend, suggesting demand outstrips scalable execution.
The tectonic shift, led by TikTok and mirrored across social platforms, means a post that once reached 20% of a creator’s audience may now reach closer to 2%. As Tellez puts it, the algorithm has flattened the playing field, giving a nurse in Ohio the same distribution upside as a well-known macro influencer—if the content hits.
What Devotion Offers To Modern Consumer Brands
Devotion blends AI-driven workflows with human review to scale creator programs from dozens to thousands. The platform automates discovery and vetting, surfaces a “brand fit” score to predict alignment with a company’s voice and values, and analyzes posts and captions for compliance with brand and regulatory guidelines. It also recommends which creator assets to boost and handles payments—a notorious pain point when a campaign expands beyond a small roster.
The pitch is operational leverage: a system that helps brands run high-scale creator ecosystems with lower CPMs and more repeatable algorithmic lift, without sacrificing taste or oversight. In practice, that looks like continuously testing hundreds of creators, amplifying what performs, and sunsetting what doesn’t—much closer to a content network’s operating model than a traditional spokesperson program.
Crucially, Devotion keeps humans in the loop. The company says editorial judgment, cultural fluency, and brand safety reviews sit alongside the AI, a recognition that pure automation can miss context, nuance, and evolving community norms.
Early Traction And New Capital For Devotion
After a year in beta, Devotion says it has signed more than 10 clients and reached seven figures in revenue. The new $4 million will fund hires across engineering and brand operations and accelerate development of additional AI agents focused on creator management and content performance.
Tellez’s product instincts come from lived experience: Parade’s growth was fueled by an early, homegrown ambassador system stitching together gifting, engagement, and payments—an approach many consumer founders later tried to emulate. Devotion is that playbook industrialized for today’s feeds.
Why This Matters For Marketers And Growth Teams
Influencer marketing has matured into a core channel, but it remains operationally messy at scale. eMarketer has estimated U.S. influencer spend in the multiple billions and rising, yet many brands still treat creator work as a series of one-off activations. Meanwhile, studies from firms like the Association of National Advertisers have noted persistent hurdles around measurement, brand safety, and talent payments—especially when programs move beyond a few marquee names.
If Devotion can make the long tail manageable, marketers could shift budgets toward always-on creator networks, tapping hundreds of niche communities rather than chasing a single splashy post. That reallocation would track with what performance teams already know: micro and mid-tier creators often deliver stronger engagement and lower acquisition costs when content is rapidly tested and iterated.
Competition And Execution Risks In Creator Tech
The space is crowded, with agencies and platforms such as Pearpop and enterprise software incumbents vying for the same brand dollars. Devotion’s differentiation rests on high-scale operations, AI-first workflows, and end-to-end payments—plus a founding team fluent in both brand building and social platform mechanics.
The risks are real. Algorithm changes can redraw the map overnight; data access and signal loss can dent targeting; and AI systems must avoid bias in creator selection and comply with disclosure and brand safety rules. Enterprise adoption will depend on demonstrable lift in CPMs, CAC, and incrementality, not just slick dashboards.
What To Watch Next As Devotion Scales Its Platform
Keep an eye on how quickly Devotion scales creator rosters per brand, the share of assets promoted by paid amplification, and whether the company integrates with commerce and retail media to close the loop from content to conversion. If the team proves its “high-scale creator ecosystem” thesis inside conservative, blue-chip advertisers, expect more marketers to rebuild their influencer programs for the algorithmic era.
