How a first-time startup founder is using TikTok to get the attention of VCs and creators

 

How a first-time startup founder is using TikTok to get the attention of VCs and creators

Christen Nino De Guzman quit her job at TikTok last month. 

Now, she's using the app to get the attention of VCs as she launches a creator economy startup.

She's posting TikToks nearly every day, responding to comments, and tapping into her audience to grow her app.

31-year-old Christen Nino De Guzman quit her job at TikTok in January to launch her own startup.

But TikTok — as a platform — is still a crucial part of her next step.

The first-time founder, who is based in Los Angeles, is using TikTok as a strategy to get her startup on the radar of industry leaders, including VCs and content creators. 

The app, called Clara, is a "Glassdoor for content creators," Nino De Guzman said. Once verified and approved, creators can post anonymous reviews of brands, how much they got paid for sponsored content, and create profile pages (akin to a media kit).

Creators can leave anonymous reviews on Clara. Courtesy of Christen Nino De Guzman

Nino De Guzman watched the creator economy come to fruition while in various creator partnership and community roles at three tech giants: Pinterest, Instagram, and TikTok. She's also a content creator herself, with 347,000 TikTok followers and 40,000 Instagram followers, and posts about pay transparency in the tech industry.

"Going into launching, since I don't have any budget for marketing, I was like, 'Okay, I need to really lean heavily on TikTok to share why I created this ... how it's helping creators,'" Nino De Guzman told Insider.

Her personal TikTok has almost entirely pivoted to content about Clara (Nino De Guzman also made a second account just for the Clara brand, which has about 4,000 followers). One recent TikTok about why she quit her job at TikTok to launch Clara, posted January 20, has over 423,000 views and 530 comments.

Other TikToks, such as ones about how much money influencers are getting paid (using Clara's data) have hit highs of almost 40,000 views. She's also using TikTok to document the process of launching a startup, including vlogs.

"It's really about storytelling," she said.

And so far, her strategy is working. The TikToks about Clara have amassed hundreds of comments, many from creators themselves saying things like "Wow, this is going to be so valuable" or "Just signed up!" Others commented about pay gaps they'd witnessed themselves. 

Pay transparency for creators, particularly shedding light on the racial pay gaps in the influencer industry, is a core part of Nino De Guzman's vision for Clara.

Nino De Guzman has held roles at Pinterest, Instagram, and TikTok — where she worked with creators like Devon Rodriguez (23.4 million followers). Courtesy of Christen Nino De Guzman

As of mid-February, Clara had gotten about 7,000 creators to sign up, Nino De Guzman said.

The attention from her TikToks goes beyond creators, though. She's also getting the attention of VCs and scouts in the industry, Nino De Guzman said.

Posting to TikTok about launching Clara caught the eye of two VCs already and has led to several introductions to other VCs, she said. On LinkedIn, which she also uses, people are DMing her and mentioning how they saw her on TikTok, Nino De Guzman added.

"I'm hoping that potentially ... the VC that found me on TikTok would end up funding my company," Nino De Guzman said.

"The journey of being a founder is filled with extreme highs and lows," Nino De Guzman said.

On January 15, when she posted her first TikTok unveiling her new endeavor, she included the caption: "Me pitching my startup to male billionaires even though I know women only receive 2% of VC dollars."

According to Crunchbase data, about 2.3% of venture capital funding went to startups solely led by female founders in 2020. And for Black and Latinx female founders, that percentage is even lower: 0.43%, according to 2020 data from DigitalUndivided's Project Diane project.

When Nino De Guzman, who is Peruvian, raised her first sum of funding — less than $100,000, she said — she was ecstatic.

Nino De Guzman is using social media to share the process of launching and funding a creator-focused startup. Courtesy of Christen Nino De Guzman

About a week and 30 new TikToks later, Nino De Guzman posted a video with a slight change in tone.

"Everyone keeps leaving me comments on my TikToks saying I'm killing it, but also I want to keep it real with you — because social media is an illusion sometimes," Nino De Guzman said in the video.

"I only got enough funding to build my product and launch my apps," she continued. "Now I'm out of funding, which means when creators have issues, there's literally nothing I can do. It's really scary and I have no idea if I can get funding tomorrow, if it can take weeks, or months."

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