Yes I’ve negotiated before. First, I never throw out a number first, I let them tell me their budget range so I can act accordingly. It’s also important to emphasize value beyond money and include special offers such as long term partnership, making them a founding creator on the app to boost credibility, diversifying their content packages to be more reasonable (ex. 2 Reels and 3 story posts instead of 3 Reels), and add chances for performance based bonuses.

Strong engagement to follower ratio that shows their audience is highly engaged and feels organic, a unique content style leveraging humor or storytelling, consistency in posting and responding to comments, and growth on multiple social media platforms like TikTok AND Instagram or YouTube.

Since Retro is all about casual and authentic sharing, I’d focus on microinfluencers with between 10K–100K followers who already embrace that aesthetic — think of creators doing Instagram “dumps”. I’d start by looking for creators who already post photo dumps, behind-the-scenes moments, or unfiltered day-in-the-life content. It’s also important to emphasize engagement over follower count. Since Retro removes follower count and likes to create a more neutral space to post, we can look at metrics like comment sentiment and DMs/screenshots they share from their audience. Lastly, I’d target creators who use disposable cameras, film edits, or 90s/early 2000s aesthetics. For execution, I’d negotiate a deal with these creators that fits Retro’s budget, confirm that these creators are prominent on both TikTok and Instagram, and begin having them promote Retro on both of their platforms. For branding and messaging, I’d have them tell their audience that Retro is a new alternative for photo and video dumps with your friends. Another cool direction would be to brand Retro as the new “finsta” for backup photos that don’t make it on the main feed.