Creators Struggle with Income Stability and How This Startup is Solving It

The creator economy is booming, but the challenges for both marketers and creators remain significant. For marketers, discovering the right talent from an ever-growing pool of creators can feel overwhelming. For creators, securing consistent brand collaborations is often unpredictable and seasonal. Bengaluru-based HashFame is addressing these challenges by offering a platform that focuses on streamlined creator discovery and transparent collaboration.

HashFame’s platform simplifies the process with its Creator Directory, where marketers can browse categories, search for creators, and directly connect with them based on their requirements. The in-app Marketplace feature allows brands to post campaign briefs with clear budgets and objectives. Marketers can review these opportunities and respond with proposals, enabling a seamless and transparent collaboration process. Unlike other platforms, HashFame focuses solely on the recruitment and discovery phase, leaving the execution of campaigns to the stakeholders. This approach aligns with the realities of markets like India, where trust and relationships play a crucial role in campaign success. As a result, marketers can connect with creators faster, and creators are given a fair chance to access brand opportunities.

“Creator discovery is often a pain,” said Anirudh Sridharan, Co-Founder of HashFame. “If you want to select from a larger pool of creators, you either need to use expensive SaaS tools or maintain an internal database, which is a nightmare to keep updated. This is why marketers tend to stick to the same creators repeatedly. At HashFame, we solved this by making discovery open and accessible for free through our invite-only model, ensuring creators get a fair shot at the brand deals they deserve.”

The recently launched Creator Ratings feature is a first-of-its-kind system that allows marketers to rate and review creators based on factors like professionalism, reliability, and campaign outcomes. This feedback system addresses a critical gap in the creator economy, focusing on trust and accountability. With the rising number of creators, decisions can no longer rely solely on social reach. Ratings provide marketers with tangible insights into a creator’s ability to deliver on time, communicate effectively, and align with campaign goals.

“The creator economy operates like a pyramid,” Anirudh explained. “At the top, just 1% of creators make consistent money through brand collaborations. But unpredictability and seasonality affect everyone. One month, they might land a campaign worth lakhs, and the next, they might have no briefs at all. HashFame changes that by ensuring opportunities are accessible and transparent, helping creators build predictable revenue streams while enabling marketers to work with creators who truly align with their goals.”

As the creator economy grows, HashFame aims to create a system where merit and transparency guide collaborations. By addressing the imbalance of information, where creators do not know which brands value their niche and marketers do not know who resonates with their audience, HashFame is paving the way for a more equitable ecosystem.

“Our long-term vision is to decentralize creator opportunities,” said Anirudh, adding, “We want to build a marketplace of meritocracy where data and community-driven feedback allow the best creators to thrive, regardless of their starting point. No algorithm or gatekeeper should throttle a creator’s journey.”

HashFame’s focus on trust, transparency, and simplicity has resonated with the industry. During this festive season, the platform saw ₹10 crore worth of campaign briefs posted, connecting marketers with more than 80,000 verified creators. With the holiday season still ongoing, campaign briefs in the marketplace are expected to exceed ₹30 crore by the end of the year.