[Skip to content](https://www.hubspot.com#main-content) [](https://www.hubspot.com/startups) - [Resources](https://www.hubspot.com/startups/resources) Show submenu for Resources - [Fundraising](https://www.hubspot.com/startups/fundraising) - [Sales & Marketing](https://www.hubspot.com/startups/sales-and-marketing) - [AI Tech & Tips](https://www.hubspot.com/startups/ai) - [Tech Stack Guide](https://www.hubspot.com/startups/tech-stacks) - [Founder & VC Insights](https://www.hubspot.com/startups/scaling-smarter) - [Podcast](https://www.hubspot.com/startups/podcast) - [Stories](https://www.hubspot.com/startups/stories) Show submenu for Stories - [Digital Magazine](https://www.hubspot.com/startups/magazine) - [DocuSeries](https://www.hubspot.com/startups/docuseries) - [Case Studies](https://www.hubspot.com/startups/stories/customers) - [Community](https://www.hubspot.com/startups/community) - [Partner](https://www.hubspot.com/startups/partners) - [Apply Now](https://app.hubspot.com/signup-hubspot/hubspot-for-startups) - [Resources](https://www.hubspot.com/startups/resources) Show submenu for Resources - [Fundraising](https://www.hubspot.com/startups/fundraising) - [Sales & Marketing](https://www.hubspot.com/startups/sales-and-marketing) - [AI Tech & Tips](https://www.hubspot.com/startups/ai) - [Tech Stack Guide](https://www.hubspot.com/startups/tech-stacks) - [Founder & VC Insights](https://www.hubspot.com/startups/scaling-smarter) - [Podcast](https://www.hubspot.com/startups/podcast) - [Stories](https://www.hubspot.com/startups/stories) Show submenu for Stories - [Digital Magazine](https://www.hubspot.com/startups/magazine) - [DocuSeries](https://www.hubspot.com/startups/docuseries) - [Case Studies](https://www.hubspot.com/startups/stories/customers) - [Community](https://www.hubspot.com/startups/community) - [Partner](https://www.hubspot.com/startups/partners) - [Apply Now](https://app.hubspot.com/signup-hubspot/hubspot-for-startups) - [Home](https://www.hubspot.com/startups) # AJ Eckstein Is Betting on the Last Real Moat The Creator Match founder on bootstrapping a B2B creator agency to eight figures in spend, working both sides of the brand deal, and why distribution is the last hard part left. Written by: [Drue Stinnett Maybell](https://www.hubspot.com/startups/resources/author/drue-stinnett-maybell)[](https://www.hubspot.com/startups/author/phoebe-gill) Send DataSend DataSend DataSend DataSend DataSend DataSend DataSend Data    [AJ Eckstein](https://www.ajeckstein.com/) didn't pay himself a salary for the first year of [Creator Match](https://www.creatormatch.com/). Not a dollar. By the time payroll on Gusto finally included his name, the company had already hired its first employee, a founder who shut down her own agency to join. That gap says a lot about how he keeps score. The milestones AJ remembers aren't the ones that make good launch posts. They're payroll, health insurance for the team, business insurance. "Nobody posts about that stuff, but every one of those decisions meant other people's rent depended on this working," he says. "You don't buy business insurance for a side project." It's a slightly funny thing to hear from someone with more than 60,000 followers [on LinkedIn](https://www.linkedin.com/in/aaron-aj-eckstein/) who built his company almost entirely by posting. But the posting and the patience come from the same place. AJ will do the slow, unglamorous thing for a long time, well before anyone can see what it's for.   ## __Early, or just wrong__ AJ quit his [consulting job at Accenture](https://www.linkedin.com/posts/aaron-aj-eckstein_huge-career-update-i-%F0%9D%97%A4%F0%9D%97%A8%F0%9D%97%9C%F0%9D%97%A7-my-full-time-share-7198712052754915331-_XN4/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=member_desktop&rcm=ACoAACNEcNcBgZgKF8VlW1SzVr7lCGSAnmRcaKA) in May 2024 and [launched Creator Match](https://www.linkedin.com/posts/aaron-aj-eckstein_newjob-creatormatch-happytoannounce-ugcPost-7209592303139581952-0cY8/) a month later. The bet was that B2B creator marketing on LinkedIn was a real category and not a niche. That fall he was sleeping on friends' couches. Budgets were tiny and the competition was zero, which sounds ideal until you're the one standing in the lane. "You genuinely can't tell if you're early or just wrong." The first sign he was early showed up the day he announced the company. [Tara Knight](https://www.linkedin.com/in/tara-killmer-knight/) commented on his launch post, "before she worked here, before there was a here." Six months later she closed her own agency to become employee number one. Six months after that, she was COO. "That's when it stopped being my thing." The number that ended the argument was $1M in LinkedIn creator payouts, which he says made Creator Match the first B2B agency to get there. Then came the speaking invitations and the [Ad Age features](https://adage.com/influencers-creators/aa-b2b-marketing-tech-business-creators-brands-should-know/). When the industry asks you to explain the category you bet on, he figures, you're not early anymore.   ## __Both sides of the table__ Most agencies, AJ says, are staffed by people who have never created content. They've never published something with their name on it, waited to see if it landed, or negotiated their own rate. "So they're translating a world they've only observed." AJ has done all three. He takes brand deals as a creator, and so do several people on his team. He also runs the agency placing creators with brands like Anthropic, Notion, and HubSpot. That lets him push back in both directions. He can tell a brand its ask will produce content nobody watches, or tell a creator a brand's guardrail is reasonable, and both sides take him seriously. The clearest example was a [brand trip for Airwallex](https://lnkd.in/p/eGy_fQRv) with the SF Giants. In the morning AJ was on the field doing a stadium walkthrough with 15 boxes and carts, prepping the activation as the agency. That afternoon he was in the suite as one of the 15 creators, in a custom Giants jersey with "Creator Match" on the back, making content like everyone else. "You either know what it feels like to be the person who has to post it, or you don't." [](https://newsletter.creatormatch.com/p/there-are-2-types-of-people-at-cannes-only-one-of-them-gets-the-yacht-invite) ## __Outbound content to inbound DMs__ AJ was posting for years before Creator Match existed. He didn't know what he would eventually sell. He just believed a personal brand was a moat. His picture for it is an auditorium. You fill it one person at a time by being useful, for years rather than a quarter. Then one day you have something to say, like a company that needs clients and its first ten hires, and you walk onstage in front of a room you already filled. Creator Match has spent $0 on ads. Every client, every hire, and every creator in its network came from content. AJ calls the motion "outbound content to inbound DMs," and it compounds. Better creators make better campaigns, which give the team more to post about. Now he's pushing it past himself. During one hiring cycle, the in-house designer made custom graphics for anyone who wanted to post, and AJ reviewed drafts for people who needed help getting theirs out. About half a dozen employees posted. [400,000+ impressions](https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:7485358250125586432/). Zero paid media. "People don't follow brands anymore. They follow people."   ## __Overstaffed on purpose__ Creator Match went from one person to more than 40 in two years. AJ assumed scaling would be about process, tooling, and margin. "It's the people, every time." His rule is hire fast, fire faster, promote the fastest. The third part is the one he says nobody says out loud. Wait for the org chart to catch up with someone who's outgrowing their role, and they're gone. He gives people room with a fence metaphor. Normal fences, like processes and the way things have always been done, you hop without asking. Electric fences, like client relationships, contract terms, and money moving, you bring to him. The biggest change of the last year cut against agency instinct. Brand partners started moving at product speed. Accounts that used to spend seven figures across a year now spend it in a month, sometimes a week. So Creator Match split its pods and deliberately overstaffed each one, with creator marketing managers owning the creator side and account managers owning the brand side. Before, one person tried to hold both, "and the creator side always lost, because the client is the one emailing you." Margin per account is thinner now. AJ chose that. Because their 2027 goal is to go deeper with fewer brands. And you must overdeliver to retain and grow the brand partnership.   ## __The messy middle doesn't feel like winning__ Take one [real morning](https://www.linkedin.com/posts/aaron-aj-eckstein_8-things-happened-to-our-clients-in-1-morning-activity-7496551958120620033-di80) from August. Three clients raised over $200M. Two got acquired. One went public. Two shipped the biggest product launches of their year. "All before lunch lol." His read on why is the thesis under the whole company. AI has pushed the barrier to building software toward zero, so products are converging on feature parity. When the product stops being the differentiator, what's left is distribution, storytelling with creators, and brand, and none of those can be shipped in a sprint.  [](https://lnkd.in/p/eDPvWaaD) Nearly every tech company now wants a creator program. Which makes capacity the hardest thing on AJ's plate. Creator Match turns down companies it would love to work with. Launch windows mean 12 to 15 hour days. "From the outside it reads as growth. From the inside it's a permanent low-grade sense that you're behind on something." He isn't waiting for it to feel clean. He's building for the mess instead, with more people per account and hires who run toward chaos instead of away from it. Two years in, the room he spent years filling is full. Creator Match still doesn’t have a marketing or social team, and everything has been inbound or word of mouth from happy brand partners.   ## __About HubSpot for Startups__ HubSpot for Startups helps early-stage founders build the GTM engine that grows with them, from first customers through Series A and beyond. Eligible startups get access to HubSpot's full platform at a significant discount, plus the tools, content, and community to turn early traction into lasting growth. Learn more at [hubspot.com/startups](https://hubspot.com/startups). ## Send DataSend DataSend DataSend DataSend DataSend Data Send DataSend DataSend DataSend DataSend DataSend DataSend DataSend Data ## You might also like these...  ### Valerie Chapman Wants AI to Earn Women’s Trust Ruth AI founder Valerie Chapman isn't waiting for the industry to close the gender gap in AI. She's building the company that does. [Read post](https://www.hubspot.com/startups/resources/founders/valerie-chapman-ruth-profile)  ### How Eric Lay Is Doing "The Big Thing" Virio’s founder on LinkedIn content as a go-to-market channel, building for B2B pipeline instead of vanity metrics, and why the real product isn't what you think it is. [Read post](https://www.hubspot.com/startups/resources/founders/eric-lay-virio-profile)  ### How to Build a Founder-Led Content Strategy in 2026 This is a 90-minute-a-week playbook for founders who'd rather build their company than their posting schedule, and why LinkedIn is one of the only channels that matters for B2B right now. 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