Get Poppy hit $5 million in revenue in 18 months, bootstrapped and profitable. Their primary growth channel: YouTube creator sponsorships that actually convert. But it nearly didn’t happen, Get Poppy was two months away from running out of cash.
In this article, we unpack the exact approach Head of Creator Partnerships Amaanath Munoz at Poppy.ai shared in conversation with Jake at ChannelCrawler when it came to working with YouTube creators.
So you can copy what works, skip what doesn’t, and see how a company facing bankruptcy turned it all around through YouTube sponsorships.
- How they started working with the worlds top YouTubers
- How they nearly went bankrupt
- The tactics that turned it around
- How you can replicate their startegy
Creators they’ve worked with include Ali Abdaal, Pat Flynn, Vanessa Lau, Matt Gray, Think Media and more.
But it was one video in particular that took them on that journey, one that hit thousands of views overnight. With compounding views, that same creator is an affiliate who’s generated six figures in sales alone.
Keep reading to find out who it was, and how finding them was down to a few pieces of luck.
Or if you prefer: you can watch our YouTube video here:
When the team started, YouTube wasn’t even in the plan. They were buying short-form shout-outs on Instagram and TikTok — $300 here, $500 there — but the returns were unpredictable and didn’t move the needle.
Amaanath described it simply:
“We’d pay $500 for a reel, get a few sales, but nothing really huge.”
Audiences scrolled, liked, and moved on. The creators couldn’t show the product deeply enough, and conversions evaporated after the trend cooled.
Poppy AI was struggling to keep going. Bootstrapping is hard - there are people to pay and tech to keep running. GetPoppy's founders had put in some savings, but they were now low, and there was no magic wand.
But through it all, Amaanath stayed confident in the product. The team used Poppy every single day, for brainstorming, scripting, and planning content.
They were confident this worked, it was already helping them. But how could they get that message across?
Then came one accidental hit: a TikTok video that hit a million views and $100,000 in sales in a single week.
Proof the product resonated, but it also exposed the limit. The views died quickly. The sales plateaued.
They needed something with staying power. Otherwise it's one constant hamster wheel you’re trying to spin. As soon as you stop pumping our videos.. Sales stop
That staying power came three months later. A YouTube creator named Jason Cooperson uploaded a walkthrough of Poppy AI — and it changed everything.
“The ROI on YouTube was insane,” “For every thousand views we made a few hundred dollars — TikTok gave us ten or fifteen.”
But they didn’t ask him to do it. Whilst there was an initial brand deal for TikTok, he just said he’d try YouTube and see what happened, as it wasnt something Poppy AI was trying much of at the time. What happened was nothing short of amazing.
The video hit 90,000 views and kept climbing for months. Unlike TikTok, YouTube kept it alive in search and recommendations.
Later, Poppy.ai partnered with creators like Ali Abdaal and Vanessa Lau drive. They continued to drive far higher ROI for SaaS brands.
How they reached them was fascinating. We break it down later in the article. But lets start with the science of why this worked first.
The data
It’s never easy getting in the door. If you try to partner with Ali Abdaal, its unlikely you message him on a Monday and start working together Tuesday.
So how do you stand out? Because it's not impossible, he does partnerships. This is the method PoppyAI used to reach him/
Amaanath started building what he calls Web of Webs.
Who does Ali follow? Who follows him back? Who are the people who might be just one or two steps away?
That five-degrees of separation thinking turned cold outreach into something personal.
They couldn’t reach Ali directly, so they looked for who could. They joined a ‘Part-Time YouTuber academy’ workshop, saw which team members were active, and sent a quick Loom demo of the product to one of them.
That turned into an intro to Angus, who is Ali’s general manager. Then came a live call, a walkthrough of the product just showing what Poppy could actually do.
And that’s what changed everything.
By the time Ali heard about Poppy, he’d already heard good things from people he trusted. Suddenly Ali was just as keen to speak to Poppy, as Poppy was to him.
Once that door opened, the team did what smart marketers do, they built from there. Ali became proof. Proof you could share in email in outreach. Proof that the product worked for creators at the top.
Every email after that got easier.
“After Ali, we didn’t need to over-explain,” Amaanath said. “People already got it. We just had to show them how they could use it too.”
That’s where the social proof that matches come in. Instead of name-dropping every creator on the list, you mention the two they actually follow.
If your target follows Ali and Vanessa, you say Ali and Vanessa. That’s enough. It feels real because it is.
And while most brands are chasing 10,000 cold emails, Amaanath’s team focused on fewer, manually verified through ChannelCrawler, and therefore much deeper outreaches.
Each one personalised. Each one connected to something real.Once those relationships were built, they scaled the right way, by replicating the path. From one creator to three. From three to ten.
Each new deal opened the door to another network, faster than the one before.
Relationships over transactions. Amaanath’s playbook:
But it’s not only big names they worked with. To scale and hit $5million revenue, they needed to find more, but not just any YouTubers, YouTubers that would work for them. With a methodology they used for creating long-lasting partnerships too.
Get Poppy’s creator strategy has one golden rule, no faceless deals.
Every campaign starts with a live call with the creator, not the manager. They show the product in real time, walk through how it works, and let the creator ask questions on the spot.
That single decision has been the difference between short-term campaigns and long-term partners.
“Most brands send a brief and say, go make the video,” said Amaanath.
“We always get on a call. We care about the relationship, not just the transaction.”
Why? Because when creators actually see the product, objections disappear. They realise it’s something they can use themselves,not just promote. And when they use it, conversions follow naturally.
Moreover, relationships are important to Amaanath and his team. You get a deep personal sense that they care.
1. Care first, sell later.
They reach out to creators they genuinely admire. They check every creator's channel. Every message is personal. If the creator’s content doesn’t align, they don’t pitch them.
2. Show the product live.
The demo call is non-negotiable. No pre-recorded walkthroughs, no decks. Its a 1-1 or at most 1-2 conversation to allow the creator explore the product for themselves, and get a bespoke view of how they can use it.
3. Keep conversations human.
Amaanath tests whether a brand or creator really listens to him by going off-script.
“If they just pull you back into their talking points, they don’t care,” he said.
Poppy’s team listens first, sells second. They will lsiten and let creators go off track.
4. Scale the unscalable.
Instead of blasting 10,000 cold emails, they send 100 personal ones. It’s slower, but it built a network of creators who now introduce new ones.
It’s not just the top creators that took Poppy AI to $5million revenue. They expanded their reach far and beyond, beginning to reach hundreds, then thousands of YouTube channels.
Get Poppy looks for category fit and steady view floors more than headline subscriber counts.
Qualitative checklist:
Even with the research complete, it might not work still, and SaaS videos come with a high cost. Start with one video to verify fit, then grow into 3–6 video packages once you see the right signals.
Their rules of thumb:
Go affiliate-only or hybrid where possible. It aligns incentives and filters for confidence.
Proof: Get Poppy’s top affiliate, Yuri Van Hofwegen, ran commission-only and generated six figures in revenue. On the brand side, that is conviction you want to reward with a higher rev-share.
Poppy's aim was to generate sales. Your tactics may be different if you are aiming for brand awareness, buyer education or something else.
What’s the best YouTuber outreach stack and workflow?
Tools: ChannelCrawler for discovery and emails, Instantly for sequences and deliverability.
Workflow that saves time and protects deliverability:
Search creators by niche in ChannelCrawler · Export lists to your instantly.ai
Jason Cooper https://www.youtube.com/@jasoncooperson/videos
Youri Vanhofwegen https://www.youtube.com/@Yourivanhofwegen/videos
Matt Gray https://www.youtube.com/@realmattgray/videos
Nicky Saunders https://www.youtube.com/@thisisnickys/videos
Vanessa Lau https://www.youtube.com/@VanessaLau
What these have in common
What kind of YouTubers convert best for SaaS brands?
Education, productivity and brand-building creators with steady view floors. Their audiences arrive to learn, so product walkthroughs feel natural and drive action.
Why does YouTube outperform Instagram and TikTok for long-term creator ROI?
YouTube compounds through search and recommendations. Long-form videos explain workflows, keep ranking and keep selling months later. Short-form spikes fade fast. Get Poppy saw roughly 10x stronger revenue per thousand views on YouTube versus short-form platforms.
How should SaaS brands structure hybrid or affiliate creator deals?
Start with one video aiming for breakeven at least. Offer a small flat fee plus affiliate commission. Scale to 3–6 videos only if it converts. Refusal of commission is a red flag that the creator lacks confidence in audience conversion.
How do small SaaS companies find and approach YouTubers without big budgets?
Use ChannelCrawler to filter by topic and consistent views. Short, personal outreach with relevant social proof. Offer hybrid or affiliate-only deals and book a live demo call. One right partner outperforms thousands of generic emails.
How can SaaS companies build long-term partnerships with YouTubers?
No faceless deals. Meet the creator, demo the product live, co-shape the story, then reinvest with top performers. Relationships first, transactions second. That approach earned extra unpaid videos for some companies.
What does “scale the unscalable” mean in influencer marketing?
Fewer, deeper outreaches that actually convert. Send 100 targeted, personal messages with custom demos instead of blasting 10,000 templates. The network you build then creates warm introductions that scale results.
How can I brief a YouTube creator well?
Keep it short and live. Show the product on a call, clarify the problem it solves for their audience and let the creator shape the narrative. Have one simple CTA
How can I find YouTubers to sponsor for my SaaS product?
Search your use-case keywords in ChannelCrawler, filter by topic and view consistency, review recent uploads, then pitch personally with relevant social proof. Offer a live demo and a one-video test aiming for breakeven before scaling.
What metrics should I watch beyond views?
Clicks, signups, day-30 retention and revenue per video. Views are the wrapper, not the goal.
How do I find the right YouTube creators quickly?
Use ChannelCrawler, a YouTube channel database, to filter by niche, language and keywords, then vet for consistent view floors and topic alignment. Export contacts and start your outreach.