Ten-Creator Portfolio Test
Test broadly, then concentrate on ten creators who repeatedly perform
- Difficulty
- Moderate
- Time to result
- ~weeks to results
- Steps
- 5
- Confidence
- 94%
Treat creator selection as a portfolio experiment rather than a search for one famous spokesperson. Recruit people who make different kinds of content, then give them enough opportunities to reveal whether their work can hold attention, generate clicks, and contribute to purchases. Hudson cautions that teams often misjudge which individual ad will work, so observed market response should decide. Distinguish a lucky hit from a creator who understands hooks, speaks naturally, and can produce useful content repeatedly. Concentrate support and spend on the repeatable performers until the brand has roughly ten dependable creator partners. Continue limited testing so the portfolio can improve, but do not confuse the target with a guarantee: ten is Hudson's practical recommendation, and results still depend on the product, offer, creative quality, and measurement.
Origin
Extracted from The Foundr Podcast
Core principles
- 01Creator performance must be discovered in the market
- 02Content quality and output volume work together
- 03A small proven portfolio can outperform broad undirected spend
- 04Repeatable production matters more than a one-off celebrity post
How to run it
- 1
Build a varied test pool
Recruit creators with different presentation styles, backgrounds, and audience sizes instead of betting on one profile.
Pro tip Include relatable creators with small followings, not only established influencers.
- 2
Generate enough evidence
Let each creator produce multiple assets so one strong or weak post does not become the entire evaluation.
Watch out A single viral result may not be repeatable.
- 3
Measure market response
Compare attention, click, and sales signals using the outcomes the brand can reliably track.
Pro tip Judge the content after release rather than relying on internal predictions alone.
Watch out Do not attribute every sale to creator quality when offer and media spend also differ.
- 4
Identify repeatable winners
Keep creators who can speak naturally, build effective hooks, and produce useful content more than once.
- 5
Concentrate around ten
Direct more training, product, and media support toward a compact group of proven creators.
Pro tip Use ten as an operating target, not a universal law.
Watch out Do not scale beyond the team's ability to maintain strong relationships.
In the wild
After describing thousands of ambassadors across two brands, Hudson told smaller operators not to copy that scale. His recommendation was to test different people and content styles until they found ten solid creators capable of producing strong material for the brand.
→ The example supplies a practical concentration target, not evidence that ten creators guarantee growth.
Common mistakes
Predicting winners by taste
Hudson says teams cannot reliably know in advance which seemingly strong or weak ad will perform.
Stopping at one hit
One breakout asset does not prove that a creator can produce effective content consistently.
Copying enterprise scale
A new brand does not need thousands of ambassadors before it has found a small group of dependable partners.
Is it for you?
Best for
It is best for brands that can test multiple pieces of creator content and measure downstream performance.
Not ideal for
It is not ideal when compliance rules prevent creator testing or when the brand cannot track meaningful content outcomes.
From the transcript
“go find 10 good creators”
“the only way you're going to find that out is by going and actually testing”
From the episode
527: From $0 to $100M a Year Selling Products on TikTok & Snapchat