Why we are building Kollaborate (and what most platforms miss)

Since 2022 I have been running Creative Hero, a digital agency in central Antwerp. We build websites, branding and campaigns for local Belgian brands. Bonbon. Eighteen. Amnesia. Carré. AV Automotive. A classic SME client portfolio.

And all of those clients kept asking me the same question.

“Thierry, can you find someone to make a few reels for us? We would love to do something with influencers, but 500 euros per post is simply not doable for us.”

And every time I checked the existing platforms, Influo, Influence4You, Aspire, Grin, I found the same story: built for enterprise budgets. Great for Belfius, perfect for Hello Fresh, completely unusable for a neighbourhood restaurant.

What the local entrepreneur really wants

What a Belgian restaurant really wants is this:

• Find 3 creators from their city who match their kitchen
• Offer an experience instead of cash (because margin → an experience is cheaper for them, and the creator loves it)
• No 14 days of negotiation per deal
• No risk of fake influencers with bought followers

And that is where the real gap in the market was. Not in “influencer marketing for SMEs” in general, that exists. But in treating barter in a fundamentally different way.

What most platforms miss

I screened 13 international platforms. They all had a “gifting” checkbox. But:

• It was always a second-rate option. Cash was the standard. Barter was an add-on, not a first-class deal.
• Not one had a counter-offer mechanism that respected barter (“I want your dinner, but I also want €40 cash on top”).
• Not one helped the creator with the tax declaration of the experience (Belgian law requires declaring barter > €100/year).
• Not one was Belgian, so no KBO verification, no VAT-compliant invoice, no Antwerp helpdesk.

What we are building

Kollaborate is a platform where, as a brand, you can choose 5 compensation types:

1. 💰 Cash: classic payment via SEPA or card
2. 🎁 Gift or service: dinner, treatment, hotel night, product
3. 🤝 Hybrid: a mix of cash + experience
4. 📈 Performance: base + bonus per click or sale
5. 🪙 Ambassador: long-term deal of 3-12 months

And the creator can send a structured counter-offer on every proposal. Not through free-text chat that we cannot match on price logic, but through clear fields: cash amount, product value, number of posts, message. Max 3 rounds per request, then auto-close. No haggling.

The start

We have been live since 15 July in Antwerp and expand from there step by step across all of Belgium. Starting small, local, with businesses and creators who want to be there early.

Want to join as a business or a creator? Mail me directly at hello@kollaborate.app. We reply within the day.

The real story

Influencer marketing in Belgium has been stuck for years between two extremes: either an aunt does it herself through DMs, or you hand €15,000 to an international platform for a single campaign. There is a gap in between.

A local entrepreneur, anywhere in Belgium, needs to find the right creator fast. A creator needs to be paid on time and fairly. Both sides need to know the other one is legit. That is what we are building.

See you soon,

Thierry