Real humans, real numbers
Creators connect authenticated socials and verify identity with ID.me. Brands verify identity and company legitimacy. Only verified profiles become discoverable.
How it works
One shared deal flow.
One shared deal flow.
Trust built into every step.
Both sides onboard in minutes and meet in a single protected deal — from the first match to the final payout. Here's exactly how each piece works.
The deal flow
From brief to payout, in six moves
The edges of both journeys were already familiar. Formative's difference is the middle — where trust and money live.
Ranked by affinity
The engine scores and ranks creators against the brand's brief and priorities, then an AI layer curates and explains the shortlist.
Structured offers
Both sides compare verified media kits and negotiate rate and deliverables with structured offers — not a lossy chat thread.
A binding contract
Agreed terms generate a contract both parties e-sign. The deal now has a real, enforceable artifact.
Money held safely
The brand funds the campaign into escrow before any work starts. Both sides see the funded state.
Approve → auto-payout
The creator delivers, the brand approves, and the escrowed milestone releases automatically. Outcomes build reputation.
The matching engine, in plain terms
How the match score really works
Add up how well a creator fits on each thing that matters, weighted by what this brand cares about. That's the whole idea — the rest is rigor.
Seven signals, one 0–100 score
- Audience alignment — age, gender, and location to city level.
- Niche & content fit — derived from real posts and style.
- Engagement & reach — followers, views, and real reactions.
- Track record — past campaigns, ratings, delivery.
- Price fit — their rate versus your budget.
- Brand safety — content rating, verification, risk flags.
- Competitive history — recent competitor work.
Match tiers
The engine works with incomplete data — a nano-creator with 400 followers is scored on the information available, never penalized for gaps.
Personalized before your first search
When a brand joins, Formative shows realistic but fictional creator profiles and learns from quick comparisons. In a couple of minutes we learn what a brand actually values — so the engine is personalized from the very first search, with no cold-start.
AI explains — it doesn't override
After ranking, an AI layer narrows the top candidates and adds human-sounding reasons like "the chef's credibility matches your wood-fired story." This layer only explains and curates. It never secretly changes the underlying score, which stays fully auditable.
Want to see the deal flow live?
Creators join the waitlist; brands can request a walkthrough with real matches.
The trust core
Five guarantees, one by one
Trust isn't a badge on Formative — it's the architecture.
1
Verified metrics
The numbers on every media kit are verified by the platforms themselves, not self-reported. Matching, discovery, and visibility are computed only from authenticated first-party data.
2
Verified identity
Creators verify identity once with ID.me before becoming discoverable. Brands are verified on two independent axes — individual identity and company legitimacy — decoupled from payment-method checks to stop impersonation.
3
Escrowed money
Campaign funds are held safely and released only for approved work — with partial-release logic when performance targets are partly met. If a creator delivers, they get paid. Period.
4
Signed contracts
Agreed terms become a binding, e-signed contract instead of promises buried in chat. Both sides are explicitly protected.
5
Earned reputation
Authentic ratings and real outcomes compound into a track record that can't be faked — and that record gets richer the longer a creator is on Formative.
A moat that can't be backfilled
Because platforms don't allow historical backfilling, the verified metrics, daily snapshots, and real campaign outcomes Formative accumulates become uniquely defensible. The longer the marketplace runs, the richer and more unique that record becomes — something a new competitor literally cannot buy.
Questions
The details, answered
It's Formative's matching engine. It produces a 0–100 score by measuring how well a creator fits on seven signals — audience alignment, niche and content fit, engagement and reach, track record, price fit, brand safety, and competitive history — each weighted by what a particular brand prioritizes. Results sort into Best Match (85+), Strong Match (70+), and Possible Match (50+).
No. After the engine ranks candidates, an AI layer narrows the shortlist and explains each pick in plain language that cites only verified data. It only explains and curates — it never secretly changes the underlying score, which stays auditable.
The brand funds a campaign into escrow before work begins. Funds release only for deliverables the brand approves, with partial-release logic when performance targets are partially met. Creators know the money is committed before they start.
Because every downstream promise depends on it. Verified metrics make matching honest, verified identity keeps out impersonators, and together they let escrow, contracts, and reputation mean something real.
Ready to run campaigns you can trust?
Creators, join the early-access waitlist. Brands, request a live demo.