Partnerly rebrands to Cofluence as it begins onboarding businesses and influencers onto its platform
Cofluence facilitates paid social media marketing partnerships between niche influencers and business brands.
For the past year and a half, one student at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville (UTK), has been feverishly working to get his paid social media marketing partnerships company off the ground.
Most faculty in the Haslam College of Business, especially those supporting student entrepreneurs, know Blake Hopkins well. In his undergrad, Hopkins served as an ambassador for the Anderson Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation, pitched his business in several competitions on and off campus, and built a business from scratch.
Hopkins changed his company’s name from Partnerly to Cofluence earlier this year to better align his name with the industry and people he aims to serve.
As the name implies, Cofluence facilitates paid social media marketing partnerships between small to medium-sized consumer product goods (CPG) businesses and social media influencers or micro-influencers. Hopkins does this by guiding collaborative parties through a partnership solidification process, ensuring terms and conditions of the partnership are cemented before the first post.
Hopkins idea for Cofluence is to essentially try to bring some order to the online equivalent of the “wild west.”
According to Statista, in 2021, the creator revenue from sponsored content in the U.S. was just over $5 billion, and in 2025, it reached over $10 billion. The market is growing so fast that some frustrating and frequent hurdles have emerged. At the root of the problem: the influencer wants to be paid, and the business owner wants to see results.
As a brand, how do I choose the right influencer partner?
Cofluence takes a different approach to connecting businesses with content creators. Other partnership platforms may look at likes, comments, engagement rates, and revenue generated per post. Cofluence does share those statistics, but also loops in accountability metrics like turnaround time and percentage of on-time delivery.
When Cofluence was first launched a couple of years ago, Hopkins was focused on it being a match-making platform for microinfluencers and small businesses. Micro-influencers typically have between 10,000 and 100,000 followers and post about specific topics or lifestyles. These individuals tend to hold significant trust within niche communities.
Hopkins said match-making is still a part of the platform, but the main offering is partnership facilitation.
Additionally, Hopkins explained that Cofluence creates a milestone-based payment system that compensates influencers as soon as they deliver and post content. It can also display content metrics for active partnerships to help business owners measure the impact of their campaigns.
“We don’t get paid until the business gets what they came for. Our platform is subscription-free. Once the content is complete, we take a transaction fee on both the business side and the creator side. For them, it is completely risk-free,” Hopkins said.
The right guy for the job
Hopkins has a background in growing and managing large social media accounts. He has organically built several accounts to over 50,000 followers, but struggled to find avenues to monetize his niche followings.
“As an influencer, it’s hard to connect with brands authentically. For brands, it’s challenging to find the right influencer for their product,” he said.
Hopkins created Cofluence to solve the challenges he encountered with his social accounts firsthand.
Hopkins completed his undergraduate studies in Supply Chain Management at UTK in December and will resume his education in August in the UTK MBA program, with a concentration on Marketing.
Until then, Hopkins is focused on growing the base of his Cofluence business.
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