How do I find creators to seed to before I can afford Kofluence or a UGC platform?
The short answer
Do it manually first - search relevant hashtags and reels in your category, DM 30-40 creators whose existing content already looks like something your product belongs in, and keep a simple spreadsheet of who you've contacted and sent to. Once you're seeding at real volume and the spreadsheet breaks, a platform like Kofluence or an India-specific UGC service like MakeUGC starts paying for itself in time saved, not before. Don't mistake the platform for the strategy - the DIY version works fine at small scale and teaches you what "good fit" looks like before you pay anyone to automate it.
A quick summary to orient you. The real value is below: the resources worth your time, from people who've actually done it, not us.
Here are the resources
Hand-picked from around the web, each with a note on why it earns your time. India-specific ones carry a badge.
Why we picked it
India's largest influencer marketplace (750K+ creators) explaining, in its own words, how it structures seeding and UGC campaigns for D2C brands specifically - useful once you're ready to move past manual DMs and want scale plus reporting.
Why we picked it
Directly addresses why many small, on-topic creators tend to out-convert one big off-topic name for ecommerce specifically, with the reasoning tied to conversion behaviour rather than just reach. Useful for building the case to seed widely instead of chasing one big name.
Why we picked it
Built specifically for Indian D2C and ecommerce brands that want ad-ready UGC fast without managing the creator relationship themselves - a genuinely India-native alternative to global platforms, useful once DIY seeding starts eating too much founder time.
