Strategic Leadership and Operational Scaling
The appointment of Ed Victori as COO is a strategic cornerstone for Devotion’s next chapter. Victori’s background provides a unique bridge between the world of high-growth startups and the established talent and consulting industries. He joins Devotion from United Talent Agency (UTA), one of the "big three" agencies in Hollywood, which has increasingly focused on the creator economy as a core pillar of its business.
Victori’s path to UTA was paved by his role at JUV Consulting, a highly influential firm specializing in Gen Z trends and strategy. As the COO of JUV, Victori was instrumental in professionalizing the agency’s operations and navigating its eventual acquisition by UTA. His experience in leading a boutique, youth-focused firm through a major corporate integration gives him a rare perspective on how to maintain the agility of a startup while building the rigorous systems required for large-scale enterprise partnerships.
According to Tellez, Victori’s arrival is intended to accelerate Devotion’s efforts to modernize creator marketing. While Tellez provides the visionary brand-building expertise and co-founder and CEO Jon Kroopf brings technical and platform-specific knowledge, Victori is expected to handle the operational complexities of a company that is growing at a breakneck pace.
Jon Kroopf’s background is equally vital to the Devotion story. Before co-founding the firm with Tellez, Kroopf held pivotal roles at TikTok and CreatorIQ. His time at TikTok provided him with a front-row seat to the birth of the algorithmic feed, while his experience at CreatorIQ—a leading influencer marketing software platform—gave him insight into the technological pain points that brands face when trying to manage creator relationships at scale. Together, the leadership team represents a convergence of brand intuition, platform mechanics, and operational excellence.
The Evolution of Creator Marketing
The hiring of a COO of Victori’s caliber reflects a broader trend in the marketing technology sector. As the "creator economy" matures, the "Wild West" era of informal deals and vanity metrics is coming to an end. Brands are under increasing pressure to prove the return on investment (ROI) of their social media spend, and the tools they use must be more sophisticated than the spreadsheets and manual outreach of the past.
Devotion’s rapid growth over the last year suggests that there is a significant appetite for this new approach. By focusing on the "post-follower" reality, the company is positioning itself as a necessary utility for brands that have realized their old playbooks are obsolete. This involves not just finding the right creators, but understanding the specific nuances of how content travels through different algorithmic ecosystems.
The industry is currently seeing a shift from "influencers"—individuals who trade on their personal fame—to "creators"—individuals who are valued for their production skills, storytelling ability, and community resonance. In the post-follower era, a creator’s value lies in their ability to produce content that the algorithm wants to distribute. Devotion’s platform aims to identify these creators and facilitate partnerships that feel organic to the platform rather than like traditional advertisements.
