Blake Hopkins is bringing influencers and brands together on one platform
Alongside his work on Partnerly, Hopkins also runs a photography business, BH Compositions.
If at first you don’t succeed, try, try again. Then, when you do succeed, rinse, and repeat.
Blake Hopkins lives by this mantra. A senior at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville (UTK), an ambassador for the Anderson Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation (ACEI), and the founder of Partnerly, he’s the embodiment of perseverance and innovation.
Partnerly is an online platform that helps influencers and brands generate revenue online through paid social media partnerships. The start-up reflects his journey of continuous learning and growth.
Hopkins has always had an entrepreneurial spirit. With a background in growing and managing large social media accounts, he’s no stranger to success. He’s organically built several accounts to over 50,000 followers, but claims “that’s the easy part.” The real challenge lies in monetizing social media followings.
“As an influencer, it’s hard to connect with brands authentically. And for brands, it’s challenging to find the right influencer for their product,” Hopkins said.
That’s where Partnerly comes in to serve as a matching and management platform for meaningful relationships between influencers and brands.
Influencer Marketing is Trending
Influencer marketing is one of the hottest trends in advertising today. Brands know that consumers trust recommendations from people they follow online, even if they don’t know them personally. While influencers have been around for years—from actors to neighbors to colleagues—the rise of social media has amplified their impact.
In 2023, over 78 percent of marketing teams utilized social media influencers to promote their products, and 69 percent of consumers trusted these influencers’ product recommendations.
With followers often feeling a personal connection to the influencers they follow, social media has become an invaluable tool for influencing consumer behavior.
Connecting the Dots
Hopkins’ entrepreneurial drive traces back to his high school days in Huntsville, Alabama. It was there that he really grew in his love and passion for cars, often attending car shows in the Huntsville and Brentwood areas. One day, while at a car show in Nashville, he spotted a Ferrari F-12 Berlinetta which was one of his favorite cars. Determined to talk to the owner, he waited by the car until the man returned.
Their conversation would have a lasting impact on Hopkins. When he asked the car’s owner how he could afford such an extravagant vehicle, the answer was simple: “Work hard and own your own business.”
That conversation sparked something in Hopkins, and he became determined to find a market fit where he could build a successful business. When he chose to attend UTK, it was specifically for its entrepreneurship program. “I worked hard to get here, but God directed my steps,” Hopkins said.
Before arriving at UT, Hopkins worked in a variety of jobs—his first being a summer job at 14 years old which involved waxing floors and other labor intensive tasks at his high school. A few years later, he also started experimenting with social media, first by launching a channel focused on educational iPhone content. That account grew to more than 50,000 followers in less than a year. Struggling to generate income with that account, he pivoted to help influencers grow their follower base. Hopkins launched another account which also rapidly gained over 50,000 followers. Unfortunately, before he could launch the coaching side, Instagram accidentally terminated the account which sent him back to square one. Despite the setback, Hopkins refused to quit.
Once accepted into UTK, Hopkins wasted no time getting involved with the Anderson Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation (ACEI). He pitched several business ideas, though his first attempts didn’t gain traction.
It was during this period that Hopkins recognized a gap in the market: making money with social media is difficult as influencers and brands aren’t connecting as effectively as they could be. That realization laid the foundation for Partnerly.
“I knew I needed to start something I had expertise in, something that solves a problem and generates profit,” Hopkins said. “This year, I finally figured out what that is. It’s been right in front of me all along.”
Building Partnerly
Partnerly was created to solve the challenges Hopkins had encountered firsthand. The platform serves as both a networking hub and a full-service software solution, simplifying the influencer-brand relationship by managing contracts, deliverables, and payments.
Hopkins joined the inaugural summer Start-up Studio program at UTK, where he refined his idea for Partnerly.
“We were the program guinea pigs,” he laughed. “It was fun figuring things out as we went.”
During the program, Hopkins focused on customer discovery, which helped him fine-tune his platform to meet the needs of both influencers and brands.
Hopkins is in the web-design phase and plans to launch a minimum viable product (MVP) in early 2025. In the meantime, he continues pitching his idea in competitions, including Vol Court and the Graves Business Plan competition. He placed third in Vol Court and first in Graves—his seventh and eighth pitch competitions at UTK.
“Was it easy to keep going? No. I wasn’t successful six times,” Hopkins admits. “But am I glad I kept going? A hundred percent.”
Alongside his work on Partnerly, Hopkins also runs his own photography business, BH Compositions, which focuses on automotive photography, senior photos, corporate headshots, and landscapes around Knoxville which he sells as canvas prints. He is also always looking to talk with other entrepreneurs and CEOs to learn from the success of others.
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