The real opportunity isn't producing more, it's fixing how it gets made.
UGC Slalom, Hicari, and similar platforms are professionalizing content creation by standardizing processes and connecting creators directly with brands at scale. Success in creator economy requires solving operational friction—from music distribution royalties to international tax compliance—rather than simply producing more content.
- UGC Slalom connects 100+ brands with 1,000+ creators; projects 7.7M euros revenue by 2029
- RYLTY MUSIC distributed 70,000 tracks and collected 500K euros in royalties in 4 years
- Onesto managed 1,000+ brand-influencer collaborations in one year
- Kunfupay reached 12 million euros in revenue in 18 months
- Hicari operates a network of 3,000 creators
Six Spanish entrepreneurs share strategies for monetizing social media content through specialized platforms connecting creators with brands, emphasizing authenticity, operational efficiency, and strategic positioning over raw volume.
Six Spanish entrepreneurs have built businesses around a simple observation: the creator economy is broken, and the money isn't in making more content—it's in fixing how content gets made, distributed, and paid for.
Pia Mill and Berta Quirante founded UGC Slalom in response to a fragmented market. Their platform connects brands directly with creators of user-generated content, cutting out middlemen and standardizing a process that had been chaotic and hard to scale. They now work with more than 100 brands and over 1,000 creators, and project revenues of 7.7 million euros by 2029. Their insight is blunt: the real opportunity isn't in producing better content, but in building systems that make production repeatable, measurable, and professional. "Authenticity matters," they say, "but it needs standards, validation, and structure." The difference between a creator who makes money and one who doesn't often comes down to process, not talent.
David Contu runs RYLTY MUSIC, a platform launched in 2022 that handles the unglamorous work of getting independent musicians paid. The company distributes tracks to digital stores, collects royalties, and cuts checks—work that sounds simple until you realize most artists have no idea how to do it themselves. In four years, RYLTY has signed over 10,000 artists, distributed 70,000 tracks, and collected half a million euros in royalties on their behalf. Contu's advice cuts through the noise: distribution isn't just uploading a song. It's strategy, building anticipation, and working visibility. Many artists leave money on the table because they treat release day as the finish line instead of the beginning. In a market moving as fast as music and tech, simplifying the machinery of catalog management becomes essential.
Miguel Palau's company, Hicari, operates in the UGC space with a network of 3,000 creators. His philosophy mirrors Contu's: the competitive advantage isn't volume, it's friction reduction. Brands and agencies need authentic video content fast, and they need to use it across multiple channels without rebuilding it each time. When every piece requires a full production or can only be used once, the model breaks. The winners are those who turn that need into something simple and agile—who connect content to actual sales, not just impressive production values.
Onesto, led by Jorge Aguiar Sardina, focuses on influencer marketing in wellness: fitness, nutrition, supplements, cosmetics. In a single year they managed over 1,000 collaborations between brands and micro-influencers, and in 2026 they were selected by Lanzadera, Juan Roig's startup accelerator. Aguiar's insight is about audience quality over quantity. In wellness especially, audiences can smell inauthenticity instantly. The brands that monetize best aren't those working with the biggest influencers—they're the ones building real relationships with creators who actually use and believe in the product. Affinity beats reach.
Carlo Velasco runs VideoGaga, a media company focused on training, production, and strategy, part of the international Nomads Media group with over 2 million viewers. His take on monetization is straightforward: the content space is saturated, so diversify. Build campaigns that attract sponsors. Create premium content your audience can't resist. Focus on views and engagement across YouTube, TikTok, and Meta. The old model of a single revenue stream is dead.
Rubén Romero founded Kunfupay to solve a problem nobody talks about: the solo creator is becoming a one-person multinational. They have income streams, clients, and audiences across multiple countries but almost no infrastructure to manage it. In 18 months, Kunfupay hit 12 million euros in revenue by handling the operational complexity—payments, taxes, accounting, international compliance—that creators hate and often get wrong. The real pain point isn't making content, it's making content without drowning in logistics.
What emerges from these six founders is a portrait of a maturing industry. The gold rush phase—where anyone with a phone could go viral and get rich—is over. What's replacing it is professionalization. The money now flows to those who solve real problems: how to standardize content production, how to get creators paid fairly and on time, how to match authentic voices with brands that actually fit, how to make one piece of content work across ten platforms. The creator economy isn't short on talent. It's short on systems. The entrepreneurs winning right now are the ones building them.
Citas Notables
The opportunity is in helping creators and brands generate authentic content that can be activated quickly, measured well, and reused across channels.— Miguel Palau, Hicari
The true opportunity in creator economy is solving operational complexity—payments, taxes, accounting, international compliance—not just making more content.— Rubén Romero, Kunfupay
La Conversación del Hearth Otra perspectiva de la historia
Why does the creator economy need these platforms at all? Couldn't creators just work directly with brands?
They could, but most don't know how. A musician doesn't know how to get into Spotify's payment system. A video creator doesn't know how to negotiate with five different brands at once. These platforms are basically removing the friction that keeps creators small.
So it's not about making better content—it's about making the business side work?
Exactly. The content is fine. The problem is everything around it. How do you get paid? How do you handle taxes across countries? How do you prove to a brand that a creator's audience actually cares? That's where the money is.
But doesn't that favor big creators who can afford these services?
Actually the opposite. Micro-influencers and independent artists are the ones who benefit most. They're too small to hire a manager or accountant, but they're exactly who these platforms are built for. A creator with 50,000 engaged followers can now compete with someone with a million disengaged ones.
What's the difference between a creator who makes money and one who doesn't?
Often it's not talent. It's whether they understand that authenticity needs structure. You can't just be real and hope brands find you. You need to be real in a way that's measurable, repeatable, and scalable.
Is there still room for new platforms in this space?
Yes, but only if they solve a specific pain. The winners aren't the ones making content—they're the ones making the business of content easier. That could be payments, distribution, matching creators with brands, or something nobody's thought of yet.
What happens to creators who ignore all this and just post?
They stay small. Or they get exploited. The platforms aren't optional anymore—they're the infrastructure.