Perspective

Influencer & Affiliate Marketing Manager

lemlist

Started working on Taplio leading influencer marketing in October 2023.

Then, after Taplio's acquisition by lemlist in 2024, I joined their team full-time to lead their B2B influencer marketing activities for the entire suite of tools.

Influencer Marketing

The Steal Club

The Steal Club was my creative side-project.

It's a newsletter created to help more creators/founders/internet builders grow their online businesses. We do that by sharing the tactics and playbooks top creators use to grow their audience and monetize their content.

+7,000 subscribers read our weekly content.

I sold the project in February 2025.

Founder/Chief Thief

Alex Llull

Worked with a wide range of creative entrepreneurs in different industries helping mainly with content strategy and content writing for social and email. Also helped with positioning, offer creation and audience monetization.

Content Strategist & Freelance Writer

VICE Media

Account Manager

MrGates

Digital Account Manager

Ideas Desde Cero

Community Manager

Influencer Marketing & Growth @ lempire (Taplio + lemlist) | Exploring how B2B influencers help SaaS companies drive growth

AJ Eckstein

Sales Strategy Analyst ($XXB Tech/Media Client)

Founder @ Creator Match 🧩 Scaling Creator Marketing for B2B, SaaS, & AI Brands | Fast Company Journalist | LinkedIn Learning Instructor (150K+ students) | TEDx & Keynote Speaker

Founder @ Creator Match 🧩 #1 tech-enabled agency building & scaling Creator programs for B2B/SaaS/AI Brands.

We are trusted by the world’s most innovative Brands (i.e. Anthropic/Claude, Notion, Zapier, HubSpot, Teachable, Wix, beehiiv, BetterHelp, Framer, and more), as well as the most influential B2B Creators.

[Creator Match Services]
→ Tech-enabled brand-side agency (done-for-you service): We run some of the largest and most creative B2B  Creator campaigns in the world, handling end-to-end strategy to execution.

[Our Story]
This journey started as a LinkedIn Creator struggling to monetize. I was laughed at in creator communities as no one took LinkedIn seriously. But I realized I wasn’t alone as I found a community of underserved, underpaid, and underappreciated LinkedIn Creators just like me (and maybe just like YOU).

So I did what any rational person would do. 

I quit my comfortable Fortune 500 management consulting job to go all-in on solving this pain point! And then Creator Match was born!

I’m on a mission to help Brands crush results with innovative campaigns and get B2B Creators PAID!

**For Brands/Agencies/Creators 👉 Get matched at creatormatch.com**

Outside of being a busy Founder, I also:
📰 Write for Fast Company (work/life section)
🎤 Speak at events/conferences around the world
🚀 Launched 3 LinkedIn Learning Courses (150,000+ learners)
🌎 Travel and explore: surfing, snowboarding, mountain biking
🥇 Compete in endurance sports (Marathons, Ultramarathons, Triathlons)

Follow me for daily content on being a young founder (building in public), LinkedIn growth and monetization tips, brand deals, B2B creator/influencer marketing strategies, and more.

Message me if you’d like to chat about Creator Match (Brands & Creators), speaking at your event/conference, and sponsorship opportunities.

Founder

- We are the go-to career platform to knock out the competition and advance past the final round interview.
- Learn from Recruiters, Hiring Managers, and Career Experts.

AJ Eckstein 🧩

1 year ago: Managing $1M a year in B2B creator spend.
Today: Managing that every month, and more...

But this wasn’t always the plan - and it definitely wasn’t easy.

When I first started Creator Match 🧩, people told me it would never work.
That LinkedIn creators aren’t real creators.
That B2B marketing isn’t "cool enough" for influencer campaigns.
That this space would never catch up to the energy of consumer brands.

I was sick of ppl doubting me, but then realized I needed that fire to keep building.

At first, we were just a LinkedIn creator marketing agency.
That was the wedge.

But we quickly realized two things:
1) Brands don’t live on one platform
2) And neither do creators

Now, Creator Match helps world-class B2B, SaaS, and AI brands build and scale full creator programs... across short-form, long-form, influencer gifting, brand trips, and more. We build your ecosystem marketing to create a content flywheel across IGC, EGC, and UGC.

It sounds glamorous now, but the reality was far from it.

There were months where we didn’t sleep, juggling 20 campaigns at once.
Times where we outgrew our systems faster than we could rebuild them.
Moments where I questioned if I was cut out for this at all.
Days I couch surfed on friend's couches across cities.

But next week, we’re heading into two major brand trips:
→ AI Creator Trip with Zapier in Zion National Park
→ Brand Trip with a billion dollar brand at Formula 1 Vegas

And the team has been cranking:
Our COO Tara Knight 🧩 is in London this week at major brand conferences. I just got back from London and Amsterdam, speaking at the largest marketing event in Europe. And the team is growing quickly (shout out one of our newest hires Trish Seidel Startsman 🧩, and some of our OGs like Naek M. Jerrica Long 🧩 Damilola Ogunbanjo  🧩).

It’s crazy where life takes you when you bet on an idea that everyone else thinks is impossible. And we're just 1.5 years in...

If you’re on the edge of taking your own leap (whether it is leveling up in your 9-5 or pursuing a startup), remember this:

They’ll call it cringe until it works.
Then they’ll call it genius.

Go for it. The risk isn’t as great as you think. And the outcome will be worth it.

***
🔔 Follow me AJ Eckstein 🧩 for more content on entrepreneurship, B2B Creator Marketing, and Brand strategies

OpenAI just dropped its own version of the famous YouTube Play Button, a literal "Token of Appreciation."

For context, OpenAI has quietly started shipping physical milestone awards to organizations that have passed major usage thresholds on the OpenAI API. These are companies and builders who have processed billions or even trillions of tokens through their apps.

The plaques are frosted glass, laser engraved with the company name. And the quality is not gimmicky or cheap. These are the kind of objects that stay on your desk, that live in office shelf space forever. That is PRIME real estate in enterprise.

Some may say this is the most elite badge in AI. 👀 

Why it works:
• It is insanely shareable
• It celebrates real usage, not vanity metrics
• It turns an invisible achievement into a shareable asset
• It caters to a community that historically feels under-appreciated (ie developers)
• It creates platform loyalty, especially if you use multiple models, just like drivers who only drive Uber vs adding Lyft)

I have been saying time and time again that B2B gifting, especially milestone gifting, is one of the most untapped levers in enterprise and platform marketing.

If you've been following me, you know I post about this topic constantly as B2B gifting is UNTAPPED, and we are trying to change that at Creator Match 🧩.

This is what happens when a platform treats usage as a moment worth celebrating in public.

This is part of B2B Campaigns in the Wild, the series that makes you say "Wait, that's B2B??"

Kudos to the OpenAI team for this fun milestone gifting campaign.

***
🔔 Follow me AJ Eckstein 🧩 for more content on entrepreneurship, B2B Creator Marketing, and Brand strategies

taplio

The Battle

Alex Llull

AJ Eckstein 🧩

Followers

Posts

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Performance ScoreAJ Eckstein 🧩's LinkedIn Performance

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taplio

The Battle

Alex Llull

AJ Eckstein 🧩

Followers

Posts

Engagements

Likes

Performance Score.css-goub6s{font-size:var(--chakra-fontSizes-md);font-weight:500;color:var(--chakra-colors-gray-600);display:block;margin-top:var(--chakra-space-1);}AJ Eckstein 🧩's LinkedIn Performance

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Performance ScoreAJ Eckstein 🧩's LinkedIn Performance