Wobb: Ishan Jindal is Automating the Creator Economy with India’s Largest Influencer Marketplace
In 2019, while the phrase "influencer marketing" was beginning to buzz in corporate boardrooms, Ishan Jindal was looking at it from a different lens—the cold, analytical eyes of an investment analyst. He saw portfolio companies generating massive returns through creators, but he also saw a "complete mess." The industry was unorganized, lacked pricing transparency, and was trapped in a bottleneck of manual agency groups. This realization led Ishan to leave his comfortable role at an angel network to build Wobb, a platform that aims to make hiring 5,000 influencers as easy as running a Facebook ad.
Today, Wobb (wobb.ai) is India’s largest influencer marketing platform, enabling brands to execute campaigns at a scale previously thought impossible. By replacing manual intermediaries with a self-serve tech stack, Ishan is helping unleash the true power of the creator economy.
The Scalability Gap
Traditional agencies can typically manage 20 to 50 influencers before hitting a breaking point. Wobb has dismantled this barrier. On their platform, brands are currently running campaigns with over 5,000 influencers per month, all managed through a single dashboard without an army of middle-men.
From IIT Delhi to Investment Analyst
Ishan’s entrepreneurial roots were planted during his time at IIT Delhi. He didn't just study engineering; he built things. From a road accident detection app called Safely Home that actually saved lives, to a workforce management solution and even a few Italian QSRs, Ishan was always looking for problems to solve.
Post-graduation, he joined Lead Angels as an investment analyst. Over two years, he evaluated over a thousand startups. It was here he noticed a recurring pattern: founders were desperate to use influencer marketing but were confused by the lack of clarity. Who do we reach out to? What is the fair price? How do we track ROI? After searching for six months for a company to invest in that solved these pain points and finding none, Ishan decided to build the solution himself.
The Pandemic Catalyst
Wobb’s launch coincided with the COVID-19 pandemic, which served as an unexpected accelerator. "Suddenly, the physical banners were gone," Ishan recalls on the ELI Podcast. "Transactions moved online, social media consumption skyrocketed, and people stuck at home started creating content around topics they loved. The creator economy shift we expected in two years happened in months."
Replacing the "Intermediary Pyramid"
Ishan identifies the core problem of the industry as the "Pyramid Scheme" of agencies. In this model, a brand pays a massive sum to an intermediary, which trickles down through sub-agencies and freelancers, leaving the actual creator with very little. While agencies add value by handling the "nightmare" of coordination, they also create a bottleneck for scalability.
Wobb’s tech stack solves this through a unified chat experience. A brand manager can interact with 100 or 1,000 influencers in a single window. Feedback can be broadcast to the entire group or targeted to individuals, replicating the ease of a WhatsApp group but with the data integrity of a SaaS platform.
The Wobb End-to-End Workflow
- Job Posting: Brands create requirements and campaign goals on the dashboard.
- Influencer Discovery: Creators on the Wobb app see opportunities and apply based on interest.
- Metric-Driven Hiring: Brands shortlist creators using automated filters for engagement, niche, and audience metrics.
- Unified Management: All communication, content review, and feedback happen within the platform.
- Automated Payouts: Eliminating the friction of manual invoices and payments.
Solving Marketplace Liquidity
Every marketplace faces the "chicken and egg" problem of supply and demand. Ishan solved this by breaking the problem into smaller, digestible pieces. "You don't solve liquidity for the whole world at once. You pick a category—fitness, finance, or food—and you build the demand and supply for that specific niche first."
By focusing on category-specific growth, Wobb has managed to engage with over 156,000 influencers in India and execute over 5,000 campaigns. The platform has even pioneered performance-based campaigns for fintech companies, where influencers are paid based on deposits or acquisitions rather than just reach.
The Meaning of Entrepreneurship
For Ishan, being an entrepreneur isn't about the title or the funding; it's about a way of living. He defines it through three core pillars:
Ishan's Entrepreneurial Philosophy
- Solve a Personal Pain: Start with a problem you have felt in your own heart.
- Daily Persistence: It’s a roller coaster. Persistence is the only thing that keeps you on the track when things go south.
- Add Material Value: Your solution must be valuable enough that people are willing to pay for it to build a sustainable business.
The Journey Ahead
Ishan believes that creators are essentially "startups in themselves." In the future, creators won't just collaborate with brands; they will build their own unicorn-level companies. Wobb’s mission is to be the infrastructure that powers this unleashed potential, starting with simplifying the way they connect with the world's largest brands.
"Sometimes you just have to take a break, pat yourself on the back, and remember how far you've come," Ishan concludes. "Even if it’s not working out, you pivot and keep adding value. That is what entrepreneurship is."