By James Calloway

Cami Tellez has hired Ed Victori as the first chief operating officer of Devotion, her creator marketing startup, the company told ADWEEK on Friday. The move follows a year of rapid growth for the venture, which Tellez launched earlier this year to build what she calls a platform for the "post-follower" era.

Tellez, 29, cofounded the Gen Z underwear brand Parade in 2019. She launched Devotion to tackle a gap she sees in the market: social media has moved past the follower count, but influencer marketing has not. Her cofounder and CEO is Jon Kroopf, who joined the firm after stints at TikTok and CreatorIQ.

Victori arrives from United Talent Agency, where he came on board through UTA's acquisition of JUV Consulting. At JUV, he served as COO and helped lead the sale.

Who is Ed Victori?

Victori brings an operator's résumé to a founder-led shop. At JUV Consulting, a youth-marketing firm, he ran day-to-day operations as COO and steered the company through its acquisition by UTA. He then continued at the talent agency before Tellez recruited him to Devotion.

His mandate is speed. Tellez told ADWEEK the hire is meant to accelerate the company's efforts after its first year of fast growth. As first COO, Victori takes on the operational buildout that founder-led agencies typically hit as they scale.

The takeaway: Devotion just added an exec who has already run and sold a marketing firm once before.

What is the 'post-follower' thesis?

Tellez's argument is simple. Social platforms have evolved past raw follower counts as the currency of influence, but the influencer marketing industry still buys and sells creators that way. Devotion wants to change that.

The startup describes itself as a creator marketing platform built for the post-follower era — one where reach, resonance and distribution matter more than the number on a profile. Tellez founded the company earlier this year with Kroopf, whose background at TikTok and CreatorIQ gives the founding pair both platform-side and software-side experience.

The bet: brands will pay for a new measurement model before they pay for another follower count.

Why the COO hire matters now

A first COO hire is a scaling signal. Devotion spent its first year growing fast, and Tellez is now adding operational muscle rather than more creative headcount. Victori's job will be turning a fast-growing startup into a durable agency.

His track record is the point. He helped lead JUV Consulting's sale to UTA — an outcome Devotion's investors would not mind seeing repeated if the post-follower thesis pays off.

The so-what: with a Parade founder, a TikTok-and-CreatorIQ veteran and a COO who has sold a company to UTA, Devotion has assembled a leadership team built to scale — or to sell.