Parade Founder's Creator Agency Devotion Hires First COO From UTA

Devotion, the creator marketing startup founded by Parade cofounder Cami Tellez, hired Ed Victori as its first chief operating officer on Friday, Tellez told ADWEEK, capping a year of rapid growth for the year-old agency.

Victori arrives from United Talent Agency. He joined UTA through its acquisition of JUV Consulting, where he served as COO and helped lead the sale. His mandate at Devotion is operational scale: the company wants to accelerate a model it describes as built for the "post-follower era" of influencer marketing.

What is the 'post-follower' thesis?

Tellez, 29, argues that social media itself has moved past the follower count as a measure of influence, while influencer marketing as an industry has not. Devotion, launched earlier this year, is her attempt to close that gap with a creator marketing platform that does not price or judge creators by audience size alone.

Her cofounder and CEO, Jon Kroopf, brings platform-side and measurement-side credentials. He held roles at TikTok and at CreatorIQ, the creator marketing software firm, before joining Devotion.

The founding team layout is notable: Tellez, the brand-side founder who built the Gen Z underwear label Parade in 2019, holds the vision role, while Kroopf runs the company day to day. Victori now takes over operations as the third senior hire.

What does this change for practitioners?

For brands and marketers, the move is a signal about where creator budgets may shift. If Devotion's thesis holds, campaign evaluation moves away from follower counts toward other performance signals — a change that would affect how mid-tier and nano creators are priced and booked.

For talent executives, the hire also shows a hiring channel: UTA's acquisition of JUV Consulting has now produced a senior operator for a startup, not a larger agency. Victori's track record includes leading one sale already; whether Devotion becomes an acquisition target or an acquirer is the open question.

What comes next

The company has not disclosed headcount, revenue or funding figures. What is confirmed: a Friday COO hire, a founding year of rapid growth as described by Tellez, and a leadership team that now spans brand building (Parade), platform operations (TikTok), creator measurement (CreatorIQ) and talent agency dealmaking (UTA, JUV).

Tellez told ADWEEK the appointment is meant to accelerate the company's efforts after that growth year. The test ahead is whether a post-follower framework can win budgets at scale before larger platforms and agencies formalize similar models themselves.