HyperGrowth Partners

How Clerk turned YouTube creators into its best-converting developer channel

Clerk built its YouTube creator program "with the help of Gonto and the HyperGrowth Partners team". It grew from 3–5 to 20 creator partners and drove a 30% increase in YouTube-attributed sign-ups, according to Clerk's Alex Rapp.

At a glance

  • Client: Clerk (Developer Tools)
  • Engagement: Began in 2022
  • HGP advisors: Martin Gontovnikas: Developer marketing (then an HGP partner; now alumni)
  • Focus areas: Developer marketing, Creator partnerships, Attribution

The numbers

  • +30% YouTube-attributed sign-ups (Alex Rapp, Clerk; HGP Playbooks, Oct 2024)
  • 20 active creator partners, up from 3–5 (Alex Rapp, Clerk)
  • #1 installation rate of any Clerk channel (Alex Rapp, Clerk)
  • 1 day to build the scraper that finds creators every day (HGP Playbooks)

The situation

Clerk, founded in 2019 and based in San Francisco, gives developers drop-in authentication and user management. Developers were watching more YouTube than ever, so Clerk tried sponsorships.

The pilot, three long-form videos featuring only Clerk, did not move sign-ups or activations. It also drew some negative sentiment: viewers came away thinking: "These guys are paying people to talk good about them." As Gonto put it, people "didn't believe what the influencer said because they knew it was a paid video".

What Clerk did, with help from Gonto and HGP

  • Make Clerk one tool in a bigger build: At the suggestion of Clerk's head of marketing, Nick Parsons, Clerk moved from product-only sponsorships to creators building whole apps, such as "how to build a ChatGPT clone", with Clerk as one tool in the stack. Gonto: "developers don't want to just learn new frameworks and services in a vacuum, but in the context of learning how to create entire apps, like an Uber or ChatGPT clone ... And that performed drastically better."
  • Give creators full creative freedom: Nick and Gonto committed to giving creators full creative freedom: they proposed their own topics, showcased the features they cared about and could even call out product bugs. Each partner got a dedicated Discord or Slack channel with Clerk's technical experts.
  • Find creators systematically: A Clerk data engineer built a YouTube scraper in one day. It crawls public YouTube data daily and feeds Hex reporting, surfacing Next.js, React and React Native creators.
  • Pick for growth, not size: Selection used monthly channel growth (with 10,000 subscribers as a soft minimum), views-to-subscriber ratio, community interaction and a consistent production schedule. The roster was split 40% established creators and 60% up-and-coming ones.
  • Pay per video and measure directionally: Creators proposed their own per-video rates. Reporting in Hex and Notion, fed by Clerk's backend data, tracked sign-ups and installations, which peaked on publication days.
  • Test deal structures across the portfolio: Gonto tested other incentives with HGP portfolio companies: a performance-based CPM of $20 to $55 per 1,000 views, a "make good" if a first integration missed a views threshold, and capped viewership in the first two months.

Results

In Alex Rapp's words: "Starting with 3-5 creators, we now boast 20 active partners that have driven a 30% increase in YouTube attributed sign ups as well as the strongest installation rate of any of our channels."

For context, Clerk raised a $30M Series B from CRV and Stripe in January 2024, when it managed over 16 million end users, and a $50M Series C from Menlo Ventures and Anthropic's Anthology Fund in October 2025, when it managed over 200 million users across more than 15,000 applications. These are Clerk's figures.

What other teams can take from it

  • Sell the build, not the tool: Developers trust tutorials where your product is one part of a real project.
  • Let creators be honest: Creative freedom, bugs included, is what makes the integration credible.
  • Automate scouting: A one-day scraper beats manual creator research and keeps the pipeline full.
  • Back rising channels: Growth rate and engagement predict results better than subscriber count.

"Hypergrowth Partners is an elite team composed of SMEs in every area of growth. They're a one-stop shop for helping you scale at every stage. They've become one of our most trusted resources, providing detailed insights and guidance where others only scratch the surface or offer half-baked suggestions lacking conviction or evidence."

Alex Rapp, Head of Growth Marketing, Clerk

Frequently asked questions

How did Clerk grow developer sign-ups with YouTube?
Clerk moved from product-only sponsored videos to creator-led tutorials in which Clerk is one tool in a larger build, and scaled to 20 creator partners. Clerk's Alex Rapp reports a 30% increase in YouTube-attributed sign-ups and the strongest installation rate of any Clerk channel.
Who helped Clerk build its YouTube creator program?
Clerk built it with the help of HGP co-founder Martin "Gonto" Gontovnikas and the HGP team, according to an HGP playbook co-written with Clerk's Alex Rapp and Nick Parsons (October 2024).
How does Clerk choose YouTube creators?
By monthly channel growth (10,000 subscribers as a soft minimum), views-to-subscriber ratio, community interaction and a consistent production schedule, with a 40/60 split between established and up-and-coming creators.

Sources

Published 2026-10-14. Talk to an HGP partner · More success stories