Investigations for reward, affiliate and creator platforms
The thinker, the problem-solver, the one who asks why.
Probably the first thing you'll notice is how many questions I ask.
How does a brand actually get onboarded here, start to finish? Who chases the invoice when it's late, and how do they know it's late?
What happens when a sale doesn't track - and who finds out? What did you promise the customer at the top of the journey, and does the bit at the very bottom actually deliver it?
I ask because I'm invested. Not politely curious - properly invested in how a business works, and in the people making it work.
20 years in and I still find it fascinating: how a platform is put together, where the money comes in, what it touches on the way through, and where it quietly stops moving. Behind every one of those stages is somebody working extremely hard, and they deserve to see what that work is worth.
You're growing fast. The front end is the fun bit everyone celebrates. The back end is usually held together by a few people who know where everything is. That back end is where I live.
That's the bit I'm good at. Following the money through your platform and finding where it stops.
A confession
The spicy stuff is the easy bit to love.
The look and feel of your platform. The big brand deals. The influencers. The consumers. The money rolling in. Everyone fancies that part - and rightly so.
The bit nobody fancies? The back-end. Tracking, onboarding, validation, invoicing, payouts. The plumbing behind the magic.
Here's my confession: I love that stuff. Whether it's a manual process made lean and quick, or a full automated build - APIs, an admin portal, dashboards, data you can actually read - that's my idea of a good time.
(I still love a good spreadsheet. There, I said it.)
Because that unglamorous back-end is exactly where these platforms sink or swim. They move fast - 12 months from now there's a new influencer, a new brand, a new way to sell. If your operations aren't sharpened every 6 months, you fall behind.
I keep that engine running while everyone else stares at the spicy bit.
Where I learned the machine
12 affiliate networks. 9 and a half years.
I worked across these as the publisher, not the agency. As Head of Client Operations at Quidco I ran the processes and the validations sitting between these networks and 4,200 retailers. Finance ran the day to day payments. I handled the ones that had gone wrong - the overdue invoices, the money that hadn't arrived, the chasing.
The names change by sector. Card-linked, creator, benefits, gift card. The machine underneath is the same one.
Alongside the networks, some of the biggest programmes ran their own tracking and had to be worked directly. eBay, Amazon and William Hill among them. No network in the middle means your own feed, your own reconciliation, and nobody to escalate to when it breaks.
Businesses I've Collaborated With
Built over 20 years in operations, across everything from global affiliate marketing platforms to independent business owners.
Different businesses, different industries, different technology. Remarkably similar operational behaviours.
Networks & Agencies
12 Networks, Plus Their Agencies
Every one of the 12 affiliate networks named above, and the marketing agencies working across them. Managed as Head of Client Operations, advising on validation, tracking disputes and payment terms.
Digital Commerce
4,200 Retailers Overseen
I ran the retailer accounts on a national cashback platform myself. Managed, not observed from a distance.
Major UK Brands
BT · Sky · Vodafone · Virgin Media
Also EDF Energy, British Gas, AXA, Legal & General, LV and Hotels.com. Key ecommerce accounts: tracking, validation rules and invoice disputes.
Online Payment Solutions & Embedded Finance
200 Merchants Onboarded
Over the last 4 years, small business through to enterprise. Agreeing terms, integration and ongoing support.
Cashback Ecosystems
9 And A Half Years Inside A National Cashback Platform
Quidco.com, progressing from Admin Operations Manager to Head of Client Operations.
How I got here
Fingers in all the pies. On purpose.
A manager once told me I had "fingers in all pies". I said: yes - because people pull me in for my knowledge, advice and leadership. He wasn't wrong.
In 9 and a half years at Quidco I worked with every affiliate network that matters in the UK and saw how their APIs actually work -
and I've worked shoulder to shoulder with every team that keeps a platform running: marketing agencies, finance, sales and marketing, tech, customer service and delivery, legal and partnership contracts.
I've also sat inside a cashback platform with auditors in the building for weeks at a time - people who arrived with no understanding of the business model and questioned absolutely everything. I know how deep outsiders go, and what they ask for when they get there.
The gap I care about most
Where the promise meets the delivery.
Leadership sets a promise. Marketing sells the promise. Somewhere between the 2 there's a payment flow, an onboarding process, a support queue and a spreadsheet nobody upstairs has ever seen - and that is what the customer actually experiences.
If someone is promised a reward and receives it 4 months later, that reward is no longer a good deal. The offer didn't fail. The delivery did. And nobody in the room owned the bit in between.
I've spent 20 years on that seam. Payment solutions, embedded finance, merchant and brand relationships, and an awful lot of time sat between teams who each quietly assumed the other one had it covered.
I've written the service levels both sides actually agree to and then stick to. I've gone through the patterns, the discrepancies and the unpaid sales line by line until I found what was causing them - and then fixed what was causing them.
Businesses rarely stall because the opportunity isn't there. They stall because the machine underneath can't convert that opportunity into money in the bank, fast enough, often enough, for enough people.
What happens if we work together
I'll learn how your business works before I have a single opinion.
I want to understand the model, the teams, the vision, what you're building towards and what's actually in the way.
Then I follow the money end to end - brand to the person waiting for it, contract to invoice to payout - and I show you where it slows down, where it sits still, and what that's costing you in cash, in team hours, and in customers who quietly don't come back.
After that: the fixes, in the order I'd do them, with the reasoning attached. Onboarding that doesn't stall, reconciliation 1 person can run, and payment routes that don't need 6 people and a spreadsheet propping them up.
Where a tool or an automation would help, I'll say so, and I'll mock up what the system actually needs to do - what it has to check, what it has to show you, and what good looks like once it's running. Whether that's your in-house tech team or an outside partner, nobody's starting from a blank sheet. Work smarter, not harder. I mean that fairly literally.
I use AI every day myself, for research and analysis, and I'd want you using it too. What I care about is the order. Automation runs a process faster and makes what it costs you harder to see, so the examining has to come first. Somebody who knows the operation walks it, takes out the noise, and then you automate what's left.
I won't tell you your business is broken. Most of the platforms I want to work with are already good, already growing, and already know something isn't keeping up. My job is to find that thing, and help a good business become brilliant at the operational end.
What people say
"Nat is a pleasure to work with: friendly, proactive and highly strategic. We worked closely together on the BT programme during her time at Quidco, strengthening the partnership, improving operational efficiency and delivering strong results. In particular, Nat helped introduce a more effective validation process, which improved both performance and the customer experience for people purchasing BT products through Quidco."
My Questions
Most Consultants Ask
How do we improve this?
How do we increase revenue?
How do we reduce costs?
I Usually Ask
Why has this become normal?
What assumptions is nobody challenging?
What quietly changed?
What workarounds have become accepted?
What is everyone compensating for?
Which behaviours are quietly becoming normal?
What would I find in your business?
Let's talk about your platformOr if you'd rather look for yourself first, there's a 2-minute Scale Scorecard.