how avery schrader of modash hacked growth by listening first

From street interviews in Tallinn to running Modash, Avery Schrader built success by turning curiosity into connection

Avery Schrader was just a teenager when he left a small Canadian town to move to Europe. Now 27, he’s the founder and CEO of Modash, a fast-growing platform that helps brands connect with influencers across Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube. 

Together with Hendry Sadrak, Avery built Modash into a powerhouse trusted by over 1,500 brands, including Airbnb, Birkenstock, Montblanc, and Victoria’s Secret.

For someone still in his twenties, Avery’s achieved what many founders spend decades chasing: genuine product-market fit, global traction, and a voice in the industry that people actually listen to. 

In the first episode of the Winning Friends podcast, we chat with Avery about building something real in a space that’s often all talk. It’s an episode packed with candid lessons from the trenches of e-commerce, creator partnerships, and startup growth. 

But what stands out most isn’t just the data or strategy. It’s how Avery used curiosity and conversation to build his entire network from scratch.

The first growth hack? Carrying a microphone

Long before Modash was a major player in creator marketing, Avery was a newcomer in Estonia, a Canadian with no connections and no roadmap. His way in? Interviewing people. Literally.

“I would walk around Tallinn with a microphone and ask business leaders for interviews. That’s how I learned how to run a business. That’s how I met people.”

What started as content creation became an engine for relationship-building. Those conversations laid the foundation for both knowledge and trust. In essence, winning friends was the growth strategy. Long before it became the name of this podcast.

Stop discounting your brand to death

While this episode touches only lightly on traditional networking, Avery doesn’t hold back on tactical advice. One of the most powerful takeaways: consider how and when you use discount codes.

“If you’re consistently using discount codes, then you run the risk that you’re discounting future cash flow indefinitely.”

In a landscape obsessed with fast results, Avery argues for longer-term thinking: build real demand, not cheap conversions. Scale comes from customer loyalty and product quality, not endless promo cycles.

Content, creators, and cracking the attribution code

Modash helps brands navigate a complex influencer ecosystem, tracking over 250 million creators and arming teams with tools to scale performance. Avery shares what works, what doesn’t, and where brands are getting lost in the weeds.

The deeper truth? You don’t need celebrity creators to build traction. You need relevance. You need trust. And you need the operational guts to test, track, and optimise relentlessly.

Beyond this episode: borderless business and the power of connection

At its heart, Winning Friends is about how relationships, human ones, drive growth. This episode offers a unique lens about networking not as schmoozing, but as learning, listening, and asking better questions to improve your own business.

Check out our profiles of Winning Friends’ co-hosts, Logan Merrick and Dylan Hey.

Want to dig deeper into how global entrepreneurs are building borderless businesses? Don’t miss our article on Estonia’s e-⁠Residency programme, a way for founders from around the world to launch, run, and scale companies with European access, no matter where they live.

Watch the full episode of Winning Friends featuring Avery Schrader below.