Terry Whalen

new episode alert: Magnite $MGNI CEO Michael Barrett breaks down the future of independent ad tech. we talk competing with Google, why The Trade Desk won, and what actually works in M&A. Plus some great insights on leading turnarounds: https://lnkd.in/eAKc84Qi

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Back in 1997, The New York Times highlighted a “Roundtable in Multimedia” attended by senior media executives. They lamented that apart from a few exceptions like pornography websites and Amazon, no one had cracked the code for a viable 'interactive' media business model. Fast forward to 2024, and Fable has launched Showrunner, a revolutionary platform known as the “Netflix of AI" , which allows users to create their own TV shows with just a few prompts. 📺✨ The way we create and consume content has evolved dramatically. But what does "interactive media" really mean today? We break it down, exploring how it intersects with massive shifts in technology, culture, and new media. And how with a growing "Swipe before Type" generation, there is now an ingrained expectation of interactivity in all digital experiences. We dive into the future of interactive media and gaming and see where we're headed next! Link in comments. #InteractiveMedia #Gaming #AI #TechRevolution #ContentCreation #NewMedia

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A marketing measurement perspective that I don't see represented often is that, for a substantial proportion of advertisers, last-click really is optimal. If a fairly new mobile app with low TAM penetration scales exclusively on Facebook, how much actionable insight is gained by introducing complex measurement machinery? While I'm certainly guilty of advocating it, the viewpoint that more sophisticated measurement infrastructure is always better strikes me as overly generalized. In certain contexts, orchestrating experiments or building, tuning, and deploying probabilistic models probably won't meaningfully impact advertising efficiency. And in those specific (again: not all!) contexts, with limited data and a homogenous (possibly, single-channel) channel mix, reducing interpretability and overhead might do more harm than good. Creating complexity where last-click may perform just as well as an ensemble of methodologies doesn't actually optimize the bias/variance tradeoff -- it may not reduce bias sufficiently to compensate for a large increase in variance.

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Following the likes of Robinhood & Salesforce, brands are betting the farm on owned media, but 90% of b2c brands are overestimating their upside. 2 things that differentiate those marquee efforts from most companies: Mass Appeal - Sherwood (Robinhood) and Salesforce+ are going after 2 of the largest audiences, respectively, in consumer investing and sales/marketing. But let's say you operate an insurance marketplace, a telehealth company, or... a mattress company... What are the real odds consumers subscribe to your newsletter? Investment - Sherwood is not messing around. They've hired a cadre of top talent, and then went and bought Chartr to sprinkle on top. You need to be creating a TON of great content to have a chance at creating a real consumer media brand, and too many owned strategies are being built on the back of 2-3 person teams. The truth is... b2c brands need to find audiences offsite, by leveraging their content/data into earned. Tell interesting stories, and create relationships that allow you to syndicate those stories at large.

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INTERVIEWS OF 2024 SXSW PITCH WINNERS: Dhavel Patel of Lotus Every March in Austin, 50 of the world's most impactful startups showcase their talents at SXSW Pitch. Today we begin a series of short interviews with some of the category winners from the 2024 event. Founder and CEO Dhaval Patel has been growing Lotus for three years. At this year's SXSW Pitch, his San Jose based startup emerged as the winner of the "Smart Cities, Transportation & Sustainability" category. Patel's short answers to our questions are below. SXSW: What is Lotus?  Patel: A wearable ring that controls objects at home by pointing. See https://www.getlotus.com/ SXSW: What community does Lotus serve? Patel: Folks with limited mobility -- older adults, veteran soldiers, people with disabilities.  SXSW: Who is your all-time favorite entrepreneur? Patel: Warren Buffett. SXSW: Best startup-related advice you have received? Patel: Don't start building first, find the need first. SXSW: Current entrepreneurial trend that excites you the most? Patel: Desire for tech that is intuitive and simple. SXSW: Fail fast or perseverance? Patel: Persevere in failing fast repeatedly. SXSW: Favorite VC? Patel: Andreessen Horowitz. SXSW: Favorite gadget or device? Patel: Apple AirPods. SXSW: Government can best support startups by Patel: Moving faster. SXSW: Most over-hyped technology at present? Patel: AI. SXSW: Most under-hyped technology at present? Patel: Consumer hardware. SXSW: What did you enjoy most about your experience at SXSW? Patel: The people -- each person wanting to make the world a better place. SXSW: What is your best trait as an entrepreneur? Patel: Simplifying complex problems. SXSW: What is your best advice for other startups? Patel: Focus (say "no" to more). Learn more about Dhaval Patel of Lotus plus other 2024 SXSW Pitch winners by listening to the audio of their session at this year's event. See https://lnkd.in/gHtwQB8n Applications for SXSW Pitch 2025 will open in late summer. See https://lnkd.in/gE2hcVPK #sxsw, #sxsw2024, #startups, #founders, Chris Valentine, Dhaval Patel, SXSW, #venturecapital, #entrepreneur, #entrepreneurs, #startup, #founderstories, #sxswpitch, Lotus (Techstars'23), #techstars, #Austin, #ATX, #creativity, #innovation, #hardware, #consumerhardware, #pitch, #accessibility,

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3 years of pricing lessons at Equals condensed into one blog post. Since starting the company, we've tinkered a lot with pricing and packaging. It's one of the single most impactful levers early stage companies can pull. I think folks *don't* experiment with pricing enough, or take big enough bets when they do. We've tried free. We've tried completely sales led. We've tried not listing pricing on the site. Matt Hodges details all the plans we've had, why, and what we've learned in our latest installment on Wrap Text. https://lnkd.in/ecckEDba

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Meta Advertisers: If your conversion tracking & ad structure are wrecked, creative can’t save you.   Just talked to a $25M brand running a strong creative motion.   But it looked like a 5th grader set up conversion tracking and ad accounts.   They’re putting out great statics & videos every week.   Starting with great creative frameworks & high-converting ad templates.   Even running a proper whitelisting play.   But it wasn’t enough to scale ads aggressively. B/c they had:   😡 Limited server-side tracking   😡 Only CAPI v. better options - Blotout, Elevar   😡 No micro-conversions - only orders   😡 Broken attribution - inaccurate GA4, no Northbeam   😡 Too many campaigns - crushing Meta’s ML’s potential   😡 Bad budget allocation - to Tests vs. Winners   😡 Too much ABO, too little CBO   😡 Too much retargeting - faking growth w/o incremental profit   --   Bums me out when good brands get in their own way (often bc of bad agencies). Yes, creative is a massive lever. But you’ll never be A+ if sleeping on the above.

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What’s wrong with Nike is that they’ve been running a mid-2000s to 2014 playbook. It reminds me of so many early internet advertisers who spent millions on last cookie attribution. Unfortunately, that game is still alive and well into the billions. In Nike’s case (and so many others), they are all in on performance advertising. Direct-response display. Google search to the (p)max. Then they have “brand”, and there is no connection between them. Approaching advertising like this means chasing metrics that aren’t real. Here’s an example. Imagine Nike sponsors a bunch of athletes at the Summer Olympics and they’re all wearing a uniquely branded yellow shoe. Then they run some inspiring tv spots to tap into the emotion of the games. My son sees all of this and thinks the shoes are sick and searches for them on Google, and gets directed to buy them on Nike.com. If you’re just focused on the last touch, you’ll buy more Google search and ignore the brand spots and athlete sponsorships. “Sponsor less athletes. Buy less TV.  Buy more Google.” Of course, that’s insane. That is essentially what so many brands are doing with their marketing today. Nike is not alone. They don’t understand there’s not a top of funnel and a lower funnel, really. The two are connected. If you’re just doing lower funnel, you’re largely getting the people you’d get anyway. It’s a question of attribution versus contribution. If you spend more money on channels that are geared for attribution, you’re just “attributing” credit for sales that you were already going to get or are being driven by channels/tactics that are responsible for creating that demand. Unfortunately, Nike optimized out of those channels/tactics that were actually creating demand like they did in the 2012 Olympics because they chased the fools gold of Google’s attribution game. The best time to change direction was yesterday. The second best time to change direction is today.

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Ten years ago brands like Zillow and American Express nailed it as pioneers of brands launching media companies - while hundreds tried and failed. Now we're in a new era for brand publishing... What's different? 🚀 The Journey For the brands mentioned above, the strategy was a success. But many brands struggled to find their footing, leading to the shutdown of countless content initiatives. Today we’re seeing a resurgence and a true new era for brand publishing, fueled by lessons learned from past challenges. 🔍 What’s Different Now? Today, successful brand publishing has 3 important components: 1. Distribution Focus 2. Strategic ROI 3. Measured Investment. More on this in my latest article - link in first comment. #BrandPublishing #ContentMarketing #BrandJournalism #EarnedMedia Image Credits: Roman Samborskyi - Shutterstock

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Not long ago Sequoia published the brilliant The Arc Product-Market Fit Framework* I mentioned that most #DTC brands thought of themselves as operating in the "Hair on Fire" space - solving a problem that’s a clear, urgent need for customers. While in reality at best they are in the "Hard Fact" space - the customers have resigned themselves to just living with the problem. They’re not urgently engaged with trying to solve it. That means 👉 Trying to go to market with direct response ads ONLY makes sense if the problem you are solving is availability and/or affordability. And your solution is cheaper and faster than a competitor or a substitute product. 👉 As they pointed out you fail when your solution is unconvincing. Aka customers don't trust your #brand. Launching into a community is a way to overcome it. 👉 The key challenges to overcome are habits and status quo. So any other friction points must go - i.e. free delivery, best UX, customer care access in 1 click, guaranteed returns 🔥 #growthstrategy *link is in the comment

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Most influencers promote mediocre products that they didn’t make or don’t have any ownership of. It’s a mistake because: 1. It dilutes their brand / audience trust 2. They capture so little of the upside (one time advertising/affiliate revenue) My friend and fellow Canadian Derek from More Plates More Dates did the opposite. He went from being a Vancouver bouncer to building a 9-figure empire of insanely high quality and obsessively formulated supplements, telemedicine, and men’s care products. I use many of them myself. His entrepreneurial journey started with a punch in the face—literally. It's a fun story, and I recently interviewed him about it for my podcast. In this episode, we talk about: 00:00 From Bouncer to Blogger 00:42 Daily Routine and Night Owl Lifestyle 03:18 Building a Business Empire 05:54 The Journey to Success 13:41 Transparency in the Fitness Industry 38:35 Navigating Fame and Public Perception 41:45 The Double-Edged Sword of Fame 42:38 Managing Wealth and Business Strategies 45:28 The Challenges of Product Development 47:19 Exploring Digital Products and Content Creation 49:39 Personal Enjoyment and Financial Management 52:25 Investment Strategies and Wealth Management 59:37 Productivity Hacks and Tools 59:51 Book and Product Recommendations 01:04:14 Sleep Optimization Enjoy! https://lnkd.in/gtASjbnr

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What's a "Good Steward Of Ad Budget" even mean? We've gotten this question a few times when consulting with CMOs. So we figured we would explain what we mean when we talk about being a good steward of ad budget. Paid campaigns don't need to cost a fortune. By targeting prospects with cost-effective PPC campaigns, you can generate quality leads without the need for a massive budget. We take our job seriously as "good stewards of your ad budget." That basically means we can start small and build up. Or we can take a large budget and make it more effective.

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Meta's introduction of incrementality-based optimization, revealed at Performance Marketing Week in June and officially introduced last week, is strategically shrewd: - Meta has natively facilitated lift studies for years, so it knows that its platform is incrementally accretive; - Meta is the singularly largest publisher for most eCom advertisers, and its contribution is likely being undervalued by psuedo-deterministic measurement solutions; - Meta would prefer to reduce its dependency on direct data transfer, even through server-to-server mechanisms, and it has slowly been increasing its reliance on aggregated attribution data from 3P measurement tools (see: AEM changes last year). Optimizing for incrementality will simply increase platform CPMs while shifting more budget allocation into Advantage+.

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tl;dr: Finding external advocates for your product is one of the most foolproof ways to build developer trust. If you’re generous enough with your incentives, loyal customers don’t just become endorsers — they become revenue-generating machines. Your biggest fans could be generating 10% of your revenue. At ScraperAPI, our affiliate program did just that by converting loyal users into top salespeople. Here’s how we spotted the opportunity: We realized that a lot of our customers would outsource web scraping tasks to freelance software engineers who would use the same tool over and over again for different companies. That left us with a great opportunity to build relationships with those freelancers who had the potential to bring us more and more new customers over time. Here’s how we did it in practice: It’s super simple. We offered killer incentives to everyone involved: -25% recurring commissions for affiliates -10% first-month discount for the new customers they referred Because our product was well-designed and easy to use, freelancers were happy to recommend us over and over again.

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There's a new growth strategy on the block. And I'm dubbing it "The U-Haul Playbook." It's when a founder moves to where their target market lives. Not everyone can do this. Few should. But the real takeaway is in understanding why this matters. Customer discovery is the most important activity for a startup founder who is in pre-market phase, MVP phase, or seed stage. Spoiler alert: the importance never ends, but the tactics can change as you grow. I wrote a bit about this trend and how to think about customer discovery in my latest beehiiv for Five Four!

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The Neighborhood Studios team spent the last few days thinking about our new idea pipeline and its output. Tons of thoughts on this after being in a venture studio for 2 years. Here are some summary stats... - 1,750 new (raw) ideas considered per year. - 110 of those are given a second glance. - 66 of those are seriously considered. - 10 of those become experiments...real products in the hands of customers. - 2 of those are spun-out into studio companies. What the studio team has been discussing over the past few days is that 66 number. That's the number of ideas that 3 people on the team can dig into every year. Venture studios can be perceived as a "startup factory"...an engine to launch startups. The reality is that venture studios are a machine to invalidate ideas. We invalidate many more ideas than we validate. We touch 1,750 ideas per year, seriously dive into 66 of them, build experiments for 10 of them and only launch 2 of them. All that work turns into 2 studio companies per year that have a way higher success rate than the average startup in the wild. Said another way...startups are hard. Talk with Tapan Patel Gabe Hart Whit Anderson IV Jonathan Brinson if you wanna talk about this. They are world class.

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Is Wunderkind truly the savior of DTC email growth, or just a mirage? 👇👇👇 Opinions are split—while some hail it as a top revenue accelerator, others (like myself) are less enchanted, witnessing firsthand its disappointing underbelly. Enter Digioh , the dark horse revolutionizing the market right under Wunderkind's nose. I've dissected six reasons why Digioh is different. 𝗦𝗵𝗮𝗿𝗲 𝘆𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝘁𝗵𝗼𝘂𝗴𝗵𝘁𝘀. Are you a Wunderkind lover, or on the fence about its superpowers? #emailmarketing #emailgrowth #dtcemails

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When I took this CMO job at Consumer Reports (CR), a number of people reacted with surprise that I wasn’t going to another tech company after six years at Stack Overflow. The reality is every company is a tech company (or at least aspires to be), and the evolving tech at CR is one of the things that compelled me to join. As valuations surge the more a company mentions gen AI, more and more companies are creating products that will never achieve market fit — products that aren’t solving real problems. I’m bullish on the current startup ecosystem but for every diamond there are 20 duds. CR is not only working to inform people of what this frenetic moment in tech means for them (a surge in scams, increasing data breaches, etc.), we’re also harnessing gen AI to solve real problems for real people. What’s more annoying than the analysis paralysis that comes with a major (or minor) purchase decision? Enter AskCR - a new benefit we’re rolling out to members that relies on our decades of testing and 10,000+ ratings and reviews to expertly answer everything from “what’s the best air purifier for a 1300 square foot apartment?” to highlighting the best cars for short people (really!). I’m excited to highlight more and more of these benefits over time and to keep showcasing how innovative this 88 year old organization is today! https://lnkd.in/eYA-s2wZ

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Life’s too short to introduce shit AI products into your company so you can scale. So often questions are posed on here such as ‘have you considered how AI can influence eVeRyThInG?’ but barely reference a very specific action = outcome. ‼️ Indy agencies & marketers & seed stage founders: got an online demo webinar feat. Upflowy founder Guillaume Ang tmrw, you’re invited to see what good AI looks like. As a marketer, the main constraint often is time. Time to execute. Content doesn’t just *snap fingers, happens* It requires hands, for the most menial and mundane of tasks to do ‘marketing ops’ which to be frank, is a painful and highly bang-head-against-the-wall task for a marketer who is asked to ‘fill the funnel, make it go viral!’ Within marketing agencies who have clients they need to serve with campaigns, but are constrained by being able to provide the actual assets they require to deploy said game-changing campaign. Within seed+ tech companies who have lean marketing teams with marketing operators only able to do so much with the limited time they have in a day while they do 20 other jobs. Within service providers who seek to have an online bespoke presence in geographies and specific positioning Within consumer goods providers who want to ship a landing page for every SKU and inventory item they could possibly think of I am running this demo gathering tomorrow noon (AEDT) with Guillaume, as he showcases ‘Psyke’ - Upflowy’s next play in market; a neuroscience+AI platform helping marketing ship campaign creation at scale, in hours not days/weeks. I cannot reiterate how much Psyke is NOT SHIT. It is a magical beast, and it has been awesome getting involved in this team who are creating something that will redefine marketing ops, and show how every keyword you hold dear, can be turned into something that is on-brand, on-site, shipped, and *doing the SEO thing you need it to do* I barely run events anymore. This one, as we showcase and invite any and all feedback, will be something I believe will be a huge mental unlock for people thinking about how they can scale in 2025 onwards, but just need the top-of-the-funnel aiding tool to get them there. Tagging marketers and founders (most from Tractor days) I think would get a kick out of this- tell someone who gives a shit about knowing what 2025 should look like in growing their challenger brand. And DM me if interested. Don’t love selling, and since this is demo phase, I’m not. But I do love telling a fucking great story, and this is a good one. (*presses post at 2.37*) Adam Grocke, Adrian Edwards, Alexandria Garlan, Ally Watson OAM, Ami Bateman, ⍙ Amy Springer, Annie Liao 🇦🇺, Anthony Curtin, Ash Kirvan, axel sukianto, Ben Colley, Carolyn Stebbing, Chanel Clark, Cherie Clonan, Christopher Bartlett 🔸, Chris Hoffmann, Chris Nasr, Claire B., 🌞 Dan Brockwell, Daniel Lyas, Dan Siepen, Daniel Kagan, Daniel Ouliaris, Daniele Tanner, Danny Phillips, Dave King, David Tu-Hoa cont.

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