Introducing Bedrock, The Future Of Ad Tech Infrastructure
Back in the day, if you walked into an Irish living room, you would see three framed portraits adorning the mantlepiece: the sacred heart, the pope, and JFK. It was the ultimate conflation of uber-Catholicism and politics.
At FirstPartyCapital, we also have a framed picture on our virtual mantlepiece. Instead of the bizarre mix of religious and political messianic figures, we have gone with three greats of ad tech: Boris (Mouzykantskii), Brian (O’Kelley), and Ari (Paparo),
Why those three? FPC sees them as the great enablers of ad tech. They built tech at IPONWEB, AppNexus, and Beeswax that powered thousands of businesses. What’s not to love about those types of solutions? You give entrepreneurs in this industry the right tools, and they will do great things.
Bedrock: The Big Reveal
Today, we announce the launch and seed investment in a new startup called Bedrock. Bedrock will look to continue the legacy of the three great companies named above by creating the tech framework for cutting-edge companies in our industry.
Shane Shevlin, formerly of IPONWEB and Google, will be the new Bedrock CEO.
Shane is a highly respected figure in ad tech and spent the better part of a decade as the commercial brain of IPONWEB, signing some of the company’s biggest customers. He was also an early employee at DoubleClick in Europe and worked at Google.
Bedrock is assembling some of the industry's brightest minds for our advisory board to help shape the future direction of the business. An announcement on that board is coming in the next few weeks.
Let A Hundred Thousand Ad Networks Bloom
Bedrock is building on the great “enabler” model that IPONWEB, Beeswax, and Appnexus used to provide our industry.
This industry has always been entrepreneurial. Despite the overarching dominance of monopolies like Meta, Google, and Amazon, the 20 percenters still thrive - building innovation and outstanding businesses in this trillion-dollar industry.
Nothing exemplifies this entrepreneurial grit, determination, and bloody-minded spirit more than the ad net - the greatest business model in ad tech and digital media history.
In one of the finest pieces ever written in ad tech, Ari Paparo - industry legend and FPC LP - put forward the bull case for ad networks.
At the time of the piece, many believed programmatic would wipe out ad nets. Paparo maintained the ad network would evolve and become even more relevant - especially those with unique capabilities.
As ever, Ari was on the money. Look at the ad net success in our European backyard in terms of business scale and exits.
FPC believes another wave of ad nets will emerge with the advent of curation. Bedrock will be the technology layer they build on.
Not A Whitelabel DSP - Bedrock Is Demand-Side Infrastructure
Bedrock does not compete with the enterprise DSPs. They already offer unique and vital media activation services to the market.
Instead, Bedrock will cater to companies looking for a competitive edge, building customised features for the best and brightest.
It will evolve beyond typical DSP functionality and look to reshape buy-side infrastructure for the post-cookie/ID landscape. Areas of focus will include:
Incorporating new buying signals, like attention, Privacy Sandbox, and SDA (Seller Defined Audiences).
Building privacy-first data onboarding in the platform for all customers.
Curation building, activation, and scaling.
The FPC Flywheel Effect
Bedrock has colossal importance for the FPC portfolio. For instance, Lumen will be a standard feature at launch, allowing clients and Lumen resellers globally to incorporate the market-leading attention tech in every campaign.
It’s the ultimate flywheel effect for scaling businesses in our portfolio.
Our army of resellers globally now has the weaponry to compete against the best buy-side solutions in the market - ultimately helping category-winning companies like Lumen to focus on core markets.
Lumen is just one of the many FPC companies that Bedrock will help to grow revenue and market share. Stay tuned for more announcements on this.
What Are You Going To Do Now, Readers?
Bedrock is live. We are open for business and happy to chat with anyone looking for unique customisation, margin creation, and a competitive edge. Our customer fit is vast, including any of the following:
Ad networks
Data companies
Programmatic traders
Sales houses
Curation houses
Retail media networks
Marketplaces
Commerce media solutions
Publishers
Media providers
Click on the link below to get ahead in this ad tech game.
We will be hosting a launch party here on Feb 29: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/firstpartycapital-stealth-project-launch-party-tickets-827660353397?aff=oddtdtcreator.
Swing by if you want to talk to the team.
And on that note, readers, we will sign off for this FPC newsletter edition. Bedrock FTW. Yaba-Daba Doo.