Your Updated Survival/Success Ad Tech Guide; Game-Changing Product Launch On Feb 29; & Cost For Entering FPC Fund Goes Up On April 01
Belated Chinese New Year greetings, readers. Did you know that the year of the dragon is arguably the most auspicious in the Chinese zodiac calendar? We are talking about all the good stuff here: strength, prosperity, power, and good fortune. This could very well be your lucky ad tech year. Hokum? Quite probably. But then you must ask yourself: can a billion-plus people really be that wrong? As you ponder that one, let’s crack on with this edition’s world-class ramblings.
Your Updated FPC Guide To Industry Investing & All Things Ad Tech-Related
The industry is currently consumed by the worst bout of navel-gazing ever witnessed in our brief history.
Three things seem to be weighing heavy on the contemplative mind of the ad tech chattering class: 1) privacy sandbox, the loss of a key signal on the open web; 2) generative search crushing referral traffic; and 3) the fate of the open web.
This depressing narrative underpins most B2B media output right now (mostly from old, angry white guys). It is time to say ENOUGH to the curmudgeons incessantly bleating about the end of days.
FPC sees this perceived chaos as an opportunity for outcome-based investors like ourselves to rewrite the playbook and ultimately make money for our LPs.
For this year of the dragon, FPC has collated a mini-guide (see below) for investors and practitioners alike to get ahead of the growing number of industry preppers and panic-room dwellers - and profit from this innovation cycle.
Ad tech investing should be more OB (outcomes-based) than VC: We will do another post on this in the coming weeks, as it is important to understand the thesis FPC is building around its approach to investing. In short, spray-and-pray tactics do not work - especially in ad tech. How do you add value to a portfolio of 100 investments? It's just really bad gambling - and the numbers bear this out. VC rules do not apply here. After all, we are not building fusion reactors or curing cancer; we are developing tech to power a trillion-dollar ad industry (a gigantic opportunity in itself). The ad tech may change, but industry fundamentals do not.
Invest in an OBI specialist like FirstPartyCapital: From day 1, FPC plans to effect an outcome with its investment: from an early-stage MVP to test budget to platform build to agency trade deals to profitability to marketing blitz to scale to eventual sale. We work very hard to have strong agency over what will happen next. This proactive model is our core USP. That's why we are so heavily involved with product build, commercials, financial planning, and marketing at all our portfolio companies.
Demand is everything: It doesn’t matter if your tech is game-changing or epoch-defining. If you don’t have demand, you are dead.
Attack a problem: Even with demand, you still need a great product to succeed. The best companies in ad tech are the ones that specialise in a category, solving a big problem for a buyer or a seller. I’m thinking of focused solutions like Lumen (attention), ContxtMedia (TV and YouTube contextual) and Scope3 (sustainability).
Build for ad nets: The ad net is the greatest model ever in digital marketing. There will be huge growth again in this category with the advent of curation. Enable them. Empower them. Let them make you money.
Become an ad network: Is there any better way to make money?
Agencies scale ad tech: Going brand direct outside the US is commercial suicide. Agencies, first. Always. And again, be mindful of the MediaMath cautionary tale: don't piss off the agencies.
The Denver strategy: New York will kill your ad tech startup business. Fact. Over 4000 indie agencies in the US manage an ungodly amount of money. Like indie agencies everywhere else, they are overlooked. They have the budget and are open to innovative solutions. Our advice: skip NYC as your US base and get to Denver (more on this later). MIQ is worth a billion dollars plus for a reason.
Embrace the chaos: It is important to remember you work in ad tech. Not insurance. Not banking. Not academia. Not medicine. Chaos and existential threats are par for the course. Take Privacy Sandbox, for instance. Sure, it breaks stuff. But instead of crying into your post-workday beer, figure it out. Test it. Build for it. Help others navigate it. Profit from the mess Google created. There is always money to be made in this industry. Just have a go.
Tune out the negativity: Those peddling end-of-world viewpoints must be expunged from your feed. Keep your mind open, but don’t let analysts who over-index to misery and hopelessness live in your head for free. Remember: ad tech always finds a way.
You Say You Want An Ad Tech Revolution - So We Are Inviting You To Our Stealth Product Launch Party
FPC has been helping to create and launch a brand-new ad tech business. On Feb 29, we will unveil the new co to the ad tech world.
This platform will be a key foundational layer for the industry over the coming decade - enabling the next wave of ad tech cos, ad nets, walled gardens/publishers/retailers, and data providers to build solutions and services that will define the digital media and marketing landscape.
If you are any of those mentioned above, you need to be there talking to the [INSERT SECRETIVE COMPANY NAME HERE] team.
Join us to learn how you and your company will benefit from this new venture. Partnership opportunities abound - and there will of course be complimentary beers.
It’s also worth mentioning that this launch party will take place on Feb 29, which means the next party won’t happen until 2028 - so this is a must-attend. The link below will bring you to the event page.
The Fund Entry Price Is Going Up From April 01
We will officially mark the fund up in the coming months to reward early investors, reflecting the actual paper increase in the value of capital deployed.
If you do not invest by April 01, you will miss out on a bump - meaning you will get less money when exits occur.
How big is the bump? Our fund is currently 30% up on paper. Early investors are about to get rewarded.
More mark-ups are coming in the coming two quarters. We have at least 3-4 markups coming. And we expect the fund to be up 100% overall by the end of the year.
These are indeed exciting times. And on that happy note, we will sign up for this edition.
Our next FPC newsletter installment will go out on Feb 29, giving more details on the new ad tech company we are launching - and why it will be an essential player in shaping the new media and marketing landscape.