Jacob Schulman

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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Note I sent to our users this morning, but maybe interesting for some of you to read: We are at a turning point in our sector - the digital advertising frenzy is losing steam. I say this as someone who has been there since pretty much the beginning, including working to build ad products in house at FANG. There's a growing realization that our industry's obsession with all things digital has been at the very least overhyped. Maybe it’s time we rethink how we connect with consumers in more meaningful ways once again.   Advertising veteran and luminary I look up to Rory Sutherland once pointed out that brands are sacrificing creativity in favor of digital metrics. His message was simple: marketing should focus on storytelling and building relationships, not just churning out content for the sake of engagement, reaching audiences of varying quality - if real humans at all.   The rise of ad-blocking software speaks volumes here. Nearly 30% of consumers now actively avoid digital ads, frustrated by their intrusive nature. The takeaway is clear: people don’t really want ads online. This is where out-of-home (OOH) advertising shines— it’s both unskippable and non-intrusive, meeting audiences in the real world where their attention is undivided. Screens at a desirable distance, not interrupting your group chat or daily news.   Anyway, how many digital campaigns can you actually remember that stand out in the last decade? It’s a tough question, I struggle to think of many - but when you think of out-of-home campaigns, it’s clear they have the power to create memorable moments. I just flew into Seattle and can shut my eyes and recall the Dell AI campaign I saw at the Austin airport yesterday. But I couldn't tell you the social media ads I scrolled past 5 minutes ago before writing this note. All attention is not created equal.   At AdQuick, we believe in the power of combining the precision of technology with the impact of OOH. Our platform makes it easy to plan, buy, and measure OOH campaigns while delivering results that can’t be blocked or ignored. OOH provides brands with a lasting presence, one that resonates and is memorable.   It’s time to build campaigns in places that matter.

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Growth-stage DTC brands know that scaling is a financial tug-of-war — every department is pulling for its share of the (budgetary) pie 🥧 In our most recent expert guide, Matt Weiler, founder of Second Star Ventures and interim CEO of Wells Group of New York, shares five tactical tips on strategic cross-functional finance: 1️⃣ Decide between tangible growth and buzz Balance investments in short-term ROI with hard-to-quantify activities. Collaborating across teams to align on needs will help you measure intangible results and focus on net profits per initiative. 2️⃣ Assess your decision risk Evaluate each business decision by mapping out assumptions for probability and measurability. Then consider how easily it can be reversed if it fails, and * only * proceed if the cost of failure is manageable. 3️⃣ Prepare for success just as you plan for failure Whip your ops into shape before you action on strategy. That way, when growth occurs, you can deliver what you promised your customers. For example, a successful product launch can still fail if you don’t have enough stock to meet demand. 4️⃣ Pay back your CAC quickly Tracking your LTV, CAC, and payback periods helps you monitor customer growth at all times. If you can’t pay back your CAC quickly, you can’t drive near-term ROI, making it tougher to increase LTV. 5️⃣ Use Drivepoint for cross-functional strategic finance Drivepoint enables you to easily create and compare financial scenarios, build accurate forecasts in minutes, and sync sales, accounting, and marketing data across all sales channels — for a holistic understanding of your business. Want to learn more? Matt breaks it down here: https://lnkd.in/gXc-f_5x

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🎨 📺 Sharon Roth is a Product & Design leader who’s built her career in the lab, across different modalities, to bring more creative product experiences to life 📺 🎨 It's W3 / Q3 / 2024 and this week in our MGMT Boston up & coming operator series we’ve got Sharon who serves as the Senior Director of Product Management at Quantified.ai, the AI-driven flight simulator for sellers. The app feels as real as your next video call, scales across teams, programs, and companies, and ramps reps 42% faster. Sharon is leading Quantified AI’s Product & Design team after previous roles in Product leadership at Tamr & Honor Education. She’s excited to be back working in an Enterprise focused company, leading Design alongside Product, focused on strategic & execution based discipline. ❓Questions Are Your Roadmap ❓ It’s popular to encourage new hires to ask a lot of questions. But it’s always a good time to ask questions! When a member of your team comes to you and says “we really need to build X feature”, they’re coming to you for good reason. Dig into the why to understand how often the issue comes up, when it happens in a customer conversation, and why they’re asking for it in the first place. Is there an even better way to build a solution? Also, people are always excited about getting to a solution. By delaying the solution discussion to first get everyone to agree on the problem, you can coordinate a better response. Sharon has been in rooms where stakeholders can’t agree on the problem they’re trying to solve, which can sometimes be even more painful! By asking better questions and articulating the underlying issues thoroughly, they can work together as an organization to chart a better path forward. 3 Career Insights / Learnings 🙋‍♀️ Seek New Challenges - “Trying new things is how you learn and grow. At a startup, there are so many opportunities to try new things. As startups evolve, you need to embrace all that’s going to happen and make it a positive thing. Otherwise don’t go to a startup!” 🤝 Act with Integrity - “Do your best, show your work. But also treat others with respect and kindness while doing it. How you treat people and how you show up every day will impact your work environment. You’re responsible for the energy you bring to the room, so be authentic and try to inject some positivity. It will help you build the type of network you want to have too” 🗣 Invest in Communication Skills - “It helps you ask questions well, advocate for yourself, have your ideas be heard. It also helps others understand your impact. It takes continuous practice to do well.” If you’d like to learn more about Sharon’s career, the full post is linked in the comments. Go ahead and sign up for the newsletter to see the operator learnings we bring you in the weeks ahead too, will ya? #bostontech #operators

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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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Brands are wondering if they should turn off paid media + social media due to the California wildfire… but I actually don’t think you need to take that action, and I don’t think keeping social going makes your brand heartless. I’m a born & raised Californian who lived through far too many earthquakes & fires. This one is gonna be particularly devastating—I’ve had personal friends displaced & lose friends this time around, a first for me. But honestly, I believe we’re entering a time where there really are very few events that truly warrant a pause on social now. Historically, I’ve been on the hyper cautious side. I was a Strategy Director at R/GA working on Verizon during COVID and George Floyd’s murder, constantly being asked when it is and isn’t okay to post content. I’ve always been the “it’s better safe than sorry” guy when it comes to this stuff, and my answer was always “there’s never a reason to not just wait til tomorrow or the next day.” And with those two moments, I’d take the same approach I did then. But as the world’s returned to normal, things have changed. I monitored social closely after the Trump assassination attempt, and during the debates, and during the election. My advice was brands should steer clear and not push any campaigns during the window. But as I watched? I didn’t sense any bit of negativity towards the brands that kept on truckin’. I’m not saying to keep your brand on always no matter what’s happening in the world. Nationwide and global events happen, and are worth shutting things down for. The COVID shutdown and George Floyd murders I mentioned earlier? I’d still tell every brand to turn everything off for a few days if they happened again. But a regional event, even one as devastating as this, probably doesn’t warrant turning off your brand social. Your brand sells to the entire country, and the entire world. One state going through pain (even a state I love and was raised in) is ultimately a fraction of your audience, and I don’t believe anyone would actually fault your brand for posting. But hey, curious for your take. Reply with your thoughts, would love to chat about it.

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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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Announcing Leland's $12M Series A led by Forerunner! Forerunner has an incredible track record of backing iconic consumer brands and marketplaces like Warby Parker, Chime, Glossier, Inc., ŌURA, Faire, Zola, The Expert, and others. We couldn't be more excited to welcome Eurie Kim to the board and partner with her and Forerunner to take Leland to the next level. Also participating in the round are GSV Ventures, inVest Ventures, and our early investors like FJ Labs, Contrary, Peterson Ventures, and GSBackers. We’re also proud that dozens of Leland coaches and customers participated, in addition to leading marketplace founders, operators, and angels from companies like Instacart, Handshake, LinkedIn, Pluralsight, Mercado Libre, and others. With this fresh capital and support, we're well positioned to accelerate our vision of unlocking human potential by making the world's expertise more accessible. In the past year alone, our coaches have helped hundreds of thousands of people in over 70 countries break into top schools or companies, develop new skills, prepare for interviews or tests, and pursue goals across dozens of unique categories. While a fundraise is never a destination, it certainly represents an opportunity to reflect on the progress we’ve made and thank the community who has helped us get this far. So, THANK YOU! We know the biggest opportunity is ahead of us, and we’re excited to be building a world-class team to go after it. If you want to join us, we're hiring. if you want to partner with us, shoot me a DM. And if you are interested in working with a coach or coaching the next generation, we'd love to have you in our community. Big thank you to Deborah Quazzo, Ben Capell, Kyle Harrison, Eric Tarczynski, Jason Bornstein, Lauri J. Moore, Karen Chi, Glenn Borok, Jeff Weinstein, Jose Marin, Jen Yang-Wong, Jason Chen, Taylor Jones, ilana stern, Aaron Skonnard, Gary Williams, Martin Rudigier, and the many others who have made this possible through your support! Here's to the next chapter of helping people reach their most ambitious goals. (TechCrunch coverage in comments)

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I recently faced one of those forehead-slapping moments: we received an RFP from a media buying agency (on behalf of their brand client) to run an influencer marketing campaign for an over-the-counter product exclusively on TikTok. Sounds great, right? There’s just one problem—TikTok doesn't allow ads or sponsored content for OTC healthcare-related products. This mix-up brings up a couple of important reminders: 1️⃣ Know the Rules: It's important that marketing agencies of all kinds keep up-to-date with the ever-changing guidelines of social platforms, so they don’t make client promises that can’t be fulfilled. Getting creative with marketing is great, but staying within the lines safeguards client interests and campaign viability. 2️⃣ Choose Your Partners Wisely: Make sure the agencies you partner with are not just creative, but also honest and compliant. The last thing anyone wants is to backtrack or, worse, end up on the wrong side of platform policies. Some agencies might take the risk and run the campaign anyway, hoping it doesn’t get flagged. But experience has taught us that while pushing the envelope is a good thing, it should always be done within the boundaries of the platform rules. This ensures our clients' campaigns are successful and impactful — without resorting to questionable tactics or risking public trust.

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I loved Hannah Clark and Daniel Danker 's recent podcast episode. The best piece of advice was on scaling product organizations. Daniel mentioned that when scaling, he avoids the trap of more of the same and instead figures out what they should be doing as he scales. To paraphrase, what are the 10X ideas that they should incorporate? Check it out here: https://lnkd.in/guYMfMm3

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We just supported our 4th Sprouts Innovation Set. Here’s what we’ve learned so far: You can definitely game the game here. Retail media is a great way to earn a permanent spot on the Sprouts shelf. There are a couple of options that work nicely. (Both are through Instacart.) Here are the most important tips: 1. Don’t wait to see how it goes, go HAM from day 1. -> Some of the smaller stores will pull you after only 3 weeks. -> The clock is ticking faster than you think. 2. Set up products on IX-One ASAP. -> You won’t show up on Instacart or Sprouts.com without them. -> Whether using retail media or not, you will need these channels. 3. Press hard on competitor search terms. -> If you’re in the innovation set, you’re probably already outside of the box. -> Target brands with similar customer demographics. 4. Leverage electronic coupons and BOGO’s. -> Figure out how many units you need to drive first. -> Leverage coupons and BOGO’s if you need to hit your goals. 5. Make sure you ask Instacart for free spend early. -> You need all the extra horsepower you can muster. -> $300 is a gimme. Do t leave it in the table. Sprouts is a powerful channel. This system works to keep it. Just don’t half-step it. ——— 🔹 We increase velocity in Whole Foods, Walmart, Target, Walgreens, CVS, Kroger, Sam's, COSTCO, and lots of other cool retailers. 🔹 We grow brands on Amazon. #cpg #cpggrowth #retailgrowth #retailvelocity #omnichannel #retail #amazonagency #retailmedia #shoppermarketing #instacart

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Zyn is the fastest growing CPG in 50 years. 22m pouches are consumed by Americans every day. What can we learn from the rise in mascuzynity? A little background. Zyn are sachets of wood pulp, nicotine and sweeteners that you tuck between your lip and gum. They are supposed to give you a buzz and make you more alert. In 2019, 50M tins were sold. In Q1 2024 alone, more than 136M tins were sold. Fuelled by "zinfluencers" like Tucker Carlson on social media, nicotine pouches (unlike tobacco and vapes) can be advertised and sold in different flavours. In 2022, Phillip Morris acquired Swedish Match, the parent company of Zyn. For many, the appeal is the nicotine. Peter Thiel often states that nicotine provides a 10 point IQ boost. Zyn reflects a shifting perception of male identity and reinforces certain attitudes. “A man with nicotine, protein, caffeine, and creatine coursing through his veins is an unstoppable force.” - Greg Price, a conservative political operator. We talked about this in the End of Men at Nearly Now 2024. Amongst a certain segment of disaffected men, the masculine archetype of strong and stoic has shifted to the hustle bro. Mascuzynity, a term coined by Anna North is about the constant self optimizing "hustle bro." This is the target zyn consumer. Consumers are buying and "popping a cool mint upper decky" because it is a totem of identity around a set of masculine traits that many find desireable. It is a connection to a lost sense of virility that the sensation the nicotine provides reinforces. While seeming abstract, this is an important shift in cultural values and mores to be aware of. Developments like Zyn demonstrate the importance of scanning for early signals of change. That something can get to the scale of Zyn and not be on our radars makes you wonder what else is out there that we are missing. Many of us are aware of the challenges arising from shifting concepts of masculinity and identity. The growth in products like Zyn highlights the scale of the issue.

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Cohley is working on a big content research study, interviewing hundreds of brands and 1,000's of consumers (not creators, every day consumers). I was giving the rough draft a skim this AM. It's fascinating to see brands saying one thing and their actual consumers saying the exact opposite. The importance of authentic content in the shopper journey: - Only 1 in 3 Brands strongly agrees that authentic content is more likely to drive sales for their brand - Whereas 89% of consumers indicate that authentic content is more likely to motivate them to purchase What's going on here?

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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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Hypelinks is the ultimate platform for influencers to engage with brands at scale. Today, creators make content across a variety of platforms. Whether it's TikTok, Instagram, YouTube, or the next emerging platform, influencers are platform-agnostic, trying to maximize their reach. Hypelinks helps influencers elevate their brand collaborations: 1. Manage and execute brand partnerships all in one place. 2. Directly negotiate commissions with brands. 3. Use their sales performance data to negotiate commissions. This is more than just a platform—it's an operational hub for influencers to scale their influence and drive real results with the brands they love. #Ecommerce #AffiliateMarketing #InfluencerMarketing

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We just announced that Elizabeth Ahern, former CMO of Chamberlain Coffee, joined The Starters. A couple weeks ago we onboarded the former Head of E-Commerce of Olipop and Graza. We have creative strategists from Tubescience and Narrative, media buyers from CTC and Fabletics, and designers from Oddit and Kizik. And a lot more elite freelancers that I’m not even allowed to share publicly. There’s a reason the most incredibly talented people in e-commerce will only work through us, and not join any other freelance network. It’s because we were built from the ground up with them in mind. ✔️ Private profiles, in case they don’t want the world to know they’re consulting or freelancing. ✔️ Brands have to pay to access them, which eliminates low intent brands that would just waste their time ✔️ Companies reach out (or “apply”) to talk to freelancers instead of freelancers applying to jobs ✔️ We take no commissions, nor do we mark up their rate to brands ✔️ We’re building a community for them to get “company culture” benefits while freelancing, which can be a lonely endeavor at times. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: We won’t win on price. We won’t win on tech. (Upwork and Fiverr will win on both those fronts) We’ll win on talent.

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Struggling with Alt Text on Squarespace? Here’s Why It Might Not Be Saving (and How to Fix It!) If you’ve ever spent time carefully adding alt text to your Squarespace site only to discover it didn’t save, you’re not alone. It can be frustrating when those small, but important, details don’t stick. Here’s a breakdown of common reasons this happens and how you can troubleshoot like a pro: 1. Some Elements Just Don’t Support Alt Text Not every image or element in Squarespace allows custom alt text. Some templates automatically generate alt text, which can override anything you manually enter. 👉 What to do: Double-check if the element or image type you’re working with supports alt text. If not, you may need to adjust your approach or use a different image placement method. 2. Saving Glitches Sometimes, the problem is as simple as forgetting to click “Save” or “Apply.” Or, your editing session might have timed out, causing your changes to disappear. 👉 What to do: Always hit “Save” after editing, and refresh your session if you’ve been inactive for a while. 3. Browser or Cache Issues Your browser or cached data could be the culprit. Outdated browsers or leftover cache can interfere with how Squarespace saves changes. 👉 What to do: Clear your browser cache and make sure you’re using an up-to-date browser like Chrome, Firefox, or Safari. Trying Incognito Mode can also help identify if extensions are causing problems. 4. Permissions Problems If you’re not the site owner or an admin, your permissions might prevent you from making lasting changes. Additionally, if multiple collaborators are editing the site simultaneously, someone else’s changes could overwrite yours. 👉 What to do: Ensure you have admin access and coordinate with your team to avoid conflicting edits. 5. Technical Bugs or Glitches Like any platform, Squarespace isn’t immune to occasional bugs. Sometimes, issues with specific templates or temporary server hiccups can prevent your changes from being saved. 👉 What to do: Check the Squarespace status page for any outages. If everything looks fine, test your edits on a different page or template. If the issue persists, contact Squarespace Support. 6. File Type Matters Some file types, like SVGs, don’t always work well with alt text in Squarespace. 👉 What to do: Stick to commonly supported image formats like JPEG or PNG for better results. 💡 Final Thoughts Alt text is essential for accessibility and SEO, so it’s worth taking the time to get it right. If you’re still facing challenges, don’t hesitate to reach out to Squarespace Support or explore their documentation. What’s been your biggest challenge with alt text (or Squarespace in general)? Let’s discuss in the comments! 👇 This format is engaging and structured for LinkedIn. It invites interaction while providing actionable tips!

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We've transitioned close to 3 dozen of our email-only clients to the "new" audience-first RevBoss*. And we've learned a lot in the process. 😬 People are surprisingly nervous to put themselves out there. Even founders that very obviously know their sh*t are hesitant to start creating trust-building content. Maybe it's imposter syndrome. Maybe it's just fear of public speaking. I get that talking into a camera comes more naturally for some than others and It's definitely feels a little awkward at first, even for the naturals. But the reality is that you don't have to be anyone other than yourself. 🦥 The hardest part is getting started. Once you can get over the nerves, you just have to go. You don't need to be perfect or polished. You really just need to be consistent and helpful. I wouldn't say I'm "good" at "content" yet, but I've gotten waaaay better from when I started. And I've got a much better plan going into 2025 than when I started. Building an audience is like planting a tree -- the best time was 10 years ago, the next best time is today. 🍇 Your first goal should be reaching the people that already know you. The non-obvious value I've gotten from a strategic content / audience effort on LinkedIn has come from preaching to the choir so to speak. The new follower growth has been nice, but the engagement, leads, opportunities, and revenue we've generated from our existing audience -- current clients, former clients, and non-converted leads -- has been the lowest hanging fruit. 🤠 It's fun to make marketing that people want. Our clients smile when they're creating this content. Their collective audiences seem to be responding in a positive way. And there is undoubtedly a hidden impact that doesn't show up in visible metrics like comments, likes, shares, etc. I know because I get text messages, DMs, emails, etc. in response to the stuff I'm sharing. And clients and prospects mention it completely unprompted on calls. 🏋️ There is so much more potential. We've just started the "activation" piece of our process with a handful of clients -- i.e. working to turn the audience into sales leads. We're experimenting with a few levers -- direct outreach via email, direct outreach via LinkedIn, LinkedIn ads, and (eventually) live events. Not going to tell you that an audience-first lead generation strategy is easy. But it's fun. And it works. :) *The new audience-first RevBoss officially launches this week. We're still emailing and we're still lead generating, just started our process from a different foundation -- audience, then trust, then leads. Leave a comment or shoot me a DM if you'd like to learn more about it. It's fun and it works. :)

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7 days until launch ⏳ What does the ad agency ecosystem look like in the US? As JBP.fyi is nearing the release of its first product on 5/15, I’m shifting gears. From product development sprints to preparing for 1:1 conversations with agency leaders. Although I believe what we’re building with JBP.fyi will be valuable to paid media agencies of all shapes, sizes, & specialties, only time (and data) will tell. To learn who might lean in the most, I’ll be doing a series of personalized outreach sprints to a relatively small, randomized list of agencies. Four cohorts, two weeks each, over the course of eight weeks. I’m interested to see who the earliest adopters may be. So, what’s the DNA of the ad agency ecosystem in the US? The data based on self-descriptions: 🟣 4,800 mention performance marketing or direct response. 🟣 5,400 mention lead generation. 🟣 24,200 mention paid social or SMM. 🟣 11,600 mention paid search, SEM, or PPC. 🟣 2,700 mention programmatic or display. 🟣 4,100 mention OTT, CTV, Linear TV, DOOH, streaming, or audio. 🟣 9,100 mention SMS or Email marketing. 🟣 2,000 mention influencer or creator marketing. 🟣 1,200 mention experiential or event marketing. 🟣 14,800 mention full service.

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