When it comes to ad tech, you, dear reader, know best
I have always been amazed by the multitude of smart operators in ad tech - from the tech side to operations to monetisation. In my humble opinion, the breadth and depth of the talent and experience in our industry is unparalleled.
But yet so few have really benefited from the ad tech M&A and IPO windfall over the past two decades.
Not enough of us have ‘lucked out’ on being early investors in The Trade Desk.
And it’s even rarer for anyone in ad tech to have had financial success in a European exit. Apart from founders and a handful of employees - both of which usually end up massively diluted - it’s invariably the generalist VC that strolls away with the M&A and IPO spoils.
Changing the investment narrative
The funding system is fractured. So many European and APAC ad tech startups are set up to fail from the very beginning. Bad advice, horrible dilution, and an inflexible funding system are leading to bad outcomes for everyone.
There are probably three areas that need to be addressed in order to fix the current investment malaise.
First, there has to be a better understanding by investors of this industry’s unique business models (SaaS, for instance, will never work in ad tech no matter how many times someone tries).
Second, we need to offer more founder-friendly funding solutions that reflect realistic growth, valuations and revenue objectives - as well as offering more than just capital.
And third, we have to figure out a way to ‘democratise’ access for would-be investors so that more can share in the up-side.
The wisdom of the ad tech crowd
Do I think any of the aforementioned will happen anytime soon? Very unlikely. So what do you do about it? Well, you find a bunch of smart people, and design an investment vehicle from scratch.
And that’s exactly what this collective of smart people did: build a new funding solution (a seed syndicate) tailored to the needs of both founder and investor. FirstPartyCapital is a sector-focussed (ad tech and martech), geographical-focused (Europe and APAC) solution.
The idea behind the FirstPartyCapital thesis is simple: we want to seed innovative, early stage ad tech and martech companies outside the US while giving access to a wider spread of investors.
It must be noted here that this project has no connection with WireCorp. FirstPartyCapital is an independent, next generation investment fund run by industry insiders. Rich Ashton, who worked previously at FastPay and Braavo, will be coming onboard full-time as Managing Partner. I will be joining Kevin Flood and Martin Kelly as a syndicate lead.
Put your ad tech know-how to work by joining our syndicate
So why would you want to join the FirstPartyCapital angel syndicate?
YOU have the domain knowledge - not the generalist VC or professional and institutional investors that currently monopolise ad tech funding.
FirstPartyCapital sees a lot of deal flow, and we believe industry leaders like you are missing out on BIG European and APAC exits.
European and APAC startups have more realistic valuations compared to their US peers, meaning there is a lot of value in Europe and APAC.
FirstPartCapital’s centralised deal flow and due diligence give investors access to the best deals in APAC and Europe.
There are a LOT of large acquirers out there (every PE company in the market, Criteo, TTD, Axel Springer, S4Capital, WPP, Publicis, Dentsu, SAP, Oracle and Salesforce amongst others) supporting the opportunity for innovation and acquisition.
Syndicate members have total control of which deals they choose to fund, and can invest as little as $1000 per deal. There is no joining fee or annual membership fee. There will be opportunities to join early stage companies as a board member, advisor, or senior exec.
This is a very exciting time for our industry as we move to a privacy-first world. There are so many great startups emerging in areas like ID, privacy infrastructure, data management and emerging channels. But in parallel we need smarter ways to fund these companies. We think FirstPartyCapital is well positioned to address this gap in the market.
If you want to be part of our seed syndicate, please click the link to fill in this form -https://firstpartycapital.com/seed-syndicate-form/.
I look forward to bringing you more news as FirstPartyCapital launches more funding products in 2021.