The digital ad spending market in the US is expected to exceed $190B in 2021. Businesses need to embrace the online ad revolution and be willing to adapt as the paid marketing environment is constantly evolving. The days of setting up a simple Facebook campaign and hoping for returns are no longer viable. Trust is a corporate card and community focused on optimizing advertising spend. The card, which has no annual fee, offers flexible payment terms and increased spending limits while the community puts data front and center, allowing businesses to really understand their marketing spend and the platforms that they are spending on through dedicated support and curated expert resources. With Trust, marketers are able to leverage scale to ensure that they are able to compete with larger advertisers from an informed standpoint to drive growth. Founded in 2019, the company recently launched with support for campaigns on Snap, Facebook, Pinterest, TikTok, Google, Apple, Amazon, Hulu, Instagram, Youtube, et al.
LA TechWatch caught up with Cofounder and CEO James Borow to learn more about how the founding team’s experience at Snap led to the inspiration for the business, the company’s strategic plans, recent round of funding and launch, and much, much more.
Who were your investors and how much did you raise?
Trust has raised a $9M seed round from Lerer Hippeau, Lightspeed Venture Partners, Upfront Ventures, and Upper90.
Tell us about your product or service.
Trust is the first card + community designed to help digital businesses make more money from their marketing investments. Trust cardholders get up to 20x higher credit limits and 45-day payment terms on all of their marketing investments, as well as access to the Trust community, unlocking market-level data, trusted advice, and exclusive content.
What inspired the start of Trust?
We started Trust after spending several years at Snap building its advertising marketplace, where businesses now spend billions of dollars each year. We saw firsthand how digital advertising platforms like Snap, Facebook, Google, and Amazon can help businesses find new customers, accelerate growth, and increase profits. At the same time, we saw numerous businesses struggle when navigating these ad platforms because they are opaque, volatile, closed marketplaces (aka walled gardens) where customers have an inherent lack of visibility and control.
Legacy businesses are the prominent beneficiaries of these walled garden dynamics: they are perceived to be more creditworthy, enabling them to get preferential pricing and payment terms, and they use this buying power to access better data and support from the ad platforms. Startups, on the other hand, lack this leverage and are left to operate at a distinct disadvantage. We started Trust to help level the playing field.
How is it different?
Trust helps digital businesses overcome their biggest marketing challenges with better data, advice, and buying power. The Trust card allows digital businesses to increase their marketing buying power by up to 20x and receive 45day payment terms for all their marketing investments. The Trust card also gives businesses access to the Trust community, providing:
- Market-level performance data across the major digital advertising platforms
- Visibility into aggregated and anonymized marketing investment trends
- Advice and discussions on best practices from trusted businesses and industry experts
- Curated news tailored to each business’s specific marketing strategy
What market you are targeting and how big is it?
Our customers are early-stage, US-based, direct to consumer and e-commerce businesses. The individuals that we work with at these businesses are often founders or marketing teams.
What’s your business model?
Every time businesses use their Trust card, Trust receives an interchange fee. That fee is paid by the vendors, which makes Trust a free product for businesses to use.
How has COVID19 impacted the business??
The explosive growth of e-commerce is placing an added emphasis on digital marketing investments. Ecommerce grew by 39% in the US over the past year, while digital advertising spend is projected to grow 25% this year to $191 billion. Google (69%), Facebook (56%), Snapchat (116%), and Twitter (87%) all just reported rapid growth in their year-over-year advertising revenues.
What are the milestones you plan to achieve in the next six months?
Now that we’re out of beta we want to help an even larger number of digital businesses make more money from their marketing investments. We also plan to grow the Trust team to bring a handful of new products to market – we’ll share more as they begin to rollout.
What advice can you offer companies in Los Angeles that do not have a fresh injection of capital in the bank?
Focus on your customers to deliver tangible value and listen to them to understand the challenges they’re facing and how your business can help them. In addition to that, stay focused on building your business; drown out the noise whether it be about competitors, fundraising, new market opportunities, etc.
Focus on your customers to deliver tangible value and listen to them to understand the challenges they’re facing and how your business can help them. In addition to that, stay focused on building your business; drown out the noise whether it be about competitors, fundraising, new market opportunities, etc.
Where do you see the company going now over the near term?
For now, we’re focused on bringing on new customers and ensuring that we deliver value to each of them.
What’s your favorite outdoor activity in LA?
I love taking walks and exploring LA with my wife, daughter, and our dog. My family and I love Los Angeles, there’s nowhere we’d rather be.
