While cord-cutting has reduced traditional cable providers’ dominance in the TV advertising market, it has opened up new advertising channels for brands seeking to capitalize on the growth of streaming services. It’s estimated that the number of online video subscriptions in the US was 353.2M in 2021. Connected TVs, also known as over-the-top (OTT) devices, are able to provide programmatic targeted ads based on user behavior and data, unlike the ads shown by static cable providers. tvScientific is an ad measurement, buying, optimization, and distribution platform for Connected TVs. The platform connects with 95% of streaming apps that are available today across devices that include computers/mobile/tablet streaming, OTT, and internet-connected televisions. Television advertising has traditionally served as a conduit for awareness-based campaigns but with tvScientific’s ad-buying platform, brands can make data-driven decisions to increase lift and engagement to make TV a more valuable channel in the marketing mix.
LA TechWatch caught up with tvScientific CEO and Cofounder Jason Fairchild to learn more about the business, the company’s strategic plans, latest round of funding, and much, much more…
Who were your investors and how much did you raise?
tvScientific raised $20M in Series A funding to expand on its mission to make TV advertising a massive growth driver for brands and apps of all sizes. The round was led by Norwest Venture Partners, with participation from strategic partners NBCUniversal and Hearst Ventures. LA TechWatch caught up with to learn more about the business, the company’s strategic plans, latest round of funding, and much, much more…
Tell us about your product or service.
tvScientific is the first company to offer ad buying, measurement, and optimization for CTV advertising all in one platform. Built specifically for performance marketers, the tvScientific platform connects with 95% of AVOD streaming apps through direct deals allowing advertisers to successfully scale their campaigns. The platform leverages proprietary attribution technology that enables advertisers to match ad exposure to site visitations and other desired outcomes with a 1:1 deterministic ID match, giving advertisers 100% accuracy and transparency they value. The end result are highly targeted ads that can be optimized through tvScientific’s proprietary automatic optimization technology to help advertisers achieve their user acquisition goals, all while giving advertisers radical transparency and complete control over their data, including access to log-level events.
What inspired the start of tvScientific?
In many ways, the journey to today began in 1998 when I joined a small startup called GoTo.com (later renamed Overture and acquired by Yahoo), launched by Pasadena incubator, Idealab. GoTo.com pioneered the paid search industry and democratized access to search advertising via a self-serve platform that offered advertisers a very clear measurement currency — the paid click. This simple and powerful value proposition ultimately resulted in an industry with millions of advertisers, generating $200B in ad spend per year, and trillions of dollars in economic activity.
Fast forward to where we are now, and we are on a mission today with tvScientific to do the same for CTV — to create universal access to TV advertising via a simple self-serve platform that makes the measurement as simple as what’s available in paid search. We believe this will attract millions of businesses to CTV, the most powerful advertising medium in existence.
How is it different?
tvScientific is different in two important ways. 1) We are the industry’s first self-serve platform for performance advertising on TV, and 2) the platform builds trust with marketers by delivering massive data in a radically transparent way, while giving marketers total control over the platform and all data in the platform. One of our core company values is building trust, which is represented in this simple formula: Trust = Data x Transparency x Control
What market are you targeting and how big is it?
CTV currently penetrates 95M+ U.S. households and growing, with overall market spend forecast to reach $29.5 billion by 2024 — more than 40% of total TV ad spend today.
What’s your business model?
Like other massively scaled adtech platforms, we take a transparent fee, which is based on a % of media spend through the platform.
What are your post-COVID office plans?
We are a “native virtual” company. For the entire history of the company, I have never been in the same room with my co-founders. That said, we do believe in the power of collaboration and building relationships in person, so we will be evaluating opening an office or moving to a “hybrid” structure later this year.
What was the funding process like?
The funding process was a lot of work, but incredibly valuable and productive. Particularly in terms of honing our message and how we talk about the company, the market opportunity, and more. When you pitch the company 30 to 40+ times to VCs, you get lots of feedback, which helps “sharpen the saw” in terms of how we communicate the opportunity and what we’re doing differently. These learnings have rippled throughout the company and helped us evolve how we talk to all constituents, from advertisers to publishers to even recruiters.
The funding process was a lot of work, but incredibly valuable and productive. Particularly in terms of honing our message and how we talk about the company, the market opportunity, and more. When you pitch the company 30 to 40+ times to VCs, you get lots of feedback, which helps “sharpen the saw” in terms of how we communicate the opportunity and what we’re doing differently. These learnings have rippled throughout the company and helped us evolve how we talk to all constituents, from advertisers to publishers to even recruiters.
What are the biggest challenges that you faced while raising capital?
The biggest challenge was the amount of time the process required. This may seem obvious, but allocating 50%+ of my time to the process while also driving the day-to-day of an early-stage start-up can be taxing. But we got through it in a reasonable timeframe — about 90 days — and now we can focus on building the business.
What factors about your business led your investors to write the check?
I think it’s a few things: first, our investors see the huge consumer shift toward streaming services; and secondly, they all buy into the unique power of TV advertising. Third, they believe in the potential of digital-like buying and measurement for CTV, which is basically building a Google or Facebook-like console for advertisers to reach the more than 100M streaming households with measurable ads.
I think it’s a few things: first, our investors see the huge consumer shift toward streaming services; and secondly, they all buy into the unique power of TV advertising. Third, they believe in the potential of digital-like buying and measurement for CTV, which is basically building a Google or Facebook-like console for advertisers to reach the more than 100M streaming households with measurable ads.
What are the milestones you plan to achieve in the next six months?
The company will use the new funding to grow its customer base, hire for key roles in engineering, product, data science, marketing, sales, and other departments, and continue innovating the product in support of the company’s mission of making TV accessible, measurable, and performant for all businesses.
What advice can you offer companies in Los Angeles that do not have a fresh injection of capital in the bank?
Remain nimble in approach, and stay on the pulse of innovation. Find market gaps and think of how your solution can help to solve or alleviate any existing pain points. And think big! If you have the idea, the passion, and the drive, the rest will fall into place.
Also, remember company building is about building consensus that your new product or service is the way of the future. This process “takes a village”. Surround yourself with great people that can help evangelize the company vision and help build unanimity — from co-founders to team members, to investors and advisors.
Where do you see the company going now over the near term?
We see our customer base growing, our internal employee count doubling, and our drive for innovation continuing to grow. We are on a mission to make TV accessible, measurable, and performant for all businesses, and we don’t plan to slow down anytime soon.
What is your favorite restaurant in LA?
Brera.
