Almost to 9 years...

On June 26th, the Bold Collective team celebrates 9 years of business. Some fun stats to share from a 15-person self-funded profitable business over the last 9 years:

• We have serviced over 750+ advertisers
• We have partnered with over 1,250+ publishers across CTV, Audio, and Mobile
• We have licensed over a dozen ad serving / tracking platforms over the years
• We have driven over $52MM of advertiser budgets across CTV, Audio and Mobile
• We have employed ~65 people over the 9 years of business
• We have acquired one other independent business
• the list continues...

When we started this business almost 9 years ago (in 14 days!), it was more of a lifestyle business adapting to the explosive growth of Mobile Video, and ad-supported mobile apps enabling video ads for the very first time! The first 6 months both myself and my co-founder Joe Lyons worked our asses off day and night to build a sustainable business and revenue stream to eventually hire a team on the backbone of our own self funding. Our initial $40k investment was paid back in 6 months with interest, and the ~$430k in pure profit that we yielded was used to hire a team and build a business! First full year was 2016, where we doubled the growth of 2015, and in 2017 we almost doubled again! The story continues...

Here are some of the major accomplishments I can reflect on as we come into our 10th year:

Resilience: Through the 9 years of running this small but mighty business, I have hundreds of milestones I could showcase, and dozens of things I have learned as an entrepreneur, business owner, founder, and as a CEO! In 2019, we had our biggest year at the time, almost hitting $10MM in revenue! When 2020 hit, and COVID hit, we lost ~70% of that revenue almost overnight! What a punch in the gut that was. We stayed focused, did NOT do major layoffs, and dipped into previous year's profits to keep the business afloat! In 2021 we saw 41% growth, then 27% the next year and 11% the next!

People: I'd love to say that every amazing employee that has been hired by BOLD has stayed here forever, but I know that we are not an employer that is for everyone, and our career pathing doesn't always match the needs for everyone. It's also safe to say something like 'the people that got you here, won't get you there.' However, every person that has come through our doors, and they know who they are, hopefully has learned something, made some lifelong friends, and moved on to bigger and better things in their career.

Get Shit Done: This is a core value. I was spoiled early on in my career with ad tech startups ONLY, minus one quick stop at a corporate publicly traded ad tech company, that didn't work out long term. If you want to work here, it's work...it's hard to get a dollar from the big boys...every dollar we yield we feel it, and it's earned. You are never a number here, but we expect you to give every last ounce of effort you have to this business, and hopefully we give you back the same in return. If you can't give that, we're not a good fit. There are large, often non-profitable, or even publicly traded businesses that eat our lunch every day! They have clout of a big brand, but we have the people and hungerness to WIN!

Transparency: This is also a core value, and I think if more businesses in our space were just as respectful, transparent and hungry as we were, we'd all do better by the brands we are servicing!

*As we wrap up our 9th year and roll into our 10th year of operation, I'd like to focus on a few things:

• Continue to dominate in the space of CTV, Audio, and Mobile
• Continue to partner with the best buyers, sellers, vendors and platforms
• Continue to hire people that scare us, and that make us better
• Continue to push our employees to be their best and give it their all every single day!

I love this industry and I love this company! Let's get it!