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Business
Joe Zappa
Open Market is a podcast about building companies in the advertising space. This is not another news podcast. Rather, hosts Eric Franchi and Joe Zappa will dive deep into the stories of successful companies and growth strategies to help listeners understand how to replicate that success. For example, how did Eric build Undertone to a $180M exit? How would you reverse-engineer a $10M adtech exit? Why do you need a chief audience officer? Entrepreneurs, execs, and GTM professionals in advertising should walk away from each week’s episode with new ideas on how to build their companies.
Total 27 episodes
1
Getting in the Arena with Matt Barash
Matt Barash is perhaps the best example of an adtech influencer. The master networker and content creator joins Eric Franchi and Joe Zappa to discuss what most people get wrong about building influence, his theory of attention, why executives shouldn't be afraid of controversy, and the opportunities Matt is excited about today in the advertising industry.
43:2625/11/2024
Moving Marketing to the Boardroom with Goodway Group CEO Jay Friedman
Jay Friedman, CEO of Goodway Group, joins Eric Franchi and Joe Zappa to talk about elevating marketing within organizations, developing a distinct marketing philosophy, driving incremental returns on advertising, and carving out space for yourself and your business with bold, provocative takes.
39:2320/11/2024
Preaching in the Desert with ID5's Mathieu Roche
Eric Franchi and Joe Zappa interview Mathieu Roche, CEO & co-founder of ID5, about evangelizing identity solutions before it was cool, driving urgency, competing with big players, bringing a European business to market in the US, and managing a remote-first workplace.
38:2313/11/2024
Expanding CTV Access to SMBs with Vibe’s Arthur Querou
Co-hosts Eric Franchi and Joe Zappa speak with Vibe founder and CEO Arthur Querou about an unconventional adtech product launch, aligning product with marketing and sales, and the differences between enterprise and SMB sales.
37:0504/11/2024
Deep Dive on Acquisitions with LUMA’s Terry Kawaja
Co-hosts Eric Franchi and Joe Zappa interview Terry Kawaja, founder and CEO of LUMA. They cover the existential importance of marketing to acquisitions, the role of the CEO in building the brand of a startup, and the optimal conditions for exiting.
49:5730/10/2024
“The Most Anticlimactic Moment” and Other Lessons from Undertone
Joe Zappa interviews co-host Eric Franchi about the biggest lessons he learned building and selling Undertone. Eric talks about his best-ever hires, the biggest challenge Undertone faced in his tenure, and how he approached life and business post-exit.
47:5723/10/2024
Why Sincera Is So Bad at Marketing with Sincera Founder Mike O'Sullivan
Eric Franchi and Joe Zappa interview Sincera founder Mike O’Sullivan about the category Sincera is creating, marketing early-stage startups, and the risks of playing it safe.
53:4716/10/2024
Taste as a Differentiator, Hiring a Head of Growth, and Zuck
This week on the pod, co-hosts Joe Zappa and Eric Franchi dig into the new frontier of taste in Silicon Valley, whether you should hire a head of growth and what they should focus on, the MrBeast memo, viral adtech social posts, and Mark Zuckerberg’s live interview on stage with the Acquired pod.Links:Taste is Eating Silicon Valley. by Anu AtluruAndrew Yeung’s LinkedIn post on “Head of Growth”MrBeast memo
39:3309/10/2024
Building Businesses on Thought Leadership with Eric Seufert
Co-hosts Joe Zappa and Eric Franchi chat with Eric Seufert about how he's used thought leadership, especially via his blog Mobile Dev Memo, to launch successful tech, media, and investing businesses and become one of the best-known voices in mobile.
44:1102/10/2024
The Vanderhooks on the Best Adtech Product Launch… Ever?
Eric Franchi and Joe Zappa chat with Tim and Chris Vanderhook, co-founders of Viant. They discuss the Vanderhooks’ creative approach to the extremely successful launch of ViantAI, their take on “founder mode,” and how their approach to adtech entrepreneurship has evolved over 25 years. (Note: Viant is a client of Joe’s agency, Sharp Pen. This episode was not sponsored.)
43:1925/09/2024
The Common Traits of Eric’s 3 Most Successful Investments
Joe Zappa interviews co-host Eric Franchi, a general partner at the venture capital fund Aperiam, to identify the three traits his three most successful investments have in common. They discuss Kevel, Transmit.live, and tvScientific.
36:5518/09/2024
Founder Mode with mParticle's Michael Katz
Michael Katz, CEO and co-founder of the customer data platform mParticle, joins Joe Zappa and Eric Franchi on the pod to discuss his take on founder mode. Michael argues that founders can most effectively build organizations by focusing on two factors, context and culture, but most leaders optimize for the wrong factors when they make key hires.
41:4411/09/2024
Building a Dynamic Culture and Tackling Big Problems with Brian O’Kelley
Eric Franchi and Joe Zappa interview adtech entrepreneur Brian O’Kelley. The former Right Media and AppNexus executive turned co-founder and CEO of marketing sustainability company Scope3 discusses how his approach to leadership has changed and how to inspire boldness and drive as organizations scale. Brian also touches on whether he’d do the AppNexus acquisition the same way today and responds to common criticisms of Scope3.
49:2804/09/2024
The Non-Founder Path to CEO with Lauren Wetzel
This week on the pod, Joe Zappa and Eric Franchi interview the sharpest-tongued CEO in adtech, Lauren Wetzel. Newly minted as the CEO of InfoSum, Lauren talks about her journey to the position, including: How her consulting background launched her into the adtech C-suiteThe Venn diagram between a COO and a CEOWhy a company should hire a chief of staff (or not)Why CEOs shouldn’t be afraid of speaking out about industry issues
43:2628/08/2024
PR Is Dead. Long Live PR!
Joe Zappa and Eric Franchi mourn the death of PR as we know it. Listen to the episode to learn how PR and other forms of marketing are becoming more entwined — and how CEOs should assume the mantle of PR on social.
35:4821/08/2024
How Do You Become an Investor?
Joe Zappa interviews his co-host, Eric Franchi, a general partner at the venture capital fund Aperiam, about how to become an investor. They cover: The difference between being an operator and a VCHow VCs decide which startups to fund What founders should expect from investorsHow to get into investingWhether non-professional investors should do angel investing
41:2214/08/2024
Marketing Grab Bag: Attribution, Cookies, and Toad!
This week’s episode is a marketing grab bag! Eric and Joe discuss: Why most companies misunderstand B2B marketing attributionHow companies should respond to the latest on cookies from a GTM POVWhat founders can be doing early on to market themselvesWhat companies should be getting out of a 20-person marketing team
39:5107/08/2024
Building Sales Orgs at Twitter and tvScientific with Chris Riedy
This week on the pod, Eric and Joe are joined by Chris Riedy, former VP of Global Sales and Marketing at Twitter and current CRO at tvScientific, to discuss how to build sales organizations. Chris has the answers to all your sales development questions, whether your business is an early-stage startup or tech behemoth.
43:0131/07/2024
What Does Strategic Marketing Actually Look Like?
Joe gets his Bill Simmons on in this quick solo episode on how to do strategic marketing.If you go on B2B marketing LinkedIn (God help you), you'll see tons of people talking about strategic marketing. But what actually are the components of a marketing strategy? How do you put one together?Joe explains how he writes a strategic marketing plan in this episode so that you can do the same — or know what to expect from your marketing colleagues.
22:5524/07/2024
How Eric and Mike Built Undertone to a $180M Exit
Joe interviews Eric Franchi and Mike Cassidy to unearth the story of Undertone, the ad network company they sold to Perion for $180 million.How did Eric and Mike get Undertone to about $3M in revenue as an agency? Why did they switch to the ad network model? And how did they scale it from there to $100M in revenue, including key hires, GTM, and taking on private equity?Check out this deep dive to hear two founders' take on the steps required to produce a massively successful adtech outcome.
01:09:1617/07/2024
Creating an Audio Behemoth with Vox's Ryan Pauley
Joe and Eric interview Ryan Pauley, President of Revenue and Growth at Vox Media, to uncover how the digital media company moved into audio with great success. They cover the best practices for expanding to audio, how to exploit what makes audio unique (think: talent, personality, and intimacy), and what differentiates audio as a marketing opportunity. Check out the episode to learn insider tips from someone who did it right!
35:3110/07/2024
4 Ways to Win with AdTech Marketing
Co-hosts Eric Franchi and Joe Zappa discuss the four ways to win with adtech marketing (including great detail on how to pursue each strategy).1. Differentiated story 2. Original data/insights3. Thought leadership4. Being prolific, present, and personableCheck out the pod to learn about how to grow your business with each approach!
31:5603/07/2024
What Makes a Great AdTech CEO?
Co-hosts Eric Franchi and Joe Zappa dig into the evergreen question of what sets the great CEOs apart in the adtech world. Whether they’re a CEO/founder or a hired gun, a great CEO has to balance: Product expertiseA GTM strategyCompany culture and valuesTalent acquisitionWe rattle off a few “shiny” CEOs that come to mind and analyze what made them so successful. If you’re curious who made the list, this episode is for you! By the way, click here to read Auren Hoffman’s blog post on the LiveRamp acquisition.
35:2826/06/2024
What to Do If Your Market Isn’t Big Enough
Co-hosts Eric Franchi and Joe Zappa cover what to do if your market is too small to achieve your business goals. For example:How to launch a new product or enter into a new marketWhen and how to involve your customers in market expansion effortsWhat sales/marketing and product teams need to do to get alignedHow to derisk your transition by enlisting customer championsIf you’re eyeing a pivot to retail media and/or CTV right now, this is for you!
33:3219/06/2024
How to Grow Adtech Companies from $1M to $10M
Co-hosts Eric Franchi and Joe Zappa dive into the details of how adtech startups grow from $1M to $10M and what pitfalls to avoid along the way. They cover: What your team should look like around the $1M / Series A markHow to transition from founder-led sales to a professionalized sales teamWhen and how to hire marketersWhat to look for and how much to pay key early hires such as a VP of salesUsually you need to book time with people like Eric to get this info. Now it’s available here!
39:1012/06/2024
Why You Should Hire a Chief Audience Officer
Co-hosts Eric Franchi and Joe Zappa explain why you should hire a chief audience officer. The discussion includes:The 3 things adtech customers really care aboutWhy most adtech companies' theories of victory are wrongWhat to look for in a chief audience officerWho in adtech is a good example of a potential CAOAlso, here is the My First Million episode we discuss on the pod: https://open.spotify.com/episode/4qNgPuS5aePbWSgjdsKn2o?si=PHfj0u_TTEKLAOV67p1QLQ
38:4305/06/2024
How to Reverse-Engineer a $10M Adtech Exit
Co-hosts Eric Franchi and Joe Zappa dive into a thought experiment: how to reverse-engineer a $10M adtech exit. They touch on:What value you need to provide to get bought for $10MAn actual example of an adtech company that sold for low eight figuresThe ideal teamAdtech product ideas that could lead to a quick $10M exit right nowAs a VC, Eric initially hated this idea, but by the end, Joe wears him down. Check out the X thread that started the discussion: https://x.com/joe_zappa/status/1788246400020447375
31:0528/05/2024