"Half the money I spend on advertising is wasted; the problem is, I don't know which half."
This is a famous quote from marketing pioneer John Wanamaker, and even more than 100 years later it still rings true because it is difficult to accurately measure marketing response, especially in the age of multi-channel commerce. Recast , a data-driven marketing forecasting and analytics platform, aims to change that. With AI, a company can replicate the work of hundreds of hours of manual data analysis to provide marketing teams with tools for real-time marketing modeling (MMM), forecasting, planning, and marketing optimization without having to build in-house teams. As the economy shrinks, Recast allows brands to build confidence that their marketing dollars are boosting their bottom line as macro concerns dampen their spray-and-pray approach. data perspective. The platform is already being used by growing consumer brands such as Away, Harry's, Masterclass, Rocket Money and Calibrate.
AlleyWatch caught up with Recast CEO and Co-Founder, Michael Kaminsky , to learn more about the company, its strategic plans, its recent funding round that raised $4.5 million in total funding, and more...
Who are your investors and how much have you raised?
Recast raised $3.4 million in a seed funding round led by Teacher Hippo. Attendees included Good Friends (led by founders Warby Parker, Allbirds and Harry's), as well as Data Tech Fund, Vibe Capital and industry experts John Goodhart (co-founder of branded advertising platform Moat) and Adam Grenier (ex-Uber, ex-Masterclass). ).
Tell us about a Recast product or service.
Recast puts the latest scientific marketing tools in the hands of practitioners. Marketing mix models (MMM), forecasting, planning, and powerful marketing optimization tools can be used directly by marketing teams without the need for external data scientists or consulting firms. Recast uses the latest AI and Bayesian statistics to automate processes that previously required hundreds of hours of manual data processing.
What inspired you to create Recast?
When I was leading the data analytics team at Harry's, I was evaluating several marketing mix modeling options and just wasn't happy with the products out there. Tom's (co-founder) experience running a market research company, Gradient Metrics, pointed to the same gap in the market. When I left Harry we decided to get together and tackle this very difficult statistical problem.
How is the redesign different?
Recast is the first marketing mix modeling platform built for existing brands, offering a product that fills the gaps found in other measurement approaches. Redesign is adaptive and "learns" to refine and improve designs over time. Recast can comprehensively assess the effectiveness of your marketing program: it works for both online and offline channels, tracked and untracked sales channels (online and in-store).
What is Recast's target market and how big is it?
Major (and growing!) TAM overhaul. Recast aims to eliminate unnecessary marketing spend, and Recast estimates the potential savings at $100 billion for companies that spend more than $500 billion on marketing.
What is your business model?
Recast is a SaaS platform with a subscription-based model.
How do you prepare for a possible economic downturn?
We believe that one of the best ways for businesses to prepare for an economic downturn is to analyze and optimize their marketing spend. When capital was cheap, you could put venture capital into Super Bowl advertising, but those days are over. The Recast platform can show CMOs where they can cut costs and help budget for the impact of marketing budget changes on revenue and profitability.
We believe that one of the best ways for businesses to prepare for an economic downturn is to analyze and optimize their marketing spend. When capital was cheap, you could put venture capital into Super Bowl advertising, but those days are over. The Recast platform can show CMOs where they can cut costs and help budget for the impact of marketing budget changes on revenue and profitability.
How was the financing process?
Despite the very difficult financial situation, we have been very fortunate to have many investors willing to work with us. We think this is because as a company we have always focused on capital efficiency and have been able to show investors that there is high demand and willingness to pay for our product. We have real paying customers so we weren't trying to cash the chip and dream. We are fortunate to have such a great partner in Lerer Hippeau, a leading fund in New York.
What were the biggest fundraising challenges for you?
The biggest challenge for us came when trying to choose between competing term schedules from very different funds. This is a very emotionally draining process, and you must make decisions that will affect the long-term future of the company based on what you know about people after a few hours of thorough interaction. We're happy with our decision, but it's been a very stressful few days!
What factors in your company prompted investors to sign the check?
Our investors recognize the innovation and courage that Recast's founders bring to the company. Caitlin Strandberg , Partner at Lerer Hippeau, said, “Both Tom and Michael have incredibly impressive technical backgrounds as well as a deep understanding of marketing and the challenges marketers face when benchmarking today. Our investors also listen to what our clients have to say: they find Recast to be an indispensable tool to manage their marketing program and deliver value quickly and efficiently. Our investors recognize that Recast has built a world-class team of professionals with backgrounds in the science of data, econometrics and statistics.
What results do you expect in the next six months?
Recast plans to expand its software development and data science teams to further grow the platform and expand our capabilities as the world's best automated scientific marketing platform.
What advice would you give to New York companies that don't have fresh capital injections in the bank?
There is always capital for a solid business. Sometimes this capital can be more expensive than we would like, but a strong and profitable business per unit will always be able to find interested investors. Focusing on the core product and business fundamentals is what every leader needs to do, no matter how much capital they have in the bank (or how complex or simple the venture capital environment is).
There is always capital for a solid business. Sometimes this capital can be more expensive than we would like, but a strong and profitable business per unit will always be able to find interested investors. Focusing on the core product and business fundamentals is what every leader needs to do, no matter how much capital they have in the bank (or how complex or simple the venture capital environment is).
How do you see the business now in the short term?
Nothing is changing for us - we have the same roadmap as before, now with a few more resources to bring new features to our customers faster.
What's your favorite restaurant in town?
A Bird of a Feather in Williamsburg. We never get bored of mint sweat.
