Seeing Clearly: A Focused Approach to Achieving Success

This is the third and final installment of "The Comeback," detailing the journey of a team navigating challenges and seeking solutions in the advertising industry. Taylor Brandt, a principal at venture firm Headline, was intimately familiar with the hurdles faced by marketing teams, having experienced them firsthand during her previous role leading a creative team at a direct-to-consumer children’s apparel brand. Alongside her colleague, Nicole (Nikki) Farb, who has a history of founding companies in the beauty and lifestyle sectors, they shared a common vision: to amplify the voices of creative teams within decision-making processes.

Brandt and Farb were motivated by their past experiences where creative teams were often sidelined, treated as external agencies without direct access to performance data to validate their contributions. When they heard about a startup developing a data product aimed at creatives, their interest was instantly piqued. Despite the startup being in its early development phase, which was atypical for Headline’s investment approach, Brandt felt a strong alignment with the company's mission.

She passionately advocated for the startup, believing it could solve a significant problem she had faced in her previous role. However, communicating the opportunity to her colleagues proved challenging, as they struggled to grasp the issue without working in the industry themselves.

The startup in question, Shoelace, originally specialized in helping brands set up Facebook ad campaigns but transitioned into a growth marketing agency as the landscape shifted. In 2020, its co-founders—Reza Khadjavi, Alexander Sloan, and David Berglas—began conceptualizing their next venture, which became Motion. This new platform aimed to create an analytics product that would connect performance marketers with creative teams.

Khadjavi reflected on the lessons learned from their first venture, emphasizing their commitment to building a solid foundation from the start. They transferred Shoelace's engineering team to Motion, bringing in key talents like Sanja Smrzlic, Evan Lee, and Elliott Brand, who played crucial roles in shaping the new company’s trajectory.

The challenge for the product team, particularly for Brand, was to develop an analytics platform that effectively catered to both growth strategies and creative processes. Drawing inspiration from unconventional sources like video games, they designed features such as CardView and Motion Metrics. These tools simplified complex advertising metrics into intuitive scores, enabling users to assess and enhance their creative outputs easily.

Khadjavi noted that even before the product launch, there was significant interest, with 600 people on a waitlist. When Motion officially launched in 2021, the impact was immediate, attracting performance marketers, brands, and agencies eager to improve their creative processes. The startup experienced remarkable growth, tripling its revenue annually for the first three years and gaining over 1,000 customers, including notable clients like A24 Films and HexClad.

A key indicator of Motion’s success is its burn multiple—a metric indicating how much capital a company spends to generate each dollar of revenue. For startups at the venture stage, a burn multiple of one to 1.5 is considered strong, with anything below one viewed as exceptional. Motion’s burn multiple stands at an impressive 0.5.

The founders consciously fostered a culture at Motion that differed from their previous experiences at Shoelace. Brand observed a period of disunity at Shoelace due to financial challenges, leading the founders to prioritize creating a culture of healthy debate and experimentation at Motion. They encouraged team members to voice their opinions and fully engage with their ideas, fostering an environment where everyone was motivated to contribute. Lee echoed this sentiment, highlighting the autonomy given to him and his team. He appreciated the balance between oversight and freedom to manage his team in a way that resonated with him. This trust in team members has enabled individuals like Smrzlic to transition roles and explore their potential within the company.

Brandt, at Headline, recognized Motion’s commitment to empowering its people as a significant factor in her decision to invest. Despite the initial misalignment in stages, she and Farb successfully persuaded Headline to lead Motion’s $6 million seed financing round in 2023. This investment paved the way for subsequent funding, including a Series A round and a $30 million Series B financing round.

As part of this latest funding, Motion introduced a new product suite called Creative Research, which provides brands with insights into their competitors, trending ad concepts, and a curated collection of impactful ads. The Series B round, led by new investor Inovia Capital, is aimed at accelerating Motion’s product roadmap. Khadjavi believes that as AI reduces the cost of creative production, the challenge for brands will shift to determining what content to create. He envisions Motion playing a crucial role in providing teams with the insights needed to make those decisions.

Reflecting on the transition from Shoelace to Motion, Khadjavi noted the importance of addressing high-priority problems directly. He learned that focusing on smaller issues can lead to missed opportunities and disengagement. In contrast, tackling significant challenges attracts attention and resources, making it easier for startups to grow and thrive. With Motion, the team is unafraid to confront substantial issues, fostering a culture that embraces ambition and innovation.