Episodes

Myles Younger, Chief Growth Officer at U of Digital, joins Joe Zappa and Eric Franchi for a wide-ranging conversation about what it takes to grow an adtech business, win enterprise clients and keep pace with an industry changing in real time.Plus, Joe learns what Diageo is, Eric defends his YouTube viewing habits, and the group closes with a rapid-fire round covering ChatGPT, DSPs, SSPs, New York and San Francisco.

Josh Walsh, Co-Founder & CEO of BranchLab, joins Eric and Joe to discuss transforming pharma advertising with AI, scaling a second startup, and an unexpectedly important LinkedIn message from Lance Armstrong.

A French DJ moves to Brooklyn to make audio ads perform better.

Who let G-dog Aaron loose and who would dare fact check Eric besides Joe Zappa?!! In this engaging interview, industry veteran Aaron discusses his journey from sales to marketing, the importance of personal branding, and the evolving role of AI in ad tech. He shares insights on strategic acquisitions, building a personal brand, and the creative side of marketing, all while revealing his unique personality and passions. We also learn what Eric would have done had he not become a VC. Let's just sa...

Eric Franchi and Joe Zappa break down the biggest trends they’re seeing in early-stage adtech deal flow, including the rise of chatbot and LLM ad networks, integrated marketing platforms, creator infrastructure, and a renewed wave of innovation around mobile apps. They discuss why mobile remains such an attractive market, what kinds of startups are emerging in each category, and where investors and operators are spending the most time right now. The conversation then shifts to the next phase of ...

MadConnect CEO Bob Walczak joins Eric Franchi and Joe Zappa to break down why Publicis’ acquisition of LiveRamp is one of the most important adtech deals in years and what it reveals about the future of the industry. They discuss why connectivity and interoperability have become so strategically valuable, why Publicis made such an aggressive move from a position of strength, and what this deal says about the growing pressure on holdcos to own more of the advertising stack. The conversation also ...

Most adtech companies' no. 1 messaging challenge is focus. Joe Zappa goes solo to explain why the hardest part of messaging isn’t writing, but choosing one clear, differentiated idea instead of a list of everything you do. He breaks down why “omnichannel DSP/SSP driving outcomes” fails, how companies get trapped competing inside crowded categories, and what it takes to build a provocative narrative that actually sticks. If you want to be remembered and command attention, here is a three-step pla...

Eric talks with Shane Shevlin, co-founder and CEO of Bedrock Platform, about Bedrock's launch of the industry's first containerized DSP running directly on Index Cloud. They unpack what containerization means for buyers, how collapsing latency from 200ms to under 1ms reshapes bidder economics, and why the DSP moat is shifting from infrastructure to decisioning and data. Plus: building ad tech from London, lessons from Possible, and what's next for Bedrock in the US.

Ibotta CRO Chris Riedy joins Eric Franchi and Joe Zappa to break down one of the hardest transitions for startups: evolving from founder-led sales to a real sales organization. They discuss what great founder-led sales looks like, why the transition can break momentum, and how to professionalize without losing what made the company work early on. Chris shares how to structure teams, hire the right mix of talent, and build a strong partnership between CEO and CRO. They also cover how the shift to...

Aperiam Partner Corey Ferengul joins Eric Franchi and Joe Zappa to break down the six CEO archetypes — sales, product, CTO, visionary, operator, and CFO — and how each one shows up at different stages of a company’s growth. They walk through how these personas evolve from scrappy startup mode to scaled organizations, where they succeed, where they struggle, and when new leadership layers need to come in. They also discuss the tension between vision and execution, why certain archetypes fade or b...

Consumable CEO Mark Levin joins Eric Franchi and Joe Zappa to share the founding story behind his audio advertising company and why he chose to bootstrap in an industry dominated by venture-backed players. They discuss what it means to make audio “addressable everywhere,” why the channel has struggled to meet its potential in the past, and how advertisers are reacting. Mark also breaks down how he built the business from the ground up, including early customer acquisition and go-to-market evolut...

Eric Franchi turns the tables and interviews co-host Joe Zappa on the founding story of Sharp Pen, how the agency evolved into a CEO evangelism machine, and what’s broken about traditional PR that they set out to fix. They dig into the company's product-market fit moment, what didn’t work early on, the biggest client wins and failures, and how Joe gets executives to say things they’d never put in a press release. They also cover where Sharp Pen goes next and what advice Joe has for adtech CEOs l...

Marketecture CEO Jeremy Bloom joins Eric Franchi and Joe Zappa to discuss why he left the operating side of adtech to build a media company and what’s driving the shift toward founder- and practitioner-led media. They break down what traditional coverage gets wrong, the opportunities and challenges of operator-driven content, and Marketecture’s strategy behind acquiring properties like AdTechGod and AdLand. Jeremy also weighs in on what makes certain creators break through and how founders shoul...

SaaS stocks are being routed in the public markets, and onlookers are wondering whether the same applies to adtech. In essence, the thinking goes, "Can't SaaS customers just vibe-code an alternative in-house and save millions on enterprise software?" Viant co-founders Chris and Tim Vanderhook explain the thinking behind the SaaSpocalypse, whether it applies to adtech, how investors should respond, and what entrepreneurs need to do to drive, not be overcome by, innovation. Plus, Eric and Joe shar...

Recast CEO Michael Kaminsky joins Eric Franchi and Joe Zappa to discuss why marketing analytics may be an even tougher business than adtech and the founding story behind Recast. They unpack the internal politics that shape how measurement tools are adopted, why upper-funnel channels are given a lack of credit, and what marketers still get wrong about attribution. Michael also explains why “interesting insights are worthless,” how CMOs and CFOs are increasingly collaborating on marketing budgets,...

Graphed CEO Cody Schneider joins Eric Franchi and Joe Zappa to explain how he unleashed a fleet of AI agents on his company’s go-to-market efforts, including the automated outreach that landed him on this very podcast. They break down what parts of marketing and sales AI can realistically automate today, how non-technical founders can start building simple agents (like for podcast outreach), and the results Cody has seen so far. They also discuss the tradeoffs — from bot detection to authenticit...

Eric Franchi and Joe Zappa break down how they actually use AI every day across creative work, CEO-level strategy and hiring, investing analysis, and business development, then react to Block laying off 4,000 employees in the name of AI and what that signals about how organizations will need to adapt. Finally, they tackle the cultural backlash to AI and discuss past cycles that mirror the present.

Last week was about how to attend events. This week is about how to throw one. Marketecture CSO Sam Khoury joins Eric Franchi and Joe Zappa to break down why media companies and adtech firms host their own events, how to develop the right concept, set attendance and programming goals, land top speakers, and think through costs, sponsorship economics, and logistics. They also cover how to market an event, balance content with biz dev, and make events the ultimate expression of the community built...

Dozens of advertising events occur every year, but not every event is for you. Eric Franchi and Joe Zappa break down the purpose of the six core advertising events, who should attend based on stage and ICP, and how to think about events strategically. They also cover common mistakes founders make and how to build an event calendar that drives outcomes, not optics.

Entrepreneurs are often wary of the adtech label for fear that it will undermine valuations, especially by generalist investors. Eric Franchi and Joe Zappa weigh in on whether that concern is legitimate, why founders and investors should be optimistic about adtech in the AI era, and how to handle messaging and positioning if you straddle adtech and other industries or if you're looking to shift your sector.

Adam Epstein, CEO of Gigi, joins Eric Franchi and Joe Zappa to discuss what it really means to build and sell a verticalized AI agent for advertising. Adam breaks down why Gigi focused on Amazon DSP, how selling agents differs from selling SaaS, why agents should be framed as jobs, how to price and pilot AI, and what it takes to prove value and onboard customers for agentic software.

Eric Franchi and Joe Zappa discuss takeaways from tvScientific-Pinterest with a focus on B2B marketing and investing: why tvScientific's narrative struck the right notes, how they implemented the CEO evangelism playbook, and what their success signals for investors.

Eric Franchi and Joe Zappa discuss four ideas for how adtech CEOs can crush it in 2026: overcommunicate direction until you’re sick of yourself; tell a story about the industry, not just your company; design the company for AI; and center outcomes in your storytelling. Plus, Joe talks about getting punched in the face, physically and metaphorically.

Eric Franchi and Joe Zappa commune 1:1 for a discussion of the role luck plays in entrepreneurship and how you can create your own luck, the unparalleled value of a charismatic, provocative chief evangelist (Alex Karp case study), and the three conditions required to create a category. Also, Eric offers a based take on us humans hurtling through space on a rock.