Q&A With AdSkate Founders
We recently took a deep dive into how AdSkate makes digital advertising smarter with AI contextual targeting. Now we sit down with the founders to learn more about their stories.
Tell me about the moment that sparked the idea for your product?
Shreyas and Salil were exploring different applications for computer vision and machine learning models and they discussed the power of these technologies with Akaash. Akaash who was working at a large ad agency at the time suggested that the digital ad space right now is facing a lot of problems around privacy and brand safety aspects and this tech might just be the solution. That’s when we started doing our research on market, problem and customer discovery.
How did you explore creating it?
We spoke to a number of industry experts who spoke about their issues and pain points. This gave us a direction about how we should go about building a prototype. Once we were done building our prototype we went back to the industry experts to get their feedback and we began to iterate on the idea further.
Why are you the best person to champion this product?
Akaash has spent over five (5) years in digital advertising before starting AdSkate. At his previous job, he was responsible for multiple digital marketing initiatives for a F500 automaker. He has a strong understanding of the advertising ecosystem, its challenges, drivers and role of tech within the space.
After completing his Ph.D. in Computer Science and Electrical engineering from CMU, Shreyas has worked for two other startups before starting AdSkate. His expertise is in building software products from the ground up with a focus on artificial intelligence and machine learning. He is good at taking innovative technology and converting into robust software products.
Salil has over a decade of experience in sales and business development in the technology industry in North America. He is good at taking the solutions to the market, working with the customer to drive collaborative product development and creating growth opportunities for the business.
Collectively as a team we bring together industry experience, experience in creating new software solutions as well a strong sales and business development experience.
What were some aspects of the processes that surprised you?
Digital Advertising is very good at adopting new technology and solutions and open to experimenting. We were really surprised by the initial response that we got to our solutions and approach. Also, our current clients are providing valuable feedback that is enabling us to iterate on the vision for the company and the product.
How did you make sure your product was a reflection of your target audience’s needs?
We have a few industry experts that we rely on for feedback. These industry experts have decades of experience in the media and the analytics side of advertising. They play a crucial role in guiding us and ensuring that we are on the right track.
How does AlphaLab help you reach your goals?
Aaron, Olivia and Jim have played a crucial role in guiding us and ensuring that we are doing everything correctly. Right from fundraising to product development to PR and marketing they have provided us with the right and necessary feedback.
They have enabled us to look into problems with a different lens. Whether it is thinking about a product at a high level or feedback on a single slide, the team at AlphaLab has been helpful on multiple levels. Because of AlphaLab, we have had access to resources and mentors that have helped us in aligning different functions of business towards a common goal.
What is next?
We are currently in the process of raising a pre-seed round. We are seeing a lot of interest from early stage investors and we have closed 15% of the round already. Our goal is to close the round successfully by the end of the year. We have begun our process of having rounds of discussion with different investors. On the product side, we are planning on releasing a beta version of our product to our clients by November.
Are there any FAQ’s that you would like to address now?
We often get asked, ‘Ad-tech is a crowded market, does AdSkate stand a chance?’. The answer is YES! Absolutely Yes. What we are building is absolutely essential for the industry to thrive and grow. Our technology complements the existing technology platforms that are out there and we can collaboratively offer better solutions to businesses. And we are already seeing a lot of interest from ad tech platforms of all sizes.
Digital advertising is only going to grow and will be driven by content analytics and privacy. What we are building helps businesses get a better ROI on their ad spend by reaching the most relevant and engaged consumers without violating their privacy.
What is the most important thing for readers to know about what AdSkate does and how that’s beneficial to users?
At AdSkate, we are building the future of digital advertising. Digital advertising is a 400 billion dollar space and is currently facing increasing privacy regulations. The traditional methods of ad targeting will stop working with these new privacy regulations in place, which is where Adskate comes in. We use advanced AI and analytics to eliminate irrelevant ads and help brands get better ROI on their ad spend and we do it without violating privacy.
We have built out a tech stack that is superior compared to our competitors who use traditional keyword targeting on text. We use NLP (Natural Language Processing), computer vision and audio analytics to enable targeting across text, audio, and video content.
We are currently specifically targeting small to medium brands and agencies. So far we have executed 35+ ad campaigns across 10 different industries and are on track to double the number of our clients by the end of the year
How can consumers follow you?
You can follow us on Linkedin , Twitter and Instagram. Also, if you would like to get in touch with us we are available by email at contactus@adskate.com
Outside of work, what do you like to do in your free time?
Salil in his free time Salil likes to read, dabble in photography and someday aspires to participate in the Mongol Rally.
When Akaash is not working on AdSkate, he runs, plays soccer and attempts to play the ukulele.
Shreyas Venugopalan has a secret vocation, he wants to be a master chef. He actually experiments with a lot of recipes in his kitchen and dabbles with the guitar when he has the time.
