An Investment Thesis: Applied Machine Learning & The Future of Marketing

This post is a general overview of my thoughts on the future of marketing technology. For a more exhaustive and quantitative analysis of the Marketing Technology landscape in relation to machine-learning powered platforms, you can read Scott Brinker’s post here: http://chiefmartec.com/2015/04/im-sorry-marketing-software-still-flux/

In 2011, I was introduced to a startup called Sailthru. Back then, they were a young, Series A startup that had a neat “Forward to a Friend” email feature that was pivotal in our young daily deals startup (pre-IPO Groupon/LivingSocial). Later on, they grew into a full-service email marketing platform solution, an ambitious contender to market incumbents such as ExactTarget (pre-Salesforce), Responsys, Silverpop,etc. What sold me was results, and their core belief in data science to power 1:1 email personalization, beyond the first name. Today, they are, effectively, the only omnichannel marketing automation solution on the market that uses predictive intelligence to deliver 1:1 personalized brand experiences at scale. I am thankful for VC firms like RRE, Lerer Hippeau and Bowery Capital amongst other seed-stage investors that believed in companies like Sailthru, equipping data-driven marketers with cutting-edge tools to create more personalized brand experiences.

The marketing technology market is hot and crowded. Since 2014, the number of budding new marketing technology companies has more than doubled, nearing 2,000 different…