Industry Thesis

Content is the new universal truth for marketing any type of good or service. Commerce brands are investing in content, and content brands are investing in commerce. The winning consumer brands of tomorrow will be the ones that utilize content and personalities across platforms to cultivate passionate fandoms that are monetized through direct-to-consumer commerce.

Testimonials

Case Studies

Portal-A

PORTAL A is an award-winning branded and original content company. The company's accolades include being named Agency of the Year by The Streamys...

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FAO Schwarz

FAO Schwarz is the world's most renowned specialty kids toy manufacturer and retailer. Since being founded over 160 years ago, the company has ...

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XL Media

XL Media (LSE: XLMedia PLC) is a global performance publisher. It combines the power of people, data-driven behavioral insight, and captivating ...

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Team Coco / WarnerMedia

Team Coco is a digitally-native comedy brand, and a joint venture between Conan O’Brien and WarnerMedia. Entering 2020 Team Coco sought to ...

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VERB Technology

VERB Technology Company, Inc. (NASDAQ: VERB) is rapidly emerging as the market leader in business-focused interactive video sales and marketing ...

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Mattson

RockWater is an active collaborator with Mattson, a global food and CPG innovator behind brands like Popchips, Blue Bottle Cold Brew, White ...

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Red Seat Ventures

Red Seat Ventures partners with talent, brands, and influencers to fund, build, and operate unique businesses. Founder and executive leadership ...

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Super Studios

Super Studios is an innovative web3 creative lab founded by acclaimed crypto thought leader Elliot Wainman (@elliotrades) and his partner Dave ...

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EffinFunny

EffinFunny is a full-service creative production company that makes award winning content targeted at the growing US born South Asian ...

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Collabspace

Collabspace is a mobile-first platform for Creators and Creative Freelancers to connect and transact for paid creative gigs and collab ...

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Prism Labs

At Prism Labs, the cutting edges of computer vision, machine learning, depth cameras, and human physiology are being fused into powerful software ...

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Portal-A

PORTAL A is an award-winning branded and original content company. The company’s accolades include being named Agency of the Year by The Streamys, Video Agency of the Year by Digiday, and a Top 20 Content Creator by AdWeek. Its clients include Google, Amazon, Target, Disney, MLB, and Snapchat. The company’s founders engaged RockWater to evaluate both its existing and new planned business lines within branded and original content. The strategy assignment resulted in a new investment and resource plan, to help drive revenue growth and accelerate new market entry.

RockWater was a great executive ally. They took time to understand our growth needs, created a custom workplan, and executed with precision. Their recommendations were data-based and actionable, and are now part of our operating plan. RockWater also brought good energy to our org, which helped get team buy-in. We look forward to working with them again.

Zach Blume, Co-Founder and President at Portal-A

 

Who to know

Zach Blume

Co-Founder, President

FAO Schwarz

FAO Schwarz is the world’s most renowned specialty kids toy manufacturer and retailer. Since being founded over 160 years ago, the company has transformed into an omnichannel brand across brick & mortar, wholesale, and web and social commerce. The company is owned by ThreeSixty Group, which owns and operates 5+ global consumer brands including Vornado and Sharper Image.

To plan FAO’s digital transformation, we needed an expert team who understood how parents and kids are spending their time and money online, which is powering new direct-to-consumer business models for toy retailers. RockWater was a great bolt-on partner to us and facilitated outlining an exciting new growth strategy for FAO Schwarz.

 

Jan-Eric Kloth, President, International Sales, Retail, & Corporate Strategy at ThreeSixty Group

Who to know

Jan-Eric Kloth

President, International Sales, Retail, & Corporate Strategy at ThreeSixty Group

XL Media

XL Media (LSE: XLMedia PLC) is a global performance publisher. It combines the power of people, data-driven behavioral insight, and captivating editorial content to build valuable connections between brands and consumers.

When we began looking for intelligence partners, we knew we wanted a group who would work with us as part of a team, not a vendor. We found exactly what we were looking for in RockWater. Starting from a very open place, they were comfortable with and capable of helping us identify and focus on the most advantageous areas of business for the group. The research they deliver is consistently contextual, actionable and valuable in driving strategic decisions and growth.

Elizabeth Carter, VP of Marketing and Taylor Quist, Head of Global Brand Strategy

Who to know

Elizabeth Carter

VP of Marketing

Taylor Quist

Head of Global Brand Strategy

Team Coco / WarnerMedia

Team Coco is a digitally-native comedy brand, and a joint venture between Conan O’Brien and WarnerMedia. Entering 2020 Team Coco sought to capitalize on incredible revenue and M&A market momentum. Their executive leadership required advisory to define their growth strategy and execution plan, board communications, and buy-side M&A diligence and valuation.

In my role as COO of Team Coco, when we decided we needed help strategizing and plotting new growth initiatives, RockWater was the first call I made.

Adam Sachs, COO

Who to know

Adam Sachs

COO

William Navarre

Sr. Director of BD & Revenue

VERB Technology

VERB Technology Company, Inc. (NASDAQ: VERB) is rapidly emerging as the market leader in business-focused interactive video sales and marketing tools, including livestream ecommerce, CRM, and content management applications. With offices in California and Utah, VERB services clients in 60 countries and in 48 languages.

 

Founder and C-suite leadership sought market research, consumer and executive surveys, and go-to-market planning for a new livestream commerce product launch.

Who to know

Rory Cutaia

Founder, Chairman, & CEO

Mattson

RockWater is an active collaborator with Mattson, a global food and CPG innovator behind brands like Popchips, Blue Bottle Cold Brew, White Castle, and Yogurtland. Together, RockWater and Mattson are bringing unique food & beverage commerce solutions to traditional and digital media partners ranging from publishers and celebrities to sports / esports leagues and franchises.

Chris and his team are not just collaborators, they’re visionaries. They see opportunities for clients that they don’t see themselves. We have ideated with RockWater, and think of them as a group of creatives, as well as strategists.

Barb Stuckey, President & Chief Innovation Officer

Who to know

Barb Stuckey

President & Chief Innovation Officer

Katie Hagan

Vice President, Innovation

Red Seat Ventures

Red Seat Ventures partners with talent, brands, and influencers to fund, build, and operate unique businesses. Founder and executive leadership sought investment targets for a Content x Commerce investor roll-up strategy, optimization of their user acquisition “funnel” across 6+ digital channels, and an audience and marketing forecast model.

RockWater delivers something few others can: unique perspective. Chris and his team analyze the complicated playing field and cut through the BS to deliver actionable insights that add immediate value. RockWater acts as an extension of my own team, adding a tool to our toolbox at the exact moment we need it.

Chris Balfe, Founder & Partner

Who to know

Chris Balfe

Founder & Partner

Super Studios

Super Studios is an innovative web3 creative lab founded by acclaimed crypto thought leader Elliot Wainman (@elliotrades) and his partner Dave Murray. Super Studios is building its corner of the Metaverse called The SuperVerse where its protocol ($SUPER) will be the foundation of an array of dapps. The first two dapps include the sophisticated NFT marketplace Gigamart (shipping Q4 ‘22) and the Play-And-Earn game Impostors (www.impostors.gg). Impostors recently saw its genesis drop sell out in 10 seconds generating over $100M in primary and secondary sales.

 

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Jason Ziemianski

Chief Strategy Officer

EffinFunny

EffinFunny is a full-service creative production company that makes award winning content targeted at the growing US born South Asian demographic. Their team has developed, created, and produced content for Comedy Central, FX, TBS, Red Hour, and ABC digital.

 

The company’s leadership tapped RockWater to research whitespace opportunities and develop the go-to-market plan to drive new revenues and grow enterprise value.

 

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Sandeep Parikh

Founder and Chief Creative Officer

Anand Shah

Head of Development

Collabspace

Collabspace is a mobile-first platform for Creators and Creative Freelancers to connect and transact for paid creative gigs and collab opportunities. Their unique platform solution makes these creator economy collabs as seamless as possible — facilitating quick discovery, assessment, communication, management, and payment for creator partners.

 

Collabspace was built by a team of founders and engineers with extensive creator economy, product, and engineering experience, and is the result of over 25,000 engineering hours. The company’s leadership engaged RockWater to help them develop fundraising strategies and M&A opportunities.

Who to know

Dan McKenzie

Co-Founder & CEO

Prism Labs

At Prism Labs, the cutting edges of computer vision, machine learning, depth cameras, and human physiology are being fused into powerful software solutions that will transform the fitness and wellness industries and lead the way towards the reliable and robust capture of human performance in the metaverse.

 

Prism Labs is built by a team of experts in a variety of fields that have come together to push the limits of what is possible in 3D human reconstruction. The company has offices in Vienna and Graz, Austria and Los Angeles, CA. The company’s leadership engaged RockWater to help them evaluate strategic go-to-market and capital allocation decisions.

Prism Labs isn’t a media company, but having worked with Chris closely in the past I jumped at the chance to use his advisory services to help us evaluate some strategic options. With Rockwater you can count on thoughtful, flexible, diligent and extremely capable support. RockWater’s strong positive culture shines through with every interaction.

Steve Raymond, CEO 

Who to know

Steve Raymond

Chief Executive Officer

All Media x Commerce

Ryan Reynolds Fast-Follower Strategy

The Ryan Reynolds “Fast-Follower” Strategy

Path to profit

Path to Profit: Exec Playbook (Pt 2)

Magic Mike image

Why Magic Mike Should Launch a Skincare Brand + Temu Makes Waves at Super Bowl

2023 Exec Playbook

2023 Exec Playbook: Thrive or Survive (Pt 1)

Amazon Shelves Private Label Products in Favor of Ad Revenue + Thoughts on Airbnb Investing

Who Wins as Layoffs Continue and Economy Worsens? This Week it’s Meme Publishers and Videogame Consoles

AI VTuber has 70k Twitch Followers, WWE Sale Rumors, and Formula 1’s ‘Drive to Survive’ Series Inspires Other Sports Leagues

What do Bob Iger and Vince McMahon Have in Common?

🎊Celebrating RockWater’s 2022 Client Wins and 28 Content Publishings

whatnot discord mga

Whatnot’s 90% Market Share, MGA’s $500M+ Content Initiative, Discord Monetization

2022 FAST Revenue Tops $3.9B, MENA as the Next Growth Frontier, and Ronaldo’s $517M Deal in Saudi Arabia

50%+ Drop in China’s ‘Singles Day’ Sales, 4 Hr Lines for Dobrik’s Pizza, and Disney & Netflix’s Content Experiments

health and wellness in livestream shopping

How Practical Are Livestream Shopping Applications for Whole Person Health & Wellness?

How Elon Musk’s $8 Blue Checkmark Subscription Strategy is a $9B Opportunity for Twitter

TK - nWay - Gaming

Taehoon Kim — CEO of nWay on Raising $90M, Selling to Animoca, and Gaming x Web3

17 Curations – A Recap of Our “What We’re Reading” Series

Critical Open Letter to Zuck & Meta, Saudi Arabia’s $38B Gaming Investment, and Netflix’s Sub Rebound

Zach Blume - Portal A - Business

Zach Blume — Co-Founder of Portal A on 2006 Web Series, the Wheelhouse Investment, and Building with Your Childhood Friends

web3 and creator economy in esports

eSports Revenue Potential in Creator Economy and Web3 (Pt. 3)

SKKY Partners & Night Capital, Pinduoduo’s US Launch, and YouTube Shorts Offers 45%

eSports Leagues and Game Publishers – Monetization Playbook (Pt. 2)

Why MrBeast Burger Will (Not) Kill Legacy CPG, Celeb Food App Flavrs Raises $7M from A16Z, and Is BeReal the Next Clubhouse?

CamilaVictoriano Sonoro

Camila Victoriano — Founder of Sonoro on Building LA Times Studios, Latinx Podcast Innovation, and Following the Story VS the Medium

How eSports Revenue Models Will Drive the $600B Global Sports Market (Pt. 1)

TikTok as Gen Z’s Search Engine, the Rise of Recommended Media, and Amazon Drafts Dude Perfect for Thursday Night Football

Mike Grisko - Atmosphere CFO

Mike Grisko — CFO at Atmosphere on Raising $150M, Becoming a 2x Founder, and the Future of TV for Business

VidCon 2022 Insights, LIV Golf’s $405M Purse, and 4 Insights from the Web3 / Video Games Nexus

livestream commerce innovations

3 Innovations Social Incumbents Must Pursue to Win the “Livestream Commerce Wars”

$100M Kids Social Network Wins NBA Backing, Boxing Draws 2.4M Twitch Viewers, and Snapchat+ Arrives

Adam Rymer

Adam Rymer — CEO at OpTic Gaming on 1980’s Internet Nerds, Adapting to Napster, and the Future of Esports

What New Tech Will Solve the Challenges for US Livestream Shopping?

ESPN Takes F1 Checkered Flag for $225M+, Smart UA for Creator Tools, and Meta’s Fashion Marketplace

Livestream Commerce: How New Stakeholders Will Close the $436 Billion Gap with China

How Airbnb’s Redesign Will Grow Revenue for STVR Owners

The $100M fight for F1 in the US, $10B Growth in GameFi, and Tastemade / Pinterest Strike Million $$ Deal

Why Sticky Habits Will Unlock Billion $$ Potential of US Live Shopping Market

SUPER and Penny AI Raise $97 Million, Prada Launches NFTs + Discord, and Streaming’s Back-to-Basics

James Creech Paladin CEO

James Creech — Paladin CEO on Selling to Brandwatch, Influencer SAAS, and Recasting Your Success

Creator Economy’s SAAS Winter, buywith Raises $9.5M, and 5 Keys to Web3 Survival

Team Coco Sells for $150M, a16z’s $5.1B Web3 & Gaming Bet, and Firework Raises $150M

5 FAQs On Livestream Shopping

Video Game M&A Watch List

Michael Cohen — CEO at Team Whistle on Wall Street to Digital, Scaling $0-100M, Leadership, and Exits

food media predictions

*A Chef’s Kiss*: How Food & Lifestyle Will Merge in 2022

Brendan Gahan — CSO at Mekanism on YouTube in 2005, Selling Epic Signal, and Your First 100 Drafts

web3 predictions

2022 Web3 Prediction: Digital Goods with High Consumer Utility Will Rise to the Top

2021 Year In Review: Sticky Acceleration and Birth of the “Ownership Economy” (Podcast)

Sarah Penna — Creator Launch Exec at Patreon on Her $15 Million Exit, Marrying a YouTuber, and Betting on Creators

2021 Year In Review: Sticky Acceleration and Birth of the “Ownership Economy”

Amazon Eyes 10 Figure NFL Media Investment, Multi-Million Dollar Digital Land Sales, and TikTok x Buzzfeed

Nike’s 7 Metaverse Trademarks, Fox’s $100M NFT Fund, and the Launch of Goldbelly TV

Brian Volk-Weiss — CEO at The Nacelle Company on Netflix’s 1st Streamer Deal, Betting Big on Comedians, and Toy Shopping Therapy

Cameo Buys Represent and 3 Market Entry Strategies for Content x Commerce

The $1.7B Through Line Between Rent The Runway’s IPO and Lipstick King’s Livestream Sales

Why the “Creator Economy” is Now Worth $104 Billion (and Counting…)

Sky Mavis Valued at $3B, LeBron James’ SpringHill Sells Stake at $725M Valuation, and Coinbase Enters NFT Market

Creator Fund Watch List

The Future of Creator Funds and Tools

Patreon Invests 8 Figures Into Original Content, Netflix Acquires Game Studio, and Golf’s Pandemic Growth Story

Whatnot Unicorns @ $1.5B Val, Gucci Sells $10M of Clothing on Roblox, and Linkedin Launches $25M Creator Program

Alison Eakle — EVP at Shondaland on Netflix Pacts, Bridgerton, Promotions After 30, and Motherhood

Hello Sunshine Sells for $900M and High-Priced Studio M&A

Netflix Shop and 4 Ways Streamer-Led Commerce Will Evolve

Kids Screen Time: Crossing the Chasm and New Revenue Models

1H 2021 Celebration

16 Podcasts, 13 Writings, and Celebrating 1H 2021

Food Media x Commerce Watch List

Etsy Buys Depop for $1.6 Billion and the Rise of Resale

NFT Platform Watch List

How To Buy an NFT (like an “NFTweet”)

Chris Ovitz — President at OK Play on Being a 3x Founder, Humble Leadership, and Reimagining Kids Screen Time

Aditi Dash — Partner at CircleUp on Surprise FDA Visits, Clubhouse, and Consumer Investing

Kevin Gould — CEO of Kombo Ventures on $75 Million of Beauty Sales, Liquidating His IRA, and the Hottest Role in Town

From Attention to Passion. A Look Back at 2020.

Interview with Christian Baesler, President of Complex Networks on German Village Life, Being a Touring DJ, Hot Sauce, and ComplexLand

How YouTube Is Playing Catch-Up in Online Shopping, $825 Million of Sports SPACS, Kroger’s New Ghost Kitchens

Why Every Brand Needs a Livestream Media and Selling Strategy in 2021

Nicole Staple — Founder and CEO of Brideside on Investor Bias, Cancer Battles, and Rap Lyrics

Why Only 10% of Beauty Sales are Online, and How to Fix the Consumer “Trust Gap”

11 Must-Read Articles for Nextgen Consumer Execs

Exploding Kittens and What Surprises Us About Tabletop Games and Lo Fi Media

Profits and Purpose: Crooked Media, Black Rifle Coffee, Ben & Jerry’s

Lessons from Call Her Daddy: IP, Food, Talent, Leadership

How Will Eko’s Litigation Against Quibi Result in Hedge Fund ROI?

RockWater 2020 Predictions

Is Nike Adventure Club, a Subscription Service for Kids, a Winning Commerce Strategy?