Businesses that use content have conversion rates 6x higher than those that do not. The content marketing industry is expected to exceed $420B in spending this year. With such engagement and interest, marketers are scrambling to streamline their content generation and marketing activities. Cohley is an all-in-one platform for content generation and measurement that helps brands activate campaigns more efficiently. With Cohley, brands can publish their requirements and have creators like videographers, photographers, and influencers provide content to meet the defined parameters in a cost-effective and scalable manner. The platform allows users to test, iterate, and measure the success of their visual content efforts and is integrated with a growing number of leading technology partners like TikTok, Yotpo, Attentive, Shopify, and AdRoll. Although the platform is designed to optimize the content generation process, Cohley also offers managed services for brands that want to completely offload their content generation needs.
AlleyWatch caught up with CEO and Cofounder Tom Logan to learn more about the burgeoning demand for content marketing support, the company’s strategic plans, latest round of funding, which brings the total funding raised to $6.8M, and much, much more.
Who were your investors and how much did you raise?
The capital raise was co-led by Right Side Capital and Active Capital, with participation from Bridge Bank – we raised $5M in financing in this Series Seed-2 round.
Tell us about the product or service that Cohley offers.
The problem we solve in the market is content. Consumer brands need more photos and videos than ever, and we help them fill those costly gaps with content that drives performance.
Cohley’s platform allows for end-to-end management of marketing campaigns, relationships with the talented pool of creators available through Cohley, and unprecedented content testing that gives brands a unique advantage in their ability to maximize engagement through their marketing materials.
What inspired the start of Cohley?
After meeting Cohley’s cofounder, Erik Graber, at a previous content marketing job, we discovered that the current framework for partnering with creators left big brands with overwhelming amounts of content to sift through, while small brands had almost nothing to work with.
We found that focusing on quality – through testing, timing, and channel personalization – would provide a much greater value to brands of all sizes seeking an effective content marketing platform. Our skillsets also happened to complement each other from a business and engineering standpoint, and Cohley took off from there.
How is Cohley different?
We enable brands to generate high volumes of diverse, cost-efficient content more effectively than any other company. Whether it’s custom photography, user-generated video content, or product reviews, we help marketers drive growth as a result of having more content to work with.
What market does Cohley target and how big is it?
Any direct-to-consumer brand is an ideal fit on the client-side. In terms of our total addressable market, we sell to and work with digital marketers. The digital marketing space is, of course, rapidly expanding, but recent estimates have it at more than $400B.
What’s your business model?
We’re a true SaaS company through and through, and that will never change. It’s all Erik and I know, and there’s never been a better time to be a SaaS business. The average valuation of a publicly-traded SaaS company right now is 16.5X revenue, which speaks directly to the market’s view of high retention, fast-growing subscription businesses.
How has COVID-19 impacted the business?
I could easily write a book on how COVID has impacted the business both from a cultural standpoint and a revenue standpoint. From a revenue standpoint, we’ve been very fortunate to benefit from the downwind effects of e-commerce accelerating five years ahead of schedule as a result of people developing new online shopping habits out of necessity. Content is the connection point between brands and consumers online, so as you’d expect, there’s been no shortage of demand for our offering.
What are the biggest challenges that you faced while raising capital?
Honestly, this round was a pretty easy one to raise. That’s not just because we’re doing so well, which we certainly are, but we opted to do the round with existing investors to expedite the process and continue on our highly aligned growth trajectory. I’d categorize that trajectory as “intelligent growth.”
What factors about your business led your investors to write the check?
I think it was a combination of our documented history of success, the team at large, and the opportunity that we have in front of us. That opportunity has largely come about because of favorable market conditions, which very much falls in the category of luck. We’re extremely fortunate to have the backing of Right Side Capital and Active Capital, who have both been so additive to the business in ways that go way beyond sending us checks.
I think it was a combination of our documented history of success, the team at large, and the opportunity that we have in front of us. That opportunity has largely come about because of favorable market conditions, which very much falls in the category of luck. We’re extremely fortunate to have the backing of Right Side Capital and Active Capital, who have both been so additive to the business in ways that go way beyond sending us checks.
What are the milestones you plan to achieve in the next six months?
Over the next 6 months, we plan to use our new round of funding to continue building out our integration suite with strategic partners like Attentive, Yotpo, Klaviyo, and AdRoll. These integrations will further enable clients to utilize and test assets throughout our digital marketing stacks. We also plan to significantly increase our headcount by year-end and open offices in Atlanta and Salt Lake City.
What advice can you offer companies in New York that do not have a fresh injection of capital in the bank?
That really depends! If your business does in fact need capital based on your market and growth goals, there are more ways than ever to finance a business. With the market as frothy as it is right now, there are plenty of debt options. We’ve utilized bank credit lines and services like Capchase and Clearbanc in addition to raising our $7M+ of venture capital.
Where do you see the company going now over the near term?
Is to the moon an acceptable answer? In all seriousness, I could not be more enthusiastic about our near (and long) term prospects, primarily because of the team we’ve been fortunate enough to pull together and the opportunity that sits in front of us: To help give marketers an unfair advantage in the increasingly competitive digital marketing world.
Where is your favorite bar in the city for an after-work drink?
Now that is a great question! For me it’s a tie between Kettle of Fish in the West Village and my couch with my dog, Van, sitting next to me.
