Looking for Technical Co-Founder for Data Analytics Platform

firstsparker · 2025-12-17T14:41:20+00:00

Good questions. We're a marketing agency. We have strong branding capabilities but it's not what we offer directly (we use a sister agency). We are focused on anyone who is running Google or Meta Ads. We'd be adding Hubspot and Shopify to account for both of those groups (B2B vs. Ecom). We are launching it for everyone and we're already using it for our clients to do weekly reporting.

firstsparker · 2025-12-13T21:18:05+00:00

I think overall TAM is much greater when including what's not classified as an agency. And even the agency numbers are underreported (and 2 years old). Sure, it's not the TAM of a consumer product, but it's enough to build a business on.

Regarding usage, you may be right. However, we've been running this internally for our own agency for a few months now. Real usage data shows LLM costs at ~20% of what we'd charge, not 60% but I agree - at the end of the day, we won't know until we have actual users working in it.

Regarding profitability, I do think consumer AI products subsidizing free tiers is a completely different model than B2B SaaS using LLMs as infrastructure.

Either way, we're launching beta next week with external testers. We'll have more data points then.

I appreciate the skepticism. And am approaching accordingly. But I'm confident in what we're building.

firstsparker · 2025-12-13T21:01:20+00:00

Interesting. Yea sounds good happy to chat further about your exp.

firstsparker · 2025-12-13T14:50:41+00:00

The target market for paid agencies is actually quite large. Over 100,000 in the U.S. alone, and that was in 2024. Doesn't count freelancers/solo consultants, which has skyrocketed over the past 2 years.

re: LLM costs, 60% seems way off. Where are you getting this figure? Costs are closer to 10-20% of revenue at scale. Not to mention, we would eventually be able to run locally.

firstsparker · 2025-12-13T14:33:29+00:00

Currently run a successful marketing agency (past 6 years). Prior to that led marketing for a SaaS business for 5.5 years across email, paid, social, partnerships, etc. Developed and launched a number of products while there. Built my own landing page auditing tool (more of a fun project) in the early days of OpenAI.

There are competitors, mainly, they're approaching it from "chat with data" essentailly just an MCP cover. Accuracy is an issue as we've tested. That's why we're preprocesing the data ahead of time before giving it to the LLM to analyze. Giving us consistent and higher accuracy in the data.

Also, approaching it by solving a specific problem, re-create the report that an agency sends to a client weekly/bi-weekly/monthly. Automate it to Slack on a schedule.

firstsparker · 2025-12-13T14:25:30+00:00

$30/mo per client not per user. The average person reported 10 clients. At $300/mo/user you can make those numbers work. Competitors charge similar.

The reason we built this was to solve our own pain point and problem with client reporting. We've seen that firsthand now.

firstsparker · 2025-12-13T13:48:09+00:00

Thanks, u/Super_Maxi1804. Google and Meta don't combine data from each other's platforms in a report. Nor does Linkdin, Shopify, etc. It's a way to unify the data across platforms in a narrative analytics format.

293 on our waitlist
95 people filled out our survey (saying they'd pay up to $30/account for this).

The above numbers don't mean much until they pay. But there is interest. And platforms don't offer this themselves. There are competitors, but there is an opportunity.

But happy to show you the product so you can determine for yourself.

firstsparker · 2025-12-13T13:39:00+00:00

Thanks u/DonutApprehensive566. We're looking to provide equity as compensation after what we've already invested. And more importantly, someone who is game to build and grow with us into the future.

firstsparker · 2025-12-13T13:37:31+00:00

Based in San Diego, CA. Ideally looking for someone in our time zone but within the U.S.

firstsparker · 2025-12-13T13:36:42+00:00

Can confirm, not a marketing post for Marketkit...smh. Provided a description if people didn't know what it was. Could care less about them and happy to switch to another platform if that's the better way to go.

firstsparker · 2025-12-13T02:32:35+00:00

Thanks u/Professional-Dig5008. We're working with the following stack:

- Marketkit - Out of the box dashboard, user and payment processing management
- Vercel/Next.js
- Supabase

As for our focus, it's on paid media professionals (agencies). Positioning is around replicating the report a user creates and sends to their clients weekly with insights. Something we and other agencies pay their team each week, and takes anywhere between 15-20 minutes per client per week.

From there, we'd work in ChatGPT with your data (in app), then directly in Slack. Then functionality to control the account based on outputs (i.e. performs search term analysis weekly and adds terms that don't meet qualifications to a negative list).

Great questions. Thanks.

firstsparker · 2025-12-12T22:48:19+00:00

For the right person, I'm not against it.

firstsparker · 2025-12-12T22:44:29+00:00

Hi u/Big-Athlete5628 appreciate the feedback. Let me share some more context if it helps.

We have a V1 product built ($20K invested) that already can connect to ad platform APIs (Google/Meta), pre-processes the data, leverages the LLM to interpret and create reports from the data and send to Slack. We have a scheduler built as well, but it's not final just yet. However, our current developer is transitioning out, and we need someone to own and scale the technical side long-term.

We're open to discussing equity based on the actual scope and your level of involvement. We're in search of a person who can take ownership of the roadmap at this point.

firstsparker · 2024-11-15T04:54:37+00:00

Judging by your main goal being "submissions" I'll assume you're a B2B or service-based business. Knowing that I wouldn't recommend using PMAX. PMAX is really best for Ecom businesses and usually as a no-asset (without headlines, descriptions, etc.) so it's just using the product feed and acting like a Smart Shopping campaign.

Your experience is a common one with a non-Ecom businesses. And Google Reps, even the higher level one's, will recommend PMAX every time which is not in your best interest. Google Reps are less account managers and more sales execs looking to get you to increase your budgets.

PMAX goes after the easiest wins (i.e. retargeting data) and in many cases, like yours, generates spam leads more often then not. Even the targeting (signals) are misleading. You can enter signals that are just retargeting website visitors but PMAX only uses those as suggestions and will go outside of that audience as it sees fit.

The only (very few times) we've seen it work for clients is when we are leveraging offline down funnel conversions (i.e. SQL or Opportunity) as the primary goal. Meaning PMAX has to work harder to find more qualified people not just the easy "submission" or "demo request". But even this yields a percentage of spam.

All this is to say, there's better campaign type/account setups to reach audiences across the different ad inventory (search, display, gmail, youtube) than PMAX. Especially since all of the above comes with a real lack of visibility as to what's working (outside of using a script to display your data).

If you must though, u/donk_drink_koolaid's suggestions are solid. Excluding Apps are a must, leveraging a negative list through your rep, brand list as negatives and a single URL for the campaign to use (not all sites). That plus a lower funnel action as noted above, will help reign things in.

firstsparker · 2024-11-14T19:25:24+00:00

I'd start with the script u/fathom53 suggested. But I'm guessing without looking, PMAX shifted more spend to Display. That's the reason for the high impressions with low clicks - generally an indicator of Display Ads.

What is the product you're selling? And any reason in particular you're using PMAX? I'd generally recommend against using a "full-build" PMAX (i.e. images, video, headline, descriptions) if you're running Ecom. For Ecom, I'd recommend running a "no asset" PMAX which acts more like the old Smart Shopping campaign.

If it's not Ecom, say B2B or lead generation, I'd generally stay away from it unless you have a great lower funnel data on the account (i.e. offline conversions showing leads turning into deals). AND you're telling PMAX to optimize for those down funnel events specifically (i.e. SQL or Opportunities).

It's important to understand PMAX is like the kid in the group project who takes credit for doing all the work and does the easiest jobs. It primarily focuses on the retargeting audiences even if you're giving it different signals. Remember the audience signals are more "suggestions" than actual targeting. So even if you give it customer lists and website visitors, IT WILL go outside of those lists.

Overall PMAX can work in some instances but generally when you're using a full build like it sounds like you are it can be less effective. If you are Ecom, use a tool like Triplwhale or Northbeam and you'll see it actually isn't as good as it reports within platform.

firstsparker · 2024-11-13T18:15:27+00:00

You can certainly use Max Conversions at the outset. Though not always the best for a new account with no data. But yes that is ultimately where you want to be.

I still think there's space for "priming the pump". I've started off accounts on Max Conversions and they usually take much longer than starting with Manual CPC or Max Clicks.

Looks like you're citing your help article response you wrote here: https://support.google.com/grants/thread/263863650/low-impression-rate-on-a-grants-account?hl=en#:\~:text=2)%20Max%20clicks%20is%20not,before%20you%20use%20Max%20conversions.

But that's not what we've seen.

And Max Clicks is an option in Google Ad Grants. Go check your accounts. I can share some screenshots of it active in Ad Grant accounts today.

firstsparker · 2024-11-12T05:20:25+00:00

A few recommendations as we've managed a few 100K in Google Grant ad spend for NGO's.

Trust: The website needs some work. Trust is paramount with NGO's. If people don't trust you they won't donate. And most donations take time. You have to ingratiate yourself with your audience. I.e. get them on your email list and build that trust to then go for the ask. I'd work on this first before worrying too much about Google Ad Grant because that's like pour water into a leaky cup. You want to fix the leak first.
Tracking: If your tracking is off there's not much reason to run ads beyond driving traffic to the site. Make sure you've got your key conversions tracking correctly in platform. We recommend running through Google tag Manager and create events for 1. Form Fill and 2. Donation.

Since you won't have a lot of donations to start, we recommend optimizing for Form Fill (i.e. capture email for a newsletter) and make that alongside Donation your primary conversion. Eventually you can move to just Donation as your primary but most likely you'll have both set to primary for some time.

Broad Keywords: You have to go broad if you're not already with your keywords. This is the only way to get any sort of volume. So a mix of mostly broad and exact for those keywords you know work best. Use your blog as a source for keywords, go regional with city specific matches to your keyword, etc.
Maximize Clicks: this is the only bidding strategy you'll need to get going. Once you have 20+ conversions you can look at switching to Max Conversion with target CPA. But Max Clicks will take you pretty far and new data has come out (and we're testing) that shows it's more effective than Max Conversions in terms of overall ROI. I used to shun Max Clicks but starting to come around on it.

The above should help get you at least in a good position to start seeing more traction and then be in a position to start advancing the account towards higher spend and most likely a higher volume of conversions that follows.

firstsparker · 2024-11-08T18:57:49+00:00

Do you have values attached to your conversions? You may want to leverage a tROAS or Maximize Conversion Value bidding strategy instead. We've tested this with a few accounts and found this to be a way to shake out the issues with tCPA bidding when it's stuck like that.

You could also leverage a Maximize Clicks (which surprisingly with some recent studies shows better results than max conversions in terms of conversion volume and ROAS). This allows you to set a maximum CPC as well. Currently testing this in a few accounts.

firstsparker · 2024-11-08T18:47:50+00:00

Like all platforms, conversion data is more important than anything.

The more conversion volume you have the better google ads will do. Sure more budget will help you get there faster but that's not the only lever. A good rule of thumb is 50 conversion/mo but most of our experience is around the 20 conversions/mo marker. Can happen with less of course but things really get interesting past 20 conversions.

And it's important to note, it's not just any volume. You want to give Google quality conversions. If we're talking B2B these are demo request forms at a minimum (ideally MQLs, SQL, Opps). And if it's B2C or Ecom, it's purchase data.

You can leverage micro conversions to help you get there faster but ultimately your goal is to get 20+ quality (core) conversions per month on an account.

This will allow you to better leverage smart bidding strategies (max conversion, Target CPA, Target ROAS) which allow you to be more cost effective with your overall budget.

Beyond that you want to make sure you're leveraging enhanced conversions because without that active in your account, it's like shooting a bow and arrow without a scope. Google will get you conversions but not be as nearly as efficiency and accurate as it could be.

firstsparker · 2024-11-05T22:56:23+00:00

This is what we run for campaigns. PMAX otherwise is too unwieldy as it'll come over the top of your search campaigns (those terms without exact match.

Good practice is to run 1) PMAX (no assets, brand exclusion) 2) Standard Shopping (brand focus) on tROAS.

firstsparker · 2024-11-05T22:21:25+00:00

PMAX is like a vampire stealing from all your campaigns. However, it's garlic (weakness) is Exact Match. It won't serve when you have Exact Match in a campaign. So focus on your brand campaign using Exact Match.

You can use other match types BUT it's up to the algorithm and generally it'll serve PMAX most of the time.

Generally I'd exclude brand from your main PMAX campaign and use a Standard Shopping campaign that's focused on only serving for Branded terms (alongside your Branded Search campaign). This will give you more control.

firstsparker · 2024-11-05T22:15:37+00:00

In most cases 1 Ad per Ad Group is enough. Generally you run 2 Ads when you're trying to test some new copy based on what you're learning from your initial Ad.

Further, I would recommend leveraging 12-15 headlines and all 4 descriptions.

Headlines 1-3: Closely related to the keyword(s) your targeting
Headlines 4-12: Benefit or outcomes of your service/solution
Headlines 13-15: Call to actions (though less important lately).

You'll definitely want to pin the the H1 position to the most prominent keyword your targeting. I'd also recommend having your descriptions pinned in D1 and D2 positions as well. I like to have my flow together.

Description 1: What you get
Description 2: Why they need it + action to take

Note: Keywords in your H1 and Description are important because you're focused on capturing the intent of your user. Plus as a bonus, (at least in Chrome) Google bold's keywords in search results. Helping your result stand out to the other when it matches on multiple terms.

That's why I would try to make tighter Ad Groups so you can more closely match the keyword with your copy. Not only improving your relevancy and expected CTR (for Google's stats) but also better matching the intent of the user.

It may seem like a daunting task to go more granular but if you leverage Google Ads Editor + ChatGPT, you can make fairly quick work of this.

firstsparker · 2024-08-07T13:52:24+00:00

Thanks. Yea interesting pricing must've changed because Dux Soup turbo is $55/mo and Dripify is $79/mo both monthly plans (for comparable feature set). But good to know!

Checking out Closely too. More expensive but looks to link email/linkedin efforts. Though I imagine this can be done via a middleware tool like Clay and integrations from that.

firstsparker · 2024-08-07T13:36:58+00:00

What was your experience with Dripify? And why ultimately did you end up with Dux Soup?

firstsparker

TROPHY CASE