The people
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Working at Exact Media
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About
Exact Media was started in Toronto in 2013 by Ray Cao and Daniel Rodic on a simple arbitrage: parcels going out of e-commerce warehouses had unused space in them, and consumer brands wanted a way to put a sample of Crest Whitestrips or L'Oreal cosmetics into the hands of someone who had just bought something adjacent. Exact paid the retailer for the insert slot and charged the brand for the placement, which Forbes described in 2016 as an Airbnb model for direct mail. Cao told the TechTO stage in November 2014 — a year into the company — that it had gone from zero to $1 million in sales in its first 60 days and from $1 million to $5 million in its first seven months, and that the talk was his first public appearance in eighteen months of building. The company raised an undisclosed round led by Rho Ventures with participation from VTF Capital and Joshua Schachter. In the last week of December 2019 the UK media agency The Specialist Works acquired the Connections insert marketplace; Cao and Rodic left the business and stayed on as external advisers. The platform now trades as Connections and exactmedia.io no longer resolves.
Backers
Raised an undisclosed round led by Rho Ventures, with VTF Capital (Tony Hsieh) and Joshua Schachter participating. Amounts were never disclosed.
Quick answers
What did Exact Media do?
It sold advertising space inside e-commerce parcels. Retailers were paid to include a sample or offer in packages they were already shipping; brands paid for the placement and the targeting that came with knowing what the shopper had just bought.
What happened to Exact Media?
The Specialist Works, a UK media agency, acquired its Connections insert marketplace in the last week of December 2019. Co-founders Ray Cao and Daniel Rodic left and remained external advisers; the platform runs as Connections under new ownership.
How fast did it grow?
Ray Cao said on the TechTO stage in November 2014 that the company went from zero to $1 million in sales in its first 60 days, and from $1 million to $5 million within seven months.