MNTN: CTV Ad Platform Unicorn

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MNTN in one minute

At a time when TV was seen as a brand-building channel, MNTN pioneered its own lane—developing Performance TV (PTV), a self-serve ad platform that lets marketers target, measure, and optimize TV campaigns just like search and social.

Their breakthrough lies in MNTN Matched and Verified Visits—AI-powered tools that match ads to intent-based audiences and track post-view actions across 400M+ devices. Marketers can launch campaigns in minutes, set ROAS goals, and watch the platform optimize results in real time.

By 2024, MNTN had onboarded over 2,200 brands (up from 142 in 2019), with 92% of customers having never advertised on TV before. The platform has driven $27.1 billion in revenue for clients since inception.

As ad budgets shift from linear to CTV and AVOD gains ground, MNTN’s PTV tech is unlocking TV’s full potential—one SMB at a time.

IPO Overview
IPO Price: $16 per share
Listing Date: May 21, 2025
Post-Issue Valuation: ~$1.2 billion
Stock Price (May 23): ~$28

Introduction

Founded with the bold ambition to transform TV advertising, MNTN has reimagined what’s possible on the biggest screen in the home. At a time when traditional TV was built for reach and repetition—not results—MNTN created Performance TV (PTV): a self-serve ad platform that combines the storytelling power of TV with the precision of paid search and social.

The result is a fully integrated software experience, purpose-built for performance. Marketers can log in, target high-intent audiences with MNTN Matched, launch campaigns in minutes, and track real-time results with Verified Visits—technology that links 400M+ devices to household viewing behavior and directly attributes views to conversions.

Since 2019, MNTN’s platform has grown from 142 to over 2,200 advertisers, primarily small and midsize businesses. Its software has helped drive $27.1 billion in attributed revenue for customers, with automated optimization algorithms designed to hit ROAS targets and scale spend. In 2024 alone, 421 brands spent over $100,000 on the platform.

As Connected TV adoption surges—now accounting for nearly half of U.S. TV viewing—marketers are rapidly shifting budgets away from linear and into digital-first, performance-oriented formats. CTV ad spend is projected to grow from $2.8B in 2017 to $33.4B by 2025, and MNTN is poised to capture a large share of that shift.

With a first-mover advantage, access to premium inventory, and a self-serve interface tailored for non-TV natives, MNTN is not just redefining how marketers advertise on TV—it’s building the next great performance channel.

History

It began in 2009 with a simple yet radical idea: make TV advertising work like digital.

Back then, television was the domain of brand marketers—with big budgets, little precision, and even less accountability. Marketers could tell stories, but not track results. That’s where MNTN saw an opening: bring the measurability, targeting, and performance mindset of search and social to the world’s most captivating screen.

Founded in Austin, Texas, MNTN (short for “Mountain”) spent the early years building foundational ad tech. The company’s roots trace back to SteelHouse, and while its branding evolved, the mission remained the same: turn Connected TV (CTV) into a performance channel accessible to brands of all sizes.

The breakthrough came with the launch of Performance TV—a self-serve software platform that let marketers target audiences, set ROAS goals, and directly attribute TV views to online actions. Combined with innovations like MNTN Matched and Verified Visits, the platform turned TV into a measurable, goal-driven engine for growth.

From 142 customers in 2019 to over 2,200 by 2024, MNTN grew fast—powered by small and midsize businesses discovering TV for the first time. By 2024, it had helped advertisers generate more than $27 billion in revenue, and counted 421 brands spending over $100,000 annually on the platform.

In May 2025, MNTN made its public debut on the Nasdaq with a $1.2 billion valuation—marking a key milestone in its journey from ad tech startup to category creator. While the company posted a net loss of $32.9 million in 2024, it generated $225.6 million in revenue and achieved $38.8 million in adjusted EBITDA, showing signs of scale and profitability.

Today, MNTN continues to lead the CTV performance wave—helping marketers move beyond impressions and into outcomes. Backed by a growing product suite, premium inventory partnerships, and a loyal SMB customer base, it’s not just disrupting TV advertising—it’s redefining what performance marketing can look like on the biggest screen in the house.

Risk factors

1. CTV Adoption May Not Meet Expectations
MNTN’s platform is highly exposed to the growth trajectory of Connected TV (CTV). If cord-cutting slows or AVOD (ad-supported video on demand) fails to scale as expected, advertiser demand could underperform projections. Limited broadband access, weak content delivery infrastructure, or high user acquisition costs may hinder industry expansion.

2. Reliance on Performance Marketing Budgets
The company’s revenue model depends on advertisers shifting spend from paid search, social, and traditional TV into CTV performance marketing. In a downturn or during reallocations, marketers may deprioritize emerging formats like CTV, which could materially impact top-line growth.

3. Attribution Model Under Scrutiny
Critics have raised concerns over MNTN’s attribution methodology, including alleged use of fingerprinting and “conversion hijacking.” While unproven, reputational risks could weaken confidence in the platform’s results and customer retention.

4. Dependence on Continued Customer Growth
Future expansion relies on acquiring new advertisers—especially SMBs—and increasing wallet share from existing users. Without strong platform adoption or meaningful expansion into enterprise accounts and agency-managed budgets, revenue growth could stagnate.

5. Creative Solutions May Fail to Scale Efficiently
MNTN’s creative services are designed to lower the friction of TV advertising for digital-native brands. However, if demand outpaces capacity, or if ROI from these services underdelivers, margins could be compressed and customer satisfaction could erode.

6. Concentration Risk Among Top Customers
While no single client exceeds 10% of revenue, the top 10 accounts make up ~18% of total sales. Most operate without contractual commitments, making churn or budget cuts a potential drag on quarterly performance.

7. Economic and Geopolitical Headwinds
The ad market remains sensitive to global macro volatility—from inflation and interest rates to geopolitical conflicts. Disruptions like the COVID-19 pandemic or wars in key regions have historically depressed ad budgets and could do so again.

8. Competitive Market Dynamics
CTV is an increasingly crowded space. MNTN competes with both legacy TV platforms and digital-native ad tech vendors. Larger rivals with deeper integrations or preferred access to premium inventory may limit MNTN’s growth in higher-value brand campaigns.

Market Opportunity

The global advertising landscape is at a pivotal inflection point. With digital-first brands seeking measurable outcomes, traditional TV losing dominance, and CTV surging as a mainstream channel, a new category is emerging: Performance TV (PTV).

Sitting at the intersection of performance marketing, traditional TV, and Connected TV, PTV combines high-impact, full-screen video creative with digital-style targeting, measurement, and return-on-ad-spend (ROAS) optimization.

This transformation is being driven by three structural shifts: performance-led brand building, CTV mainstreaming, and SMB digitization.

Performance Advertising at Scale

Performance advertising is now the engine of digital marketing. According to Magna Global, U.S. performance ad spend will hit $285.4B in 2025, growing at a 9.7% CAGR to reach $343.6B by 2027. But growth is uneven: as search and social platforms become increasingly saturated, CPMs are rising and ROAS is compressing.

PTV provides a compelling alternative—delivering television-level storytelling with digital-like accountability. As performance marketers search for new scalable, high-ROAS channels, PTV is primed to capture share.

Behind this shift is a clear economic logic:

• PTV combines the reach of traditional TV with the precision of digital

• Advertisers can optimize in real-time for conversions, not impressions

• ROAS can rival or outperform search and social on a per-dollar basis

PTV is not just another channel—it’s performance advertising reimagined for the TV screen.

Traditional TV: Under Pressure

Linear TV still commands substantial brand budgets—estimated at $50B annually from 2025 to 2027, according to eMarketer. But its limitations are growing harder to ignore: no targeting, limited measurement, and high barriers to entry.

PTV unlocks this channel for a new class of advertisers:

• Full-screen, non-skippable ads

• Audience-based targeting

• Cross-channel attribution

• Budget flexibility for mid-market brands

By democratizing TV ad access and results tracking, PTV allows small and mid-sized brands to advertise like Fortune 500 companies—without needing a Super Bowl budget.

CTV: The Fastest-Growing Channel in Video

CTV is no longer emerging—it’s dominant. U.S. CTV ad spend is projected to grow at a 12.5% CAGR, from $33.4B in 2025 to $42.2B by 2027. This reflects rising adoption, ad-supported content models, and shifting consumer behaviors.

The opportunity is twofold:

1. Linear to CTV migration – As dollars follow eyeballs, PTV becomes the preferred format for performance-led campaigns.

2. New advertiser entry – Many brands that never touched TV before are entering via self-serve, software-led CTV platforms like MNTN.

In 2024, CTV already made up 45.8% of TV viewing time, but just 32.5% of TV ad spend. This delta is MNTN’s addressable upside.

MNTN’s current customer base—U.S. SMBs with 10–500 employees—represents a $60B–$120B serviceable addressable market (SAM). Most of these brands are just beginning to explore TV advertising.

Based on:

• ~1.5M SMBs in the U.S.

• Avg. $8M revenue per business

• 10% of revenue spent on marketing

• 5% of marketing budgets allocated to PTV

...management estimates an average $40K–$80K annual PTV spend per customer.

With <0.2% market penetration, the upside is substantial. As these businesses scale and shift budget from less effective channels, MNTN’s platform is positioned to grow with them.

Tailwinds Accelerating the Shift

Five macro trends are compounding this market momentum:

• Rising ad costs on search and social create a demand for new, cost-efficient performance channels

• SMBs are increasingly performance-driven, looking for clear ROI on ad spend

• CTV audiences are growing, with 234M U.S. monthly users and a 10% YoY increase in streaming content consumed

• Ad-supported content is booming, with 185M Americans opting into ad-tier services in 2024

• Martech spending is up, with 83% of marketers increasing tech budgets by ~11% YoY

A Platform Built for the Next Decade

To fully capitalize on this market shift, advertisers need more than inventory—they need software.

MNTN’s vertically integrated PTV platform brings:

• Audience targeting and segmentation

• ROAS-optimized media buying

• Attribution and reporting

• Integrated creative tools

By bridging TV’s brand power with digital’s performance metrics, MNTN is reshaping who can succeed in video advertising—and how.

PTV is not just disrupting the status quo. It’s building the next growth engine of the $400B+ global ad market.

Product

MNTN has reimagined Connected TV (CTV) through the lens of performance marketing. Much like how paid search transformed digital advertising in the early 2000s, MNTN is redefining how brands buy, optimize, and measure TV advertising—with the simplicity, automation, and measurability marketers expect from performance channels.

The result: a full-stack, self-serve platform purpose-built for CTV performance at scale.

End-to-End Control

MNTN’s platform offers everything a marketer needs to execute TV campaigns that perform—from selecting the right audience to measuring down-funnel results. Designed for enterprise-grade marketing teams but accessible to businesses of all sizes, the platform provides:

• Precise Audience Targeting

• ROAS-Centric Attribution

• Automated Creative Optimization

• Seamless Omnichannel Delivery

• Real-Time Reporting

Marketers can launch a campaign in minutes—without needing a media agency, AV production team, or IT support.

Intelligent Targeting with MNTN Matched™

At the heart of MNTN’s targeting engine is MNTN Matched™, a proprietary AI system that blends third-party and first-party CRM data to build high-intent audience segments across 130M+ TV households.

Key features:

• Keyword- and behavior-based predictive modeling

• Intent-scored audiences with real-time feedback loops

• Custom segments ranging from luxury shoppers to gym-goers

• Transparent control over reach, frequency, and segment overlap

Where legacy TV bought impressions, MNTN buys outcomes.

Verified Performance

TV has long been a black box for performance marketers. MNTN solves this through its Verified Visits™ technology, which maps CTV impressions to downstream actions—across devices and across time.

What that means in practice:

• Track ROAS, leads, installs, and purchases with precision

• Attribute web visits and conversions across 400M+ connected devices

• Seamlessly integrate with Google Analytics, CRMs, and ad platforms

It’s not just reach. It’s measurable return.

MNTN’s platform performs hundreds of thousands of real-time optimizations daily across price, creative, inventory, and placement—without human oversight.

Optimizations span:

• Dayparting and geo-based performance

• Creative A/B testing with intelligent rotation

• Budget reallocation by audience segment

• Predictive bidding for cost-efficient inventory access

Built-in algorithms continuously improve ROAS with each impression.

Lowering the Barrier to Stunning TV Ads

92% of MNTN customers are first-time TV advertisers. MNTN removes friction by:

• Enabling direct creative uploads or leveraging QuickFrame, a creator marketplace

• Automatically formatting ads to meet every CTV network’s standards

• Screening creatives for resolution, audio, and compliance to avoid rejection

Every ad is polished, compliant, and launch-ready—within minutes.

Self-Serve Simplicity

MNTN’s UX is modeled after the best of digital ad platforms—intuitive, modular, and customizable. Users can:

• Define campaign goals and budgets

• Build, preview, and test creatives

• Measure performance in dashboards or via API

• Pull custom reports across 479M+ metric combinations

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Business Model

MNTN’s performance TV (PTV) model is built around four interlocking growth levers: self-serve automation, algorithmic campaign execution, SMB-first adoption, and outcome-based monetization. The platform simplifies TV advertising for performance marketers—turning what was once an offline, brand-led medium into a scalable, ROI-focused engine.

Here’s how it works—and why it compounds.

Self-Serve Simplicity

MNTN’s core product is a self-serve software platform where advertisers set campaign parameters—budget, timeline, audience, and desired return. From there, MNTN’s proprietary algorithms handle the rest: ad delivery, optimization, targeting, and attribution.

By automating the full campaign lifecycle, MNTN empowers even first-time TV advertisers to act with the efficiency of an in-house media team.

• 2,225 PTV customers as of FY24, up 56% YoY

• 92% of MNTN customers are first-time TV advertisers

• 49.7% total customer growth YoY

This simplicity not only attracts new advertisers but also encourages repeat usage and larger campaign budgets over time.

Execution with ROAS at the Core

Unlike legacy TV networks that sell impressions, MNTN sells outcomes. Its algorithms optimize thousands of variables in real time—from bidding and inventory sourcing to creative sequencing—to drive measurable returns.

Customers define their ROAS or conversion goals, and the system adjusts budgets and placements dynamically to hit targets.

• Verified attribution across 400M+ connected devices

• Campaigns optimized across pricing, creative, and timing

• Average campaign launch time: under 15 minutes

The result: less manual work, more efficient ad spend, and higher platform retention.

SMB-Led Market Expansion

MNTN’s go-to-market strategy centers on small and midsize businesses (SMBs)—a segment historically priced out of TV. By bringing TV into the performance marketing mix for SMBs (most of whom are already active on Google or Meta), MNTN taps into a blue ocean of untapped demand.

These customers are acquired primarily via inbound and direct sales. Agency partnerships and integrations with CRM and analytics platforms deepen stickiness.

• Majority of new customers are inbound

• Rapid SMB adoption drives volume and virality

• 30.9% of annual revenue generated in Q4 seasonality surge

As CTV adoption grows, MNTN becomes the default TV platform for the long tail of performance advertisers.

Unit Economics

MNTN’s revenue is directly tied to ad spend on the platform. As customers increase budgets, launch more campaigns, and expand across product lines, MNTN captures more value—without linear cost growth.

Between FY23 and FY24, this translated into:

• Revenue growth from $176.3M to $225.6M (+27.9%)

• Adjusted EBITDA growth from $6.3M to $38.8M

• Net loss reduction by 38.3% YoY

Operating leverage is already visible as fixed costs (G&A, platform R&D, infrastructure) scale more slowly than customer and revenue growth.

MNTN’s model compounds across all touchpoints:

• More PTV customers → More ad spend → Higher recurring revenue

• More campaign data → Better optimization → Higher ROAS → Stronger retention

• More scale → Better inventory access → Lower cost per conversion

• More SMB adoption → More brand evangelists → Faster word-of-mouth growth

With AI-powered targeting, measurement precision, and ongoing platform upgrades, MNTN isn’t just bringing performance to TV—it’s building the most capital-efficient, software-led media platform in the fastest-growing corner of advertising.

Management Team: 

Mark Douglas – Founder & Chief Executive Officer

Mark Douglas founded MNTN in 2009 and has led the company as President, CEO, and Board Member since inception. With a background spanning engineering and executive leadership, Mark brings over two decades of experience in technology and digital media.
Prior to MNTN, he was VP of Engineering at Magnite (formerly Rubicon Project) and earlier, VP of Technology at eHarmony. His entrepreneurial journey began with founding CenterView Software in 1994, followed by roles at Oracle, Covalent Technologies, and Persistence Software.

Patrick A. Pohlen – Chief Financial Officer

Appointed CFO in May 2021, Patrick Pohlen brings deep legal and financial acumen to MNTN’s executive team. He previously spent nearly two decades at Latham & Watkins LLP, where he served as a partner and global chair of the emerging company practice.
Patrick advised tech and life sciences companies on IPOs, capital markets, M&A, and venture capital—giving him a broad lens on scaling companies through capital strategy.
He also served as CEO of a venture-backed tech firm from 2000 to 2002.

Christopher Innes – Chief Operating Officer

Christopher Innes has served as MNTN’s Chief Operating Officer since 2017, overseeing business operations, systems, and cross-functional execution. He joined MNTN initially as a customer and has been instrumental in aligning the platform with marketer needs.
Chris previously held leadership roles within the company including Chief Monetization Officer and SVP, Client Services. His unique trajectory—from client to COO—gives him an inside-out perspective on MNTN’s growth engine.

Investment

MNTN’s journey to IPO has been marked by the support of seasoned venture investors, forward-thinking institutions, and a founder-led vision deeply aligned with the future of performance-driven Connected TV advertising. Across cycles of product innovation and market adoption, MNTN has raised $185.9 million in growth capital to transform TV from a branding tool into a measurable, data-driven channel for performance marketers.

Its IPO at a $1.2 billion valuation signals institutional confidence in a capital-efficient, full-stack CTV platform—backed by a proprietary ad tech engine, self-serve creative tools, and a clear focus on the long tail of digital-native brands.

Early-Stage Capital

MNTN raised $1.3M in its first seed round in October 2009, followed by additional early-stage capital in March 2010. These rounds helped validate the platform thesis and accelerate development during the rise of OTT and cord-cutting.
By 2011 and 2012, MNTN closed two Series B rounds totaling $14.6M, including participation from Qualcomm Ventures, marking the start of institutional backing and technological scaling.

Institutional Scale-Up

A pivotal Series C round in December 2015 raised $49M, led by Mercato Partners, to help MNTN expand customer acquisition, build out its creative infrastructure, and enhance attribution tooling. This was supplemented by a convertible note in May 2017 to finance strategic initiatives.

In February 2022, MNTN closed its largest private round—$119M Series D—with backing from institutional heavyweights BlackRock and Fidelity. The round fueled product innovation, sales expansion, and deeper investments into artificial intelligence and creative automation, positioning MNTN as a category-defining player in performance TV.

Competition

CTV ad inventory is bifurcated—premium supply is largely locked up by walled gardens and major streaming players, while the long tail of apps offers fragmented access with inconsistent performance. MNTN’s competitors span categories:

• CTV Platforms like The Trade Desk and Innovid, focused on enterprise buyers and broader omnichannel capabilities

• Retail Media Networks entering the CTV space with proprietary data overlays

• DTC-Focused Agencies and DSPs offering managed service solutions for emerging brands

• Streaming Giants increasingly pushing direct ad offerings, squeezing independent access to top-tier content

Despite this, MNTN has maintained a strong growth trajectory by owning the creative, delivery, and measurement stack—a rarity among independent ad tech providers.

MNTN’s defensibility stems from a tightly integrated platform and go-to-market model focused on small to mid-sized advertisers seeking clear performance ROI from TV campaigns. The company competes favorably across several axes:

1. Technology Differentiation
MNTN’s proprietary platform is purpose-built for PTV, with end-to-end tools spanning ad creation, targeting, real-time optimization, and attribution. Its unified creative + media buying approach compresses timelines and lowers the barrier to entry for brands new to TV.

2. Attribution-Led Advantage
While attribution in CTV remains controversial, MNTN’s real-time analytics and cross-device tracking capabilities have helped carve out a loyal base of performance-minded marketers. This data-centric ethos aligns closely with the metrics-driven expectations of SMBs and growth-stage brands.

3. Scale Flywheel
With each new advertiser onboarded, MNTN’s optimization algorithms, data infrastructure, and inventory access improve—reinforcing its ability to deliver better outcomes at lower cost per acquisition. This scale advantage compounds as the platform grows.

4. Sales & Service Focus
Unlike self-serve-only DSPs, MNTN pairs its technology with high-touch support. Its sales and success teams are trained to onboard non-TV-native advertisers, helping brands confidently execute their first campaigns.

5. Talent & Culture
Founder-led since inception, MNTN has built a lean, entrepreneurial team that moves fast and ships product. This agility—combined with a culture of performance marketing DNA—allows the company to out-innovate slower-moving legacy players.

While most of MNTN’s revenue today comes from North American mid-market advertisers, the company sees significant room to grow across:

• International Markets where CTV adoption is rising but tooling remains underdeveloped

• Creative Automation and AI integrations that expand the TAM of its self-serve suite

• Attribution APIs that open up interoperability with CRMs, analytics platforms, and CDPs

• Publisher Partnerships that give MNTN differentiated access to long-tail inventory

Financials

Revenue Performance

Revenue for the year ended December 31, 2024 stood at $225.6 million, up 27.9% YoY from $176.3 million in FY2023. Growth was primarily driven by strong expansion in the PTV (Programmatic TV) segment, where:

• PTV customers grew 56% YoY, reflecting strong market adoption

• Average spend per customer declined, due to geographic expansion and lower ARPU in newer markets

• Creative services revenue declined by $4.5 million, reflecting a strategic shift in the revenue mix toward higher-margin recurring revenue streams

  

Gross Profit & Margins

Gross profit rose 30.9% YoY to $161.5 million, with gross margins improving from 70.0% to 71.6%. This margin expansion reflects:

• Increased scale efficiencies in hosting and data infrastructure

• Offset partially by higher data and platform fees due to volume growth and vendor changes

• An increase in amortization related to internally developed software, supporting long-term scalability

Operating Cost

Total operating expenses declined 3.8% YoY, despite strong topline growth—a key indicator of improving operational discipline and scalability.

• Technology & development spend rose in line with product investment and headcount expansion (17.2%), critical for supporting platform growth

• Sales & marketing expenses remained flat in headcount terms, but increased slightly due to event timing and sponsorship outlay

• G&A fell sharply as stock-based compensation normalized following the vesting of performance-linked options in FY2023

• Amortization dropped sharply as acquired intangibles from prior M&A events were fully expensed

  

Other Income

Total other expense rose sharply to ($25.4M) in FY2024 (vs. $6.6M in FY2023), driven by:

• A $22.0M swing in fair value adjustments tied to warrants and derivative liabilities

• Interest expense fell 31.3%, reflecting the payoff of the Revolving Credit Facility and QuickFrame-related note in FY2023

Cash Flow

FY2024 saw a meaningful swing in cash generation:

• The business ended the year with $82.6M in cash and no debt, and access to a $30M untapped Revolving Credit Facility

• Capex intensity reduced significantly as major one-time investments in FY2023 (e.g., QuickFrame acquisition) did not recur

With revenue momentum accelerating in Q4 and adjusted EBITDA breakeven achieved, the company is positioned to enter FY2025 with:

• Recurring PTV revenues scaling across new markets

• Reduced amortization headwinds and normalized SBC costs

• Sufficient liquidity and no short-term refinancing risk

If fair value-driven volatility and one-off interest burdens subside, FY2025 could mark the company’s first full-year operating profitability milestone.

Closing thoughts

MNTN is emerging as a category-defining force in connected TV (CTV) advertising—building a vertically integrated platform designed to bring the precision of performance marketing to the reach and storytelling power of television. With over $185M in funding, a growing SMB and enterprise customer base, and a proprietary technology stack purpose-built for PTV, MNTN is not just serving ads—it’s architecting the future of outcome-driven video marketing.

The bull case centers on structural tailwinds: the ongoing shift of ad dollars from linear to streaming, the scarcity of premium CTV inventory, and marketer demand for measurable outcomes. MNTN’s creative-meets-media stack, bolstered by high-profile creative partnerships and an intuitive self-serve UI, gives it a first-mover advantage in automating full-funnel campaigns on the biggest screen in the house. A strong sales motion, embedded measurement tools, and the potential to expand internationally and into adjacent media formats further support a long runway for growth.

The bear case lies in execution risk. With the CTV ecosystem still evolving, MNTN faces headwinds around attribution clarity, media cost inflation, and intensified competition from both legacy adtech firms and new CTV-native challengers. Its recent IPO and valuation reset add pressure to balance growth with profitability. Moreover, sustaining differentiation as more platforms offer automated, creative-led ad tools will require ongoing innovation and customer trust.

Still, in a market defined by fragmentation and complexity, MNTN’s clarity of vision, disciplined capital deployment, and focused go-to-market give it a durable edge. As brands seek more control, measurability, and creative impact in their TV buys, MNTN’s hybrid DNA—blending software precision with storytelling scale—positions it well to lead in the next chapter of performance advertising.

400th episode is up! Here is my interview with Nick Huber, the founder of TheSweatyStartup.com, a serial entrepreneur, investor, and popular content creator focused on small business ownership. Nick cofounded and operates his primary business, Bolt Storage, a commercial real estate firm, which owns 1.9 million square feet of self-storage facilities across 62 locations in 11 states. He is the author of the new book, The Sweaty Startup.

In this conversation, Nick and I discuss:
-If someone is just getting started, how do they pick a “sweaty startup” that’s right for them?
-In The Sweaty Startup, Nick describes leverage (network, skills, and capital) as the key. Which one does he think is most overlooked by beginners?
-What’s the biggest mistake first-time founders make when hiring?
-What’s a boring business idea Nick thinks, is still wide open in 2025?

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