5. Help video publishers
optimize ads
Help ad agencies buy the
right video ads
Video-serving platforms (e.
g. Hulu)
Demand-side platforms
Personalized service for
MVP customers Automotive manufacturers
Ad agencies
Value-based pricing on click-through rate improvementsExpensive to acquire new ad-agency customers ($$$ steak dinners?)
Spend lots of money on Amazon server time
Advertising tradeshows
Direct outreach
Develop video indexing
technology
Visiblend
Original Business Model Canvas
Patents on video
classification
Access to video inventory to
advertise on (YouTube)
6. Product /
(MVP)
Contextual Ads
(Cooking Video Demo)
Contextual Ads
(Technical Car Demo)
YouTube
Analytics
(Static Report)
Brand Champions
(Sizzle Reels)
Contextual Ads
(67% Ad Uplift)
Target
Customer
Demand Side Platforms Media Buyers Social Media /
Analytics Teams
Brands & Agencies Brands & Agencies
Feedback We need customers to
show DSPs that there is
demand for our
technology before
integration
We need to sell ads
via the ad ecosystem:
hit technical
roadblocks
“Solution to a
problem that
doesn’t exist” but
lots of love for
identifying Brand
Champions
Cool...but what do I
do with it?
And who pays us?
Landed first
paying customer,
committed to
tackle technical
challenges both in
machine learning
and in system
integration
Visiblend
Week 3 Pivot Week 5 Pivot Week 7 Pivot Week 9 Pivot
Our Journey
Week 1 Kickoff
7. Visiblend
Week 1 Kickoff Week 3 Pivot Week 5 Pivot Week 7 Pivot Week 9 Pivot
Our Journey
Product /
(MVP)
Contextual Ads
(Cooking Video Demo)
Contextual Ads
(Technical Car Demo)
YouTube
Analytics
(Static Report)
Brand Champions
(Sizzle Reels)
Contextual Ads
(67% Ad Uplift)
Target
Customer
Demand Side Platforms Media Buyers Social Media /
Analytics Teams
Brands & Agencies Brands & Agencies
Feedback We need customers to
show DSPs that there is
demand for our
technology before
integration
We need to sell ads
via the ad ecosystem:
hit technical
roadblocks
“Solution to a
problem that
doesn’t exist” but
lots of love for
identifying Brand
Champions
Cool...but what do I
do with it?
And who pays us?
Landed first
paying customer,
committed to
tackle technical
challenges both in
machine learning
and in system
integration
8. Visiblend
Week 3 Pivot Week 5 Pivot Week 7 Pivot Week 9 Pivot
Our Journey
Product /
(MVP)
Contextual Ads
(Cooking Video Demo)
Contextual Ads
(Technical Car Demo)
YouTube
Analytics
(Static Report)
Brand Champions
(Sizzle Reels)
Contextual Ads
(67% Ad Uplift)
Target
Customer
Demand Side Platforms Media Buyers Social Media /
Analytics Teams
Brands & Agencies Brands & Agencies
Feedback We need customers to
show DSPs that there is
demand for our
technology before
integration
We need to sell ads
via the ad ecosystem:
hit technical
roadblocks
“Solution to a
problem that
doesn’t exist” but
lots of love for
identifying Brand
Champions
Cool...but what do I
do with it?
And who pays us?
Landed first
paying customer,
committed to
tackle technical
challenges both in
machine learning
and in system
integration
Week 1 Kickoff
9. Visiblend
Week 3 Pivot Week 5 Pivot Week 7 Pivot Week 9 Pivot
Our Journey
Product /
(MVP)
Contextual Ads
(Cooking Video Demo)
Contextual Ads
(Technical Car Demo)
YouTube
Analytics
(Static Report)
Brand Champions
(Sizzle Reels)
Contextual Ads
(67% Ad Uplift)
Target
Customer
Demand Side Platforms Media Buyers Social Media /
Analytics Teams
Brands & Agencies Brands & Agencies
Feedback We need customers to
show DSPs that there is
demand for our
technology before
integration
We need to sell ads
via the ad ecosystem:
hit technical
roadblocks
“Solution to a
problem that
doesn’t exist” but
lots of love for
identifying Brand
Champions
Cool...but what do I
do with it?
And who pays us?
Landed first
paying customer,
committed to
tackle technical
challenges both in
machine learning
and in system
integration
Week 1 Kickoff
10. Visiblend
Week 3 Pivot Week 5 Pivot Week 7 Pivot Week 9 Pivot
Our Journey
Product /
(MVP)
Contextual Ads
(Cooking Video Demo)
Contextual Ads
(Technical Car Demo)
YouTube
Analytics
(Static Report)
Brand Champions
(Sizzle Reels)
Contextual Ads
(67% Ad Uplift)
Target
Customer
Demand Side Platforms Media Buyers Social Media /
Analytics Teams
Brands & Agencies Brands & Agencies
Feedback We need customers to
show DSPs that there is
demand for our
technology before
integration
We need to sell ads
via the ad ecosystem:
hit technical
roadblocks
“Solution to a
problem that
doesn’t exist” but
lots of love for
identifying Brand
Champions
Cool...but what do I
do with it?
And who pays us?
Landed first
paying customer,
committed to
tackle technical
challenges both in
machine learning
and in system
integration
Week 1 Kickoff
11. Develop video indexing
technology
Visiblend
Final Business Model Canvas
Patents on video
classification
Access to video inventory to
advertise on (YouTube)
Video-serving platforms (e.
g. Hulu)
Demand-side platforms
Expensive to acquire new ad-agency customers ($$$ steak dinners?)
Spend lots of money on Amazon server time
$43/day fixed cost on Amazon server time
Salaries, rent
Payment processing
Value-based pricing on click-through rate improvements
20% of ad buying cost (until we prove ourselves enough to be on
commission to provide uplift)
Help video publishers
optimize ads
Help ad agencies buy the
right video ads
Adding uplift to ad
performance, leading to
increased sales
Advertising tradeshows
Direct outreach
Word of mouth / intra-
agency referral
Automotive manufacturers
Ad agencies
CPG Brands, e.g. Jack Link's,
KitchenAid
Personalized service for
MVP customers
Self-service (crucial for
scalability)
12. Develop video indexing
technology
Visiblend
Final Business Model Canvas
Patents on video
classification
Access to video inventory to
advertise on (YouTube)
Video-serving platforms (e.
g. Hulu)
Demand-side platforms
Expensive to acquire new ad-agency customers ($$$ steak dinners?)
Spend lots of money on Amazon server time
$43/day fixed cost on Amazon server time
Salaries, rent
Payment processing
Value-based pricing on click-through rate improvements
20% of ad buying cost (until we prove ourselves enough to be on
commission to provide uplift)
Help video publishers
optimize ads
Help ad agencies buy the
right video ads
Adding uplift to ad
performance, leading to
increased sales
Advertising tradeshows
Direct outreach
Word of mouth / intra-
agency referral
Automotive manufacturers
Ad agencies
CPG Brands, e.g. Jack Link's,
KitchenAid
Personalized service for
MVP customers
Self-service (crucial for
scalability)
15. Visiblend
Business & Tech Scalability
Technical
1. Overhead of adding new brands and
products to our model
2. Are there enough relevant video
impressions for a product (e.g.
Nissan Altimas)?
✓ Developed a proprietary method of
rapidly collect sufficient training
data for each product/vertical
✓ Performed early tests and found
sufficient monthly volume (millions
of impressions per month)
Business
1. Server Costs
2. Customer Acquisition
✓ $43/day assumes downloading &
processing 1 million videos/day
? With proven uplift, agencies will
use us across many of their brands
to buy digital ads (our hypothesis)
Challenge Solution
16. Key Assumptions:
Customer acquisition rates: 35% MoM growth in month 1, scales
down to 5% in month 36
Server Expense: $1,200/mo to process top 10M daily YouTube
videos (based on AWS cost analysis)
Marketing & Sales Exp: 10% of revenue to incentivize sales force
Employee Salaries & Benefits: $200K/employee; 5 paid employees at
Y1Q3 growth to 13 by Y3Q4
Rent & Misc Office Expenses: each $1,000 per employee
Key Financial Notes
● $500K seed funding in Year 1
● Cash flow positive by Year 2
Key Customer Archetype Notes
● Each customer is a brand
● Business model only reflects selling to agencies
& brands
● Could attempt partnerships with ad platforms
starting in Year 2 (with 30+ brand customers)
Visiblend
Financial & Operational Model
17. VisiblendVisiblend
Top 5 Learnings
1. Hacked together MVPs work: don’t over-engineer
2. Pitch what you can deliver in 6-12 months: doesn’t have to ready today
3. Customer needs can be surprisingly simple: give us uplift
4. Advertisers don’t need a product that is 5x better: 20% uplift is a big deal
5. Customers constantly pitch ideas they won’t pay for: ask them to pay
