MarTech Interview with Vitaly Pecherskiy, CEO and Co-founder at StackAdapt

Vitaly, can you share your background and what sparked your interest in the AdTech industry, as well as the story behind the inception of StackAdapt as a Co-founder?

I co-founded StackAdapt in 2014 with CEO Ildar Shar and CTO Yang Han. Prior to launching the company, Ildar and I worked at an agency where we saw a clear need for a next-generation advertising platform. We soon met Yang, and the three of us believed we could create a better platform by placing machine learning (ML) and artificial intelligence (AI) at the core, making it intuitive to operate, and built around delivering results to advertisers. We were a scrappy startup, passionate about technology, and working to solve client problems every day.

Our goal in the creation of the StackAdapt platform was to end the common media buying headaches businesses face and give marketers and ad buyers a simple alternative to traditional trading desks.

StackAdapt’s platform is known for the convergence of machine learning and user experience. How did you approach the development of the platform to achieve this synergy and deliver exceptional value to advertisers?

In the past, digital advertising was reserved for blue chip brands with large budgets and large teams to build customized programmatic strategies. These power-users inputted all the nitty gritty into the platforms, dictating exactly what they wanted the platform to do. But ML and AI have advanced to the point that advertising platforms can centralize optimization and performance strategies on the back-end.

At StackAdapt, we developed a platform that moves self-serve to the forefront, with adtech more accessible to organizations of all sizes across verticals. The algorithms can tell marketers what strategies will be the most efficient and highest performing, which increases the overall ease of use and speed of execution. Self-serve is becoming a great equalizer, increasing ad competition. And, it isn’t just for the mid-market anymore. We are working more and more with some of the largest advertising players who are adopting self-serve ad platforms for their ease of use, ability to deliver while also offering first-class customer service.

Collaboration with partners and clients is essential for success. How does StackAdapt foster strong relationships and effective communication with its stakeholders?

StackAdapt’s experts understand the business of agencies and the nature of advertising, and are able to offer stellar implementation, onboarding, and always-on customer service. The team believes that campaign success comes through establishing partnerships and helping marketers insulate themselves and their clients from risk. StackAdapt stays ready to support clients from strategic planning to overseeing campaign performance. Clients have access to a dedicated account team to help improve programmatic campaigns and agency efficiencies, access best-in-class training, creative support, and more. Simply put, StackAdapt’s aim is to make end-to-end campaign strategy and management easy and effective.

The advertising industry is constantly evolving. How does StackAdapt stay at the forefront of innovation to offer its clients the latest and most effective advertising solutions?

StackAdapt supports having employees attend academic conferences and learn about the open latest developments in the field. Those employees then return to give presentations to the entire team with the most interesting papers and tools learned at the conference. This has led to several innovations in StackAdapt’s product over time.

Proliferation of machine learning in adtech is one of the main drivers of innovation. Its application is vast and use cases span many areas within programmatic advertising such as campaign optimization, brand safety, and targeting. Take, for example, the trend that will be huge in the coming years – contextual advertising. Contextual advertising existed for many years but it’s always been seen as an upper funnel targeting strategy and more of a branding play. What we have done is brough machine learning into the mix and completely chanted the game so that contextual advertising can drive measurable business outcomes.

We also take into account that any given day a person will switch between scrolling social media, listening to a podcast, browsing products online and streaming on their smart TV. Marketing across several channels means an advertiser is casting a wider net and expanding the potential for reaching the right audience in the right moment. Our platform allows advertisers to plan, execute and analyze all ad formats. StackAdapt provides cross-device targeting to reach audiences wherever they are – desktop, mobile, streaming device – and do so in the contextually correct setting. This drives brand awareness as well as product purchase or another desired outcome.

Data privacy and ad transparency are significant concerns in digital advertising. How does StackAdapt prioritize data security and ensure that advertisers have clear insights into their campaign performance?

As consumer ad preferences and privacy-driven changes continue to evolve, marketers are increasingly turning to AI and contextual advertising to tailor ads to the environment in which their audience is browsing, rather than the viewer themselves. StackAdapt’s AI was built into the platform from the beginning, giving it a distinct advantage over other programmatic platforms. The system’s effectiveness emphasizes contextual advertising capabilities, which lead the charge for more privacy-compliant approaches to targeting in a cookieless environment.

StackAdapt has been recognized as one of Ad Age’s Best Places to Work. What initiatives does StackAdapt take to foster a positive work culture that attracts top talent and ensures employee satisfaction?

StackAdapt aims to create an inclusive, friendly and open environment for everyone from various backgrounds and cultures. Our goal is to support and stand by our employees and their communities. Part of StackAdapt’s mission is to increase participation in the technology industry and positive community involvement is an integral part of StackAdapt’s culture.

Can you share a particular success or accomplishment that you have achieved, and what made it particularly meaningful or impactful?

At the beginning of the year, StackAdapt hired its 1,000th employee, over a 400% increase from 2020.

What advice would you give to early stage entrepreneurs who aspire to be in leadership positions, and what steps can they take to help ensure their success?.

As a leader, when it comes to building a company, it’s critical to be able to focus most of the energy and resources on the critical items that will push the company forward, versus focusing on “noise” (i.e. all activities that are not fundamental to building a lasting enterprise). And when it comes to the business, there are a handful of big fundamental things that you absolutely need to nail to be able to not only stay in business but thrive.

You need to have a very strong understanding of Product-Market-Distribution fit. Or in other words, you need to know which problem you are solving (through your product), for which market and how you are going to conquer that market. This understanding might take several years, so as a leader you have to focus on this single-mindedly in the early years.

Another fundamental thing is profitability. The business, by definition, needs to make money. And while it’s ok to lose money in the early years (as you build the product and scale), you as a leader need to have a very clear focus on getting the company to profitability (which will ensure more stability and less dependency on external factors such as being able to raise capital to continue to grow).

And lastly, business won’t be possible without people. So you need to establish a solid company culture based on fundamental values (which shouldn’t be just words on the wall, but come from the day-to-day), that’s when you know that you are building something more than just a company, but a place where people can thrive and grow and be a part of something big.

For more expert Interviews, articles and industry updates, follow Martech News