Welcome to the Stage: Drew Jackson
Founder and CEO of Streetmetrics.
Startup Spotlight: Streetmetrics
StreetMetrics is a Birmingham based third-party measurement and attribution service provider for the moving Out Of Home (OOH) advertising industry. Their next-generation audience intelligence software allows operators, sellers, and buyers of moving OOH media (ads on taxis, buses, ride-share fleets, etc.) to measure the performance of their ad campaigns and re-engage their audiences online.
StreetMetrics helps Media Sellers verify the true impact of their moving ad placements, and enables them to earn additional revenue from their existing assets while providing Media Buyers the tools they need to effectively reach their audience.
Meet Drew Jackson, Founder/ CEO of Streetmetrics
At 25 years old, Drew Jackson's resume reads like that of a seasoned entrepreneur, a TechStars Atlanta, Praxis Emerging Founder and Velocity Accelerator alum, Drew is the founder and CEO of Streetmetrics. He is a Birmingham native and a proud graduate of Samford University where he double-majored in Finance and Sports Marketing. The son of an entrepreneur, Drew was keen on starting his own business one day and found inspiration in his family’s logistics business. Originally he founded Axle Advertisements, an ad-tech company that offered a platform that allowed for the trucking industry to create powerful trailer advertising. It gave carriers to earn a passive income while giving brands a touchpoint with their customers along with analytics to track overall exposure.
Realizing the technology was more valuable than the ads on the trailers, Drew pivoted and began commercializing the technology across the industry. Drew and his team are based in Birmingham and growing quickly. Birmingham is very fortunate to have such a great young founder and growing team-based right here in our growing ecosystem.
1. What's been the biggest challenge you've faced as a young founder?
There have been quite a few challenges I’ve faced as a young founder, but there are a few that stick out more than others. When you start a company as a 21-year-old, you’re green and really don’t have much life experience. It’s easy to feel like many people don’t give you a chance, but persistence and vulnerability goes a long way. Everything you experience is new so there’s a natural learning curve for almost everything. Fundraising, sales, professional etiquette, time management, etc… it’s a lot thrown at you fast. People have a tendency to vocalize negativity over positivity, you learn to grow a thicker skin and deal with the naysayers.Â
2. Is there someone or something that you rely on to get through the tough days?
Tough days are inevitable… I think for me, I try to have a devotion every morning since my relationship with Christ is foundational. There’s a comfort/peace in knowing that the Lord has you in his hand and will walk with you regardless of the situation you’re going through. I believe it’s no coincidence the Lord has built me as an entrepreneur and brought our team together to solve a really complex problem in a fairly antiquated market. In addition, I think who you surround yourself with matters a whole lot. Â
Create a close community that will encourage you. I’ve been fortunate to create an amazing community of entrepreneurial friends through organizations like Praxis, Techstars, and being around Innovation Depot. That said, it’s vital that you be kind and loves the people who are closest to you outside of work since they put up with your crap and see all the stress you go through on a daily basis. Odds are they can’t relate to the problems you’re dealing with, but you have to let them in and go on the journey with you. They’re your biggest supporters and will love you regardless of the outcome of your venture.Â
3. What is something that people get wrong about startup founders in the Southeast?
I don’t think it’s necessarily foundering specific, but there does seem to be a lack of urgency to move fast and fail often. I have noticed a sense of risk aversion, and blindness to (i) understanding the problem/market founders are solving for, (ii) understanding who they’re competing against, and (iii) the quality of the product they need to build. For some of these short-comings, I do think founders in the southeast are significantly scrappier than their counterparts in other parts of the country.
For as much as I love Birmingham, I do think the lack of new mobility providers and subsequent vehicle advertising proved challenging to explain to the market what we’re actually doing. Therefore from a support standpoint, as much as people want to help, there’s a numbness since it’s out of everyone’s wheelhouse.Â
4. Why start your company now?
One of our core beliefs that we believe the future of sustainable mobility is largely contingent on the placement advertising on vehicles. (e.g. rideshare fleets, autonomous fleets, robotics delivery, final mile delivery, public transit, etc…) If this assumption is true then there needs to be a trusted, unbiased, 3rd party that audits the performance of advertising on vehicles. This type of service exists for every other type of advertising, except vehicle advertising.Â
Interested in learning more? Check out www.streetmetrics.io
Oh, and they’re hiring, check out the roles below and if interested send your resume and GitHub to drew@streetmetrics.io
Frontend Developer with Angular experience
Backend Developer with Go/ Python experience
Data Architect with AWS experience