Method Capital

Based in Dallas, Music Audience Exchange (MAX) is a marketing technology company that helps consumer brands and music artists form mutually beneficial partnerships to drive measurable results The Company’s platform uses proprietary consumer data to identify shared audiences, facilitate authentic partnerships, and tell shared stories everywhere fans engage with music Every MAX program consists of brand-artist partnerships, custom content, targeted reach, and live experiences

The dynamics of marketing have changed for both brands and artists, who need each other now more than ever MAX is the platform that brings both artists and brands together to tell their stories and win the hearts and minds of the specific people they want to reach MAX is working with some of the top brands in the world, including Anheuser-Busch, Ford, Twix, Jack Daniels, Dr Pepper, AutoZone, Hyundai, Coors Light and McDonalds

MAX was founded in 2014 by a team of marketing technology and music professionals including Nathan Hanks and George Howard Nathan was previously cofounder and President of ReachLocal – an online marketing tech company – where he led a team of over 2,000 people with 24,000 client companies across 15 countries George has served as President of powerhouse indie label Rykodisc, co-founded TuneCore, teaches at Berklee College of Music, and is a music licensing and copyright attorney who contributes to Forbes and The New York Times

Chicago-based retail analytics platform SwiftIQ’s platform enables retailers, CPGs and distributors to make valuable use of near real-time, receipt-level transaction data The Company’s product focuses on tactical business applications such as improving in stock availability, identifying valuable product bundling opportunities, delivering highly relevant targeted content and measuring marketing ROI

SwiftIQ’s modern, self-service platform measures granular basket-level data in near real-time The Company is currently measuring data across 11,000 stores in the convenience, discount, drug and grocery verticals SwiftIQ’s current customer base includes 4 of the top 10 global CPGs and several large retailers Since launching its first retailer in August 2014, SwiftIQ has measured $70B of transactions for its customers

Lon Chow, Bill Wolf Based in Chicago, ShiftGig has developed a mobile marketplace that connects hourly workforces and businesses The Company’s platform fully vets and background checks workers, who can then pick up shifts on its mobile application ShiftGig’s clients love its platform because they can manage their temporary labor directly from ShiftGig’s application

ShiftGig is currently working with some of the biggest brands in the food service, hospitality, retail, warehouse and experiential marketing industries Operating in over 10 markets today, ShiftGig will continue its expansion to new markets in 2017

Based in Chicago, Rippleshot is transforming the way banks detect fraud through its cloud-based technology platform With data breaches dominating the headlines for the past decade, card fraud is a critical concern for banking institutions and their customers Rippleshot protects consumer credit information and the integrity of the merchant payment network by proactively detecting data breaches using machine learning and data analytics to distinguish fraudulent activity Rippleshot’s technology platform processes millions of data points in real-time to pinpoint when and where a data breach occurred, and its risk management and analytics platform helps mitigate fraud, stop losses, protects brand reputation and safeguards the consumer payment experience Following detection, Rippleshot provides banks with the tools they need to update fraud detection rules in order to lower their fraud losses while avoiding unnecessary card re-issuance The American Bankers Association (the “ABA”) has endorsed Rippleshot as a tool that can help financial institutions detect and stem fraudulent spend At present, Rippleshot has pilot programs with MasterCard and Fiserv

Lon Chow, Chris Capps Based in San Francisco with an R&D office in Tel Aviv, Singular is re-imagining the way companies manage their mobile marketing operations The Company’s SaaS platform enables mobile marketers to unify, analyze and optimize all of their marketing channels through a single dashboard Using Singular’s proprietary algorithms, marketers can finally make informed decisions based on ROI and uncover never before seen insights that are imperative for marketing optimizations

The current workflow for mobile marketers is very distributed and fragmented, involving lots of manual processes Singular ties everything together to save marketers time and improve efficiencies, all in a simplified, automated manner

Chris Capps, Mike Madden Based in Chicago, AdYapper is a digital advertising optimization platform Today, marketers are wasting 60-70% of their ad buys on ads that are never seen by their target audience AdYapper’s proprietary platform helps solve this problem by measuring the viewability of ads and using real-time machine learning and algorithms to enact prescriptive adjustments to optimize ad placement and related ad spending ROI In doing so, AdYapper drives better performance, increased advertiser profits and reduced waste The Company brings ad campaigns into focus with a simple, intuitive scorecard, giving advertisers the ability to make quick decisions with real-time snapshots of an ad’s performance With AdYapper’s platform, advertisers now have unprecedented access to measure the effectiveness of their spending AdYapper customers can get answers to previously unanswered questions such as 1) how many people saw my ads; 2) how many times did they see it; and 3) which were the most effective sites

AdYapper’s tracking sensors can be deployed in minutes, and the platform analyzes real-time media and conversion performance of campaigns in mid-flight Advertisers can choose to optimize as fast or slow as each campaign dictates The advertiser can then watch its media outperform, its conversion rates climb and its profits increase Chris Capps, Lon Chow, Mike Madden CityBase is a Chicago-based company that helps cities reach and serve residents and businesses online, on the phone and in person The company develops technology, designs payment and communication channels, and aggregates operational data for municipalities, agencies, and utilities based on their proprietary academic research, design and data-driven analysis

CityBase’s cloud-based SaaS platform integrates directly with local governmental agency databases and centralizes the customer interactions of multiple city agencies The company’s products provide cities with comprehensive information about their operations and revenue collection, while providing citizens with a more unified and useful gateway to the government

Terry Diamond, Mike Madden Semantify is a data mining and analytics company based in Chicago Semantify is a leader in the next generation of business intelligence tools with the powerful combination of natural language processing, semantic search and self-service business intelligence, all combined within a unified platform Semantify targets Fortune 1000 companies, allowing them to query multiple, unrelated databases to freely search across their entire data universe Users are able to execute queries in real time using natural language tools With Semantify, there is no need to depend on data experts to code queries and prepare data

Semantify is one of the first companies in its industry to achieve an intersection of self-service business intelligence functionality with a user-friendly search engine to explore enterprise data Semantify delivers excellent speed, productivity, and cost effectiveness in responding to inquiries from customers, regulators and internal management

Chris Capps, Lon Chow Based in Chicago, Spring is a loyalty and rewards platform for merchants Spring launched its service in Chicago and Nashville in late 2013 and has been growing its network of local merchants and users since that time Spring allows merchants to actively manage their rewards program and offer other digital marketing programs to their existing customers, as well as to the broader network of Spring Marketplace members to attract new customers

Spring prides itself as the world’s most “friction free” loyalty and rewards program Spring’s platform is easy to implement and is scalable throughout the country Spring connects right to a credit card, so it works without the hassle of loyalty cards, coupons, or vouchers Customers love using it because it’s easy; they just connect, swipe and save Businesses love it because they get the key information they need to help grow their businesses and connect to their customers more effectively Spring’s platform is a great way for businesses to reward and keep their best customers, as well as find new ways to grow and expand their business

Bill Wolf, Chris Capps, Gleb Zarkh WellRight is a Chicago-based provider of software driven wellness solutions Today, 92% of large employers offer health and wellness programs, yet less than 20% of eligible employees remain engaged in the programs, creating a need for a media-rich wellness program that stimulates employees and boosts engagement In addition, because the traditional “one size fits all” solutions aren’t effective in today’s workplace, employers are demanding an agile solution that meets all their specific requirements/goals

WellRight’s scalable and customizable software platform simplifies the implementation process for HR departments, increases employee engagement, identifies and categorizes employees’ current health status and predicts future disease risk This provides employers with the knowledge to alter current benefit offerings to best meet the needs of their workforce population, as well as the ability to manage risk through wellness WellRight’s product is built using Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) technology that can be implemented in days with little to no IT involvement

Terry Diamond, Bill Wolf, Gleb Zarkh Based in Kansas City, Missouri, SpiderOak provides mission-critical data and systems security for organizations and individuals Using the latest and most secure blockchain technology and encryption, paired with identity management, SpiderOak’s platform defends client assets, intellectual property, and operations against military-grade cyberattacks The Company’s offerings include an enterprise platform protecting all of an organization’s data, software, applications, and devices; a secure software updater allowing companies to develop and update their applications in a secure way; and secure backup, messaging, file sharing, and storage for large and small businesses and individuals