Matt Pecoy is an experienced corporate lawyer and Partner at DarrowEverett LLP. Matt focuses on startups and middle-market mergers and acquisitions, private equity, venture capital, and general corporate matters. Matt represents a wide range of clients, from accredited investors to growth-stage companies and small to medium-sized, privately-held companies. He counsels clients on corporate formation and structuring, employment law issues, securities law issues, and complex commercial contract negotiation.
Matt graduated cum laude from the College of Charleston with a Business Administration degree and earned his Juris Doctor from the University of South Carolina School of Law. He enjoys playing ice hockey, snowboarding, and live tunes.
In this episode…
Are you looking to start your business but not sure where to find productive, well-informed legal advice for transactions? What if there was a way to achieve the right strategy for you?
Matt Pecoy knows the efficacy of beginning a business with well-organized books — especially from a corporate governance and foundational standpoint. Are you searching to transform your organization into something exceptional? Establishing solid relationships, building data-based strategies, and using digital technology can help achieve the growth you desire for your brand.
In this episode of Digital Madvertising, Chris Clark has a conversation with Matt Pecoy, Partner at DarrowEverett LLP, about the role of corporate agreements during a startup. Matt discusses the importance of maintaining and cataloging data, how digital marketing can scale a brand, and how to make your brand stand out in the marketplace.
This Podcast is powered by Digital Ignite and recorded in Charleston, SC. Hosted by Chris Clark and Winnie Teal. Digital Madvertising is edited, produced & scored by the talented Connor Sage. Join us each week as we cover the wild wild west of digital marketing news, trends, and products.
Follow us!
Matt Pecoy is an experienced corporate lawyer and Partner at DarrowEverett LLP. Matt focuses on startups and middle-market mergers and acquisitions, private equity, venture capital, and general corporate matters. Matt represents a wide range of clients, from accredited investors to growth-stage companies and small to medium-sized, privately-held companies. He counsels clients on corporate formation and structuring, employment law issues, securities law issues, and complex commercial contract negotiation.
Matt graduated cum laude from the College of Charleston with a Business Administration degree and earned his Juris Doctor from the University of South Carolina School of Law. He enjoys playing ice hockey, snowboarding, and live tunes.
In this episode…
Are you looking to start your business but not sure where to find productive, well-informed legal advice for transactions? What if there was a way to achieve the right strategy for you?
Matt Pecoy knows the efficacy of beginning a business with well-organized books — especially from a corporate governance and foundational standpoint. Are you searching to transform your organization into something exceptional? Establishing solid relationships, building data-based strategies, and using digital technology can help achieve the growth you desire for your brand.
In this episode of Digital Madvertising, Chris Clark has a conversation with Matt Pecoy, Partner at DarrowEverett LLP, about the role of corporate agreements during a startup. Matt discusses the importance of maintaining and cataloging data, how digital marketing can scale a brand, and how to make your brand stand out in the marketplace.
This Podcast is powered by Digital Ignite and recorded in Charleston, SC. Hosted by Chris Clark and Winnie Teal. Digital Madvertising is edited, produced & scored by the talented Connor Sage. Join us each week as we cover the wild wild west of digital marketing news, trends, and products.
Follow us!
Intro 0:03
Welcome to Digital Madvertising powered by Digital Ignite. Digital Madvertising covers all things in the digital marketing and technology space. Here we will be interviewing brand managers and C-suite executives from some of the world's biggest brands.
Chris Clark 0:22
Everybody, this is Chris Clark, I am the CMO of Digital Ignite and welcome to episode number seven of the Digital Madvertising podcast. Today I'm sitting down with Digital Ignites attorney, good friend, Matt Pecoy. He is a partner at DarrowEverett LLP. They are a law firm with numerous locations up and down the East Coast. Matt, how are you doing today? Man?
Matt Pecoy 0:46
Doing good, Chris, its great to sit down with you guys.
Chris Clark 0:48
Yeah, man, So as I said, Matt is our attorney. We have been working with Matt for almost about six months now here at Digital Ignite. And I'm slowly learning a lot about yourself and your company. But I figured it'd be good to sit down, learn more about what you all do, because you cover 14 plus practices. And we'll get into that. And then also talk about some hypotheticals from a marketing standpoint, because a lot of your clientele is kind of the type of clients that Digital Ignite would want to work with potentially. So we'll talk about some hypotheticals. We won't go into any clients that you know, are DarrowEverett's, but we'll talk about some of those verticals and such Does that sound good to you, man?
Matt Pecoy 1:26
Sounds like a plan. Awesome. Well,
Chris Clark 1:28
Matt, first and foremost, you are a partner at this, this awesome firm. I mean, where did you get your start? Where are you from? If you want to kind of give the listeners a quick background to that?
Matt Pecoy 1:38
Sure, sure. So I grew up in Greenville, South Carolina, raised by a college professor, single mom, she taught at Furman University. And through that went up to the public schools in Greenville spent the majority my youth traveling up and down the East Coast, Chris playing ice hockey, which I say is one of the first things that contributed to me being a lawyer, because while some of my friends were, you know, in fields, drinking beer, I was in a hotel room, you know, playing three games a weekend, so it kind of kept me out of trouble. From that point, I went to the College of Charleston, Chris, and I graduated, studied business there. And I knew from an basically like Late Middle school that I want to be an attorney just because my English was good. My math was bad. And my mom said, I argued really, really well. So from there, I went to CFC. And I was, you know, there was no pre law major, but I knew I was gonna go to law school, and I'm grounded out down there. And it's a great experience. You know, I mean, going into College of Charleston, if you get it. And if you get what being a cougar means that you attend class till about noon on Thursday, and then you're on the beach Friday, Saturday and Sunday. But it's a fine line. And I kept the balance and got my great kept my grades high. And I went to University of South Carolina School of Law, I went right through from undergraduate to law school. And from that point, I graduated from USC in 2008. Chris, and from there, I started my professional background sort of bifurcated, I began, as a litigator, a trial lawyer, I started a firm back in the Upstate, and I was doing class action lawsuits, focused on products liability, and I got to work with some lions at the National trial bar. I don't want to over exaggerate my role, though, you know, there's probably like, 12 lawyers on our sidewalk again, and I was the one in the way, way back here in the box. gotta start somewhere Do you really do. But from there, you know, that started my litigation background. And I was at that firm for a period of time, then I came back to Charleston, where my heart's always been. And I worked for a firm and then established the second office for an out of state firm where about 10 years of my career was with and where I was a former partner of until of recent and through that experience, do my background experience prior to DarrowEverett, I continue to litigate, and began to focus on business work business litigation. And now, you know, kind of brings me to about probably five years ago or so my practice sort of transitioned into dual threat tape, where you normally have transactional attorneys that only do you know, mergers and acquisitions, real estate closings, etc, or you have litigators. But because my background is in the courtroom, but I'm also now doing transactional work, mergers and acquisitions, I believe, you know, it's kind of given the folks I work with like Digital Ignite an interesting skill set because folks who only just draft stuff, but don't know what it takes, what the argument is in front of the judge or how it's gonna be received in front of a jury or missing a piece of the puzzle and litigators who are tasked with you know, conveying the terms of a contract, we don't really know how to draft the terms missing a piece, so I think it offers a unique skill set. So that's sort of like the 10,000 foot drive by about you know, from high school to kind of how I got to the present day. And now with my current firm of
Chris Clark 4:42
DarrowEverett, nice, man so you've How long have you been a partner DarrowEverett,
Matt Pecoy 4:46
so I joined DarrowEverett at approximately about six seven months ago.
Chris Clark 4:49
Oh perfect. So kind of in line with us, partnering up so that's awesome, man. So real quick with the ice hockey, what positions you play?
Matt Pecoy 4:57
I was a scrappy right winger. You know, I didn't have the size to be a defenseman, but I go up and down the boards and you know, as a pretty good stats, I lead my team and penalty minutes for a couple years.
Chris Clark 5:07
Let's go dude. I mean it's cool cuz you grew up in Greenville. So, you know playing hockey at a young age in South Carolina. I mean, how is that?
Matt Pecoy 5:14
So as I said it was it was it was kind of a novelty. Oddly enough, have we moved within a mile of the only rank? Well, only one of two ranks in the state of South Carolina back in the 80s Wow. So you know, sort of serendipitous but it was great experience because oddly the our team we had a unique collection of a bunch of Northern transplants Our team is very competitive and to find equally competitive hockey that's why I was in hotel rooms because you know if you grew up playing in Boston or Hey, you type stuff Exactly. In order for us to find the competition we had to travel up and down the eastern seaboard.
Chris Clark 5:49
How do you think that translates into into your job now or at least shaped you into the person you are you know from that hockey that traveling? You said people are out in the field drinking beer, you're and you're in the hotel room, you know, resting up strategizing for the next game?
Matt Pecoy 6:04
Sure, sure. So I mean, I don't think there's a better team building sport than ice hockey that I don't think there's a sport that better helps you develop camaraderie. There's also a certain level of discipline to it that I wish I still had because of tissue to be a morning person you know our practices were 567 am if I could get up at 5am now voluntarily that'd be amazing but yeah, I think those are some skills that translate into the professional world
Chris Clark 6:26
No, that's great man well let's dig into that the professional world I know we want to definitely talk about your firm and and you know we mentioned the 14 plus practices why don't why don't you kind of dig in and and again for me, I know what you're helping us out with Digital Ignite but why don't you explain to some of our listeners, you know, what you all cover and and and, you know, ultimate goals that DarrowEverett with your clients.
Matt Pecoy 6:48
Sure, sure. So as I said, I had the pleasure and joy joining DarrowEverett about six months ago and the firm itself we have offices up and down the eastern seaboard, which is you know, it gives me access to some extremely sophisticated colleagues who have an experience and skill set and just sort of life basis that's a lot different than mine. You know, our offices include New York, Boston, Miami, Charlotte, Providence, Fort Lauderdale, a Fall River and Charleston is now the newest addition to Darrow ever flag and banner and we've experienced just like digital ignites and real exponential growth as well on that front and within those eight offices, Chris you know we offer I'm part of the corporate and business finance business transactions group as well as the private equity group. We also have a capital markets and securities team you know, we just publicly traded companies and offerings etc. We're in the Energy and Environment space healthcare of commercial real estate practice team which is also rocking and rolling right now. Banking and Finance Department net our litigation covers business litigation, General civil litigation, government investigations and defense terms of transactional we have trust in the state's private wealth services group in an IP and tech group and then regulatory and compliance is kind of the the menu of services that's offered in between our eight offices
Chris Clark 8:08
that's very broad that's across the board and I believe he didn't even like into crypto and NF t consultation right i think we talked about that with your firm a couple months back and such so sure that's incredible man so you know within the firm and covering you know so many different locations what what is your primary focus down here in Charleston you know for you Matt
Matt Pecoy 8:28
Sure. So um corporate and business transactions and private equity You know, my client base is with throughout the state of South Carolina nationally and we also represent some international clients as well Okay, so
Chris Clark 8:40
what What's your ideal type of client like for you?
Matt Pecoy 8:44
So the ideal type of client you know there's a saying in the legal industry is the three F's the face meaning clients with personality that you get along with the facts I you know that they have a good idea for a fundraiser or you know, if you're on the litigation side You know, you have good facts to help support your case. And then just like any business, the funds to pay for such you know, litigation efforts or business transaction etc. So you know, that the overarching sentiment the three s are always applicable or in play Personally, I enjoy working with you know, either a startup or the sort of far more established fundraise so you know it which is a big gap between you know, a startup level and a fundraise because your private equity funds are seeking to deploy capital, either and you know, say it's in the real estate space in Cingular, multifamily, commercial hospitality, blend land development projects, or you know, say it's a more you know, technology focused where they want to deploy it into you know, tech tech startups or mezzanine level company types. But the joy on the startup front is you get to start do what I call build the foundation. When I get to shake hands with you know, say it's a single member company that says Matt, I want to start an ad agency. I really get to help set the the framework and the groundwork and watch them grow. Make sure that the boxes are check in the fortress or what I call the competitive moat the legal competitive moat is built appropriately so when you start getting attackers by way of unfortunately unnecessary evil lawsuits, competitors etc at least what I can do is help help build that legal wall to defend against it
Chris Clark 10:18
no that's that's epic I was actually going to kind of went into that but you know advice for companies like Digital Ignite now you know again we're definitely post startup but you know you have these these companies that are just starting out or maybe they have an amazing idea amazing product and let's say it is a tech space maybe they just developed a really cool product or or technology or an application, what advice would you have to them from the legal standpoint because to me, again, I've got two amazing business partners, you know, one that has had plenty of transactions understands where we're going. But for me, I'm still novice into you know, owning a company and some of the, the tools that you need and so it's been cool to kind of see from working with yourself or some of our other you know, business consultants, but what would be some advice from, from, you know, companies that maybe you've worked with in the past or you've seen to a company like Digital Ignite or maybe a startup startup post startup type deal?
Matt Pecoy 11:13
Sure, sure. So too, you know, my work with startups is becoming less frequent. So take a company similar to Digital Ignite is we got we got to go back you're probably at a second or third storey building at that stage you know, you're off the foundation, but it's always good to go back and take a look and do an inspection on that foundation. What that means is it all starts with your incorporation organizational documents in your internal corporate governance docs, so that sets the foundation for the Empire to get built vertically you know, with that being said, the jelly we're in the south and Billy Bob business sometimes gets done down here meaning sometimes you got companies doing gross revenues and seven eight figures and they don't even have a written operating agreement if they're an LLC or you know bylaws or shareholders agreement because Billy Bob's like said
Chris Clark 12:00
it's a good old boy good old boy handshake deal it did it's actually so funny you say that because again, I feel like we as a company we have gotten our our stuff together but some of our experiences and some of the people that we've worked with the books are a mess, there's no organizational there's like there's no contracts there's, there's it's insane, especially from a digital marketing standpoint, like if you're working with some of these types of companies where you come in and you're trying to look at what the media buys and there's no insertion order you're kind of just looking at stuff float in the air so it's kind of relieving and also terrifying to know that this is just the only space so you're saying you know again a lot of this stuff down here is just kind of a good old boy handshake
Matt Pecoy 12:36
but and I don't want to isolate the south end properly but
Chris Clark 12:40
it's okay I mean we both grew up down here we see how it is so yeah, it's from experience
Matt Pecoy 12:45
Yeah. Anyways from any region But to your point you in order to to make sure you're able to engage in the business community in a protected fashion in a fashion that's going to facilitate that growth. So that startup or second or third story Empire gets introduced to the private equity and hits the liquidity event. We have to make sure to start that the internal documents the corporate governance documents are all set meaning how is voting made? How are distributions done? How are you going to allocate your losses? What happens if a partner wants to sell his interest to a third party What are grounds for that partner for being ejected from the company and running parallel within that is also how do you shore up the confidential information in the trade secrets that you know company like Digital Ignite is developing that's really the Juju that runs it the Juju that generates the revenue so that's the starting point is well you know when you look underneath the hood to check out the foundation you want to make sure that you know first layer top layer order of priority would be the court the internal corporate agreements or solid between the owners of the company the second layer is going to be protection of the confidential information, the trade secrets, you know, keeping the Juju in the fortress so to speak. Then you start stepping one little layer out and Chris What that means is now you have to think about Alright, so I've got my core set. Now the next layer that's still within the castle walls is gonna be how are we going to protect our employees and that's going to trigger such things as employment agreements. You know, once once the company has grown enough, we're gonna have employees running around it's your internal employment agreements, you're gonna have to comply with some federal and state wage and labor laws. Also those employees are starting getting access to the what are called Juju. So you know, the trade secrets confidential information, what powers the steam powered engine they get to see the steam and we got to make sure that there's some proper confidentiality 100% on competition non solicitation agreements there Chris, but that's sort of the first layer in the castle before we start to step outside the walls and dig the moat when you ask you know what some good advice is we got to set those pieces before we can start engaging in business Yeah, I can't
Chris Clark 14:46
I can't stress what you just said enough. I mean it really if again, we're a small podcast but we're growing and you know, again, we're gonna as we grow, you know, reiterate back to these types of episodes but you know, again, if you are a person looking to start, you even own this I think that is right there, there's a type of person that you know, you take that risk of jump into a business and if you're going to take that risk and you let's say you throw a bunch of financial your financial securities like myself through life saving stick to get into DI to be able to have somebody like yourself Matt to make sure that you have all of these checks and balances in place is so important because once you start, you know, slipping a little bit of success, it's funny where people start coming out of the cracks, you know, whether it is a lawsuit or you know, somebody doesn't fit, right with your culture and you know, you got to let them go they're, they're coming back at you for x, y, z or whatnot. And so, um, you know, but that that's the part of growing a company and growing a successful company is making sure that you have a partner and a law firm like DarrowEverett so that's, again, I love that you were able to, you know, kind of break that down. Do you kind of want to dig into to some hypotheticals real fast I think, you know, why don't we do this with your types of clientele your listeners, we're going to make sure that this is you know, passed along to your firm's clientele and prospects and such, what would you want to ask, you know, a digital marketing firm like Digital Ignite or a marketing firm for Digital Ignite, you know, what can I do to clarify at least what we do or how we can help some of the you know, clients that you already work with or your prospects as well?
Matt Pecoy 16:20
Sure. So the good portion of my clients the name the name of the game, of course is delivering good services and building but also you know, they're showing up to work for an end result and frequently when I'm working with these folks, they're seeking to come to me saying Matt, you know, you folks, you know, you're you represent the other side of this you represent the the private equity funds that are looking to deploy capital for the golden parachute event for the liquidity event. So and that from what I understand is Digital Ignite can be an asset to my client base to achieve that growth that you know, others a top line gross revenue number growth or to, you know, an EBITDA growth. I think what my clients would benefit from learning is, you know, what exactly can Digital Ignite do that we can directly trace to a Digital Ignite contract with one of the clients that's going to help them achieve that growth.
Chris Clark 17:10
Alright, so let's geek out a little bit All right, so give me a hypothetical because we're not we can't use any of your clients don't want to but give me like a perspective vertical or or type of business and and, and then we'll go from there.
Matt Pecoy 17:23
Okay, so say we have, you know, what neighborhood you live in Chris,
Chris Clark 17:27
I am in Brickyard right now.
Matt Pecoy 17:30
Okay, so brick Are you guys got a homeowner's association right so generally you know you got you got an HOA board those Hoa boards though they probably outsource the management of it you know the you get a fine because your your lawns too long or you got a boat parked out front that's normally that's normally run by a homeowners association management company. Okay, this is an industry that private equity you know, invest in heavily so you know, your model client is I'm a homeowner's association management company. And my target client is different homeowners associations How can you help me find those folks and get more contracts in from that
Chris Clark 18:05
I love it. So are we looking to target the president of the homeowners association or the board members or head head Okay, first of all it is who hires in this exam? Yeah, okay perfect so and if you are you live in a neighborhood with an HOA This is actually giving me like cringy stuff but it's a good example so let's say that again you are this company and you're looking to get in front of board members so the first thing these individuals are going to do when they become said board member of the HOA is hopefully oh yeah hopefully said has said you know, hoa folks are posting everything about their lives on Facebook or social media and again, I Matt and I were discussing this before we went on as everybody leaves a little fingerprint on the internet where they go so these individuals if they become board members they're most likely part of nowadays and if we're talking about 2021 a lot of us are on Facebook and social media groups or neighborhood pages so these Hoa is you know they've created so and so neighborhood group you know and so all of those board members are going to be able to go in there and share the newest information on what's going on dues hey you know we're repaving the tennis courts we got a new slide for the pool, all that kind of stuff. So the way that we could go out and identify these individuals first is we're going to sit down with your company and you've just identified we're going to do a deep customer needs analysis with you a deep CNA and you just said hey we we are a private equity group and we want to target Hoa boards because we want to we want to gobble these up so we're gonna take that approach by going out there and using our algorithms to scour the internet and find these individuals that have posted that they are the head of the HOA they're the treasurer, the HOA, the you know, whatever the HOA, our algorithms. From there we can then start to are we looking at a specific geographical location? Are we trying to go across Charleston? Are we hitting just one specific zip code? Do you have a specific neighborhood in mind you No. So that way we can then strategically go and geographically targeted. But also you've narrowed it down because then in that geographical area, you're going after Hoa board members based off of their titles, because they're out there promoting it. So it's behavioral data that we're able to go after and find that would be one of the quickest ways social media, Facebook, and Instagram, their algorithms are so powerful because they control those said pages. So if you are on Facebook, you're most likely going to start a neighborhood page. I know my neighborhood has one. I'm not sure if your neighborhood has one. But most neighborhoods nowadays do and it's a drama Fest, it's mostly what it is, you know, somebody's dog won't shut up, or there's persons grass too tall. But on to that point, when you have Facebook and Facebook is taking your data, but you've agreed to those terms, and you sign up for that account. And they're a machine. So they're selling that data back to advertisers or companies like the you know, said private, the private equity firm. So they were the way that then we can go about this is once we've identified that individual that is the board member and the HOA, the next time that Hoa member gets on their Instagram or Facebook, we're going to be able to serve them a specific message to entice them with your company. And whether that strong call to action is because at that point, you know who that is. So you could almost right there have that creative be like you need us right now. You know, and I'm not a copywriter, we'll leave that up to the creative people. But you can have that strong call to action because you know that person is that Hoa board member, if that makes sense. Yeah, that's the that's the that's the right off the bat, fastest way that I'd approach it. But that that was fun. Was there? Is there another one? Or are based off of that? What do you think? Well, so
Matt Pecoy 21:33
So I mean, I think that's extremely unique. In just so you folks can understand Chris also what differentiates DI from your traditional brick and mortar old school advertising agency, because I think you guys have you know, that Juju that I'm talking about that really differentiates yourself?
Chris Clark 21:50
Yeah, when you mentioned Juju earlier, I was like, that's, that's 100% of us. I'm definitely a great question. And um, you know, the biggest thing that I would say right now and I always, I always compare like there's this traditional marketing and then there's this digital marketing. And, and nowadays to me marketing is is where you are using these devices, there's a little phone in your pocket, you're looking at six hours a week Plus, you know, it tells you on every Sunday, your consumption on it, you're using laptops, you're using smart televisions, everything is digital to me, there shouldn't be a traditional and a digital marketing. It's just what marketing is nowadays now not to you know, crap on radio, TV and print, but it is it is outdated. And now they're scrambling to try to get into the streaming get into the digital side of things. Where I would say and what separates us the most is we're using data to inform our strategy. So going back to the HOA and identifying your core needs, you're you're looking for a specific Hoa member, we're first sitting down with a client and we are doing that that customer needs analysis, we are asking you what is keeping you up at night from a marketing perspective, because we want to offer solutions. So there might be a client that says, hey, you know, we're looking for multiple things, we're looking for a strategic Media Buy, because we're trying to grow our brand, and we need brand awareness. But on the flip side, with that brand, we need an app because we're really trying to take it from our website to a mobile, you know, ecosystem. From there, oh, by the way, we need to rebrand a logo refresh. Once they start telling us this information. We're sitting there based on that CNA, we're gonna come back and put a custom fit strategy based on it. And the single thing right there is, is the data because with companies and again, depending on your size, you have a swath of first party data meaning that's your sales that's your leads, that's that's your that's your gold. Having that data allows us to comment and look under the hood to identify what is making them tick what bought that product. And from there, we can then go find new individuals with look alike audiences, we can then re engage with that current current audience base to upsell them on a product or keep them engaged with your brand. And
Matt Pecoy 23:59
Chris, you guys do that through like a proprietary algorithm. So you all have coded out
Chris Clark 24:04
so it's not necessarily proprietary, but what is proprietary is our systems and processes. We utilize the data and the systems that are out there that are provided. And internally, our team uses an agnostic deepstack approach to to make it happen. So a lot of companies and I think that's a great question. A lot of companies will say, well, Facebook and Google certified, awesome, good for you. That that is just a sector of the internet for us. We are fully agnostic to the demand side platforms that are going down a rabbit hole here, I'm gonna nerd out on you. But a demand side platform for any of these, these individuals listening that don't know, is a platform that you buy and trade media in real time. So we're able to literally take display ads, video ads, audio ads, native ads, anything and place our media buys through that. So we stack those we have numerous relationships with a lot of them and the difference that our company has over maybe a couple of these traditions. All entities that say they are on Google and Facebook is these larger DSPs have minimums you have to hit some are really large minimums, like 500,000 plus media a year, a lot of agencies may not even have that Digital Media Buy to even go into it. So they're reduced to just using a Google or Facebook, Digital Ignite has been doing this for three plus years, we've cut relationships, even before we are Digital Ignite, to have these partnerships. So to be able to go to four of the major demand side platforms out there to say, Hey, this is a better Ott, CTV provider, this is a better native provider, this is a better, you know, audio provider, I'll go and mirror and match matches a better word match that to the client's goals and solutions. And I think that right there really does separate digital invite, at least from a lot of traditional marketing firms out there, because a lot of firms out there nowadays that are not not necessarily saying your madman s type firms on but maybe that post Mad Men Mad Men era that are pitching traditional, you know, heat, they're coming up with concepts and ideas, and saying, Hey, this is what you should be doing. That doesn't work. Nowadays, clients don't want to be told what to do. They want their they want to be heard to you know, and so for us to be able to sit down and work in tandem, because it is a it's a it's a team, team relationship when you're with that client, because we want to make sure that we're hitting your goals, we're transparent with you. You're seeing your data in real time you're seeing your results in real time. And that's another key differentiator is the transparency that we provide because your dollars going out, you're gonna see that return of investment coming in, whether it is brand lift or ticket sales are
Matt Pecoy 26:36
directly traced that is that like directly traceable? Absolutely. There's there's sort of like a performance report you can generate for clients, they look, you deployed x capital into this marketing effort, and because of that, your ROI is x.
Chris Clark 26:47
Yep. 100%. And that's another great question. You know, again, that business tool to be able to be a business owner to log in, just see exactly what's happening from your marketing standpoint. You know, yeah, we have that through API connection. So that acronym, so Oh, API is actually I don't even know what the API acronym is. But I can tell you what API's do. It is a source that basically from all of our platforms, they all talk to this one central platform. So we use Google Data Studio, it's nothing proprietary Google Data Studio is a awesome platform that you can customize. So all of our clients get a custom approach on their, their their studio. So we have one of the largest dominos chains in the country that we do recruiting for, when they log in, they get to see their impressions, which is like the ads going out, they get to see like the clicks, they get to see the leads, but we've done we've designed it into like dominoes colors, and their metrics are actually pepperonis it's hilarious, you can literally see like the clicks and stuff on pepperonis. But to your point of API's, the API's are coming from whether it's Facebook, Twitter, all of our, all of our programmatic platforms, those API's come from those platforms into one central area and transfer that data. So one thing that we looked at even before we are Digital Ignite was the state of reporting in the industry and what I'm talking about that is before any type of digital you were looking at brand lift you were looking at are people walking into my store right now are they buying my product based on I was on the TV or our newspaper ad or radio ad. Nowadays, since digital ads are cross the internet that transparency is is brought to light so you're able to see a click somebody click an ad somebody buy a product, you see that return on investment in real time. And so being able to show that is a true Game Changer and clients double edged sword because clients see it and then they want more and more and more and sometimes it gets overwhelming. But to be able to show dollars out and then return of investment in on advertising is such a strong strong play man. I mean, again, that is another main differentiator from us because we are not giving you a boring custom excel sheet, you know, or just a PDF, we're giving you access to 24 seven live dashboard that you can come in you can see how your creatives are performing you can see how your individual campaigns are performing you can see how many likes on literally we ask you what you want to see and we will customize it to what you want.
Matt Pecoy 29:12
Awesome. Awesome got it, man.
Chris Clark 29:13
Yeah, so um, I know that was a long winded explanation but I think it's beneficial for the clientele that would be listening to this podcast because what we're going to do is again, where we have the ability to work with you know, Matt, some of your prospects and some of the DI prospects we're going to be able to use these same technologies to serve this podcast out to get them to listen to so before we get out of here, I wanted to kind of go through a couple of things you you had mentioned that you are a podcast fan. I want to kind of just dig into a little bit about Matt Pecoy you you played hockey and all of that. Tell me a little bit more about you know, some of your favorite podcast right now.
Matt Pecoy 29:51
Yeah, so you know, I've been listening to a lot of Sam Harris. Dark net diaries is also one is kind of like a basic Crime podcast related to tack in what goes on the backs of my clients a lot of my client bases in the tech space a lot of tunes are going on as well you know I'll listen to podcasts when when I fall asleep which others in my life think is a little annoying because it keeps keeps people up but
Chris Clark 30:16
I love that actually though you were talking about before we got on your jamband guys who you like fish like under the scales
Matt Pecoy 30:22
yeah yeah under the scales which is Tom marshals podcast and
Chris Clark 30:26
how many times you've seen fish
Matt Pecoy 30:29
what you said I believe tuition number okay good
Chris Clark 30:32
good good. Okay. No, that's great. Yeah, I have a cousin he's he's seen him over 150 times but Okay, let's say no, that's great man. So
Matt Pecoy 30:40
I lead a balanced life you know if I stuck in my office all the time drafting term sheets and private placement memorandums without another balance I'd be a pretty boring dude.
Chris Clark 30:49
I actually I love this because I got to see fish in Charleston right before COVID I luckily got like a Friday ticket and I was on a ticket dude It was funny because we had like six laptops on our conference room and the old office and we were all trying to get tickets in mind I got thankfully got that Friday when it was first time I got to see fish it's and again I deadhead got into fish the last handful of years and again just love music so being able to go was phenomenal But to your point man of like you're it we're not live recording but magic cleaned up guy you know again if I'm looking at him I'm not thinking he's gonna be sitting and go into hundreds of fishes but to that point I love it because I got there and I started talking and meeting people there's this dude that like very wealthy dentists from Boston like very wealthy attorney I mean these guys are got joint in hand and all this but they're like this is what I do like you know I love being able to go and provide for my family be a professional but I have this on the flip side get to come follow my favorite band around and this is like they're like dude we're not getting to follow them the whole you know tour but I get to go to like three or four stops I'm about it. I just love that type of stuff, man.
Matt Pecoy 31:53
It's just about keeping a balanced life. I mean, I have plenty plenty of colleagues that are you know, from the outside looking at it, you know, very traditional buttoned uptight people but I'm not necessarily cut from that cloth, you know, a snowboard a good a good part of the winter when I can, again is balanced but um, you know, and in all honesty, the guy to my right, who I've been seeing live music with for 25 years he's a ob gyn guy on my left is you know, just sold out his company to a private equity firm. I love it. So, you know, it's, uh, unfortunately, um, you know, about over the hill. So if we haven't hit a certain level of success at this point, maybe we've seen too many fish concerts. There's what it is, is to your point, you know, carefully judge a book by its cover. And also there's there's more to life than just sitting in the office. Despite what a maybe some of my colleagues or clients might expect. You
Chris Clark 32:42
nailed it, man. And to the snowboarding point. This is where we're off of off the pod. We'll talk because I'm a I love snowboarding so I know you're growing up in Greenville. Um, what are some of your your favorite spots to go snowboarding on the East Coast?
Matt Pecoy 32:54
Yeah, so I grew up Carolina ice skating, which is sugar mountain. Yeah. And if you can ride sugar mountain, you can ride anywhere. And then by the time we hit college, I discovered my original journey West occurred my senior year of college and since then I've got a pocket of about 10. Guys, we've taken a trip every year annually for we're now approaching 2005 16 years in a row that's awesome is taking us all over North America. And we had, there's a ski trip called Japan uarry. Where you know, Japan, there's a certain area called hakoda. Yeah, I know they get four or 500 inches a year we were going to go this January but with COVID and all things considered it's this is not the year to do it. Right. So we'll end up going to Summit County in Colorado, or, you know, Tahoe region, Wasatch Mountains in Utah are kind of our three target areas,
Chris Clark 33:43
dude, but this is awesome, man. Well, Matt, I want to take up too much more time. This is definitely not going to be the last time we have you on the podcast, man. But um, this is bad peak boys with DarrowEverett LLP. And I can't thank you enough for the time. Man. This is exciting and fun. And thanks so much for sharing a little bit more about your firm with us.
Matt Pecoy 34:00
Sure, Chris. I appreciate it. Man. Looking forward to working with you guys in the future. All right.
Chris Clark 34:05
Thanks, Matt.
Outro 34:07
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