Three advertising and marketing professionals with decades of experience at varying lifestyle agencies have joined forces to launch Moonshot, a new venture studio concept, here in southeastern Wisconsin. Ryan Chuckel, founder and chief executive officer of Delafield-based Gunpowder Inc., helped spearhead the effort to make Moonshot a reality. Described as a venture studio designed to
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Aaron Hitchins[/caption]
As a firm, Gunpowder specializes in public relations, brand strategy and digital marketing. While working with clients, Gunpwoder often works alongside other agencies that have complimentary services.
Bodhi is based in Fairfield, Iowa and is a digital growth agency. Rockhouse is headquartered in Alberta, Canada and specializes in high-end video production and other creative work.
“The three of us have had a few years’ track record of working alongside one another, especially with clients that have been early-stage companies or startups, and helping them scale to have massive success,” said Chuckel.
The formation of Moonshot is making that informal partnership official. Moonshot provides an infrastructure for the trio to invest in early-stage companies without risking the resources at their respective agencies. Through Moonshot, each founder will also provide mentorship and marketing guidance to the companies they invest in.
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Tihomir Liptak[/caption]
“We’re coming in as active investors and in some cases we’re buying into an equity position in the company,” said Chuckel. “In some cases, we’re putting in place a gain sharing model, where instead of getting paid for our time as agencies, we basically take a percentage of their margin after sale. In certain scenarios we’ll say whatever your revenue is, minus what you spend on your marketing, we’ll take a percentage of that. They’re paying us to help them grow the company.”
Moonshot leadership is not only looking for early-stage companies to support but trying to start new companies in underserved categories. Moonshot’s first newly formed company is a startup called