Progress Partners
10 Winthrop Square, 6th Floor, Boston, MA, 02110, United States
Overview
Progress Partners is a Boston and New York-based corporate advisory firm that works with buyers and sellers of emerging growth companies to complete M&A or private placement transactions. Our deep industry experience, extensive network, and entrepreneurial backgrounds give us the ability to help our clients build and realize superior value. Sectors: Software, Marketing, Media, and Advertising We specialize in four key sectors in the technology ecosystem. Within each of them, our expertise is derived from years of work as entrepreneurs, operators, investors, and mentors. As licensed investment bankers, that background has led us to approach our role as an intimate extension of our client’s management team. In that effort, we become stronger together. We are proud of our ability to recognize and execute upon the right transaction for a given client, rather than simply to be in pursuit of any deal that can be done. Every client engagement has different functional objectives and requires critical thought, but most often Progress Partners is pursuing one or more of the following missions: Develop and implement strategic plans Grow through acquisition of new customers Obtain investment capital to accelerate growth Realize returns through appropriate exit strategies Across our sector coverage, our impact as advisors originates in our ability to recognize characteristics that are inherent to the strongest companies in the market; products and services built from true market demand that solve critical problems, and are supported by fundamental business models. We succeed when our clients succeed. In order to realize this success we operate with full transparency, ready and willing to deliver frank feedback toward the essence of getting it right every time.
- Total investments
- 1
- Lead investments
- 0
- Investments · 12mo
- 0
- Active investors
- 8
Sector focus
- Advertising
- Financial Services
- Marketing
- Media and Entertainment
- Software
Investment portfolio
- talkshoplive
Participated · Equity · Oct 2023
TalkShopLive is a live commerce platform that lets creators, influencers, publishers and brands host shoppable livestreams where viewers can purchase without leaving the video. Its core product is the Studio app (iOS now; Android coming) — a broadcast-quality mobile tool with HD streaming, multi-person virtual collaboration, producer/moderator controls, pinned comments, product highlighting, real-time sales tracking and viewership metrics. The company uses proprietary multi-embed point-of-sale technology and Shopify sync so customers can buy during a live show without interrupting viewing. Launched in 2018, TalkShopLive has powered live shows for more than 6,000 sellers and notable clients include Walmart, Target, Best Buy and celebrities such as Drew Barrymore, Dolly Parton and Jada Pinkett Smith. The platform takes a 10% commission, is on track to execute roughly 2,000 livestreams this year, and is forecasting ~150% year-over-year growth while pursuing a pathway to profitability after recent fundraising. The company is also expanding distribution via partnerships with social platforms and added a shoppable simulcast feature for Facebook. Talkshoplive operates a live video shopping platform with an embeddable player first launched in 2019 and recently updated for distribution with publishers. The product is used by celebrities and publishers—early categories included books and music with hosts like Matthew McConaughey, Alicia Keys and Dolly Parton—and has expanded into food, beauty, fashion and sports. The company has formed distribution partnerships with publishers including Hearst (Oprah Daily) and Condé Nast’s Bon Appétit and is rolling out across additional publications. Management says sales so far this year have surpassed all of 2020 revenue and have been growing 85% month over month. Talkshoplive plans to use the new capital to scale product management and technical teams and to double-down on category verticals. The company was founded in 2018 and is based in Los Angeles. Talkshoplive provides an embeddable video player with a one-click buy button so creators, publishers and merchants can host shopping-focused live videos on the Talkshoplive site or partners' sites. The company was founded in 2018 by CEO Bryan Moore and his sister Tina; Moore previously led social media at Twentieth Television and CBS Television and says he was inspired by livestream shopping in China. Talkshoplive has worked with major talent such as Paul McCartney, Garth Brooks, Matthew McConaughey, Alicia Keys and Dolly Parton, and with publishers including HarperCollins, Penguin Random House, Simon & Schuster and Macmillan. The platform says it works with more than 3,500 small businesses and can drive three- to nine-times the sales an author would see on other e-commerce sites; Garth Brooks exceeded more than 1 million vinyl pre-sales via the platform in 2019. The company highlights that small businesses can move meaningful revenue in single shows (Moore cited examples like $25,000 per show) and is expanding beyond books and music into categories like food and beauty. Its stated long-term goal is to become a “digital Main Street” that helps SMBs build microfandoms and brand stories while creating human connection in a digital landscape.