Chris Erwin’s Post

Twas a good week, save for some woodpecker issues... Below are updates on RockWater, real estate, and personal goings on 👇 ---M&A--- • Signed a new IM client, prepping finances for sell-side convos • Negotiated seller terms for upfront payment, earnout, and LT comp plan • Spoke to 5 growth PE investors on agency buy-side deal • Sent 2 sell-side proposals: SE Asia "culture agency", and digital agency x MCN ---STRATEGY--- • Finances review for SE Asia gaming client • Pre-engagement DD on political / fundraising agency client • Mkt research and peer benchmarking for new AI x prod tool ---REAL ESTATE--- • Starting to re-engage sellers, I'm seing better prices • Requested termite bond against savannah portfolio for "bulk discount" • Carpenter bees are laying eggs in fascia, which attracts woodpeckers -- will now replace during tenant make-ready ---PERSONAL--- • Ate 12-hour smoked brisket • Watched a lot of fireworks • Comforted dog during said fireworks • Celebrated birth of my bro's baby daughter -- I'm the founder of RockWater Industries. We do M&A and strategy advisory for media, agencies, and creator economy. On the side I invest in rental real estate, and spend time with family and loved ones. My DMs are open.

Jumping into July 4th holiday like… 🇺🇸💦

We explain the math on a new travel media M&A rollup. Plus best practices for newco formation and capital preservation. All in our newsletter below on LOST iN 👇 as well as... • Fundraise details • Newco value prop • Travel guidebook revenues • Jukin / TMB venture deal waterfall • 1st M&A deal and implied valuation Sign up for our newsletter to get more analysis like this in your inbox every week: https://lnkd.in/gsCaH6eM —- I’m the founder of RockWater Industries. We do M&A and strategy advisory for media, agencies, and creator economy. My DM's are open.

My VidCon was a 54 hour sprint. The highlights... • Hosted 244 guests for Tue's "Night Before Vidcon" party • Met 13 M&A advisory client prospects • Caught up w/ 8 former coworkers • Had irl time with 2 colleagues • Hung w/ 11 clients As an introvert / extrovert, that's a lot for me! Explains why only Vidcon'd in Anaheim for 30 hours, from Wed afternoon to Thu night. (it's also because I have a lot of client work, and personal / work reasons took me to the east coast early Friday) But I always walk away from Vidcon fulfilled -- pride in seeing how far the creator economy has come, knowledge through convos with builders and capital allocators, and joy in celebrating with friends and clients, old and new. Yet another reminder why RockWater Industries is ramping up its event game (as hosts and guests) in 2024. ...looking to 2025, I'm a bit unsure how I'll fit in Cannes the week prior, but will sort out those details later 😅 Lastly, enjoy some photos below from our Night Before Vidcon party. Thanks again to co-hosts Michael Booth and James Creech, and to our party sponsors Tipalti, Greenberg Glusker LLP, Fundmates, Merrill Lynch, and Linguana. -- I'm the founder of RockWater. We do M&A and strategy advisory for media, agencies, and creator economy. My DMs are open.

Former Jukin Media execs launched LOST iN, a travel media newco. Includes media M&A rollup strategy, starting w/ a legacy guidebook publisher. Let’s break it down… ---LOST iN OVERVIEW--- • New travel media brand targeting younger, online-savvy “premium economy” traveler • Will aggregate content from prominent online travel creators • Target audience is “young working professionals looking for a comfortable, yet authentic travel experience” • Founded by Jonathan Skogmo, Mike Skogmo, Anton Reut • Founders are former execs of Jukin, which sold to TMB (Trusted Media Brands) in 2021 (reported at 9 figures per Forbes) • Will pursue M&A rollup of travel media brands ---SEED INVESTMENT--- • $4M seed fundraise • Led by MaC Venture Capital • Other investors: BDMI, Pitbull Ventures  • Angels: founders of Hawke Media, Skybound, Kombo Ventures, Pocket.watch, Fullscreen ---1ST ACQUISITION--- • LOST iN, a travel guidebook publisher founded in 2014 • Produced 25 global travel books in 50 countries ---NEWCO VALUE PROP--- • Travel enthusiasts to get entertaining and informative travel content • “Revolutionize travel coverage for urban professionals” • Help advertisers reach highly affluent and desirable travelers  • Travel forecast to grow 5.8% annually through 2032, more than 2x overall economy • Legacy travel media doesn’t cater to digital-natives, ripe for disruption • Pair LOST iN guidebooks D2C biz w/ ad-supported digital video biz • Build events, memberships, and more to add value to travel community  • Founders learned how to build and monetize large audiences from Jukin days ---WHAT ELSE I FIND INTERESTING ABOUT DEAL--- Raised money for media rollup, in a difficult fundraising environment. Many digital execs talk about rollups, but few are getting access to financing to execute. LOST iN's team track record at Jukin, longstanding investor relationships, and vision stand out amongst peers. I'm very curious to new acquisitions that are in the works, and how much new capital will be required for additional M&A. TBD when those other deas will be announced. What are the deal terms for LOST iN? I may have to do some math in my upcoming newsletter to estimate revenue, valuation, and deal terms. Lastly…CEO Jonathan and I may be planning a premium exec event for September, stay tuned ;) -- I'm the founder of RockWater Industries. We do M&A and strategy advisory for media, agencies, and creator economy. My DMs are open.

My story for how I got into creator economy M&A 👇 And why I love *unsexy* service co's...

At VidCon. Our regular deal coverage resumes next week. Until then, today's newsletter below 👇 has links to... • The origin story of RockWater, going back to my early YouTube MCN days • The toast I didn’t get a chance to make at Tuesday’s Night Before Vidcon party • Highlights from our M&A and strategy advisory, plus some headaches from my side gig of rental real estate investing • A handful of deals I want to write about soon like LOST iN's $4M fundraise, and Create Music Group's new $1B valuation —- I’m the founder of RockWater Industries. We do M&A and strategy advisory for media, agencies, and creator economy. My DM's are open.

My 12th year of VidCon! Here for one day only..see you around the industry track hallways. (Yes, Mike is way above avg height)

Here's the toast I didn't get a chance to make last night... **Taps mic, awkwardly gets croud attention** Hello everybody, and welcome to our Night Before Vidcon party! It's official...we've more than doubled our event size from last year, to nearly 250 attendees on this rooftop tonight!! Someone on our waitlist was making a joke that our event was harder to get into than their Oscar party... I don't think we're that cool yet, but seems we're headed in a good direction. **25% of crowd laughs** Allow me to introduce myself... I'm the founder of RockWater, and one of your hosts this evening. I'm joined by fellow co-hosts, Michael Booth also of RockWater, and our good friend James Creech, the founder of Measure Studio and a prolific digital media entrepreneur! James has been a great collaborator to work with, and I'm proud to call him a longtime friend and industry peer. Next, a shoutout to our sponsors. Without them, you all wouldn't be enjoying an open bar on a santa monica rooftop tonight... Tipalti, Greenberg Glusker LLP, Fundmates, Linguana, Merrill Lynch. To all of you sponsors, thanks a ton for your support of the media, agency, tech, and creator economies. To all you attendees, go find their teams in this crowd -- all are worth a convo if you're building in the space. **People start looking at bar, waiting for me to wrap so they can get their next Tipalti-rita cocktail** Alright, I promise to wrap this up soon, and I'll close with this... Of note, this is my 12th year at Vidcon. I've been going since 2013. The event and attendees looked a lot different back then! People have been asking me what my biggest takeaway is from over a decade of vidcon-ing, so here it is... It's quite simple... In 2024, the creator economy is a lot bigger, there's a lot more players, and there's a lot more money being made. Yet I'm actually surprised by how much untapped opportunity there still is. There are clear signs that there are ways for all of us to better allocate capital and build. What I'm proud to say, is that many of those decision-makers and inspirants, who can really drive that opportunity forward, are on this rooftop tonight. So before we shut down in a couple hours, here's my ask to all of you... Have a great time. Make an effort to meet new people. And strike a small or large deal over a hanshake VS a zoom call! ...and if you need help on that deal, lmk 😉 Cheers everybody!! **Awkward toast photo captured by our videographer, yet I'll still post it on LinkedIn. I beeline to find food, hope to avoid passing out." --- I'm the founder of RockWater Industries. We do M&A and strategy advisory for media, agencies, creator economy. My DMs are open.

"Follow opportunity, not your passion" That quote reminds me of when I left Big frame / AwesomenessTV back in 2017. It was right after our parent co DreamWorks Animation was sold to NBCU. When I left... I didn’t start a digital network. Or go lead a digital team at a big-name studio or social media co. I didn't raise angel funding or venture capital for a "scalable tech co". Instead, I started a small consulting biz. Or as many at the time told me, an "unsexy services biz". Where there was "little upside", and that it wouldn't look good on my resume. But I saw a great opportunity… I knew digital-native video, and creators, were the future of storytelling and nextgen business building. But there were so many bad strategy and dealmaking decisions being made. Yet there were no advisors who were dedicated to the space, who had seasoned digital media operator and exit experience, and had Wall Street M&A training. So investors were getting burned, and founders and execs were getting disenchanted. It made me concerned the creator economy was going to grow very slowly, and not realize its massive potential. So I started RockWater Industries. Today, we're the go-to M&A and strategy advisor for the creator economy. We help founders/operators/investors earn great ROI from smart business building and dealmaking. Still no "rocket ship, tech-enabled growth", but we've carved out a great lane for ourselves. We have a steadily growing book of client business across 5 continents, and are making new investments in our team this year. We look forward to continue helping more operators and investors shepherd this industry into its incredible potential. (shoutout to Mike Rowe, of Dirty Jobs fame, who gave me the inspo)