Interview with Aditude CFO Josh Schenker

Pictured: Josh Schenker, Aditude CFO

Volition Press: Great to be connecting Josh! Congratulations on recently announcing the acquisition of Hashtag Labs. Are you able to share some insight into why Aditude has acquired Hashtag Labs and what opportunities you see coming from this acquisition? 

Josh Schenker: Thanks! When we first pitched Volition for investment, we articulated our goal of building an operating system for the publishing world—taking publisher monetization software to the next level and modernizing it. As we looked at our roadmap, there were many things we planned to build, but we identified Hashtag Labs as a partner that could help us accelerate the process of bringing these features to our platform. 

Aditude specializes in real-time, bottom-up analytics, while Hashtag Labs complements this with an outside-in approach, pulling data from SSPs and cross-checking it with our analytics. Hashtag also brings a popular, user-friendly UI that’s proven effective for both internal and external teams. This acquisition allows us to quickly and seamlessly integrate these tools into the Aditude platform. As leading SaaS companies in our industry, Aditude and Hashtag together will create a stronger, more innovative platform that pushes the entire market forward.

VP: Do you anticipate that joining forces with Hashtag Labs will help you attract bigger customers? Is this part of the goal of the acquisition? 

JS: Absolutely. The tools I mentioned earlier are attractive to our current customers, but they’re especially attractive to larger enterprises that already have teams and some tech in place, especially on the wrapper side. For instance, an enterprise might have a homegrown product on the wrapper side but not the advanced analytics they need to run their business as efficiently as they want. This acquisition allows us to get in the door with these organizations without selling the complete platform upfront. It’s about establishing relationships that can grow over time.

VP: Is the Hashtag leadership and team going to be joining Aditude? 

JS: Yes, we’re bringing on the entire Hashtag team, and the plan is to fully integrate them with the Aditude team to form one unified group. On the executive side, everyone is joining us—John, Alex, and Craig. Alex is taking on more responsibility as our SVP of Revenue, overseeing our sales and revenue engine. John is becoming our Chief Strategy Officer, and he’ll wear a few hats: business development with key clients, shaping our content and product marketing strategy, and spending time in the market to understand the challenges publishers face. Craig, the former CTO of Hashtag, will focus on merging Hashtag products into Aditude’s portfolio and CPMStar’s products. There’s a lot of backend work involved, and we’re excited to have him leading the charge there.  

VP: Does Aditude plan on staying active in the M&A marketplace? 

JS: I’d say yes. We’re always looking for opportunities in the market, whether it’s new technology that we can integrate into our platform or acquiring companies with customers we’d like to bring on board. M&A is an integral part of our strategy—whether it’s evolving our product offering or scaling from a revenue standpoint, we plan to stay active in this space.

VP: How would you describe the current advertising environment? Is there anything in particular that stands out to you? 

JS: Industry-wise, we’re starting to see a bit of consolidation in the publisher and ad tech spaces. There’s always an ebb and flow with M&A activity, but publishers are now really focused on owning or having more control over their ecosystems and monetization capabilities. The days of just getting a check once a month are fading. We’ve heard rumblings that some of the larger competitors are moving toward more SaaS-based models rather than just revenue shares. We believe we’re at the forefront of this shift and that the trend will continue to move in our direction as it offers more transparency and ultimately lower costs for publishers.

VP: Finally, how has Volition been as a partner throughout the investment journey as well as specifically providing guidance in the M&A space? 

JS: Volition has been a true partner throughout the process. When we were looking for an investment partner, one of our main priorities was finding someone who could provide support with M&A. Whether it was with CPMStar or Hashtag Labs, Volition has been heavily involved, especially on the early M&A strategy and outreach side. They’ve helped us identify companies, initiate conversations, and have always pushed us to think critically. Volition has been an amazing partner at every step along the way.

Do you want to connect with Josh Schenker? Reach out to him on Linkedin by clicking here.