As an entrepreneur who started a company with seed capital, built it up and sold it to a strategic buyer, André Swanston is well familiar with every stage of business growth. He co-founded the audience measurement and data-management platform Tru Optik, which consumer data company TransUnion acquired three years ago for what was described as a “nine-figure” sum.
With this week’s launch of the self-funded Swanston Organization and business incubator Swanston Labs, he’s working on startups that will seek opportunities in a market that he says will be worth $7 trillion by the end of this decade.
“One of the things that I’ve always talked about is this convergence of media, entertainment, technology, data, and how I think it’s going to drive a lot of commerce and leisure spending,” Swanston said in this interview with Beet.TV’s Andy Plesser. “Swanston Labs is really a company that’s going after that opportunity and we’re doing it in a pretty unique way.”
Unlike other venture studios he’s seen that have a centralized team of business generalists who partner with entrepreneurs, Swanston Labs is more specialized.
“It was important to have a company that was focused specifically on all the subsidiary companies touching this media and entertainment space,” Swanston said. “We’re starting companies and acquiring early startups across the media, entertainment and the technology spaces that support those verticals.”
