"One of the common mistakes I see entrepreneurs make is keeping their ideas secret for fear of letting the cat out of the bag."
Matthew O’Connor is the CEO and co-founder of AdQuick, the first platform to allow marketers and agencies to complete the entire process of planning, buying, executing, and measuring out-of-home advertising campaigns anywhere in the U.S. and across the globe. Prior to AdQuick, Matt worked at Amazon and held various executive positions within Instacart. Matt earned his B.A. from the University of Notre Dame and MBA from the University of Virginia’s Darden Graduate School of Business.
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Tell us a little bit about your current projects. What exciting milestone would you like to share with our readers? (Don’t hesitate to delve into your achievements, they will inspire the audience)
Matthew O’Connor: My co-founders and I started AdQuick to make it easy for brands, agencies, and individuals to plan, buy, and measure outdoor advertising. As the first true out-of-home (OOH) marketplace, our team provides end-to-end tools to improve the OOH buying experience– making it as real-time, flexible, and attribution-driven as possible. Our mission is to empower everyone to put their message into the world by removing all of the historical barriers to out-of-home ad buying. We make it easy to use data to find the right locations and markets, secure the best pricing, ensure campaigns run smoothly, and provide analytics to evaluate the effectiveness of your campaigns. Essentially, we’re bringing transparency to outdoor advertising.
Was there somebody in your life that inspired you to take that specific journey with your business?
Matthew O’Connor: I kicked off my career at Constantine Cannon, founded by my former boss, Lloyd Constantine. I was fortunate to work closely with Lloyd on an in-depth case and was influenced and inspired by his leadership style. Lloyd helped demystify entrepreneurship for me.
Then, at Instacart, I was an early employee and got to know the founders well. This experience was a big change and it gave me another perspective on what founders of a company are like personally. It gave me a glimpse of the magic and hard work that goes into the early stages of company and culture building.
What are the most common mistakes you see entrepreneurs make and what would you suggest they do?
Matthew O’Connor: One of the common mistakes I see entrepreneurs make is keeping their ideas secret for fear of letting the cat out of the bag. By sharing your ideas with mentors, customers, or other trusted leaders, you can gather insights you might not have otherwise had. Imagine if in the 90’s someone had mentioned their idea to sell books online. You might have thought it was a great idea, but it’s safe to say most people wouldn’t have the drive to figure out all the nuances of getting a business like that running. Simply put, you get more from opening up to a few trusted individuals and being open to their feedback than by shutting everyone, including prospective customers, out.
Resilience is critical in critical times like the ones we are going through now. How would you define resilience?
Matthew O’Connor: I consider resilience to be the ability to embrace losses and setbacks as learning experiences– and use those lessons to improve yourself and your business in the long run. As the saying goes, fall down seven times, get up eight times. It is absolutely critical for entrepreneurs to pick themselves up, dust themselves off, and keep going. If you’re not moving forward, with a few bumps and bruises along the way, then you’re essentially moving backward.
In your opinion, what makes your company stand out from the competition?
Matthew O’Connor: AdQuick brings the accessibility and ease of online advertising to the OOH industry. What makes this possible and drives us is an incessant customer obsession. As Elon Musk says, “any user input is a system error”. We believe that a high level of proactive problem-solving – wrapped around a core problem – is what leads to success.
Our team is continually putting ourselves in the shoes of our customers – in order to understand their pain points so we can deliver exactly what they’re looking for. In the past, securing outdoor advertising was a time-consuming and cumbersome process, but we’ve made it so easy that anyone – even those without previous media buying experience – can execute campaigns in mere minutes.
You are a successful business leader. Which three character traits do you think were most instrumental to your success?
Matthew O’Connor: Flexibility has been instrumental in my success. It comes down to having a core belief in something and having the humility to realize that you can let go of the minutiae to get the project done. Delegating is going to let you become the leader that you want to be.
Humility has also been critical to my experience as an entrepreneur. There are people who excel in certain areas and have strengths that I lack. If I can recruit these people to my team and get out of their way, I know their expertise will help bring my idea to fruition.
Last, but not least, being optimistic has carried me throughout my career. Short-term friction is a reality of being an entrepreneur, but choosing to focus on the possibilities has helped me navigate setbacks. Optimism keeps me going on good days and has prevented me from throwing in the towel on bad days. You must trust that your pursuit is inevitable.
What have you learned about personal branding that you wish you had known earlier in your career?
Matthew O’Connor: It’s my belief that if your company’s identity is completely wrapped up in your own brand, it’s less likely to succeed. What happens if you decide to leave or retire? A personal brand is built around you, your interests, and your lifestyle. A company should have its own brand and personality.
What’s your favorite leadership style and why?
Matthew O’Connor: I believe in giving people responsibility and freedom. Great employees don’t want to be micromanaged. I strive to empower my team, so they have the space to get their work done and done well.
What would you say is the main difference between starting a business at the time you started yours and starting the business in today’s age?
Matthew O’Connor: The barrier to starting a company continues to decrease. We had access to plenty of products and services that helped us start AdQuick in 2016, and since then, even more, offerings have been introduced. Now there are entire companies that are dedicated to making the entire process easier, including Amazon Web Services, Stripe, and Shopify, to name a few. There’s never been a better time to start a business.
What’s your favorite “business” quote and how has it affected your business decisions?
Matthew O’Connor: George S. Patton said, “A good plan violently executed today is better than a perfect plan executed next week.”
Entrepreneurs are renowned for obsessing over the smallest of details, but there’s a danger in being too heads down. Entrepreneurs should avoid the “perfection” trap and make it a common practice to check in with prospective customers as they work. Otherwise, by staying in stealth and behind closed doors, they forgo the opportunity to iterate based on feedback from prospective customers.
Larry Yatch, VIP Contributor to ValiantCEO and the host of this interview would like to thank Matthew O’Connor for taking the time to do this interview and share his knowledge and experience with our readers.
If you would like to get in touch with Matthew O’Connor or his company, you can do it through his – Linkedin Page
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