The digital media and marketing industry is supported by a small army of individual investors, chairs and advisors. In our series, The Connectors, we interview these people, discovering what they’re making their next bet on, which technologies, approaches, partnerships, leaders and teams they believe will supercharge the next generation of positive change in our industry.
Andy Evans is a seasoned entrepreneur with a proven track record of building and successfully exiting three digital media companies. Over the past five years, he has strategically invested in more than 20 digital ventures, spanning sectors from aviation to children’s entertainment. Currently, Andy serves as an advisor, mentor, and investor. He is a Partner at www.BLUE14.io and is launching a community for founders called, Digital Founders.
What are you most proud of in the ‘advisory/chair/investor part of your career?
Since my last exit in 2019, I’ve had the privilege of working with hundreds of founders and have invested in over 20 businesses so far. My proudest moments come from helping founders navigate complex challenges that could hinder their growth—particularly when it comes to structuring their businesses for long-term success.
One area where I’ve made a significant impact is in simplifying complicated cap tables. Too often, promising businesses get bogged down by convoluted ownership structures, misaligned investor interests, or unclear financial frameworks. Believe it or not, a great business with strong fundamentals can still struggle to secure investment if its equity structure is a mess, many investors will simply walk away before taking a deeper look.
I’ve stepped into situations where founders felt stuck, unsure of how to clean up their share structures or optimise their financial admin. By bringing clarity, restructuring equity, and aligning stakeholders, I’ve helped businesses get unstuck. Watching them move from stagnation to real momentum, securing investment and unlocking their full potential, is incredibly rewarding.
Seeing founders regain confidence and businesses flourish because of these interventions is immensely motivating.
What has your biggest mistake been and what did you learn from it?
Focus is essential. Early on, when I built Net Communities (which I ran from 1999 until its sale to Future plc), I chased every new opportunity. We became a jack-of-all-trades, well-liked, but probably without a clear, defining purpose. Looking back, I’ve learned that spreading yourself too thin dilutes your ability to find success.
Later, when I co-founded OnScroll with Babac Vafaey, we maintained a sharp focus on what we did best, solve viewability. We sold that business to Sovrn in under 3 years, which reinforces the lesson: excel in one (or two) areas rather than trying to be good at everything.
What technology, innovation or way of thinking most excites you at the moment?
As you can imagine, AI excites me the most right now. I’ve always been fascinated by emerging technologies—hence my social handle, @DigitalAndy. As an investor in www.ElevenWriting.com, a content production company, we initially feared AI might disrupt our high-quality content creation for publishers and ecommerce.
However, we’ve found that, in reality, while AI can assist with ideation, strategy, content auditing and social media summarising, it still can’t match the nuance of expert human topic writing.
AI is clearly going to be transformative, especially in the media industry, so we need to embrace it and to find clever ways to integrate AI where it can be assistive and time saving.
How do you decide what companies to get involved with?
I have investments ranging from aviation, kids entertainment, insurance, restaurant payment systems and obviously lots of stuff in media & marketing. However, back to focus, I’m a Partner at www.BLUE14.io, a syndicate where we purely focus on performance marketing investments.
In terms of the founders, I’m looking for resilience and determination. Is the founder able to boot-strap their business, without relying on investment to build their business? Investors’ money in the bank can be a false sense of security. A sense of reality is imperative.
What factors determine how deep that investment gets?
Traction is one of the most important areas I focus on with business performanc
Has the business shown how they can make money in a repeatable way and as a result, can the business continue to grow using the same formula with investment?
In such a fast-moving industry, how important are lessons from the past?
Lots of people know that one of my many catch phrases is “Every day is a School Day”, if you’re not learning something new every day, you’re probably not pushing yourself. It’s important to try things and make mistakes that you can learn from.
I’m still learning every day, great entrepreneurs have curious minds.
What is your one piece of advice for someone looking to emulate your success?
Success means different things to different people. But some words of wisdom: Do it while other people are thinking about it. Give it a go, what have you got to lose?
Be determined and relentless. But remember, timing is everything. I started the UK’s first Podcast Production company in 2015, but I was way too early to market with this. However, when I started OnScroll, we hit viewability head on and the stars aligned. As they say in the US – Follow the puck!
What is your biggest hope, and your biggest fear, for our industry and the impact it has on society and the world?
I’m extremely excited about AI and the positive impact it can have on the world, by helping to accelerate medical research, climate modelling, education and of course media and marketing.
However, equally there are significant challenges around bias, discrimination, privacy, security, accountability, not to mention job displacement, so I’m hopeful, but also fearful about how things might pan out.
