Here's the investor deck that Jim Heckman is using to explain how he'll grow Sports Illustrated
- Jim Heckman's startup Maven has a plan to save the publishing industry from Facebook.
- Controversially, he just took over Sports Illustrated's operation, laying off staff and announcing plans to use contractors to help feed the site.
- In an investor presentation, he lays out his plan to grow traffic and revenue, which includes adding a news site to the portfolio.
- Maven says it has a "proven playbook" for driving growth and is targeting $160 million in revenue in 2020, up from $62 million in 2019.
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Jim Heckman is a serial entrepreneur who's started and sold various digital ad and media companies over the years. His latest is two-year-old Maven, a tech and ad platform he pitches as a way to help independent publishers claw back digital ad revenue from Facebook.
Heckman drew outcry in media circles when he and longtime collaborator Ross Levinsohn took over Sports Illustrated's media operation last week. Maven laid off 40 of Sports Illustrated's 150-person staff, and announced plans to use contractors to supplement the full-time staff.
Heckman countered reports that his past companies including Scout have failed and said he's a successful entrepreneur who plans to use his digital media experience to fix Sports Illustrated. He said his goal is to double its revenue to $40 million and traffic to 30 million unique users by the end of 2020.
According to the deck, first, Maven needs to raise $25 million in equity.
Scroll down to read the highlights of this investor presentation, filed with the SEC, that makes the case for Maven.