Podcast Summary:

Always Be Testing – Episode: 90% of Media Buying Workflows Are Still Manual—Here’s What’s Broken (with Lacie Thompson)
Airdate: March 24, 2026
Host: Tye DeGrange
Guest: Lacie Thompson (Founder, MediaPact; former agency leader at LT Partners & New Engine)

Episode Overview

In this episode, host Tye DeGrange welcomes Lacie Thompson to discuss the persistent manual challenges in media buying, why nearly 90% of media buying workflows are still not automated, and how her new venture, MediaPact, is aiming to streamline and modernize this space. The conversation dives deep into agency life, automation in affiliate and partner marketing, leveraging AI for efficiency, entrepreneurial lessons, and best practices for building modern B2B SaaS tools that solve real industry pain points.

Key Discussion Points & Insights

Lacie’s Professional Journey and Origin of MediaPact

• Creating for Real Needs:
  • Lacie’s trajectory from the brand side (e.g., Blue Nile, Expedia) to running her own agency (LT Partners, eventually acquired by New Engine).
  • Motivation to launch MediaPact stemmed from experiencing the pain and inefficiency of manual media buying processes both in-house and at the agency level.
  • Inspiration from founders like Mark Vadon, who built companies to solve their own pain points.
• The "Manual Media Buying Problem":
  • The paid media buying process is still extremely time-consuming and disjointed, especially when it comes to flat-fee buys outside of programmatic DSPs.
  • “In the programmatic space, you have DSPs and SSPs and you have standardized formats of everything. But when you're buying flat fee direct paid media... it's just all over the board.” – Lacie [04:11]
  • Manual gathering and reconciling of disparate media kits, rate cards, and negotiation documents create inefficiency for agencies and brands.

How MediaPact Aims to Fix What’s Broken

• AI-Powered Standardization:
  • MediaPact uses an AI scanner to read and standardize media kits & rate cards, essentially automating what was previously a manual and tedious task.
  • “With the advent of AI, it has been so much easier to create even more efficiency... I created an AI scanner for all the media kits and rate cards. And so it just can read everything and build that standardized format.” – Lacie [04:56]
• Balancing Efficiency and Human Relationships:
  • Emphasis on not replacing the relationship-building and negotiation that are valuable in partner marketing, but instead reclaiming time by automating repetitive workflows.
  • "There’s still great aspects of our roles where you’ve got that relationship, you’re having those conversations, you’re negotiating... but for this, I do think there’s a gap in the space. I do think there’s a need to bring more AI technology and programmatic aspects of media buying to affiliate..." – Tye [05:53]

Agency Lessons and Leadership Reflections

• Values vs. Spreadsheets:
  • Decisions guided more by values and long-term vision than just data. For example, bold moves like offering four months of paid parental leave at a small agency, driven by a belief in doing what’s right—even at operational pain.
  • “Normally, you can’t do that at that size... but I was like, eff it. I don’t care. It’s going to happen and I’m going to figure it out... in hindsight, I would totally do it again because it’s just values aligned to what I believe in.” – Lacie [07:41]
• Women in Entrepreneurship:
  • Insightful discussion around the hesitancy some women feel in launching businesses before they have “100% confidence,” referencing advice from other female founders.
  • “...women just don’t start their own businesses until they have 100% confidence. It’s just men and women are biologically different, and women have a tendency to not want to take that risk earlier on... I would encourage people to take the leap before they feel like it’s right because sometimes that right moment just never arrives.” – Lacie [10:15]

Entrepreneurial Timing, AI, and Building in 2026

• Taking the Leap—Again:
  • After exiting her New Engine role, Lacie deliberately took a pause to reset, travel, and reassess her next move. The leap into MediaPact came organically after playing with AI dev platforms.
  • “I honestly didn’t think I was going to do this... then I did it really randomly and I was like, wow, this—I was just so mind blown I was like I can’t not do this.” – Lacie [15:42]
• AI as an Entrepreneurial Multiplier:
  • Both host and guest discuss how AI is democratizing the ability to build (“building has become mockeritized”), but warn that real value comes from building moats, meaningful differentiation, and understanding distribution, not just launching single-purpose tools.
  • “If there are other entrepreneurs out there watching or thinking about what to build, I don't think it's going to be as successful to just build a tool that does something. You have to have something else that’s a part of the moat and the business model.” – Lacie [18:36]
  • “At the end of the day, when you run into a big problem that’s hurting your business, you want to be able to talk to a human to say, ‘hey, how do we resolve this?’” – Tye [19:22]

B2B SaaS Product Focus and Customer Discovery

• Staying Focused When “You Can Build Anything”:
  • Lacie relies on trusted advisors and robust customer feedback before prioritizing features on the roadmap.
  • “If what you're trying to solve for is not aligned to that differentiation in that moat, don't waste your time building it unless it's really easy to build.” – Lacie [21:50]
• Seller-Side is the Bottleneck for Platform Adoption:
  • The biggest challenge for adoption isn’t buyers, but getting sellers (those with media inventory) to participate—due to reluctance to manage inventory across multiple tools.
  • Seller conversations and feedback fundamentally shaped MediaPact’s feature set (e.g., visibility, negotiation workflows, data sharing).

Market & Industry Implications

• MediaPact = Not Just for Affiliate Marketers:
  • Most sellers’ revenue is only partly affiliate-driven—wider opportunity exists across broader media and brand buying circles.
  • “It’s not an affiliate tool. It’s a media buying tool to create efficiency for flat fee media buys...” – Lacie [28:18]
  • Manual flat fee buying remains a massive (and under-automated) problem, even for teams otherwise using DSPs for CPM buys.
  • “If you have these tools within affiliate network platforms, you’re never going to access those types of buyers that are outside of the affiliate platform.” – Lacie [28:02]

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On Automating Manual Tasks:

  • “I created an AI scanner for all the media kits and rate cards. And so it just can read everything and build that standardized format. So it just alleviates like so much more work that people have to do.” – Lacie [04:56]

• Agency Values vs. Operations:

  • “Very early on I was like, I want to give everyone four months of paid parental leave... in hindsight, I would totally do it again because it’s just values aligned to what I believe in.” – Lacie [07:41]

• Entrepreneurial Risk for Women:

  • “Women just don’t start their own businesses until they have 100% confidence... I would encourage people to take the leap before they feel like it’s right because sometimes that right moment just never arrives.” – Lacie [10:15]

• On AI’s Role in Entrepreneurship Today:

  • “I think there's a lot of fear around AI right now. Rightfully so. I have it too. But I just think it's such a cool time to be an entrepreneur. Like, the things that you can do with your ideas and your vision—it's like nothing I've ever seen before.” – Lacie [16:50]

• Customer Discovery Changes Everything:

  • “...some of those conversations have meaningfully changed the direction with which I build the platform. Some of the functionality around visibility in the platform, whether you can negotiate, whether you show pricing—all of these things, I probably wouldn’t have come up with on my own.” – Lacie [24:40]

• On Building with AI:

  • “If what you’re trying to solve for is not aligned to your differentiation and that moat, don’t waste your time building it unless it’s really easy to build.” – Lacie [21:50]

Key Segments & Timestamps

• Introduction & Context – 00:07–01:54
• How Lacie’s Experience Informed MediaPact – 02:21–05:43
• Manual vs. Automated Media Buying – 05:43–06:43
• Leadership, Agency Building, and Values – 06:43–09:11
• Women in Entrepreneurship – Taking the Leap – 09:47–11:34
• Starting Out and Pivotal Moments in Early Business – 12:12–13:39
• Transition from New Engine to MediaPact: Why Now? – 14:23–17:12
• The Role of AI in Modern Entrepreneurship – 17:12–18:32
• What Makes a Modern B2B SaaS Tool Stand Out – 18:33–19:13
• Bias Toward Customer-Centric Product Roadmaps – 20:11–23:07
• Customer Discovery with Sellers and Cold Start Problem – 24:00–26:33
• Positioning MediaPact in the Broader Marketplace – 27:03–29:47
• Wrap-up & Closing Thoughts – 29:47–End

Final Takeaways

• Manual processes in media buying remain widespread and inefficient, especially for flat-fee/direct buys.
• Building solutions that solve real problems—grounded in customer discovery, not just technology—are key to SaaS success.
• AI is rapidly lowering the barrier to building products, but differentiation and defensibility still matter (community, moats, real human support).
• The affiliate world is only part of the total opportunity for media buying automation; holistic solutions can serve the wider digital marketing ecosystem.
• Entrepreneurship rewards a blend of principle-driven choices and the courage to act before full confidence sets in.