Mark Douglas: How Targeted Ads Revolutionize Marketing in 2025 | DSH #1532

Summary

Digital Social Hour – Episode Summary

Podcast: Digital Social Hour
Host: Sean Kelly
Guest: Mark Douglas (CEO, Mountain)
Episode Title: Mark Douglas: How Targeted Ads Revolutionize Marketing in 2025 | DSH #1532
Date: September 13, 2025

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Episode Overview

In this episode, Sean Kelly hosts Mark Douglas, CEO of Mountain, for an in-depth discussion on how targeted ads are transforming marketing—especially in the streaming TV space—and addresses the realities and myths around big finance, privacy concerns, and the shifting landscape of media consumption. The conversation also delves into Mountain’s recent IPO, the democratization of television advertising, and changing consumer behavior in the entertainment industry.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Mark Douglas' IPO Experience: Taking Mountain Public

• Mark describes the emotional journey and tactical details behind Mountain’s first day on the New York Stock Exchange, drawing on his New York City upbringing and the fast-paced IPO process.
  • "It’s a bit surreal... just trying to like, you know, get lunch or something, like not there because it's this big 238 year old institution." (Mark Douglas, 01:00)
• The IPO required finding the right “window” when the market was “risk on”—often a last-minute decision influenced by the broader economic climate.
  • "We made the decision to go literally the night before... Wednesday morning, I was in New York City, and we were starting a roadshow." (Mark Douglas, 04:54)
• The offering was hugely oversubscribed, reflecting high demand and a strengthened investor appetite for digital advertising platforms in a volatile market.

2. The Truth About BlackRock’s Influence

• BlackRock's investment is often misunderstood, with conspiracy theories exaggerating its control over companies.
  • “BlackRock doesn’t actually own stock. BlackRock’s customers own stock. They’re just what’s called an index fund.” (Mark Douglas, 07:45)
• Mark clarifies that BlackRock and similar big investors operate at arm’s length, providing advice only when asked and focusing on long-term returns:
  • “BlackRock is just facilitating you not having to do that manually… they completely leave you alone.” (Mark Douglas, 08:54)

3. Democratizing Streaming TV Advertising

• Mountain’s mission is to make TV ads accessible to small and midsize businesses, not just major brands.
  • “We democratize streaming TV. We bring small and mid sized companies into the television advertising market. Specifically streaming on every streaming network in America.” (Mark Douglas, 11:42)
• Mark differentiates between the broad reach of traditional TV ads and the precision of targeted ads in today’s streaming environment.

4. The Evolution and Value of Targeted Ads

• Personalized, targeted ads are now the norm—not just on social, but also increasingly on streaming platforms (e.g., Netflix experimenting with them).
  • “It’s highly targeted… you could be watching something at home and someone else in your home is watching the exact same thing... both of you will probably get different, different ads.” (Mark Douglas, 16:38)
• The shift to targeting makes TV advertising viable for niche products and small businesses, as budgets are no longer wasted on uninterested segments.

5. Privacy, Data, and Consumer Perception

• Mark debunks the myth that platforms are "listening in" on conversations for ad targeting; instead, it’s behavioral and profile data doing the heavy lifting.
  • “If it came out that Instagram or TikTok was literally recording everything you said... that would be a massive scandal.” (Mark Douglas, 17:11)
• He notes that consumers willingly give up a lot of data and that fears often miss the real issues:
  • “The real privacy is all the information you’re freely giving up.” (Mark Douglas, 19:22)
• Targeted ads, when relevant, are generally appreciated by consumers for their usefulness.
  • “If I get random ads for random products, that’d be more annoying to me.” (Podcast Host, 21:40)

6. Media Consumption: TV, Streaming, and Social Media

• TV still commands more daily viewership than social media globally, but habits are rapidly blending.
  • “5.5 billion worldwide... people a day watch television daily. And I think it’s 3.9 billion use social media.” (Mark Douglas, 12:33)
• The shift to streaming is accelerating the death of traditional cable.
  • “Cable is dying at the rate people move, essentially cable’s done. I think it’s done.” (Mark Douglas, 23:20)
• Sports, once cable TV’s domain, are also moving to streaming, with NBA and NFL games appearing on Amazon.

7. Changing Attention Spans and Entertainment Habits

• Attention spans are shrinking; even four-minute company videos are deemed ‘long.’
  • “I was playing a video at a company made. The video is four minutes long. She complained after, why they play such a long video.” (Mark Douglas, 27:10)
• People now routinely watch at 1.5x or 2x speed, especially for informational content like podcasts.
• The rise of home streaming is impacting movie theaters, as viewers prefer to wait for online releases and manage multiple subscriptions for diverse content.

8. The Post-IPO Mission and Leadership Philosophy

• Mark outlines the responsibility that comes with being a public company: employees, customers, and now—investors.
  • “Before, I had two constituents... the people who work for the company... the customer. The next day, we now have three constituents... our investors.” (Mark Douglas, 33:04)
• Most value in public companies is generated after the IPO—99% of the growth is yet to come.
  • “For any successful publicly traded company, 99, the IPO, I also get asked, so what are you going to do now? As if, like, I’m like, drop the mic, you know, I’m out... And it’s like, no, we’ve only created 1% of the potential value.” (Mark Douglas, 36:46)
• Plans are to stay focused on consistent growth, cautioning that too much publicity only benefits competitors.

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On being public:
  “We were what’s called 14 times oversubscribed... so you literally have to allocate it.” (Mark Douglas, 06:04)

• On BlackRock:
  “Blackrock’s customers collectively own, you know, a big chunk of every company. But if you look at like blackrock itself ironically is publicly traded and the numbers are not, you know, the trillions that people claim they have.” (Mark Douglas, 07:45)

• On TV advertising democratization:
  “We bring small and mid sized companies into the television advertising market... all small mid sized businesses which could only do search and social before can now reach their next customers using the big screen.” (Mark Douglas, 11:42)

• On privacy:
  “If it came out that Instagram or TikTok was literally recording everything you said... that would be a massive scandal.” (Mark Douglas, 17:11)

• On the myth of companies paying costs:
  “Companies don’t pay for anything. Consumers pay for everything.” (Mark Douglas, 18:47)

• On changing media habits:
  “I used to say a few years ago, I say the last person to buy Cable was born 30 years ago.” (Mark Douglas, 23:31)

• On the realities of the IPO:
  “The stock did insane. It went up 67% on the first day of trading... it rose so fast they had to stop trading.” (Mark Douglas, 32:20)
  “For any successful publicly traded company... 99% of the wealth essentially is created after the IPO.” (Mark Douglas, 36:46)

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Key Timestamps

• 00:45 — Mark shares his experience of going public
• 04:52 — The realities of the IPO process and timing
• 06:04 — Discussion of BlackRock as an investor and popular misconceptions
• 11:42 — Democratizing streaming TV ads for small businesses
• 15:04 — Rise of personalized ads and their impact on brands of all sizes
• 17:08 — Privacy concerns and the myth Instagram is “listening”
• 21:36 — Consumers’ attitudes towards targeted vs. random ads
• 23:20 — The decline of cable TV and the surge in streaming
• 27:10 — Shrinking attention spans in digital and workplace contexts
• 33:04 — The responsibilities of a public company CEO
• 36:46 — Most value comes after a company goes public

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Tone & Closing Thoughts

Throughout, the conversation is candid, energetic, and insightful—with Mark debunking myths about both the advertising world and the financial markets. The tone is rooted in curiosity, honesty, and the optimism of technology-driven change, while remaining practical about the challenges of leadership and innovation in a fast-changing media landscape.

Final takeaway:
The future of marketing—especially on streaming platforms—is hyper-targeted, data-driven, and accessible to all sizes of business, with massive growth still ahead for companies that can balance innovation, scale, and trust.

Transcript

[Mark Douglas]

Trip planner by Expedia. You were made to outdo your holiday, your hammocking and your pooling. We were made to help organize the competition. Expedia made to travel. You know, it's like, what's interesting is that so many people ask me, they're like, I could swear Instagram is listening to my conversations. Like you're not getting wiretapped. That Basically Instagram or TikTok was literally recording everything you said and then using it to delivered targeted ads at the best ads or let's call it the best marketing.

[Podcast Host]

All right, guys, got him back on the show. A lot has changed. Just went public last week, right? That's Mark Douglas in the building.

[Mark Douglas]

That's what happened. Let's go. Yeah, it exciting times.

[Podcast Host]

Was that a surreal moment for you?

[Mark Douglas]

It, it would. You know, I grew up in New York City and as a kid, places like now there's so much security. But as a K, places like the New York Stock Exchange, Rockefeller center, things like that, you just go there and just kind of like make it your playground. Because I was one of these kids in New York that I'm on the subway, I'm all over the city. Which is what's great about growing up in a city like New York or London or something like that. So to be like on a New York Stock exchange and just trying to like, you know, get lunch or something, like not there because it's this big 238 year old institution. But just to be like, hey, let's, yeah, it's the middle of summer, let's go somewhere. It's like, screw it, let's go to Wall street, right? Just wait and then go back there and like you're ringing the bell, taking the company public. It's a bit surreal. I have been there a number of times just for other things. There's not really trading on the floor right anymore. Now the floor in New York Stock Exchange is almost like an events, event space. I've been there a few times, but you know, CNBC's on the floor. I did an interview there. There's all, there's all these kind of media companies that are operating from the Florida New York Stock Exchange. But yeah, we literally like took a company public and you get first trade and the process is really interesting.

[Podcast Host]

Yeah. How long did that take? I'd imagine years, right?

[Mark Douglas]

Yeah, it, it actually in the fastest possible time, it could be done in like four months.

[Podcast Host]

Oh, wow.

[Mark Douglas]

But the, the stock market has just not been conducive to IPOs. You learn these terms like risk on, risk off? Like, is the market risk on, meaning it's receptive to IPOs, or is it risk off where everyone's basically running for cover and everyone being like these investment managers at these big institutional investment companies. So the market has been, quote, unquote, risk off for almost three years because of inflation. Like, all the stuff that's the backdrop of the market. But once it's risk on, it doesn't take a lot of time. We made the final decision to go. So the process is there's all these big institutional investors who essentially form the market for your stock. Right. And that part of the. And you do what's called testing the water meetings, where you go and meet with them and tell them, you know, kind of educate them on your. In my case, mountain and tell them what the company is about. And they. They kind of start to understand the story and whether it's a good investment for them. And we did 185ttw. Holy crap. Yeah. Seven rounds. 185t. Our banks were Morgan Stanley, Citibank, and Evercore were the three main banks. And they said that's either the highest number ever done or, like, just slightly shy. And so we educated the market while we waited for essentially the IPO window, as they, like, as everyone says, to open. And so we had put in all this prep work, and then you then look for. Literally, like, I think everyone thinks, like, this is something you do a year in advance and you schedule it. And really it's like, it looks like there's a. It's. It's. It's more like a running back, trying to find a hole in the line of scrimmage and then just get through that hole and, you know, now and do the roadshow where you literally the week of the ipo, you're meeting with investors and they're placing orders for. To buy shares in the company. We. We made the decision to go literally the night before.

[Podcast Host]

Wow.

[Mark Douglas]

We were ready. I mean, we had done all the prep work you had to do. Follow all these documents that. The biggest document is the S1, which, like, describes the company has all financials, all that kind of stuff that was all fully up to date with the SEC and way in advance, like, with, like, lots of lawyers. There's, like, three law firms involved in coordinating with the sec. But the actual, like, let's do this. That literally was decided on a Tuesday, two weeks ago. On Wednesday morning, I was in New York City, and we were doing. We were starting a roadshow.

[Podcast Host]

That's insane.

[Mark Douglas]

Yeah. So it's not as foreign. And then literally the following Thursday I'm on the floor of New York Stock Exchange ringing the bell with the president of New York Stock Exchange. That's how fast this all goes, how last minute it is and the banks all thinks that's normal. Like, like, like they just are like yeah this is how this you know it's like the, what the market is doing literally today is like affecting whether that, whether IPO is going to happen.

[Podcast Host]

That's so cool.

[Mark Douglas]

Yeah.

[Podcast Host]

Were any of those meetings with blackrock?

[Mark Douglas]

Yeah, blackrock. I'd love we could talk about Black. Blackrock. Blackrock invested in Mountain at when we were still private and then yeah they were. We, we were what's called 14 times oversubscribed so Meaning that there were. We were selling the exact number I think is 11.7 million shares and we had. I may not be doing the math right but we have 14 times essentially 12 million shares that people wanted to buy.

[Podcast Host]

Oh wow.

[Mark Douglas]

Yeah. And then so you're in this position where you literally, you can't sell it to everyone. You literally have to allocate it and yeah blackrock's definitely one one of those investors and they've been a great investor. I think there's a lot of like misunderstanding of black. Yeah you've probably seen it.

[Podcast Host]

A lot of conspiracy.

[Mark Douglas]

Yeah a lot of conspiracy like, like that they're telling the company like they're telling people the companies they're invested in what to do and stuff like that. It's, that's not at all or. And that the biggest conspiracy out there I've heard about them is they own. I think the numbers I've heard like 22% of. Of all publicly traded companies. Yeah.

[Podcast Host]

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[Mark Douglas]

Yeah. So it's not true at all. BlackRock doesn't actually own stock. BlackRock's customers own stock. They're just what's called an index fund. They basically take your money and you say look I don't want to risk it on one company. I want to spread it across every publicly traded company. And so BlackRock does that for you, but they don't, they're, they, they're not making any decisions, they're just allocating it, you know, like, like Microsoft should get some, Mountain should get some, you know, Apple, things like that. And so BlackRock's customers collectively own, you know, a big chunk of every company. But if you look at like blackrock itself ironically is publicly traded and the numbers are not, you know, the trillions that people claim they have.

[Podcast Host]

I've heard. 12 trillion, right?

[Mark Douglas]

Yeah. So their customers, if you invest, if you put money into a BlackRock fund, then you would own a piece of every publicly traded company and you would be part of the 12 trillion. But BlackRock is just facilitating you not having to do that manually.

[Podcast Host]

Got it.

[Mark Douglas]

Which would, which would be a full time job, which is why it's a full time job for them. But yeah, they've been a great investor. The great thing I like about BlackRock is they think long term, ironically they completely leave you alone. Yeah, it's like the exact opposite. It's like they're not calling me every, if they think I'm calling them and saying like, hey, what do you think about. Not for business advice, but just more like I called them and said what do you think about this window to go on the ipo? And there's someone there I really trust. And he was like, I think this is really good timing. I think you should go. He's not going. Oh and by the way, I'm going to start wanting to know what your, you know, your policy. They just, they just want to make money for their clients. They're not trying to like socially engineer takeover. Yeah, that, that, that's not that bad. So I have, we have other investors where they do want to meet with you constantly not trying to tell you what to do. But they, I think they're more nervous. They. Yeah, some investors are and webmy are like, I invested in you, I don't wanna do your job. And some investors are just nervous.

[Podcast Host]

I think also it was a rocky economy the past few years, especially with all the tariff stuff recently too.

[Mark Douglas]

Yeah, that's what made finding the right window really tough because we had to do the IPO between all these things. As a matter of fact, the number one question we got during the roadshow like when we're out meeting with all the investors is why now? And you know, it's like my answer is always like, well I'M I'm out here, it's big market, I'm executing, so why not now?

[Podcast Host]

Yeah, yeah. You're probably one of the few to launch in this kind of economy, right?

[Mark Douglas]

Yeah. There have been articles about. Have we like real, I use the analogy. I grew up in New York City. We mentioned before and in New York, like if the elevator door is closing, just kind of throw your arm in there. Like you just, you know, people think your arm gonna get chopped up but you're just like no, I'm getting on itself. That's kind of what I think some of the articles have described. Like did, did r IPO and you know, a couple others. Did, did they do that to the IPO market? Like kind of reopen the window and so forth. So if it did, I mean companies need to raise money. So I mean, and, and you know, if you have this, if you, if your company has to scale, big market scale and you're good at execution, you know, then being public is a great idea, very viable way of doing it.

[Podcast Host]

Do you see social media and alternative media eating at the market share? Cause I know you guys are mainly TV stuff, right?

[Mark Douglas]

Yeah, we're 100%. So what we do, what Mountain does, is we democratize streaming tv. We bring small and mid sized companies into the television advertising market. Specifically streaming on every streaming network in America. Like all of them that have that. I think Apple is the only one.

[Podcast Host]

I think they have Apple tv. Right.

[Mark Douglas]

Apple TV plus doesn't have ads but the other networks you know can do. So we're talking like Disney, Paramount, hbo, Max Warner which is owned by Warner Brothers, all these networks we partner with and we essentially create the long tail like all so that all small mid sized businesses which could only do search and social before can now reach their neck, find their next customers using the big screen, using you know, 30 second ads on streaming television. And so it's great for the, it's great for the industry like because the television industry has been just dominated by a small number of very large brands and it's great for the companies who traditionally, you know, could, didn't have access as a marketing channel. So that's what we do and it's created a great opportunity for everyone for my company as well as for our customers and all the streaming networks we're partnered with. The interesting thing is people are doing all these things. I'm on social media today, but I'm also on YouTube, I'm also watching shows on streaming networks. I'm doing all these things for entertainment and so when you look at the numbers, more people watch television a day than use social media. So 5.5 billion worldwide, 5.5 billion people a day watch television daily. And I think it's 3.9, 3.9 billion use social media. They watch TV for three hours uninterrupted. They basically have it get home from work and they have a TV on or if they work from home, they have it on. And then the, and it's an hour day on social media. Like you know, the. And so everyone's doing all these things. So if you're a business, you know, you have a great product and you try and reach new consumers, then why not be on, you know, leveraging television to find consumers, leveraging social influencers, you know, search all these things. And so that's the market. We didn't create, obviously the market for television advertising. What we did is we democratized the market for, for small and mid sized businesses. Smart. Yeah. And for a lot of emerging comp. A lot of emerging brands and. Yeah. And so forth. And so now there's a good chance you might see them in multiple. Like oh, I saw that brand on Instagram, but I also, you know, saw when I was watching Miami Housewives. Right. Yeah. So the, it's great, like I said, it's great for everyone. That's the market opportunity. It's a big market. Which is why, you know, we, we can creates the opportunity for us to, to be a public company.

[Podcast Host]

I just saw Netflix is experimenting with personalized ads I'm sure you're well aware of, but it seems like ads are.

[Mark Douglas]

Going towards that rather all of that. So the thing about is if your big brand, your T mobile, literally everyone in America could be a potential customer. Even they could launch a product direct at kids. And you know, kids, I hope you.

[Podcast Host]

Guys are enjoying the show. Please don't forget to like and subscribe. It helps the show a lot with the algorithm. Thank you.

[Mark Douglas]

Kids could be a potential customer, but if you're. One of my favorite brands is Onewheel. They sell the single wheel skateboard. You see like, you see people on like going down Manhattan. It looks really cool, but also looks like you better know what you're doing on that thing. And so One Wheel as a company is doing very well. People love the product but they're not going to sell it to everyone in America. So if you put one wheel on Bravo, for example, or an ESPN or anything, you have to really target who's going to receive that. That's what enables it to be small Midsize businesses is that it's highly, highly targeted versus cable, which was like, like, you know, everyone in that city receiving the exact same ad. So everything, all that, most of that advertise, I was about to say all, but not yet all is now super targeted. You could be watching something at home and someone else in your home is watching the exact same thing and the both of you are at the exact same. You'd like hit the play button on your favorite show at the exact same time. Both of you will probably get different, different ads.

[Podcast Host]

That's crazy.

[Mark Douglas]

It's highly targeted. And so that's, that's what, that's, if anything, that's what enables what we do is the targeting. Otherwise your business and you're spending, we'll call it 10,000amonth on our platform or you know, maybe even less, maybe more. And you know, we would just run out of budget instantly. And 90% of people, like, 90% of people are not going to be a potential one wheel, right? So they'd be wasting 90% of budget. It's the targeting that makes it possible, that makes sense.

[Podcast Host]

You think TVs are going to start listening to people's conversations?

[Mark Douglas]

Well, I think the answer is no because that'd be an illegal wiretap. You know, it's like, what's interesting is that so many people ask me, they're like, I could swear Instagram is listening to my conversations. Like, and that's, you're not getting, you're not getting wiretapped. I mean that to talk about a massive scandal. If it came out that Basically Instagram or TikTok was literally recording everything you said and then using it to deliver targeted ads, that would, maybe people think that wouldn't be a good big scandal because they already assume it's happening. But no, but I think the thing is that the best ads, let's call it the best marketing, let's broaden it, are the ones ironically where you do feel like it is because that's speaking directly to you. What's interesting about marketing, and you can touch on the topic about privacy, is on the one hand, everyone wants to believe that everything they do is private, including me, including Mark Zuckerberg. Nobody's looking to just put everything out there, but it's a little misguided. One of the biggest costs, dollar amounts in the cost of any product is marketing to you as a customer, you discovering the product. So the harder, if you're going to be interested in that product. Let's keep with the one wheel example. Let's say you're, you know, venture seeker. You like to skateboard, you like, you know, electric skateboard, real, you know, you snowboard, you a surfer in L. A. Like, this is a product for you. The harder you make it for one wheel to find you and just literally show you what they have this product that they're passionate about and all they want to do is make you aware of it to see if you're going to love it and be passionate about it too. The harder you make that as a consumer, the more expensive the product is going to be because that is the onewheel. Then has to spend money with Meta, with Mountain, with Google. All of that winds up being in the price of the product. I mean, the myth is that companies don't pay for anything anything. Consumers pay for everything. Right. In other words, unless a company is literally losing money, every dollar it's spending are money just being shifted from its customers to whoever the company is sending the money to, you know, like their suppliers, essentially. So that includes marketing costs. So let's say the cost of marketing were 25% higher on a given product to find very hard to find consumers that might be interested. Well, then the price of the product has to be 25% higher. And so I think a lot of the privacy debate is there's just a lot of focus on, like, am I being tracked? Well, Google knows I'm in the room with you right now because I have an iPhone in my pocket and I have Google Maps on it. So does Apple, so does Meta, because I have Instagram. So does that. Like, that's the real privacy is all the information you're freely giving up. It's not like a small emerging brand just hoping you'll like what they sell. They're not in any way getting any personal information on you, nor are they trying because if they do, then they're responsible for protecting it.

[Podcast Host]

Yeah. Location, targeted ads. Whenever I go to a new city, I get ads for the restaurants in the area.

[Mark Douglas]

Right. Yeah. And so again, I mean, also, if you want, when you go those cities, you want those restaurants to be doing well, then the privacy you should really care about is like name, address, credit card number. It's not. Yes. It's not like the fact that you might have bought a skateboard in the past and would love, I mean, bought a surfboard and maybe would love a product that people like. Surfboards might also be in just.

[Podcast Host]

Yeah, yeah, I don't mind targeted ads that are based off my previous spending.

[Mark Douglas]

Right.

[Podcast Host]

Because I'll buy it. You know, there's a good chance I'll buy it and it makes sense.

[Mark Douglas]

Yeah.

[Podcast Host]

If I get random ads for random products, that'd be more annoying to me.

[Mark Douglas]

Yeah, well, I, When I'm on Instagram, I get. My girlfriend says meta has me completely, completely figured out because I basically like. She's like, you buy the most random products, but somehow they figured out you're the person that's going to be interested in this.

[Podcast Host]

That's how I feel about TikTok shop.

[Mark Douglas]

Really?

[Podcast Host]

I bought quite a few things.

[Mark Douglas]

Yeah.

[Podcast Host]

Have you played around with that one yet?

[Mark Douglas]

A little bit, yeah. I'm, I'm more of an Instagram user. It's funny, I was talking to someone today about Instagram versus TikTok and she was talking about like, I was saying, well, I'd like to see a feed that has things with my friends. And she's like, no, I don't want to see my friends in my feed at all. I just want to be entertained. And so I'm like, well, so I'm more lean Instagram, she more leans TikTok and so forth.

[Podcast Host]

I could see that. I like both. I like having both.

[Mark Douglas]

Yeah, they do. They're both fun. And that's kind of goes back to what we were talking about earlier. So, like during the day I'm not watching like the most. What's the. One of the most talked about, you know, things in entertainment right now, like White Lotus. Right. It's on tv. Right. Or the few months ago, I guess now six months ago, the Tyson Jake Paul fire. I mean, TV is still this like big medium that like, like, and, but they all play. And obviously TikTok is a massive medium. All of these are playing a role and I think for the average person, they're just like, look, I just want to be entertained all day long, essentially.

[Podcast Host]

Yeah. I'm watching TV every day, I guess if you consider the streaming platforms.

[Mark Douglas]

Tv. Yeah.

[Podcast Host]

Yeah. I think when some people think of tv, they, they mean like the older version.

[Mark Douglas]

Yeah. That's why I say streaming all the time because, yeah, I'm talking cable is dying at the rate people move, essentially cable's done. I think, I think it's done.

[Podcast Host]

I don't know if there's a coming back for cable.

[Mark Douglas]

Yeah, I, I used to say a few years ago, I say the last person to buy Cable was born 30 years ago.

[Podcast Host]

Wow.

[Mark Douglas]

You know, I mean, because there's not a 30 year old who has acts like the, the idea that someone used to run a cable to your house and then you would watch TV on the network schedule. There's not 30 year old who even comprehends that.

[Podcast Host]

And all the sports now are going towards streaming services. I think NFL's on Amazon now. NBA might be on Amazon now. There's a shift out there.

[Mark Douglas]

We have a lot of NBA companies as customers, which is kind of interesting. Yeah, that's awesome. Yeah. They sell tickets and swag via mountain. We actually did a social media post on that two days ago.

[Podcast Host]

Oh, nice.

[Mark Douglas]

And the post had ended with the phrase boom shakalaka. And I was like, do people, I guess in the NBA they say boom, shock. I was like, I'm not. Sounds old.

[Podcast Host]

I don't know which team that does that one exactly. Have you been watching the playoffs?

[Mark Douglas]

I grew up in New York City, so I'm a Knicks fan.

[Podcast Host]

You guys made it far this year.

[Mark Douglas]

Yeah. And I was in New York during. They were playing Boston Pacers or Boston. Oh, Pacers. Yeah. Because I was commenting about how it's like a throwback, you know? That's a throwback.

[Podcast Host]

Yeah. Those were the days. Reggie Miller.

[Mark Douglas]

Yeah. Yeah, I remember. I've went to a few games at Madison Square Garden.

[Podcast Host]

It's electric, right?

[Mark Douglas]

Yeah. It could be replaced, though.

[Podcast Host]

You think so?

[Mark Douglas]

Well, I never thought they would replace Yankee Stadium.

[Podcast Host]

That's true.

[Mark Douglas]

And then it's like they just built a new one in the parking lot of the old one and then just tore down the old one. So I'm like, can we do that to Madison Square Car.

[Podcast Host]

The new Clipper stadium is insane. I heard.

[Mark Douglas]

Oh, oh, I haven't been yet. In la. Yeah.

[Podcast Host]

Everything's like state of the art, you know?

[Mark Douglas]

Yeah. I need to go. I have. I used to live in L. A, but I haven't been there. I've been there, but I haven't like lived there since they built the stadium. Yeah, Yeah, I put that on my list.

[Podcast Host]

Got out of there too, huh? I left as well.

[Mark Douglas]

Yeah. I saw your. Your podcast on the Rubin report. Yeah, I thought that was pretty cool.

[Podcast Host]

Thank you. That was the first big show I've done. Shout out to Dave Rubin.

[Mark Douglas]

Yeah.

[Podcast Host]

Taking a chance on me. I'm a bit of a wild card.

[Mark Douglas]

It's an interesting story. I feel like now I should sor asking you questions, except I'm not as good at it as you are.

[Podcast Host]

You got good with the reps. I'm sure you've learned from Ryan Reynolds how to do interviews as well.

[Mark Douglas]

Ryan does know how to. He doesn't give me any advice on it. I think he, you know, it's funny. The first time I did a interview with Ryan, it was more like business. I think it was like on cnbc.

[Podcast Host]

Yeah.

[Mark Douglas]

And the interview. And on that format, you're done in like four and a half minutes.

[Podcast Host]

Damn.

[Mark Douglas]

Yeah, like, like when you're doing the news hits, like, it's not like 30 minutes. It's not sitting on a couch on the Tonight Show. Like, it's like they hit the topic and, and you know, and remember after, after you said it literally said, wow, that's fast. Like, yeah, this is. They're not here to learn about your life. They hear about you, the comment on something very specific, and then they move on. On to the next. On to the next. Well, that's.

[Podcast Host]

That's a good segue into, like, attention spans these days.

[Mark Douglas]

Yeah.

[Podcast Host]

I feel like there's breaking news stories and the next day people forget about it.

[Mark Douglas]

I agree. My own assistant, I like, she's going to love hearing this because I was playing a video at a company made. The video is four minutes long. She complained after, why they play such a long video.

[Podcast Host]

Wow. Four minutes.

[Mark Douglas]

Four minutes.

[Podcast Host]

Even myself, when I watch YouTube videos or whatever, even on Netflix, sometimes I'm doing like 1.5x speed.

[Mark Douglas]

Yeah.

[Podcast Host]

2X speed, depending on the video.

[Mark Douglas]

I do some of that on podcasts.

[Podcast Host]

Yeah, I can't do 1 x x men. It's too slow.

[Mark Douglas]

Should we just talk faster? That's just a testament we're not processing thoughts fast enough. Yeah, we need to. We need to speed it up. But yeah, I mean, like, like, you don't want to be that guy. It's like, I remember when people used to watch YouTube videos at 1x.

[Podcast Host]

Whoever invented that feature, shout out to that person, whoever that was. I hope you made a ton of money. That was the best invention I've ever seen.

[Mark Douglas]

Yeah, exactly. But, yeah, I mean, the tension spans, I mean, it just keep speaking that people are consuming everywhere. I mean, I feel like everyone has adhd. Am I pronouncing that these days?

[Podcast Host]

Yeah, adhd. Yeah.

[Mark Douglas]

Yeah, they. I mean, I feel like it's so hard for me to know what I should be doing next.

[Podcast Host]

Yeah.

[Mark Douglas]

You know what I mean? I think a lot of people have just. They're doing this, like, chop up the day in the 30 minute increments and like 30 minutes done. Move on in that. Because otherwise it's hard to be like, okay, I just finished that. What am I supposed to do next? And then you have like 300 emails waiting for you. I have text messages on, you know, three different Text messaging platforms and like, it's hard. And the same way with. With entertainment, you know, like, when I watch shows for my girlfriend, I'm like, are you paying? Are you? I like to say I like to be told a story. Like, I like to sit down and just like consume a story. Like. Like a movie.

[Podcast Host]

Yeah.

[Mark Douglas]

And a lot of people just literally can't do that anymore. No, like, I. I wouldn't even say a lot. I would. It feels like the majority are just like, nah, I don't have. I'm not. I. I just can't sit for an hour and a half.

[Podcast Host]

I mean, I just saw the movie Sinners. Yeah. Sinners in the theater. Everyone was on their phone the whole time.

[Mark Douglas]

On their phone in the movie theater. Yeah. And you're supposed to go to the theater to not like to basically sit in the chair, start munching the popcorn. I guess no one wants. Would that be considered carb if you're munching? No one wants the carbs.

[Podcast Host]

Is it carbs? Yeah, it might be. I don't know. But yeah, they used to have the. The commercial before the movie. Like, don't use your phone. Remember that one? Yeah, it was like a viral.

[Mark Douglas]

Yeah, I have.

[Podcast Host]

I didn't see it.

[Mark Douglas]

Yeah, I haven't been in. I watch movies. I love watching movies, but I haven't been in. I probably shouldn't say that if I work. Actually, ironically, the last movie I saw was Deadpool. Deadpool. I was at the premiere. It was fun.

[Podcast Host]

Yeah, there's some good ones. I just saw the Minecraft one. But yeah, I don't go to the theater as much as I used to.

[Mark Douglas]

You watch it, like at home.

[Podcast Host]

I'd rather wait two months, three months till it's on Netflix or whatever. Hulu. I have every single thing. Hulu, Netflix, Amazon, Paramount. Literally every stream.

[Mark Douglas]

Yeah, I mean, well, I have to for work. But even without that, like, there's good shows on all of them. So the, like, even networks that you don't necessarily remember, they're good shows on, there's generally good content everywhere.

[Podcast Host]

So, yeah, it kind of forces you to get every single one. Yeah, like I used to watch icarly growing up. So that's on Paramount. And then random shows will be on Amazon now. Apple TV has one. I just found out.

[Mark Douglas]

Yeah, the friend. Is it that the. The one where the guy loses his job and is robbing all his neighbors, losing his job.

[Podcast Host]

Is that on Apple?

[Mark Douglas]

That's Apple. That's like Friends and Neighbors.

[Podcast Host]

Yeah, I think that's the One someone just told me to watch.

[Mark Douglas]

Yeah, that's a good show. I just, I just, I'm fully up on that. Oh yeah, you'll enjoy that.

[Podcast Host]

Okay.

[Mark Douglas]

Yeah, don't miss that one.

[Podcast Host]

Yeah. Times are changing, man. Theaters are gonna go out of business. Everyone's just watching at home.

[Mark Douglas]

They. It just creates more opportunity.

[Podcast Host]

Yeah, yeah. It's good for you.

[Mark Douglas]

It's great for me and. But I think it's great for everyone. I think it's great for consumers. Like, like I think of people. I say entertainment consumer. Like it's what the golden age of television is. Golden age of social media. We'll see what's to come with. So everyone wants to crap on social media, but you have to kind of take some responsibility for how you manage your own time.

[Podcast Host]

100%.

[Mark Douglas]

Yeah.

[Podcast Host]

Yeah. Part of it's on you if you're just doom scrolling, they call it.

[Mark Douglas]

Yeah, just scroll, scroll all day and stuff like that. Well, another way to chop up your day. Just like. But Elon Musk does it all day and somehow gets a lot done.

[Podcast Host]

You'd be tweeting often.

[Mark Douglas]

I don't know like that dude. I don't know Elon. I know. I have friends that know Elon. The. Like, I just don't see how it's possible. It's very impressive the amount he gets. Like, I thought I was ambitious, but then you watch him and it makes you feel like a failure.

[Podcast Host]

He's gotta be cloned or something. There's two of him.

[Mark Douglas]

Well, there's a lot of people don't like him right now, but I guess he's back to building cars and rockets. So now they're like, you just keep.

[Podcast Host]

Doing that did get a little political for me.

[Mark Douglas]

Yeah, they were like politics. Stay away. But just go back to building cars and rockets and we love you. Yeah, that's it.

[Podcast Host]

What's next for you? What's next for Mountain? Where could people learn more about what's going on?

[Mark Douglas]

The. Well, we just are continue to grow and we have. So technically we're in a quiet period, so I'm not supposed to talk too much about it. But anyway, the company is doing well. The stock did insane. It went up 67% on the first day of trading. Holy crap. It rose so fast they had to stop trading. It went up 50% in the first five minutes of trading. Wow. Which then triggered an automatic halt in trading just to like cool it down.

[Podcast Host]

Damn.

[Mark Douglas]

And then it ended the first day of trading at 67%.

[Podcast Host]

Well done, man.

[Mark Douglas]

Yeah. Well, there's two ways to look at that. One, it's great for investors. Two, I left 67%.

[Podcast Host]

Double down.

[Mark Douglas]

But no, it was great. And the. So we see that we're just gonna continue to grow the company, and we have a lot of plans and just. Just make it happen. And so. So the. The interesting thing is before. So we went public on May 22. So on May 21, I had two constituents, the people who work for the company. And we try to make it incredibly an incredible place to work. Like, just. We treat working at the company as like, you're in a relationship and you want to like, so you take a job. And actually just earlier today, and the person was telling me about their boss. And so you're essentially, now, this is a new relationship in your life. It's not a romantic relationship, but it's a work relationship. And like any relationship, you want to feel trusted, you want to feel respected, you want to have a lot of freedom. And if you don't get those things, then like any relationship, you feel controlled. So we invest a lot in basically making everyone feel like they have personal freedom, even at work, that they can be ambitious, that they can be themselves and so forth. And so that is just a fantastic. They want to be there. There's actually been studies that show most people would actually take a better work environment, meaning those feeling trusted, those kinds of things over a higher paycheck.

[Podcast Host]

Wow.

[Mark Douglas]

That the pay. The additional pay is not worth. Think of it again, back to a personal relationship. If you were in a personal relationship and the person was need to be here at this time, and they're constantly critiquing you and you felt completely untrusted, you'd be like, I'm out of here. I'm not putting up with this. Right. Well, most people feel like that way about work. And so if you want to have a great company culture, you have to basically treat people. You have to invest in that relationship the way you invest, meaning the company the way you invest in your personal relationship. So going back to it, so we had two constituents. So one is the team, and the second is the customer the next day. We now have three constituents, a third constituents, which is our investors. And now it used to be there were like 10 investors. Now there's, I don't know the exact number, but hundreds of thousands, at the very least, maybe millions. And so I take that very seriously. And all they want is consistent growth. So this is the thing about going all the way back to the topic of an ipo Investors, all they want is consistent Growth. They want to be like, I want to take some money, I want to put it into a stock. And I mean, some people are trying to day trade, but for the average investor, they're like, I just want to park that money there and see that grow over a long period of time. And the other interesting thing I said to the team, to the company, all the people on the team, after we went public, I said for the successful publicly traded company, something like 90 to even 99% of the value, like the wealth essentially is created after the ipo. Wow. Right? So think of Netflix. I mean, Netflix probably went public. Their valuation was a few billion. Now it's, I think it's in the range of 600 billion.

[Podcast Host]

Jesus.

[Mark Douglas]

Right? And it doesn't have to be a Netflix. I mean, for Apple, it's trillions. For Google, it's trillions. But it could be for any successful publicly traded company. 99, the IPO, I also get asked, so what are you going to do now? As if, like, I'm like, drop the mic, you know, I'm out. Ring the bell, drop the, drop the hammer and just, just walk out. And like, I'm done. And it's like, no, we've only created 1% of the potential value.

[Podcast Host]

You're just getting started.

[Mark Douglas]

Yeah, we're just literally getting started. And so like when you ask like, well, what's next? The next is to go create the other 99%. But not just for me, to create it for all of the constituents created for the team created for our customers in the form of they get value from our products and then now create it for the investors. And that's what's in my head. And again, all the investor wants is just consistent growth. They're not, they, they, they would rather take consistency over like a roller coaster ride. Right. Because the, the, the, we've been in a roller coaster ride the last few months. It was up and it was down and people were like, literally, I'm out.

[Podcast Host]

A lot of people pulled out. Warren Buffett pulled out.

[Mark Douglas]

Right?

[Podcast Host]

You know?

[Mark Douglas]

Yeah, yeah. And, and, but if they were getting just like consistent growth, they, they're all in.

[Podcast Host]

Right?

[Mark Douglas]

Yeah. So that, that's what I feel. That is like a responsibility. Like the, just because I don't personally. So Again, on the 21st, I knew all of our investors personally. Like I'd had dinners with. Cause these are, we were still private companies. Now I have all these investors that I haven't met. And it's interesting, like I was in, I've met some investors like Oh, I invested in mountains, which is kind of crazy. I've never. Is it like I just meet random people and like, oh, yeah, I bought shares in Mountain. And so, like, I feel like, well, I better not. Like, I better make this person money. Like, that's like. And so that's kind of what I'm really. What's in my head. And the way you. To me, the way you do that is you keep doing what you were doing. You don't like, kind of alter your game, but at the same time, you have to be smart. Now more people are going to be coming after us because they're like, you.

[Podcast Host]

Got a target on your.

[Mark Douglas]

Yeah, yeah. I mean, that's the thing about announcing anything. It could be announcing a product. It could be, you know, something like an ipo. The moment you do, like, everyone's attention is like, well, should I be doing. Doing that? Yeah, that. Yeah. I try to tell my team, like, let's. Let's delay announcements. Or as late as like. Like, the only people I see benefit from us announcing stuff are our competitors.

[Podcast Host]

That's why I try to move in silence.

[Mark Douglas]

Yeah, exactly.

[Podcast Host]

Like when I. Like a ninja coming on, I'll tell anyone.

[Mark Douglas]

Yeah.

[Podcast Host]

I don't tell anyone who it airs.

[Mark Douglas]

That's. That's the way to do it.

[Podcast Host]

Yeah.

[Mark Douglas]

Yeah, absolutely.

[Podcast Host]

Mark, it's been awesome, man. I can't wait to see where. Where you take this thing.

[Mark Douglas]

Thanks.

[Podcast Host]

Appreciate in touch, man. Thanks for coming on.

[Mark Douglas]

All right, thank you, guys.

[Podcast Host]

We'll link the website below as well. See you next time.