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Andy Sack (left) and Adam Brotman of Forum3. (Forum3 Photo)
A marketer’s job often involves hours and days doing competitive analysis and gathering strategic insights before launching campaigns.
A pair of Seattle tech vets are betting that AI can take care of those tasks.
Seattle-based startup Forum3 on Tuesday launched Spok, its self-described “AI marketing expert” that uses generative AI and other technologies to streamline marketing work.
Former Starbucks exec Adam Brotman and longtime startup investor Andy Sack launched Forum3 in 2021. They’ve rolled out a few products since then, including a NFT initiative and an AI creators community called Hive3.
But the entrepreneurs say they are most excited about Spok, particularly for small and medium-sized businesses that may not have the resources to pay an agency or hire several full-time employees.
“One of the biggest problems and pain points for marketers is they’re just under-resourced,” Brotman said.
Spok users start by providing basic information about their company and specific marketing objectives. The system can also analyze a company’s website to gather more data about audience and competitors.
The underlying tech powering Spok is a combination of OpenAI’s GPT-4o, a company’s internal data, and various other third-party data sources. There is also custom “marketing intelligence” that Forum3 builds into its platform that ultimately helps provide suggestions for keyword trends, competitive analysis, and more. Spok can also produce suggested marketing content.
“Getting the right message to the right customer at the right time — that’s what marketing is,” Brotman said. “LLMs and AI are incredibly good at that.”
Brotman, who led digital efforts at Starbucks for nine years, said doing research to optimize marketing strategy can often be like a “treasure hunt” for marketers.
“We’re trying to help them save time and make higher quality decisions,” he said.
Spok is the latest attempt at creating an AI “copilot,” or an AI-based teammate that works alongside human employees. Many thus far have focused on automating software development, with tools such as GitHub Copilot and startups including Cognition AI and Replit.
Sack said it’s likely that companies will eventually have AI teammates for every part of their business.
Forum3 initially dabbled in NFTs and Web3 but has evolved into an “AI lab” focused on sales and marketing. Brotman and Sack have been working on a new Harvard Business Review book about AI.
They said the inspiration to go all-in on AI was partly driven by conversations with tech titans including Bill Gates and Sam Altman.
“I think this AI shift is the most significant shift since the introduction of the World Wide Web,” said Sack.
Sack co-founded Seattle-based investment fund Founders’ Co-op, then led Techstars Seattle for five years. After that, he worked alongside Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella as an innovation and digital transformation consultant. Most recently, he was an investor at blockchain-focused venture fund Keen.capital.
Brotman is the former chief digital officer at Starbucks, where he helped build the Starbucks mobile app, which now handles more than a quarter of the company’s orders. He is also the former CEO and previous chairman of Brightloom, a startup that helps companies turn their customer data into personalized marketing campaigns.
Forum3 raised $10 million in December 2022.
