- The summit expects to attract 200 attendees with financial backers wielding $1 trillion in capital
- Venture investment in Australian startups grew from about $600 million in 2016 to $1.4 billion in 2018
- The Takeaway: The country is primed for growth, boasting world's No. 2 median wealth per adult, 13th-largest GDP, and hasn't been in a recession for nearly three decades.
Jamie Montgomery has never been against taking risks.
He's the longtime Santa Monica investment banker turned venture capitalist who once put up a faux road sign on a San Francisco freeway warning commuters that Silicon Valley was closed. Next to it was another billboard urging drivers to make a 380 mile U-turn to Santa Monica where he hosts an annual tech conference bearing his name.
The cheeky advertising ploy got plenty of buzz on social media. But, right now, Montgomery is focused on what's happening 8,000 miles away from California. Another gamble: The founder and managing director of March Capital Partners is returning to Australia for a second year to host a sort of mini Montgomery Summit Wednesday. Montgomery is expecting up to 200 attendees, four times as many as last year.
Jamie Montgomery, founder and managing director of March Capital Partners.
Courtesy March Capital Partners
"We had six billion [of capital] in the room last time we met," Montgomery said in an interview in Santa Monica before he departed. "I'll have close to a trillion dollars this year. If you have a trillion dollars in a room, you'll find something to do together."
Why Australia? He thinks the timing is right to financially connect L.A. money with Oz startups. The country boasts an impressive economy, the second largest median wealth per adult (trailing only Switzerland), the 13th-largest GDP, and has not experienced a recession in nearly three decades. Australia also is home to successful unicorns like enterprise software maker Atlassian, and job search engine Seek Ltd. Venture investment in Australian startups grew from about $600 million in 2016 to $1.4 billion in 2018, according to Crunchbase data.
"It's a particularly well-run country with about 30 years of growth," said Montgomery.
Australia also has personal resonance for Montgomery. His wife is Australian and his family regularly visits. He has also consulted for the country's government.
It is not a coincidence that the event coincides with the Australian Open tennis tournament, which is in its second week.
"You have this built in audience of investors and executives," Montgomery said. "It attracts an incredible number of interesting people who have nothing to do during the day when the tennis is at night."
The summit is also coinciding with a series of massive bushfires that have devastated the country, mostly in the southeast, where Melbourne is located. Montgomery said he considered cancelling the conference a few weeks ago, but ultimately decided to proceed.
"We made a donation to fire relief," Montgomery said. "And we'll do some more stuff when we're down there."
The program will open with Montgomery interviewing John Chambers, former executive chairman and CEO of Cisco Systems and now founder and CEO at JC2 ventures, about how to build an innovation economy. There are also panels on maintaining high paying jobs in the age of AI and how companies can protect themselves against foreign adversaries.
Montgomery is not sure yet whether he will make the Australia conference an annual event.
"It's going to be great, but it's a lot of work" he said.
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A photo from Johnson's Instagram account, which she's used to promote HeyPal.
Photo courtesy of HeyPal
“Today I wanted to work on some Arabic slang, so I literally can pull out the phone and use the app anywhere, anytime!” read a caption to one photo of Johnson sitting near the Indian Ocean with a smartphone in her hands and a cocktail nearby.
At first glance, her casual endorsements may look like mere tips from a travel expert. But the Instagram posts, sprinkled between photos of the model posing in exotic tropical locations, are part of a paid campaign by HeyPal, which is owned by Beverly Hills-based digital app developer ClickStream.
HeyPal—which promises to help users learn new languages through social media posts and online chats with native speakers—has made content creators like Johnson a key part of its marketing and growth strategy. The app is currently paying three influencers, including Johnson, to spread the gospel by showcasing glamorous real-life examples of how people can benefit from the platform.
HeyPal, which has racked up more than 1 million downloads since going live last June, is hardly the only brand turning to influencers. Spending on influencer marketing has exploded in recent years, jumping from only $1.7 billion in 2016 to $16.4 billion this year, according to research from Influencer Marketing Hub.
In some ways, influencer marketing is not much different from traditional celebrity endorsements where actors, artists and athletes hawk products in advertisements. But online influencers often forge deep relationships with their fans, making their endorsements more effective, according to experts. That’s especially true if the products or services they’re marketing naturally fit with the content they’re creating—such as Johnson highlighting a language-learning app as a travel blogger.
“At the end of the day, influencer marketing works because the audience trusts the creator,” Brad Hoos, CEO of influencer marketing agency The Outloud Group, told dot.LA. Hoos noted that customers acquired through influencers tend to stick with brands longer than those lured by other campaigns.
Launched in 2020, HeyPal aims to help people learn new languages by conversing with native speakers through social media features like chats, posts, comments and media uploads. HeyPal offers both free and paid versions of the app; the latter is available in two subscription tiers ($9.99 or $14.99 per month) and includes additional features like unlimited translations on posts and a “PenPal” feature that matches users who can teach each other new languages.
HeyPal CEO Jonathan Maxim, a marketing veteran who ClickStream hired for the role last year, told dot.LA that Johnson and the app’s other influencers bring credibility to the platform. Those other influencers include Jessica Killings, an actress, model and angel investor who, like Johnson, has a large Instagram following.
HeyPal CEO Jonathan Maxim. Photo courtesy of HeyPal
HeyPal has worked with roughly 20 influencers to date, though it has only struck paid partnership deals with three, according to Maxim. (“The other 20 or so are just enthusiasts of the mission,” he noted.) The company declined to share how much it pays influencers to market its app.
In addition to boosting the brand’s visibility, HeyPal’s influencers are able to steer people to the app or channels like its Instagram account, through which the company can later retarget them with ads or push notifications, Maxim said. HeyPal can measure reach, click-through rates and number of app downloads by influencer, and can optimize its ads accordingly.
“Influencer marketing serves the top of the funnel for us,” Maxim said. “Katy creates engaging content, brings people to the middle of the funnel, and then we retarget them and bring them to the bottom of the funnel—which is conversion and engagement in the app.”
Johnson’s Instagram endorsements don’t dig into the details of the app, but they subtly suggest the perks of learning a new language. An Instagram Reels video she made in March shows Johnson dancing and posing for selfies with people around the world—activities presumably made possible by her ability to speak different languages.
“These types of posts help people dream—to see a country and the beauty, the food, the people,” said Jamie Gutfreund, chief marketing officer for Los Angeles-based Whalar, a creator economy company that works with influencers and brands. “They can imagine what their experience could be, especially if they have learned the language.”
Creators have to tread carefully when it comes to corporate partnerships, however. Although brand deals may provide more stable income than platform ad revenue, creators have to ensure they don’t harm their authenticity by constantly promoting products, experts said. About 13% of fans say they have unfollowed a creator because they included too many ads in their content, according to a recent survey.
Johnson is keenly aware of that balancing act: She said she sends just a few promotional posts per month and doesn’t endorse anything on Instagram “unless I really believe in it.” Asked how she makes her promotional posts seem authentic, Johnson said she doesn’t need to.
“I don't really make it look like anything—it is authentic,” she told dot.LA, pointing to videos she shared of her playing with children in Kenya or receiving some help putting on a hijab in Egypt.
“Those are all real moments that I've had,” she added. “And some of these moments can be helped when I'm learning language from language apps.”
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