The AMO Show

Tim Hart is President of the Americas at Arc, the EagleTree-backed B2B events, data, and media platform that has done nine acquisitions in four years and now generates roughly $130 million in revenue across HR, education, financial services, and agriculture. In this conversation, Tim walks through how Arc is organized — a three-layer structure of platforms, communities, and shared services — and makes the case that the post-COVID value in B2B media has permanently shifted away from events-only toward a year-round content and connections model. He gets specific: Arc's revenue is 60% events, 30% marketing services, and 10% memberships and subscriptions, with the subscription line as the fastest-growing segment and a target to double it. Tim breaks down the Touchpoint Markets deal — an unusual intra-PE transfer that brought first-party data and lead gen capabilities into Arc and pushed marketing services revenue from 20% to 30% — the economics of geo-adapting HR Tech Conference from Las Vegas to Amsterdam, Singapore, and Abu Dhabi, and the real P&L behind a $500K hosted buyer summit running at 60–65% gross margin. He also explains why, after running M&A at UBM through the "Events First" era and the £4 billion Informa merger, he believes that strategy was a moment in time — and why Arc is deliberately building the opposite.Timestamps:00:00:00 — Intro 00:01:50 — Tim's career thread: UBM, Informa, Emerald, and why he joined Arc 00:04:13 — Arc's thesis: why these verticals belong together and how the platform is organized 00:14:44 — The subscription bet: DA+, ThinkAdvisor, Credit Union Times Pro, and the push from 10% to 20% 00:18:23 — Inside a hosted buyer summit: $500K revenue at 60–65% gross margin 00:22:06 — Geo-adapting HR Tech from Las Vegas to Amsterdam, Singapore, and Abu Dhabi 00:28:18 — Deal-making lessons from UBM, the Informa integration, and what goes wrong 00:36:30 — Evaluating acquisitions: pricing, founder expectations, and what changes post-close 00:40:35 — The Touchpoint deal: intra-PE mechanics and what the capabilities actually brought to Arc 00:51:13 — Organic growth, launches, and why Arc hasn't done a deal in a year 00:56:35 — Arc by the numbers: $130M revenue, mid-20s EBITDA, and where AI is driving margin 01:02:03 — The exit thesis, the "clean story" question, and why Events First was a moment in time 01:09:39 — Advice for operators and what Tim is obsessed with right now

Jason Yanowitz, co-founder of Blockworks and builder of its shift from media to a data-first crypto platform. He recounts cutting news and events, refocusing engineering and data, and raising at a $192M valuation. The conversation covers product strategy, usage-based pricing, three revenue paths for token disclosures, M&A to consolidate crypto data, and the road to $100M ARR and an IPO.

Jeff Mancini, CEO of Arizent, transformed legacy B2B financial brands into a subscriptions-and-intelligence business. He explains flipping revenue from marketing services to subscriptions, building role-based intelligence products and enterprise unlimited licensing, and centralizing AI operations for secure agent-driven sales and product scaling. He also reflects on events strategy and a costly post-COVID mistake.

Rafat Ali, founder and CEO of Skift, a travel industry intelligence and media leader. He discusses how COVID forced a profit-first reset and remote, global teams. He explains shifting events toward sponsorships, embracing AI company-wide, and redesigning products for intelligence-driven experiences. He also explores events as ongoing intelligence and strategies for future growth.

Jonathan Hunt, VP of Media at HubSpot and Head of The Hustle, leads content, audience growth, and monetization across owned media with a focus on creator partnerships. He discusses why HubSpot buys media brands, measuring intent via newsletters and YouTube, AI-powered content production and automation, creator autonomy and integration, and strategies for intent-driven, multi-format audience development.

Mike Rothman, President of The Dispatch, leads a subscription-first news outlet focused on membership growth and B2B expansion. He talks about tightening paywalls and lifecycle marketing. He explains acquiring SCOTUSblog to reach professional audiences and build new verticals. He describes scaling events, sponsorships, and creator partnerships to boost revenue and engagement.

The dialogue between Jacob Donnelly and Louise White, CEO of Sift, encapsulates critical insights into the evolution of a media and events company specializing in the accounting sector. White elucidates her journey from a non-executive director to the helm of Sift, highlighting the company's strategic shift from a subscription-based model to a robust focus on events and marketing services. This change, she argues, was necessitated by the realization that the subscription model was not yielding the desired market engagement or financial returns. Instead, Sift is now poised to leverage its deep-rooted community engagement and proprietary data to drive growth and profitability through events that foster genuine connections within the accounting industry. White's perspective on pricing as a pivotal lever for business growth further underscores her strategic acumen, as she advocates for a pricing model that reflects the true value delivered to clients. Her insights into the operational transformations at Sift provide a blueprint for other media businesses navigating similar challenges in a rapidly changing market landscape.Takeaways:Louise White emphasizes the significance of community engagement and data-driven insights in transforming Sift's business model.The decision to cease the paid subscription service reflects Sift's strategic shift towards enhancing event-driven revenue streams.Effective pricing strategies are crucial for profitability, as they serve as a primary lever for business growth and sustainability.Louise White advocates for understanding customer needs to provide tailored solutions, fostering long-term relationships with clients.Sift's events business has experienced a remarkable growth trajectory, showcasing the value of personalized engagement with vendors and attendees.The importance of continuous transformation in business emphasizes building value through strategic decisions and innovative service offerings.

Paul Miller, CEO of Questex, leads a B2B media-and-events company focused on life sciences, healthcare, wellness, tech, and hospitality. He discusses why Questex is cutting events to focus on quality, the mixed media-and-events model, M&A timing and strategy heading into 2026, vertical organization and growth areas like life sciences and streaming, plus balancing scale with intimacy at events.

Devin Emery, President of Morning Brew and media operator with video and streaming roots, recounts steering a newsletter into a creator-led multimedia business. He discusses restructuring creative teams and launching Morning Brew Daily. Conversations cover creator partnerships, monetization, first-party data, profitability, and the path to $100M.

Episode SummaryJacob sits down with Craig Fuller, founder and CEO of Firecrown — a media holding company built around legacy print brands including Flying, Boating, Trains, Model Railroader, and Astronomy, alongside the B2B data powerhouse FreightWaves. In a candid, wide-ranging conversation, Craig pulls back the curtain on the bruising lessons of rapid M&A, the founder's rock-bottom moment that changed everything, and why he believes owning audiences — not renting them — is the ultimate media business model.What We CoverHow Firecrown was born — Craig's journey from launching FreightWaves as a venture-backed freight data company to spinning out its media arm and rolling it into a print magazine empireThe 2025 reckoning — What happened when Craig did 20 acquisitions in 3 years and the infrastructure cracked under the weightThe marine business miscalculation — How buying Active Interest Media's marine portfolio the week before a 20% revenue drop forecast exposed deep operational blind spotsGoing "founder mode" — The Saturday Craig didn't get off the couch, and how a podcast with his dad snapped him out of itThe $9.2M cost cut — How Craig got ruthless from July onward and slashed nearly $10M in expenses in the second half of 2025Why salespeople tied to brands — not companies — is a massive problem in media roll-upsThe Sonar data business — Why FreightWaves is "the Bloomberg of freight" and what it will take to get to a $50–100M ARR exitThe "Bloomberg Option" — The clever deal structure that keeps FreightWaves media and data separate but reversible for future buyersPath to $1B in revenue by 2030 — The compounding math behind Firecrown's acquisition strategy and why Craig's family office financing is a cheat codeAI in media — but not where you think — Why the real opportunity isn't content generation, it's back-office automationVibe coding as an operational superpower — How Craig's team built an internal contributor management app in a week using Replit, saving $1.8M annuallyThe secret teaser: a "Landman for trucking" — Craig hints at a Hollywood-style freight drama series in the worksKey TakeawaysOn acquisitions without a playbook: "We were opportunistic, but we didn't have a system for buying businesses and integrating them. We let these businesses run on their own. That creates a lot of cultural problems and resentment."On working in vs. on the business: "All too often we work in the company and not on the company. You're afraid of admitting your business has problems. You have to get outside of it and realize it."On AI and media: "Everyone talks about AI replacing editorial. I don't think that's where the opportunity is. The opportunity is in the back office — the operating systems that encompass all these technologies."On the unit economics of scale: "At $2M in revenue, the best case is you pay yourself. You don't start to get economies of scale until about $10M top line."On patient capital: "The limitation is ultimately: can we execute, and can we finance it? Those are the only two things that hold any business back from growth."About Craig FullerCraig Fuller is the founder and CEO of Firecrown, a media holding company that owns enthusiast print and digital brands across aviation, marine, trains, and astronomy. He is also founder of FreightWaves, a B2B freight data and media company often called "the Bloomberg of freight," and its flagship data product Sonar. Craig has built Firecrown from $9M to $60M in revenue in roughly two years through aggressive M&A, and is targeting $1B by 2030.Links & ResourcesA Media Operator — amediaoperator.comFirecrown — firecrown.comFreightWaves — freightwaves.comSonar (FreightWaves data product) — sonar.freightwaves.comFlying Magazine — flyingmag.comTimestamps00:00 — Introduction: Craig's origin story and the FreightWaves pitch that started it all02:06 — What is Firecrown? The print roll-up thesis explained06:32 — 2025: The year the wheels came off08:46 — The marine business acquisition that went sideways immediately12:14 — Going founder mode: Craig takes a no-prisoners approach to costs14:04 — The M&A trap: inheriting old problems plus your own16:58 — Consolidating sales teams and why individual brand-tied reps kill efficiency43:23 — The emotional toll: "It was a brutal year"45:41 — Lessons from Mark Zuckerberg and Peter Thiel on founder control47:18 — The FreightWaves / Sonar split explained56:07 — The "Bloomberg Option": structuring a reversible transaction01:05:07 — How Sonar built its proprietary freight data moat01:08:23 — Sonar's exit path: why $50–100M ARR is the target01:10:36 — Firecrown's path to $1B: compounding through M&A01:11:03 — AI in media: the back-office opportunity nobody's talking about01:17:02 — Vibe coding: how Craig's team built a $1.8M savings app in a week01:23:50 — Founder advice: working on your business, not in it01:28:36 — The big tease: a Hollywood freight drama seriesBecome an AMO Pro member for deeper analysis and access: amediaoperator.com