A Stressful Environment Is Not Generally Conducive to Producing Great Work

Chris Pettit co-founded Revving in 2023 after a 20-year career as a financier, lawyer and entrepreneur in the technology, media, and entertainment industries, during which time he worked on more than 100 deals.

As CEO of Revving, Chris is on a mission to reshape the financial infrastructure for digital businesses, tackling an issue that has long held back entrepreneurs and creatives alike. In this interview, Chris describes the problems late payment terms cause for independent agencies, and how new technology can solve them.

Q> What’s the biggest challenge facing marketing agencies today?

Chris> In a nutshell, the biggest challenge they face is cashflow. Agencies are expected to deliver first, but are paid last. Margins are under constant pressure, scope creep is rampant, and the gaps in cash flow stifle the momentum. When you have to do the work 30, 60, 90 days in advance of getting paid for it, it makes it hard to give your full attention to the task in hand. The model’s broken. Everyone knows it, but it’s become normalised to the point where agencies just shrug and carry on, because they always have.

Q> So how did we get to this point?

Chris> It’s such a competitive market. Agencies are expected to carry out work up front to show what they can do and win contracts. And the payment terms are merely a discussion point after they’ve won the contract, and at that point, they are so happy to have won the pitch that they just accept whatever the client’s finance department tells them because they don’t want to rock the boat. But this has a massive impact on what they deliver, because the agency always has one eye on the finances. The account director, who should be focused on doing great work for the brand, is preoccupied with if and when they’re going to get paid for the work that they’re doing. And a stressful environment is not generally conducive to producing great work. If you take the payment issues out of the equation, the agency is freed up to think, be creative and produce great work.

Q> How does Revving aim to solve these issues?

Chris> When we set Revving up, we made a conscious decision to try to solve this problem for one specific industry – adtech. There are lots of invoice factoring companies out there who work across multiple sectors; we focus purely on adtech, and we go much deeper than factoring. We understand the way the digital economy works. We understand the nuances and contractual terms between the brand and the agency. We understand the SSP/DSP relationships and how publishers actually generate revenue. Ultimately, we are in the business of actually helping people run their businesses. Our platform integrates directly with digital marketplaces, verifying revenues in real time and unlocking payments straight away, even before an invoice has been raised. But there’s more to what we do than settling invoices quickly. If you talk to any of our clients, they will tell you that we roll up our sleeves and get embedded in how our clients operate, so they can focus on growth, not chasing invoices.

Q> And obviously you’re not doing this for the fun of it. How do you make your money?

Chris> We charge a small percentage of the transaction value over a 30-day period, depending on the debtor’s credit risk. For most businesses, that cost is far outweighed by the revenue they can generate through reinvestment. For example, if you’re running paid ad campaigns, you might be able to double or triple revenue over a short cycle. By accessing funds sooner, companies can reinvest faster and drive more growth. And it’s all completely transparent. When a company entrusts us with making sure they get paid promptly for their great work, they know exactly what our take rate, to use a term that anyone familiar with programmatic will recognise, will be. And our cut is minimal compared to what agencies can unlock by reinvesting. Faster payments mean faster growth, especially in the ultra-competitive world of digital media.

Q> Why has no one tackled this problem before?

Chris> That's a good question. I think firstly, it's messy, and it’s not always an easy topic to understand. And so it's not something that is often discussed. Creativity and finance don’t often sit at the same table. There's a lot of inertia around payment terms because everyone just accepts it as part of the cost of doing business. And to do what we’ve done, integrating with all these platforms, isn’t easy. Revving was built to isolate the late payment issue in adtech and create a solution for it, and that’s what we’ve done.

Q> There's been a lot of M&A activity in recent weeks. How does the future look for independent agencies?

Chris> I think for the ones that can crack the cashflow problem it’s bright, really bright. The big holding groups are always on the lookout for smart, agile agencies doing great creative work. But too many independent agencies are stuck in survival mode, unable to look up and out beyond stifling payment terms. That constant financial drag kills momentum, and valuations.

If we can take that weight off their shoulders, they can focus on what they do best: building brands, winning pitches, and scaling fast. That’s when they become seriously valuable, to their clients, to their teams, and eventually, to the groups looking to acquire them. And if we can help get them there faster, that’s a win for everyone.

Also published in: Little Black Book