At Walker Sands, we’re building the world’s best B2B growth services agency. Turning that ambition into reality requires investment partners who align with our vision, reflect our values and contribute the strategic expertise and resources to drive growth for our clients, our team and the broader B2B marketing industry.
Over the past several years, Stone-Goff Partners has played that role, supporting us as we doubled in size, entered new markets and expanded our integrated marketing capabilities. They’ve been a tremendous partner and helped us reach a point of scale where we’re better positioned than ever to achieve our vision.
But we’re just getting started.
We’re excited to announce today that Mountaingate Capital has invested in Walker Sands to drive growth in our next chapter. Mountaingate deeply understands both marketing and growth — and they dream just as big as we do about what Walker Sands can become in the years ahead.
I spoke with our Co-CEO, Andrew Cross, about the evolution of Walker Sands, the decision to partner with Mountaingate and what lies ahead in this exciting next chapter.
Can you tell us more about Mountaingate Capital?
Andrew: Mountaingate is a Denver-based private equity firm with deep expertise in marketing services. They are a familiar name for a lot of B2B marketers. If you ask around, you’ll hear a few common themes. First, they know the marketing space forwards and backwards. Second, they have an incredible track record scaling businesses like W2O Group (Real Chemistry), Bounteous, Tinuiti, Mars United Commerce and Anteriad, to name a few. And third, they approach every new investment with a true partnership mentality. Inc. Magazine has named Mountaingate as one of the top founder-friendly private equity firms each year since the list’s inception – seven consecutive years!
What is the thesis Mountaingate has for Walker Sands?
Andrew: We believe the opportunity to build the world’s leading B2B growth services agency is wide open.
Through our Outcome-based Marketing framework, we’ve been focused on building an end-to-end integrated marketing toolkit that supports clients through every stage of the funnel with capabilities across GTM strategy, strategic communications, digital marketing, marketing technology and creative and content. With Mountaingate, we see an opportunity to advance this vision with an emphasis on deeper data, analytics, measurement and technology enablement.
We also plan to further strengthen our integrated offerings by extending our capabilities, making strategic acquisitions and entering new geographic markets to expand the reach of our client programs.
What stands out most about the journey we’ve been on over the past several years?
Andrew: Everything we do, we do alongside our clients. I’m so grateful to our clients for trusting in us, for challenging us and for learning along with us. Their input and partnership has led us to build out offerings like insights + strategy, marketing operations, video + motion graphics, and most recently, generative engine optimization (GEO).
Our acquisitions of March Communications and KoMarketing were also highlights for the agency and for me personally. Bringing together teams, capabilities and cultures is a special kind of challenge, one that is all the more rewarding when you see rising leaders at those organizations playing important roles at Walker Sands today.
What excites you most about this partnership?
Andrew: This is about making the right investments to truly become the best in the world at what we do — new capabilities, new technology, new talent and new opportunities. It positions us to better serve our clients by expanding into new markets and continuing to pursue strategic acquisitions that strengthen our capabilities. Mountaingate brings deep operational and strategic planning experience, and we see them as the best possible partner to help us write the next chapter for Walker Sands.
Any final thoughts as we look to the future?
Andrew: Marketing is a team sport. Every single colleague at Walker Sands – past and present – has played a role in getting us to where we are today. The caliber and quality of humans at Walker Sands is second to none, and I couldn’t be more optimistic about the road ahead.
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