Jessica Schaefer’s Bevel Acquired by Jeffrey Herzog’s Avenue Z
Bevel, Jessica Schaefer’s tech-focused communications consultancy, has been acquired by Jeffrey Herzog’s Avenue Z in a deal valued at $75 million, according to sources familiar with the pact.
It is the first of what could be a slew of acquisitions by Herzog, the digital marketing visionary who was a pre-Google pioneer of search. Herzog — who sold his first firm, iCrossing, to Hearst in 2010 for $450 million — is in active expansion mode with Avenue Z and is looking to acquire firms across digital marketing, branding, analytics and technology. Schaefer, whose Bevel has offices in New York, Los Angeles, London and Miami, is chief commercial officer at Avenue Z Network, and also becomes the only female board member of the company’s five-person board. She will remain as CEO of Bevel for the next year.
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“In today’s fragmented digital ecosystem, building a category-leading brand requires integrated messages across platforms,” Herzog said in a statement. “By leveraging influential storytelling, digital media and data, we’ll drive brand visibility, build stakeholder engagement and provide clients with measured ROI.”
Schaefer, 36, founded Bevel in 2017 after stints at Moody’s Analytics and Steve Cohen’s Point72 Asset Management, the family office of the billionaire venture capital titan and now owner of the New York Mets. She took Point72 on as a client after the launched. Additional clients have included the Sundance Institute, microinvesting fintech firm Acorns, online mortgage company Better.com, cash advance app Dave.com, financial investing platform Public.com and a slew of venture firms such as BlockTower Capital, Clocktower Technology Ventures, Alan Patricof’s Greycroft and RX3 Ventures, a consumer-focused investment fund backed by Aaron Rodgers.
The technological infrastructure for venture backed digital financial services has exploded in recent years (to more than $100 billion today) as more consumers have jettisoned traditional brick-and-mortar banks, a sector with very low customer satisfaction scores, especially among Millennials and Gen Z consumers. (A record year for bank failures has only added to the legacy industry’s woes.) Schaefer started Bevel with the goal of reimagining the role of media relations and storytelling for fintech start-ups, a sector that had pretty much eschewed the need for effective image management.
“I have worked with a lot of entrepreneurs and for whatever reason, there really seemed to be a gap in communications [strategy],” Schaefer told WWD. “Just because you’re a skilled entrepreneur doesn’t mean you know how to communicate. For really smart people, sometimes communications is not their first language.”
At the same time, the exponential growth of financial start-ups has naturally drawn increased scrutiny — from the media as well as regulators. And the implosion of alleged fraudster Sam Bankman-Fried’s FTX has given the entire crypto industry a black eye. Schaefer has been mindful of not being a gun for hire. Bevel executives are very deliberate about the clients they take on and under which terms.
“There are a lot of people who have done a lot of really bad things,” Schaefer observed. “We don’t represent those companies. We represent companies where they’re building a new category that the market needs to be educated on. And I think that’s really interesting.”
Of course, Schaefer has some experience scripting comeback stories; she helped Cohen rehab his image after his SAC Capital Advisors was indicted in the biggest securities fraud case ever brought against a hedge fund, resulting in a $1.8 billion fine and a two-year ban from managing outside investments.
Bevel is also the only female-founded and female-led communications firms in the fintech, VC and private equity space. And this is Schaefer’s other mission; while many of her high-profile clients — in terms of assets managed as well as public gaffs committed are men (see: Better.com founder Vishal Garg, who went viral in late 2021 for firing 900 employees via a Zoom), Bevel also represents a roster of female-founded companies that are busy garnering positive headlines. They include Abby Levy, founder of VC firm Primetime Partners and formerly founding president of Thrive with Arianna Huffington; Addie Lerner, founder and managing partner of Avid Ventures, and Lili Bank founder Lilac Bar David.
“Women get things done,” said Morgan Borer, who is a partner at Bevel and was Schaefer’s first hire after Schaefer started the company. “When you’re in a conflict or you’re dealing with a tense situation, I always find women to be very even-keeled and centered, and very good at defusing high emotions. We do a lot of crisis communications and I always feel like Jessica and I are the calm, centered ones in the room. We like working with really smart women who are just focused on getting the job done.”
Even so, there are still a dearth of female-led and -founded companies with men, especially white men, still dominating CEO suites. In fact, women hold just 41 — or 8.2 percent — of CEO positions at S&P 500 companies, according to a February tally from Catalyst Research. And the numbers are not any better in in the VC space, women receive just 7 percent of venture funds for their start-ups, according to Fundera. Schaefer admits she was conflicted about selling her company, especially to a male-led enterprise. But Herzog convinced her that he wanted a partner, and that the acquisition would not be a zero-sum transaction.
“And you don’t come across that every day,” added Schaefer, referring to Herzog’s pitch.
To that end, Bevel is expanding its four offices considerably, adding at least 10 employees per location (in New York, LA, London and Miami), with plans to open new offices in Singapore and Tel Aviv by the end of 2024.
“The ability to build a company with executive women is very powerful; teaching women how to negotiate for equity, paying them what they’re worth, that, to me, is really exciting,” she said. “You don’t have the power unless you actually run payroll. You don’t actually have the capability to change anything unless you hold that power.”
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