Star Mountain Announces Exit of Channel Factory Investment
Founded in 2014 by Tony Chen, Channel Factory is a trusted partner to the world's leading brands, agencies, and media buyers, delivering contextually targeted advertising solutions. Leveraging proprietary AI technology, Channel Factory helps advertisers maximize the efficiency of their digital media campaigns across YouTube, Meta, other walled gardens, and CTV. It ensures ads appear in brand-suitable, high-performing, and contextually relevant content.
Since Star Mountain's investment, Channel Factory has successfully executed a number of valuable growth initiatives, including the expansion of its value proposition through strategic partnerships with Google and other social platforms, geographic expansion in Europe and Asia, and the professionalization of the management team, including the addition of experienced board members.
'We thank the team at Star Mountain Capital for their support and guidance. As our first institutional capital partner, they helped our business grow and expand globally as we leveraged their significant expertise in the Advertising and Marketing industry. We are excited they will continue to be a minority owner in Channel Factory's next chapter of expansion,' said Channel Factory Founder and CEO Tony Chen.
'Since Star Mountain invested in Channel Factory, the company has been able to deliver outstanding growth and profitability. We're proud to remain shareholders at Channel Factory in this new cycle and confident that they will achieve even more success,' said Bruce Eatroff, Star Mountain Managing Director.
About Star Mountain Capital
With over $4 billion in AUM (committed capital including debt facilities as of 5/31/2025), Star Mountain specializes in providing scalable and data-driven investment solutions across two core strategies:
Direct Investments: Providing debt and equity capital to established lower middle-market businesses.
Secondary Investments: Acquiring LP interests, direct assets, and making primary LP commitments.
Star Mountain's investors include public and private pensions, insurance companies, commercial banks, endowments, foundations, family offices, and high-net-worth individuals. Employee-owned and sharing profits with 100% of its U.S. full-time employees, the firm prioritizes alignment of interests to maximize value for stakeholders.
Since 2010, Star Mountain has completed over 300 direct investments and 50 secondary/fund investments in the North American lower middle-market. The firm has been recognized as one of the Inc. 5000 fastest-growing private companies and a Best Place to Work by Crain's New York Business and Pensions & Investments.
For more information, visit www.starmountaincapital.com.
Legal Disclaimer:
This press release does not constitute an offer to sell or a solicitation of an offer to purchase interests in any investment product. Awards and recognitions by third-party rating agencies, companies, or publications should not be interpreted as a guarantee of future results or performance. They should not be considered as an endorsement, recommendation, or referral of Star Mountain Capital or its representatives by any client or third party. Rankings published by media and industry organizations are based on information provided by the recognized advisor. Additionally, readers should understand that past performance is not indicative of future results. Award descriptions and selection methodologies may vary.
Awards and Recognition Disclosure:
Star Mountain Capital's awards and recognitions are based on third-party evaluations and criteria, which may be subjective. These honors do not imply a guarantee of future performance or an endorsement by current or past clients.
Ranking Methodologies:
Crain's Best Places to Work: Evaluations were conducted through a two-part process, assessing workplace policies, practices, and employee satisfaction via surveys. Participation required a fee solely for survey processing purposes. More details are available at Crain's eligibility criteria.
Pensions & Investments Best Places to Work: Companies were evaluated based on surveys measuring employee engagement (75%) and employer policies (25%). Participation required a minimum of 20 U.S. employees and $100 million in discretionary assets under management. Further details can be found at P&I eligibility criteria.
Inc. 5000 Rankings: Companies were ranked based on revenue growth from 2019 to 2022. To qualify, firms had to be U.S.-based, privately held, and independent, with revenue thresholds of at least $100,000 in 2019 and $2 million in 2022. More details are available at Inc. 5000 criteria.
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Fox Sports
an hour ago
- Fox Sports
Boston Celtics Finalize Sale to Bill Chisholm: 'Coming in 2nd Is Not Acceptable'
National Basketball Association Boston Celtics Finalize Sale to Bill Chisholm: 'Coming in 2nd Is Not Acceptable' Published Aug. 19, 2025 12:55 p.m. ET share facebook x reddit link The Boston Celtics have a new owner, and there's one thing that isn't going to change at the NBA's most-decorated franchise. "Coming in second is not the objective, and it's not acceptable," private equity mogul Bill Chisholm said Tuesday after taking control of the team from Wyc Grousbeck. "The ultimate yardstick is winning championships. Wyc's got two, and we're going to get more, and he and I together are going to help drive that." Chisholm leads a group that bid $6.1 billion for the Celtics — a record price for an American professional sports franchise. The NBA unanimously approved the deal last week, and all that was left was for the money to change hands on Tuesday. "We are committed to building on the legacy of the Celtics and raising banners," Chisholm said. "And I can't wait for the team to get back out there this fall." A Massachusetts native, Chisholm said his earliest Celtics memories are of the Dave Cowens, JoJo White and John Havlicek teams that won two NBA titles in the 1970s, but he really fell hard for the teams with Larry Bird, Robert Parish and Kevin McHale that added three more banners to the Boston Garden rafters in the '80s. "I became a rabid fan during the Bird, McHale, Parish era. That was my team," Chisholm said in an interview with The Associated Press shortly after the deal was finalized. "How can you be a teenager in Massachusetts, or New England, with that group and not end up being a lifelong Celtics fan?" ADVERTISEMENT The team was put on the market last summer, soon after Tatum and Brown vanquished the Dallas Mavericks in the NBA finals. Chisholm won the bidding in March and leads a group that now has majority ownership control of the team, with full control coming by 2028 at a price that could bring the total value to $7.3 billion. That's the highest price ever paid for a team in the four major North American sports, though a piece of the Los Angeles Lakers changed hands this summer at a price that would value the entire franchise at $10 billion. Other investors include Aditya Mittal, Bruce Beal, Andrew Bialecki, Dom Ferrante, Rob Hale, Mario Ho and Ian Loring. Sixth Street is also a "major participant" in the investment group, the team said in a news release. Grousbeck and co-owner Steve Pagliuca led a group that bought the Celtics in 2002 for $360 million and presided over an era in which the Celtics won two NBA titles, lost in the finals two other times and made the playoffs in 20 of 23 seasons. The team's most recent title came in 2024, led by Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown. Team president Rich Gotham, general manager Brad Stevens and coach Joe Mazzulla are all expected to remain in their positions. Chisholm will represent the team in league matters as governor, with Grousbeck staying on as co-owner, CEO and alternate governor to run the day-to-day operations alongside Chisholm. "We've got a really solid core to the roster. We've got, I think, the best basketball people that there are. And we've got a really talented business operations team," Chisholm said. "And then we've got a leader like Wyc. I mean, why would you go make major changes to that? "I think there are things we can always improve on," he said. "But that is a really, really good place to start." Grousbeck said he can already tell that Chisholm understands the significance of owning one of the NBA's charter franchises, with its unmatched 18 championships and a history of Hall of Famers from Red Auerbach, Bob Cousy and Bill Russell to Paul Pierce and Kevin Garnett. "It's an unbelievable responsibility, and an unbelievable thrill," Grousbeck said. "But it's a huge challenge because the greats built it. And we're just here trying to maintain the legacy, which is a great honor." Chisholm takes over the team in a bit of a transition just two seasons after its latest title. Tatum is recovering from surgery to repair the ruptured right Achilles tendon injury he suffered in Boston's Eastern Conference semifinal loss to the New York Knicks, dooming the Celtics' hopes of a repeat. Jrue Holiday and Kristaps Porzingis — key parts of the title-winning team — were traded to avoid the NBA's punitive second apron payroll tax. Another key player, Al Horford – who came off of the bench or subbed in for the oft-injured Porzingis the past two years – remains a free agent. Grousbeck said the days of outspending opponents to win championships are over. "We had our two years at supermax, 100 mph, and now you take a year to reset a little bit, which every team will be doing," Grousbeck said. "And we'll be back. We're coming back as hard as we can." The Associated Press contributed to this report. Want great stories delivered right to your inbox? Create or log in to your FOX Sports account , and follow leagues, teams and players to receive a personalized newsletter daily! FOLLOW Follow your favorites to personalize your FOX Sports experience Boston Celtics National Basketball Association What did you think of this story? share
Fast Company
an hour ago
- Fast Company
Here's what nobody tells you about building an innovative culture—not everyone will thrive in it. (And that's okay.)
Years ago, we had a manager named Ania running one of our publishing operations. She was well-liked, diligent, and responsible. Still, we felt the business needed a more creative spark, so we brought in a rising executive to take her place. Ania transitioned out gracefully and left the company on good terms. Things turned out well. Our business thrived and Ania became a highly sought-after interior decorator, renowned for her creativity. The problem wasn't that she lacked any creative ability. The problem was that we weren't giving her the type of challenges that excited her. While she languished in our business, she thrived in a different environment. The truth is that there is no such thing as a 'creative personality.' You set the conditions for the people in your organization to be creative. But as you set those conditions, you also narrow possibilities, making the environment fertile ground for some, but barren for others. Every leader needs to learn to make those choices. Culture matters. You need to shape it with care. A Misfit Trying To Find His Place Not unlike Ania, Chester Carlson didn't quite fit in. Unsatisfied with his work at the patent department at Bell Labs, he wrote down hundreds of ideas, the vast majority of which never amounted to anything. He was eventually fired and went through a few more jobs after that. Chester was a man looking for his place in the world. There was one idea, however, that he kept coming back to. He worked on it for years, even while holding down a day job and going to law school at night. When his wife got tired of the putrid smells and explosions he made mixing chemicals in the kitchen, he moved his experiments to a second-floor room in a house his mother-in-law owned. Eventually, he conjured up a working prototype in 1939, but it was far from a viable product. He continued to tinker and, eventually, teamed up with the Haloid corporation in 1946. Together, they refined his product further, but it still cost nearly ten times more than competitive machines. They tried to interest the great companies of the day—Kodak, IBM and GE—but all demurred. Much like Chester himself, his invention didn't fit in. There just didn't seem to be a value proposition that would justify the cost of the machine. Yet Haloid's CEO, Joe Wilson, saw potential. He figured that once companies had the machines, they'd make more copies than they ever imagined. Wilson also figured that Carlson's concept needed a name that would signal that it was something truly different and, after some deliberation, settled on 'xerography.' And that's how the Xerox Corporation was born. The Rise And Fall Of A Business Model Wilson saw the challenge as a classic chicken-and-egg problem. Since nobody had ever used a Xerox machine before, they had no idea how useful they could be and weren't willing to buy such an expensive product. At the same time, unless they bought the machines, they wouldn't ever use them and see the value. But what if Xerox leased the machines for a fraction of the cost and charged per copy? Since customers weren't planning to make many copies, there was little risk in trying it out. Wilson was willing to bet that once the machines were installed, customers would discover needs they never knew they had. He calculated that the model would be profitable at 2,000 copies per month. In 1959, Xerox launched its 914 copier, which became an instant hit. The technology made copying so much easier that, before long, customers were averaging 2,000 copies per day, instead of per month. Wilson's bet had paid off. Revenues grew at a 41% compound annual rate for over a decade, and the small firm soon became a titan of American business. Xerox became laser-focused on optimizing its business model. Its profits depended on the number of copies printed and that became Xerox's key performance metric. Everything the company did—from how it designed its copiers to how it marketed and sold them—was rooted in that one simple principle. Yet the company eventually became a victim of its own success. Japanese competitors like Canon and Ricoh began selling simpler, cheaper copiers, based on 20-year-old technology, that were easier to use and needed less maintenance. Rather than staffing a 'copy room,' companies could place these smaller, less expensive units on every floor. Xerox was being disrupted. Making Space For Misfits It was around this time that the company hired a young engineer named Gary Starkweather, Much like Ania and Chester, he found he didn't fit in. Part of the problem probably had something to do with his background. Copiers were largely based on chemistry and Gary's interest was optics. In particular, he was excited about lasers. But it was more than that. Gary wanted to build something outside the copier business and, in a way that was uncannily similar to Chester Carlson's situation, the higher-ups just didn't see how it fit in with their business. In fact, his boss actually threatened to fire anyone who worked with Starkweather on the project. Eventually, he had enough. He marched into the Vice President's office and asked, 'Do you want me to do this for you or for someone else?' In the business culture at the time, this was considered unheard of behavior, clearly a firing offense. Yet fate intervened and destiny had something very different in store for Gary Starkweather. As luck would have it, Xerox CEO Peter McColough was a bit of a visionary himself. He recognized the bind his company was in and wanted to shift the firm's focus to 'the architecture of information.' No one really knew what that meant, but a special unit, the Palo Alto Research Center (PARC), had been set up to figure it out. As luck would have it, the researcher there had been developing a technology called bitmapping that would revolutionize computer graphics. What they were missing was a technology that could bring those graphics into the physical world. An Organization Fit For Purpose At PARC, Xerox created a culture where creative minds could thrive. It was there that Alan Kay invented object-oriented software, Bob Metcalfe developed Ethernet; and so many other technologies were created that became central to the age of personal computers. Some of the technology was spun off into companies, such as 3Com and Adobe. It was also a place where Gary Starkweather, who had been a pariah in the old Xerox research lab back on the east coast, found he fit right in. The technology he had been developing became the world's first laser printer and brought the bitmapped graphics technology to life. As a product, it would prove to be so enormously profitable it would save Xerox. Yet even the most innovative cultures aren't fertile ground for every idea. Two researchers at PARC, Dick Shoup and Alvy Ray Smith, were working on a new graphics technology called SuperPaint. Unfortunately, it didn't fit in with PARC's vision of personal computing. Much like Starkweather, the two were seen as outcasts and would go elsewhere. Smith would eventually team up with another graphics pioneer, Ed Catmull, at the New York Institute of Technology. Later, they joined George Lucas, who saw the potential for computer graphics to create a new paradigm for special effects. Eventually, the operation was spun out and bought by Steve Jobs. That company, Pixar, was sold to Disney in 2006 for $7.4 billion. Great leaders build cultures that are fit for purpose. That means you have to make choices. Inevitably, that means that some things—and some people—won't fit. And some will.
Associated Press
2 hours ago
- Associated Press
The Boston Celtics have a new owner. The drive to add more NBA championships won't change
Updated [hour]:[minute] [AMPM] [timezone], [monthFull] [day], [year] BOSTON (AP) — The Boston Celtics have a new owner, and there's one thing that isn't going to change at the NBA's most-decorated franchise. 'Coming in second is not the objective, and it's not acceptable,' private equity mogul Bill Chisholm said Tuesday after taking control of the team from Wyc Grousbeck. 'The ultimate yardstick is winning championships. Wyc's got two, and we're going to get more, and he and I together are going to help drive that.' Chisholm leads a group that bid $6.1 billion for the Celtics — a record price for an American professional sports franchise. The NBA unanimously approved the deal last week, and all that was left was for the money to change hands on Tuesday. 'We are committed to building on the legacy of the Celtics and raising banners,' Chisholm said. 'And I can't wait for the team to get back out there this fall.' A Massachusetts native, Chisholm said his earliest Celtics memories are of the Dave Cowens, JoJo White and John Havlicek teams that won two NBA titles in the 1970s, but he really fell hard for the teams with Larry Bird, Robert Parish and Kevin McHale that added three more banners to the Boston Garden rafters in the '80s. 'I became a rabid fan during the Bird, McHale, Parish era. That was my team,' Chisholm said in an interview with The Associated Press shortly after the deal was finalized. 'How can you be a teenager in Massachusetts, or New England, with that group and not end up being a lifelong Celtics fan?' The team was put on the market last summer, soon after Tatum and Brown vanquished the Dallas Mavericks in the NBA finals. Chisholm won the bidding in March and leads a group that now has majority ownership control of the team, with full control coming by 2028 at a price that could bring the total value to $7.3 billion. That's the highest price ever paid for a team in the four major North American sports, though a piece of the Los Angeles Lakers changed hands this summer at a price that would value the entire franchise at $10 billion. Other investors include Aditya Mittal, Bruce Beal, Andrew Bialecki, Dom Ferrante, Rob Hale, Mario Ho and Ian Loring. Sixth Street is also a 'major participant' in the investment group, the team said in a news release. Grousbeck and co-owner Steve Pagliuca led a group that bought the Celtics in 2002 for $360 million and presided over an era in which the Celtics won two NBA titles, lost in the finals two other times and made the playoffs in 20 of 23 seasons. The team's most recent title came in 2024, led by Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown. Team president Rich Gotham, general manager Brad Stevens and coach Joe Mazzulla are all expected to remain in their positions. Chisholm will represent the team in league matters as governor, with Grousbeck staying on as co-owner, CEO and alternate governor to run the day-to-day operations alongside Chisholm. 'We've got a really solid core to the roster. We've got, I think, the best basketball people that there are. And we've got a really talented business operations team,' Chisholm said. 'And then we've got a leader like Wyc. I mean, why would you go make major changes to that? 'I think there are things we can always improve on,' he said. 'But that is a really, really good place to start.' Grousbeck said he can already tell that Chisholm understands the significance of owning one of the NBA's charter franchises, with its unmatched 18 championships and a history of Hall of Famers from Red Auerbach, Bob Cousy and Bill Russell to Paul Pierce and Kevin Garnett. 'It's an unbelievable responsibility, and an unbelievable thrill,' Grousbeck said. 'But it's a huge challenge because the greats built it. And we're just here trying to maintain the legacy, which is a great honor.' Chisholm takes over the team in a bit of a transition just two seasons after its latest title. Tatum is recovering from surgery to repair the ruptured right Achilles tendon injury he suffered in Boston's Eastern Conference semifinal loss to the New York Knicks, dooming the Celtics' hopes of a repeat. Jrue Holiday and Kristaps Porzingis — key parts of the title-winning team — were traded to avoid the NBA's punitive second apron payroll tax. Grousbeck said the days of outspending opponents to win championships are over. 'We had our two years at supermax, 100 mph, and now you take a year to reset a little bit, which every team will be doing,' Grousbeck said. 'And we'll be back. We're coming back as hard as we can.' ___ AP NBA:
