What Pulled Ryan Hickman Out of Banking and Into Startups?

Ryan Hickman was at a bank, watching it flail at fragmented digital media and spend more time preparing campaigns than measuring them. He asked senior management to become the first customer of software that put creative, ad trafficking, payment, and reporting in one place. They agreed. By month two revenue was about $30,000 a month, and he later sold the software. Finding customers, keeping them, and choosing where to focus is what made him want another startup. From upstate New York he commuted into the city and attached that reporting system to NFC marketing, before Apple Pay and Google Wallet. The NFC work reached Google, Walgreens, Adidas, and Samsung. He later sold an influencer marketplace and kept a technology license.