Reklaim Q1-2025 CEO Letter
Chapter 6
The Sea, the Sharks, and the Strategy That Matters
"Man is not made for defeat." — Ernest Hemingway
Introduction
Since Reklaim’s inception in 2019, I’ve viewed each quarter as a chapter in a longer story, one unfolding alongside a data economy in flux, where the consumer is steadily reclaiming their seat at the table.
We started Reklaim with a simple conviction: that privacy, transparency, and consumer control would reshape how data is valued and transacted.
In Q1 2025, Reklaim grew revenue by 73% year-over-year — our fastest Q1 growth to date — driven by margin expansion, new product launches, and increased distribution. We expanded our data distribution to new platforms, onboarded new clients, and launched a high-margin subscription product, Reklaim Protect, while maintaining financial discipline. Our focus remains clear: build a company that delivers sustainable growth and consistent profitability while solving fundamental issues around personal data transparency and privacy.
These letters highlight the company's trajectory and serve as a commentary on the macro signals reshaping the data, advertising, and privacy industries. If you’re new here, I’d encourage you to revisit previous ‘chapters’ (Q4, Q3, Q2) to see how our forecasted themes continue to unfold.
You have many options when deciding where to place your trust and capital. I appreciate that you’ve chosen to be part of this journey with Reklaim.
Welcome to Chapter One of Book Six.
The Market Trends
The broader advertising and data ecosystem continues to evolve under pressure. From mass layoffs and agency consolidation to shifting sentiment and aggressive regulatory enforcement, the landscape is being reshaped at every level. While many are retreating or restructuring, Reklaim is expanding—adding clients, launching products, and capturing margin. Q1 provided another signal that we’re not just surviving in this environment but gaining ground.
Layoffs and Consolidation Accelerate
The ad industry continues to contract under the weight of consolidation and the advancement of AI. WPP’s GroupM, the second-largest advertising holding company, announced a 45% reduction in headcount and a consolidation of the many sub-agencies within. Omnicom, the largest holdco, is targeting a 10% reduction in staff costs, having already eliminated 3,000 roles in 2024 ahead of its $13B merger with IPG. With $750M in cost synergies associated with this merger, additional mass layoffs are expected when the merger is finalized. It’s a defining moment for the agency world shaped by cuts, consolidation, and accelerating uncertainty.
The contrast couldn’t be more evident: as the largest firms in the space restructure, cut headcount, and brace for integration challenges, Reklaim is building. We’re onboarding new clients, expanding product offerings, and increasing distribution, without the overhead of legacy infrastructure or the distraction of layoffs.
The advertising industry's earnings in the past quarter were mixed. The four major holding companies, which control over 50% of global media spend, saw increases from Publicis (+4.9% organic growth) and Omnicom (+3.4%), while WPP (-2.7%) and IPG (-3.6%, plus an $85M net loss tied to restructuring ahead of the Omnicom merger) struggled.
Reklaim’s polling of front-line sellers — those actively selling advertising and data across all media verticals — showed improvement from last quarter, when the shock of tariffs led to concerns around decreased ad spend. Fast-forward three months, and the hysteria has subsided, with sellers now seeing modest improvements in sentiment.
9% of sellers are seeing an uptick in spending, up from 5% in Q4
43% are seeing budget cuts, down from 59% in Q4
Those seeing no change rose to 49%, up from 36% in Q4
These sellers are a good temperature check on the market's sentiment from those on the front line. While cliché, I’ve often viewed this Reklaim poll as our version of the VIX, a signal of real-time market sentiment drawn not from analysts or earnings decks but from the people selling ads and data daily.
Privacy Enforcement Hits Record Highs
In May 2025, Texas secured a $1.375B settlement from Google, the largest single-state privacy settlement in U.S. history, over unlawful tracking of user location, incognito activity, and biometric data. This follows a $391.5M multistate settlement with Google in 2022 for similar offences and a $1.4B settlement with Meta in 2024 over unauthorized biometric data use. The number of class actions and lawsuits continues to accelerate. Ironically, in the class action “Brown vs. Google,” also settled in 2024, Reklaim was used as a positive example of how a company can provide transparency and control to users over their data. In previous letters, I have written extensively on changes in state-level privacy laws and how they validate our belief that this trend will continue, and Reklaim will be in the thick of it.
As a public company focused on compliant consumer data and ad tech transparency, Reklaim sits at the intersection of privacy enforcement and media transformation — exactly where the industry is heading.
Antitrust: Breaking the Walled Gardens
Finally, we can’t ignore the antitrust action surrounding Google. In May, the U.S. federal court ruled that Google maintains illegal monopolies in ad exchanges and ad servers, effectively locking publishers into its ecosystem. This ruling, which follows a prior monopoly judgment in search, signals increased regulatory scrutiny and a push toward greater competition and transparency, core to Reklaim’s value proposition. In future letters, we will outline the impact that this ruling will have on the larger ecosystem.
The Sea, the Sharks, and the Startup Life
In Ernest Hemingway's The Old Man and the Sea, an old fisherman named Santiago goes 84 days without catching a fish. Everyone in the fishing village casts him aside, writes him off, and makes fun of his lack of success. Santiago, once successful, continues working day after day, unbothered by those around him. He knows what he’s doing.
The rejection from the sea and the other fishermen continues until Santiago decides to do something no fisherman would dare. He chooses to fish farther off the coast of Cuba, into waters no one else dares enter.
On the 85th day, Santiago sets sail. While alone with his thoughts drifting in the Gulf Stream, Santiago feels a nibble, then a tug, and finally a catch. But this is like no other catch; it's the biggest marlin he has ever seen. For three days, the old man battles the fish. One will die. In a battle of wills, the old man is finally successful and lashes his prize to the skiff's side as he heads back to shore. Success.
Then the sharks come.
Sharks take bites from Santiago’s prize. Blood draws more. Soon, nothing remains but a skeleton.
Santiago returns with nothing but the skeleton. The villagers are in awe. The chatter disappears. Exhausted, he stumbles to bed — he has to go fishing tomorrow.
This is what building a company feels like. You go farther than others are willing to, risk more, and fight longer than most think is sane.
Everyone has an opinion — especially those who’ve never held a rod.
But here’s the thing: Santiago knew what most don’t. For entrepreneurs, these are four pillars to follow from a (flawed) CEO:
You keep working — because that’s the job.
You fish in deeper water — because that’s where the opportunity is.
You ignore the noise because noise has never caught a marlin.
And you stay disciplined — because nothing of value is ever landed without it.
It’s not just a metaphor. It’s the reality of building something that matters.
With that same mindset — perseverance, depth, and discipline — we launched Reklaim Protect this quarter.
Reklaim Protect
Privacy isn't static—it's dynamic. This quarter, we embraced that evolution with the launch of Reklaim Protect. This new subscription product empowers users to remove their personal information from data broker and people-finder sites, monitor the dark web for breaches, and access a 24/7 AI privacy assistant.
Protect is an iteration of our core product that adds a new persona to our addressable market. Not every consumer wants to sell their data—many simply want to protect it. Reklaim Protect was built for them. This is more than a feature; it’s a new revenue vertical that may ultimately exceed our data sale business while being entirely accretive to our existing model.
In the quarters ahead, Protect will expand in scope and reach, increasing the number of supported data brokers and people-finder sites, rolling out internationally, and becoming available as a standalone product for users outside the Reklaim ecosystem. We’ll also continue evolving the AI Privacy Bot — adding real-time alerts for new breaches and class actions, turning it into a proactive engine for personal data defence.
The Problem with M&A — And a Better Path
“In the short run, the market is a voting machine, but in the long run, it is a weighing machine.” — Ben Graham
Every quarter, I get asked: “What about acquisitions?” My answer? It’s not that I’m against M&A, I think most people do it wrong.
Here’s the problem with traditional small-cap M&A:
In small-cap, your stock is often undervalued, which makes stock-based M&A incredibly dilutive.
Cash? Most small caps don’t have it, and fewer still are profitable. So this point is usually moot.
Overvaluation and Irrationality. Most founders are irrational (I can say that; I am a founder) and believe that their business is worth more than it is. Negotiating a price with a founder around their business is challenging.
Integration is always more complicated than you think. I’ve been on both sides. Anyone who believes in ‘synergies’ usually underestimates the technical debt, product complexity, and cultural clash that comes with it.
There is a much larger probability of Reklaim being purchased than Reklaim purchasing someone else. Small-cap has become a shopping aisle for private equity, and undervalued public companies are on sale.
There’s one business I’d buy — no premium, no banker required. It makes money, generates free cash flow, and grows 25–50% a year in a market that’s only getting bigger. It’s called Reklaim. Why buy someone else when the best acquisition target is your own stock?
Where We Go From Here
We didn’t build Reklaim by following the crowd. Since 2019, we’ve operated with a clear view of where the market is going — and a willingness to go there early.
Privacy isn’t emerging, it’s here. Regulators are enforcing it. Consumers are participating. Platforms are adjusting under pressure. And Reklaim is positioned to benefit from all of it, not by accident but by design.
With the launch of Reklaim Protect, we’re expanding beyond data visibility into direct action. We’re helping consumers remove their data from the open market, monitor for exposure, and take back control while creating a recurring, high-margin business that strengthens our model.
We believe in profitable companies that grow consistently. Not hype cycles, not short-term narratives — just businesses that solve real problems in durable markets.
The data market is already moving. We’re building where it’s going.
Neil