Adverds Network — building a room that closes
How I co-founded and run a networking agency for operators — not another mixer, a machine that turns introductions into pipeline, product, and capital.
Company
Adverds Network
Role
CEO & Co-founder
Started
2024
Focus
Network, media, deals
40+
Operators in the core room
12
Startups introduced to capital
3
Sister companies in the stack
CEO
Role from day one
The brief
I did not want another personal brand with a comment section. I wanted a company that owned the room. Adverds Network started as a simple observation: founders, operators, and consumer brands were drowning in empty mixers, cold DMs, and agencies that sold "community" without a P&L.
We built a networking agency instead. I run it as CEO and co-founder. The product is curated introductions, private dinners, and campaigns that have a reason to exist. Dougie Labs sits behind the software. The May Dougie fitness brand and the MayDougie app sit in the same ecosystem so the brand is not a costume — it is a business I actually operate.
"Don't sell access. Sell outcomes. If an introduction does not change someone's quarter, it does not belong in the room."
The problem we actually solved
What operators told us
I sat with founders, brand leads, and investors who were already "well networked" and still stuck. The pattern was the same:
- Rooms were too big, too public, and optimized for photos instead of deals
- Agencies sold follower counts, not introductions with a reason
- Founders had no gym, no recovery, and no operating system outside the pitch deck
- Tech partners vanished after the sprint. We wanted a company that stays in the stack
The standard
Adverds only books a room if I would take the meeting myself. That filter is the product. Everything else — the software at Dougie Labs, the May Dougie fitness brand, the MayDougie app — exists so the operator on the other side of the table is not a costume.
A private Adverds dinner — small room, clear brief, no open bar photos.
How we run it
Three rules. Everything else is operations:
Small rooms
Eight to twelve operators. If I cannot name why each person is there, they are not there.
Follow-up is the product
Dougie Labs built Relay so intros do not die in a group chat. Every room has an owner and a next step.
Same standard off-stage
The MayDougie app and May Dougie products exist so the brand is lived, not performed. Operators notice.
How it was built
Year one · from dinners to a company
We started with rooms I would host anyway. Then we put a P&L under them, hired operators, and let Dougie Labs instrument the follow-up. The fitness brand and the app came next — not as merch, as proof that the person running the network trains, ships, and stays in the work.
Filter the room
No open RSVP. Every seat has a brief: what they are building, what they need, what they can give.
Run the dinner like a company
Agenda, seating, one owner per table. Photos are optional. Outcomes are not.
Instrument follow-up
Relay, built at Dougie Labs, tracks intros, next steps, and whether the deal actually moved.
Stack the sister companies
May Dougie products and the MayDougie app sit in the same story. The network sells a life that is actually run.
Back the operators
When a founder in the room is ready, we invest time, product, or capital — not a LinkedIn like.
Operators, not an audience. The room is the product.
Before — open mixers, no owner, no follow-up
After — a filtered room with a next step attached
What we refused to do
No ticketed "community"
If the value is a Slack and a badge, it is not Adverds. We sell outcomes: a meeting, a distribution path, a hire, a check. The network is a company, not a content funnel wearing a blazer.
No split between brand and operator
The MayDougie app is the training system I run. May Dougie is the kit. Dougie Labs is the tech company. Adverds is the room. Fans can buy the products. Founders can sit in the network. Investors can see that the same person owns the P&L on all four.
No vendor energy
We do not "deliver a campaign and invoice." We stay in the stack — product, gym, and table. That is why startups we back still take the call a year later.
Where it stands
Adverds is the cash-flow engine and the front door. The rest of the empire is not a side quest.
- Core room: 40+ operators who actually show up
- Startups introduced to capital: 12
- Sister companies: Dougie Labs, May Dougie, MayDougie
- App users: 100k+ on MayDougie
- Role: CEO & Co-founder from day one
"Adverds didn't send me to another mixer. They put me in a room with three people who actually write checks. We closed a seed round off one dinner." — Sarah Müller, founder
What I learned
A personal brand without a company is a costume. A company without a standard is an agency. We built both: a face people recognize, and four vehicles that make money when the camera is off.
The next chapter is more rooms, more product inside Dougie Labs, and a fitness brand that outgrows the founder without losing the standard. If you want in, bring a real brief.
Want a seat, a partnership, or product? Get in touch.
