Clipbook Secures $3 Million Seed Funding Round Led by Mark Cuban

Clipbook, the advanced AI-powered platform for monitoring corporate media coverage, announced on Monday the closing of a $3 million seed funding round. The investment round was led by renowned investor Mark Cuban, along with Commonweal Ventures and Carpenter Capital.

Seed Funding: Definition and Importance

Seed funding is the initial capital raised for an early-stage startup, aiming to support essential activities such as product or service development, team building, and market research, enabling the company to attract larger investments. Personal networks, angel investors, or specialized investment funds may contribute to these rounds.

The Audacity of Cold Email and Clipbook's Success

This significant deal came after Adam Joseph, Clipbook’s founder, took a bold step by sending a cold email he didn't expect anyone to notice. Joseph launched Clipbook in 2023 and self-funded it until it achieved $1 million in annual recurring revenue. About a year after this success, he felt it was time to seek investors to support the company's growth.

Cold emailing in fundraising is known to be a challenge, but well-targeted emails can achieve open rates of up to 70% and response rates of up to 15%, especially with personalization and a clear ask. Effective strategies include crafting a compelling subject line, keeping the message short and direct, and using a friendly tone, with the importance of setting up follow-up sequences to increase success rates.

Joseph stated that he compiled a list of the top five media investors globally. Since his product relies on artificial intelligence to help companies track what is being said about them and their competitors in the press, podcasts, and social media, he was looking for investors with a deep understanding of this field. Mark Cuban, known for founding media networks, his participation in "Shark Tank," authoring books, producing films, and regularly conducting TV interviews, was at the top of Joseph's list.

Mark Cuban's Response and Rigorous Tests

One late night in 2024, after mustering his courage, Joseph sent a one-page investment pitch via cold email to all the investors on his list, without any prior introduction. Cuban was the only one who responded. It turns out that Cuban, despite his busy schedule and the enormous number of pitches he receives, still reviews his emails and is always looking for his next investment opportunity. In this context, Cuban stated: "I've invested tens of millions of dollars based on emails, and many of them have paid off, turning into Unicorn Companies," hinting at why he responded to Clipbook.

A unicorn company is a privately held startup company valued at over $1 billion, named so to denote the rarity of achieving such spectacular success in the startup world.

But before Cuban opened his checkbook, he subjected Joseph to a series of rigorous tests. Joseph recalls that Cuban's first email contained "the 20 most skeptical questions he could ever ask." Cuban admits he's famous for this style from "Shark Tank," explaining: "When I start asking them questions, they wilt, right? They wilt or they get angry to a certain extent. It's their baby. They don't like to be questioned, right? But Adam responded quickly and efficiently."

After Joseph answered all of Cuban's questions to his full satisfaction, the billionaire asked Joseph to prove the product's effectiveness by preparing a comprehensive report for Cuban's own company: CostPlus Drugs. This company is a digital pharmacy and a public benefit organization he co-founded in 2022, aiming to price medicines affordably, plus a 15% profit margin.

What Distinguishes Clipbook: The Power of Native AI

Cuban explained: "I know how difficult it is to research in PR and marketing, identify competing companies, and understand what people are saying about your own company." Clipbook has many competitors offering similar services, most notably Sprinklr, in addition to Sprout Social, Emplify, Hootsuite, and others.

Joseph asserts that what distinguishes Clipbook is that it was built from the ground up as a native AI platform. This means it goes beyond merely searching for keywords, as it precisely understands the context in which these words are used. For example, the platform differentiates between general media mentions of "cost" and "drugs" and a search specifically for "CostPlus Drugs." It also distinguishes between anyone named "Adam Joseph" and Clipbook's founder himself.

Joseph adds that being a fully AI-powered platform (not just an AI add-on) gives it the ability to excel at searching for audio and visual references within podcasts, a task other products find difficult to accomplish. Joseph developed this product based on his previous experience in public relations for the Boston Consulting Group, where he personally suffered from the challenges of searching for media sentiment analysis.

Closing the Round and Future Growth

Joseph quickly completed the requested report for Cuban, which "hit" the relevant references accurately, according to Cuban. Cuban was particularly impressed when the report revealed a previously unknown podcast conversation related to pharmacy benefit services.

After several days of negotiations, Cuban agreed to send Joseph a term sheet. The first tranche of this funding round successfully closed in early 2025, with additional investors flowing in over the next few months.

Joseph preferred not to share updated annual recurring revenue figures with TechCrunch since the closing of his funding round, stating only that the company had seen significant growth after surpassing the initial $1 million mark. The company now boasts 200 corporate clients, including prominent names like Weber Shandwick and his former employer, Boston Consulting Group.