In May 2025, Upscale AI emerged from stealth and touted a $5.5M seed round, with proud participation from M12. With this announcement, Upscale AI unveiled the first end-to-end AI-native platform built to create, run, and optimize performance TV ads across streaming and connected video channels. This investment was made alongside NVP Capital, Eniac Ventures, SuperAngel.Fund, and Breakpoint Capital
In this edition of Founders Feature, we connected with Upscale AI Founder and CEO Herman Yang to learn more about the future of TV advertising, major shifts in the space that are fostering real change in digital marketing, and the real value of failure to an entrepreneur. Here’s what he had to share:
Tell us a bit about your background and how it led you to this venture.
Herman: My journey in performance advertising has taken me through some of the most pivotal shifts in digital marketing. I had a front row seat for the mobile app revolution and subsequent birth of mobile app advertising – first at AdMob (acquired by Google), and then MoPub (acquired by Twitter, then Applovin) where I first met one of my Upscale AI co-founders, Kevin Weatherman. Our other co-founders, Mike and Seth, came from the performance marketing world as well. Seth founded one of the first ML-driven programmatic DSPs (before that term existed) and Mike was a product leader at MNTN (an early CTV buying platform).
Across those experiences, a common thread has always been helping up-and-coming brands grow their businesses by unlocking their first-party data and driving real outcomes with AI and machine learning. We also shared a belief that the “final unlock” for performance advertising would come from the creative itself.
With Upscale AI, we felt like the moment had arrived to bring those ideas full circle—with the “why now” being driven by the popularity of ad-supported Streaming TV converging with the tech advancements in AI. Generative AI and ML have evolved to a point where it is possible to scale the production of high-quality TV creatives, and do that dynamically. Combine that with the ability to programmatically target individual audiences on Streaming TV, and you’ve got what I believe is the next great performance channel for brands. In many ways, we built Upscale to even the playing field for these fast-growing, innovative companies that historically haven’t had the resources of more established brands.
What has been your strategy for acquiring customers?
Herman: Our approach has always been focused on customer results first. Early on, we partnered with performance-minded e-commerce brands like Lalo and Branch Furniture, helping them prove out real ROAS (Return on Ad Spend) lift by shifting spend from social to Streaming TV. These brands didn’t want vanity metrics—they wanted outcomes: new customers, efficient CPAs, and scalable creative workflows. We delivered on that, and the referrals followed.
From there, it’s been about building a platform that reflects our values— Accountability, Transparency, Customer Focus and Resiliency. Brands need to make every dollar count and we need to prove to them that we can not only make TV creatives that reflect their brands well – but also deliver performance outcomes that get better over time. We really emphasize transparency & communication – our brands are true partners and we’re open about what’s working and not, what we’re investing in versus what is possible today. Just like us, our brands are also startups that are constantly learning and innovating so there’s a really strong shared ethos there.
How do you handle failure or setbacks?
Herman: Coming from the tech world and particularly advertising technology, I learned early that failure is data. Campaigns don’t always work, creative doesn’t always perform —but the insights they generate often lead to that next performance unlock. At Upscale, we treat setbacks as signals. Did the creative miss the audience? Was it the channel? The message? Our team is like an organic AI that is constantly taking these signals in and working together to improve our platform.
As a founding team with backgrounds in startups and scaled platforms, we also know that iteration wins. There’s no “perfect”—just getting better, faster. Our product and GTM culture is built around continuous learning and bias for execution.
How do you foster a positive and productive company culture?
Herman: We’re intentional about culture because we know it compounds. Our team is hybrid, cross-functional, and relatively senior—so we focus on creating a space where clarity, ownership, and velocity are the norm.
Our values—Accountability, Transparency, Customer Focus, Resilience—aren’t just slogans. They reflect how we operate. Everyone knows what they own, and we celebrate doing more with less. But we also make room for creativity and experimentation, especially in a space as new as AI-powered performance video advertising.
We talk to customers every day, and everyone from engineering to design hears the feedback. That closeness to outcomes keeps us aligned, humble, and motivated.
What trends do you see in your industry that excite you?
Herman: There are three converging trends that we think are rewriting the playbook:
- Streaming TV continues to grow—time spent and audiences reached have surpassed social, and the streamers themselves are trying to push what’s possible with not only more engaging content but the ads experience itself.
- Generative AI is transforming creative production, but I think most people are too focused on the technical video generation component (and the video generation models themselves, which are admittedly impressive and getting better) versus the ability for genAI to drive personalized storytelling at scale. In my opinion, that is ultimately much more transformative.
- ML-driven ad optimization is finally reaching TV, letting marketers buy media with precision and accountability like they do on Meta or Google. I think measurement and creative are undergoing a complete re-think, which in turn will feed the ML platforms that can take advantage of those shifts.
At Upscale, we sit at the intersection of all three. It’s not just exciting—it’s a once-in-a-decade shift in how digital advertising works.
If you could change one thing about your industry, what would it be?
Herman: I’d love to see more speed of innovation—especially from the streaming platforms themselves.
There’s a huge opportunity right now for CTV and streaming platforms to move faster when it comes to experimenting with new formats, tools, and measurement models—particularly in how they support performance-driven brands. The traditional TV ad model still dominates much of the thinking, and while we’re seeing encouraging moves from platforms like Netflix, Amazon, and Roku, there’s so much more room to co-create and test with digitally native brands who haven’t historically spent on TV.
At Upscale, we’re building for that future—where experimentation is the norm, not the exception. We’d love to see more streamers embrace that mindset, open up to new formats, and treat performance marketers as collaborators, not just media buyers. The brands are ready. The audience is there. Now it’s about building the AI-driven “pipes” to connect them—and moving fast.
