Dynamic Duos: Zitcha’s Troy Townsend and Jack Byrne
In this week's Dynamic Duos, Zitcha's co-founders Troy Townsend (CEO) and Jack Byrne (COO), explain their frenemies pipeline, as well as how they now complement each other so successfully.
Troy Townsend:
Jack and I went from frenemies (we both owned competing digital agencies) to business partners to lifelong friends in a very short amount of time. Honestly, I speak to him more than my wife.
Everyone always wanted us to meet because they knew we would get along well, which was right on the money – quite literally.
Zitcha was incubated in Tiger Pistol (now The Pistol) and was brought to life through the collaboration of Jack and myself into what is now known as Zitcha.
At The Pistol we were really focused on unlocking the potential of retail media on platforms like Meta and Google and as Zitcha was born we brought in all the broader media using Jack’s expertise. Through his experience and knowledge, we were able to build out our offering to be more holistic, not only covering Meta, Google and The Trade Desk, but in-store media and onsite media.
Zitcha is an amalgamation of Jack’s understanding of the space and my forward thinking that has grown it to be a much broader offering.
Even though Jack claims to be just a media guy, he actually takes risks and had the foresight to predict the direction the retail media industry was going in. He saw the opportunity in building a retailer first retail media platform, which is why he fully invests 100% of his time to Zitcha now.
We feed off each other’s energy. As I said, I talk to him more than my wife. We are right in the thick of building something new and exciting and connection for the leaders is critical to success. We are in the early stages of building something new and hoping to change the industry while we’re at it.
Together, we have over 40 years experience in the space – and being able to drive a critical new phase of growth for the Australian market is super exciting and that’s what we love doing together. We are both so aligned on building, technology, and media, which is why we work so well.
Jack Byrne:
Troy and I met through shared clients of the agencies we both founded – my agency being Hatched (full service media) and his agency being Tiger Pistol (digital performance). We were both trying to cut each other’s lunch in the paid media space and thought we were both formidable competition to each other. Then a client said we would both get along really well, as we are very similar people, so we arranged to meet – 10 paces at dawn – where we both eyed each other off and soon came to the realisation that our pistols (pardon the pun) were better pointed in the same direction rather than each other.
Throughout the dark days of 2020 and early 2021 we were sharing notes on how we were navigating our respective businesses through the pandemic. Once we both managed to adapt to this once-in-a-lifetime event, we started looking at what opportunities would emerge in the industry and both agreed retail media would start accelerating at pace, which has been a call I am happy to say has been proven. So, having spent the best part of five years trying to work out how we can work together, Zitcha was born to empower retailers to monetise their retail media ecosystems from channels including social media, display, search, email and in-store.
Whilst Troy and I are very similar in our drive, energy and care for our people, we do have different skill sets that are complementary to each other. Troy is very much a product person with a unique vision on where the retail media market is going and where Zitcha needs to be in order to deliver a unique product to solve some of the big challenges facing retailers and suppliers alike. I am more the media and business guy, which is far less exciting but the combo works, particularly once we surround ourselves with other great Zitcha leaders and specialists at every level of the business.
Troy on Jack:
Most memorable moment with Jack: Jack made a bet with me when we kicked off the business together, he wanted to see if he could exit the business before ever having to login to the platform. He tries to tell me he is still successful in this endeavour, but site tracking shows that he has had a few cheeky logins and has even done a couple of undercover demos.
Best word to describe Jack: My word to describe the great man is legend. In all parts of his life he leads from the front and is just a great human to always be around.
Most annoying or endearing behaviour Jack has: Enjoys talking about the business excessively (especially after a bottle of Pinot).
Jack on Troy:
Most memorable moment with Troy: We both ran successful businesses before joining forces at Zitcha and during the pandemic a lot of trust and understanding between the both of us was franked. Leaning on each other for support, both at a business and personal level, has been a really solid foundation from which to grow Zitcha and develop our productive relationship.
Best word to describe Troy: Innovative.
Most annoying or endearing behaviour Troy has: While it’s almost impossible for anyone to get a word in when either of us are on a roll, like any mad scientist, his administration skills are a lot to be desired. However having his wife Jess work in the business means stuff gets done as she is the real brains behind the operation!
If you and a colleague would like to submit your story to Dynamic Duos, please email lmcnamara@mumbrella.com.au.
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Lauren McNamara is a journalist at Mumbrella, covering the creative and PR beat. She joined in November 2022 as editorial assistant, after completing a Bachelor of Communications (Journalism) at UTS.
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