Matt Fowkes comes to the billboard industry through his family’s company, Steel City Billboards. With a background in technology and a recent exit from a public safety software company he grew to 40 employees and high seven figures in revenue, he turned his attention to a pair of problems he kept seeing in the family out of home operation: stalled advertiser conversations and back-office software that never quite fit. His answer is Occupancy Multiplier, a system designed to recover revenue from stalled advertiser conversations and simplify the way billboard businesses are run.
What problem were you trying to solve when you started your company?
A couple of things stood out to me spending more time in the family billboard business. The first was how much revenue gets lost in stalled advertiser conversations and inconsistent follow-up. You’re speaking with advertisers, they’re in your CRM, they’re qualified — and then the conversation just kind of trails off. Every business has issues with inconsistent follow-up. You tend to chase the hot leads, and you’ve got this CRM full of leads that you think are dead. But they’re not all dead. You have to figure out which ones aren’t. The second problem was that everyone seemed to be talking about AI, but nobody was mapping it to how operators actually make money. A lot of buzzwords and not a lot of “here’s how you do it.” With my background in technology and the family billboard connection, I wanted to do something about both of those things.
What does the platform actually do?
There are two main pieces. The first is what we call revenue recovery. It plugs into your CRM, goes back through old advertisers that didn’t convert, and uses AI to re-engage them — to nurture those conversations back to life. In many cases, a meaningful number of those advertisers are still interested. It just may not have been the right time when you first spoke. The system is built with guardrails so it’s conversational, not annoying. The second piece is Board Yield, which is the operational management platform. That’s where we address the spreadsheet problem.
The spreadsheet problem.
When I looked at how Steel City Billboards actually ran day to day, I found what I suspect is common across the industry: a patchwork of software products supplemented by an elaborate, color-coded Excel spreadsheet that was effectively driving the business. The existing software just didn’t have all the data they needed. So I started building a solution and kept going from there. Board Yield handles contracts, availability, proposals, and pricing — all with AI integrated throughout. You type a couple of sentences and it generates a proposal, pulling board availability and rates automatically. You can ask it what contracts are expiring in the next three weeks. You can ask which advertisers you should be reaching out to this week. And it gives you pricing recommendations based on occupancy and demand — which boards to raise rates on, which to look at reducing.
Ease of use is a sore subject for a lot of out of home companies
The system should make your business and your life better — it shouldn’t make your life more complicated. That sounds obvious but it’s not how a lot of these products are built. It’s cloud-based, available on web, mobile, and tablet.
Does it connect to quickbooks or wave or zero?
Yes, it integrates with QuickBooks right now — takes contracts and generates everything through. I’m also looking at Wave and Xero, because a lot of smaller operators have moved away from QuickBooks. It’s been over-featured and overpriced for what independents actually need.
Who is this built for?
Anyone from new operators through to hundreds of faces. I think there’s value in bringing smaller operators along — helping them build good processes from the start, even if they’re less immediately profitable for us. The goal is to grow with them.
How is it priced?
A subscription model, tiered by number of faces, with different packages based on AI capability usage since that’s the most expensive piece of the platform for us. It’s a short term contract. I don’t want hostages — I want customers. For founding members right now, there’s no setup fee and no contract at all. The founding members will provide more value to me than I provide to them in this early stage, so it makes sense to remove every barrier to getting in.
Will you be at the IBO Spring Show in New Orleans?
Yes — I’ll be there with Steel City Billboards. Look for the Occupancy Multiplier lanyard. I’d love to connect with anyone who wants to learn more in person. Occupancy Multiplier is currently accepting applications for a founding members cohort with no contract and no setup fee. Subscription pricing is tiered by number of faces with different packages based on AI capability usage. To apply or learn more, visit occupancymultiplier.com watch a short walkthrough to see exactly how it works or contact Matt Fowkes directly, matt@foundrevenue.ai, (412)663-3233.
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