Tom Shipley

Entrepreneur, Ecommerce Investor, Strategic Advisor, Speaker

Learn More

Co-Founder & CEO Agency Ventures Aggregator

Entrepreneur,
Ecommerce Investor,
Strategic Advisor,
Speaker

Learn More

Co-Founder & CEO
Agency Ventures Aggregator

Meet Tom

Tom Shipley is a serial entrepreneur, eCommerce and platform investor, strategic advisor, speaker, and over the past 20-years has become one of the leading experts in omnichannel brand building.

Tom’s brands have sold over $2B through Direct-to-Consumer Marketing and Retail. His brands are widely recognized household names that can be seen on TV, radio, online, Amazon, and found in major retailers like Costco, Ulta, CVS, Nordstroms, HSN, and more.

Tom Shipley is strategic advisor to Snow Oral Care (Teeth Whitening) as well as the co-founder of Foundry. Foundry is an Ecommerce and Amazon brand aggregator which raised $100m in 2021 to create a leading digital-first consumer brands company.

Most recently, Tom is the co-founder & CEO of AVA – Agency Ventures Aggregator – leading the charge to acquire and scale 30 advertising agencies per year, creating value through programmatic scaling and a people-first approach in order to compete head-to-head with traditional global advertising agency holding companies.

Read Tom’s Story

Entrepreneur

The T. Shipley Catalog

One of Tom’s first startups, a marketing and operations consulting agency led in 1999 to launching and growing The T. Shipley Catalog, a $20M catalog and ecommerce brand in just 3 years.

Atlantic Coast Brands

Starting with no capital, Tom and his partner launched Atlantic Coast Brands (ACB) in 2005, and grew it into one of the largest direct to consumer multi-brand companies in America.

During the 2008 financial crisis, Tom leveraged low cost media in DRTV and DR Radio to grow ACB from $35M to $100M within 18 months.

ACB’s first brand, Hydroxatone, grew to over $1bn in sales through digital, DRTV, DR radio and retail distribution in ULTA, HSN and Costco.

In 2010, ACB launched Keranique, which is now the #1 hair regrowth brand for women in America with over $630 M in sales through Digital Channels, DRTV, Amazon, HSN, salons and retailers such as Ulta, CVS and Riteaid.

Tom Shipley and his partner Drew Surwilo, successfully exited Atlantic Coast Brands in 2021 through a sale to a private equity firm.

Foundry:

Tom raised $100m from LightBay Capital and Monogram Partners to launch Foundry, an Ecommerce and Amazon brand aggregator. Foundry acquires and scales ecommerce brands to create a leading digital-first consumer brands company.

AVA – Agency Ventures Aggregator

Tom launched AVA – – Agency Ventures Aggregator, an advertising agency aggregation company in 2022 to build a people-first, leading global agency through the acquisition 20+ agency per year and building value through programmatic scaling. AVA’s focus is on people, on culture, on scaling from the bottom up – on building an agency group with the people who represent the future of digital. This means giving founders a choice of career path, while using proven frameworks to enable and empower each agency’s next generation of talent.

Strategic Advisor

Tom’s biggest passion in business is working with onfire entrepreneurs as an advisor to grow multi-channel Direct-to-Consumer businesses to iconic brands. He loves working with $3M-$30M businesses with the goal of hyper growth in profitability and increasing enterprise value for exit opportunities.

To grow brands to $100M+, Tom used the learnings from his success and failures to develop his business blueprint. As an investor and strategic partner, Tom leverages this framework for incorporating strategy, product, people, systems plus a network of contacts to help grow to 8 and 9 figure businesses.

Testimonials

What Others Are Saying About Tom

Don’t just take it from us, let these Entrepreneurs do the talking!

Josh Elizetxe

Founder & CEO, Snow

Tom is like a Swiss Army knife for entrepreneurs building powerhouse brands. His ability to cut through the noise and find the signals is uncanny.

Chandler Welling

Owner, Welling Media

Tom quickly became a mentor to me with his natural gift of leadership, and his heart to help other entrepreneurs. His mentorship has fundamentally changed my business. His feedback is always well received and It’s saved me time and a lot of money.

Brian Burt

Founder & CEO, Canopy Management

Tom has the unique ability to combine his (natural) gifts of extreme intelligence, true integrity, and a Rockstar background of success & experience… It didn’t take me long to realize why Tom has become the Master of the E-Commerce & Business Building Universe.

Adi Jaffe, PHD

CEO, Founder, IGNTD

Tom is the most intelligent and caring advisor I’ve had to date. When he’s helping you, you feel as if he’s a part owner. That’s how much he cares and works to understand you and your needs. The man created a customized financial projection while on the phone with me for crying out loud! Who does that?! Tom does!

Emily Long

Wake Up Wonder Woman

Tom truly is one of those one-of-a-kind people that is an honor to know. He is a servant-hearted leader, and truly wants the best for everyone he works with. He is the kind of person who draws a crowd, and who people just want to be around to soak up whatever wisdom he is about to share.

Daniela Liscio

Founder, Eat for Sports

Tom understands business and strategy because he’s taken decades to learn and grow massively successful businesses. In a business consulting industry with too many talkers, Tom uses his sharp instincts and experience to simplify business problems FAST … and then comes up with straightforward and creative business solutions to help drive revenues back up and renew purpose in your business.

Brian Tully

Certified Elder Law Attorney, Founder, Tully Law PC

There are those we meet in life that we just want to be around and learn from. Tom Shipley is one of those people. I have come to know and trust Tom over the last several years and his wisdom, insight and practical experience have not only benefited my business but also my personal life. I’m grateful that I can call upon him as a mentor.

Tammy Donnell

Entrepreneur

Tom Shipley is brilliant! He has an incredible talent for identifying and leveraging business opportunities. He is a thought leader when it comes to anything and everything business related. Whether an online only business, digital business or a massive physical product business Tom has the incredible wisdom and insight to start, grow or turn around any type of business.

Rus Sarnoff

Integrated Marketing

Tom is without peer as a marketer having innovated and mastered every conceivable channel of direct-to-consumer sales; catalog, print, radio, DRTV, eCommerce, telemarketing, retail…Tom has done it all. He’s built enduring brands of his own while helping so many others scale up theirs.

Josh Elizetxe

Founder & CEO, Snow

Tom is like a Swiss Army knife for entrepreneurs building powerhouse brands. His ability to cut through the noise and find the signals is uncanny.

Chandler Welling

Owner, Welling Media

Tom quickly became a mentor to me with his natural gift of leadership, and his heart to help other entrepreneurs. His mentorship has fundamentally changed my business. His feedback is always well received and It’s saved me time and a lot of money.

Brian Burt

Founder & CEO, Canopy Management

Tom has the unique ability to combine his (natural) gifts of extreme intelligence, true integrity, and a Rockstar background of success & experience… It didn’t take me long to realize why Tom has become the Master of the E-Commerce & Business Building Universe.

Adi Jaffe, PHD

CEO, Founder, IGNTD

Tom is the most intelligent and caring advisor I’ve had to date. When he’s helping you, you feel as if he’s a part owner. That’s how much he cares and works to understand you and your needs. The man created a customized financial projection while on the phone with me for crying out loud! Who does that?! Tom does!

Emily Long

Wake Up Wonder Woman

Tom truly is one of those one-of-a-kind people that is an honor to know. He is a servant-hearted leader, and truly wants the best for everyone he works with. He is the kind of person who draws a crowd, and who people just want to be around to soak up whatever wisdom he is about to share.

Daniela Liscio

Founder, Eat for Sports

Tom understands business and strategy because he’s taken decades to learn and grow massively successful businesses. In a business consulting industry with too many talkers, Tom uses his sharp instincts and experience to simplify business problems FAST … and then comes up with straightforward and creative business solutions to help drive revenues back up and renew purpose in your business.

Brian Tully

Certified Elder Law Attorney, Founder, Tully Law PC

There are those we meet in life that we just want to be around and learn from. Tom Shipley is one of those people. I have come to know and trust Tom over the last several years and his wisdom, insight and practical experience have not only benefited my business but also my personal life. I’m grateful that I can call upon him as a mentor.

Tammy Donnell

Entrepreneur

Tom Shipley is brilliant! He has an incredible talent for identifying and leveraging business opportunities. He is a thought leader when it comes to anything and everything business related. Whether an online only business, digital business or a massive physical product business Tom has the incredible wisdom and insight to start, grow or turn around any type of business.

Rus Sarnoff

Integrated Marketing

Tom is without peer as a marketer having innovated and mastered every conceivable channel of direct-to-consumer sales; catalog, print, radio, DRTV, eCommerce, telemarketing, retail…Tom has done it all. He’s built enduring brands of his own while helping so many others scale up theirs.

Ventures

Tom’s Former Ventures

Keranique

Keranique is the #1 hair regrowth brand for women in America, offering a wide range of treatment products to regrow thicker, fuller, healthier hair.

AVA - Agency Ventures Aggregator

An advertising agency aggregation company in 2022 to build a people-first, leading global agency through the acquisition 20+ agency per year and building value through programmatic scaling.

Hydroxatone

The Hydroxatone brand has grown to over $500M in sales, offering a full collection of beauty and anti-aging products for women including, facial moisturizer with SPF, under eye treatment, and AM/PM anti-wrinkle cream.

Keranique

Keranique is the #1 hair regrowth brand for women in America, offering a wide range of treatment products to regrow thicker, fuller, healthier hair.

Foundry & Agency Ventures Aggregator

An advertising agency aggregation company in 2022 to build a people-first, leading global agency through the acquisition 20+ agency per year and building value through programmatic scaling.

Hydroxatone

The Hydroxatone brand has grown to over $500M in sales, offering a full collection of beauty and anti-aging products for women including, facial moisturizer with SPF, under eye treatment, and AM/PM anti-wrinkle cream.

Advisory

Strategic Advisory

Snow Teeth Whitening

Meet Snow®: for skeptics, by skeptics. Millions of dollars of research to develop products that simply work, every time. The future of oral care has never looked brighter. We invent truly revolutionary products that look and work better than anything else we’ve tested on the market.