UPshow Press + Digital Signage News

CJ Bacher

UPshow would like to welcome CJ Bacher to the team as Director of Business Development. In this role, CJ will identify and source enterprise sales, build relationships with key buyers, develop sales strategies and forecast quarterly and annual performance.  

UPshow is excited to grow business with CJ’s entrepreneurial spirit and innovative approach to social selling and business development. CJ is a leader with proven results, just take a look at the recent sparkling addition to his now-fiance’s ring finger!

UPshow is excited to add someone as talented as CJ to their roster.  His inherent leadership skills, harnessed while the starting Quarterback for Northwestern University’s football team, makes him a key free agent signing for UPshow in 2017.

Upon receiving his Bachelor and Masters of Arts in Communication from Northwestern University, CJ exchanged the football field for the entrepreneurial gridiron, founding and running a multitude of business ventures including CKB Search and Huddle Enterprises. CJ scored touchdown after touchdown as the Business Development Manager at SPR Consulting, growing revenue of the division over 500 percent in his first year. Talk about rookie of the year!

While not as secretive as a certain fight club, CJ did gain membership in the exclusive members-only independent recruiting organization, NPA while acting as CEO for CKB Search.

"I'm incredibly excited to join such a passionate team of competent individuals all working towards one common goal: to become the most innovative and advanced in-venue social marketing company in the world. The passion of the UPshow team stems from strong leadership and a wholehearted belief in the technology and I couldn't be more excited to join the team and bring the power of our product to venues all across the world."

Expectations are not only high in the office, but on the field, as the top experts are predicting CJ will lead the UPshow kickball team to a first place trophy this summer.

Connect with CJ

Austin Smith

UPshow would like to welcome Austin Smith to the team as Account Director. In this newly-created position, he’ll focus on driving customer success and expansion from our enterprise clients.

Austin’s ability to develop and maintain strong business relationships, create and optimize processes and discover hidden value for customers will be an incredible asset to Team UPshow.

A Michigan State University graduate with a Bachelor of Arts in Journalism, Austin is thrilled to no longer have to point on his “mitten” to let people know where he lives. Despite a face born for the screen, Austin’s previous television experience is in the realm of digital advertising sales and marketing where he worked with companies such as Turner Sports, Big10 Network and Reuters.

Through his experience at a creative staffing agency, Austin learned how to juggle multiple tasks, manage sales and talk openly to any and all clients in a competitive field. As UPshow’s in-house Game of Thrones fan, we are confident Austin will proactively lead his team as if winter is always coming.

“I am beyond excited to be a part of the UPshow team. Mainly because I’ve been trying to get on the jumbotron my whole life and now I can finally rig the system. But also because UPshow is an amazing product built and run by amazing people. I can’t wait to help venues turn their TVs into full blown social experiences!”

This city dweller still shows his mountain man side as he runs the clothing line, The Mount Co, along with his dad, brother and friend; headquartered in his dad’s “garffice”. When he’s not leading UPshow’s enterprise customers to uncovered success, Austin publishes blog posts for sites such as The Only Colors.

Connect with Austin

In-Tunnel Platform Encourages UGC and Social Sharing

AUSTIN, TEXAS – June 1, 2017 – iFLY, the world’s largest indoor skydiving operator, and UPshow, a TV-powered social marketing platform have announced a strategic partnership to give iFLY participants a new way to share their skydiving experience with the world through an innovative, social-centric and in-Tunnel broadcasting platform.

iFLY customers across the country can take advantage of this innovative usage of in-venue TVs, turning the ultimate shareable moment into social media assets to drive engaging content.

“We’re excited to partner with UPshow to bring our engagement with our customer to new heights,” said Jenn McClain – De Jong, iFLY Chief Marketing Officer. “We already know the experience our customers have while flying with us is unparalleled, and this technology allows our customers to harness the power of social media to share their experience with the world.”

To be featured on UPshow-powered #iFLYTV, customers simply post to their Instagram or Twitter channels with a photo or video including the hashtags #iFLYtv and #iFLY(location), and their content will appear on in-venue screens in seconds.

“iFLY creates the ultimate shareable moment for customers, and with #iFLYtv powered by UPshow, we have an incredible opportunity to make sure none of those moments are left sitting on a phone for no one to see,” said Matt Gibbs, Chief Marketing Officer, UPshow.  

UPshow TV is currently in operation at iFLY’s 28 tunnels in the U.S. and will be expanding internationally.  To book your flight experience, visit  www.iflyworld.com. For more information on UPshow, visit www.upshow.tv.  

###

About iFLY Indoor Skydiving: Austin-based iFLY Holdings, LLC., is the world leader in design, manufacturing, sales and operations of wind tunnel systems for indoor skydiving. The company has flown more than 8,000,000 people in a dozen countries and at sea since launching the modern vertical wind tunnel industry in 1998. iFLY has more than 60 facilities operating worldwide with 28 wholly-owned in the US and has significant growth plans across the globe in the next 24 months. iFLY supports and utilizes the safety and training guidelines set out by the International Bodyflight Association (IBA) to ensure safety and progression of the sport of indoor skydiving. For more information on iFLY, visit www.iflyworld.com or follow us on Facebook, Instagram and YouTube.

Contact:

iFLYPR@edelman.com

WGN Radio's Technori podcast showcases Chicago's top startup tech companies. Check out the podcast to hear our CEO, Adam Hirsen discuss the UPshow success story and our social selling marketing platform based on existing social media behaviors.

We're excited to share the news of our latest round of funding and with the press release going live today, we wanted to share here as well.

__________________________

UPshow the leading in-venue social media display network in the United States, announced today that it has closed its strategic angel investment round, bringing total funding to $1.5 million. Participants in the round include prominent CEO's and executives like comScore CEO Gian Fulgoni, Fieldglass Founder Jai Shekhawat, Edgewater Funds Managing Director Dave Tolmie, eHealth CEO Scott Flanders, and 1871 CEO Howard Tullman.

With over 3,200 screens in restaurants, sports bars, entertainment venues and leading family attractions, UPshow allows patrons to showcase their social media posts instantly on TVs within a venue. This gives the business a vastly increased social media presence by maximizing customer-generated posts, while also serving as an easy-to-use digital signage platform to feature new products, promotions, events, trivia and interactive games.

Howard Tullman, CEO of Chicago's technology mega-incubator, 1871, knows consumer social behavior intimately because he lives it every day. 1871 has more than 20,000 hyper-connected visitors a month and has deployed UPshow within its space. "What makes UPshow special is how the technology enhances and facilitates every active consumer's natural desire to be seen by more people through the vehicle of social media without requiring them to learn or adopt any new behaviors. Businesses using UPshow will rapidly see that their brand will be more broadly shared and amplified on social media which should drive both increased onsite engagement and more customer traffic in the door in the long run," said Tullman.

Since launching in the Summer of 2015, UPshow has experienced continual growth in new customers, while expanding its install base from local businesses like Fatpour Taphouse in Chicago and Crossfit Solace in New York; to national brands like Margaritaville, iFly, Blackfinn Ameripub and Tilted Kilt.

"The way that UPshow plugs into existing screens in venues, and grabs consumers’ attention with social media and brand content is unique and powerful. UPshow has a compelling opportunity to engage consumers on behalf of businesses because it can communicate with consumers at the point of purchase," said Gian Fulgoni, CEO of comScore. comScore is a leading company measuring consumer trends on the Internet and social media.

UPshow’s platform also builds a robust Social Media CRM for its customers, dynamically identifying a brand's most influential customers and providing re-marketing tools to drive additional purchase or repeat visits.

Adam Hirsen, CEO of UPshow, was previously in residence with Sterling Partners, a Chicago based private equity and venture capital firm, that focuses intensely on building a network of highly talented board members and advisors for each company.

"We have taken a page from the playbook I learned at Sterling Partners, by surrounding ourselves with exceptional C-suite angel investors, all who are highly accomplished business leaders that will add incredible strategic value to the company. We feel blessed to have help and advice from people that have all built large businesses many times over."

UPShow is using the capital to grow its team, accelerate product development and expand sales into new markets.