Wayan
Richard Jones founded Engage Sciences in 2011 with a mission to help marketers collect customer data in engaging, transparent ways. The company started humbly in the UK but recognized a massive market opportunity: as privacy regulations tightened globally (GDPR, CCPA, and emerging state-level laws), brands could no longer rely on third-party data and cookies. They needed a way to collect explicit, first-party data directly from consumers.
The original Engage Sciences technology was powerful but needed distribution and credibility. In a strategic move, Richard merged Engage Sciences with Wayan, a company founded by Scott McNeely (former CEO of Sun Microsystems), bringing deep enterprise relationships and operational expertise. Richard became CEO and Scott became chairman and mentor. The combined entity rebranded as Wayan and expanded aggressively into the US market.
Wayan's platform lets non-technical marketers build interactive experiences—contests, quizzes, games, content unlocks—that provide value to consumers in exchange for data and marketing opt-ins. A concrete example: Air New Zealand launched "What Makes You Say Yay to the USA," an interactive experience where 100,000 users swiped through travel content, discovered their perfect US destination, and opted in for a chance to win. The brand captured rich traveler preference data and drove millions in incremental ticket revenue through a discount code campaign.
As of the interview, Wayan operates with 152 enterprise customers across Fortune 500 brands, generating over $10 million in ARR with 62% year-over-year growth. Average customer contract value is $65,000-$70,000 in year one, with 25% expansion rates and exceptional 125% net revenue retention in their top cohort. The company operates lean—just 2% of revenue on marketing—and has raised $54.2 million total ($50M pre-merger, $4.2M from Engage Sciences). They recently inked a strategic partnership with Adobe, positioning themselves at the center of the first-party data revolution.
- •By merging with an established company led by a former Fortune 500 CEO, Wayan gained immediate enterprise credibility and relationships that would have taken years to build independently, enabling rapid adoption among Fortune 500 brands.
- •The founding team identified a structural market gap created by regulatory change (GDPR, CCPA) that made third-party data unusable, creating urgent, non-discretionary demand for first-party data collection solutions.
- •The product delivers measurable ROI by enabling brands to capture both compliance-friendly customer data AND drive incremental revenue (as shown by Air New Zealand's ticket sales), making it easy to justify spending.
- •Enterprise-direct sales paired with high contract values ($65K-$70K ACV) and strong expansion rates (25%) enabled efficient scaling with minimal marketing spend (2% of revenue), proving the sales model was self-sustaining.
- 1.Identify a regulatory or structural market shift that creates urgent customer pain, then validate that the pain translates to willingness to pay before building; Wayan solved this by launching after GDPR and CCPA made existing solutions non-compliant.
- 2.Recruit a co-founder or board member with deep relationships in your target market segment; if you lack those relationships yourself, pursue a merger with or bring on a former executive from your target customer base.
- 3.Design your product to deliver dual value: solve the compliance/operational problem AND generate measurable business outcomes (revenue, engagement, or cost savings) so sales conversations focus on ROI, not just risk mitigation.
- 4.Build an SDR team using personalized outreach platforms to systematically work through warm introductions and targeted prospect lists from your connected founder or board members, rather than relying on marketing-generated leads.
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