Freestar Rapidly Scales Operations without Increasing Finance Headcount

• One week saved each month on publisher payments
• Increased financial controls and tax compliance
• Avoided hiring two additional people to handle payments

HQ Phoenix, AZ
Customer Since 2019
Industry Advertising Technology

Freestar, the leading monetization partner for websites, is the number one fastest-growing private company of 2019.

Founded by David Freedman and Chris Stark, Freestar enables ad publishers to unlock the full potential of their web traffic reach. The Arizona based company leverages server-side and client-side header bidding and proprietary auction technology so publishers can achieve their maximum revenue gains. Website owners free up time typically spent on operations as the platform delivers 15 million monthly ad impressions.

According to CEO Kurt Donnell, “advertising has switched from paper-driven to a more technology-enabled solution with a real-time auction every time somebody goes to a webpage.” The company’s astronomical growth is credited to their fully managed services that do the heavy lifting for their customers. This preference for automation and efficiency would also translate to their financial strategy.

When Donnell joined Freestar, he personally handled the calculations and payments without an accountant. The manual process was taking days every month. Plus, there was room
for error and tax compliance requirements that challenged publishers. Donnell required a solution that wouldn’t necessitate additional headcount and would become a one-stop-shop for the more than 300 checks they were cutting each month.

“Finance is one of those things that stays in the background, like clockwork. If you hear too much about it, something’s wrong.”

By integrating Tipalti into their publisher dashboard, Freestar enabled its users to gain visibility into their payments and the status of revenue calculations. With a single click, Donnell can generate a payment file upload in Tipalti, and, in a matter of minutes, the team can schedule all of its publisher payments for the month.

“That was honestly a full week out of the month, so we’re able to make our accounting function more efficient and accurate.”

As the business continues to scale with new partners, they have eliminated manual work and errors in partner onboarding, taxes, and payments. And they can manage payables without having to hire additional finance roles. Tipalti has also created a user-friendly environment for Freestar’s publishers. The NetNow early payments feature enables them to accelerate their payments and receive their money faster, a critical feature for those accustomed to more traditional net terms.

“Given the number of publishers we’re working with, the ability for our partners to be able to get their payments early has been a competitive pitch for us—now, we rely on that.”

On the compliance side, Donnell has peace of mind as publishers onboard and verify their bank account information.
Tipalti mitigates erroneous entries and ensures that payables are tracked to the accurate recipient.

The fastest-growing company in America has strategically maintained a lean headcount, thanks to automation. For Donnell, transforming their payables system and enabling technology to do the grunt work was a no brainer. They can devote their energy to a best in class service while the payables engine clears all financial roadblocks.

“Tipalti has really streamlined our financial process. And when we win, our customers win.”