Episode 175: Tejas Manohar, co-CEO of Hightouch, on the Company's Giant Fundraise, Agentic Ads, and LiveRamp

Tejas Manohar, co-founder and co-CEO of Hightouch, joins Ari Paparo and Eric Franchi to discuss composable CDPs, replacing LiveRamp, enterprise AI workflows, and why marketers still need SaaS in the age of vibe coding. They also cover Meta’s new apps, OpenAI ads, AppLovin’s social ambitions, X’s ad business, and the rise of clipping in political campaigns. Takeaways: - Hightouch is emerging as a strong alternative to LiveRamp for identity onboarding and data activation. - Tejas Manohar explains why composable CDPs and enterprise AI workflows are gaining momentum. - The team discusses agentic AI, OpenAI ads, Meta’s new apps, and the future of marketing automation. - X, AppLovin, and Meta are all evolving their platforms around AI, data, and advertising scale. - Political campaigns are increasingly using clipping and influencer distribution over traditional media. Chapters: 00:00 Intro & Marketecture Live Chicago announcement 01:28 IAB Tech Summit and industry association discussion 02:43 Introducing Hightouch co-founder Tejas Manohar 04:20 What Hightouch actually does 05:22 Composable CDPs explained 07:32 SaaS apocalypse vs enterprise software reality 11:08 Can Hightouch replace LiveRamp? 13:58 Hightouch’s vision for agentic AI marketing 17:09 Why CDPs matter for AI workflows 20:48 Tejas Manohar’s background and Segment experience 23:32 Running Hightouch as co-CEOs 24:37 AppLovin launches social app “Gist” 28:11 Meta launches Reddit-style Forums app 30:41 Meta’s AI consulting and enterprise ambitions 34:42 X ad revenue, xAI, and social graph advantages 37:14 OpenAI ads and “conversational intent” 40:51 The rise of clipping in politics and media 44:28 FTC settlement over “active listening” claims 46:52 All Eyes On raises funding in the CTV space 48:57 Closing thoughts and outro Guests: Ari Paparo, Eric Franchi, Tejas Manohar Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices