Over the last 11 years, Erik Huberman built his Santa Monica-based marketing agency Hawke Media by working with marquee brands like K-Swiss, Crocs and Red Bull. On top of that, Huberman has scooped up a number of his company’s peers in acquisitions – the latest of which was in March when he purchased Irvine-based marketing firm Blue Light Media.

Now, Huberman is going to make a deeper pivot into finance.

This month, Huberman officially debuted Hawke Deal Network, a new investment platform for individuals, family offices and institutions. Many of the investment opportunities are sourced through the firm’s Hawke Ventures, launched in 2019 and manages more than $25 million in assets across two funds and in emerging companies.

Some of the opportunities that the network will explore will be outside of its venture fund’s rules to invest strictly in early-stage marketing and ad technology companies. The network would source deals outside the venture fund’s specific focus, such as those for later stage e-commerce or lifestyle brands.

“It’s not just for people who can commit to a 10-year fund cycle with us,” Huberman said. “It’s allowing us to do more deals with a wider investment base … We’re a very tech-forward company. We look at tech every day, all day. So, when we find technology that solves problems for us, the idea of investing in it can make a lot of sense.”

The adtech global market alone is substantial, valued at more than $719 billion in 2024, according to Grand View Research.

The market for adtech and martech tools has always been fiercely competitive, said Lloyd Greif, president and chief executive officer of downtown-based investment bank Greif & Co.

The race to increase productivity in this field is now fueled by the boom in artificial intelligence. The competition also is shaped by a mergers and acquisitions market challenged by macroeconomics, he said.

“I wouldn’t describe this as a frenzied M&A market. The IPO window is open just a crack, too,” Greif said. “The problem is with the Trump administration is that you never know what shocks to the economy are right around the corner. Capital markets like certainty and stability.”  

Market ebb and flow

The deal network will be prepared for the ebb and flow of dealmaking and its issues, Huberman said. “The challenge with early-stage companies and a lot of venture investing is it’s a lottery ticket. It’s a crapshoot,” he said.

“I don’t care how strategic you are or how good you are. The viability and future viability of a business, the grit of the founder, all these things are so hard to ascertain. Nobody bats one thousand.”

Huberman has positioned Hawke Media into a business model shared by an increasing group of companies. The model calls for managing a venture incubator or running a close partnership with a lab devoted to venture companies, then taking some equity in the start-up if it is successful.

For example, Comcast NBC Universal runs Forecast Labs, which invests in direct-to-consumer companies. UP.Labs, headquartered in Santa Monica, works with startups in automobile and transportation, and it keeps a close partnership with performance auto brand Porsche.

Hawke Ventures has raised two funds – one valued at $10 million and the second at $25 million, and it has invested in digital marketing startups such as PostScript, Yaguara and Instreamatic.

Prospective companies will not only get their proverbial tires kicked by Huberman, but also companies will be sourced and reviewed by a five-person staff at Hawke Deal Network. Once Hawke Deal Network decides to get behind a company, a start-up will make a request for the amount of funding it desires.

Funds will be sourced from accredited investors who are members of the network. Members are expected to share their market expertise. Once a deal is ready to be presented, an email is sent to the network with a notification to introduce a new business.

However, there’s no guarantee that every member of the network is going to get a piece of the action. Deals are made on ad-hoc basis. 

“We are looking to do great deals, so to predict the frequency would be tough because it really depends on finding incredible founders and new companies,” Huberman said.

“Once we do identify a deal, it is in our best interest to move quickly.”

Huberman declined to give forecasts on how many members would participate in the network and how much the deal network would be valued.

But he predicted potential investors would get faster returns through the network, compared to investing in a conventional fund and facing the potential of money being tied up for years.

First investment

When he first made enough money to invest, Huberman wasn’t interested in angel investing. He was looking for a steady place to park his money—a strategy he learned from his father, Bernard Huberman, who built Santa Monica-based real estate agency BLT Enterprises. Bernard passed in 2021, but the firm continues and currently runs a portfolio of more than $2 billion in commercial and industrial properties, according to the BLT website.

“My dad said that he got into real estate because he wanted to sleep at night. He didn’t take out massive loans. He bought stable industrial buildings with long-term tenants, not constant turnover. It’s a stable business,” Huberman said.

Entrepreneur Daniel Broukhim encouraged Huberman to invest seed money in a company Broukhim co-founded in 2015, it’s the West Hollywood fashion subscription box company FabFitFun.

Eventually, FabFitFun raised $83.5 million. By 2018, it earned more than $200 million in review, according to the business publication TechCrunch.

Also in 2015, Huberman invested in a deal to build a luxury home in Bel Air. When results for the investments came in 2019, Huberman was stunned and estimated that the angel deal ended up giving 40 times the return on investment of the deal on the Bel Air spec house.

The success with angel investing gave Huberman the confidence to fund more startups. He found a lot of opportunity, but his bank account could not support all the businesses he wanted to invest.

A colleague who was managing funds suggested sourcing funds through a network. This idea encouraged him to find likeminded investors.

No matter what Huberman does, he brings a marketer’s brio, but it’s supported by a solid foundation, said Adam Callinan, founder of software company Pentane. Huberman invested in Callinan’s company.

“Having watched Hawke grow from a handful of staff in a dusty apartment to the marketing powerhouse they are today has been fascinating,” said Callinan in an statement. “It doesn’t happen without the excellence developed from significant experience. You can’t hype your way to that.”