The Foundry

What The Foundry does

The Foundry, operating as Studio at People Inc., is a B2B native content studio that creates branded storytelling and multi-platform campaigns for enterprise consumer brands. The company is structured as a subsidiary of Dotdash Meredith within the People Inc. publishing group, which owns a portfolio of 40+ media brands (including People, Allrecipes, Entertainment Weekly, Food & Wine, Byrdie, Travel + Leisure, and Martha Stewart) reaching approximately 175-200 million people per month. The studio leverages this distribution footprint together with first-party intent-targeting capabilities that operate without third-party cookies, and 30+ in-house production studios, to deliver video, social, digital, print, and experiential branded content.

The Foundry's core offering is professional services rather than software: it produces insight-driven branded campaigns for Fortune-500-grade clients spanning travel, automotive, beauty, beverage, entertainment, finance, food, health and family, home and retail, and technology sectors. Its go-to-market is enterprise field sales, with named engagements including Walmart, Toyota, Coca-Cola x Oreo, Meta, Starbucks, Sephora, Capital One, H&M, Fidelity, and 3M, among roughly 30 publicly listed enterprise customers. Pricing is custom and not publicly disclosed, structured around campaign scope and platform requirements.

The company has 51-100 employees and operates from a single New York office at 225 Liberty Street, 4th Floor, Brookfield Place. The firm is privately held, has no disclosed funding rounds, no patents, and no disclosed AI/ML capabilities. It has built industry recognition through 13 award wins and 34 nominations since 2023, including the Native Advertising Institute's U.S. Native Advertising Studio of the Year (2023) and 15 content award nominations in 2024.

Name

The Foundry

Legal name

Dotdash Meredith

Website

https://thefoundry.nyc

Company type

Private

Founded year

2015

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

51–100 employees

Short description

The Foundry (operating as Studio at People Inc.) is a B2B native content studio and subsidiary of Dotdash Meredith that creates branded storytelling and multi-platform campaigns for enterprise consumer brands, leveraging a 40-brand, 175M+ reach media portfolio.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Advertising & Marketing Services — Native Content Studio

SIC

Services-Motion Picture & Video Tape Production (7812)

akta.pro primary industry

Content Studio & Creative Resourcing (In-house/Embedded Teams) (BPAFAIAJ)

akta.pro secondary industry

Content Production (Video, Design, Copy, Studio) (BPAFAAAF)

Keywords

• Branded content creation
• Multi-platform campaigns
• Native content studio
• Branded storytelling
• Advertising production services

Headquarters

HQ city

New York

HQ country

United States

HQ region

North America

Offices1 record

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Services

Cost components

Personnel, Operations, Marketing or Sales, Technology or R&D

Revenue model

1. Branded Content Creation Services: Studio at People Inc. generates revenue by creating high-quality, insight-driven branded content and multi-platform campaigns for enterprise clients. Services include digital, social, and video content production across their portfolio of 40+ media brands.

Go-to-market motion1 record

Distribution channels1 record

Marketing channels3 records

Core offering

Studio at People Inc. is a B2B native content studio that creates insight-driven branded content and multi-platform campaigns for enterprise brand clients. Services span digital, social, video, and print content production, leveraging People Inc.'s portfolio of 40+ iconic media brands (reaching 175+ million people monthly) and 30+ in-house production studios. The studio works across verticals including travel, auto, beauty, beverage, entertainment, finance, food, health & family, home & retail, and tech.

Product overview

Studio at People Inc. is the native content studio of People Inc., America's largest publisher reaching over 175 million people monthly. The company operates as a content creation and marketing services provider rather than a software product company. It offers branded storytelling and multi-platform campaign creation across video, social media, and print, utilizing a network of 30+ production studios and subject matter expertise across travel, automotive, beauty, beverage, entertainment, finance, food, health & family, and home & retail sectors. The company leverages first-party insights and intent-targeting capabilities to deliver campaigns across People Inc.'s portfolio of 40+ iconic media brands including Allrecipes, Byrdie, People, Real Simple, Travel + Leisure, Serious Eats, Investopedia, Food & Wine, Entertainment Weekly, InStyle, and Martha Stewart, among others. No formal product modules, standalone software products, or SaaS offerings are described in the source material — the offering is a service-based creative studio model.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Products and services

• Branded Storytelling & Multi-Platform Campaign Services End-to-end creation of insight-driven branded content campaigns spanning digital, social, video, and print formats for major enterprise brands across verticals including travel, auto, beauty, beverage, entertainment, finance, food, health & family, home & retail, and tech. Campaigns leverage People Inc.'s portfolio of 40+ iconic media brands and 30+ in-house production studios.
• Video Production Services High-quality video campaign creation for enterprise brand clients, exemplified by work for H&M, Walmart, Hellmann's, Toyota, Meta, Coca-Cola x Oreo, TRESemmé, Macy's, Starbucks, T.J.Maxx, Fabuloso, 3M, Sephora, and others.
• Social Media Campaign Services Social-first branded content campaigns for enterprise clients, including work for H&M ('The Perfect Fit'), Toyota ('Your Crown is Calling'), Bermuda Tourism ('Paint the Town Pink'), Lexus ('The Essence of the Pairing'), Campbell's ('Dinner Inspiration'), Ulta Beauty ('2023 Holiday Campaign'), Fiber One ('Laughs & Snacks'), and others.
• Print Campaign Services Branded print campaign execution for enterprise clients, exemplified by Princess Cruises ('For the Love of Travel') and Olay Body ('Boost Your Body Care Routine').
• First-Party Intent-Targeting & Campaign Analytics Audience targeting using People Inc.'s proprietary first-party intent data that functions without third-party cookies, combined with thorough campaign wrap reports delivering performance-based data and analytics on campaign outcomes.

Quantifiable outcome

• 13 wins and 34 nominations since 2023
• +2 more outcomes

Named customers30 records

Segments1 record

Ideal customer profiles1 record

Technology focussed No

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Scale indicators4 records

Recent moves5 records

Expansion highlights5 records

Direct peers

• Condé Nast Creative Studio: In-house branded-content studio of Condé Nast (Vogue, GQ, Wired, Vanity Fair, Bon Appétit). Operates the same publisher-owned native-content model serving enterprise brands with multi-platform campaigns and first-party audience data.
• Hearst Studios: Branded-content and creative-services arm of Hearst (Cosmopolitan, Esquire, Good Housekeeping, Car and Driver). Direct competitor for the same enterprise RFPs, offering video, social, and print branded storytelling.
• Vox Creative: Brand-storytelling arm of Vox Media (Vox, The Verge, New York Magazine, SB Nation). Competes head-to-head for the same enterprise branded-content budgets with first-party audience data across premium editorial brands.
• Insider Studios: In-house branded-content studio of Insider Inc. Produces video, social, and editorial branded campaigns for major advertisers across consumer verticals — same publisher-studio business model.
• Forbes BrandVoice: Forbes's native advertising and branded-content program, including Forbes Creative and BrandVoice. Direct competitor in the native-advertising / thought-leadership content category for enterprise B2B and B2C brands.
• Group Nine / NowThis Studios: Social-video-first branded-content studio from the Group Nine / NowThis family (NowThis, The Dodo, Seeker). Competes on social-led branded video for the same enterprise marketer budgets.
• BuzzFeed Creative: BuzzFeed's branded-content and creator-services division, producing native video, social, and commerce-led campaigns for enterprise advertisers. Same digital-publisher-native-content model.
• Meredith Corporation / Better Homes Content Studios: Legacy Meredith content-marketing studio (now folded into Dotdash Meredith / People Inc.) that historically served CPG and retail brands with branded content across lifestyle verticals — effectively an internal/legacy peer within the same parent.
• Refinery29 Studios (Vice Media Group): Branded-content studio from Refinery29 (now under Vice Media Group), producing video and social campaigns targeting millennial and Gen-Z audiences. Competes for the same consumer-brand enterprise spend.

Broad incumbents

• WPP: Global advertising holding company (Ogilvy, Grey, GroupM). Competes for the same enterprise brand-marketing budgets through its content, production, and media divisions, though as a generalist network rather than a publisher-native specialist.

Market position

Strengths4 records

Weaknesses4 records

Competitive moat6 records

Key risks5 records

Key highlights5 records

Customer concentration

• Xx.com/thefoundrynyc

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about The Foundry