How Tom Shea Built Adgile Into the Most Surprising Media Company in Advertising

In Season 4, Episode 10 of Turning Pro, Ben Sharf sits down with Tom Shea, the founder and CEO of Adgile Media Group. Adgile turns last-mile delivery trucks into mobile billboards for consumer brands, and unlike typical out-of-home advertising, every impression can be tracked.

Tom’s journey is far from ordinary. He almost gave up before things finally clicked. After co-founding the business with three partners, facing internal shakeups, and walking away from a $7 million Series A, Tom is now leading a profitable and fast-growing business that’s redefining how brands think about physical marketing.

He shares the early pivots, how they cracked attribution for trucks, and why their biggest breakthrough came from working directly with truck leasing giants instead of individual operators. This is a raw and tactical conversation for anyone building a B2B company from the ground up.

Listen to Season 4, Episode 10 of Turning Pro on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or YouTube.

10 Key Takeaways from Tom Shea’s Episode:

1. Make the Truck Work Twice
   Adgile partners with delivery trucks that are already out on the road, turning them into rolling billboards while tracking exactly who sees them through GPS and geofencing.
   

2. Trackable Out-of-Home Is the Unlock
   Using ghost trucks and real-time data, Adgile can measure the lift between exposed and control groups to prove whether a campaign is actually working.
   

3. Leasing Companies Were the Shortcut
   Managing small operators one by one would have crushed the business. Instead, Adgile built relationships with truck leasing companies that own the assets and could aggregate the supply side.
   

4. Sometimes You Say No to the Money
   After securing a $7 million term sheet, Tom walked away when the terms felt off. He opted for a small bridge round instead, stayed lean, and never had to touch the backup cash.
   

5. Events Turned into a Growth Channel
   After a client asked to do sampling from a branded truck outside Sephora, Tom realized the trucks could be used for experiential marketing. Now, every campaign includes some kind of IRL activation.
   

6. Operations Became Its Own Business
   As Adgile scaled, they gained pricing power on printing and installations. That turned into a white-labeled operations business helping other distributors do the same thing behind the scenes.
   

7. Four Co-Founders Was Too Many
   The company started with four founders. Eventually, Tom took over solo. He says the business wouldn't exist without those early teammates, but sometimes a leaner team is the only way to keep going.
   

8. OOH Is Cool Again
   Tom believes that as digital advertising gets noisier and more automated, physical brand moments will feel more premium. Out-of-home is becoming aspirational again.
   

9. Brands Love Real-World Proof
   With hundreds of trucks on the road, brands now look to Adgile not just for impressions but for performance. Clients return year after year based on trust and clear ROI.
   

10. Content Is the New Cold Call
    Tom is all in on sharing his journey online. He believes founders need to get over the cringe and start posting if they want to build surface area and unlock opportunity.

Tom Shea’s story is a reminder that great businesses are rarely clean from the start. Adgile spent years testing, breaking, and rebuilding before it became profitable. If you’re in the early innings of a hard business, this episode proves that persistence and scrappy execution can still win.

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