About Us

We get it. Growth is hard. Managing the expectations of stakeholders is challenging. Investors, customers, suppliers, employees and trade organizations are demanding and draw time and resources away from focusing on how to profitably increase revenues.

We know this because we've worked at large public companies, small startups and professional services firms. We first met at Nielsen where we led both operating and strategy units. During our time at Nielsen, there were ownership changes, recapitalizations, going-private transactions, activist investors, IPOs and split-ups. We bought and sold businesses, developed integration plans, launched new adjacent businesses and products and formed new corporate venture capital units. We operated legacy businesses for growth. We optimized or de-emphasized dilutive or declining businesses.

We know because we've worked in portfolio companies of the largest private equity funds in the world.

We know because we've worked in venture backed digital startups and ran funds ourselves.

We know because we are executives-in-residence at leading investment advisory and private equity funds.

We know because we are board members of private-equity backed businesses.

So we get your challenges. But we've been able to generate growth operating under the same demands as you. We are partners to C-suite executives and institutional investors. We are partners to investment banks. We are partners to university presidents.

We are a team of high-performing professionals, plus a network of a domain experts dedicated to empowering mid-sized digital companies and education institutions to navigate change and achieve high performance. Our collective expertise spans strategy, sales, marketing, business development, fundraising strategies and M&A, enabling us to deliver comprehensive growth solutions tailored to each client's unique needs.

Our Leadership Team

Bruce Haymes

Bruce Haymes

Co-Founder &

Managing Director

Bruce Haymes is founder and managing director of Stage18. He is also chairman of the board of directors of Toluna Corporation. and an executive-in-residence at Progress Partners, an investment advisory firm focused on digital technologies.

Previously, Bruce was the senior vice president of corporate development and M&A at Nielsen as well as managing director of Nielsen Ventures. Relevant transactions included the acquisitions of Arbitron ($1.4B - leader in audio audience measurement), AGB Nielsen (14+ non-US markets measuring TV audiences), IBOPE, Marketing Analytics, Inc., vBrand and many other smaller digital assets. He was also co-founder of Nielsen Innovate, Nielsen’s startup investment and innovation platform based in Israel, as well as NielsenIQ's Connect program for startups. During his tenure he made more than 30 investments in startups located on almost every continent. Nielsen Innovate delivered several exits during his tenure including vBrand, CiValue, CrossSense, BrainVu, Revuze and Nutrino. Bruce is also a subject matter expert on media measurement and market research. 

Prior to Nielsen, he was corporate vice president, business affairs at Time Warner Cable and head of corporate development and strategy at PanAmSat (exit with KKR, Carlyle and Providence).

Bruce started his career practicing corporate finance law in New York at Chadbourne & Parke and Morrison & Foerster. He also served on the advisory board of Sweetwood Capital (Fund I - Europe) and served as an advisor to The Advertising Research Foundation (ARF). He is a mentor at Entrepreneurs Roundtable Accelerator (ERA) in New York and has been a guest lecturer of corporate finance and M&A at Cornell Tech’s MBA program in New York. He was named a Frost and Sullivan “Thought Leader,” and to the Cablefax Publications “Digital Hot List”. He is a member of the New York and New Jersey Bar Associations, and a graduate of Tufts University and the George Washington University School of Law with honors.

Eric Weinberg

Eric Weinberg

Co-Founder &

Managing Director

Eric is founder and managing director of Stage18. Prior to Stage18, Eric held executive positions at several venture-backed high-growth, emerging middle market companies including Sovrn (President), Return Path (President and COO) and Collective (COO). He has deep experience in the areas of data and analytics, digital media and information services. He is an expert at evaluating data quality and opportunities for licensing and commercialization. 

In those roles, Eric focused on helping organizations effectively grow their revenue and support periods of sustained growth, both organically and by securing ancillary sources of revenue through partnerships and new ventures. 

In addition to his operational roles, Eric worked as an executive-in-residence at Great Hill Partners, working to identify middle market investment opportunities. As a result of this role, Eric had the opportunity to evaluate scores of companies to gain a better understanding of what differentiated successful organizations from those that struggled to redefine themselves. 

Eric began his career as a management consultant at Accenture’s Strategic Services division, focused on the media and entertainment sector. He left consulting to work at Nielsen, where he held a series of executive roles culminating in president of Nielsen Entertainment, a unit with over $100 million in revenue supporting the film, music and books industries. 

Through his time at larger organizations like Nielsen and then his transition to working with smaller, more dynamic companies, Eric has developed a strong understanding of how to balance structure and scale with the dynamism and flexibility required in emerging sectors. He likes working closely with his clients as they tackle similar challenges and opportunities.

Eric holds an MBA in Finance from the University of Chicago and a BA in History from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor.

At Stage18, we are more than just a team; we are partners in your journey toward

growth and success. Let's navigate change and unlock value together.

Stage18 executes growth acceleration programs for middle market companies and education institutions.

Contact

eric@stage18.co

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