CRETiVITy to Small Business

With MNTN, Ryan Reynolds and Mark Douglas pair innovative ad tech with a hell of a lot of fun.

- ALLISON GLOCK

"HOW'S EVERYONE ELSE'S NERVOUS SYSTEM?"

When actor, producer, and flourishing business savant Ryan Reynolds walks into the room asking this, he does so in a cloud of unexpected modesty. Here in Inc.'s offices for a photo shoot, he steps in front of the camera enacting various shades of casual executive realness, trading quips and volleys with the crew about his own anxiety. ("That little maladaptive coping mechanism," he says. "It's wildly insecure.") It's an unexpected approach for a ubiquitous A-list Hollywood star, but one Reynolds has deployed to disarming effect throughout his career, both onscreen and in business. "I have a people-pleasing kind of Canadian habit ingrained," he says.

"I need to deliver for those I've promised I'll deliver for." Lately, Reynolds and his business partner, Mark Douglas, have been delivering for clients on their self-serve television advertising platform, MNTN, one of the fastest-growing names in the ad business. The company says its proprietary technology-an AI matchmaking system it calls MNTN Matched-helps advertisers of all sizes target the commercials you see on your connected TV. The platform is Douglas's baby; he merged it with Maximum Effort, the creative agency that Reynolds co-founded in 2018. Combining forces, the partners believed, would give them a winning combination of technology and brand personality.