For Brands For Agencies About Talk to an Expert
MATCH FOUND
94%
MATCH CONFIDENCE
  • Retail Media
  • CRM & Customer Data
  • Global Deployment
  • AI Efficiency Savings
ALIGNMENTTop quartile

One system of record for all marketing services.

Proprietary provider data delivered at the speed of AI.

How It Works

Built on agency search expertise trusted by the world’s biggest brands

CVS Health Dos Equis Home Depot Jaguar New Balance Nestlé NFL Nintendo PNC Porsche PUMA Activision CVS Health Dos Equis Home Depot Jaguar New Balance Nestlé NFL Nintendo PNC Porsche PUMA Activision

Expert agency search, now powered by AI.

Goldthread is an AI-powered decisioning platform and expert services team that helps brands find, benchmark, and choose the right marketing partners.

The problem

The landscape evolved. The process didn't.

AI multiplied the options overnight. The way brands choose between them is still slow, expensive, and no closer to the right fit.

The old way
  • Default to the biggest name.
  • Ask colleagues, friends and even neighbors for their favorites.
  • Ask an LLM and hope the recommendation is the same as it was yesterday.
The Goldthread way
  • Search, rank, brief, automate, and benchmark partners in one platform.
  • Guided by experts used by the world's biggest brands, and the data they've built doing it.
  • A million possibilities, narrowed to your right match. In days.

“It essentially does everything a senior search consultant did for us, in a fraction of the time.”

SVP Marketing, National Retail Bank
The platform

Every partner decision, made with confidence.

Make better partnership decisions

Combine expert judgment with proprietary intelligence to identify the partners most likely to deliver for your business.

Align every stakeholder

Capture priorities up front and evaluate every partner against shared criteria, so marketing, procurement, finance, and leadership are in agreement.

Match on merit

Score every candidate against verified capabilities and the criteria that matter most, so the best-fit partners rise to the top.

Decide in days

AI narrows the field while experts refine the shortlist, so you move from search to selection in days.

Negotiate from strength

Benchmark partner rates against verified market data, so you enter every negotiation informed and confident.

Defend every decision

Transparent scoring and documented rationale give you the evidence to support every decision.

You can't scrape it. You can't buy it. You can't simulate it.

Goldthread is built on intelligence from hundreds of agency searches for the world's biggest brands. We know which agencies have the expertise your business needs, which have real global capabilities, and which consistently outperform firms many times their size. It's the kind of institutional knowledge no algorithm can generate.

“Goldthread has fundamentally changed the way organizations run agency searches.”

CMO, Global Telecommunications Brand
The process

From a million possibilities to the right match.

1,000,000
Potential partners

Impossible to evaluate. Too important to get wrong.

20
Qualified matches

Scored and ranked against your criteria.

12
Structured evaluations

Structured, comparable evaluations.

3
Finalists

Fully vetted finalists.

1
The right partner

Chosen with confidence. Backed by evidence.

Run your next search with confidence.

Talk to an Expert

Critical investment decisions, now backed by data.

Hire the right agencies and vendors for your business needs, with the judgment of professional search experts and the definitive data to make every call with confidence.

The stakes

Your partners shape your performance.

The right agency compounds your growth, sharpens your campaigns, and earns its budget back. Getting that choice right is one of the highest-leverage moves an organization can make, and one of the hardest to get right.

$1M+

Average cost of an agency review with three agencies pitching

3 months

Average time to select a new agency

1 in 4

Brands report a delayed campaign or launch as a result

Source: 4As / ANA / Advertiser Perceptions, 2023

How it works

Expert guidance and rigorous data, behind every decision.

01

Make better partnership decisions

Combine expert judgment with proprietary intelligence to choose the partners most likely to grow your business.

02

Align every stakeholder

Capture priorities up front and score every partner against shared criteria, so marketing, procurement, finance, and leadership are in agreement.

03

Match on merit

Every candidate scored against verified capability and the criteria that matter to your business, so the best-fit partner is clear.

04

Negotiate from strength

Benchmark agency and vendor rates against verified market data, so you sign or renew at the right price.

05

Decide in days

AI narrows the field while experts refine the shortlist, so your search takes days and your campaign starts on time.

06

Defend every decision

Transparent scoring and a documented rationale that hold up to finance, legal, and the board.

Different priorities.
One smart decision.

Goldthread gives every stakeholder the intelligence they need to evaluate partners against their priorities, so teams align on one informed decision.

For marketing leaders

The partner you choose drives the results you're measured on.

Your agency relationships are among the biggest line items you control, and the most direct lever on the growth you own. The wrong pick costs a quarter and a campaign. The right one makes your number.

Choose better, defend the spend, and redirect the time you'd lose to the search back into the campaigns and strategy that grow the business.

For procurement teams

Every decision, documented and defensible.

Marketing services are one of the hardest categories to source: qualitative, high-stakes, and resistant to the tools built for everything else. When the decision gets questioned, you need more than a recommendation. You need the rationale behind it.

Structured evaluation, rates benchmarked for stronger negotiations, and the evidence to defend every choice.

“The comprehensiveness of the proprietary database is the secret sauce. It's the difference between throwing requirements into ChatGPT and having validated, ever-expanding data.”

Brand Marketer · SVP Marketing Strategy

Expert judgment. At the speed of AI.

Ready to run your first search?

Talk to an Expert

From a long shot to a real shot.

Compete where you fit; win more of what you pitch.

The opportunity

Win more. Pitch less.

The math of new business is brutal. You chase ten, you win two, and the eight that got away still cost you the nights, the talent, and the spec work. Goldthread changes the ratio.

$204,461

The average agency spend on a single pitch, according to the 4As and ANA. In most searches, everyone but one walks away with nothing. Goldthread aims that spend at the work you can actually win.

For agencies

Less chasing. More winning.

01

The right work finds you.

Qualified searches reach you, matched to what you do best, so you spend your time on opportunities you can actually win.

02

Stop paying to lose. In fact, stop paying to play.

Put your pitch budget into the pitch, not into the search platform.

03

Keep your team focused on client work.

Keep your best people on the clients you already have, with their time and talent going where it grows the business.

04

Build a sharper proposal.

You get the brand's actual criteria and context up front, so you can tailor a stronger, more relevant response from the start.

For Agencies

List in minutes. For free.

01
01

List your agency

Click below to access our intake form.

02
02

Tell us what you do

Fill out one simple profile: your capabilities, your team, your best work.

03
03

Get matched

When you fit a search, we share your agency and why you're right for the job.

04
04

Respond with confidence

Submit your proposal against the brand's real goals, where you're positioned to win.

That's it.

Your information, protected.

Yours alone

Your profile is never shared with competing agencies, and never made available outside the Goldthread platform.

Seen only by buyers

Your answers are seen only by brand marketers running a search that fits you, never by other agencies.

Yours to control

View, update, or withdraw your information at any time.

List your agency for free.

We spent our careers running these searches. So we built a better way to run them.

Goldthread was created by a team of agency search experts who spent their careers finding the right partners for the world's most demanding brands. We saw the same problem play out over and over: a process that was slow, manual, and driven more by relationships than evidence.

So we built the platform we always wished we had. One that brings the rigor of expert search together with the speed of AI. The judgment that used to cost a six-figure consultant and months of work now works for any marketer, in days.

We believe the best partner should win.

When the best partner wins, everyone does. The brand gets work that performs. The agency earns business on merit instead of relationships. And the whole industry gets better, because the reward goes to the teams doing the best work, not the ones with the deepest rolodex.

That belief shapes everything we build. The right match should be easier to find. Technology should sharpen judgment, not replace it. And evidence should make every decision clearer, fairer, and easier to trust.

The team

Leadership

MR

Matt Ryan

Co-Founder

New York-based marketing and advertising services leader. C-level roles across major marketing services providers. Owns Roth, Ryan, Hayes, with deep, longstanding relationships across CMOs and agency leadership.

“AI finally allows a level playing field.”

RC

Ron Croen

Co-Founder

San Francisco-based AI-first product leader and entrepreneur. Founder of Nuance Communications, the speech recognition and natural language leader acquired by Microsoft for $20 billion. Corporate venture investor in martech, brandtech, and adtech, and the buyer of AI ad-generation company Pencil for The Brandtech Group.

“AI changes everything. We’re ready to lead it.”

Locations

New York · San Francisco

Great partnerships start with great people.

Helping brands find the right partners starts with building the right team. We believe the best work comes from people who enjoy learning from one another, sharing ideas, and celebrating each other's success.

See Open Roles

We're pulling for you.

Ready to find the right partner?

Talk to an Expert

Privacy & Terms

Privacy Policy

Effective date: June 1, 2026

Goldthread.ai is operated by Goldthread Inc. This policy explains how we collect, use, and protect your information when you visit our website or use our services.

Information we collect

We collect information you provide directly, such as your name, email, company, and anything you submit through our forms. We also collect limited technical information automatically, such as IP address, browser and device type, and how you interact with the site, through cookies and similar technologies.

How we use information

We use it to provide and improve our services, respond to inquiries, communicate with you about Goldthread, keep the site secure, and meet legal obligations. We do not sell your personal information.

Cookies

We use cookies and similar technologies to operate the site, remember preferences, and understand usage. You can control cookies through your browser settings, though some features may not work if they are disabled.

Sharing

We may share information with service providers who help us run the site and business, when required by law, or in connection with a corporate transaction. Providers are bound to protect your information and use it only for the services they provide to us.

Data retention

We keep personal information only as long as needed for the purposes described here or as required by law, after which it is deleted or anonymized.

Your rights

Depending on where you live, you may have the right to access, correct, delete, or restrict use of your personal information, and to object to certain processing. To make a request, contact us below.

Security

We use reasonable administrative, technical, and physical safeguards. No method of transmission or storage is completely secure, so we cannot guarantee absolute security.

Children

Our services are intended for businesses and are not directed to children under 16. We do not knowingly collect information from children.

Changes

We may update this policy over time. Material changes will be posted here with a revised date.

Contact

Questions about this policy: privacy@goldthread.ai.

Terms of Service

Acceptance

By accessing or using Goldthread.ai, you agree to these Terms. If you do not agree, do not use the site.

Use of the site

You agree to use the site lawfully and not to misuse it, interfere with its operation, or access it in any unauthorized way. We may suspend or end access if these Terms are violated.

Intellectual property

The content, design, logos, and software on this site are owned by Goldthread or its licensors and protected by law. You may not copy, distribute, or create derivative works without our permission.

Disclaimers

The site is provided "as is" without warranties of any kind. We do not guarantee it will be uninterrupted, error-free, or that all information on it is complete or current.

Limitation of liability

To the extent permitted by law, Goldthread is not liable for indirect, incidental, or consequential damages arising from your use of the site.

Governing law

These Terms are governed by the laws of the State of New York, without regard to conflict-of-laws rules.

Contact

Questions about these Terms: legal@goldthread.ai.