The fintech and capital markets industry is navigating one of its most complex periods. Digital assets, tokenisation, AI adoption, evolving market structure and a surge in regulatory activity are all reshaping the landscape simultaneously.
According to McKinsey research, companies in the top quartile of its Design Index outperformed industry-benchmarked growth by as much as two to one, underlining the commercial value of investing in brand and creative capability.
Meanwhile, BCG research found that cutting $1 of brand spending costs companies $1.92 in future investment to regain lost share, with three quarters of marketers reporting that brand cuts cause more damage than they did five years ago.
At the same time, the number of firms competing for attention in the capital markets technology space has grown significantly, standing out has never been harder.
In today’s environment, marketing and communications is not a nice-to-have, it is a commercial necessity.
However, most fintech firms (particularly at the start-up and scale-up stage) lack the internal resource, specialist knowledge, or bandwidth to execute effectively.
With global fintech investment exceeding $100 billion annually and thousands of firms competing for institutional attention, the pressure to communicate clearly and credibly has never been greater.
This is the problem Forefront Communications was founded to solve.
Who is Forefront?
Founded by Mark Dowd and Eric Soderberg, Forefront Communications is a full-service marketing and communications agency exclusively focused on fintech and capital markets.
Eric spent 20 years as an in-house CMO across seven different firms, giving him direct, first hand experience of challenges his clients face, while Mark has worked with Instinet for 10 years and Goldman Sachs fintech spin-off REDI Technologies.
When Soderberg and Dowd were both working in-house, they noticed a gap in the market. Firms at every stage of growth traditionally had to find separate agencies for PR, content, design, web and events.
They saw an opportunity to build something different: a full-service agency that genuinely understood the space and could offer everything under one roof. That founding insight remains central to how Forefront operates today.
Forefront has worked with over 200 fintech and capital markets clients over the past 10 years. Its full-service offering spans PR and communications, brand and design, product marketing, content development, digital marketing and website development.
The depth of that expertise is reflected in its client roster. Forefront has worked with the Securities Traders Association for eight years, and counts the US Consolidated Tape among its clients.
Every major US exchange is a member of that body. As Soderberg puts it: “This space is very hard to understand if you are an outsider.”
Forefront structures its clients’ offering around three categories it created: startups, scale-ups and standouts.
The three-bucket model
For pre-Series A startups, the need is typically foundational.
A name, a brand identity, key messages, a website and social channels. Some of today’s biggest names in fintech came to Forefront when they were just two or three people. The firm has developed close to 60 brands from the ground up.
Scale-ups are firms with between $10 million and $50 million in revenue, typically with one solo marketer who needs full execution support.
Forefront fills those gaps, taking on everything from website design and PR to content development, social media management and HubSpot campaigns, effectively acting as an outsourced marketing department.
For the largest firms, the standouts, the focus shifts to strategic brand work and bespoke projects.
Clients at this level have included Tower Research Capital, Virtu, S&P, FactSet, Broadridge and Kroll, with Forefront delivering product launch plans, messaging and positioning work, and post-acquisition integration support.
Track record
Forefront’s track record reflects the strength of that model. When Talos first approached Forefront, the company had two founders, no brand and no website; a few years later, it had reached a $1.5 billion valuation.
MayStreet, a sophisticated data management company serving the high-frequency trading space, was acquired by the London Stock Exchange Group after Forefront handled its marketing and communications.
Hidden Road, Liquidity Book and Dash Financial all outsourced their entire marketing and communications to Forefront, with all enjoying successful acquisitions.
Of the 200 clients Forefront has worked with since founding, close to 50 have outsourced their entire design, marketing and communications from day one.
Eight of those clients have gone on to become unicorns, or very close to it.
Soderberg summarises the firm’s approach simply: “We really understand our clients, and we bring an unmatched depth of experience and knowledge to the space.”
What makes Forefront different?
Forefront sets itself apart as Eric and the team have sat in their clients’ chairs, with this in-house experience feeding how Forefront consults and advises. They are not agency people, they are practitioners.
Forefront pushes back when clients say, “we just need PR”, often the real need starts with messaging, positioning and a website that tells a consistent story, without that foundation, PR spend delivers weaker ROI.
The first conversation is always about business and marketing goals for the next few years.
Soderberg says that even when a client already has a strong brand in place, “we will still be curious about their business and marketing goals so we can consult with them and help shape a program that will be most effective.”
Forefront goes beyond the brief, actively promoting clients through its own media channels, clients are regularly featured on the ‘At the Forefront podcast,’ and client news is also shared in Forefront’s morning newsletter, which reaches 4,000 subscribers every day, along with a quarterly newsletter across Forefront’s social channels.
Forefront’s decade-long presence in the industry also means it can make meaningful introductions for clients to potential partners, prospective clients or investors.
Soderberg says the firm “actively uses our contacts to help clients sell, find partners and make a name for themselves.”
AI tools are having a broad impact on marketing and communications, bringing real efficiency gains across a range of tasks, but Soderberg’s view is clear, tools alone are not enough.
He argues that you still must understand the space, understand the market and be a skilled practitioner, stating AI is an enabler, not a substitute for expertise:
“Even in that context, you still have to know the space. You have to be a skilled marketing or communications practitioner, and you have to understand the market; the tools alone won’t do it for you.”
Forefront is expecting revenue growth of around 20% this year, the firm continues to grow primarily through referrals, a mark of trust that it has built across the fintech and capital markets community.
As the fintech landscape grows more complex (more digital assets, more regulation, more competition for attention) demand for specialist communications expertise is only increasing.
For a firm that has helped eight clients reach unicorn status, the tagline “launch louder, grow faster, lead longer” is not just a slogan. It is a track record.