OLIVER BRUCE · FOUNDER, ENTREPRENEUR, INVESTOR
Bootstrapping to exit.
In 2013, Oliver Bruce started PinPoint Media from his university halls. Twelve years later, PrettyGreen acquired a majority stake. This is how a student side project became a multi-million-pound performance marketing agency.
THE DEAL
PinPoint Media joins PrettyGreen.
PrettyGreen now holds the majority stake in PinPoint Media, while Oliver retains a meaningful shareholding and continues to lead the agency as CEO. The deal adds AI-enabled paid social, paid search and content marketing to PrettyGreen’s PR, influencer, social and experiential offer.
“Joining PrettyGreen marks the beginning of a new chapter for our agency… an exciting opportunity to scale internationally.”— Oliver Bruce, Founder CEO, PinPoint Media
THE JOURNEY
From university halls to acquisition.
- 2013
Founded in university halls
Oliver launches PinPoint Media at 19 with a camera and a belief that creative and performance belong together.
- Growth
Production to performance
The agency expands beyond traditional production into performance creative, paid social and paid search for consumer brands.
- 2023
Acquiring NOVA+
PinPoint acquires NOVA+, accelerating growth and deepening partnerships with brands such as Knoops, Planthood and Cutter & Squidge.
- AI
Launching CoreAI™
A proprietary AI tech stack lets clients create high-quality stills and video creative at scale.
- Dec 2025
Majority sale to PrettyGreen
PrettyGreen acquires a majority stake for an undisclosed sum. Oliver keeps a meaningful shareholding and stays on as CEO.
ALL IN ON AI
Why Oliver Bruce is bullish on AI.
Oliver has been an early adopter of AI since 2023 — not as an experiment, but as a way of working. From that point he started baking AI into everything he does, across his business and his personal life.
At PinPoint Media that conviction became CoreAI™, a proprietary AI tech stack that lets clients create high-quality stills and video creative at scale, and it shaped the AI-enabled paid social, paid search and content offer that PrettyGreen acquired. Outside the agency, AI sits at the centre of how he researches, writes, plans, learns and evaluates opportunities.
His view is simple: AI is the biggest leverage shift founders will see in their careers. The teams who build it into their daily habits now — rather than waiting for it to feel finished — will move faster, spend smarter and compound the advantage. It is a theme he returns to on stage and on The Unlock.
Oliver is a Founding Partner of Caplia, a company on a mission to change how early-stage company decisions are made — so that stronger companies get noticed, supported and backed.
More companies are being built than ever, and more institutions are using AI to decide which ones to back. But general-purpose AI does not understand how a venture fund, bank or accelerator evaluates an early-stage company — or how to handle the sensitive information behind that decision. Caplia exists to bring trusted, private intelligence to those decisions.
Caplia combines a consistent framework for assessing companies with the context each institution needs. Founders build a Caplia Passport, investors standardise their deal flow and accelerators power cohort readiness — giving decision-makers better evidence, greater consistency and more time to build relationships with the companies shaping the future.
The founding team brings together product, engineering and operations: Connor Wells (Co-founder & CEO), Paul Dodd (Co-founder & CTO) and Daniel Hafezi (AI Lead), advised by Professor Thomas Hellmann. For Oliver, Caplia brings together the three things he cares about most: founders, investing and AI.
WHAT IT TAUGHT ME
Lessons founders can actually use.
Oliver shares the decisions behind the growth and sale — growing from a student venture, buying NOVA+, adopting AI early and choosing the right partner — on stage and on The Unlock.
A LITTLE MORE CONTEXT
Good questions.
Straight answers.
When did Oliver Bruce found PinPoint Media?
Oliver founded PinPoint Media in 2013 from his university halls, starting in video production before expanding into performance creative, paid social and paid search.
Who acquired PinPoint Media?
PrettyGreen, the integrated communications agency, acquired a majority stake in PinPoint Media for an undisclosed sum in December 2025.
Is Oliver Bruce still involved in PinPoint Media?
Yes. Oliver retains a meaningful shareholding and continues to lead PinPoint Media as CEO within the PrettyGreen group.
Was PinPoint Media bootstrapped?
PinPoint Media grew from a student venture into a multi-million-pound performance marketing agency, including the 2023 acquisition of NOVA+, before the majority sale to PrettyGreen.
What is Oliver Bruce's involvement with Caplia?
Oliver Bruce is a Founding Partner of Caplia, which builds private, trusted intelligence for founders, investors and accelerators in the early-stage ecosystem.
How does Oliver Bruce use AI?
Oliver has been an early adopter of AI since 2023 and builds it into everything he does across his business and personal life, including PinPoint Media's CoreAI™ creative tech stack.