Springboards Secures Backing from Industry Powerhouse Names

Springboards co-founders Pip and Amy had a chance to sit down with Peregian Digital Hub Director, Chris Boden, to talk about how they went from freshly laid-off tech workers with a toddler to founders of an AI startup, changing the game for advertising agencies. Peregian Digital Hub is a self-proclaimed “gathering place for AI nerds” in Noosa, Australia, where the co-founders reside, and was a huge influence on kickstarting Springboards.

The conversation ranged from playing and tinkering with AI tools during covid times to building an MVP and learning what VC was, to today with over 100 agencies onboarded and using Springboards to supercharge their creative process. Read on for highlights from the conversation between Chris, Pip, and Amy.

What Business Need Does Springboards Solve?

If you haven’t heard, the ad industry’s got a problem. Margins are shrinking, and a big part of it is what we lovingly call the "pitching problem." Agencies are hustling harder than ever, sinking time and money into speculative work—creating entire campaigns for free just to win a client. It’s exhausting, expensive, and honestly, kinda soul-crushing.

That was the impetus for Springboards, the platform that puts creativity back in the driver’s seat without losing the human spark. Built by ad-world veterans, Springboards is an idea accelerator designed to speed up the creative process without watering down the magic. Think of it as your new brainstorming buddy, helping with everything from strategy to killer concepts.

Here’s what makes us tick:

1. We Want to Fit Into Agency Workflows: Clients don’t just hire you for the work; they want ideas, innovation, and yep, even "someone to blame” if something goes wrong (no judgment!) Springboards isn’t supposed to replace your process—it powers it, giving you more firepower to deliver fresh, unexpected ideas.
2. Not Designed to Give You Answers but an Inspiration Overload: Springboards isn’t about spitting out the answer. It’s about throwing a hundred weird, wild, and wonderful ideas your way so you can pick the best and make them better. It’s like a workshop in your pocket, minus the bad coffee and awkward icebreakers.
3. Humans Always Come First: This isn’t some “robots-take-your-job” story. Pip and Amy built Springboards to keep people in the creative equation. The platform is there to amplify your genius, not replace it. We like to think of it as the Terminator story - we’re using humans partnered up with AI to fight the evil AI.
4. Say Goodbye to Meh Ideas: AI often has this nasty habit of playing it safe and turning out stuff that’s painfully average. We hate that. So we’re constantly tweaking Springboards to make sure it doesn’t fall into that trap. The goal? Help you hit the jackpot without settling for "fine."

Springboards isn’t just helping agencies work smarter—it’s flipping the script for teams and entire agencies:

• One user told us, “With Springboards, I feel like I can take on any agency out there.” That’s the energy we live for.
• Pitches are turning into wins: Agencies using Springboards have more wins under their belts. One client even joked, “The only problem is, I don’t have enough briefs to answer anymore.”

What’s Next?

We’re not stopping here. With plans to continue growing globally and a laser focus on fighting creative entropy (aka the soul-sucking sameness that kills good ideas), Springboards is on a mission to keep creativity alive and well.

Our promise? To keep pushing boundaries and helping the world’s creatives do what they do best: make weird, wild, wonderful things happen. Check out the full interview here for more insights.

Ready to rethink how you work? Join the Springboards revolution, and let’s keep creativity where it belongs—in human hands. Request a demo today at https://springboards.ai/#demo. 

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The advertising industry is in a strange place

Somewhere between chasing clicks and feeding the algorithm, something got lost. The creativity that once defined this field—big ideas, bold campaigns, truly different thinking—got buried under “self-serve” ads, popularity contests, and a relentless drive to please the middle. It feels like we’ve entered what some are calling the “Age of Average,” where everything seems tailor-made for safe, widespread appeal but lacks the soul that once made ads unforgettable. The Springboards team? We think it’s high time for a change.

As AI sweeps through the industry, the question isn’t if it’ll change advertising—it already has. The real question is, will AI be a lifeline to help us out of the creative hole we’ve dug? Or will it dig us in deeper? At Springboards, we see a way forward where AI isn’t the enemy but the creative ally we’ve been waiting for. We believe that with the right tools—and a little bravery—the industry can be revitalized, not just to reflect culture but to break it wide open. Here’s a bit of our journey to this vision and why we’re just getting started.

How Did We Get Here? A Quick Diagnosis of the Problem

Our founder, Pip Bingemann, summed it up perfectly at Cannes in Cairns: “AI is ripping apart the ad world, and damn, isn’t it about time?” What he means is that AI isn’t inherently the problem here. Sure, the machines are here, but they’ve always been around in one form or another. The real issue lies in how we’ve used these tools so far, often in ways that limit creativity instead of pushing it forward.

Three major factors have contributed to this stifling of creativity:

1. Advertising Became Self-Serve: The shift toward digital ads made it possible for everyone to access and create campaigns with minimal expertise. This self-service model may be efficient, but it also means that thoughtful, well-crafted storytelling often takes a back seat to quick, cheap, and easy solutions.
2. Relevance Over Distinction: The pressure to appeal to the masses has reduced creative expression to whatever happens to be popular right now. As a result, ad content has become predictable, losing the unique edge that makes ads stick.
3. The Tyranny of Numbers: Metrics rule everything, and we’ve all felt it. When the focus is solely on views, clicks, and conversions, there’s little room left for originality. We’ve become slaves to what the numbers tell us is “successful,” often at the cost of creative risk-taking.

So here we are, with an industry that’s found itself boxed in. Popularity has replaced boldness, and mediocrity is dressed up as success. But just blaming the machines (or the algorithms) is too easy. The truth is, clients, agencies, and even creatives ourselves have all contributed to this mess. But it’s not too late to fix it.

Enter Springboards: A New Way to Think About AI and Creativity

At Springboards, we’re choosing to look at AI differently. Instead of viewing it as a factory for cookie-cutter ideas, we see AI as a way to get back to the heart of creativity. With Springboards, our goal is to design a tool that works with creative humans, not replacearound them. The machines may be powerful, but so is human imagination—and when those two powers come together, the possibilities are huge.

What makes Springboards different is our approach: we don’t just throw in a bunch of features and call it innovation. Instead, we focus on what actually matters for creatives today. We’re building a platform that fuels unique, inspired, and even risky ideas—because the best ideas are often the ones that break the rules. Springboards is designed to help you push past the safe and obvious, bringing bold ideas back into the spotlight. This isn’t another trend-chasing tool; it’s a creative partner with a shared goal—to take creativity to the next level.

Building Momentum: The Early Buzz

Since our beta launch, we’ve seen an amazing response. Industry leaders, like Zoe Scaman, have shared their excitement, and her tweet alone sparked an unexpected wave of interest. It was proof that creatives everywhere are craving something that feels real—a tool that challenges them, pushes them, and ultimately brings more fun back to the work they love. With demo requests piling up and a waitlist growing, we’re more motivated than ever to bring this new creative approach to as many people as we can.

But this is only the beginning. Zoe’s reaction, along with others, shows us that there’s a real hunger for change. Creatives want a tool that works with them, not against them, to shake up the industry norms. Springboards.ai is just that—a fresh way forward, built to make the creative journey exciting, unpredictable, and, most importantly, ours.

What’s Next? The Official Launch and Beyond

The excitement so far is humbling, but we know the real journey is just beginning. With the official launch of Springboards just around the corner, we’re gearing up to make an even bigger impact. We’re not interested in offering yet another “solution” that falls short on creativity. Instead, we’re focused on providing a tool that sparks curiosity, pushes boundaries, and turns the creative process into an adventure again.

This is a call to every creative out there tired of the “Age of Average.” We’re building Springboards for those who believe that creativity can, and should, disrupt, inspire, and even annoy sometimes. If you’re ready for something different, we invite you to join the waitlist and take part in this journey with us.

So here’s to the end of the average and the beginning of something extraordinary. Creativity deserves more, and with Springboards.ai, we’re just getting started.

When creative industry visionary Zoe Scaman drops a post about a game-changing new tool, the creative world perks up. Known for her unfiltered insights and knack for spotting what’s next, Zoe’s Tweet and LinkedIn post about our product—Springboards—was nothing short of electric. 

Here’s how she thrust Springboards into the spotlight:

Credit: https://x.com/zoescaman/status/1725089109436199152

The Cat Was Out of the Bag

Replies started stacking up almost immediately. Agency folks and strategists jumped into the conversation, buzzing with questions and speculation and it was clear that Springboards could no longer operate in the shadows of beta testing agencies. 

After taking a second to shake himself and realize he wasn’t dreaming, our co-founder Pip Bingemann chimed in to share his excitement.

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So What is Springboards, Anyway?

Springboards is a suite of AI tools that loosely mirrors a traditional creative process. Spoiler alert: we won’t give you the answer, but we’ll give you sparks to help you get there. Little thought starters to get your head thinking and give you the ability to EXPLORE more ideas than you ever could before. It’s the act of exploring and playing that leads to great creativity and we are built to do just that. We want to accelerate human creativity and help you have some fun along the way.

What Makes Us Different

Springboards isn’t built like your typical LLM that just wants to pump out answers; we’re built for creative sparks. We’ve reprogrammed them to keep giving you fresh answers, instead of the same cookie-cutter answers that you see after you keep prompting with your standard LLM. We’re not here to give you the answer and we want you to jump into the sandbox with us and get messy and come up with ideas together. We want this process to be fun for you and we’re hoping to help spark those ideas to get you places you wouldn’t alone.

How Did We Get Here 

We started experimenting with AI because we thought the technology was good, but the product (ChatGPT and others) were shit. It was too generic and took too much hand holding to get anything decent. We built something for ourselves to bring the thrill back to the creative process. We were tired of the same-old, same-old, using tools that promised creativity but delivered dull, predictable content. So, we set out to build something different. Something that makes creative work feel as inspired as it should. Springboards isn’t your average AI tool. It’s a creative tool to help you spark creativity, NOT give you the answers. It’s designed specifically to give agency creatives superpowers, built by agency people who truly understand the needs of this industry. 

The early response from our beta was beyond what we’d hoped. When creatives like Zoe started sharing their excitement, we knew we’d struck a chord. People are seeing that Springboards isn’t just another tool—it’s a partner, designed to challenge you, expand your ideas, and bring real, unexpected fun back into the mix.

A Glimpse at What’s Next

Zoe’s post was only the beginning. In minutes, it sparked a wave of curiosity, and soon our inbox was overflowing with demo requests. So yeah, we had to create a waitlist, thrilled that so many people want to be part of this journey with us. But we’re just getting warmed up.

The waitlist wasn’t just a buzz-builder. With Springboards, we’re bringing a fresh approach to how agency creatives work, so we want to make sure each demo is personal, interactive, and tailored to show what Springboards can really do. Yes, it means we are a bit slower to get through everyone, BUT it also means people understand not just WHAT Springboards can do, but WHY it was created and HOW to get the most out of it.

We’re planning an official launch to share with everyone what we’ve been working on and we’re gearing up to make an even bigger impact. We’re bringing more features, more fun, and even more ways for you to push creative boundaries. 

If this has you curious and you want to break out of the boring, request a demo today and get ready for what’s next.

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