Best Startup
At Best Startup US we track over 1,000,000 US startups and over 3 million people who hold key positions in these companies. We use this directory of startups to highlight top employees, founders and board members we think deserve more appreciation than they are currently getting.
This list showcases the top California based CEO’ operating in the Advertising space. If you think a CEO’ is missing from this list, feel free to contact our editor on editor@beststartup.us.
The individuals on this list have been included because of exceptional performance in one of the following categories:
- Innovation – Operating as a key part in an extremely innovative business or startup.
- Growth – Operating as a key figure in the growth and upscale of a market leading business or startup.
- Management – Showing exceptional management skills.
- Societal impact – Putting their business on the map for their positive societal or environmental impact.
Our Data – We source our data from OSINT (open source intelligence) and public directories such as Crunchbase, SemRush and many more. The data from these sources should be treated with a degree of caution and verified yourself.
Guru Gowrappan
CEO of Verizon Media
Guru Gowrappan is CEO of Verizon Media, a powerhouse of trusted media and technology brands, including Yahoo, HuffPost, and TechCrunch. Prior to this role, he was Global Managing Director of Alibaba where he focused on international expansion and e-commerce for key consumer and enterprise products. Gowrappan began his career co-founding two start-ups in India and has since held multiple leadership roles at Quixey, Zynga, and Overture. He has an M.S. in computer science from the University of Southern California and was in the business bridge program at the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth.
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About Verizon Media, Verizon Media: Verizon Media offers services in content, advertising, and technology with its brands such as Yahoo, TechCrunch, and more.
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Sunmeet Jolly
Founder & CEO of GROTU
Founder and Patent holder – GROTU mobile app @ 101 Islands LLC. Angel investor in 40 pre-IPO technology startups. Frequently invited by accelerators and angel forums to Judge startup competitions and discuss technology innovation. Former IT Consulting industry executive who sold hundreds of millions of dollars in consulting services to Fortune 500 companies working for Cap Gemini, HCL, L&T, NTT data.
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About GROTU: Patented GROTU app provides a much needed “private” collection of productivity and communication tools for friends and family social groups
Farhad Massoudi
CEO & Founder of Tubi
Farhad Massoudi founded adRise with a vision that the future of TV advertising will be targeted, measurable and interactive ads, just like the web on TV. Farhad holds a Bachelor of Science in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science from UC Berkeley.
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About Tubi: Tubi is the world’s largest ad-supported video on demand (VOD) service. Available on Connected TV devices, Mobile, and the Web.
Michael Amar
Co-Founder & Chief Executive Officer of Ifeelgoods
Seasoned entrepreneur with solid experience in global alliances, business development, executive management, channel development and organizational leadership. Business expertise across the worldwide marketplace including US, France, Israel, and Japan. Prior to founding Ifeelgoods, Michael founded and successfully sold DAOODA, a thriving ad network in the EU, and AGORAD, which was the number one independent French media company at the time he sold it in 2007. As CEO of Ifeelgoods, a U.S company he started in 2010, Michael is leveraging his leadership, experience and insights in e-commerce and online advertising to disrupt the promotion, advertising and loyalty industries. Michael is an Operating Partner at Cathay Innovation, a VC fund based in China, US and Europe, a Board Member of StationF – the largest incubator in the world – and Ambassador for La French Tech in San Francisco. Michael is a graduate of Institut Superieur de Gestion business school. Michael lives with his family in Palo Alto, California.
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About Chain Accelerator, Ifeelgoods, Paris Blockchain Week Summit: Ifeelgoods is a digital promotions platform helping marketers incent, convert and reward their audiences with desirable gifts in real-time.
Todd Dipaola
CEO and Cofounder of InMarket
Veteran entrepreneur Todd Dipaola co-founded inMarket in 2010 to bring the performance and accountability of digital marketing to the realm of retail . inMarket’s platform, including apps such as CheckPoints, List Bliss, and Extra Extra, reach consumers on their smartphones as they made critical purchase decisions. In 2011, inMarket announced the world’s largest mobile shopper network reaching over 20 million consumers. Under Todd’s leadership inMarket has partnered with brands including Coca-Cola, Procter & Gamble, and Unilever, among others. Todd previously co-founded and bootstrapped digital marketing agency Vantage Media at the inception of search advertising. Vantage ranked 31 on the Inc 500 and earned “The Fastest Growing Technology Company in Los Angeles” honors by Deloitte’s Fast50. In 2007, Todd exited the company at a valuation north of $100MM. Todd is also the CEO of Forefund Capital. Todd’s entrepreneurial experience is also rooted in philanthropy. In 2007, he created the Dipaola Foundation, which was featured in Entrepreneur Magazine, to work on environmental and systemic societal issues. He sits on several boards including UC Berkeley’s Goldman School of Public Policy and California Common Cause. As Chairman of Common Cause, the organization succeeded in reforming redistricting to eliminate gerrymandering and activating online voter registration for the first time in history. Todd graduated as a Regents Scholar from UC Berkeley in Molecular and Cell Biology with emphasis in Immunology.
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About ForeFund Capital, InMarket, The Dipaola Foundation: InMarket offers a self-service location-based platform that captures accurate consumer location data, which drives campaign performance.
Michael Heyward
CEO of medialab
Serial entrepreneur Michael Heyward co-founded Whisper with Brad Brooks in 2012 with the mission of giving people a place to freely and authentically express themselves. Whisper is one of the fastest-growing media companies, generating over 17 billion content views per month. Prior to Whisper, the LA native worked in different roles related to consumer-based marketing at startup TigerText. As a teenager, Michael was an avid Formula One Racing fan and secured the United States commercial rights for the sport. In 2016, Michael was named one of AdWeek’s “Young Influentials”. In 2014, he was named one of Forbes Magazine’s “30 Under 30” and one of Fast Company’s “Most Creative People in Business.” Michael is a frequent keynote speaker and has spoken at a number of prominent conferences, including WSJ D, Fortune Tech Brainstorm, TechCrunch Disrupt, and Business Insider Ignition.
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About medialab: medialab is a media & technology company that engages in acquiring and growing internet brands.
Afif Khoury
Founder/CEO of SOCi
Afif Khoury has spent the last decade involved in startups and venture capital investments as an attorney, venture capitalist and serial entrepreneur. Afif is a published geneticist who earned his BS in Neuroscience and Physiology from UCSD in 1998, before attending Law School at Northwestern School of Law (JD 2002) and Business School at Kellogg School of Management. Afif started his legal career as a corporate and securities attorney in Silicon Valley at the premier technology law firm of Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati (WSGR) representing technology companies and venture investors across multiple industries and at all stages. Afif left the Silicon Valley office of WSGR to help start their San Diego office, following which he left to open the San Diego office of Gunderson Dettmer (another Silicon Valley-based premier technology law firm). In 2010 Afif raised a seed and early stage fund named Scatter Ventures, which he continues to manage today. Afif is also the Founder and Managing Partner of Axon Venures, a Biotech focused venture fund in Southern California. Between the two fund, Afif has deployed more than $70 million. Afif is a director of the San Diego Venture Group and also founder and CEO of SOCI, Inc., a social data and intelligence technology startup. He is California Board certified as well as a Registered Attorney with the United States Patent and Trademark Office.
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About Aspen Neuroscience, Axon Ventures, Cradle Genomics, Epic Sciences, EvoNexus, EY, Omniome, Oncternal Therapeutics, Singular Genomics, SOCi: SOCi is a centralized platform for multi-location marketers to reach and engage local customers.
Aykut Karaalioglu
Founder & CEO of Mobile Action
Aykut Karaalioglu is the founder of Mobile Action, a company specialized in mobile discovery and optimization. He also co-founded Marro.ws, a clipping tool for intellectual people, and Shoppe, a shopping application. Karaalioglu holds a bachelor’s degree in international relations from Bilkent University. He obtained his master’s degree from Santa Clara University. Karaalioglu currently lives in San Francisco, California.
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About Mobile Action: Leading mobile intelligence company empowering app marketers to thrive in the market.
Ariel (Xingxin) Liu
CEO of Himalaya Media
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About Himalaya Media: Himalaya builds a podcast platform, audio content network, and original production studio for podcasters.
Nick Hedges
CEO of MomentFeed
A 20-year veteran of the Internet and software as a service (SaaS) industry, Nick comes to MomentFeed having been President and CEO of Velocify, the leading consumer sales acceleration platform. Nick helped orchestrate the successful sale of the company to Velocify partner and leading cloud-based platform provider for the mortgage finance industry, Ellie Mae. A widely recognized thought leader on organization transformation, technologies, and sales strategies, Nick has held senior positions at Bain & Company, Accenture.com, and Ogilvy. He was named one of the 50 Most Influential People in Sales Lead Management. A Fulbright Scholar, Hedges holds an MBA with Distinction from Harvard Business School and a bachelor’s degree with first-class honors from Manchester University.
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About ICE Mortgage Technology, MomentFeed, uberall: MomentFeed is a platform that helps multi-location brands optimize for proximity search in order to connect customers with brands.
C.J. Bowden
CEO of Turgo
CJ is currently CEO and co-founder of Turgo and Eyez.GG. His experience includes building enterprise value at high-growth public companies (Yahoo! and Criteo), scaling small and mid-sized organizations, and ramping lean start-ups and distressed businesses through capital raises and efficient operations. He brings extensive gaming expertise and mobile gaming networks having built the U.S. advertising business for Miniclip (now owned by TenCent). He has strategic leadership and tactical execution knowledge across sales, business development, marketing, operations, and change management.
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About Turgo: Turgo is a key player in the video advertising and distribution industry.
Michael Ritter
Founder & CEO of Maple Media
Michael Ritter is the Founder and CEO of Maple Media, a mobile apps and games company backed by private equity firm Shamrock Capital. Maple Media is a mobile media, advertising and technology company that acquires, manages and operates mobile applications focused on the utility, productivity, games and entertainment verticals. Popular titles include Snowboard Party: World Tour, Skateboard Party, Minesweeper Classic, Sudoku 🙂 and CalConvert. Previously he was SVP of Business & Corporate Development for Jam City, a large social and mobile game company based in Los Angeles where he oversaw mergers & acquisition activities, publishing, licensing, distribution, sales, legal and partnerships for social and mobile games. Michael was also the Founder and Publisher of Saturday Night Magazine, which at the time, he built into the largest circulated monthly collegiate lifestyle and entertainment magazine in the country.
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About Fantasy Baseball Arbitration, Maple Media: Maple Media is a mobile media, advertising, and technology company that acquires and operates category-leading, consumer apps.
David Shadpour
Founder & CEO of Social Native
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About Social Native: Social Native is a technology platform for creating high performing branded content.
Jonathan Nelson
CEO, Omnicom Digital of Omnicom Group
Jonathan Nelson co-founded Organic, the very first digital agency, in 1993, and served as Organic’s CEO for seven years. Currently, Jonathan is CEO of Omnicom Digital where he oversees strategy for Omnicom’s digital assets globally. Described as a “serial entrepreneur,” Jonathan has played a critical role in founding and building a number of companies. In 1999, Jonathan took two companies public: Accrue Software, Inc., a web measurement and analysis company that he founded in 1995, and Organic. Later, he guided Organic through its subsequent re-privatization. Jonathan is widely recognized as an industry thought leader, appearing in print in The New York Times, USA Today, Forbes, Newsweek, and Adweek and on television on CNN, CNBC, and MSNBC. His numerous accolades include being named one of the top 100 young innovators of the century by MIT’s Technology Review in 1999, and one of the top entrepreneurs of 1997 by Red Herring Magazine. He was inducted to Advertising Age’s Hall of Fame in 2001 for his “indelible imprint” on the Internet industry. Jonathan sits on numerous boards in the media and finance industries. A passionate musician, he is the co-owner of two San Francisco venues and co-produces San Francisco’s Hardly Strictly Bluegrass annually in Golden Gate Park.
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About Omnicom Group: Omnicom Group provides advertising and marketing communications services for their clients.
Oren Kaniel
Co-Founder and CEO of AppsFlyer
Oren Kaniel is the CEO & co-founder of AppsFlyer, the market leader in Mobile Attribution Analytics. Oren holds a BA in Computer Science, Cum Laude, from the Technion, and an MBA from IDC, as part of an exchange with the Wharton Business School.
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About AppsFlyer: The world’s top brands use AppsFlyer to build great products, create exceptional experiences, and preserve customer privacy.
Jay Larson
Chief Executive Officer of Optimizely
Jay Larson is Optimizely’s CEO. Previously, Jay worked as chief executive officer of Birst. Jay holds a BA degree from Harvard University and an MBA from the University of California, Los Angeles.
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About Optimizely: Optimizely is a platform that provides digital experience solutions.
Jeff Green
CEO of The Trade Desk
Jeff Green is founder and CEO of The Trade Desk, Inc., a demand-side platform that powers the desks of the world’s most advanced buyers in online advertising. Green built The Trade Desk as second-generation demand-side platform, positioning it at the center of online advertising’s trading future by offering efficient, transparent technology. Since its inception in 2009, the company has grown on pace with the now-$3B RTB industry, having been included as an alpha partner in Facebook’s launch of the Facebook Exchange, and having been recently being named one of OnMedia’s “35 [Private Companies] to Watch.” By focusing on the technology of the buy-side, Green has shaped The Trade Desk into one of the fastest growing companies in ad tech. He was a finalist for the Ernst & Young 2013 Entrepreneur of the Year award for Greater Los Angeles. Prior to The Trade Desk, Green founded AdECN, which he built in 2004 as the world’s first online advertising exchange. As COO, he led all strategy, product, and business development. AdECN was acquired by the Microsoft Corporation within three years of launch. At Microsoft, Green not only oversaw the AdECN exchange business, but also all reseller and channel partner business. Additionally, he advised the all-up strategy for the Online Services Division. In 2009, Green left to launch The Trade Desk. Green has also played a leadership role in the ad tech industry, having served on the Networks and Exchanges Quality Assurance Guidelines Committee for the Internet Advertising Bureau (IAB) from 2011-2012. Green led working groups that established rules and best practices for acquiring inventory, and set data transaction standards.
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About The Trade Desk, Trade Desk Inc.: The Trade Desk is an online demand-side platform that provides buying tools for digital media buyers.
Konrad Feldman
Co-Founder & CEO of Quantcast
Konrad Feldman, CEO, co-founded and launched Quantcast in 2006 along with Paul Sutter to transform the effectiveness of online advertising through the use of science and scalable computing. Prior to co-founding Quantcast, Feldman co-founded Searchspace (now Fortent) the leading provider of terrorist financing detection and anti-money laundering software for the world’s financial services industry. As CEO of Searchspace’s North American business, he established the business in the US and directed its rapid growth to become a market leader. Prior to Searchspace, Feldman was a Research Fellow in the Intelligent Systems Laboratory at University College London. Feldman holds a Bachelor of Science in Computer Science from University College, London.
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About Quantcast: Quantcast helps create a more personalized digital world.
Krishnan Menon
Chief Executive Officer of PHENOMENON
Krishnan Menon builds brands for a living. He combines strategic insight, storytelling, technology and cultural context to create growth and opportunity for brands at all stages using a unique confluence of experience and interests. He guides them towards better ways to create, communicate, grow, and dominate. He has engaged in some of the most iconic brand stories of the past 2 decades, from the launch of the iMac to the resurrection of adidas Originals; from the explosion of vitaminwater to the dominance of Christian Louboutin; and from the launch of E*Trade to the growth of Charles Schwab. He founded phenomenon to create actions, not just ads. It is an elite tribe of 150+ marketers, strategists, designers, storytellers and creators who have helped launch, re-launch, build and re-build some of the world’s most iconic brands.
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About PHENOMENON: PHENOMENON is an ideation company that helps brands innovate, generate big ideas, improve experiences, and become part of popular culture.
Susan Brazer
Chief Executive Officer and Founder of LionShare Media
Susan is a commercial visionary with a 2020’s view. She’s led the successful development, launch and scale of consumer-facing platforms, apps and services for world-leading media, tech and telecom companies: Apple, DirecTV, SES Astra, FIFA World Cup, Viacom, Virgin Mobile, and Nokia. Susan is the CEO of LionShare Media, which is launching the THIN/AIR™ Metaverse, a 5G cloud-native, blockchain-enabled distribution platform for premium entertainment and immersive media. Previously, Susan was VP, Strategy and Business Development at Nokia, and VP, Corporate Development and Entertainment Services at Virgin Mobile USA). Prior to this, Susan was EVP, Corporate Development at KirchMedia’s Venture Fund for the FIFA World Cup, where she raised $50M+ for interactive TV, gaming and mobile app ventures. Susan was the SVP, Networks & Marketing for Viacom’s Showtime service in the Middle East and Africa, overseeing a P&L and operations for MTV, VH1, Nickelodeon, The Movie Channel, TV Land, Bloomberg, Paramount, Style and Discovery. Susan led the launch of DirecTV as VP, Marketing at Compression Labs and the migration of 85M European TVHH to digital satellite and cable services for SES ASTRA. The genesis of Susan’s product development and UI/UX expertise began at Apple Computer, where she launched its 1st portable computer, the Newton, and Knowledge Navigator (prototype for the iPAD and Siri). She was also served as an M&A analyst at PepsiCo and International Treasury Analyst at Phillip Morris. Susan holds a B.A. in Economics from Brandeis University, an MBA from the Kellogg School of Management and attended the London School of Economics. Susan is on the Board of Global Women in Blockchain, a UN Delegate for Media for Social Impact and a mentor at Princeton University’s Keller School of Engineering for Innovation and Entrepreneurship.
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About LionShare Media: LionShare Media develops a media distribution platform-as-a-service to harness the power of converging and emerging technologies.
Eric Dahan
CEO & Co-founder of Open Influence
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About Open Influence, YPO: Open Influence is a marketing company that helps brands and advertisers engage and grow their desired audiences through social media.
Vishnu Prasath Devarajan
Founder & CEO of Bright Bridge Info-tech Pvt Ltd
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About Bright Bridge Info-tech Pvt Ltd, Pulse Pharmacy: Bright Bridge Info-tech Pvt Ltd is a digital marketing company specializing in delivering Internet advertising solutions.
Jesse Leimgruber
Co-Founder & CEO of NeoReach
Jesse is a Stanford Alumni, co-founder of NeoReach and Bloom, Thiel Fellow, and angel investor in a dozen startups. Jesse is a partner at the Alchemist Accelerator, mentor at European Innovation Academy. He frequently guest lectures classes at Stanford University and USC.
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About Alchemist Accelerator, Bloom, Bloom, Clash, NeoReach, Rank Executives: Influencer Marketing For Big Brands
Jon Fisher
Co-founder & CEO of CrowdOptic
Chief Executive Officer (Co-Founder) / Director Jon is CrowdOptic’s CEO and served as CEO of Bharosa (Oracle NASDAQ: ORCL), NetClerk (NYSE: ROP) and AutoReach (AutoNation NYSE: AN). Jon is a recipient of the Ernst & Young Entrepreneur Of The Year, Award (Emerging Category, 2007) and lives in Marin County, CA with his wife and daughter.
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About CrowdOptic, ViciNFT: CrowdOptic uses algorithms and real-time sensor data from electronic devices to enhance security, social media sharing, and advertising.
Stephen George
CEO of Amaze
Stephen’s career began as a founding team member and Head of Global Operations at Groupon, building their operational foundation and seeing them through their IPO in 2011.
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About Amaze, IndiCard: HyperLocal, Crypto Rewards
Katherine Power
Co-Founder & Chief Executive Officer of Clique
Katherine Power is the Co-Founder and CEO of Clique Media Group (CMG), the parent media company of WhoWhatWear (fashion), MyDomaine (lifestyle) Byrdie (beauty) and Obsessee (new omni-channel platform, specifically targeted at Gen-Z). In 2006, Katherine left her editorial role at ELLE to launch Who What Wear with her co-founder, Hillary Kerr. The goal was to disrupt the DNA of the magazine industry with a simple idea: do it digitally. By bringing print magazine sensibilities to the online space, CMG was born to offer readers elevated and curated access to their core passions: fashion, beauty, home and shopping. At CMG, Katherine drives all business operations, advertising and brand partnerships, along with the development of branded technology products. Just within the last year, Katherine has led the charge on exciting new initiatives for CMG, which include announcing the brand’s first foray into product with the launch of the Who What Wear collection at Target, a Series B round of funding that Amazon participated in, international expansion to the UK and Australia, and the acquisition of Wantering, a Canadian startup and social shopping search engine. Additionally, a third co-authored book, The Career Code, which serves as the modern girl’s guide for creating your own professional success, came out in the spring of 2016. As a leader that constantly innovates about what readers and consumers might want next, Katherine and her CMG team are continuing to enhance their offerings and user experience for the new generation of consumers.
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About AVALINE, Clique, MERIT Beauty, Sonoma Brands, Versed, Who What Wear: Clique is a media and commerce company
Jeremy Bloom
Co-Founder & Chief Executive Officer of Integrate
Jeremy Bloom is the only athlete in history to ski in the Olympics and get drafted into the NFL. He is a three-time WorldChampion, two-time Olympian, eleven-time World Cup gold medalist and the youngest member ever inducted into The United States Skiing Hall of Fame. He was also an All-American football player at the University of Colorado and played professional football as a wide receiver and return specialist in the National Football League for the Philadelphia Eagles and the Pittsburgh Steelers. While playing with the NFL in Philadelphia for the Eagles, he completed a business entrepreneurship program at Wharton Business School where he studied real estate and finance. Today, he is Founder/CEO of the Marketing Technology company, Integrate and founder of Wish of a Lifetime, a nonprofit organization that grants lifelong wishes to senior citizens. Through Jeremy’s vision and leadership, Integrate is transforming global marketing. The company has raised over $40M of venture capital from Comcast, Foundry Group and Liberty Global. Integrate was named as the “Best New Company” at the American Business Awards in New York City. Jeremy was named by Forbes as 30 under 30, tech executives under the age of 30 making waves in the technology space and in 2013 Jeremy was a finalist for the Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year. Outside of business, Jeremy has continued to maintain his name within the sports world. He does commentary for college football and is an Olympic Sports Television Analyst and has worked for ESPN, Fox, NBC, and The Pac-12 Network.
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About Integrate, United States Ski & Snowboard Association, Wish of a Lifetime, Wish of a Lifetime: Integrate provides a hub for managing and measuring demand generation programs.
Cristiano Oliveira
Founder + CEO of Olivia
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About Olivia: Olivia is an AI financial assistant that learns your spending patterns, predict your purchases and recommend ways to get more for your money
Robin Bordoli
Chief Executive Officer of NextRoll
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About NextRoll: NextRoll is a marketing technology company delivering products ambitious companies rely on to grow their businesses.
Paolo Privitera
Co-Founder and CEO of Evensi
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About Doochoo, Evensi, Lombardstreet Ventures: Evensi is a platform to discover, experience, ideate, and promote events.
Isaac Deutsch
Co-Founder & CEO of WaiveCar
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About REEF, WaiveCar: Waive’s goal is to bring the cost of mobility to zero by utilizing cutting edge ad tech.
Scott Mercer
Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Volta Charging
Scott Mercer is the founder and CEO of Volta, an electric vehicle charging network with the most-utilized stations in the US. An entrepreneur fascinated by both cars and future-focused technology, Scott founded Volta to bridge the gap between electric vehicles and the mainstream. The network delivers free electric vehicle charging in areas where stations are most needed, as determined by Volta’s proprietary machine learning algorithms. Under Scott’s leadership, Volta is experiencing consecutive 3x year-over-year revenue and footprint growth. Scott launched Volta in 2010 in Hawaii, where he was named Entrepreneur of the Year by the Hawaii Venture Capital, 40 Under 40 by Pacific Business News and Hawaii Business’ 20 for the Next 20. Previously, Scott ran a business buying, restoring and selling vintage cars in his early 20s. He sold a restored 1967 Jaguar XKE to seed the beginnings of Volta, which has now raised $62 million in funding. Scott currently rides an electric motorcycle, drives an electric Fiat, and occasionally, a 1971 Alfa Romeo.
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About Volta Charging: Volta Charging designs, installs, and maintains a network of electric vehicle charging stations.
Mark Ellis
Co-founder & CEO of Liftoff
Mark Ellis is a co-founder and CEO at Liftoff.
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About Liftoff: Liftoff is a mobile app marketing and retargeting platform which uses post-install data to run true CPA-optimized campaigns.
Tony Chen
CEO and Founder of Channel Factory
Tony Chen is CEO and Founder of Channel Factory, a social video marketing platform that helps top brands and agencies expand their brand video viewership. Tony is a digital pioneer in the social video space, creating cutting edge solutions to make sure brand videos are safely watched, tracked and shared across multiple platforms by millions of people. Tony founded Channel Factory in 2013 and has quickly scaled the company by partnering with top agencies and Fortune 500 brands. In 2016 alone, Channel Factory spearheaded more than 5,000 campaigns, served over five billion video views and worked with more than three hundred Fortune 500 companies on their campaigns. Prior to Channel Factory, Tony founded Yellow Thunder Media in 2010 while attending Rice University where he double majored in Economics and Piano. Pioneering a scientific method to help videos go viral on YouTube, the company generated more than one billion views within three years for top brands such as Coca Cola, Sony Pictures, and McDonalds among many others. Tony is an avid angel investor with investments in e-commerce companies including, Fab Fit Fun and Trendy Butler, Jumpcut Studio and software start up, Outreach. He has been recognized by Forbes’ 30 Under 30 for his achievements in marketing and advertising.
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About Channel Factory: Channel Factory is the world leader in YouTube brand suitability, content alignment and ad performance.
David Osman
Co-founder, CEO of Storygize
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About Storygize: Storygize is a native technology platform designed to empower digital media buyers to achieve maximum results with minimum effort.
Sahil Jain
Co-Founder and CEO of AdStage
Sahil Jain is the CEO and Co-founder of AdStage. Prior to founding AdStage in May 2012, Sahil co-founded his first company, Y-Combinator backed Trigger.io at 20. He dropped out of UC Berkeley, where he studied Philosophy and Econ, to join AOL Corp Devt. at 19, dropped out of High School to join Yahoo! Mobile as an automation engineer at 17 and worked in the professional video game industry before that.
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About AdStage, inresto: AdStage is an advertising technology startup powering paid marketers to understand the business impact of their campaigns.
Co-Founder, CEO of Samba TV
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About Carrot Capital, i/o Ventures, Samba TV: Samba TV enables the next-generation TV experience powered by its first-party data and helps viewers engage with relevant media.
Sean Doherty
CEO of Wurl
CEO at WURL, Inc.
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About Wurl: The Wurl Network connects the world’s largest digital brands with the world’s largest streaming services.
Jon Feltheimer
CEO of Lionsgate
Jon Feltheimer is the Chief Executive Officer at Lions Gate Entertainment Corp. and Lions Gate Entertainment, Inc. Feltheimer serves as the Chief Executive Officer and Co-Chairman of Lions Gate UK Limited an affiliate of TV Guide Networks, Inc. Feltheimer serves as Chief Executive Officer of Lions Gate Entertainment, Inc. He serves as Chief Executive Officer of Lionsgate at Lions Gate Films Inc. He serves as an Advisor of ZeniMax Media Inc. He served as Chief Executive Officer of Lions Gate Films Corp. He worked for Sony Pictures Entertainment from 1991 to 1999. He was the Founder and President of TriStar Television from 1991 to 1993. He served as President of Columbia TriStar Television from 1993 to 1995, President of Columbia TriStar Television Group from 1995 to 1999 and Executive Vice President of Sony Pictures Entertainment from 1997 to 1999. He served as Head of Sony Entertainment Television. He served as an Architect of Sony Pictures Entertainment. He served as the Co-Chairman of Lions Gate Entertainment Corp. from June 30, 2005 to February 2, 2012 and has been its Non-Independent Director since January 2000. He serves as a Director of Celestial Tiger Entertainment. He has been a Director of Telltale, Incorporated since February 24, 2015. He has been a Director of Grupo Televisa, S.A.B. since April 2015. He serves as a Member of Advisory Board of Lions Gate Entertainment, Inc. He served as a Director of Lions Gate Films Corp. Feltheimer served as a Director of CinemaNow Corporation. He served as a Member of Advisory Board of JumpTV Inc. He served as a Member of Advisory Board of EastWest VentureGroup. Feltheimer has Bachelor’s Degree in Economics with honors from Washington University.
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About Lionsgate: Lionsgate is a premier next generation global content leader.
Carlos Watson
Co-Founder & CEO of OZY Media
Carlos Watson co-anchors MSNBC 2 p.m. news program from NBC headquarters at 30 Rock. A Harvard grad, he got his start in politics, serving as campaign manager and chief of staff for Florida Representative Daryl Jones and managing Bill Clintonâs 1992 Election Day effort in Miami-Dade County. While at Harvard, he also worked with Senator Bob Graham, DNC Chair Ron Brown, and Miami Mayor Xavier Suarez. After graduating from Stanford Law, where he edited the Law Review, Watson joined the business world, advising Fortune 500 companies as a management consultant for McKinsey & Company. He later struck out on his own and co-founded Achieva College Prep Services, which helped thousands of high school students prepare for college and was written about in Time and Forbes, among others. Watson sold the firm to the Washington Post/Kaplan in 2002.
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About Achieva.com, OZY Media, The Stimulist: OZY Media is a premium media and entertainment for curious people — across TV, events, podcasts and news.
Jim McKelvey
Founder & CEO of Invisibly
Jim co-founded Square, where he now serves as a Director. Jim is also a General Partner at FINTOP Capital and Green Visor Capital. He serves as a Director of the St. Louis Federal Reserve and as a Trustee to Washington University in St. Louis. Jim’s first venture was co-founding Mira Digital Publishing in 1990, which is a leader in electronic publishing for scientific conferences. In 2013, he founded the LaunchCode Foundation, currently bringing free computer education and jobs to 5 US cities. In addition to his businesses and philanthropy, Jim is a glassblowing artist and co-founded one of the nation’s top glass centers, Third Degree Glass Factory. He has published two books on computer programming and one on glassblowing. He is a graduate of Washington University in St. Louis.
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About Arch Grants, FINTOP Capital, Invisibly, LaunchCode, Mira Smart Conference, Square, Third Degree Glass Factory, Washington University in St. Louis: Invisibly puts the power of your data back in your hands.
Tim Vanderhook
Co-Founder & CEO of Viant
As the Co-Founder, President and CEO of Viant, Tim sets and drives the overall direction and business strategy for the company and each of its brands. In 1999, Tim, along with brothers Chris and Russ identified the high growth potential of digital advertising and founded the interactive advertising platform Specific Media during those early stages of internet advertising. Tim’s vision led the development of behavioral targeting technology that created ground-breaking interest-based digital advertising practices. He led the company’s evolution from a small family business to an industry-leading multinational corporation.
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About Myspace, Viant, Viant, XUMO: Viant is an advertising software company enabling the execution and measurement of digital advertising through a cloud-based platform.
Kaan Gunay
Co-Founder & CEO of Firefly
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About Endeavor, Firefly: Firefly is a mobility based advertising and data platform that allows rideshare drivers to make money through digital advertising.
Justin Choi
Founder & Chief Executive Officer of Nativo
Justin Choi is a serial entrepreneur and founder of three successful companies across different technology sectors. Justin currently serves as Founder and CEO of Nativo, the most advanced advertising technology platform that helps brands create meaningful connections with consumers and empowers publishers with breakthrough monetization solutions. Prior to Nativo, Justin founded and led two companies to highly successful exits: Cie Games, a mobile app development firm acquired by Glu Mobile for $100M that built two top 25 grossing games, including the #1 mobile racing game, and attracted over 50M players; and Cie Digital Labs (CDL) an interactive agency that provides innovation consulting and custom app development services to major brands. Justin continues to serve as a CDL board member and acts as head of product strategy and development, and is an investor and board member at numerous organizations. A thought leader in digital media, advertising, gamification, and app development, Justin has been featured in The Wall Street Journal, Forbes, USA Today, Bloomberg West, TechCrunch, VentureBeat, AdWeek and other national publications.
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About Cie, Nativo: Nativo is an advertising technology platform for brand advertisers and publishers to scale, automate, and measure native ads.
Matt Schlicht
CEO and Founder of Octane AI
Matt Schlicht is the founder and editor of Chatbots Magazine, the #1 place to learn about chatbots. He is a YC Alum, a Forbes 30 Under 30 winner, and was also previously a product manager at Ustream as well as an advisor to several other startups. Several months ago, Matt decided to launch a community dedicated to messaging and bots. Chatbots Magazine was born and now reaches over 200,000+ people per month. Matt joins us to share his story, how he got into startups and tech, how he created the opportunity to join the team at uStream, how he approaches building products, why he’s so passionate about bots and messaging, what’s next for Chatbots Magazine.
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About Chatbots Magazine, DominateFund, Hamster Pad, Octane AI, ZapChain: Octane AI provides an all-in-one platform for engaging quizzes, data collection, and personalized Facebook Messenger and SMS automation.
Mahi de Silva
Co-founder & CEO of Amplify.ai
Mahi is the Co-founder & CEO at Amplify.ai. Previously, Mahi was responsible for commercial activities for Opera’s consumer mobile products and services. Before joining Opera, Mahi was co-founder and CEO of AdMarvel, Inc., the global leader in mobile advertising platforms, acquired by Opera in 2010. Prior to AdMarvel, Mahi co-founded Frengo Corporation, a mobile social media platform. Mahi also spent 10 years at VeriSign, where he was part of the startup management team. From 2002 to 2006, he served as senior vice president and general manager of Wireless and Digital Content Services at VeriSign, where he built the world’s leading mobile messaging and mobile entertainment business with revenues exceeding $600M per year. Prior to VeriSign, he served in various technology leadership roles at Taligent, Apple and NCR Corporation.
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About Amplify.ai, Opera Mediaworks: Amplify.ai is the developer of the first enterprise-class Conversational AI platform
Jed Simon
Founder & CEO of FastPay
Jed Simon is the founder and CEO of FastPay, providing liquidity and financial workflow solutions to the digital media industry. Formerly, Simon was an investment banking analyst program at Morgan Stanley & Co. in New York working on IPOs, debt finance transactions, and M&A for media companies. After joining DreamWorks SKG in 1996, Simon managed aspects of its finance, distribution, marketing, and new media businesses, and was a senior executive at DreamWorks Records before assisting in the sale of the company to Universal Music Group. His last position with DreamWorks was Vice President of International Distribution and Marketing for DreamWorks Pictures, based in London.
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About DreamWorks Studios, FastPay: FastPay is the definitive financial platform for digital media.
Rajeev Goel
Co-Founder & CEO of PubMatic
Rajeev co-founded PubMatic in 2006, based on the belief that publishers are underserved from a technology and services perspective, and set out to build an automation software company focused on publishers. Under his leadership, the company has grown and matured into a major enterprise provider with more than 400 employees and 13 locations around the globe. The high pace of revenue and profit growth, is fueled by Rajeev’s commitment to help publishers protect, monetize and manage their most valuable asset – the relationship between consumers, content and brands. Rajeev is a serial entrepreneur who has raised more than $250 million in funding throughout his career. Rajeev serves as a member of the Board of Directors of the IAB. He holds a master’s degree in Computer & Information Technology from the University of Pennsylvania and a bachelor’s degree in economics, political science and Spanish from the Johns Hopkins University.
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About PubMatic: PubMatic is an automation solutions company for an open digital media industry.
Diaz Nesamoney
Founder, President & CEO of Jivox
Diaz Nesamoney founder of Jivox has had two prior successful ventures. He was previously co-founder, President and Chief Operating Officer at Informatica (NASDAQ:INFA), which he took from a startup to a publicly Diaz Nesamoney is an accomplished technology entrepreneur who founded three successful technology companies, all harnessing the power of data to power enterprise and consumer applications. Currently Diaz is Founder, President, and CEO of Jivox, a company that provides a technology platform for data-driven personalized advertising and marketing. He was previously Co-founder, President, and Chief Operating Officer at Informatica (NASDAQ:INFA), which he took from a startup to a publicly traded company in 1999. Informatica pioneered data integration software as a category and is now the market leader with more than $1 billion in revenue and a $5 billion market capitalization. Before founding Jivox, he founded Celequest and served as its CEO until early 2007, when the company was acquired by Cognos/IBM. Celequest introduced the market’s first business intelligence and analytics appliance, a disruptive innovation that led to its acquisition. Diaz holds a Masters degree in Computer Science from the Birla Institute of Technology and Science in India and is the holder of seven technology patents. Diaz is also the author of the first book on using data and technology to personalize digital advertising.
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About Jivox: Jivox offers a cloud-based, data-driven omnichannel platform that personalizes digital advertising and marketing experiences at scale.
Evan Liang
CEO of LeanData
Evan Liang is the CEO and co-founder of LeanData, which he founded after managing a data- cleanup project at his last company and felt the pain of cleaning Salesforce data by hand. Prior to LeanData, Evan was the GM and VP Products at Caring.com, where he grew a small acquisition into the company’s main business, generating over 50% of the company’s revenue over 2 years. Before Caring.com, Evan worked at Shasta Ventures, a leading venture capital firm focused on end-user-driven businesses. Prior to Shasta, Evan worked in product management at eBay with a focus on buyer experience and, before that, in business development at Microsoft, where he helped launch the Xbox 360. Evan started his career at Battery Ventures, where he specialized in software and e-commerce investments. * M.B.A, Kellogg School of Management * B.S., Industrial Engineering, Stanford University
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About LeanData: LeanData is a platform that enables revenue teams (marketing, sales, customer, and partner ops) to manage all go-to-market motions.
Jan Nugent
Founder & CEO of Branded Online
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About Branded Online, Nogin: Branded Online is a dynamic technology company that delivers enterprise-class ecommerce, marketing, and logistics solutions to brands.
Jordan Rothstein
Founder, CEO of King Tide Creative
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About Furious M, King Tide Creative, Raziel, TravelZeeky: King Tide is a full-service creative agency specifically and intricately designed to surpass the reach of the modern branding machine.
Keith Zubchevich
Chief Executive Officer of Conviva
Keith Zubchevich was appointed Conviva’s President and CEO in 2021 with more than a decade of driving company success at Conviva, most recently as Chief Strategy Officer. Prior to joining Conviva in 2008, Keith was Vice President of Business Development at Riverbed Technology, where he was instrumental in developing the industry leader’s go-to-market strategy and key partner relationships as the company went public. Previously, as Director of Operations at Cisco, he was responsible for storage-switching and optical solutions for both the Sales and Worldwide Channels groups, and led the launch of Cisco’s MDS storage networking technology effort, which garnered revenues of $244 million in two years. Prior to Cisco, Keith was a Regional Vice President with McDATA, where he was a member of the core team that designed and implemented the company’s sales and channel coverage model. Earlier in his career, Keith held sales management roles in the open systems divisions of Digital Equipment Corporation and StorageTek. Keith brings a wealth of leadership expertise and functional capabilities to the role. He has held a range of executive positions, from sales and marketing to corporate and business development, across a variety of industry-leading technology companies, as well as emerging startups. Keith holds a Bachelor’s degree in Economics from San Diego State University.
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About Conviva: Conviva is the continuous measurement and engagement platform for streaming media.
Christopher Lien
Founder & CEO of Marin Software
Mr. Lien is Marin’s founder and Chairman of the Board, and rejoined the Company as Chief Executive Officer in August 2016. From September 2015 to August 2016, Mr. Lien has served on boards of private companies as well as Marin Software. From May 2014 until September 2015, Mr. Lien served as executive chairman of Marin Software, and from the founding of the Company in 2006 to May 2014, he served as the Company’s Chief Executive Officer. Mr. Lien has been a member of the Board since 2006. Previously, Mr. Lien served as Chief Operating Officer of Adteractive, Inc., an online performance marketing company, from 2004 to 2005. In 2001, Mr. Lien co-founded and served as Chairman and Chief Financial Officer of Sugar Media, Inc., a broadband services platform, until its acquisition in 2003 by 2Wire, Inc., a leading supplier of DSL equipment and services, which was subsequently acquired by Pace plc in 2010. Prior to that, Mr. Lien served in various capacities at BlueLight.com, LLC, Kmart Corporation’s ecommerce and Internet service provider subsidiary from 2000 to 2001, including as Chief Financial Officer and acting Chief Executive Officer. Prior to BlueLight.com, Mr. Lien spent 10 years at various investment banks, including Morgan Stanley and Evercore Partners, with his last role as Managing Director. Mr. Lien holds an A.B. from Dartmouth College, where he was elected as a member of Phi Beta Kappa, and an M.B.A. from the Stanford Graduate School of Business. Mr. Lien’s presence as a member of the Board brings his thorough knowledge of the Company into the Board’s strategic and policy-making discussions. He brings his extensive experience in finance, digital marketing and executive roles in the information technology industry into deliberations regarding the Company’s strategy and operations.
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About Heron Partners, Marin Software, Marin Software: Marin Software Incorporated (NYSE:MRIN) provides a leading cross-channel performance advertising platform used by advertisers and agencies.
Kyle Wong
Co-Founder & Chief Executive Officer of Pixlee TurnTo
Kyle Wong is the CEO & Co-Founder of Pixlee, a visual marketing platform that helps brands market and sells with customer photos and videos. The company works with more than 150 brands such as Kenneth Cole, Gaiam, Levi Strauss and Kimpton Hotels & Restaurants to develop a more authentic marketing experience and create stronger relationships with their most passionate customers. Apart from that, he is currently working as a contributor with Forbes magazine and as a leadership council with Ad Council. Kyle attended Stanford University where he studied engineering and co-founded Pixlee out of his dorm room in 2012. He is a mentor for the Stanford Accelerator (StartX) program, where he advises several early-stage VC backed tech startups. Kyle has been featured in Forbes’ 30 Under 30 List and is a regular speaker and domain expert on influencer marketing and driving consumer engagement through social media. He is also an active contributor for Forbes and Fortune Magazine where he writes on digital marketing, entrepreneurship, and various leadership and career topics.
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About Ad Council, Forbes Magazine, Pixlee: Pixlee TurnTo ia a Social UGC, Influencer Marketing, and Ratings & Reviews company.
Raju Sagiraju
CEO/Founder of Dime Development
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About Dime Development: Digital Agency to help brands
Eric Mathewson
Founder & CEO of WideOrbit
Eric Mathewson is the Founder and CEO of WideOrbit, the leading provider of advertising management solutions for media companies. Since its founding in 1999, WideOrbit has grown to be the media management platform of choice for over 70% of US television stations.
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About Prescient Capital, WideOrbit: WideOrbit provides advertising management software for major media companies.
Christopher Smitley
Founder & CEO of LeadBully.com
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About AdverMail, ClickSmart.com, Ghray Area Holdings, Golf Ball Charger, LB & Company, LeadBully.com: LeadBully is a service marketing agency that specializes in lead generation, bulk consumer, and landing page optimization aspects.
Charles H. Silver
Chairman & CEO of Permission.io
Silver has been building companies and creating liquidity events for shareholders for over 25 years. In the late 1990s, as cofounder of RealAge, Inc., he built the company from scratch, conceived its business plan, raised over $15 million in capital, negotiated key strategic relationships and, most importantly, positioned the company for profitability, which enabled it to survive the dot com bust. In 2007, RealAge was sold very successfully to the Hearst Corporation. Prior to RealAge, Mr. Silver founded and built the Oil Dispatch franchise in Michigan. It grew to be the largest independent quick-oil-change operator in the state and was successfully sold to Jiffy Lube. After graduating from the University of Michigan, and prior to his entrepreneurial career, Mr. Silver served for two years as a staff member for a United States Congressman.
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About Permission.io: Permission.io is transforming digital advertising by enabling brands and consumers to connect on a permission basis.
Toby Gabriner
Chief Executive Officer of Bitly
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About Bitly: Bitly is a link management platform that helps brands deliver and measure their marketing efforts across all channels.
Jay Le
Chief Executive Officer of HYPE Agency
Jay is an entrepreneur, angel investor, and philanthropist. He has started several successful start-ups that are making well over $300,000,000 in revenue.
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About HYPE Agency: HYPE Agency is a digital marketing agency that provides marketing services for all business types.
Zach Suchin
Founding Partner & CEO of Brand Knew
Zach is an entrepreneur and investor based out of Los Angeles & New York. Born and raised in Los Angeles to a family deeply immersed in the entertainment industry, he absorbed pop-culture and took great interest in the media and technology sectors. Throughout high school, he worked for executive management at Sony, 20th Century Fox, ICM and The Firm. He earned bachelor degrees in both Political Science and Film at Emory University, while marketing high-profile weekly events for college students, featuring recording artists such as Akon, Jermaine Dupri, Ludacris, Outkast and Jeezy. In 2006, Zach moved back to Los Angeles with an increased knowledge of digital marketing and developed College Tonight with Jason Schutzbank, which in its first 12 months of operation, won the Mashable award for Best Event-Based Social Network and was published in Generation MySpace as one of the top 15 social networking sites on the Internet. What started as a conduit between local businesses and college students, became a more robust collegiate platform. The Quad consisted of a retail outfit, collaborative tools and Greek community features. Suchin led the company through a substantial venture round, eventually taking the small-cap company public in late 2007. This made Suchin the youngest CEO of a publicly-traded company in the United States. With Zach at the helm, the company grew past a market capitalization of over $100 million. He and Jason sold their share of the company in early 2009. The duo then co-founded Brand Knew to help both start-ups and veteran brands better navigate the digital landscape. Suchin is credited with having invented the developmental venture equity model now popularized by boutique digital agencies, guest lectures in new media at UCLA and Boston University, and has been a technology contributor on BloombergTV. Zach sits on the board of directors for several portfolio companies and the steering committees for various non-profit organizations, serving as the Digital Chair for YaLa Academy. He remains intimately involved in the creative direction of Brand Knew’s clients and chairs both the Brand Knew Opportunities conferences and the Causathon event series.
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About Brand Knew: Creative Collective & Strategic Advisory
Spectacular Smith
Founder & CEO of Adwizar
Upon turning after school candy sales into a $2,000 a week business at age 11, Spectacular Smith discovered he was an entrepreneur. That realization would take him first to the heights of popular music, and then to success as a business owner, label owner, author, and beyond. A dancer since the third grade, Smith took his childhood love of performing into the rap group he formed with his brothers, Pretty Ricky. His father was the manager of the group, and owner of indie label. Spectacular contributed musically and also choreographed the group’s explosive stage shows—performances that won them a deal with Atlantic Records. The group went on to huge worldwide success: filling arenas on the Scream IV tour, selling millions of singles and ringtones, and earning huge hits with “Grind With Me,” & “Your Body,” Music stardom was just the first stage of Spectacular Smith’s career. Intrigued by the business possibilities of social media, he turned Pretty Ricky’s Facebook page into his personal laboratory, testing out his theories behind social networks for a full year until he had a new, unbreakable system of gaining and monetizing followers. He then turned those ideas into Adwizar, the dominant social media brand in the urban music space. The company runs the Facebook pages of artists such as Bow Wow, Kevin Gates, Soulja Boy, Master P, Birdman, Bone Thugs N Harmony, and countless others. Adwizar has now grown beyond urban music into dealing with major brands and corporations, athletes, merchandising deals, and more. The company was also featured on Forbes.com for its innovative methods, and has no ceiling on its growth. Smith has not left music behind. He has a record label called Mula Music Group, The label has recently signed West Coast artist Compton Menace, who is ringing up millions of YouTube views for his new single with Chris Brown, “Put On.” After conquering the worlds of music, social media, and publishing, the world is waiting to see what he does next.
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About Adwizar, Amazon, Inc. Magazine, Meta, Spectacular Academy, Viacom: Music Industry’s #1 Company for Growth and Monetization on Social Media – Making Artist, and Brands residual income from their social media.
Adam Turner
CEO and Founder of Postscript
Adam Turner is the founder and CEO at Postscript. He was a product manager at StackCommerce. He studied Bachelor of Science in physics at University of Southern California.
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About Postscript: Postscript is an SMS platform that enables brands to communicate and engage with customers through text message marketing.
Nader Alizadeh
CEO and Co-founder of Linqia
Nader is CEO and Co-founder for Linqia and is responsible for setting and executing on the strategic footprint of the company. Previously, Nader was Senior Vice President of Sales for Lithium Technologies and responsible for driving and managing the growth of the business. Nader joined Lithium Technologies as a co-founder when it was first incorporated, and carried broad responsibilities in both the sales and operations departments. Prior to Lithium, Nader was the Director of Operations at Ofoto (now Kodak Gallery). An early employee, he was responsible for all fulfillment operations for the company, where he built the largest digital photo finishing facility and online frame store in the world. He was also responsible for all of its organization, processes, and personnel and was primarily responsible for driving Ofoto to the best gross margins in the industry, a key element in Kodak’s subsequent acquisition. Nader has a proven track record identifying strategic partners and cultivating key business relationships. He has demonstrated this ability multiple times, in various management roles at Konica and later at Fuji, where he managed large-scale fulfillment organizations, including the largest film processing facility in the western United States. Nader studied Economics at the University of California, Santa Barbara.
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About Linqia: Linqia is the only influencer marketing company that delivers guaranteed influencer ROI for the enterprise.
Gadi Eliashiv
CEO & Co-Founder of Singular
After leading a team of Technologists for 8200, the most elite intelligence unit of the Israeli Army, Gadi founded Singular with the belief that simplified and unified marketing data is the key to unlocking growth. Prior to Singular, Gadi was Head of Research at Onavo, a mobile analytics company acquired by Facebook in 2013.
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About Singular: Singular, a marketing intelligence platform, unifies marketing analytics, giving marketers actionable insights from previously siloed data
Luke McDonough
Founder, CEO of AIR.TV
Luke McDonough is Founder & CEO at AIR.TV.
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About AIR.TV, IFILM: AIR.TV enables the distribution and monetization of viral videos on websites.
Kris Kibak
Founder & CEO of The Control Group
Entrepreneur & Investor focused on startups, equities and real estate.
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About The Control Group: The Control Group is an online development and web marketing company based in San Diego, California.
Jim Steyer
Founder and CEO of Common Sense Media
Jim has spent more than 20 years as one of the most respected experts and entrepreneurs on issues related to children’s policy and media in the United States. As CEO, he is responsible for the overall leadership of Common Sense Media, the nation’s leading nonpartisan organization dedicated to improving the media lives of kids and families. Prior to founding Common Sense, Jim was Chairman and CEO of JP Kids, a respected family media company. Before that, he served as President of Children Now, a leading national advocacy and media organization for children, which he founded in 1988. Jim began his career as an elementary school teacher and then became a public interest lawyer. He served as a law clerk for the California Supreme Court, as a deputy district attorney, and as a civil rights attorney with the NAACP Legal Defense Fund. In addition to his duties at Common Sense, Jim teaches popular courses on civil rights, civil liberties, and children’s issues at Stanford University, where he has taught for the past 22 years in the School of Education and Department of Political Science. During that period, he has received a number of Stanford’s highest teaching honors. Jim is also the author of the widely acclaimed book The Other Parent: The Inside Story of the Media’s Effect on Our Children, which draws upon his extensive experience as a leading child advocate, educational media expert, and dad. Over the past decade, Jim has appeared regularly on a variety of national television and radio programs, including The Today Show, Good Morning America, Oprah, CNN, The O’Reilly Factor, and Larry King. He hosts a regular weekly segment, “Kids and the Media,” on CBS-5 TV in San Francisco, and his work has been featured in many publications, including The New York Times, The Washington Post, USA Today, Newsweek, and The Wall Street Journal. Jim grew up in New York City and graduated Phi Beta Kappa from Stanford. He received his JD from Stanford Law School, where he founded the East Palo Alto Community Law Project. Jim is the father of four children and lives with his family in the Bay Area.
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About Common Sense Media: Common Sense Media provides information and education to help kids and families thrive in a world of media and technology.
Sean Moriarty
CEO of Leaf Group
Sean Moriarty is the CEO and Board Director at Leaf Group. Previously he was the CEO and President of Ticketmaster. He resigned in late March 2009. Moriarty led Ticketmaster through its acquisitions of software company Paciolan, TicketsNow and Chinese promoter Emma Entertainment, and headed up Ticketmaster’s investments in such companies as iLike and Echo Music. Moriarty served on the boards of iLike and Points.com. Prior to serving as President & CEO, Sean served Ticketmaster in several roles, including Chief Operating Officer and Executive Vice President of Product & Technology. Prior to Ticketmaster, Sean was part of the technology team at Citysearch, where his roles included Executive Vice President of Technology and Vice President of Internet Systems. Sean currently serves as a member of the Board of Directors for ticketing startup Eventbrite and CoachArt.org, a Los Angeles based charitable organization providing free lessons in the arts and athletics to children with chronic and life-threatening illnesses. Sean holds a BA from the University of South Carolina and attended graduate school at Boston University and the University of South Carolina.
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About Leaf Group: Leaf Group is a diversified Internet company that builds platforms across its media and marketplace properties.
Kevin Miller – GR0
CEO of GR0
Kevin Miller grew up in Ormond Beach, FL, before moving to Washington DC to attend Georgetown University. From Georgetown, Kevin moved to California to pursue an entrepreneurial career in one of the tech capitals of the world. Kevin worked at Google at their HQ in Mountain View as well as for smaller firms and startups looking to improve their online advertising strategies. Over years of hard work and dedicated focus, Kevin grew from SEO-amateur into the head of growth and marketing at Opendoor. In 2020, Kevin left Opendoor to co-found GR0, an SEO agency, with his long-time friend Jonathan Zacharias.
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About GR0, The Word Counter: At GR0, our mission is to help brands rank #1 on Google.
Todd Khozein
Founder & Co-CEO of SecondMuse
Todd Khozein is the Founder & Co-CEO ,Director of Secondmuse Foundation.
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About SecondMuse, Secondmuse Foundation: SecondMuse is an innovation and collaboration agency.
Stas Tushinskiy
CEO & Co-founder of Instreamatic
Stas is CEO and Founder at Instreamatic.AI. Prior to Instreamatic, Stas pioneered digital audio ads market in Russian-speaking countries and built Unisound – a leading digital audio ads sales house and headed business development of a leading mobile music streaming service in Eastern Europe.
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About Instreamatic: Voice Marketing Platform
Ben Antier
CEO of Publica
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About Publica: Publica is a technology company focused on internet-connected TV advertising.
Erik Huberman
Founder and CEO of Hawke Media
Forbes 30 Under 30. Erik Huberman is a brand marketing expert, serial entrepreneur and founder of Hawke Media, a full-service outsourced CMO for brands like Red Bull, Verizon, Evite and Eddie Bauer. Prior to Hawke, Erik founded, grew and sold Swag of the Month, and grew Ellie.com’s sales to $1 million in four months. Erik is also an Inc. Top 25 Marketing Influencer and received a 2016 Telly Award.
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About Hawke Media, Hawke Ventures: Hawke Media provides a host of services that help businesses strategize and realize their potential.
Patrick Whitesell
Co–CEO of WME
Patrick Whitesell is co–CEO of WME | IMG, the global leader in entertainment, sports, events, media, and fashion. Operating in more than 25 countries around the world, the company specializes in talent representation and management; brand strategy, activation, and licensing; media production and distribution; and event management. Whitesell and co–CEO Ariel Emanuel orchestrated the largest talent agency merger in history in 2009 when they partnered with William Morris to form WME, the world’s leading talent agency. In addition to their responsibilities as co–CEOs across WME and IMG, Whitesell and Emanuel oversee WME’s network of world-class partner companies. Through Red Interactive, WME provides services in the fields of mobile gaming and digital development; merchant bank Raine connects clients and media companies with top Wall Street advisers; and award-winning global creative agency Droga5 offers WME ready access to the most influential brands of the 21st century. Prior to the formation of WME, Whitesell was a partner at Endeavor. Before Endeavor, Whitesell spent four years heading Creative Artists Agency’s (CAA’s) talent department and two years as an agent for United Talent Agency (UTA). He began his career in the InterTalent mailroom. Whitesell is an appointed member of the governor’s California Film Commission and an associate member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.
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About Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, WME: William Morris Endeavor (WME) is primarily a talent agency representing artists across every entertainment sector.
Mark McKenna
CEO of Postclick
Mark McKenna is the Chief Operating Officer at Postclick.
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About Postclick: The world’s leading solution for improving digital ad conversions-creating digital experiences that optimize and increase return on ad spend
Rob Emrich
Founder & CEO of The Mobile Majority
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About Alliance for Audited Media, The Emrich Foundation, The Mobile Majority, YPO: We help brands realize the full potential of mobile.
Rob Weedn
Founder, CEO of DealSignal
Focused and driven executive & entrepreneur with 15 years experience in sales & business development, product strategy, marketing and finance. Created multipliers on revenue growth at 3 companies by taking new solutions to market. Built revenue streams key to successful exits at my last 2 companies. Delivered $20M revenue in the past 4 years with 175% average annual achievement and unparalleled 90% win rate. Created new business with customers such as Visa, Paypal, Bank of America, Wells Fargo, Chase, Union Bank, Walmart, Home Depot, Walgreens, Best Buy, Famsa, McKesson, Kaiser Permanente, American Medical Response, Sandisk, Sandia Labs, the FBI, US Air Force. I love building businesses in mobile, sensors, speech recognition and big data. Specialties: • Mobile, CRM, BPM, NLP, Big Data, Analytics, Visualization • Strong Technical background • Enterprise Sales • Consultative Sales • Leadership, Team Building • Product Strategy & Marketing • Lean Startup • Business Planning, P&L • Business Process Design & Execution • Demand Generation • Packaging, Pricing & Negotiation • BD & Alliances – VAR, SI, OEM • Keen sense of Mobile UX Design • Project Management (PMP) • Consulting & Project Delivery
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About DealSignal: DealSignal helps B2B companies maximize growth and conversions with targeted lead and account discovery and CRM data enrichment.
Nanxi Liu
CEO & Co-Founder of Enplug
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About Enplug, Nanoly: Enplug is a software company that built the first open platform for digital displays everywhere.
Chaitanya Chandrasekar
Co-Founder & CEO of QuanticMind
Chaitanya Chandrasekar is CEO and a co-founder of QuanticMind, the platform for smarter advertising. Previously, he built and managed the traffic acquisition platform and was part of the data science team at NexTag. He strongly believes in the power of data-driven technology, which can help decipher big data to unlock new ideas and opportunities, and continues to be fascinated by the possibilities of search marketing and its continued evolution alongside new and developing fields such as social and offline conversions.
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About QuanticMind: QuanticMind is a predictive advertising management software for paid search and social channels.
Kamal Shah
Founder, CEO and CTO of fotobabble
Kamal Shah has over 20 years of experience building technology products and companies. Kamal was the Founder and President of Invu Technology for seven years. Prior to that he served as Chief Architect at enterprise software companies Wakesoft and Smashcast and started his career as a software engineer in the early ’90s. Kamal has a Master’s in Engineering from the University of Toronto where he was also the captain and nationally ranked member of the University of Toronto Swim Team.
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About fotobabble, FotoNotes, invu technology: Fotobabble is a software company providing photo- and audio-powered social marketing solutions.
Zafar Jafri
CEO & Founder of Inprintz, Inc.
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About Inprintz, Inc.: Inprintz is a large format printing company.
Kevin Johnson
CEO of Performance Marketing Brands, Inc.
Kevin Johnson is the CEO at Udemy. He is an Internet veteran with over fifteen years of e-commerce experience and a passion for responsible digital marketing. Prior to joining Ebates, Kevin served as president and general manager of Acxiom Digital (formerly Digital Impact, Inc.). Acxiom Digital is one of the world’s largest and most experienced email marketing service providers, search engine marketing pioneer, leader in dynamic website personalization, and a top twenty-five interactive agency. Before joining Acxiom Digital/Digital Impact, Kevin was the Senior Vice President of client services at Netcentives and general manager of the company’s email marketing services division, formerly Post Communications. Kevin received an MBA from Stanford University and a BA from the University of California at Berkeley.
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About Performance Marketing Brands, Inc.: Performance Marketing Brands owns and operates online rewards programs that pays individuals everytime they make purchases.
Alon Carmel
CEO & Founder of AniView
Alon Carmel, an Israeli serial entrepreneur, founded Aniview–a global adtech and media company– in 2013. He has founded dozens of startups, primarily in the hi-tech sphere. Most notably he is recognized as a founder of the Spark Network–which manages the JDate and Christian Mingle platforms.
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About AniView: Aniview is a global adtech and media company whose platform is playing an increasingly central role in delivering efficient and effective video advertising across the open web. The company’s end-to-end solutions are highly flexible and transparent, and they operate on desktop, mobile, in-app, connected TV, and over-the-top formats. Aniview’s patented video player technology, high-performance ad server, and video marketplace provide flawless video delivery to over 200,000 publishers worldwide and power many of the world’s largest web publishing groups. Founded in 2013, Aniview now delivers, on average, 15 billion ad impressions per month. For more information, please visit https://www.aniview.com/.
Lauren Nagel
Founder, CEO of Scale It For Me
Lauren Nagel is a data-driven marketer specializing in growth for internet businesses. Lauren’s core expertise is in driving rapid customer, traffic, and revenue growth. Lauren is CEO and Founder at SIFM. She works with each business to establish high-performance, scalable, multi-channel marketing programs to help companies exceed their goals. Throughout her marketing career, she has acted as Chief Marketing Officer for multiple internet businesses.
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About FindKeep.Love, Scale It For Me: Scale It For Me, LLC is a full service marketing consulting firm.
Jeremy Bondy
Chief Executive Officer of Vungle
VP, Global Sales at Vungle.
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About Vungle, Vungle: Vungle transforms how people discover and experience apps that delivers the highest value users through engaging video ads.
Robin Thurston
Chairman & CEO of Outside
Robin is the CEO of Helix. Before joining Helix, Robin held various positions at Under Armour. Prior to that, he co-founded and served as the chief executive officer of MapMyFitness. Robin holds a master’s degree in finance from the University of Colorado at Denver.
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About MapMyFitness, Outside: Outside, formerly Pocket Outdoor Media, is the world’s leading creator of active lifestyle content and experiences.
Farshad Fardad
CEO of Causal IQ
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About Causal IQ, GlobalWide Media: Causal IQ is a programmatic solutions provider hyper-focused on making digital marketing dreams a reality
Ryan Detert
CEO of Influential
As an innovator and leader in the digital media space, Ryan Detert has advised, invested, and built companies that revenue in the tens of millions. As CEO of Influential, a patent-pending Mobile First Influencer Platform, Detert has brought top influencers, brands, press, and financing to his venture-backed company, which has offices in Beverly Hills, NYC, and Las Vegas. Through Influential, Detert has led campaigns for top advertising agencies and holding companies including Dentsu, Interpublic, Omnicom, Publicis and WPP, for global brands like Sony Pictures, Nestle, Coca Cola, Kia Motors, General Mills, Unilever, and even The United Nations. He has also been featured in publications like Forbes, Inc., Adweek, Venture Beat, Wall Street Journal and has appeared on broadcast TV shows Entertainment Tonight, HLN’s The Daily Share, and Good Morning Britain.
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About Influential: Influential is an A.I. social data and conversion platform that partners with IBM Watson for influencer marketing and technology.
Moshe Mosbacher
Co-founder – CEO of TubeScience
Moshe Mosbacher is the CEO and co-founder of TubeScience.
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About TubeScience: TubeScience produces conversion-optimized video for many of Facebook’s largest performance marketers.
Martin Anazco
Co-Founder & Co-CEO of Jampp
Martin co-founded Jampp in 2011 – a mobile app marketing platform that combines advanced technology (Big Data, Real Time Bidding and Machine Learning) with a team of mobile marketing experts to deliver millions of users to iOS and Android apps globally. Previously, in the year 2000, he co-founded and ran Livra.com (Livra Panels) which became the leading online market research company in Latin America. In 2008, after continuous growth the company was acquired by publicly listed IPSOS – one of the top market research organisations world-wide. Martin was born in Comodoro Rivadavia, Argentina. He graduated in Economics from the University of San Andres in Buenos Aires (Honors Thesis: “Selling Information Good on the Internet: Give before you sell”).
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About Jampp, Livra Panels: Jampp is the growth platform of choice for on-demand apps worldwide. We unlock programmatic UA and RTGT to drive incremental performance
Diego Meller
Co-Founder & Co-CEO of Jampp
Diego co-founded Jampp in 2013 – The company is a performance marketing platform for retargeting and acquiring app customers. The company combines behavioural data with predictive and programmatic technology to generate revenue for advertisers by showing personal, relevant ads that inspire consumers to purchase for the first time, or more often. Jampp’s 90 people team serve a global client base from offices in San Francisco, Singapore, London, Berlin, São Paulo, Cape Town and Buenos Aires. Previously, in the year 2000, Diego co-founded and ran Livra.com which became the leading online market research company in Latin America. In 2008, after continuous growth the company was acquired by publicly listed IPSOS – one of the top market research organisations world-wide.
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About Jampp, Livra: Jampp is the growth platform of choice for on-demand apps worldwide. We unlock programmatic UA and RTGT to drive incremental performance
Mike Kofi Okyere
Founder & CEO of Perengo
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About Perengo: Perengo is a programmatic recruitment automation and analytics platform for performance-conscious recruiters.
Laurence Hallier
President & CEO of Show Media
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About Funbox, Show Media: Show Media is an ever-expanding digital media company that helps brands entertain & influence.
Daniel Pearson
Co-founder & CEO of Bamboo
Daniel is the CEO and Co-Founder of Bamboo, a direct-response, creative-obsessed paid social advertising agency in San Francisco. Companies like Dropbox, Microsoft, The New York Times and Uber partner with Bamboo to help scale their Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and Pinterest advertising programs effectively. Daniel has been a mobile marketer since 2011 and loves building highly effective growth programs.
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About Bamboo: Bamboo is an agency that manages sustainable social and mobile advertising campaigns.
Erik Kostelnik
Co-Founder & CEO of Postal.io
Erik Kostelnik is the co-founder and CEO of Postal.io, a leading offline engagement platform that automates direct mail and gifting in the sales and marketing workflow. Prior to Postal.io, Erik founded TextRecruit, one of the fastest-growing HR technology companies in the world, leading it to acquisition in 2018 by iCIMS, Inc. He also served as the Head of Sales at Wrike from 2014 to 2016 helping it reach #116 in 2015 Deloitte Fastest 500. Erik was named an Upstart 50 Top Inventor by the Silicon Valley Business Journal in 2017 and lives in San Luis Obispo, CA with his wife and three kids.
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About Postal.io: Postal.io offers an experience marketing platform helping businesses to generate leads, increase sales velocity, and retain happy customers.
Sharon Rowlands
Chief Executive Officer of ReachLocal
Sharon Rowlands has been a Director of Pega since April 2016. Rowlands was named CEO of ReachLocal, an internet-based provider of advertising and marketing services, in April 2014. Rowlands has more than 20 years’ experience leading complex, multi-billion dollar business services and software companies serving enterprise customers. From 2011 to 2013, she was CEO of Altegrity, which she transformed from a holding company into three independent business units, each with its own growth strategy. From 2008 to 2011 Rowlands was CEO of Penton Media, and prior to that she was with Thomson Financial. During her more than ten-year tenure at Thomson, she held a variety of executive-level positions, including President and CEO from 2005 to 2008 and established the company as one of the most innovative partners to the global financial community. Previously, Rowlands held executive leadership roles at Financial Times Information (now Interactive Data Pricing and Reference Data, Inc.). She was previously a Member of the Board of Directors of Constant Contact (Nasdaq: CTCT) and served on the Board of Directors for Automatic Data Processing, Inc. (Nasdaq: ADP) from 2008 to 2011. She currently serves on the Board of Directors for Local Search Association, the largest trade organization of companies engaged in local advertising and marketing. Rowlands received her Postgraduate Certificate of Education from Goldsmiths, University of London and her Bachelor of Arts in History from the University of Newcastle, Newcastle-Upon-Tyne.
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About Newfold Digital, ReachLocal: ReachLocal provides online marketing solutions for small and medium-sized enterprises.
Ted Dhanik
CEO, Co-founder & chairman of engage:BDR
A co-founder of engage:BDR, Inc. Ted serves as President and Exec Vice President of Business Development overseeing strategic marketing, sales and business development, client relationship management, and content acquisition. From 2003 – 2008, Ted was with MySpace.com developing strategic marketing initiatives. Working very closely with founders Chris DeWolfe and Tom Anderson, Ted was responsible for launching the brand in its infancy through a very specific combination of on- and offline campaigns. Also, Mr. Dhanik innovated business development at LowerMyBills.com in its early stages through acquisition by Experian, and was also an integral part of the early development and launch of the consumer lending program at NexTag Corporation. Mr. Dhanik has worked for or been a partner at several other companies in business development, sales, and managerial positions, such as Xoriant Corporation, Atesto Technologies, Inc., Brigade Solutions, Beyond.com/Cybersource Corporation, and Merrill Corporation. Ted sits on the board or advises other tech startups such as Fighter, LottoGopher and Schizo Pictures, and is an active mentor at Los Angeles-based startup accelerator Start Engine. Engage:BDR is a top-tier online display, video and mobile advertising network and technology provider.
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About engage:BDR: engage:BDR is a digital advertising company that offers cross-device video and display advertising solutions.
Guy Yalif
Co-Founder & CEO of Intellimize
Guy is the CEO and co-founder of Intellimize. Prior to Intellimize, he held a number of senior marketing positions at major media and technology companies, including Vice President of Global Marketing at BrightRoll and Head of Global Product and Vertical Marketing at Twitter, as well as leadership roles at Yahoo, Microsoft, Boston Consulting Group, and Tradeweave. Guy is a recognized marketing expert who has written for various industry publications and has spoken frequently at industry conferences internationally. Guy holds an MBA from Stanford’s Graduate School of Business and a BSE in Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering from Princeton University where his thesis was coding artificial intelligence for airplane design.
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About Intellimize: Intellimize is a startup offering tools for marketers to drive conversions by personalizing websites.
Steve Weiss
Founder & CEO of MuteSix
Steve Weiss is an entrepreneur specializing in building Online Marketing Machines acquiring users at scale. His main skill sets lie in both the execution and the building/training of teams that execute high-level growth hacking and customer acquisition initiatives. Over the last 2 years, he has invested most of his time on both Facebook Ads for eCommerce customer acquisition and building high volume sales lead generation funnels for B2B customer acquisition.
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About MuteSix: MuteSix is a performance marketing agency specializing in Facebook advertising and Google Adwords.
