PLUGGEDIN

In this episode, I speak with VideoAmp Chief Strategy Officer Jay Prasad about his career has taken him to VideoAmp and how he has helped them become one of the leading AdTech players in the industry. From his time as a consultant with EY where he learned that listening was a big part of how to succeed. Before joining VideoAmp, he served as VP of Global Business Development at TubeMogul where he led the company’s launch of Programmatic TV, data and supply partnerships, and international partnership teams in the U.S., EU, Japan, and Southeast Asia.  Previously, Jay led strategic development at FreeWheel, focused on broadcasters’ distribution to digital and OTT platforms. In this episode, Jay discusses; - Early challenges VideoAmp faced - Building the company culture- What do look for in employees and how do they create loyalty? - The hardest decision he made? (33:50) - Management skills- what to look for. - What separates VideoAmp from competitors (39:30) - What did Jay want to be when he was 15? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In episode #20 I sit with Eric Berry of TripleLift a leading native ad platform. We delve into all topics from his first job, getting into adtech, the founding of TripleLift, initial capital raise, management style, why he feels Slack is a net drain on productivity, getting the first campaign on TL, why Java is at the core of their product, how they have been profitable from early on and much more. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In episode #19 I sit down with Omer Keilaf, CEO of Innoviz on of the hottest companies in the autonomous vehicle sector. Omer finally realized his dream of being a CEO after spending years helping 3 different startups succeed to the point where he co-founded Innoviz in 2016. Omer took an idea and in 3 weeks raised $9M and the rest is history. He brought in 20 employees and started to build the product out, over that time tInnoviz has grown to over 200 people with $182M raised to date. In this podcast you will also learn the following: - How long did it take Omer to raise capital? - What is Lidar? - When did Omer realize Innoviz was going to be HUGE? - Why was CES '17 a pivotal point for Innoviz? (17:00) - How did a startup land a partnership w/ BMW - What did he want to be at 15? - Productivity- what hack does he suggest for others? (41:00) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In episode #18 I sit down with Ziv Elul, CEO of Fyber a leading mobile adtech company in Israel and beyond. Ziv's story is pretty amazing from a career in the IDF to an MBA at Hebrew U where he took a thesis project on In-Game Advertising and built it into one of the hottest adtech startups with friend and co-founder Offer Yehudai. So what led him to this path, what lessons did he learn from IDF that prepared him to be CEO of a multinational company. All excellent questions and you will learn the answers when you listen to the podcast. When you listen you will also hear how he raised his first round of funding, got his first client, started getting traction, why he pivoted the company (21:00), what he looks for in employees, why he looks forward to Shabbat. Listen and enjoy but most of all don't forget to give a positive rating in iTunes, Google, etc. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In episode 17, I sit with Sarah Hofstetter one of the more accomplished executives in the Digital Media Space. Sarah's story shows what hard work, creativity, perseverance, and good timing can lead to. Sarah is currently President of Comscore but her first job was as an intern at the NYTimes where she learned the art of storytelling. One of the key lessons she learnt early on was the importance of communication within the company and how the absence if it allows false narratives to be created. Here are a few more things you will learn when you listen to the podcast; - How did she get started at 360i - What led Sarah to become CEO - What 3 traits did Sarah instill at 360i (Passion, Purpose, Persistence) - Why was her first pitch at 360i was or Living w/ ED (hysterical story) - Why Comscore? - What keeps Sarah on top of her game? - What hack does she do and recommends- hint: it's waterproof Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In episode 16, I sat down with Dennis Crowley, co-founder, former CEO, & Executive chairman of Foursquare to talk about the beginnings of his career in tech and how he took his passion of bringing people together into Foursquare. However, before founding the geolocation company in 2009, he had a less than ideal experience selling his previous startup, Dodgeball, to Google in 2005. That experience led to the creation of Foursquare as the leader in geolocation data for enterprises and the fun app for consumers and is now used by more than 50 million people every month. Here are some of the other topics discussed in this episode: - How many things did Dennis fail at? (8:20) - What was the grad thesis project that Dennis write in Syracuse? - Why the lack of infrastructure hurt the first fundraising round? - What advice did Andreessen Horowitz give to Dennis that helped them grow? - Had no idea how popular Foursquare would be - When did he realize that Foursquare needed a new CEO (19:30) - How did the pivot into a location data company come to be? - What does Dennis do in his spare time? - What did Dennis want to be at 15? - What hack does Dennis recommend to keep himself organized? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In episode #15 I sit with Avner Halperin, CEO of EarlySense a medtech company that is at the forefront of Digital health. EarlySense developed a software and sensor that remotely monitors patients’ sleep and movement when placed under a mattress. Crazy! I know as it's one of the more effective non-invasive patient-monitoring systems, in fact it saved over 3,000 lives in 2018 and is now in over 1M beds. So how did Avner build EarlySense to be one of the largest MedTech companies out of Israel? Listen to find out, but in the meantime here things you will learn in this episode. 1. What proverbial wall did EarlySense hit? How did they overcome it before it killed them? 2. What challenge did EarlySense overcome w/ first product? 3. Diversity within the company as they have 13 languages spoken in the office and employees ages range from 17-77. 4. Market Research!! Critical to their sucess- EarlySense spent months in hospitals listening to the needs of users-i.e. medical professionals 5. Leveraged experts in field to prove value and generate proof points. 6. How did EarlySense penetrate & sell to US Hopitals? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In episode #14 I sit down with Yosef "Gary" Levitt, former CEO & Founder of MadMimi which was acquired by GoDaddy for $45M. The road to success was anything but easy as Yosef's journey started on a farm in South Africa to becoming a pro-skateboarder and bass player, getting a scholarship to a music college in the US, working as a Busboy in SOHO, playing at wedding, getting married, moving to Jerusalem and building MadMimi into one of the best email platforms for artists and small businesses. This interview with Gary Levitt is one of the most incredible and inspiring I have ever heard. W/o any formal education Gary was able to produce music for The Oprah Winfrey Show, teaching himself HTML from a book, and so much more. This interview will make you realize that you too can start a company and the only one holding you back is yourslef. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In episode #13, I sit down with Yoni Assia, CEO & Founder of eToro, the worlds leading social trading platform. So how did Yoni take his passion for finance from his teenage years and build a company that in 2018 had 1 Trillion in trading and 1 Billion in customer deposits? It wasn't done alone, he had great investors like Guy Gamzu who was an early lead investor and was critical in creating an organizational structure that has helped the company grow, it now has 620 employees worldwide. He keeps employees happy by giving them equity and looks to hir jr. people who look to grow. The culture he has built has been infectious and has helped them grow to over 10 million users and 60% growth in revenues the past 2 years. In fact they are looking to hire 150 people in 2019 and have their sites on global domination. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In episode 12, I sit down with Yaron Samid, a serial entrepreneur who already built 2 successful startups on Pando & Desksite took an idea he had after finding a weird credit card charge which led him to create BillGuard a “collective brain” of credit card charges needed to be created to warn people about common grey charges. Yaron's journey to a successful exit was long, hard, and fun from his really short stint at Edelman PR after college, to Forman Interactive (Register.com), Backweb, Desksite, Pando and finally BullGuard. Yaron's career originally started in marketing and moved to product marketing and management which he realized made him a better founder and one that gave him a better perspective on running a business. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices