Company description
Mpire Corporation is the market-leading advertising optimization technology company
that is evolving traditional online advertising into a more relevant and
engaging medium for publishers and advertisers. Backed by Draper Fisher Jurvetson and
Ignition Partners, Mpire is based in Seattle, Wash and offers two distinct
branded services: WidgetBucks™
and AdXpose™:
-
WidgetBucks™ is a vertical shopping ad network that serves
1.5 billion monthly ad impressions through the sites and blogs of over
26,000 publishers. Proprietary performance-driven ad technology called
YieldSense™ makes over 17,000 optimization decisions per second,
resulting in an average eCPM increase of 50-60 percent for publishers.
- AdXpose™ is patent-pending optimization technology that gives brand
marketers and agencies campaign verification and optimization anywhere
their ads run across the Internet, including exchanges, ad networks and
direct publisher placements.
Team
Matt Hulett is the Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Mpire. He is
a serial entrepreneur who has successfully built profitable companies
from scratch. After joining Mpire as CEO in early 2006, Matt turned the
standalone comparison shopping site into a multi-vertical ad
distribution platform that serves over a billion impressions a month.
Before Mpire, Matt was President of the corporate travel division of
Expedia, Inc., the world's largest online travel company, where he
launched the corporate travel business from an idea to a billion dollar
worldwide leader in just a couple of years. Prior to Expedia, Matt was
a founding partner of the next generation entertainment company,
AtomFilms. He served as President of Atom Entertainment, a firm backed
by both Sequoia Capital and Macromedia and was purchased by Viacom for
$200M. Under Matt's direction, Atom captured over 20 million unique
monthly users and became a leading consumer destination. Matt was the
founding consumer products leader at RealNetworks, launching many of
the company's most successful products including the RealPlayer and its
premium subscription software businesses. Matt also ran the
market-leading Reflection X product line at AttachmateWRQ, a privately
held provider of enterprise software. A Seattle native, Matt is a Puget
Sound Business Journal 40-under-40 recipient (Sept. 2008), and he
offers his extensive executive business insights through his personal
blog, http://startupwhisperer.com.
Greg Harrison Co-Founder & CTO
Greg Harrison is the Co-Founder and Chief Technical Officer of Mpire.
Greg co-founded Mpire, in 2005, and oversees the company's network
which processes 10-15 terabytes of data each month. Prior to Mpire,
Greg was an Entrepreneur-in-Residence at Ignition Partners, where he
researched the impact of Web services platforms on consumer businesses.
Prior to Ignition, Greg served as CTO and VP of Engineering of
Vidiator, a Hutchison Whampoa Limited company responsible for deploying
all of Hutchison's 14 global third-generation wireless carrier
infrastructure. Before Vidiator, Greg held a number of senior
engineering, product and program management positions at Envision,
Loudeye, and Mosaix, and he has also founded and operated his own
consulting and software development company. Greg holds a B.S. in
Computer Information Systems from Colorado State University.
Kirby Winfield Chief Revenue Officer
Kirby Winfield is the Chief Revenue Officer of Mpire. Kirby joined
Mpire in August, 2008 and is responsible for the company’s advertising
sales and distribution strategy. Before Mpire, Kirby operated Ascend
Solutions, which provided strategic guidance for portfolio companies of
Clearstone Venture Partners, Monster Venture Partners, and Wescom
Capital. Prior to Ascend Solutions, Kirby was the General Manager and
Vice President of the consumer Web site division of Marchex, Inc.
(MCHX), overseeing more than 200,000 owned and operated Web sites.
During his tenure, Marchex grew to 31 million unique monthly visitors
and conducted a successful NASDAQ IPO. Prior to Marchex, Kirby was
responsible for corporate, brand, and product marketing at Go2Net
(acquired by InfoSpace [INSP]), which became a top 20 online network
and conducted a successful NASDAQ IPO during his tenure. Kirby sits on
the Board of Directors of SharperAgent, LLC, a leading provider of CRM
and marketing services to real estate agents, and invests in and
advises a number of online media startups.
Jeff Bergstrom Chief Financial Officer
Jeff Bergstrom is Chief Financial Officer of Mpire. As Mpire’s CFO,
Bergstrom is responsible for managing the company's financial strategy
and operations, as well as overseeing and implementing all financial
reporting, forecasting, tax functions, and cash flow operations. Jeff
has been an Internet startup "exit" veteran during his 18-year
financial career. He has managed multi-billion-dollar acquisitions and
mergers, facilitated private equity transactions, and navigated
business finances during tough macro-economic times. In all, Bergstrom
has built and sold three tech and Internet companies resulting in over
$2.2B in shareholder value. He spent five years with Internet company
Go2Net, helping the company grow to over $110M in annual revenue and
$40M in annual operating cash flow. He was deeply involved with the
purchase and integration of nine companies in two years, and also led
the financial team ultimately responsible for the acquisition by
InfoSpace for approximately $2.0B. Before Mpire, Bergstrom was CFO of
The PowerTech Group, senior director of finance within Areva T&D, a
French public multinational industrial conglomerate, and Controller of
Risk Management Solutions, which was sold to a private equity fund run
by Morgan Stanley. He has also had two tours of duty with Arthur
Anderson, LLP.
Matt Pangrazio VP of Sales
Matt Pangrazio is the Vice President of Sales at Mpire. Matt joined the
company in January 2009, and is responsible for the company’s
advertising sales strategy. Before Mpire, Matt was the Director of
vertical markets, a sales division of Marchex, Inc. (MCHX), where he
was in charge of bringing in vertically focused advertisers to the
Marchex advertising network. During his tenure, Matt brought in over $5
million in quarterly revenue. Prior to Marchex, Matt was a sales
manager at Go2Net (acquired by InfoSpace), which became a top 20 online
network and conducted a successful NASDAQ IPO during his tenure. Matt
holds a B.A. in Anthropology from the University of Washington.
Dean Jutilla Director of Marketing & Social Media
Dean Jutilla is Director of Marketing and Social Media for Mpire. Dean
joined Mpire in October 2006 and today oversees all external-facing
marketing, public and media relations efforts, including the company's
blogs. He is a 17-year marketing communications veteran who has worked
at both eBay (2004-2006) and Yahoo! (1999-2002), and also served as
principal and owner of his own marketing communications firm.
Business model
WidgetBucks shares revenue from CPC (cost-per-click) and CPM (cost per thousand impressions) feeds distributed through the sites and blogs of online publishers.
Competitive advantage