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HOT TOPICS
- The Accelerator Conundrum
- The Startup Velocity Question
- Platform as a Service
- Man and Superman
- Web 3.0 = (4C + P + VS)
- The Future: End of Capitalism
- Capitalism 2.0
Internet Advertising Pioneer: Kevin O’Connor, Founder of DoubleClick and FindTheBest (Part 7)
Sramana: We have seen several bubbles in our industry. First the dot com, second Web 2.0, and now the app craze. Investors made very irrational decisions in each of these bubbles. When will they learn? Why don’t people ever learn? Kevin O’Connor: There are probably a couple of reasons why. I am fairly skeptical of
Internet Advertising Pioneer: Kevin O’Connor, Founder of DoubleClick and FindTheBest (Part 6)
Sramana: How do you determine a non-linear career path? What is that conversation like? Kevin O’Conn0r: Organizations go through different stages. If you are in an early stage, then an individual’s career development is in his or her hands. When you get to a bigger company, career paths become far more linear. It is very
Internet Advertising Pioneer: Kevin O’Connor, Founder of DoubleClick and FindTheBest (Part 5)
Sramana: Part of the advantage in vertical search is the ability to zero in on a market segment using a precise taxonomy. Kevin O’Connor: Absolutely. That is why we built a platform that lets us handle virtually any taxonomy. If you look at shopping comparison engines, you will see they are a price comparison engine,
Internet Advertising Pioneer: Kevin O’Connor, Founder of DoubleClick and FindTheBest (Part 4)
Sramana: One of the core philosophies of our incubator is that over 99% of business that seek venture or angel financing get rejected. In the reject pool, there are a lot of solid mid-sized businesses. They will not be massive, but they can be solid profitable businesses. Kevin O’Connor: I agree. Every top VC going
Internet Advertising Pioneer: Kevin O’Connor, Founder of DoubleClick and FindTheBest (Part 3)
Sramana: At that time people were still doing concept financing. The Internet happened because of concept financing. I wonder if the Internet would ever have happened if we did not have concept financing. Kevin O’Connor: I’m not sure I agree. Eventually everything shakes out in a capitalistic market. It took a bit longer for things
Internet Advertising Pioneer: Kevin O’Connor, Founder of DoubleClick and FindTheBest (Part 2)
Sramana: How did DoubleClick get off the ground? Kevin O’Connor: When we started it in my basement we called in Internet Advertising Federation. We later changed it to Internet Advertising Network. We were developing the technology. While Dwight was building the technology, I was researching. We did not know anything about advertising or direct response.
Internet Advertising Pioneer: Kevin O’Connor, Founder of DoubleClick and FindTheBest (Part 1)
If you haven’t already, please study our Bootstrapping Course and Investor Introductions page. Kevin O’Connor is a serial entrepreneur with a track record of success. He graduated from the University of Michigan with a BS in electrical engineering in 1983. He was the founder and VP of Research at ICC, which was acquired by DCA in 1992. He was
Student Entrepreneur to $10M Revenue Run Rate: Extrabux CEO Jeff Nobbs (Part 7)
Sramana: Do you have any unique challenges that you overcame? Most entreprenuers have a chicken and egg challenge that they have to overcome. Jeff Nobbs: We definitely had a chicken and egg problem with our merchant relationships. To work with Victoria Secrets, JC Penny and others you have to be more than just a little