Jay Samit is a serial entrepreneur and the CEO of SocialVibe, a company that focuses on monetizing Internet traffic by allowing users to select charitable donations for viewed advertisements. He began his career by founding Jasmine Multimedia, one of the first companies to develop video multimedia on computer platforms. He has also served as a
Sramana: What was your run rate after you began channel deals? Daniel Putterman: If you look at the run rate from October through the end of the year, it becomes clear that the channels put us on the map and everyone got excited about the product. Every time a Pogoplug customer buys a device, they
Sramana: It sounds as though you had a good product completed before you launched. Daniel Putterman: We did, and it took a lot of hard work to do it. It was a leap of faith to launch it in the way we did. The clincher was that one of my lead investors is Foundry Group.
Sramana: Let’s go back to the “press went crazy” comment. The press does not go crazy, you make the press go crazy. Daniel Putterman: I would love to take credit, but all we said when we were at our booth was that nobody was too important or small for us to talk to. This was
Sramana: In which year did you leave Macrovision? Daniel Putterman: The sale was the first of January 2007. I was on my way by the middle of that year. The bulk of the core team also came along around that time. We had a small core team.
Sramana: Did you come to those conclusions by the time you started your third company? Daniel Putterman: I came to those conclusions during the middle of my third company. I started a company called Mediabolic. We created the ability for consumer to experience multimedia on TVs and other devices; they were used to consuming media
Sramana: You did not take a term sheet to start MaxInfo. How did you finance the company? Daniel Putterman: I bootstrapped. I used credit card debt, I borrowed money from friends and family, I did consulting and converted those revenues back into financing for the company. I carried almost 30 people on payroll for a
If you haven’t already, please study our Bootstrapping Course and Investor Introductions page. Daniel Putterman is the president and CEO of Cloud Engines. Prior to his current position he founded Mediabolic in 1999 and served as CEO until its sale to Macrovision (now Rovi) in 2007. Additionally, he founded MaxInfo, the first collaborative Web media design software for the