• meltdowns

    Pud was so much better at this

    Eight years ago Philip Kaplan, aka Pud, turned his anonymous rumor site FuckedCompany into a modest advertising business. Today, Kaplan is chief something-or-other at AdBrite, a Sequoia-backed startup whose CEO has dutifully slashed its payroll down to profitability. By contrast, sloppy typist "FS Crew" at FuckedStartups has already thrown in the towel. "We have incredible pipeline of rumors and tips," promises the For Sale post atop the site. "We have other projects and don’t have the time to focused (sic) our 100% attention on this project." What FS Crew really means is: "Fuck, this is hard. Someone please pay me to quit." Sorry, but on Web 2.0, it's the other way around: Your customers quit you, for free.

    2:20 PM on Wed Oct 29 2008
    By Paul Boutin
    1,171 views, 7 comments

    Most discussed Shadowlayer: Web 2.0, nothing but a juxtaposition of glossy generic graphics and verdana font. Every friggin site looking like a clone more »

  • layoffs

    AdBrite cuts 40 of 100 employees

    Cue the schadenfreude brigade: AdBrite, the online-advertising network funded by Sequoia Capital, has laid off 40 of 100 employees. Why will some view this with glee? Because, a decade ago, AdBrite founder Philip Kaplan ran a site called FuckedCompany, which chronicled layoffs and cutbacks in the bursting of the bubble. AdBrite actually grew out of Kaplan's ad-sales efforts on the site. Two vice presidents are leaving, including Paul Levine, the former Yahoo executive AdBrite hired to run marketing last year. Anyone want to bet Levine will land at Zvents, a startup whose board of directors he recently joined?

    11:40 AM on Thu Oct 16 2008
    By Owen Thomas
    3,432 views, 22 comments

    Most discussed ForeverIdeating: Iggy Fanlo is a dark and evil man and pud is really just a stooge. Is anyone really surprised? more »

  • breakdowns

    AdBrite serving zero ads, according to AdBrite

    We knew things were looking grim in the fatally overcrowded online ad-network space. But this is ridiculous. AdBrite's homepage currently states that the network, favored by smaller publishers, is serving "0 impressions a day on 0 sites." A glitch in its stats mechanism, surely — but also a harbinger of the shakeout to come. We hear persistent rumors of high turnover in the site's sales department.

    9:20 AM on Tue Oct 7 2008
    By Owen Thomas
    996 views, 7 comments

    Most discussed apunter: "It is with great pleasure that I am announcing the promotion of Dionne McCray to Director of Engineering Services. more »

  • online advertising

    AdBrite fires top sales guy, considers cutting lunches

    FuckedCompany creator Philip "Pud" Kaplan's ad network, AdBrite, just fired its VP of Sales Jim Benton. In mid-August, a tipster told us it would happen. Now the same source tells us "free lunches are next on the chop." Engineering VP Mike Reaves and HR chief Melissa Vernon left the company earlier this year. Why's AdBrite in so much trouble? Because there are too many ad networks — about 300 — and not enough business to go around. More »

    8:20 AM on Thu Sep 4 2008
    By Nicholas Carlson
    1,833 views, 16 comments

    Most discussed nobuggin: The vision dims and all that remains are memories. They take me back - back to the place where the more »

  • online advertising

    Execs flee AdBrite

    AdBrite, the online-ad network best known for its quirky founder, FuckedCompany creator Philip "Pud" Kaplan, is hiring an in-house lawyer. This is odd only in that last we heard, the online ad network already had one. Current general counsel Rebecca Eisenberg is just one of several vice presidents leaving the company, according to a tipster. Engineering VP Mike Reaves left in February, a month after HR chief Melissa Vernon. We'd also heard that cofounder Gidon Wise is out the door. More »

    1:20 PM on Thu Aug 14 2008
    By Owen Thomas
    2,753 views, 16 comments

    Latest by istherelifeonmars: Not so long ago ..... AdBrite rocks with Live Nation by Jim Benton May 9, 2008 at 2:21 pm Today the AdBrite team is more »

  • exits

    Is AdBrite coming apart?

    A classic move by a startup hoping to recruit an executive is to offer him a board seat. So what to make of Zvents naming AdBrite executive Paul Levine to its board? Levine joined AdBrite, a San Francisco-based ad network, less than a year ago from Yahoo, where he ran that company's Yahoo Local properties. Since then, I've heard talk of high-level fights at AdBrite — the CEO and the head of sales yelling at each other behind closed doors, and constant turnover in the sales department. More »

    3:40 PM on Tue Jul 15 2008
    By Owen Thomas
    2,317 views, 13 comments

    Latest by dcbdcb: "pud" is the Internet moniker of AdBrite founder Philip Kaplan. You can read more about him here: www.pud.com more »

  • blogging for dollars

    JuicyCampus gets subpoena, loses advertisers

    New Jersey attorney general Anne Milgram served gossip site JuicyCampus and its founder Matt Ivester with a subpoena today. "There's an unbelievable amount of offensive material posted [on the site] and absolutely no enforcement," Milgram told the AP. Worse for JuicyCampus, Milgram served its ad network, Adbrite, too. The contract is already in the shredder.

    4:40 PM on Wed Mar 19 2008
    By Nicholas Carlson
    599 views, 3 comments

    Latest by matto: I just saw Owen catching a red-eye flight to Antigua more »

  • online advertising

    AdBrite's big numbers gets smaller and smaller

    From the beginning, Philip Kaplan has touted AdBrite's ad stats on the ad network's homepage. Today, it proclaims "470 million impressions a day on 54,328 sites." Which sounds impressive enough. Until one consults the Internet Archive and sees that more than two years ago, AdBrite was "serving 321,628,843 daily pageviews on 8,660 sites. AdBrite's pageviews have grown by less than 50 percent, while its customer base has expanded sevenfold. More customers, more costs; even on the Internet, catering to small fry gets expensive. If ad networks are a scale business, AdBrite has been growing the wrong number.

    3:46 PM on Thu Feb 7 2008
    By Owen Thomas
    848 views, 2 comments

    Latest by sggrf: add them to the deadpool. their M&A process failed and the coming recession will kill their momemtum and drive their more »

  • rock star

    Philip Kaplan releases "greatest and best song in the world"

    Why did FuckedCompany creator Philip "Pud" Kaplan record a profane song, "Fuck," in August under the name "Farty McPoopants"? The pseudonym is easy enough to explain: His current venture is AdBrite, an online-advertising network. And selling ads is a business that's all about keeping up appearances. Given his past, you'd think Kaplan wouldn't be so sensitive. But even Kaplan knew he couldn't blow his cool. His company, an online-advertising network, was in the midst of a tense negotiation with porn-ads partner AVN, and trying to raise a new round of financing. More »

    Feature

    5:15 PM on Sat Dec 15 2007
    By Owen Thomas
    1,455 views, 4 comments

    Latest by SandHillSnobbery: pud is the biggest tool i've ever met. he's an attention starved loser who is fighting for last place with more »

  • online advertising

    AdBrite makes clean break with porn-ad partner

    How eager is AdBrite founder Philip Kaplan to get into the porn-ads business? So eager that he's counting the seconds. On AVNAds.com, the relaunch site for AdBrite's partnership with porn-trade publisher AVN, there's a splash page announcing the move to Black Label Ads, a new website wholly owned and operated by AdBrite, in less than two days. We hear that making a clean break with AVN — without the acrimony of past attempts to split up — was a requirement before Sequoia Capital and other investors put in their latest investment, a $23 million financing round for the online ad network. Not that investors have entirely quelled their concerns about AdBrite being in the porn business. The new site, Black Label Ads, attempts to disguise the AdBrite connection — except in its legal agreements.

    5:32 PM on Thu Nov 29 2007
    By Owen Thomas
    678 views, 1 comment

    Latest by Trackback: Some links to kick off your Friday: * Facebook raises more venture cash, according to Kara Swisher. This time it’s more »