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Posts Tagged “
spot runner
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rumormonger
venture capital
Spot Runner raises $51 million for "war chest"
Spot Runner, the Los Angeles-based TV-advertising startup, is just the latest to follow past rounds of fundraising with another quick grab for money. The company has raised $51 million from a group of international media investors — not the Sand Hill Road club, but corporate names like Grupo Televisa and LVMH. Why raise more money now? None of the entrepreneurs raising outsized rounds are uncouth enough to say that they are raising money simply because they can. Spot Runner CEO Nick Grouf says the company is "raising a war chest." Sure, Google may eventually stop fumbling around and find an approach to brokering television ads that works. But one has to think Grouf is less concerned with an all-out battle against the armies of Mountain View, and more with making hay while the sun shines. (Photo by Glenn Koenig/Los Angeles Times)
venture capital
SaysMe latest startup to flirt with the curse of Ashton Kutcher
Startup SaysMe, which will produce generic, re-brandable commercial video spots for local businesses and small-town politicians, has raised an undisclosed amount of funding from a group of venture firms, including Katalyst Films, home of male model-turned-VC Ashton Kutcher, as well as Intel and Prime Capital's funds. SaysMe's most direct competitor is Spot Runner, another production house which makes stock ads, customized to feature small businesses and placed on network and cable television. It can't possibly have a worse business plan than VOIP hardware maker Ooma, another startup anointed by Kutcher, can it?
Another hire at Spot Runner
Spot Runner, an L.A.-based startup, creates and places TV ads for businesses, especially those which don't usually advertise on TV. That, at least, is its pitch to big agencies, by which Spot Runner doesn't want to be viewed as competition. That explains its latest hire: Former Interpublic Media CEO Mark Rosenthal, who oversaw agencies Universal McCann, Initiative, and Magna Global, among others. [PaidContent]
Spot Runner, an L.A.-based startup, creates and places TV ads for businesses, especially those which don't usually advertise on TV. That, at least, is its pitch to big agencies, by which Spot Runner doesn't want to be viewed as competition. That explains its latest hire: Former Interpublic Media CEO Mark Rosenthal, who oversaw agencies Universal McCann, Initiative, and Magna Global, among others. [PaidContent]
hires
Microsoft ad exec dodges painful Yahoo integration
Microsoft VP Joanne Bradford has left the company and will join Los Angeles-based ad agency Spot Runner. Even with a new title of EVP, it's hardly a leap up the ladder. Our guess on why Bradford bolted? A former executive at Microsoft and Yahoo told us, " I shudder to think about a MSNBC.com and Yahoo News integration." Bradford's departure plans likely came together not long after Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer made it clear he favored Yahoo's brands over the MSN portal Bradford ran.
spot runner
Nick Grouf goes Hollywood
Has Nick Grouf, the CEO of advertising startup Spot Runner, spent too much time in Los Angeles? That's the only reason I can think of for his company's investment in 60Frames, an online-video product and distribution startup. It's especially odd that Spot Runner, which only recently raised some venture capital itself, is putting its own investors' dollars into the deal. Grouf recently told me that he missed the Bay Area, that he only located in Spot Runner to make use of the area's video talent to produce his company's library of commercials. But now I'm wondering if he hasn't gone Hollywood for good.
nytimes
News notes: Here be one less monster
- The former CEO of Monster.com, who already stepped down from that post and as board chairman over the industry-wide stock option backdating scandal, just lost his seat on the board as well. Monster announced Andrew McKelvey's resignation from the board this morning. [Washington Post]
- Spot Runner, an ad company that sells generic cut-and-paste TV commercials, took $40 million in funding. With a business-to-business product that can run under a hundred bucks, it's a mystery how this company will become profitable — so this $40-million investor debt may save the world from a hegemony of excruciatingly dull stock-footage ads. [LA Times]
- The New York Times searches for an exciting description of the wild dot-com boom. It fails. "The words 'Internet' and 'bust' were rarely used in the same sentence." [NY Times]
- A VP at Nielsen NetRatings searches for a non-asinine summary of why companies are finally demanding reliable web traffic stats. He fails. "When you grow up, you have to do certain things." [NY Times]
- Former CIA agent and Open Source Solutions, Inc. founder accuses Google of working with the CIA. It's not the first time someone's alleged Google is secretly cooperating with federal agents. [Disgrunt via Good Morning Silicon Valley]
