Former aQuantive CFO Michael Vernon joins WidgetBucks' board |
Follow the ups and downs of a new Seattle startup in a series of behind-the-scenes posts by its founders.
Former aQuantive CFO Michael Vernon joins WidgetBucks' board
Former aQuantive Chief Financial Officer Michael Vernon has joined the board of WidgetBucks, a Seattle startup that is helping small online publishers and bloggers make money on advertising widgets they place on their Web sites. Vernon worked at aQuantive from 2000 to 2006, leaving before the Seattle online advertising company was sold to Microsoft for $6 billion.
“When it comes to core fundamentals within the online advertising space – monetization, expansion and targeting – WidgetBucks is well positioned to be a big ad play,” said Vernon in a statement.
Mpire, the parent company of WidgetBucks, scored $10 million in venture funding from Draper Fisher Jurvetson, Ignition Partners and others last June. At the time of the funding, the company said it had about 20,000 small publishers using the advertising widgets.
Last week, the company introduced a new product called YieldSense in order to maximize the performance of the online ad widgets.
Since leaving aQuantive, Vernon has been playing around in the Seattle startup community. He served as CFO of Global Market Insite and ZenZui.
aQuantive cultivated a lot of online advertising talent in Seattle, so it will be interesting to see if that employee base can help grow the next generation of online advertising companies. aQuantive co-founder Nick Hanauer joined the board of Marchex in 2007, while former CEO Brian McAndrews recently left Microsoft which fueled some speculation about his next move.
About John Cook
John Cook is co-founder and executive editor of TechFlash. He has been covering the technology beat for nearly a decade, writing about startups, entrepreneurs and venture capital, most recently serving as a reporter/blogger at the Seattle Post-Intelligencer.
READ FULL BIOGRAPHYRecent Sponsor Posts
Seattle Repertory Theatre presents Glengarry Glen Ross Feb 5th to Feb 28th
One of the largest and most renowned regional theatres in the country, Seattle Repertory Theatre produces a mix of celebrated classics, recent Broadway hits and cutting-edge new works in two theatre spaces. Now playing David Mamet's American classic Glengarry Glen Ross through February 28. Join us for Sales Rep Industry night February 11 with the Puget Sound Business Journal. For details click here.
Join the Microsoft WebsiteSpark program and get software, support and visibility – at no upfront cost. You’ll benefit from fast and easy access to current Microsoft development tools, platform technology and server products including Visual Studio, Expression Studio, Silverlight, Windows Web Server 2008 and SQL Server 2008 Web.
Seattle-based Adhost is a WebsiteSpark hosting partner providing dedicated servers with free Windows Web Server 2008 and SQL Server 2008 licensing for three years to Web developers enrolled in WebsiteSpark. Servers are located in our secure data center with SAS 70 Type II certification, 24x7 technical support and 24x7 client access.
WTIA 15th Annual Industry Achievement Awards
Held on March 4th at the Showbox SODO, this casual event celebrates and recognizes some of the best emerging and established companies in the Washington Tech Industry. The evening will feature a finalist company technology showcase and a variety of coffee, chocolate, and wine samples from local companies. More than 800 attendees are expected to be present at the celebration. Public online voting for Technology Leader of Tomorrow Scholarships will open February 3rd on the WTIA site.
We congratulate the 2010 finalists and look forward to unveiling the winners on March 4th. REGISTER NOW!
From the trenches
Job Listings
- Registered Health Information Technician (Forms & Records Analyst 2)
- State of Washington Department of Corrections
- Principal SDE - Project Natal - Gameplay Engineering - 711621
- Microsoft Corporation
- Senior Web Analyst - 705536
- Microsoft Corporation
- Telecommunications Consultant (I)
- Sparling Electrical & Technology Consulting
- Senior SDET - 706910
- Microsoft Corporation
