Former aQuantive employee scores cash for Lucid Commerce |
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Former aQuantive employee scores cash for Lucid Commerce
I've been writing a lot over the past few days about former aQuantive employees joining startups or other online advertising companies. That's why I was intrigued this morning when I came across a SEC filing showing that Lucid Commerce -- a Seattle startup led by former aQuantive employee Tyson Roberts -- had pulled in some more cash.
The 15-person company just raised $3 million from OVP Venture Partners and the European venture firm Adinvest, with Roberts telling TechFlash that the round is open for another $1 million. The deal follows a $2.5 million round that Lucid raised last year.
Asked what the money will be used for, the 35-year-old Roberts joked: "world domination." In fact, Lucid does want to change the way advertisers track the performance of advertising on TV, radio and the Web.
The company's first product is a media yield management system which tracks the lifetime value of infomercials, a product that Roberts said is similar in style to aQuantive's Atlas measurement tools. It does this by automatically tying sales activity to TV marketing campaigns.
Clients include Barry's Bootcamp, eyeQ, Purminerals and others.
Roberts -- reached at an electronic retailing conference in Las Vegas -- has been meeting with success. The company just landed one of the country's top five direct response marketing companies as a client with several others in the pipeline.
"The reason I am hoarse is that I've been pitching for two days straight," he said.
In addition to attracting new clients, Roberts has also met with success in bringing on top talent.
The company recently appointed Brian Burdick -- the former CTO at Specific Media and AdECN -- as its new chief technology officer. Burdick also spent some time at Microsoft, where he is best known as one of the founding members of the AdCenter product.
The aQuantive mafia also has ties to Lucid Commerce. Brent Turner, a former aQuantive employee who we wrote about yesterday with his move from Microsoft to Marchex, sits on the board.
Roberts left aQuantive before its $6 billion sale to Microsoft, creating Lucid in 2005. But I asked him why some of his former aQuantive cohorts are branching off on their own or joining startups.
"We are all looking for that high again," said Roberts of his time at aQuantive. "That was so fun."
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