I've never been one to think in terms of calendar years starting/finishing -- rather I view new years just as I do new days or months, as simply a progression of time. I suppose it's because of this that I've never embraced either resolutions or predictions. But I do like to recognize achievements now and then.
Others Online started building our core technology in 2006, and the company pretty much flat-lined for most of that year as we dealt with an emotionally upset and litigious [former] consultant. So 2006 pretty much sucked. In 2007 we got back on track, added some amazing investors, launched consumer services and grew that user base nicely by the end of the year. But by January 2008 it was apparent that our affinity profiling technology was more valuable to online media companies (B2B) than online consumers (B2C). So 2008 was the "year of the pivot" for us.
As I look back on 2008, I am extremely proud of what Others Online has accomplished, notably:
- Successful shift from B2C to B2B, earning valuable customers, real revenues and an AMAZING pipeline for 2009!!
- Quietly launched our Affinity Profiling Platform in mid-July, moving our data center infrastructure from our own servers to an elastic, cloud-computing infrastructure -- thereby allowing us to scale much more rapidly to meet demand.
- Since July, expanded our cookie footrpint to nearly 80M.
- Since July, developed over 52M rich profiles comprised of over 3B individual affinities, based on almost 300M Web searches and well over 1B page views across nearly 1M sites.
- Drove targeting for >500M ads, resulting in an increase in eCPM rates exceeding 50%.
- Added Sam Tingleff to the Others Online team.
- Added a half-dozen incredible angel investors -- the caliber of people whose accomplishments humble mine.
All this despite the declining economic conditions in 2008! So while I'm not one to generally congratulate ourselves on a job well done -- rather I'm much more inclined towards the "only the paranoid survive" school of thought -- I am quite proud of what we've done as a team in the last year, and I'm ready to face the challenges of 2009. In fact, I believe 2009 will be a much better year for this company than 2008!
I'd like to especially recognize Mike Dierken and Neal Richter for their dedication and hard work throughout the year. These guys are machines -- they continually challenge me, themselves, and each other to outperform -- and it's because of them that we've been able to accomplish so much as a small team.
Happy New Year, and thank you all for your continued interest and support. May we truly add value to your business, and money to your coffers.
- Jordan Mitchell / Founder and CEO
Comments