Senior Director of Product, Symitri | The world's first privacy firewall and real-time cleanroom for the open web and Head of Technical Operations, TRUSTX | A private programmatic marketplace and certified B-Corp.
Wow, I cannot believe it's been seven years already 🤯 David's post below describes the first day that we launched the TRUSTX exchange, back in May of 2017. We were three bright-eyed and bushy-tailed amigos, planning to take the programmatic media ecosystem by storm. We were a B-corp with principles of trust and transparency at our core, had the highest standards in programmatic trading, and we were backed by some of the most recognized and trusted media companies in the world. I mean, how could we not? Well...it really did take almost a month of trading just to offset the cost of the celebratory cocktails enjoyed at the close of day 1 😅 I don't think any of us truly understood or appreciated the complexities of building a programmatic exchange from scratch, and just how difficult it would be. I also think that if programmatic trading algorithms could talk, they would have told us that they were utterly confused by what we were doing, and begged us to stop and go home. It's a good thing they can't talk.... We learned A LOT in those first few weeks. Humbled and inspired, we persevered - and slowly, we managed to gain our publisher's trust. Now, seven years later, I can tell you that we never stopped learning, and we built a culture at TRUSTX where every single decision we make starts with the same question: "Is this the best we can do for our customers, and for our industry at large?" Alas, the 55 cents that TRUSTX earned on the first day of trading continued to grow, sustainably and responsibly, and our mission to support and protect the economic vibrancy of the open-internet has never been more clear than it is today. I'm thrilled to join David Kohl in announcing the launch of the next chapter of our evolution with Symitri, an integrated privacy firewall and real-time data cleanroom for the open web. A simple solution to a complex problem, Symitri powers deterministic campaign targeting, measurement, and attribution, without exposing any personal data—pseudonymous or otherwise—to the bidstream. To learn more about Symitri and to opt in for updates, please visit www.symitri.com and be sure to follow Symitri here on LinkedIn. We’re excited to share more in the weeks to come!
Co-Founder & CEO, Symitri | Safeguarding privacy | Driving transparency | Building the sustainable future for trusted advertising
Seven years ago this past weekend, on May 18, 2017, TRUSTX opened its doors to trading. We sold 2,093 viewable ad impressions and paid publishers a whopping 55 cents. Paul Wyrembak, John Vilade and I spent more celebrating over cocktails that evening than TRUSTX earned for the entire rest of the month! By May 22, we were up to $15, then $20, and we paid out our first $100 on May 30, doubling to over $200 on May 31. We’ve come a long way, my friends. I was motivated to build TRUSTX for the talented content creators who enrich us everyday with independent journalism, engaging entertainment and valuable lifestyle content. Unfortunately, programmatic markets have commoditized premium inventory by trading on audiences without regard to context. Fueled by ubiquitous online identity—cookies, MAIDs and otherwise—programmatic makes it easy for advertisers to reach their target consumers for cheap. We created TRUSTX to demonstrate that premium inventory is worth the price. But programmatic’s foundation of audience data is changing. And the change creates a unique and fleeting opportunity for all of us that care about the future of the open Internet. Content publishers have learned that shared identity leaks audience data into the ecosystem, transferring value from publishers to the rest of the supply chain. Here’s the conundrum: if publishers lock down audience data, brands will shift their spending to data-rich walled gardens where targeting and measurement are easy. If audiences remain accessible, publishers will simply recreate the status quo. Neither extreme—strict data protection nor easy accessibility—is the right answer. Solving for this narrow balance was the catalyst for creating Symitri, which my colleagues and I are proud to announce today. Symitri is the world’s first fully integrated privacy firewall and real-time data cleanroom for the open web. Symitri gives programmatic buyers and sellers an EZ-button for deterministic campaign targeting, measurement and attribution … all without exposing any personal data—pseudonymous or otherwise—in the bidstream. Creating Symitri is the next step in our mission to sustain the economic vibrancy of the premium open Internet. For seven years, TRUSTX has championed trust, transparency and safety. Now, we're adding a privacy and data protection layer that balances the commercial needs of open-web publishers and advertisers with every individual’s fundamental right to privacy. Please join us at www.symitri.com for the next chapter in our journey to sustain the future of a privacy-safe open web. #Privacy #Identity #DataSecurity #Compliance
Congratulations on this exciting launch! Onward and upward
Technology/Media Executive | CRO | CMO | Advisor | Investor
1moI look forward to catching up. I know you guys have been working really hard on this. It’s great to see all the pieces fall into place. I can’t wait to see where this goes!