About Spongecell.

Spongecell provides interactive ad technology that converts engagement to participation. It helps advertisers increase ROI (or RO Engagement) by creating ads that make it easy for messages to flow into calendars, mobile devices, social networks and email inboxes right from the ad unit. By offering more options than just a click through to move past engagement, Spongecell increases the yield from each impression.

The company was founded in 2005 by a team composed mostly of Carnegie Mellon Computer Science graduates. After launching a groundbreaking natural language web calendar in 2006, they took funding from a group led by Halo Venture Partners, including The Interpublic Group of Companies (IPG) and the Pilot Group.

Executive Team

Ben Kartzman, CEO
Ben established himself working for global leaders in consulting, banking and technology such as Accenture, Morgan Stanley and Intel. As an executive at Accenture, Ben led the sales and delivery of high-value management consulting engagements. Ben also has formidable experience leading teams in building highly usable software products as demonstrated for venture backed start ups in New York. Ben graduated with honors from Carnegie Mellon with a dual BS in Human Computer Interaction and Information & Decision Systems.

Marc Guldimann, Chief Strategy Officer
Marc spent the last eleven years at Internet and technology firms. He worked in the emerging wireless network security industry since 1999, where he developed the first wireless virus filter. Marc led technical sales and marketing efforts for both Vernier Networks and Network Chemistry, working with ABN Amro, General Motors, Kodak, and Siemens during his time in the industry. Marc graduated from Carnegie Mellon with a degree in Social Decision Sciences.

Chris Hobbs, Chief Technology Officer
Chris has seven years experience designing and developing professional enterprise software. He created and deployed web applications used by Goldman Sachs, Merrill Lynch and Charles Schwab. At Mercury, he engineered business process solutions for the Internet Technology Governance application suite. Chris graduated from Carnegie Mellon with college and university honors in Computer Science and minors in Math and Physics.

Anthony Yam, Vice President of Engineering
Anthony started his career designing and building electronic defense systems at the U.S. Naval Research Laboratory in Washington, DC. He then spent six years building and managing the flagship product of a Natural Language Programming startup that later became the fastest growing software solution at Ariba, Inc. Anthony graduated magna cum laude with a degree in Electrical Engineering at the University of Tennessee.

Blythe Dunham, Principal Architect
Blythe has focused her career on building highly complex calendaring and synchronization tools as a Lead Engineer on the Siebel Systems Mobile Solutions team. Blythe graduated Phi Beta Kappa with college and university honors at Carnegie Mellon with a Masters degree in Software Engineering and a bachelor's degree in Computer Science.

Advisory Board

Nick Shepherd, CEO – Sagittarius Brands

An experienced international executive, Nick advises Spongecell on business strategy and operational management. Shepherd spent the past 12 years in the home entertainment industry with Blockbuster Inc. He most recently served as Blockbuster's COO with global responsibility for the $5.5 billion company's marketing, merchandising, distribution, operations and real estate functions for more than 8,000 stores and its online movie subscription business.

Shawn Gold, CEO – Social Approach

Shawn Gold is Chairman of newly formed Social Approach, a digital media advisory focused on Social Discovery platforms and technologies. Formerly, he was CMO , head of marketing & content for MySpace. At MySpace Gold spearheaded the development and implementation of marketing initiatives and campaigns for MySpace’s more than 110 million users worldwide. He also oversaw the growth and expansion of popular MySpace franchises including Music, Film, Comedy and MySpace Celebrity.

Ernest Lupinacci, Creative Director – Cyclops NYC, Anomaly

A seasoned branding and advertising executive, Ernest advises Spongecell on its messaging and positioning. He also helps Spongecell navigate relationships with creative channel partners. Lupinacci has worked on such brands as Nike, ESPN, The Gap, Old Navy, and Fed Ex. His work, featuring William Shatner, for Priceline.com earned him Adweek's freelance creative all-star of the year honors for 2000.

Doug Klein, CEO – Lightpole

A sesoned technology start-up executive, Doug advises Spongecell on product management with a key focus on speed to market. As the founding CEO then CTO of Vernier Networks, Doug brought cutting edge wireless management and security capabilities to the enterprise WLAN and network access control (NAC) markets. As the President and COO of NuvoMedia, Doug oversaw product development and led the company through three rounds of funding, then negotiated the company’s sale to Gemstar/TVGuide for $125 million. Doug recently co-founded LightPole, Inc., a company that creates carrier-grade back-end server infrastructure and applications to enable publishers to publish geo-specific content to mobile devices.

Kevin Law, Partner, Digital Media – Tudor Investments

A seasoned media, entertainment and investment executive, Kevin advises Spongecell on raising capital and working with the entertainment industry. Kevin currently runs Digital Media investments for Tudor.

Mikhail LaPushner, Managing Partner – SignalRay and Halo

Mr. LaPushner has been involved in various executive roles, focusing on strategy, branding, business development, sales management and optimization for the past 17 years. Mr. LaPushner was responsible for leading the sales efforts for companies such as Scout Media (sold to Fox Sports), Tribeca Enterprises Online, Spongecell and IWIN. Mr. LaPushner also currently advises various global brands on their media strategy. Among the most notable are Nike, Blockbuster, and Mercedes-Benz.

Press

Our innovative products have led to a lot of great mentions in influential blogs, magazines, and other publications. Click here to check out some of the articles.

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