8/30/21 – Episode 1
This week’s guest is Steve Swoboda, Co-Founder of SpotX. SpotX is a global video advertising and monetization platform utilized by premium publishers and broadcasters like Disney, Samsung, Warner Media, and more. Prior to SpotX, Steve founded Booyah Advertising, a digital advertising firm that started as an image paid search network after the dot com bust.
Bit by the entrepreneurship bug in 2007, Steve Swoboda founded SpotX, the first online advertising marketplace that is now utilized by premium publishers and broadcasters like Disney, Samsung, and Warner Media. Following the digital advertising boom years later, Steve and his co-founder Mike Shehan has built the company to $13 million and had an exit valuation of $1.2 billion. But Steve doesn’t really care about the metrics. As a Colorado native, Steve attributes his overall success to the local culture and wears SpotX’s roots as a badge of honor. While the billion-dollar exist is impressive, Steve cares more about the culture they have created than the money they have earned.
About Steve Swoboda:
Steve Swoboda is Co-Founder and former CFO of SpotX, a global video advertising and monetization platform that was acquired by Magnite in 2021. Prior to SpotX, Swoboda founded Booyah Advertising, a digital advertising firm.
In this episode with Steve Swoboda, you’ll learn:
- Steve’s career path that lead him back to Colorado
- How Steve utilized the dot com bust to improve the search model with images
- The co-founder relationship with Mike Shehan and their sacrifices for SpotX
- How Steve and Mike became “thought leaders”
- Company culture at SpotX
Mentioned in this episode…
Companies:
SpotX
Booyah Advertising
People:
Steve Swoboda
Mike Shehan
Enjoy this episode and subscribe to Slice’d Podcast wherever you listen to your podcasts!
To learn more about Steve’s journey, read his article “Success is the People You Hire and the Environment You Build”
