tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-245652362008-07-09T18:24:32.773-07:00Frank Addantehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02789958559463524158noreply@blogger.comBlogger50125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-24565236.post-567013888243914022008-07-02T13:51:00.000-07:002008-07-02T16:50:32.672-07:00

I sent out a Twitter update saying that I was stumped and needed some new, fresh blog ideas. Ian Douglas, one of our engineers here at the Rubicon Project responded with an idea (thanks Ian!) Here is what he wrote: "Fear of failure can often paralyze a company, but sometimes so can 'fear of success'. I don't imagine that's ever slowed you down, but I'd be curious to hear your thoughts on it. "

Frank Addantehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02789958559463524158noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-24565236.post-18512106102061297452008-05-23T11:52:00.000-07:002008-05-23T12:15:21.064-07:00

Yesterday, our 1,000th customer went live here at the Rubicon Project. I have been blown away by how fast this team moves and how quickly we have ramped. So, I took a step back and asked myself, how did we go from zero to 1,000 customers in 6 months? The answer is that we have specifically focused on optimizing this company for speed. Speed is our mindset. It's easier said than done. It

Frank Addantehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02789958559463524158noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-24565236.post-91920079106943065792008-05-01T19:13:00.000-07:002008-05-01T20:27:30.292-07:00

I can't believe it's been a year. When Craig, Julie and Duc and I got together a year ago we didn't have a business plan, we didn't have goals... actually, none of us were even looking to start a company in the first place. So, today, on our first birthday, I ask myself where did this all come from? I'm just amazed by how fast this company has grown... Immediately after asking myself that

Frank Addantehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02789958559463524158noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-24565236.post-40480723757344447452008-04-22T15:57:00.000-07:002008-04-23T09:48:08.632-07:00

I was in the process of writing this post, and then I got this comment from a reader challenging my last post (particularly, our presence at ad:tech San Francisco.) While John and I likely disagree on management style and approach, we do agree on the right questions to ask (not the way of asking, but the questions themselves). Interestingly enough, we asked ourselves at the Rubicon Project

Frank Addantehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02789958559463524158noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-24565236.post-49720503141739318012008-04-14T18:09:00.000-07:002008-04-14T18:43:23.016-07:00

Although I try to keep this blog very focused on entrepreneurial lessons and stories, a lot of people have requested I share some of Rubicon Project's news on this blog. I've been trying to figure out how I can balance both without compromising the lesson-oriented posts. So, I'm going to label any Rubicon Project news with "Rubicon Project" first in the title for easy identification. I'm

Frank Addantehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02789958559463524158noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-24565236.post-7539873117142906112008-04-08T13:53:00.000-07:002008-04-08T14:51:47.030-07:00

Check out this video and then read the rest of this post: I talk about simplicity all the time. In general, I think a lot of companies focus too much on "how" they do things instead of "what" they do. It's an easy trap to fall in, particularly in startup companies that are so product focused. We get so hung up in the product and the technology and forget to describe to people why they should

Frank Addantehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02789958559463524158noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-24565236.post-66613734425929359852008-03-03T18:56:00.000-08:002008-03-03T19:47:13.128-08:00

We, at the Rubicon Project, moved into new office today. It is a very exciting day for us. Actually, liberating would be a more appropriate word. Before, we had 40 people squeezed into a 2,000 square foot office, designed to fit 15 people, max. Today, we moved into a 20,000 square foot office, 10X the size of the previous one. Personally, I believe that work environment is a critical factor

Frank Addantehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02789958559463524158noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-24565236.post-3181646972528986232008-02-04T14:03:00.000-08:002008-02-04T16:01:23.621-08:00

After announcing our $21M in funding last week, a number of reporters reached out to us for stories they were writing about the economy. We were featured in the L.A. Times, and the article did a fantastic job capturing the essence of what we do, and our culture. On the flip side, I was quoted in the N.Y. Times this past weekend in a story on the front-page of the business section that

Frank Addantehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02789958559463524158noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-24565236.post-77832599065190505622008-01-27T19:25:00.000-08:002008-01-28T05:30:13.308-08:00

What a way to start off 2008! First, we are honored with a number of awards (more on this later)... And today, we at the the Rubicon Project announced that we have raised $21 million in total financing (see press announcement). We are very excited, as this is a huge vote of a confidence for the company from investors. It's not everyday that a company that has been around for only 8 months

Frank Addantehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02789958559463524158noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-24565236.post-91428480478987790972007-12-26T12:46:00.000-08:002007-12-26T15:06:13.814-08:00

If a picture is worth a thousand words, how many words is a video worth? The Internet is quickly turning into a mutli-media platform, giving businesses the opportunity to express themselves in ways that were never possible before. Personality is now possible. That is, giving a personality to your business, something that is very hard to do with only text on a website. Enter video. Recently,

Frank Addantehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02789958559463524158noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-24565236.post-21422503566729450472007-11-29T16:40:00.000-08:002007-12-03T08:19:25.500-08:00

People always ask me what I mean when I say hire "great athletes" versus "great resumes". I'm not a big fan of cliches. So, when I say it, I mean it. Let me explain... My team: what they were doing before the Rubicon Project... Casey: Talent production Christen*: Liberian refugee camp volunteer, opiate treatment center research assistant Jeannette: Movie producer, commercial real estate

Frank Addantehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02789958559463524158noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-24565236.post-81649210512627223212007-11-15T17:40:00.000-08:002007-11-15T17:45:05.206-08:00

Yesterday, we announced the results from our beta launch here at the Rubicon Project. (read announcement here) Our original plan was to launch our beta in January of 2008. We hoped to get 500 websites signed up between January and April of next year. We launched early, on October 8, and in the very first day over 500 website publishers signed up. In the first month, we had over 1100 sign

Frank Addantehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02789958559463524158noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-24565236.post-54481593099401605562007-11-09T13:03:00.000-08:002007-11-09T13:53:55.920-08:00

I know it's been a couple of weeks since my last post. Things have been going absolutely crazy for us over here at the Rubicon Project. We've been bringing more and more users live onto our system daily and trying to grow the team to keep up with the increasing demand (more on that later). We just got back from ad:tech NY. As I mentioned before, we launched our beta much earlier than we

Frank Addantehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02789958559463524158noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-24565236.post-77413980215341245362007-10-18T08:51:00.001-07:002007-10-18T09:50:32.680-07:00

I've gotta run into a board meeting. But, I wanted to write a quick post about our announcement this morning. As I mentioned in my previous post (What to do when hit by a tidal wave?), we were swamped with beta sign-ups from our site launch last week. We weren't prepared for such an overwhelming response. So, we were trying to figure out how to manage all of the sign-ups. We wanted to

Frank Addantehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02789958559463524158noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-24565236.post-38037338722218036782007-10-15T23:06:00.000-07:002007-10-15T23:36:07.250-07:00

We've all heard the term "we wear many hats," especially in startup companies. That's exactly how our team at the Rubicon Project has been operating. To date, our focus has been on developing a great product. After our beta invitation site launched last week, as I mentioned in my previous post, we received an absolutely overwhelming number of sign-ups. Developing a product, getting feedback

Frank Addantehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02789958559463524158noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-24565236.post-60635740178149275762007-10-10T22:03:00.000-07:002007-10-10T22:27:28.454-07:00

My blackberry broke. Salesforce.com maxed out. 1500 emails flooded my inbox. On Monday, we announced our private beta invitation site. We spent the entire weekend putting the finishing touches on the site. We tried to anticipate everything that could go wrong with the launch. We expected positive results, however, we had no idea that we would get slammed with the number of sign-ups that we

Frank Addantehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02789958559463524158noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-24565236.post-68205992237214687182007-10-07T22:37:00.000-07:002007-10-07T23:51:31.897-07:00

Things have been a little crazy (good crazy) since last Monday’s funding announcement. I wasn’t prepared for all the activity that followed. We had thousands of visitors hit our website in anticipation of our beta and received tons of calls from potential partners, press and investors. I still can’t believe the overwhelming response! Lesson learned: always stay on your toes because you never

Frank Addantehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02789958559463524158noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-24565236.post-48132776203411723242007-10-01T19:52:00.000-07:002007-10-01T22:42:21.944-07:00

OK, I know I haven't posted in a while but, I'm hoping I can make it up to you with a change that I am making in the style of this blog. (By the way, thank you to all of you that I have sent emails letting me know that you miss my regular posts, it keeps me motivated to keep writing.) The reason that I haven't posted in a while is because we're preparing to finally start talking about what we

Frank Addantehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02789958559463524158noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-24565236.post-33040242424723693622007-08-27T09:16:00.000-07:002007-08-27T09:23:36.601-07:00

Startups are emotional roller coasters. It is very, very hard to remain positive 100% of the time. It takes effort, it takes commitment. It is unnatural to be positive 100% of the time. But, being positive is powerful. I know it sounds cheesy, but it’s true. It is easy to let fear overcome you. It’s easy to worry. It’s easy to focus on inefficiencies. It’s easy to let mistakes discourage

Frank Addantehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02789958559463524158noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-24565236.post-19509464561505420892007-07-30T23:30:00.000-07:002007-07-31T09:45:25.073-07:00

My team is sure to crack a smirk every time someone asks me what our timeline is. They smirk because they know exactly how I’m going to respond. I say, “we like to go fast, but we don’t hurry”. A startup company’s strengths are centered in its abilities to move quickly and be agile. I believe that the success-rates of all of my companies is largely due to speed being ingrained in the company

Frank Addantehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02789958559463524158noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-24565236.post-33768760767541123892007-07-05T14:11:00.000-07:002007-07-24T13:57:17.600-07:00

The first few weeks of starting my newest company (Startup 6.0: the Rubicon Project) have reminded me of how critical it is to have the right team. I have been absolutely amazed by what an A++ team can produce in short periods of time. It has reaffirmed every thought I have ever had about my philosophy that great companies are built by great people. To me, bringing together the right team has

Frank Addantehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02789958559463524158noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-24565236.post-86498851465586132682007-06-10T09:26:00.000-07:002007-07-24T13:49:08.012-07:00

My apologies for not doing a posting sooner, I have been "communication challenged" due to an office move for the Rubicon Project. Most would agree that moving is always a big distraction. So, I've decided to do a post about setting up an office space and all the things that go into the decision making process: what's the right size? location? type of space? lease term? configuration?

Frank Addantehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02789958559463524158noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-24565236.post-59633485994348943202007-05-24T10:29:00.000-07:002007-07-24T13:53:22.774-07:00

OK, as I eluded to in my previous post, I have decided to take the plunge, yet again, and start another company. So, I am on to Startup 6.0... This one is so new, we don't even have an official company name, yet. So, we decided to code name it "the Rubicon Project". Rubicon is a popular idiom that means to "go past the point of no return". The phrase "crossing the Rubicon" has come to represent

Frank Addantehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02789958559463524158noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-24565236.post-34272607523355865632007-05-20T23:08:00.000-07:002007-05-22T07:08:26.455-07:00

May 3 was the 1 year anniversary of this blog. Thank you to all of you for your support and inspiration! I started this blog as a place to share my experiences and thoughts with a small group of entrepreneurs and companies that I advise. But, in the past year, with your support (and to my surprise), it has grown to a readership of more than 3,500 entrepreneurs in over 50 countries! I never

Frank Addantehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02789958559463524158noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-24565236.post-47662593020034403692007-05-12T08:06:00.000-07:002007-07-24T14:03:25.929-07:00

(Part 5 of a 5 part series: "So, you need to develop a product?") Outsourcing has become a popular topic and practice these days. I have been outsourcing to India since before it became popular. Cost was definitely one of the driving factors, initially. However, these days, the cost benefits are quickly declining as prices in India continue to rise and productivity decreases due to factors such

Frank Addantehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02789958559463524158noreply@blogger.com