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Jay Gould (entrepreneur)

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Not to be confused with the 19th-century business magnate Jay Gould.

Jay Gould (born April 1, 1979)[1] is an American tech entrepreneur and the founder & CEO of Yashi.[2] Gould is also an active angel investor, and has backed web-based startups including DogVacay,[3] Tout, Buffer, and Fitocracy.[4]

Education

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Gould graduated from Rowan University in 2001, where he earned a bachelor's degree in law and justice studies.[5]

Career

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In December 2005, Gould sold his first business to Bolt Media for an undisclosed amount and joined Bolt as its President.[6] At the time of the sale, Gould's websites had 3.3 million U.S. unique visitors, according to comScore Media Metrics.[1]

Under Gould's management, Bolt's revenue grew to $7 million annually with 5.3 million U.S. visitors to the website monthly.[7][failed verification] In February 2007, he signed an agreement to sell the company for up to $30 million.[8][9][10] Just prior to signing the $30 million definitive agreement, Universal Music Group filed a lawsuit against Bolt, MySpace and others for alleged copyright infringement.[11] Bolt was ultimately unable to reach a settlement with Universal Music, which resulted in the termination of Bolt's $30 million acquisition, eventually leading Bolt to file an assignment for the benefit of creditors.[12][13]

During Gould's tenure at Bolt, he co-founded WikiYou, which raised $500,000 from investors, including Mayfield Fund, First Round Capital, and Reid Hoffman.[14]

GamersMedia, later called Yashi

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In 2007, Gould and his wife Caitlin founded GamersMedia, later called Yashi, the first vertical-advertising network to bring brand advertisers to casual-gaming websites, which at its launch had over 20 million unique visitors across 40 sites. It launched in February 2008.[15][5]

Yashi became a location-focused advertising platform that targeted mobile and web video advertising.[16]

The company was named to Inc.'s Inc. 5000 list of the Fastest-Growing Private Companies in America for four consecutive years from 2012–2015.[16][17]

In February 2015, the company was acquired by Nexstar Media Group for $33 million.[18]

Foundville

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In October 2011, Gould launched foundville.com, a video podcast site featuring interviews with successful Internet entrepreneurs. Gould has interviewed founders of companies such as HotOrNot,[19] RockYou,[20] Adify,[21] Mochi Media,[22] CapLinked,[23] The Receivables Exchange,[24] Wikia,[25] SitePoint,[26] and others.

Angel investments

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Gould is an angel investor, with investments in Buffer,[27] CapLinked, Tout, iDoneThis, Fitocracy, and Cadee.[28] In March 2012, Gould was part of a $1 million funding initiative for DogVacay, an online marketplace for residential dog boarding.[28]

In addition to startup capital, Gould also contributes his knowledge and expertise to entrepreneurs. He is a member of the Rowan University Entrepreneurship Program Advisor Council (ENTAC).

Awards and recognition

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  • On September 20, 2010, Gould was honored as a recipient of the NJBIZ Forty under 40 Award. The award recognizes up-and-coming businesspersons based in the New Jersey-New York area.[29]
  • In 2014, Gould was named an Ernst & Young Entrepreneur Of The Year Award finalist in New Jersey.[30]

References

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  1. ^ a b "Who Says Money Can't Buy Hipness?". Bloomberg Businessweek. February 26, 2006. Archived from the original on June 29, 2012.
  2. ^ Steve Hall (June 23, 2014). "How This Ad Network You've Never Heard of Bootstrapped Itself to Multi-Million Dollar Success". AdRants. Retrieved December 18, 2014.
  3. ^ "Investors". DogVacay. February 26, 2006. Retrieved December 18, 2014.
  4. ^ "Jay Gould AngelList". AngelList. February 26, 2006. Retrieved December 16, 2014.
  5. ^ a b "Internet entrepreneur and angel investor Jay Gould '01 to speak at Rowan". Rowan University. March 17, 2015.
  6. ^ Rafat Ali (February 21, 2006). "Bolt Buys Two Video Sites". PaidContent.org. Archived from the original on April 15, 2013. Retrieved August 16, 2012.
  7. ^ Matt Marshall (February 12, 2007). "Bolt hosed, shows the risks of video". Venturebeat. Retrieved August 16, 2012.
  8. ^ "Bolt Sells to GoFish to Pay Universal Music Settlement". TechCrunch. February 11, 2007.
  9. ^ "Agreement and Plan of Merger". U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. February 11, 2007.
  10. ^ "Betawave Corp". Securities and Exchange Commission. February 11, 2007. Retrieved August 16, 2012.
  11. ^ Dawn C. Chmielewski (October 18, 2006). "Universal Sues Video Sharing Websites". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved August 11, 2012.
  12. ^ Joshua Chaffin (March 9, 2007). "Rights success for Universal as Bolt settles". Financial Times. Retrieved August 12, 2012.
  13. ^ Margaret Kane (February 12, 2007). "Universal turns DRM thunder on Bolt". CNet. Retrieved August 12, 2012.
  14. ^ Michael Arrington (July 24, 2007). "WikiYou Beats Spock to Launch". TechCrunch. Retrieved August 16, 2012.
  15. ^ Hendrickson, Mark (February 26, 2008). "Former Bolt.com Owner Launches Casual Gaming Ad Network, Gamers Media". TechCrunch.
  16. ^ a b "Yashi - Toms River, NJ". Inc.
  17. ^ "Yashi named to Inc. 5000 List of America's Fastest-Growing Private Companies for 3rd Consecutive Year" (Press release). PR Newswire. August 26, 2014.
  18. ^ McAdams, Deborah D. (February 3, 2015). "Nexstar Acquires Yashi Local Programmatic Ad Firm for $33 Million". TV Technology.
  19. ^ "HOTorNOT: Hear How They Bootstrapped it to $8 Million Annually Before Selling it for $20 Million – with James Hong". foundville. 19 October 2011. Archived from the original on 23 January 2013. Retrieved 11 August 2012.
  20. ^ "Lance Tokuda: How RockYou Grew to 100 Million Uniques and $50 Million Revenue and SchoolFeed Gained 1 Million Members in its First 4 Months!". foundville. 17 October 2011. Archived from the original on 23 January 2013. Retrieved 11 August 2012.
  21. ^ "Adify: Built and Sold for $300 Million In Under 3 Years with the Help of Investors – by Russ Fradin". foundville. 25 October 2011. Archived from the original on 23 January 2013. Retrieved 11 August 2012.
  22. ^ "Learn How Jameson Hsu Went From Game Developer to Selling His Business for $80 Million". foundville. 20 October 2011. Archived from the original on 23 January 2013. Retrieved 11 August 2012.
  23. ^ "Early PayPal Employee Quits to Become Author and Serial Entrepreneur – with Eric Jackson". foundville. 26 October 2011. Archived from the original on 24 January 2013. Retrieved 11 August 2012.
  24. ^ "The Receivables Exchange Co-founder Nicolas Perkin Explains How They Built a $1 Billion Marketplace Within 5 Years". foundville. 28 October 2011. Archived from the original on 23 January 2013. Retrieved 11 August 2012.
  25. ^ "Learn How Wikia Empowered Its Members to a Top 100 Site – told by former CEO Gil Penchina". foundville. 1 November 2011. Archived from the original on 23 January 2013. Retrieved 11 August 2012.
  26. ^ "How to Successfully Spinoff Startups by SitePoint Co-Founder Matt Mickiewicz". foundville. 2 December 2011. Archived from the original on 23 January 2013. Retrieved 11 August 2012.
  27. ^ Leo Widrich (December 20, 2011). "The 19 Awesome Investors in Our $400,000 Seed Round And How We Met Them". Buffer. Retrieved August 16, 2012.
  28. ^ a b "Jay Gould". AngelList. Retrieved August 14, 2012.
  29. ^ "Forty under 40 2010". Infovision. October 25, 2010. Retrieved December 18, 2014.
  30. ^ "Congratulations to the 2014 finalists for the EY Entrepreneur Of The Year Awards in New Jersey." Archived 16 July 2015 at the Wayback Machine, Ernst & Young, 22 May 2014. Retrieved 18 December 2014.
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