Learning From Mistakes: Roy Peleg, CEO of FirstImpression.io (Part 3)

Sramana Mitra: What year are we in now?

Roy Peleg: Around 2012.

Sramana Mitra: What happens in 2012?

Roy Peleg: I left the previous startup and came up with the idea for my current company, FirstImpression.io. What actually happened is that I decided to completely quit my day job. I did some consulting along the way, but almost 100% of my time was dedicated to the startup. I listened to a lecture by another entrepreneur who found a way to monetize websites by securing the unused page that you see after you download a software.

Usually when you download a software, you see a message saying, “Thank you for downloading our software. Download will start in five seconds.” That guy actually realized that it is a very valuable real estate that no one else had thought of before. I thought that was genius. Instead of a generic message, you now have new inventory that actually can add value.

I needed to come up with another real estate that no one uses. My first attempt at that was to actually try and create some kind of a tooltip with an ad when you click on a like or share button. I realized that I was probably going to get sued by Facebook or whatever social network I tried to leverage. I decided to create a new solution that would allow me to create additional ad products regardless of the type of website, layout, or functionality. The idea was to, very easily, supplement the site with just the right ad products at the right opportune time. That was the start of the product that we have today.

Sramana Mitra: Can you give me an example of what kinds of publishers we are talking about?

Roy Peleg: Just content. It’s the same type of publishers – news websites and blogs.

Sramana Mitra: You’re talking about small publishers?

Roy Peleg: Yes, initially small publishers – just give them a very easy-to-use tool. Instead of needing templates or development resources, they can design the ad products without coding. I’m sure that everyone has this challenge. I also saw that people want to be experimental in ad placements. I thought of saving all of that work with a drag-and-drop solution that you can use to create an ad in minutes.

Sramana Mitra: What was the form factor of the ads that you were going to be putting on these publishers’ sites? Were they regular advertising form factors?

Roy Peleg: Yes. Initially, the idea was regular display ads.

Sramana Mitra: How is it different from any old ad network? There have been ad networks since the beginning of blogging. What is different about what you were offering?

Roy Peleg: Think about it as building the billboard but not dealing with what’s on it. The idea was to provide the tools to build and position the billboard in the right place where people would see it. What we did was actually decide where the ad products would appear and in what specific cases would it be applicable, such as the device or the length of the page. You can’t make these kinds of decisions by simply using an ad network. That is completely different from the job of an ad network, which is simply supplying ads. We were creating a solution that allows you to create the ad products in which the ads appear..

This segment is part 3 in the series : Learning From Mistakes: Roy Peleg, CEO of FirstImpression.io
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