AdReady co-founder Aaron Finn stepped down from the online advertising rat race a few years ago to return to his home in Iowa. But now the former Classmates.com executive, who co-founded AdReady in 2006, is back at the helm of the Seattle startup.
AdReady today is announcing that Finn has returned as CEO, taking over from Aaron Averbuch, who is moving to the role of CTO.
AdReady hit a few bumps in the road earlier this year, laying off staff and reorganizing the management team. The company, with 25 full-timers and contractors, is now operating on a cash-flow positive basis.
Its customers include ESPN, Yahoo and Alaska Airlines, both of which use the AdReady platform to easily deploy smaller ad campaigns in local markets.
“We are well positioned to help advertisers deploy micro-campaigns,” said Finn, referring to advertising buys under $50,000 per month. For example, AdReady works with Alaska Airlines to post advertising campaigns in smaller markets where it has routes, targeting potential travelers in those markets. Traditional online advertising efforts would make it cost-prohibitive to conduct advertising campaigns in those smaller markets, Finn said.
As CEO, Finn said he will continue to focus on existing customers, making sure that they are happy with the offering.
AdReady is backed with about $17 million from Madrona, Bain Capital and Khosla Ventures, and it closed an additional $500,000 in cash earlier this year.
Finn tells GeekWire that he plans to split his time between Seattle and Iowa, the latter location being closer to some of the company’s East Coast clients like ESPN.
