Mike Walrath “was supposed to write novels.” Instead, he got into digital ad sales, started Right Media, which became an online ad exchange that he sold to Yahoo in 2007 for $850 million. In this Founder Stories video, he answers some rapid fire questions from host Chris Dixon about startup advice, hiring, and investing.
“Don’t try to solve a problem that you don’t fully understand,” he warns would-be entrepreneurs. He speaks from experience, having dabbled in the broken independent film industry after he left Yahoo. Now, the startup world is pulling him back in. He recently became the chairman of Yext, and is involved with some smaller projects as well.
Walrath admits, “I was never qualified for any job I got in my life.” But the most important thing is to keep on learning. His No. 1 piece of hiring advice for startup CEOs is to figure put how fast a candidate can learn new things.
We’ll post the other parts of this interview throughout the week (here’s Part II). Check out previous episodes of Founder Stories or subscribe in iTunes.
Investor, Advisor and Founder of start up and expansion stage companies. Formerly Founder and CEO of Right Media Inc. Walrath founded Right Media, Inc., (formerly Right Media, LLC) in 2003. He served as CEO until the company’s July 2007 sale to Yahoo. He was a Senior Vice President at Yahoo until November 2009. He co-founded early stage investment firm and incubator WGI Group with Jonah and Noah Goodhart in 2007. Before Right Media he had a successful career at...
Founded in 2003, Right Media is a Yahoo! company based in New York, with offices in London, Moscow, Eugene, San Francisco and Tallahassee. Right Media is the host of the Right Media Exchange, launched in 2005. The Right Media Exchange platform connects digital advertising companies and provides an opportunity for these participants to reach their audiences on their own terms. RMX is a holistic marketplace for managing an ad business–from full ad serving, to business development, to business expansion.
Chris Dixon is a Partner at and co-founder of Founder Collective. He is also a contributing writer for TechCrunch. He previously was the CEO and Co-founder of SiteAdvisor, which was acquired by McAfee, and Hunch, which was acquired by eBay. In addition to his work with Founder’s Collective, Chris is a personal investor in early-stage technology companies, including Skype, TrialPay, DocVerse, Invite Media, Gerson Lehrman Group, ScanScout, OMGPOP, BillShrink, Oddcast, Panjiva, Knewton, and a handful of other startups that...
Austin, TX
Seattle, WA
San Diego, CA
Menlo Park, CA
San Francisco
San Francisco, CA
