Jay Gould (entrepreneur)

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]

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

Education

Gould graduated from Rowan University in 2001, where he earned a bachelor's degree in Law & Justice.[5]

Career

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]

While under Gould's management, Bolt's revenue grew to $7 million annually, 5.3 million U.S. visitors to their website monthly,[7] culminating in signing a definitive 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]

Gould later founded GamersMedia, 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.[15][16][17] GamersMedia was later rebranded as Yashi.[18] On February 2, 2015, Yashi was acquired by Nexstar Media Group for $33 million.[19]

Yashi

Jay Gould and Caitlin Gould founded Yashi in 2007.[20] Yashi became a location-focused advertising platform that targeted mobile and web video advertising.[21]

The company was named to Inc. Magazine's Inc. 5000 list of the Fastest-Growing Private Companies in America for four consecutive years from 2012–2015.[21][22]

Yashi was acquired by Nexstar Broadcasting Group on February 2, 2015, for $33 million.[19]

Foundville

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,[23] RockYou,[24] Adify,[25] Mochi Media,[26] CapLinked,[27] The Receivables Exchange,[28] Wikia,[29] SitePoint,[30] and others.

Investments

Gould is an angel investor, with sizable contributions to companies such as Buffer,[31] CapLinked, Tout, iDoneThis, Fitocracy, and Cadee, among others.[32] In March 2012, Gould was part of a $1 million funding initiative for DogVacay, an online marketplace for residential dog boarding.[32]

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
  • 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.[33]
  • In 2014, Gould was named an Ernst & Young Entrepreneur Of The Year Award finalist in New Jersey.[34]
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References
  1. "Who Says Money Can't Buy Hipness?". Bloomberg Businessweek. February 26, 2006. Retrieved August 14, 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. "Jay Gould". LinkedIn. Retrieved August 15, 2012.
  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. Liz Gannes (February 11, 2007). "Bolt.com Selling to GoFish for $30M". GigaOm. Archived from the original on July 29, 2012. Retrieved August 16, 2012.
  9. "Agreement and Plan of Merger". Securities and Exchange Commission. February 11, 2007. Retrieved August 16, 2012.
  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. Stacey Higginbotham (February 26, 2008). "Former Bolt.com Owner Gets into Games". GigaOm. Retrieved August 16, 2012.
  16. Matthew Nelson (February 27, 2008). "Bolt Man Back with Casual Gaming Ad Network". ClickZ. Retrieved August 15, 2012.
  17. Mark Hendrickson (February 26, 2008). "Former Bolt.com Owner Launches Casual Gaming Ad Network, Gamers Media". TechCrunch. Retrieved August 15, 2012.
  18. Mark Hendrickson (26 February 2008). "Former Bolt.com Owner Launches Casual Gaming Ad Network, Gamers Media". TechCrunch. Archived from the original on 20 June 2014. Retrieved 15 August 2012.
  19. McAdams, Deborah D. (February 3, 2015). "Nexstar Acquires Yashi Local Programmatic Ad Firm for $33 Million". TV Technology.
  20. Higginbotham, Stacey (February 16, 2008). "Former Bolt.com Owner Gets Into Games". GigaOM. Retrieved August 30, 2012.
  21. "Yashi - Toms River, NJ". Inc. Magazine. Retrieved August 29, 2012.
  22. "Top Advertising & Marketing Companies on the 2012 Inc. 5000". Inc. Magazine. Retrieved August 29, 2012.
  23. "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.
  24. "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.
  25. "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.
  26. "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.
  27. "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.
  28. "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.
  29. "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.
  30. "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.
  31. 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.
  32. "Jay Gould". AngelList. Retrieved August 14, 2012.
  33. "Forty under 40 2010". Infovision. October 25, 2010. Retrieved December 18, 2014.
  34. "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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