Haas Alumni Company Files For IPO
Brett Wilson, John Hughes, and Mark Rotblat, all UC Berkeley Haas School of Business MBA ’07, met in an MBA class on entrepreneurship run by the school’s Lester Center for Entrepreneurship. Less then a decade later, the trio launched TubeMogul—the latest tech company to file for an initial public offering.
“There would be no TubeMogul without Haas, and in particular, the Lester Center for Entrepreneurship,” Wilson, the CEO, told CalBusiness, the Haas School’s magazine, in 2011.
TubeMogul, a media-buying platform for online video advertising, has enjoyed explosive growth since its founding at Haas. Fast-forward to fall 2013: The company’s rapid revenue growth placed it at #239 on the Inc. 500 America’s Fastest Growing Private Companies list. The company made the San Francisco Business Times’ “Fast 100” list of the Bay Area’s fastest private companies in 2011 and 2012 (#7 each year) and its revenue has grown 517.7 percent from 2010 to 2012. In 2013, CEO Wilson says, TubeMogul was on track to more than double business as well.
What’s the secret to such growth? Knowing when to pivot is one reason for the company’s success, Wilson says. The company switched from focusing on video distribution and analytics to building software to power video ad-buying based on feedback from its first clients, ad agencies.
In addition to its founders, TubeMogul keeps job in the Haas family—the company’s cast of employees includes more than 50 Berkeley alumni worldwide out of more than 225 total employees dating back to October 2013.
Being judicious with new hires also helps TubeMogul stay ahead:
“We tend to shun perfect pedigrees in favor of people who embody several key traits: do what you say, go fast (making mistakes is OK), and do a lot with a little,” says Wilson. “And it works. Ad agencies voted that we have the best customer service in the industry, and our engineering team is constantly building tools to simplify brand advertising and make it more effective.”
