Omar Tawakol sold his first company, BlueKai, to Oracle in 2014. Five years later, he sold his second company, an AI-powered enterprise voice assistant called Voicea, to Cisco.
Tawakol is now on his third company, a startup he launched last year called Rembrand that uses AI to automate in-video virtual product placements for influencers and content creators.
So when’s he going to sell it?
There’s no rush, according to Tawakol on this week’s episode of AdExchanger Talks. He says he’s having too much fun to think about exits.
Not that strategic acquirers wouldn’t be interested in the technology, he says. There’s a need for it.
The fact is, people avoid ads every chance they get. A preroll ad is typically on the screen for only as long as it takes someone to tap the “skip” button. But a strategically and programmatically placed shampoo bottle or soda can in the background of a video can remain on the screen for hours.
“Our whole model is to say, ‘Hey, look, we’re consumers, too, and we run away from ads,’” Tawakol says. “Why don’t we build a future that’s more sustainable, where, instead of interrupting the experience people really love, [we] put the brand into the experience.”
But although Tawakol has his eye on the future with Rembrand, he hasn’t forgotten his past.
On Monday, Oracle officially shut down its advertising division and third-party data businesses, including Datalogix, Moat, Grapeshot and Tawakol’s first startup, BlueKai.
It stings him a little knowing that something he helped create and build will no longer be in the world. But what preyed on his mind when he first heard the news is how many “great people” would lose their jobs, says Tawakol, who left Oracle in 2016.
Also in this episode: Inside the exquisitely complicated AI systems required to place a virtual product on a real shelf in a video so that it looks like it actually belongs there – and grappling with the dangers of AI-powered image manipulation and misinformation. Plus: The biggest strategic mistake Tawakol says he made 10 years ago, right before the Oracle/BlueKai acquisition.
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