Todd Garland spent the past 12 years building BuySellAds into a programmatic mainstay, and a standout of the Boston ad tech scene. “The idea that you can wake up one day and wonder if it’s gone is terrifying,” he says.
The questions of existential dread have mostly subsided, as people settle into their work-from-home routine. There are even some business opportunities, Todd says, like targeting new sources of demand from mobile app performance marketers trying to reach new users stuck at home.
And COVID-19 hasn’t crowded out other issues Todd focuses on.
“Are we finally going to be able to put enough pressure on [Google] to play nicely with Prebid and in an open exchange like everyone else has to?” he says. “That’s the drum I’m keen to beat, because I think you’d see more innovation in ad tech if we could out from under Google’s grip.”
