
The Bright Future of Online Video Advertising
Online video advertising is the fastest growing sector of adtech. In addition to various analyst reports supporting this claim, our extensive adtech portfolio that includes companies like Brightroll (online video advertising), Turn (demand side platform), Jiwire (mobile advertising platform) and Exelate (data management platform) provide us with additional confirmatory data. Today online video advertising represents […]

Thoughts on the Internet’s Monetization Opportunity
A few days ago I hosted the meeting of our Internet Advisory Board. Preparing for that meeting led me to jot down my thoughts regarding the sector’s monetization opportunity. I remain bullish on the transformative potential of the Internet in the enterprise that we view as the channel for achieving scale inexpensively and transforming every […]

Big Data, Attribution and The End of “Spray & Pray”
What kind of ROI do your online ad dollars deliver? If you have no idea, you’re not alone – according to OptiMine, an online analytics company, 61% of advertisers say that they are challenged to reliably measure the ROI of digital advertising. This is not a small problem – it’s foundational to the way advertising […]
Big Data Strategies for Online Advertising
Online advertising is helping corporations monetize the Internet by transforming the way corporations are interacting with and marketing to their customers and prospects. The effectiveness of online advertising is so dramatic that corporations are constantly shifting their budgets to the digital channel, taking share away from other forms of advertising such as print and radio. […]

CMOs are Starting to Drive the Next-Gen Application Agenda
A couple of weeks ago my partners and I hosted a meeting of our SaaS advisory board. This is one of our firm’s four advisory boards. I had written about the role of these boards and the value our firm and portfolio companies derive from our advisors’ insights, feedback and help. Our SaaS advisory board includes executives from SaaS application vendors, CIOs and CTOs of companies that are heavy users of SaaS applications, and leading SaaS consultants. One of the most interesting insights that came out of our meeting was that the Chief Marketing Officers (CMOs) are starting to drive…

Areas of Investment Interest for 2012
Happy New Year! After a nice break, as I head back to the office I thought I’d provide you with my views regarding the overall environment we expect to face in 2012, as well as the areas we will be looking to invest within a two of our focus sectors: adtech/Internet and SaaS. Data (big […]
The Value of Advisory Boards to Trident Capital’s Investments
Last summer I had written about how our firm is organized around four core investment areas (Adtech/Internet, SaaS/cloud, security, and healthcare IT). Each of these areas has a dedicated investment team that is able to invest on both early and late stage opportunities, as well as its own advisory board. An investment team meets with […]

Analyzing the Success of Our Portfolio Companies
Most fundraising presentation we see include two pieces of information: the company’s position relative to its competition, hopefully through rankings created by industry analyst groups, e.g., Gartner’s Magic Quadrant or Forrester’s Wave, and the list of awards and recognitions the company has received, e.g., the Inc. 500 award. During an initial presentation these two pieces […]

eXelate’s DMP
A few days ago eXelate (www.exelate.com), one of my portfolio companies, announced the latest release of its Data Management Platform (DMP). A DMP is software that centralizes the management of online audience data. It enables marketers to manage pixels, control data access and latency, package and segment data, gain insight into audience activity through the […]

Meeting with our Internet Advisory Board
A few days before the holidays our partnership met with our Internet Advisory Board, a group of 10 senior internet executives. This Board advises us on our internet investment strategy, helps us vet related investment opportunities, and assists our internet portfolio companies on business development, strategy and technology areas. The group meets once or twice […]