I'm Chris Thurston, one of the co-founders of SearchEye. We raised USD$800K from investors, and we have a marketplace model connecting brands and publishers.<p>Why?
1) Tech companies are addicted to FB ads and Google ADs. The CPA is growing rapidly.
2) Brands and publishers should be connected via a network marketplace model, not agencies and gatekeepers.
3) "Publishers" are fragmenting from a handful of big ones (MSM) to a long tail. Everyone consumers their own mix.
4) Search is also fragmenting across video, audio, social, etc.
5) So technology is the perfect way to connect these nodes. We're doing that.<p>We're focusing on authentic signals that work even if you don't care for search traffic. Ironically, these are the signals search engines most pay attention to. So either way, the path is to focus on authentic and meaningful connections.<p>Would love thoughts, comments, notes, questions, etc.