Whaley has a strong background in ad monetization and working closely with publishers to reach their ad revenue goals. In 2014, Whaley founded StreamAMP, a full-service website revenue company and is considered an expert in his field paving the way for AMP monetization and navigating the industry’s ever-changing landscape on behalf of his customers. From there, he founded Triple13 in 2018, specializing in AMP monetization providing programmatic Prebid and optimization technology solutions. In 2021, Freestar acquired Triple13 and Whaley joined as VP of Product Innovation at Freestar.

At Freestar, Whaley has shown his value and dedication to our publishers. His level of expertise is evident in his collaborative experience of 17 years in the digital space. He has been the chair of two IAB groups and currently serves as a member of the Prebid board. To top it off, Whaley is also a Certified Data Protection Officer – GDPR.

Whaley resides in Weybridge, England with his wife Jo, their children Maisie & Ellis, the family dogs, Luna, Nelly and Poppy, and Riley, the tortoise.

Congratulations on your new role, Whaley! Get to know more about him below.

Note: Responses may have been edited for clarity.

What led you to this career?

I started working for a digital research company in Sales and it all went from there. I fell in love with digital advertising and it took me to where I am now.

What behavior or personality trait do you most attribute your success to, and why?

I personally believe that ad tech comes to some easier than others and gladly, I believe it came to me very easily. 

What energizes you at work?

I enjoy getting things done and creating a slick operational process.

What’s a work-related accomplishment that you’re really proud of?

An accomplishment I’m proud of is selling my company, Triple13 to Freestar and most recently becoming Freestar’s COO. Six months ago, I was very apprehensive to work for someone else after spending 15 years working for myself. I can whole heartily say I’m loving Freestar and really enjoy working with the team here.  

What’s one thing you’re learning now, and why is it important?

Focus. The world of ad tech is full of the next shiny new toy and keeping focused is a hard task that needs to be worked on daily. 

In this new role, what are you looking forward to the most?

I’m looking forward to supporting the company’s multi-year plan by expanding upon its industry leading processes and automations. 

Lastly, for anyone looking to get into Ad Tech or grow in their career, what tips would you give?

I would say find a good company you admire and jump in with two feet. Ad tech companies are amazing at spotting talent and it won’t be long before you are flying. Interesting fact…I know very few people in ad tech that studied to be in ad tech, most have come from completely different paths. For example, I trained and previously was a Chef. 

We’re hiring! If you or someone you know is interested in joining a team of smart, innovative thinkers, check out our Careers page.

The post Freestar Appoints Its First Ever COO first appeared on Freestar.

Acquisition Grows Reach to Over 70% of All U.S. Internet Users Each Month

Phoenix, AZ, September 1, 2021 — Freestar, the leading monetization partner for content publishers, e-commerce sites, and app developers, today announced its acquisition of Sortable, a Canada-based ad management company that has been helping publishers optimize revenue since 2014.  The acquisition brings a team of industry experts and class-leading technology, including the Sortable Exchange that will be the most efficient path for advertisers to access the billions of advertising impressions the company will bring to market each month.  The deal builds on Freestar’s existing scale with the combined company reaching over 70% of all U.S. internet users each month across its portfolio of partner websites.  The additional reach further cements Freestar as one of the largest sources of digital advertising inventory in the world.  The acquisition comes on the heels of Freestar’s third consecutive top 1,000 ranking on the annual Inc. 5000 list of the fastest growing companies in the U.S.  

“We are excited to welcome the Sortable team and the incredible technology they have built into the Freestar organization. Adding Sortable’s capabilities to the ever-expanding suite of tools and products we already offer will ensure our publishers remain at the absolute cutting-edge of programmatic advertising,” said Kurt Donnell, CEO and President of Freestar. “While we are organically growing 50% again this year, we will continue to be strategic about acquisitions that add unique elements to our offering as was the case with our acquisition of Vdopia’s Chocolate app mediation platform last year and now Sortable.  It was evident from the very first conversation that bringing the Freestar and Sortable organizations together was a no-brainer given the shared publisher first mindset and complementary strengths.” 

“From the founding of Sortable, we have always been passionate about helping publishers optimize revenue through the many solutions we have brought to market.  Our company has always believed in the importance of great customer service, continuous improvement and honesty in everything we do,”  said Chris Reid, CEO of Sortable. “In Freestar, we found a perfect match as they share the same values. I am so excited to see what Freestar will be able to accomplish by combining the technology and resources of two of the most well-established companies in the space.”

The deal adds Sortable’s hundreds of represented websites to Freestar’s robust portfolio of partners. The deal will also add nearly 40 employees to the Freestar team, pushing the company well over 100 employees for the first time.  The now larger team will enable Freestar to double-down on new product development and continue to deliver its hallmark white glove customer service.  Kurt Donnell will continue as President and CEO of Freestar with several members of Sortable’s management joining Freestar’s senior team.  

The joint company continues to be supported by Abry Partners who became Freestar’s first institutional investor in December of 2020. 

The post Freestar Announces Acquisition of Sortable Bolstering Its Monetization Solutions and Analytics Capabilities first appeared on Freestar.

Last week, Blockthrough released the 2021 PageFair Adblock Report, the seventh edition in this series of reports, which have played a pivotal role in driving media dialogue on and publisher awareness about the consumer adoption of adblocking.

For this year’s report, in addition to reporting on recurring themes such as estimates of adblock adoption on desktop and mobile, region-wise penetration of adblocking, and an analysis of adblock countermeasures employed by top US publishers, we also surveyed 5,423 US Internet users about their general preferences related to privacy and advertising.

In this article, I’ll summarize the key findings from our report, which I believe will be very relevant for publishers who are trying to better understand their audience.

1. Adblocking is growing, both on desktop and mobile

In August 2020, Digiday reported that desktop adblocking was past its peak. The data presented in our previous two reports (2017 and 2020) lined up with that analysis. However, this year, we found that this decline has reversed. Between Q1 and Q4 of 2020, adblocking on desktop increased from 236 million MAUs to 257 million MAUs, i.e., a YoY growth of 8%. Meanwhile, driven by mobile browsers that block ads by default, adblocking on mobile has doubled in the last five years, going from 282 million MAUs in 2016 to 586M MAUs at the end of 2020.

2. 63% of top publishers use adblock countermeasures

As part of the report, we analyzed how the top-100 US Comscore-ranked publishers are responding to adblocking and found that 63% are now using at least one type of adblock monetization (aka “adblock recovery”) strategy, up from 56% last year.

Of this subset, around 65% of publishers rely exclusively on ad recovery via Acceptable Ads—making it the most popular strategy. Adblock circumvention was the least popular adblock monetization strategy according to our analysis, used by only one publisher among the top 100.

3. Adblock users don’t like adblock walls or messaging

Adblock walls and messaging pop-ups are used by some publishers to induce adblock users into taking a desired action, such as whitelisting the site or purchasing an ad removal pass.

When asked what they would do if presented with an adblock wall, 68% of users said that they would exit the website, 22% said that they would comply with the whitelist request, and just under 6% said that they would purchase an ad removal pass.

Ultimately, adblock walls and messaging pop-ups have a high interaction cost for users, and these results demonstrate the distaste that users have for them.

4. Most Internet users don’t hate advertising

The simplest conclusion to draw from the growing popularity of adblockers is that users must hate online advertising.

However, the data disagrees with that conclusion: 74% of the 5,423 US Internet users that we surveyed as part of the report don’t mind being advertised to as long as their privacy is protected and the ads meet certain quality standards. Indeed, even among adblock users, 63% said that they would be willing to accept light, non-intrusive advertising to support web publishers.

The Ads-Privacy Preference Matrix presented in the report shows that most Internet users are much more sensitive about their online privacy and the intrusiveness of advertising than about ads themselves.

5. Acceptable Ads has crossed 200m users

One silver lining for publishers is the growing participation of adblockers in the Acceptable Ads ecosystem. Between 2019 and 2020, the number of users on adblockers supporting Acceptable Ads grew 435% on mobile and 54% overall to reach 218 million users, with opt-in rates of 93%.

The Acceptable Ads ecosystem enables publishers to serve light, non-intrusive advertising to opted-in adblock users and is the most popular and effective method of monetizing adblock users. Since the consent mechanism for Acceptable Ads is built in at the browser-/extension-level, publishers also don’t have to interrupt every single adblock user that visits their website to gain individual site opt-ins.

As most adtech providers do not support Acceptable Ads, most publishers work with a dedicated vendor who specializes in ad recovery via Acceptable Ads

Bonus: The dark matter of adblocking

Another striking finding from our survey is that US users’ self-reported rate of adblock usage (~40%) is significantly greater than the 15-20% that most US publishers record with traditional adblock detection methodologies. Some of that discrepancy can be attributed to survey noise or respondent misconception as to what constitutes an adblocker. However, we believe there is another major factor at play: the rise of the “dark matter of adblocking”; i.e. adblocking tools whose usage is hard to measure using conventional means because they block the very technologies publishers use to measure adblock visits, and they do not rely on the open-source EasyList blocklist. This includes network-level adblockers, those bundled with anti-virus or VPN software, hardware adblockers, as well as especially zealous adblocking browser extensions.

The post 5 Takeaways from the 2021 PageFair Adblock Report first appeared on Freestar.

As Core Web Vitals approaches, we’ll continue to keep you updated on the advances we’re making in our ad products and solutions. Below is a timeline from the Google team, a quick snapshot of where the Freestar Engineering and Product teams are at, and a little bit of our philosophical approach to monetization.

By now, you likely know that the Core Web Vitals update has been postponed to mid-June. Here’s Google’s (revised) timeline as shown on their Google Search Central blog, along with some specific quotes we wanted to share with you.

Here’s why we treat Google timelines with some skepticism:

1. Core Web Vitals Timeline
2. CLS Measurement
3. FloC Trials
4. TCF 2.0 Deadline

So what’s the latest at Freestar?

We’ve been working on our Page Speed Optimization product and it’s currently being rolled out for testing. We will continue to work with a few of our publishers to turn on these optimizations and continue to measure both changes in their CVW status as those impacts on revenue. We know all sites are different, so we are going to be testing on a handful of sites to start and compare results. Given the updated deadline is in mid-June, we expect to have even time to test and make optimizations as we go. We should also add that once that deadline hits, that does not mean those tests and optimizations will end; we anticipate plenty of tweaks and adjustments in the coming weeks and months.

In our experience: rigidity and inflexibility in regards to the product and general strategy pose the greatest risk to publishers. It’s the decisions made out of fear and emotion that are often most regretted. Publishers and technology vendors should continue to iterate and maintain their poise during these changes. As mid-May June approaches, take comfort in knowing that your partners at Freestar are standing beside you to solve any unforeseen variables and looking over your shoulder, monitoring your analytics and audience behavior.

The Last Thought (for now)

Be skeptical of anyone claiming to have all the answers to the upcoming changes in the SEO landscape. With the right attitude, collaboration with your Freestar team, and dedication to quality content, you’ll thrive amidst the disruption. 

We make our decisions based on the assumption that our publishers are still in business with us years from now, and that’s why we operate with transparency, tenacity, and ingenuity. When analyzing data or any problem, it’s easy to get lost in the noise. We choose to tune the noise out and focus on what really matters: the success of our publishers measured both quantitatively and qualitatively.

Between the collective experience, wisdom, and technical acumen at Freestar, we know that Google tends to have some flexible deadlines and guidelines. We will continue to work with our Google team to ensure we are in front of these changes and keep our publishers aware of things to come.

We treat your business as if it were our own, and understand these changes can be challenging. We aren’t here to make false promises, or work on short-term gains. The health of your business is important to the health of our own, as well as the health of our industry at large. Your long-term success is core to what Freestar values and is built on.

The post And Now My Watch Begins…in June? first appeared on Freestar.

What is Apple’s ATT?

Last year during Apple’s World Wide Developer Conference (WWDC), they announced a new change to the way the Identifier for Advertisers (IDFA) could be accessed and used for advertising tracking, ultimately throwing the entire mobile ecosystem into upheaval. Fast forward to this week’s Spring Loaded Product Event and the announcement that iOS 14.5 will be made available to consumers in the week starting April 26, 2021. Apple’s App Tracking Transparency privacy policy, a broad set of regulations around how consumers’ data can be used for advertising targeting and measurement, will be enforced in iOS 14.5.

What is an IDFA?

IDFA (Identifier for Advertisers) is a unique identifier for mobile devices and is used to target and measure the effectiveness of advertising on a user level across mobile devices.

IDFA helps advertisers in two ways: 

Ad Targeting – Many targeting types (including retargeting to users based on device-level targeting) will no longer work for users that have opted out of sharing their IDFA. 

Ad Measurement – Mobile Measurement Partners (MMPs) built their measurement capabilities around the IDFA identifier. While Apple has announced a replacement API (SKAdNetwork) that will allow for conversion data to be passed back at the campaign level. 

With the effective deprecation of the IDFA through the ATT framework, Apple removes this critical advertising measurement and optimization tool from the mobile advertising ecosystem. In its place, Apple presented SKAdNetwork 2.0 at WWD. 

Apple has announced that it will give users the ability to choose to block the sharing of this unique identifier at the App level. Previously, consumers had to opt-out. Now when a user installs or updates the new iOS, a prompt will appear alerting the user to opt-in or opt-out of the sharing of this information.  

Apple also reminded app developers that fingerprinting devices (i.e., collecting device and usage data with the intent of deriving a unique representation of a user) is in violation of the Apple Developer Program License Agreement.  This follows news reports that Apple has already begun rejecting apps that use fingerprinting technology.

How is Freestar ready for the new framework?

• Freestar is up to date to support iOS 14 with all of our demand partners. 
• The Freestar SDK is able to handle the Pop Up Tracker when users opt in to have IDFA tracked or not and our SDK is compatible and can handle if a user is opting in or is not opting in to have IDFA tracking. 
• Our SDK does not have fingerprinting technology which is in conjunction with Apple’s strict guidelines. We are working to remain compliant and keeping track of the changes as the framework is being rolled out. 
• Freestar has documentation specific on how developers handle privacy that can be used when submitting the app to the store.
• We have a list of all of the vendors who are integrated into our SDK with their respective SKAdnetwork IDs. 

If you have any questions or you are interested in having Freestar monetize your App, please reach out to your Account Manager or send an inquiry to marketing@freestar.com.

The post Apple’s ATT Framework & How Freestar is Handling It first appeared on Freestar.

If you’ve never run ads on your site before or you’ve never worked in the ad tech space, you may not be familiar with what an ads.txt file is or how it could make or break your advertising experience. Over the years, I’ve come to learn the importance of an ads.txt file and how it is responsible for the revenue flow through advertisements on your site. Throughout this blog, I’ll walk you through the ins and outs of what that ads.txt file is and how we can ensure you’re capitalizing on your revenue. 

What Is An Ads.txt File? 

The adoption of ads.txt is aimed to increase transparency in programmatic advertising. The file is hosted by the publisher and contains references to each SSP you are working with. At Freestar, we work with many different ad networks and publishers, so we have built a universal file that will work for all of our publishers. As we consistently add new partners to our network, our team does a regular update of our ads.txt file to keep it up to date for our clients.

To make sure our publishers have the most current file in place, we have an automatic process that checks each site’s ads.txt file and compares it to our master file every week. If there are any discrepancies between the file in use and our master file, our publishers will receive an automated email informing them there is an update needed. From here, they will make any necessary changes on their end ensuring their file is up to date.

Why Is Implementing Ads.txt Necessary?

In short, ads.txt allows the networks to see that your site is set up correctly and eligible to bid on. Each of the networks will only buy ads on a publishers site if they see that ads.txt is set up and running on the latest version. Additionally, the networks use this file to approve and place your site on their allowlist, and in the occasion that a site does not have the correct ads.txt file in place, the networks have the ability to reject a site and no longer bid on their ad inventory. 

In some cases, certain networks will require a unique ads.txt entry for your site based on if you have a blocklist in place. This is because they will use the ads.txt entry to ensure they are only serving ads on your site from their network based on your blocklist/allowlist. In the end, not only is your ads.txt file necessary to bring in revenue but it is also in place to help protect you against any ads you want blocked from running on your site.

Where Is The Ads.txt File Implemented?

The ads.txt file needs to be implemented at the root level domain. The networks are only able to read the file at the root level and will not recognize other variations. If you’re a publisher who has a series of subdomains, you want to list out those subdomains in the root domain ads.txt file to be sure that the networks are seeing them as well.

What if I don’t have an ads.txt file in place?

First and foremost, there will be a major impact if your site does not have an ads.txt file in place at all, but if it doesn’t have the most up to date version in place it will also be affected. A common concern is that implementing an ads.txt file will impact page load time, however, that is not the case. There is also no impact to page speed from how long or short the file is. 

What we would like you to take away from this article is that having your ads.txt in place will ensure a full and complete demand stack. Additionally, many networks will reject your site if the file is not in place. Once your site has been approved, the networks will be scanning the live file to ensure a site matches their latest version. If the file doesn’t match, the network will not be able to recognize the opportunity to buy on your site, and therefore, will not be bidding on your ad inventory. Because of this, your site would be leaving an immense amount of revenue on the table from missing out on all applicable bids. Having your ads.txt file in place and up to date ensures your site is able to be recognized by all demand that is approved and interested. 

All and all, having an ads.txt file properly implemented on your root domain will only assist you on your path to fully optimizing your site. If you have any further questions around ads.txt in general or for your site specifically, please feel free to reach out to your dedicated Account Manager. If you’re not currently a Freestar client and have any further questions, please reach out to marketing@freestar.com. 

The post Ads.txt: What it is & Why it Matters first appeared on Freestar.

Award winners will be announced during a special virtual event on October 7, 2020 and will join the ranks of a lifelong community of esteemed Entrepreneur Of The Year alumni from around the world. This year, unstoppable entrepreneurs who have provided extraordinary support to their communities, employees and others during the COVID-19 crisis will also be recognized for their courage, resilience and ingenuity.

The Mountain Desert Region program celebrates entrepreneurs from Arizona, Colorado and New Mexico. Now in its 34th year, the Entrepreneur Of The Year program honors successful business leaders whose ambitions deliver innovation, growth and prosperity as they build and sustain groundbreaking companies that transform our world. These 23 business leaders were selected as finalists by a panel of independent judges comprised of previous award winners and other business leaders.  

Each year, EY US showcases successful entrepreneurs from 20 regional competitions across the United States. In 2019, 10 entrepreneurs leading companies from the Mountain Desert Region were selected as Entrepreneur Of The Year Award winners. Past award winners in Mountain Desert include: Lani Dolifka, Watermill Express; Chris Volk, STORE Capital; David Barnett, PopSockets; Maureen Hewitt, Innovage; Albert DaCosta, Paragon 28; Jason Myers, ArcherDX; Ernie Garcia, Carvana; Robert Katz, Vail Resorts; Bryan Leach, Ibotta; Traci Loundsbury, Elements; Dan Burns and Dan Wilson, Optiv; and Mike Fries, Liberty Global; among others. 

About Entrepreneur Of The Year^®

Entrepreneur Of The Year^® is the world’s most prestigious business awards program for unstoppable entrepreneurs. These visionary leaders deliver innovation, growth and prosperity that transform our world. The program engages entrepreneurs with insights and experiences that foster growth. It connects them with their peers to strengthen entrepreneurship around the world. Entrepreneur Of The Year is the first and only truly global awards program of its kind. It celebrates entrepreneurs through regional and national awards programs in more than 145 cities in over 60 countries. Winners go on to compete for the EY World Entrepreneur Of The Year™ title. ey.com/us/eoy

The post Freestar named an EY Entrepreneur Of The Year® 2020 Mountain Desert Region Award Finalist first appeared on Freestar.

My boss, Barbara, was in her early forties and had climbed the ranks in the packaging business. She established a boutique consulting firm helping early-stage companies build their businesses through marketing consulting and public relations. They sought her knowledge, expertise, and advice. And then there was me, the British nanny, a deer in the headlights. What was amazing to me is that she didn’t see it this way. She saw in me something I didn’t, that I had the ability to succeed.  I had talent but I lacked confidence and a pedigree education. She began to throw me into meetings with her presenting to C-level executives and acted like there was nothing abnormal about it. Our work centered around PR activities for packaging companies, placing articles in B2B publications from around the world, and conducting marketing research for companies to support their international go-to-market strategies.

She saw in me something I didn’t, that I had the ability to succeed. 

One of the best examples of Barbara throwing me into the deep end was when our colleague, the Editor-in-Chief of a Swedish packaging magazine, was unable to fly to Chicago to be on a panel with Barbara and other packaging experts, so Barbara decided to put me on the panel instead! ‘But,’ I insisted, ‘I don’t know anything about the Swedish packaging industry.’ She laughed and told me I was about to learn because Magnus (the editor) would call me the next day to teach me. “Madness” I thought, but what choice did I have? And low and behold, a month later I was at McCormick Place in Chicago espousing the advancements in Swedish food packaging. I was extremely nervous and relieved when it was over but miraculously pulled it off. I still laugh about that story now.

After a year of attempting to become a writer pitching our client’s stories, Barbara sat me down one day and said that she had an idea. The idea was that I should sell the advertising for all of these publishers we worked with instead of writing for them because she thought I’d be great at sales. Although this plan made sense, the two of us knew nothing about selling advertising. In true Barbara fashion, she went on to tell me about a colleague of hers, John who had been selling advertising for 20 years and would teach us all we need to know about selling media. We took John for a leisurely lunch at the then trendy Sams in Tiburon, right on the water, plowing him with wine and as much crab as he wanted while he went on to teach us about insertion orders and ad sizes. 

Once we returned from that lunch, Barbara tasked me with creating all the paperwork we would need to support our business, come up with a name, register it and then figure out which titles we wanted to represent. Once we had our plan together, we approached several of these publications and negotiated contracts with them, and thus the International Packaging Media business was born. 

I share this story because it is the genesis for my career in advertising and media. I was fortunate to have a mentor like Barbara, but the timing of the opportunity is also a perfect example of a successful mentor/mentee relationship. Barbara was willing to teach what I wanted to learn. I’ve tried to carry this philosophy with me throughout my career, sometimes succeeding more than others. Having the right company who is willing to support this, a leadership team that values culture, and of course, people who want to learn what you have to teach them is the key to a successful mentor relationship. 

One of my first hires as an early-stage manager was a young woman who came to us via a temp agency. She worked her way through college but had no experience in our field. I quickly saw she had the raw talent that others didn’t at the time simply because she didn’t fit the mold for their traditional employees. This young woman was a hard worker, eager to learn, and not afraid to make mistakes, so I took a page from Barbara’s book and gave her a chance. I can remember pushing her boundaries by giving her tasks beyond what she thought she was capable of and watched her grow as she achieved new skills. She went from an assistant to account executive and then a director over the span of a few years. She now works in a senior role at one of the Bay Area’s ‘Big-Tech’ companies and can teach me a thing or two about the industry. 

I truly love helping people early in their careers and know how important it is to have a great mentor at this stage, but they have to want this and be willing to be taught. It’s crucial to the success of the mentor relationship to understand that the learning goes both ways. Younger people have a lot to teach me and I love learning from them. The willing partners have great energy and a high level of curiosity which is infectious. One of the best public examples of this is Chip Conley who was hired by Airbnb at age 52 with 24 years of experience in the hospitality industry but about twice the age of most Airbnb employees. However, the founders were smart and saw the value he could bring to their company. They could learn about the hospitality business from his experience and he could learn about a digital-first company from them. Equally so, the younger employees saw this as a great opportunity to learn and to also teach him. He has called it “the new sharing economy—sharing wisdom across generations.” He says, “Mutual mentorship is the future.” This approach certainly paid off for Airbnb, giving them one of the highest ratings of any company in the hospitality space. 

That said, I’d recommend that anyone who is willing to learn, willing to teach, and willing to constantly improve should consider a mentorship program. It’s beneficial on both sides and can lead to lifelong friendships and resources in your professional life.

The post The Benefits of Having and Being a Mentor first appeared on Freestar.

Oliver (known as Oli around here) is a Yield Analyst and his Freestar 3-year work anniversary was on August 7th.  Oli’s “Above and Beyond” approach is one of the many reasons he was selected as our August Employee of the Month.  Oli puts a lot of time and effort into comprehensive quality assurance during onboarding for our publishers.  Oli is extremely detail oriented and finds ways to increase revenue for publishers by catching viewpoint settings, creative sizes, and many other nuances in the publisher onboarding process.  

In addition, Oli lives our “Publisher First” value by  always asking thoughtful questions, making sure that Freestar is taking care of publishers from every angle.  It is difficult to get Oli to take an actual vacation, since he will sign on to respond to questions or issues even when he is taking a day off!  We truly appreciate everything Oli does for Freestar and our publishers.  

Some Fun Facts on Oli:  

Recently binge watched: Ozark

Most used emoji:  Thumbs up

Fast food choice at 1am:  McDonalds

Go-to karaoke tune:  Tequila by The Champs

Favorite dessert:  Ben & Jerry’s Strawberry Cheesecake Ice Cream

Best thing about working at Freestar:  The people!

Congratulations, Oli, on being selected as Freestar’s August Employee of the Month, well deserved!

The post August Employee of the Month first appeared on Freestar.

“We are extremely proud that we’ve maintained our momentum in 2020 since being honored with the coveted No. 1 position in 2019. We have no plans of slowing down and are more committed than ever to deliver tailored solutions, innovative products and best-in-class service to our partners,” said Kurt Donnell, President and CEO of Freestar.

Freestar attributes the continued success to its incredible team of industry experts, innovative technology and world-class customer service. During a challenging time when many other businesses have been downsizing, the company is fortunate to have continued its growth, hiring 20 new employees and adding over 100 new partners so far in 2020. It also recently completed the acquisition of additional in-app monetization technology to bolster its existing solutions and continues to see great success helping e-commerce sites grow revenue by thoughtfully incorporating advertising. The company is also growing its suite of products that help advertisers efficiently deliver their message to Freestar’s ever-expanding audience that is now over 130M unique visitors and 50% of all U.S. internet users each month.

The annual Inc. 5000 event honoring the companies on the list will be held virtually from October 23 to 27, 2020. As always, speakers will include some of the greatest innovators and business leaders of our generation.

The post Freestar Ranks #36 on The 2020 Inc. 5000 List of America’s Fastest Growing Companies first appeared on Freestar.