Scout Gaming Group

Not An Ad Network: What The Heck Is James Heckman Up To With Maven?

Not An Ad Network: What The Heckman Up To With Maven explains that Maven is a tech platform for niche publishers handling monetization and subscriptions, not a traditional ad network. Founder James Heckman, a veteran of Rivals.com and the 5to1 sale to Yahoo, launched Maven after reverse recapitalization of a public shell (Integrated Surgical Systems) to go public without a typical IPO. Maven is pre-revenue but has $2.1 million in assets, with $1.7 million spent on administrative expenses last year and executive salaries. Heckman pays himself $300k annually; the COO/CTO receive $250k. The stock trades on the OTC as a penny stock, rising from $0.15 to $1.83, giving a market cap just under $50 million and Heckman’s 15% stake worth millions. Ross Levinsohn is a director and Josh Jacobs is executive co-chairman. The initial eight publishers on Maven include The Black Wealth Channel, TheChocolateLife, iREIT Investor, and Fathers’ Rights Movement, with more expected. Maven emphasizes ethical monetization and content management with no on-site ads.

Scout Rewrites Its Programmatic Playbook

Scout, a football site, relies on direct sales for in-season advertising while ramping programmatic sales for the rest of the year. During football season, roughly 60% of impressions are filled programmatically; in the off-season, programmatic can reach about 90% of impressions. Over the past year, traffic remained flat, but revenue per page view increased by 25%. To streamline programmatic operations, Scout adopted Operative Compete, consolidating all SSP dashboards into a single SaaS platform with a revenue uplift share. The centralized dashboard enables rapid visibility into fill rates and CPMs across partners and helps quickly identify and shut down poorly performing or malicious ads. While Scout explored header bidding, the team pursued a wait-and-see approach due to development resource constraints, believing the platform approach could yield similar growth with less headache.

Location-Based Ad Network Thinknear Snags A New CEO From Within

Thinknear, the hyperlocal mobile ad network acquired by Telenav two years earlier, has named Loren Hillberg, formerly Telenav's VP and general counsel, as president and general manager of Thinknear, effectively the CEO role. Co-founder Eli Portnoy will move on to other entrepreneurial ventures while remaining connected in advisory capacity. Hillberg will bridge Thinknear and Telenav's operations, with Thinknear continuing as a separate business unit that leverages Scout.me data and Telenav's first-party data to power location-based mobile campaigns. Thinknear employs about 60-65 people, generated roughly $4 million in revenue in Q2, and operates in six locations (Atlanta, Chicago, Dallas, Los Angeles, New York City, Sunnyvale). The company plans to deepen its focus on hyperlocal advertising, attribution improvements, and Location Score to better measure ROI beyond CTR.