Mark Grether

SVP and GM, PayPal Ads, PayPal · 1 appearance on the record.

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executivefounderoperatorLinkedIn ↗paypal.com ↗

Mark Grether co-founded WPP's programmatic advertising company Xaxis and served as CEO of Sizmek until its acquisition by Amazon. He subsequently led Uber Advertising before joining PayPal in 2024 to build and lead its advertising platform.

9statements → 2claims → 1claims resolved → 3.89/5average certainty → 2.11/5average debate potential →

0 supported 1 partly supported 0 contradicted 1 not checkable as stated how the 2 claims stand · each chip opens the sources

1 prediction · 1 assertion · 1 opinion · 4 insights · 2 disclosures · every statement was checked. The prediction and assertion are the 2 claims: statements the public record can support or contradict. 1 is resolved, and 1 names no date, number or outcome precise enough to check. Everything else (opinions, insights, what ifs, disclosures) can never be settled by the record, so it carries no assessment.

The record, in short

What the tape says about how Mark argues and how the claims held up. Everything they said, and everything said about them, is in the tabs below.

How they sound: not measured why? →

We measure speaking style by listening to the audio itself, and a fair number needs at least 2,000 words from one person on tape we have measured. There is too little of Mark Grether on measured tape to publish a rate. This says nothing about how they speak.

What they said9 Episodes1

Everything Mark Grether said on Top Founders that made the record, most notable first. Filter by type, assessment or year in the ledger →

Prediction Not checkable as stated

Mark Grether predicts Sizmek will be the only global competitor to DoubleClick

“I think we are on a good path to establish ourselves as the only one who can truly compete with the Doubled League stack at global scale.”

Mark Grether Jul 11, 2018 ▶ 10:09 1082 Why Public Sizmek Went Private to Fuel Growth via M&A in Buy Side Programmatic Space

Insight

Operating an ad server and media business creates inherent conflicts of interest

“If you are now also a publisher, if you're also running a media business, you would actually measure yourself. And it's obviously a conflict of interest, which you cannot go with.”

Mark Grether Jul 11, 2018 ▶ 7:28 1082 Why Public Sizmek Went Private to Fuel Growth via M&A in Buy Side Programmatic Space

Assertion Partly supported

Mark Grether: Sizmek is the largest independent global buy-side ad platform

“We acquired Rocket Fuel. We combined both businesses, Seismic and Rocket Fuel, under the Seismic brand, and now we are the largest independent bi-fi platform for advertisers and agencies with about 1600 employees globally.”

Mark Grether Jul 11, 2018 ▶ 1:27 1082 Why Public Sizmek Went Private to Fuel Growth via M&A in Buy Side Programmatic Space

Insight

Advertisers want integrated platforms instead of stitched-together ad tech stacks

“What they really want to have is one platform that they can use to do everything in one single stack, right? They don't want to have a Frankenstein, Any longer where they have to stitch things together, they really truly won't have a one platform, which is sim…”

Mark Grether Jul 11, 2018 ▶ 3:34 1082 Why Public Sizmek Went Private to Fuel Growth via M&A in Buy Side Programmatic Space

Opinion

Advertisers urgently need independent alternatives to Google and Facebook

“Advertisers and agencies, they need an alternative to Google, right? They need an alternative to Google and Facebook, and there won't be many alternatives.”

Mark Grether Jul 11, 2018 ▶ 9:06 1082 Why Public Sizmek Went Private to Fuel Growth via M&A in Buy Side Programmatic Space

Disclosure

Sizmek intentionally went private to execute an ad tech ecosystem roll-up

“So, we started a conversation when Seismic was still public, but with the knowledge that we want to actually take it private, and then we actually want to do the roll-up with other players in the ecosystem, and you can actually do that Much more easily in a no…”

Mark Grether Jul 11, 2018 ▶ 12:52 1082 Why Public Sizmek Went Private to Fuel Growth via M&A in Buy Side Programmatic Space

Insight

Quarterly reporting forces short-term focus, harming long-term M&A integrations

“The reason is that bringing companies together, right, and forming a new business model just takes time, right? So if you actually have to report and justify yourself every quarter, you're much more short-term focused.”

Mark Grether Jul 11, 2018 ▶ 13:11 1082 Why Public Sizmek Went Private to Fuel Growth via M&A in Buy Side Programmatic Space

Insight

Ad industry focuses on inputs because output remains too difficult to measure

“We focus as an industry too much on the input rather than on the output. And one of the reasons is that we just have a struggle to measure output, and the better we become in measuring the output, the more we can actually attach re-numerations and compensation…”

Mark Grether Jul 11, 2018 ▶ 17:09 1082 Why Public Sizmek Went Private to Fuel Growth via M&A in Buy Side Programmatic Space

Disclosure

Sizmek acquires technology in emerging markets and relationships in core ones

“On the one hand, there are new opportunities. Again, I mentioned programmatic TV where we might be more looking into the talent and the technology, right? And then there are other areas where we already have a good footprint and therefore maybe we look more in…”

Mark Grether Jul 11, 2018 ▶ 15:42 1082 Why Public Sizmek Went Private to Fuel Growth via M&A in Buy Side Programmatic Space

Appearances (1)

Episode	Date	Speaking time
1082 Why Public Sizmek Went Private to Fuel Growth via M&A in Buy Side Programmatic Space	Jul 11, 2018	12m

Mark Grether

The record, in short

How they sound: not measured why? →

Appearances (1)

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