Jason Burke is the Chief Strategy Officer of clypd, a Davis Square, Somerville-based startup providing an audience-based sales platform for television advertising.
Burke possesses a unique skillset as both a product engineer and business designer. Prior to clypd, Burke built optimization products for Boston-based ScanScout which was acquired by Tremor Video in 2010. A graduate of Tufts University, Burke has also made a name for himself locally as an angel investor and startup advisor. In May 2019, Burke joined Underscore.vc's UFirst accelerator program, serving as a mentor to first-time founders. Outside his activity within the entrepreneurial landscape, Burke's recreational sanity has been questioned, having chosen to suffer through three "Double Boston Marathon."
Enjoy our pre-podcast interview written Q&A below. You can also listen to our BSU podcast discussion on any of your favorite audio platforms (Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Stitcher, SoundCloud). Enjoy.
Where did you grow up? Waltham, MA.
How would you sum up your childhood? Sports, homework and a pinch of troublemaking.
What did you love most about growing up in the Boston area? Being so close to family.
What is most different about Boston now versus when you were in grade school? Nowadays, Boston sports doesn’t know how to lose. My kids (9 and 6) are spoiled and don’t understand what it’s like to be a real-life sports fan.
How many Boston Marathons have you run in? Since 1994: 25 from west to east, 3 from east to west.
What does the Boston Marathon mean to you? My annual Hopkinton-to-Boston trek (including seeing my wife & kids on the course, having a beer with cousins at 19mi and uniting with my parents at the finish) makes Patriots Day my favorite day of the year.
You’ve run marathons across the globe. Other than Boston, what is your favorite city where you’ve run a marathon? Molsheim, France (Their “water stations” had French wine, sausage and cheese).
Who most inspired your career in technology? My grandfather (also a Tufts University grad 50 years before me) was an electrical engineer who played a significant role in building some of the radars that guided the Apollo mission to the moon in 1969. Patents related to advertising don’t even begin to sniff Grampa’s successes!
How did you find yourself in ad tech? In 2006, a mutual friend introduced me to the co-founder of at an early-stage ad tech company in Boston in the nascent digital video market. I was not necessarily looking to flee my previous job, but the prospects of being a part of the early team to build a business for an industry that would soon have explosive growth was too much to pass up. After about 6 years in business development, product management and operations roles at ScanScout, I joined clypd, where I’ve been for the last 6 years.
Why did you choose clypd as the current avenue to best impact the industry? Bringing industry-shifting changes to the massive TV advertising market allowed me to continue what I’d started in a much smaller digital video market.
How would you sum up clypd’s mission? We are building advertising products which leverage data and technology to forecast TV viewership and to improve the results of TV advertising.
clypd competes in a vibrant tech-driven Boston labor market, and yet possesses an impressive engineering and broader talent team. What do you attribute your recruiting success to? Maintaining a great culture in a great environment is a high priority for clypd. These softer differentiators have proven to the deciding factor with some of our stellar teammates.
What do you love most about Boston? Despite annually cursing the change of seasons…the change of seasons.
Who’s been the most inspiring figure/mentor in your life? My parents have encouraged and figured out ways for my two siblings and me to travel our own dream paths, no matter what challenges may have existed.
How do you describe your own mentoring method? Guide, don’t prescribe.
What are some challenges faced by the TV advertising industry? This massive market is susceptible to Innovator’s Dilemma, where very successful incumbent media companies focused on sustaining the current needs of their multi-billion dollar businesses can fail to identify opportunities for innovation and preparing for the future disruption in their industry.
How does diabetes management and mentoring first-time entrepreneurs intersect for you? Mentoring startups often involves listening to an entrepreneur’s past challenges and guiding future direction. As a Type I diabetic, I am constantly evaluating various personal metrics to determine what to do next. There are numerous opportunities for software and technology to have a positive impact on each of these surprisingly similar challenges.
As an angel investor, what are you most looking for in founders? An ability to spot market needs before the market knows what it needs.
Can you name a new company you’ve invested in and/or advised that the BostInno community should keep an eye on? RemoteHQ.
What is a common struggle for first-time businesses? Overthinking and delayed action.
What is a problem in the broader tech industry that people aren’t talking about enough that you feel most impact our future? The world needs to focus on the creation of sustainable foods. The continued population growth and environmental impact of supporting and paying for the current food chain will leave future generations with some insurmountable problems.
What global problem facing the world would you most like to see solved? There are massive opportunities to leverage technology and data to improve the health of people.
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