An advertising technology firm in Durham has a new CEO.
Michael Collins is taking over for Adwerx founder Jed Carlson, who stepped down last year for personal reasons, the company said at the time.
Collins’ resume includes positions in private equity, as well as in adtech. He was previously CEO of Marketron, an Idaho-based advertising software provider used by thousands of media organizations. He also led Adelphic, a mobile advertising platform that was acquired by Tim Inc. Early in his career, Collins founded digital advertising firm Joule.
Collins, who will be commuting from New York, said the market ahead was what had him hooked on the Adwerx job.
“The (small- and medium-sized business) digital advertising space is fairly wide,” he said, adding that while Adwerx has competition, there are “no real dominant category killer players out there.”
That means opportunity – “a lot of white space there to grab," Collins said. And that’s what Adwerx is planning to do – grab market share and win the space.
Adwerx was founded in 2013 and spun out of Durham’s eMinor in 2015. It's platform develops automated, hyperlocal and personalized digital advertising. The firm confirmed about 40 layoffs last year, but is now hiring “selectively,” Collins told Triangle Business Journal Wednesday.
He plans to leverage his career in adtech – one that has given him a “very good sense of how the market operates.” The tools are there, he said. Adwerx is profitable and “100 percent in control of our destiny."
The plan is to build out the base. Collins compares it to a “sports car with a great engine” that’s getting between 15 and 20 miles per gallon. Under Collins, Adwerx will spend time tuning up that engine and doubling that mileage range “so all that money we spend on gas can put us a lot further down the road.”
The goal is to focus on operations and, when the economy stabilizes, be in a position to take advantage of opportunities ahead, Collins said.
After Carlson stepped down from leading Adwerx, eMinor co-founder and CEO Michael Doernberg was serving as interim CEO.
