Aggregate Knowledge pivoted to ad attribution in 2008 and survived the crash

Aggregate Knowledge co-founded a recommendations engine in 2006 and raised $30 million within a year, selling an Amazon-style product to major retailers and media outlets. By February 2008, competitors had learned to copy it. At a board meeting, co-founder and CEO Paul Martino told investors the company needed to pivot; lead investor Randy Komisar of Kleiner Perkins gave him six months to solve the problem.

The company found its new direction almost by accident: the head of technology at advertising conglomerate Omnicom called to vet a database platform Aggregate Knowledge already used, and realized the company's technology could build the attribution reports Omnicom needed to track which ads a customer saw before buying. Martino landed a meeting with Omnicom's CEO, who agreed to join Aggregate Knowledge's board.

Executing the shift required cutting more than three-quarters of the team and replacing leadership. Martino recruited ad-tech executive Dave Jakubowski as the new CEO and stepped aside, while co-founder Chris Law moved from running the original product to keeping it alive until the new one could replace it.

The August 2008 financial crisis hit soon after the board meeting, and it worked in the company's favor: with industry attention consumed by the market collapse, almost no one was watching Aggregate Knowledge fumble through its pivot. Venture deals largely stopped between August 2008 and April 2009, but by the time financing markets thawed, the company had its new product and leadership already in place and closed a fresh round with Seattle-based OVP Venture Partners.

The pivot turned its data platform into ad-attribution reporting for Omnicom, brought in an outside CEO, and led to a new financing round once markets reopened.

Its core recommendations product had been commoditized by copycats, eroding the competitive edge the business was built on.

An inbound reference call from Omnicom's head of technology revealed an unaddressed use case — ad-attribution reporting — that its existing data platform could serve.

The 2008 financial crisis diverted industry and investor attention away from the company, giving it cover to execute a messy pivot without scrutiny.

Martino recognized he was not the right CEO to run the new ad-tech business and voluntarily stepped aside for an outside executive.

A crisis that pulls attention away from a struggling company can buy it the time to rebuild quietly — but only if its leaders are honest enough to replace themselves along with the product.

After laying off more than three-quarters of its staff and replacing its CEO, Aggregate Knowledge rebuilt around ad-attribution reporting for agencies like Omnicom. It survived a financing drought that saw almost no venture deals close between August 2008 and April 2009, then raised a new round from OVP Venture Partners once markets reopened — a round the company would not have secured had it needed financing any earlier in the crisis.