Open Market

Mediaocean’s Bill Wise and Guy Kuperman join Joe and Eric to discuss the launch of AI Ventures. Building an AI product is getting easier. Finding customers, earning trust and making it work across adtech? Still hard. They explain how Mediaocean plans to help founders and why Bill thinks plumbing is sexy.

An MS diagnosis changed Jared Siegal’s perspective on risk, work and the future. Instead of slowing down, he decided to take control of it. The founder and CEO of Aditude joins Joe Zappa and Eric Franchi to explain how a side business built during a five-hour daily commute became a monetization platform processing more than a trillion impressions annually. Jared shares why he turned down an acquisition offer, how he evolved from operator to orchestrator, and why former athletes often thrive inside high-performance companies. The conversation also explores overlooked opportunities across the open web, mobile apps and gaming, plus Jared’s surprisingly skeptical take on AI. And yes, he calls AI a “fad” before revealing that Aditude is building an agentic product of its own.

Three Italians walk into an adtech podcast and somehow end up discussing local media, A players, private equity, childhood labor, and the emotional damage caused by getting cut from middle-school football. Ribeye CEO and co-founder Joe Marino joins Joe Zappa and Eric Franchi to explain why building a company is not easy, despite how effortless every founder makes it look on LinkedIn.

Joe Zappa and Eric Franchi sit down for a candid founder-to-founder conversation about what happens when rapid growth exposes weaknesses in your business. After Sharp Pen Media grew quickly, Joe realized that delegating client work was not the same as building a system to manage it. He shares how client churn forced him to rethink his role as CEO, establish clearer outcomes, use AI to identify account risks and make sure marketing contributes directly to pipeline. They planned to cover four topics. Joe’s first topic took the entire episode. Some things never change.

This week on Open Market, Allie Colman, Tax Partner and Northeast Technology Industry Leader at Aprio, joins Joe Zappa and Eric Franchi to break down the tax and equity decisions founders should think about before they become expensive mistakes. QSBS, R&D credits, 83(b)s, exit planning, and yes, a hypothetical $1B exit. Joe does the math. Eric refuses. Allie saves the episode.