About Us
More than 100 leading media properties use Inform's artificial intelligence and natural language processing to help add both content and context to their sites. We search millions of web pages - text, blogs, audio, video - from across the web and connect them based on common topics.
Based on 4 years of working with amazing publishers like CNN, NBC, Condé Nast, and others, we've developed inform.com to show off everything that our technology can do. We think the best way to explain how our technology can help you is to show you.
Management
Tony brings more than 18 years of marketing experience to Inform. As Chief Marketing Officer, Tony will lead Inform’s sales and marketing initiatives and internal, external communications. He joins Inform from Internet Broadcasting where he was Senior Vice President of Market Development responsible for growing major external relationships as well as developing and executing strategies around the company’s mobile initiatives.
Previously, Tony served as Vice President, Content Partnerships and International Development at Brightcove – the leading online video platform. In this capacity he was responsible for closing business agreements with leading media companies, both domestically and abroad. Prior to Brightcove, Tony held several senior posts throughout his 12-year tenure at MTV Networks. As Senior Vice President of Business Development and Strategy, he successfully created new businesses, revenue streams and strategic plans that supported and enhanced the MTVN brands.
Tony earned a BA in English Literature from Union College and an MBA from IESE, the International Graduate School of Management, based in Barcelona, Spain.
Kevin Cahill joined Inform in March 2009 to serve as the chief fiscal and administrative officer, providing leadership, vision, coordination and budgetary guidance. Kevin brings more than 10 years of finance and administration experience with companies such as Access 360 Media, Offermatica, KPMG and PricewaterhouseCoopers. Prior to joining Inform, he served as Executive Director of Finance at Access 360 Media. During his tenure, Kevin guided the company through its Series B round of funding. Kevin developed his finance career through various positions with large public companies and privately held companies. He was Director of Finance at Offermatica Corporation, which was successfully sold to Omniture Corporation in 2007. He started out his career in finance in PricewaterhouseCoopers' corporate tax department, working with Disney's ABC companies and later was a consultant in KPMG's Corporate Recovery Group representing the unsecured creditors of Kmart and Warnaco.
Kevin holds a B.S. in Accountancy from Villanova University.
Andrew joined Inform in May 2009 and heads up product strategy and development, helping to shape some of the most exciting semantic applications on the web. Andrew works closely with our publisher clients and content partners to re-imagine the way news and information can be organized around Topics to add value to our clients' websites as well as our own. Prior to joining Inform, Andrew worked with Rob Balazy at NameMedia where he managed the planning and implementation of large advertising campaigns across a network of niche enthusiast websites for clients such as Canon, Sony, and Home Depot.
Andrew received a BA in Philosophy from Vassar College.
As VP of Yuku Operations, Ceco has the responsibility for broadening the Yuku platform’s preeminence in the hosted Message Board platform industry. Over the past 10 years, Ceco and his team have built some of the world’s largest collaboration portals and social networks while specializing in architecting high-availability modular applications.
Prior to Yuku, Ceco architected portals and collaborative environments for clients, such as Yahoo, HP, ATT, Microsoft, AMD, Cisco and Intel. He also developed the SCADA, automation and media systems for large vessels, including Jim Clark's cyber-yacht project, the Hyperion.
During his career, Ceco has lived and worked in 6 countries on 3 continents. He is a pilot, Skipper, rock-climber, skier, Jiu-Jitsu trainer and a father of two - his biggest challenge yet.
Board of Directors
Santo Politi is a founder and General Partner of Spark Capital. Santo has led Spark's investments in Admeld, Inform, CT-100/CNET (acquired by NYSE:CBS) Genie, IPWireless, KickApps and OneRiot. He has also participated in Spark's investments in thePlatform (acquired by NASDAQ:CMCSA) as a board member.
Santo most recently was a Partner at Charles River Ventures (CRV) with an investment focus on media and entertainment infrastructure. His investments at CRV include BigBand Networks (NASDAQ:BBND), Broadbus Technologies (acquired by NYSE:MOT) and Groove Mobile (acquired by NASDAQ:LVWR).
Prior to joining CRV in early 2001, Santo served as President of New Media for Blockbuster Entertainment (NYSE:BBI), where he was responsible for establishing a new operating division focused on extending the company beyond its brick-and-mortar retail stores into digital broadcast and video on demand.
Before his work at Blockbuster, Santo co-founded BT Venture Partners, an early-stage venture capital firm affiliated with Bankers Trust. Some of his successful investments at BT Venture Partners include Aether Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:AETH), Novatel Wireless, Inc. (NASDAQ: NVTL) and DigitalThink (NASDAQ:DTHK).
Santo has held various engineering and management positions with the Video Systems Division of Matsushita Electric Industrial in Osaka, Japan; Panasonic Broadcast and Television Systems Company; and Weston Instruments, a subsidiary of Schlumberger Industries.
Santo is the recipient of an Emmy® Excellence in Technology Award. He has also been named multiple times to the Forbes Midas List, which ranks top venture capitalists who have created the most wealth for their investors.
Santo Politi holds an MBA in finance from The Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania, an MS in electrical engineering from NJIT and a BS in electrical engineering and a BS in physics from Bogazici University in Istanbul, Turkey. He is fluent in Japanese, conversational in Spanish and French and is a native Turkish speaker.
Hunter Carpenter is a managing director at The Stephens Group, LLC. He focuses on cultivating strong relationships with management teams, and on optimizing capital structures to the unique needs and wants of individual companies and their shareholders and managers.
Prior to joining The Stephens Group, he was the executive assistant to Witt Stephens, Jr. at Stephens Group, Inc. where he assisted Mr. Stephens across a broad range of principal investing activities, and monitored certain of the Stephens family's portfolio investments. Previously, he worked in the Corporate Finance Department at Stephens Inc., an investment bank.
He has been involved as both a principal investor and advisor with the sourcing, analysis, negotiation and execution of leveraged buy-out, recapitalization and growth equity transactions. In addition, he has assisted the management teams of partner companies in evaluating add-on acquisitions and executing strategic objectives.
Mr. Carpenter currently serves as a director for Inform Technologies, Spitzer Industries, Inc. and Acute Technological Services, Inc. He received a Bachelors of Accountancy, Masters of Accountancy and a Juris Doctor from the University of Mississippi. He is a member of the Arkansas Bar Association and has published articles in the fields of Corporate Finance and Constitutional Law.
Mr. Pierson is the Chief Operating Officer of The Oklahoma Publishing Company, a multi-industry holding company. Mr. Pierson's principal duties include mergers and acquisitions, developing and implementing strategies for expansion of OPUBCO's diversified business interests, and corporate governance. He also provides operational and legal guidance to executive management of all of OPUBCO's subsidiaries.
Mr. Pierson served as OPUBCO's General Counsel from February 2002 to December 2003. In that position, he directed the legal affairs of the company and was significantly involved in multiple corporate divestitures, several acquisitions and a general restructuring of the Company.
Prior to joining OPUBCO, Mr. Pierson was a vice-president of McAfee & Taft, Oklahoma City's largest law firm. He practiced in all areas of litigation, with special emphasis on labor and employment law. Before joining McAfee & Taft, Mr. Pierson was the managing partner of Oklahoma's oldest law firm, Lytle Soule & Curlee.
Mr. Pierson received Bachelor of Business Administration in Finance and Juris Doctorate degrees from the University of Oklahoma. While in law school, he served as Editor and Research Editor of the Oklahoma Law Review and President of Phi Delta Phi scholastic honorary society.
Mr. Pierson serves on the Board of Directors of The National Cowboy and Western Heritage Museum and Oklahoma Medical Research Foundation, and is a Trustee of The Oklahoma City National Memorial.
