Category: Interviews

I get the message in my inbox almost weekly: “I’m thinking about stepping out of corporate and trying consulting. How did you do it?” It is an enticing thought. For many people choosing the problems you solve, and avoiding the corporate bureaucracy is genuinely exciting. Recently, I sat down with Greg McDonald and Geoff Wolinetz […]

There is an enormous amount of hype surrounding AI in adtech right now, but practical, real-world examples of successful implementation can be difficult to pin down. On this episode of The Yield Doctor podcast, host James Deaker sits down with Nagarajan (Naga) Chakravarthy, Chief Digital Officer and founding management member at IOPEX, to cut through […]

Building a multi-million dollar advertising network is hard enough when you are a native ad platform. But how do you pull off that feat inside a massive, public ride-share giant that wasn’t historically known for advertising? In a recent episode of The Yield Doctor, host James Deaker sat down with Shane Dwyer, the Head of […]

Every publisher wants to prove their value to ad buyers. Yet, very few actually know how a Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) evaluates a media partner. What metrics actually move the needle, what factors drive budget reallocation, and what are publishers doing that inadvertently hurts their chances of winning a buy? In a recent episode of […]

Building software in the digital advertising world is a uniquely punishing endeavor. Unlike traditional platforms, an ad tech stack doesn’t just serve static content—it handles hundreds of billions of real-time auctions every single day, all clearing in under 200 milliseconds. When you scale a platform to that degree, the operational, structural, and management challenges multiply […]

Transitioning from traditional direct ad sales to programmatic advertising sounds like the ultimate win for publishers. In theory, you hook up your ad inventory to automated auctions, sit back, and watch your ad yield optimize itself. But in reality, programmatic isn’t a hands-off silver bullet. In a recent episode of The Yield Doctor, host James […]

The creator economy is one of the fastest-growing parts of digital media — but it is also one of the most misunderstood. In my latest Yield Doctor interview, I spoke with Monica Khan (Founder & CEO of Creator Revolution, former YouTube and Meta executive) about how the creator economy is evolving, how creators actually make […]

Retail media has become one of the fastest-growing areas in digital advertising, but rapid growth is masking some structural problems that many retail media networks (RMNs) will eventually have to confront. In my conversation with Kiri Masters, we explored why retail media looks like easy money from the outside, but why many RMNs may struggle […]

AI Won’t Fix Bad Data — Why Identity and Enrichment Now Drive Revenue In digital media today, everyone agrees on one thing: data is the most valuable asset in the business. And yet it is also the most fragmented, misunderstood, and underutilized asset across the ecosystem. In my conversation with Brian Silver, EVP of Global […]

I recently sat down with Devan Brua, Founder & CEO of PrivacyWise, to talk about why weak data practices quietly create friction across product, sales, and leadership teams — and why stronger data governance actually gives organizations the confidence to move faster. What struck me most in our conversation were Devan’s examples of companies that could make […]