Min-Seok Kim, founder
Seven years in ad tech
I worked in programmatic advertising on the publisher side. My job was yield optimization, which in plain terms means getting more revenue out of the advertisers bidding on our inventory. I spent those years in reporting, data pipelines and troubleshooting, working alongside data engineering.
So the auction your ads run through is the same one I used to sit on the other end of. I know how it's built, where the money goes, and which parts of it are designed to spend more of your budget than you meant to.
My family's bakery in Newport News
I helped run it. That meant inventory, staffing, the morning bake, whoever called out, whatever broke that day. I also handled the marketing and the social, including the opening.
Here's the part that stuck with me. I knew exactly what needed doing on the marketing side. I had the background for it. Most weeks I still couldn't get to it, because I was busy running the actual business.
Baekdu Studio
That's the whole reason this exists. Owners don't neglect their advertising because they don't care about it. They neglect it because the day fills up and there's nothing left at the end of it.
I've spent the past year inside a Hampton Roads HVAC and plumbing account. Search terms read by hand, negative lists, keyword structure, tracking that tells the truth. The unglamorous part, which is also the part that decides whether the money works.
