After working as a product manager at Google for ten years, Shamim Samadi changed course to launch his own initiative. The industry veteran took a few close associates and left Google to establish Beeswax, a new advertising technology start-up. Samadi is both a co-founder and the head of product at Beeswax, which gives marketers the ability to quickly reach large target audiences and bid for ads in real time.
Samadi and his fellow ex-Google colleagues Ari Paparo and Ram Rengaswamy say they aspire to build advertising software for today’s complex online markets. They have already worked created ad campaigns for large companies such as Foursquare, Overstock and Legendary Pictures.
Shamim Samadi Advertises for Today’s Audience
The idea for Beeswax came when Samadi and his colleagues recognized that traditional, “one-size-fits-all” ad platforms were “under-serving today’s sophisticated media buyers.” Companies that rely on digital advertising often want to customize their automated buying to specific goals. While one brand may want to automatically buy ads that score high for viewability, others may want to buy ads with higher engagement.
Beeswax’s founders aim to offer companies an alternative to the “one-size-fits-all” approach. When Paparo initially told Samadi about this idea for a new company, Samadi “went right back to Google to try to convince Rengaswamy.” Soon enough, the trio started “whiteboarding it.”
Beeswax is based on a “bidder-as-a-service” technology, allowing marketers to lease ad-buying software and customize it accordingly. Rather than using the same “demand-side platform” technology that big-name ad-tech firms offer to all customers, Beeswax’s partners enjoy flexibility. They enjoy the idea of writing their own algorithms, managing their own contracts with suppliers, and still accessing as much data as they want.
Shamim Samadi Grows in the Tech Industry
Samadi first earned his Electrical Engineering at the University of California Davis. He then went on to work on a wide range of innovative projects. His pre-Beeswax resumé also includes several stints at Google and also worked for Accretive.
Before founding Beeswax, Samadi has already accumulated an impressive resumé, helping shape major projects like AdWords and AdSense. As a Product Manager at Google, Samadi also worked on programmatic display advertising. His work includes the DoubleClick Ad Exchange and DoubleClick Bid Manager.
After many years at Google, though, Samadi and his associates felt it time to move on. What brought about their departure, besides their innovative idea, is captured in the words of Beeswax CTO Rengaswamy: “No matter how impactful my contributions were at Google, I couldn’t help but feel like a small cog in a very big wheel.”
Beeswax Grows on Principles and Hard Work
A simple office item sits at the core of Samadi’s effort to make Beeswax a place “where everyone has an opportunity to learn and improve” and be creative: whiteboards. Samadi and colleagues talk candidly about their fascination with whiteboards, which plaster the walls throughout their offices, including the kitchen. In fact, when they founded the company in 2015, a whiteboard was the first thing they purchased.
While Beeswax has moved on to bigger offices, the staple whiteboard has not changed. “I think that’s one part of our culture,” says Samadi. “We like to spec everything out, write it down.”
This culture reflects a commitment to collaboration and creativity, just like the image of “beeswax” that inspired the company’s name.
While headquartered in New York City, Beeswax also has offices in London and San Francisco.
“I haven’t stopped working, making decisions, being open, being a learner,” Samadi says. “We realize that those are the values that we think are necessary for someone to be successful here.”
