Kevin O'Connor (entrepreneur)
Encyclopedia
Kevin O'Connor is an employee of DoubleClick
, an Internet advertisement-technology company founded by William Miller, and the founder of O'Connor Ventures. More recently, O’Connor co-founded FindTheBest.com, a comparison engine that was established in Santa Barbara, California
in 2009.
A graduate of Detroit Catholic Central High School, O'connor received his bachelor's degree
in 1983 from the University of Michigan
and worked for Cincinnati
-based Intercomputer Communications Corporation, a microcomputer
to mainframe
inter-connectivity company which achieved annual revenues of $35 million. When ICC was acquired by DCA in 1992, O'Connor eventually became its Chief Technology Officer and a Vice President of Research and Development.
Due to the growth of the nascent World Wide Web
, O' Connor quit DCA in 1995. During 1995 O'Connor met Chris Klaus who had just started Internet Security Systems (ISS). O'Connor was the initial investor and recruited Tom Noonan to be CEO. ISS went public in 1999 and was sold to IBM Corp. for $1.4bb in 2006. In late 1995 O'Connor began DoubleClick with Dwight Merriman
in O'Connor's basement in Alpharetta, Georgia, USA (a northern suburb outside Atlanta), eventually moving the company to New York City
to be closer to media companies and advertising agencies. DoubleClick went public on Nasdaq in 1998. DoubleClick grew to over 2,400 employees in 25 countries though in the great "dot com bust" in 2000/2001 the company downsized to about 1,200 employees and in the process became very profitable. In 2005 the company was sold to private equity firm Hellman & Friedman
for about $1.2bb.
In 2007, Google
announced their intention to acquire DoubleClick for $3.1 billion
He is also co-author of the book The Map of Innovation: Creating Something Out of Nothing (ISBN 1400048311), which was published in 2003.
Kevin O'Connor runs the venture capital firm O'Connor Ventures where he invests in early stage companies which include 9Star, Surfline, Travidia, ProCore and CampusExplorer.
He is a fan of Ayn Rand
's Objectivist
philosophies, giving his son the middle name "Rand".
DoubleClick
DoubleClick is a subsidiary of Google that develops and provides Internet ad serving services. Its clients include agencies, marketers and publishers who serve customers like Microsoft, General Motors, Coca-Cola, Motorola, L'Oréal, Palm, Inc., Apple Inc., Visa USA, Nike, Carlsberg among others...
, an Internet advertisement-technology company founded by William Miller, and the founder of O'Connor Ventures. More recently, O’Connor co-founded FindTheBest.com, a comparison engine that was established in Santa Barbara, California
Santa Barbara, California
Santa Barbara is the county seat of Santa Barbara County, California, United States. Situated on an east-west trending section of coastline, the longest such section on the West Coast of the United States, the city lies between the steeply-rising Santa Ynez Mountains and the Pacific Ocean...
in 2009.
A graduate of Detroit Catholic Central High School, O'connor received his bachelor's degree
Bachelor's degree
A bachelor's degree is usually an academic degree awarded for an undergraduate course or major that generally lasts for three or four years, but can range anywhere from two to six years depending on the region of the world...
in 1983 from the University of Michigan
University of Michigan
The University of Michigan is a public research university located in Ann Arbor, Michigan in the United States. It is the state's oldest university and the flagship campus of the University of Michigan...
and worked for Cincinnati
Cincinnati, Ohio
Cincinnati is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio. Cincinnati is the county seat of Hamilton County. Settled in 1788, the city is located to north of the Ohio River at the Ohio-Kentucky border, near Indiana. The population within city limits is 296,943 according to the 2010 census, making it Ohio's...
-based Intercomputer Communications Corporation, a microcomputer
Microcomputer
A microcomputer is a computer with a microprocessor as its central processing unit. They are physically small compared to mainframe and minicomputers...
to mainframe
Mainframe computer
Mainframes are powerful computers used primarily by corporate and governmental organizations for critical applications, bulk data processing such as census, industry and consumer statistics, enterprise resource planning, and financial transaction processing.The term originally referred to the...
inter-connectivity company which achieved annual revenues of $35 million. When ICC was acquired by DCA in 1992, O'Connor eventually became its Chief Technology Officer and a Vice President of Research and Development.
Due to the growth of the nascent World Wide Web
World Wide Web
The World Wide Web is a system of interlinked hypertext documents accessed via the Internet...
, O' Connor quit DCA in 1995. During 1995 O'Connor met Chris Klaus who had just started Internet Security Systems (ISS). O'Connor was the initial investor and recruited Tom Noonan to be CEO. ISS went public in 1999 and was sold to IBM Corp. for $1.4bb in 2006. In late 1995 O'Connor began DoubleClick with Dwight Merriman
Dwight Merriman
Dwight Merriman is an Internet executive and entrepreneur in New York City's Silicon Alley. Best known for having co-founding DoubleClick together with Kevin O'Connor and serving as its CTO for 10 years, Merriman currently serves as the Founder and CEO of 10gen .DoubleClick was sold in 2005 for...
in O'Connor's basement in Alpharetta, Georgia, USA (a northern suburb outside Atlanta), eventually moving the company to New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
to be closer to media companies and advertising agencies. DoubleClick went public on Nasdaq in 1998. DoubleClick grew to over 2,400 employees in 25 countries though in the great "dot com bust" in 2000/2001 the company downsized to about 1,200 employees and in the process became very profitable. In 2005 the company was sold to private equity firm Hellman & Friedman
Hellman & Friedman
Hellman & Friedman is a private equity firm, founded in 1984 by Warren Hellman and Tully Friedman, that makes investments primarily through leveraged buyouts and minority growth capital investments....
for about $1.2bb.
In 2007, Google
Google
Google Inc. is an American multinational public corporation invested in Internet search, cloud computing, and advertising technologies. Google hosts and develops a number of Internet-based services and products, and generates profit primarily from advertising through its AdWords program...
announced their intention to acquire DoubleClick for $3.1 billion
He is also co-author of the book The Map of Innovation: Creating Something Out of Nothing (ISBN 1400048311), which was published in 2003.
Kevin O'Connor runs the venture capital firm O'Connor Ventures where he invests in early stage companies which include 9Star, Surfline, Travidia, ProCore and CampusExplorer.
He is a fan of Ayn Rand
Ayn Rand
Ayn Rand was a Russian-American novelist, philosopher, playwright, and screenwriter. She is known for her two best-selling novels The Fountainhead and Atlas Shrugged and for developing a philosophical system she called Objectivism....
's Objectivist
Objectivism (Ayn Rand)
Objectivism is a philosophy created by the Russian-American philosopher and novelist Ayn Rand . Objectivism holds that reality exists independent of consciousness, that human beings have direct contact with reality through sense perception, that one can attain objective knowledge from perception...
philosophies, giving his son the middle name "Rand".