Matt Hulett is stepping down as chief executive of Seattle online advertising startup Mpire, and based on my interview with him today it sounds like the former Expedia and Atom Entertainment executive has something new cooking.
Hulett, who joined Mpire in 2006 to help turn around the struggling company, wouldn't comment on what's next for him.
"Well, you know, today is more about Mpire. There will be some news on that, but I can't talk about that right now," said Hulett, who will remain executive chairman.
Hulett's last day will be August 14th, with the company currently on the hunt for a new CEO. Hulett has strengthened the team in recent months, adding former Go2Net executives Kirby Winfield and Jeff Bergstrom.
Mpire, which also operates the WidgetBucks ad network and AdExpose online marketing service, was struggling to make ends meet as a seller of tools for eBay users when Hulett joined as CEO three years ago.
He was brought on board by Ignition Partners to raise money, change strategy and put the company on a new path.
"What is really required now is to get a guy in -- or a gal -- in the ad space that is world class to take the company to the next level," he said.
Hulett said he's most proud of instilling confidence in the Mpire team, which rebuilt the business into a top 10 publisher network.
"Before it was an eBay product -- to be honest -- not a great market, and now we are in one of the hottest markets in the ad optimization space," he said. "That was a complete 180 type of opportunity, and it wasn't clear when I started what we were going to come out with. I was basically given a messy chalk board of things the company had done."
Mpire is backed with $18 million from Draper Fisher Jurvetson, Ignition and others, with Hulett saying the company has "plenty of cash" on the books. It employs 17 people.
UPDATE: Xconomy reports that Hulett will be joining RealNetworks' games group as chief revenue officer. Hulett declined to comment on the report, but he does have connections to the Seattle company. In the mid-1990s, Hulett worked on the launch of the company's RealPlayer business and other products.
As the former CEO of Atom Entertainment, he also obtained a lot of experience in the distribution of digital content.
John Cook is co-founder of TechFlash. Follow him on Twitter @johnhcook.
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