[quote style=”boxed”]1. A service that indexes every restaurant item by ingredient. 2.The ability for communities to share content directly through audience-targeted ad units. 3. Silent Velcro.[/quote]
Arjun Dev Arora is the founder and CEO of ReTargeter. ReTargeter is a simple and effective online advertising platform for businesses and agencies of all sizes and was founded in 2009. ReTargeter’s core retargeting product focuses on behavioral retargeting, a powerful advertising technique that uses display ads to activate a brand’s audience. Additionally, ReTargeter aims to constantly innovate in the online advertising space by applying its unique targeting capabilities at the nexus of social and display. As a CEO, Arjun instills the values of hard work and building lasting relationships, elements that are truly visible throughout ReTargeter’s team and service. To date, ReTargeter has provided their solution to over a thousand customers from all industries, including Twilio, Smiley Cookie, Nerdy T Shirts, ING Direct, and Milo. Arjun comes from a family of entrepreneurs, with his father, grandfather, and younger brother all being entrepreneurs. In the little free time that he has, Arjun enjoys swimming, reading, travelling, and taking DJ lessons. Prior to ReTargeter, Arjun was the head of business development for Yahoo! Real Estate, and was an investment banker for Jefferies Broadview.
What are you working on right now?
Lately, I’ve been heavily focused on building our team and instilling awesome values. Additionally, our team has done a lot of work at the convergence of display advertising and social media. Of course, I’m always wearing my networking hat, and spend a lot of time building valuable relationships with as many people as I can.
What does your typical day look like?
Every day is different, but I’ve been doing a lot of work lately around product, hiring, and finding the perfect new office space for our growing company!
3 trends that excite you?
Display advertising, social media, and mobile advertising.
How do you bring ideas to life?
The best way that I’ve found is to empower our team. Each of us have a unique approach, and this has really helped our company grow.
What inspires you?
People and technology.
What is one mistake you’ve made, and what did you learn from it?
I’ve definitely made some poor hiring decisions in the past. Luckily, the repercussions of these decisions weren’t too painful. I’ve definitely put a lot more work into developing an effective interview process.
What is one business idea that you’re willing to give away to our readers?
I’ll give you three:
1. A service that indexes every restaurant item by ingredient.
2. The ability for communities to share content directly through audience-targeted ad units.
3. Silent Velcro.
What do you read every day, and why?
Email and twitter feed – Email’s a necessity for running my business, and Twitter is a great way to stay on top of news and content, as well as to maintain relationships.
What is the one book that you recommend our community should read, and why?
The Thank You Economy.
What is your favorite gadget, app or piece of software that helps you every day?
My iPhone and Google Mail.
Three people we should follow on Twitter, and why?
@hnshah has lots of great and helpful content for entreprenuers.
@designdamage also has a lot of great entreprenurial and marketing tips.
@sacca – very honest, funny, and informative.
Who would you love to see interviewed on IdeaMensch?
Rahim Fazal from Involver.
When is the last time you laughed out loud? What caused it.
Just a few minutes ago, someone sent me a funny email 🙂
What are the 3 most important things in a startup?
People, people, people.
What do you do to destress?
Swimming.
Connect:
Arjun Dev Arora on Twitter – http://www.twitter.com/ArjunDArora
Arjun Dev Arora on LinkedIn – http://www.linkedin.com/in/arjundevarora
Arjun Dev Arora on Facebook – http://www.facebook.com/arjundevarora
Mario Schulzke is the Founder of ideamensch, which he started a decade ago to learn from entrepreneurs and give them a platform for their ideas.