http://www.techcrunch.com/2009/02/25/online-ads-even-the-evangelists-turning-bearish/

Well let me tell you a little about myself. I am 43 and have spent over 22 years in Media Sales in Europe. I started working for the fledgling Sky TV(www.sky.com) in the UK in 1988 and was employee number 144. This was working for a large start up , that made a bet that UK viewers would pay for TV. I started in the advertising department selling space to a sceptical market.

Somehow , through a variety of Chief Executives and mergers , the business became the hugely successful one it is now.

So ,after 11 years at Sky working for a variety of parts of the media business (including online and programme sponsorship), I left to go and run sales and marketing for a company called Sports.com , whose url is still in use(www.sports.com ). However unlike now it was a online content business supported by advertising and ecommerce  and laterley gaming.

This was a huge roller coaster ride of the dot com boom and crash ( 1999 – 2002 ) and crash we did. The business folded on the first day of the football World Cup in 2002, just after the opening game. It was a great team and many went on to set up their own businesses, including myself and some of my sales team. We set up Aura Sports ( www.aurasports.com) which was a media sales operation for sports websites in particular the football clubs of the UK. From 2002 – 2006 the business grew and became the leading vertical sales team for sports sites and we sold to BSkyB in 2006. 

The business is still a key part of Sky’s online offering. after a few months I was promoted to run a new team called Sky Digital Media (www.skydigitalmedia.co.uk) which was created out of a merger of 4 sales teams – 365 media, sky, aura’s team and mykindaplace. 50 people and a set of target followed and I built a team that was working well.

In the summer of 2008, I decided it was time to move on and left Sky for the second time. After having an extended break, I am now making my living as a digital media consultant and enjoying it.

I specialise in all digital advertising and commercial strategy – so from online video to mobile to direct response , from ad serving to gaming. 

Having been an entreprenuer I am often asked to help people and I will do , either via advice and on occasions financially.

I look forward to meeting you

best

Paul