3 posts and columns on Daily Mail and General Trust

The Shocking Spot Runner Lawsuit Vs. the BoomTown Video of CEO Nick Grouf in Happier Days

in News on April 20, 2009 at 10:33 am PT

As everyone knows by this morning, Spot Runner–the heavily-funded and once-hyped online-offline advertising agency–is being sued by one of its more prominent investors. Ad behemoth WPP essentially paints an ugly picture of Spot Runner as the Bernie Madoff of Web 2.0. It is alleging in a lawsuit that Spot Runner, in a “pump and dump” scheme, sold over $54 million in “secondary” shares to line its own pockets without telling WPP much, all while losing money, running out of funding and not building a sustainable business. Here’s the background and also an interview BoomTown did with CEO and co-founder Nick Grouf in better days.
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Spot Runner's CEO Nick Grouf Speaks!

in News on July 31, 2008 at 10:05 am PT

On one of my many trips to Los Angeles (what can I say? I like to hang where LoRo* hangs), I dropped in to see Nick Grouf of Spot Runner. As many might know, Spot Runner is an online-offline ad agency play that has gotten big funding and even bigger hype of late. Usually, BoomTown runs screaming from such Web 2.0 dandies, but there is definitely some there there at Spot Runner.

Another Web 2.0 Superfunding: Spot Runner Gets $51 Million More

in News on May 6, 2008 at 9:00 pm PT

Spot Runner, the online ad agency, delivered yet another Web 2.0 miracle today, raising another $51 million in funding from a diverse group of investors. Among other services, Spot Runner makes and places low-cost television and radio ads for small businesses and is trying to bridge the gap between the traditional and online ad market. [...]