Seth is an entrepreneur. He has founded three active Internet companies: Majestic Research (2002-), SocialMedia.com (2007-) and stickybits (2010- ).
Stickybits, Mr Goldstein’s most recent company, connects digital media to real-world objects via barcodes. Consumers use the mobile app to augment the physical world with their own content. Brands can now participate in these conversations about their products directly through their barcodes.
At SocialMedia, which is socializing advertising across the Internet, Mr. Goldstein helps drive the direction of the company and grow its leadership position in the industry. Mr. Goldstein has extensive leadership experience, guiding advertisers on the evolving opportunities in social media, while advising publishers on the creation of engaging experiences for online consumers.
An experienced entrepreneur, Mr. Goldstein has created a number of successful Internet businesses. In 2005, he started Root Markets with renowned Salomon Brothers trader Lew Ranieri and the Chicago Board of Trade to create the first financial exchange for online mortgage leads.
In 2002, Mr. Goldstein created Majestic Research, the first Wall Street research firm to systematically mine primary data to predict the financial performance of public companies like Amazon and Google for institutional investors. He remains active at the company as a member of its board of directors.
In 1999, Mr. Goldstein joined Fred Wilson as Entrepreneur in Residence at Flatiron Partners where he helped build a practice in “pervasive computing” investing in companies like Kozmo, Modo and Vindigo. In 1998, he started a concierge service called root.net, which used the Palm Pilot, the web and an 800 number as access points to personalized digital assistance. In 1995, Mr. Goldstein founded Sitespecific, which created many of the first online ad campaigns for companies like Duracell and Travelocity. It was acquired by CKS Group in 1997. In 1993, he started Riverbed Media, which created CD-ROMs for contemporary performing artists Robert Wilson and William Forsythe.
Mr. Goldstein currently serves on the board of the Internet Advertising Bureau, where he is also the co-chair of its Social Media committee, where he helped architect the first set of best practices for the social advertising industry. He was the original investor in Web 2.0 pioneer del.icio.us which was acquired by Yahoo! in 2005, and was one of the first investors in Etherpad which was recently purchased by Google to become part of its Wave product..
In addition to Mr. Goldstein’s entrepreneurial efforts, he is also active on the speaking circuit, considered the de facto expert on social media. Mr. Goldstein is often asked for his thoughts on best practices, emerging trends and the future of the social media landscape. He contributed his expertise to articles in the Wall Street Journal andBusinessWeek, on monetizing social media and the importance of social network applications as part of multi-channel advertising campaigns.
Mr. Goldstein holds a BA in Dramatic Literature from Columbia University’s Columbia College and lives in Marin, CA with his wife and two sons.