Newton, MA-based OwnerIQ, formerly known as Most Effective Media, announced today that it has raised $2 million in venture backing from Atlas Venture, the Massachusetts Technology Development Corporation, and Common Angels. The company has built a network of websites containing user manuals for hundreds of brands and models of consumer devices, from microwave ovens to car stereos; it monetizes traffic to the sites through what it calls “ownership targeting.” Explains CEO Jay Habegger: “We take a common consumer frustration—looking for user manuals and other self support literature—and make that stuff easy to find. And by virtue of the fact that you’re looking for a manual on your stove or your camera, we know that your household has a particular device, and through our registration model we know how to reach you. If we aggregate that enough times over a particular product type, we can create ownership-targeted media campaigns for advertisers.” Habegger is also an investor in Xconomy, through Common Angels.
Author: Wade Roush
Between 2007 and 2014, I was a staff editor for Xconomy in Boston and San Francisco.
Since 2008 I've been writing a weekly opinion/review column called VOX: The Voice of Xperience. (From 2008 to 2013 the column was known as World Wide Wade.)
I've been writing about science and technology professionally since 1994. Before joining Xconomy in 2007, I was a staff member at MIT’s Technology Review from 2001 to 2006, serving as senior editor, San Francisco bureau chief, and executive editor of TechnologyReview.com. Before that, I was the Boston bureau reporter for Science, managing editor of supercomputing publications at NASA Ames Research Center, and Web editor at e-book pioneer NuvoMedia.
I have a B.A. in the history of science from Harvard College and a PhD in the history and social study of science and technology from MIT. I've published articles in Science, Technology Review, IEEE Spectrum, Encyclopaedia Brittanica, Technology and Culture, Alaska Airlines Magazine, and World Business, and I've been a guest of NPR, CNN, CNBC, NECN, WGBH and the PBS NewsHour. I'm a frequent conference participant and enjoy opportunities to moderate panel discussions and on-stage chats.
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