privacy issues. Especially when the company talks about reaching individuals, not just devices. Adelphic seems adept at walking that line, though; its privacy policy says it doesn’t collect personally identifiable information, and it gives consumers instructions on how to opt out of personalized advertising. (I think there is a distinction—though it is getting finer—between targeting people with certain mobile behaviors, and targeting certain people.)
In any case, Adelphic’s product is out there, and the company is planning to ramp up. It has 22 employees and is looking to hire more product and engineering team members, Lum says.
I asked Lum what she thinks of the “Series A crunch”—the much-talked-about observation that there are too many seed-stage tech companies and too little money for the next round. Since Adelphic just raised a healthy A round, perhaps it’s unsurprising that Lum thinks the concept is overhyped.
“I believe good companies that are building real technologies and products will find ways to raise money,” she says. “A lot of smaller businesses need to follow a different strategy than the VC approach.”
As for what to watch for in the Boston tech scene in 2013, she says, “Early signs of some breakout companies. We’ve had two to three years of a lot of optimism and activity around getting young companies and entrepreneurs off the ground.”
Now it’s time to pick some winners. We’ll see if Adelphic Mobile is one of them.
