In 2011, Jim Everingham invited me to join him and a friend on a motorcycle trip. Although I hadn't ridden since my 20's, I thought it sounded fun, so I rented a big Harley Davidson, and off we went. Five days and 1,300 miles later, we'd seen everything from Highway 1 to Yosemite, from Lake Tahoe to Napa Valley. Speeding through the countryside, the three motorcycles took turns leading the way, naturally handing off from one to another. Today I'm thinking about that trip, because Jim and I are making another handoff, in the same natural manner.
In 2008, Jim lured me into a great startup adventure: joining him and a few awesome engineers, all of whom I got to know while working on the Netscape browser in the late 1990s. Together we took a big vision from raw idea to Luminate today: serving 5,000 publishers, 150 million unique users per month, 30 billion image views per year, as the country's #8 network according to Quantcast.
As part of our vision to "make images interactive," we are now working on some incredibly cool, new technology. I think it's the most exciting stuff we've ever done, so stay tuned. And in order to make the most of it, we're going to double down on engineering investments which we think could lead to a big step forward for images and the services that display them. As we reconfigure the company accordingly, I've decided to turn the CEO wheel over to my co-founder Jim.
In addition to being a dear friend, Jim is also remarkably talented. He is a technologist, who, as our CTO, has filed over 30 patents here at Luminate. He is adept at working with developers to create great products. He is a savvy entrepreneur, having played key roles at LiveOps, TellMe, Netscape, and other successful startups. And he has enormous passion for changing the world, one image at a time. Under his leadership, I am confident Luminate's best days are ahead.
Meanwhile, I'll contribute to Luminate's next chapter as a member of the Board of Directors, and an advisor to the company. I'll still raid the snacks, pet the office dogs, frequent the tiki bar, and add photos to the Luminate scrapbook. Beyond Luminate, I'll stay busy with angel investments, hobbies, and family. One of these days, I might even start another company.
Beginning in 2008, we pioneered the idea that images shouldn't remain static rectangles. That images could reveal relevant information and functionality. That interactive images could transform consumers' online experience. Today those ideas have become widely accepted. And in a world where practically every person carries a camera in her purse or pocket, and social networks multiply the number of times each photo is seen, the opportunity to add value to images has never been bigger.
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