DoubleClick's Premature Expansion
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Kevin Ryan shares how DoubleClick's aggressive international expansion strategy led to market dominance and eventual acquisition by Google.
"DoubleClick is the perfect example. We expanded to 25 countries before our first country was profitable. If we were a big company, everyone would have said 'let's wait and see and make sure our model works.'
But the result was if you were Procter & Gamble or Caterpillar or IBM, who did you work with? You worked with us because we had operations in 25 countries and you had offices in those countries. You didn't work with our competitor who had offices in 6 countries.
As a result, we swept the market. We lost a bunch of money, but we were able to fund it. That is the reason today, 25 years later, Google still has a commanding share because we got it early on and it's never been given up.
You're taking a chance. There are times when you invest in something and it doesn't work that well and you're like 'wow we should have waited.' But you don't have time to wait."
Kevin Ryan
Seasoned financial executive with 24 years of experience in management and mergers & acquisitions.
Appointed CFO at World Investment Advisors, overseeing $55 billion in assets across institutional and wealth management segments.
Holds an MBA from Carnegie Mellon University and previously served as CFO of Xactus, a leading mortgage industry verification innovator.