The ad-tech company that went public in 2021 still owned Myspace. Three brothers, Tim, Chris, and Russ Vanderhook, had started it in Irvine, California, in 1999 and run it ever since. By the time it filed, its core product was Adelphic, software that let marketers plan and buy ads across desktop, mobile, connected TV, audio, and digital billboards. Connected TV made up 34 percent of its revenue. Cookies were on their way out, and Viant pitched ads aimed at real households instead.

Twenty Years in the Family

The Vanderhooks founded the business in 1999 and have led it the whole way, with Tim as CEO and Chris as chief operating officer. In 2011 the company, then called Specific Media, bought Myspace from News Corp. Later it rebuilt itself around a demand-side platform, the software ad buyers use to bid on ad space. Viant's pitch was people-based targeting. It matched ads to households rather than browser cookies, which mattered more as privacy rules tightened.

A Family Firm on Nasdaq

Viant priced its IPO at $25 a share on February 9, 2021, and listed on Nasdaq under the ticker DSP, short for demand-side platform. BofA Securities and UBS led the deal. The brothers kept control through a separate class of voting shares. The stock fell well below its offering price as ad markets cooled after 2021. Viant kept investing in connected TV and automated buying tools. It still trades on Nasdaq as DSP.

Cover: Figures Looking at Outdoor Spectacle, Paul Gregoire. Art Institute of Chicago, public domain. Chosen for a crowd watching a spectacle (the ad audience).