John Lemp

John Lemp is an American businessman and software developer, co-founder and currently CEO of content recommendation network RevContent.

Early years

John Lemp was born and raised in Centereach, New York, attending Centereach High School. He began building computers at age 14, which he reports "grew into a passion."^[1]

University and career

John Lemp built a search engine named Gatewaytothenet in 1997. In addition, he also uncovered opportunities in Search Arbitrage and Affiliate Marketing. The following year, he began attending the Rochester Institute of Technology. In 1999, while enrolled in university, he began working with advertising agency Farrell Edge as a production designer in Rochester, NY. His primary responsibility became helping Farrell's traditional clients move their advertising online.^[2]

Lemp built proprietary video technology and compression techniques for e-learning site Ventecc, Inc. as the CTO in 2000 and 2001.^[2]

In 2002, Lemp founded Netstupidity Network and worked for Netstupidity Network from March 2002 to September 2004. During that time he planned, designed and developed hundreds of unique, original flash games. That same year, he also co-founded IntegraClick, and served as its Chief Executive Officer. Mr. Lemp was responsible for the overall management and growth of IntegraClick, Inc. and its core subsidiary Clickbooth.com,^[3] which survived IntegraClick and is still operating today (Integraclick was dissolved February 2016). Originally founded to design websites, IntegraClick was running into challenges. "I was building large sites with lots of traffic and there was no way to monetize that," Lemp said in an interview with the Bradenton Herald. "No matter how brilliant or world-changing an idea is, if there's no way to pay for it, how will it exist?"^[4] Lemp changed IntegraClick's direction in 2004 when he read about the concept of cost-per-action online advertising.^[3] "The theory, Lemp says, spoke to his sense of fairness, where everyone has the same chance to succeed if they work hard."^[3] In 2006 the company surpassed $15 million in annual revenues. By 2016, Clickbooth had done over $1 billion in revenue.^[5]

In 2003 Lemp graduated from the Rochester Institute of Technology with a Bachelor of Science in Information Technology, Minor in Psychology.

Lemp is the founder of TemplateFreak.com and served as its President from April 2003 to September 2004.^[2]

In February 2013, Lemp founded Revcontent, a content recommendation network (sometimes called a "native advertising network"^[4] or "native network"^[6]), which as of 2016 powers over 250 billion content recommendations per month.^[2] In July 2015, Revcontent reported that its revenue run rate was hitting $200 million and increasing quickly. As a whole, Revcontent grew 900% in 2015.^[5] Revcontent works with UNILAD, Reuters, Newsweek, and the International Business Times. Clients who work on their monetization platform include The New York Times, AirBnB, Paypal, Lexus, and Jack Daniel's.

Personal life

John Lemp met his future wife Jaime in November 2008 and married her in Savannah, Georgia on November 28, 2014.^[1] They have three children. Lemp considers himself a Christian.^[7]

References