Hiring For Good Ep 28. – John Morris, Streaming Media and Ad Tech Architect
Hiring for Good is a podcast exploring the transformative power of leadership and what happens when the right person takes the job. Thank you for tuning in to this episode with our guest John Morris, a streaming media and ad tech architect, inventor, builder, and leader.
About John Morris: With over 23 years of professional experience, John has spearheaded dozens of innovative streaming and digital monetization strategies and was an inventor on nearly a dozen patents. John’s core competencies lie in identifying, architecting, and delivering elegant solutions to solve complex problems. As a leader, John is motivated by the challenges inherent to the distribution and monetization of digital content while fostering a culture that values groundbreaking ideas, diverse perspectives, and delivering value early and often.
A Digital Audio pioneer, John has played an integral role in scaling cloud-based streaming and podcasting platforms to new heights with firsts in technologies like variable-length dynamic ad insertion, and real-time server-side ad insertion into live and on-demand content. John has also led teams providing successful monetization of live and on-demand streams via our own Ad Server, Programmatic, and Ad Network capabilities.
John Morris Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/john-w-morris-iv/
Hiring For Good Website: https://www.hiringforgoodpod.com/
Podcast on Apple Podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/hiring-for-good-podcast/id1725208602
Tanis Morris: Director of Business Development at Acumen Executive Search Email: tanis@acumenexecutivesearch.com
Suzanne Hanifin: President at Acumen Executive Search Email: suzanne@acumenexecutivesearch.com
Acumen Executive Search Website: https://www.acumenexecutivesearch.com/
Hiring for Good Transcript
0:00 well thank you for being here at the Hiring for Good Podcast as usual I am Tanis Morris with me is my lovely
0:07 co-host Suzanne Hanifin thank you Tanis you’re welcome and uh we are leaders at
0:13 Acumen Executive Search we started hiring for good to discuss the leadership journey and learnings with amazing
0:21 executives from a variety of industries this morning we have a very special guest joining us um probably one of my
0:29 favorite executives in the world and I’ll speak a little more on that later but first let me introduce you to John
0:34 Morris who is a highly respected senior executive in the ad tech industry known for his visionary leadership and
0:41 expertise in digital advertising architecture with over 23 years of experience John spearheaded dozens of
0:47 innovative streaming and digital monetization strategies and is a named inventor on nearly a dozen patents his
0:54 core competencies lie in identifying architecting and delivering elegant solutions to solve complex pro..problems
1:01 as a leader, John is motivated by the challenges inherent to the distribution and monetization of digital content
1:08 while fostering a culture that values groundbreaking ideas diverse perspectives and delivering value early
1:14 and often with a deep understanding of technology and the market dynamics John has been instrumental in shaping
1:20 advanced ad tech solutions that drive impactful results and optimized performance for brands across the globe
1:26 his strategic approach to Innovation and his talent for building high performance teams have positioned him as a key
1:31 industry leader a dedicated architect of transformative advertising strategies
1:36 John is passionate about driving growth and setting new standards in the evolving ad techh landscape working with
1:42 and in quality assurance sales engineering and at the executive level across startups midsize and large public
1:48 companies has given John a unique perspective on what it takes to build and grow a business I will also add that
1:56 John is my husband and his…I’ve been bothering him to be a guest on our
2:01 podcast for um for many months and I’m thrilled that we had an opportunity for
2:07 him to join us uh on rather short notice so John thank you for being here you are
2:14 my personal favorite executive in the world my dream guest so I’m so glad you
2:19 could join us well thank you for having me yeah what an incredible background just hearing this so share with us John
2:28 your journey and how you got where you are today sure well I
2:33 feel like I sort of just stumbled into this journey um many years ago uh
2:40 2001 um I was putting myself through school I was a mechanical engineering major um I was selling real estate to
2:47 pay the bills and to put myself through school um never saw that as a long-term
2:53 um career path for me the real estate career um I uh switched majors to
3:00 computer science and uh I really wanted to go work at a startup company um I
3:06 wanted to learn things from the ground floor up uh so I went to work for a company in my hometown um of Washougal
3:14 Washington uh called Abacast which was a very early peer-to-peer streaming
3:21 company um that worked with with broadcasters primarily AM/FM broadcasters and help them deliver their
3:28 content um for less than they otherwise could because that was where the sort of peer-to-peer um bandwidth sharing um
3:35 technology came in uh it wasn’t long before um the you know the uh ad tech sort
3:44 of began to bloom and you know publishers need and desire to actually monetize their content so so shifting
3:51 from saving money to making money was a big deal um and uh at the company we
3:59 sort of you know began to pivot and started building ad tech solutions um which uh was was you know
4:08 um some of it was very new it was very exciting um but I did uh sort of held
4:14 probably every job that you could hold at a software company during that time I was hired as uh one of if not the very
4:22 first QA person so I was responsible for all the quality assurance um when I
4:28 joined the company we actually weren’t shipping a product yet so the you know
4:33 the entire C-Suite was was very anxious to get a product out the door um I helped
4:40 sort of assess where the software was at the time um and you know helped with
4:45 getting it launched uh Etc um I spent uh about 13 years there
4:55 um uh sort of culminating with the role of CTO and
5:00 co-president uh before we were acquired by a larger but still private software
5:06 company um I joined that company sort of led the engineering
5:12 team um spent another seven years at that company just continuing to grow
5:18 both personally professionally um and build the product built the customer base uh built the team so probably
5:25 roughly doubled the team um over that time uh before we were spun out and acquired again so this is just going
5:33 back to 2021 um and uh uh I you know went from
5:39 that sort of larger private software company to uh a billion dollar public
5:45 company um I spent uh about two and a half years there um continuing to grow
5:51 the team so again probably tripled the team probably four or 5x revenue did a
5:57 lot of really fun a lot of exciting things um and uh um you know basically exited
6:05 that position in you know June of this year um and uh now I’m trying to figure
6:10 out what I want to do when I grow up well and you’ve had again not very many
6:16 people start up to through growth then acquiring being acquired more growth
6:23 than a fortune you know 500 company and each one is so different mmmhmm and there’s
6:31 plus and minuses for both right for sure yeah where do you see like especially
6:37 with software being innovative where’s the sweet spot that you think real innovation comes from um it’s
6:46 a it’s a really good question uh when I think back to the earliest days we were
6:53 doing things that just had never been done before so um you know uh one of my
7:00 patents is around uh dynamic serers side ad Insertion I don’t know if that will mean anything to any of our absolutely
7:07 nothing um but we you know figured out how to stitch ads into live content and
7:15 real time and at scale so delivering you know tens or hundreds of thousands of
7:20 concurrent streams for events like FIFA World Cup and Major League Baseball World Series and um you know like you
7:27 name it right large scale events back in the early like 2010s which is sort of a long time ago
7:35 in some respects and sort of not um but um you know there was a lot of just
7:41 really raw pure inovation where a very small team of talented people were just
7:49 heads down really thinking through like what’s the next big thing that we need to accomplish and why uh the why was
7:57 always to serve our customers we were always trying to figure out you know my sort of stance has always been if I can
8:02 make my customer successful I’ll be successful um but there’s a lot of you
8:09 know there’s a lot of trials and tribulations right like there’s a lot of you know I say I signed you know towards
8:15 the end of my tenure at the at the startup you know I signed everyone’s paychecks right and so you know there
8:22 were a lot of times where you know we questioned whether or not we were going to make payroll and right that can be
8:28 pretty stressful going you know sort of leveling up then to the next larger companies like payroll is not a concern
8:36 anymore um and there’s still Innovation that’s happening but it’s happening at a
8:41 different scale and it’s happening uh at a different pace I would say so you know
8:48 over the following you know 10 years or so there was a lot of innovation we did
8:54 a lot of really interesting things I would say um but sort of at a much slower and
9:00 more deliberate pace so more resources but a little more cautious um and that’s
9:06 okay again there’s a lot of really amazing things that we built um like you
9:13 know some really interest I think interesting holistic yield optimizations for delivering advertisements you know
9:19 um into that same live content and podcasting content um but it’s not quite as raw
9:27 yeah so I’m curious to hear in your opinion you know you’ve had a lot of
9:35 experience in a lot of different lanes what have been the most formative leadership experiences for you or can
9:42 you pick maybe just a couple to to touch on
9:47 um so you know a lot of um that’s the right way to say this
9:55 uh you know a lot of people I think are sort of forged by
10:00 fire um you learn a lot when you’re under pressure about yourself and about
10:07 those who are surrounding you uh and so I think some of the sort of experiences
10:15 I look back on were were during those times when um the team really was coming
10:23 together to you know all working on a on a common goal where um the stakes were
10:32 um and everyone just had you know so much sort of um ownership of the
10:39 problem there’s never anyone saying that’s not my problem the conversations are more like how can I help
10:47 um you know leading a team and being part of a team that’s in that cycle
10:53 super rewarding um you you know you learn a lot uh I think about s and about
11:00 others you learn how to push boundaries um you learn how to ask for things that can be sometimes
11:06 uncomfortable like those conversations like look I really don’t want to work all weekend or ask you guys to work all
11:13 weekend but we’re going to have to work all weekend we’re going to have to get this figured out we’re going to have to
11:18 get this done like you know those my personality it’s not exactly my
11:24 personality I’m you know I’m I’m a little
11:29 um you know softer probably um but I but
11:35 you know those experiences where you get to sort of you know lead um by respect
11:42 it it becomes easier you know yeah no I
11:48 I understand and again having these three really different cultures and
11:53 environments mmhm you said I and I like that you said you learn under
12:00 pressure what’s important to you and the values that you show up with what did
12:06 you learn about yourself and then what did you learn as a leader managing
12:11 people during again these different stages um I I learned I think that I
12:21 work well under pressure um I think that when I’m
12:28 pressure for me can sort of be a a calming experience um I I sort of um just
12:37 naturally hunker down and focus
12:43 um as a leader um I think I’ve learned to trust
12:49 my gut I think earlier in my career I really second guessed myself all the
12:57 time like every decision um often spending more time thinking
13:02 about the decision I had made after the fact than before uh and so I’ve I’ve learned you
13:10 know things have worked out relatively well you know not just in my career but
13:15 I think looking back at those decisions so I’ve learned you know like trust your
13:21 gut um trust your gut like you know still verify like you still want to look
13:27 back and say did I make the the right decision um if not why because I think
13:35 like we’re learning every single day I think as I think as humans right and and
13:40 I think about I think about my life like that I think about my job like that
13:45 every single day is a learning experience and so it’s it is important to sort of look back but not dwell yeah
13:52 okay I think also I would I I obviously know you very well and I know um many of
13:58 the folks who have worked with you and for you over the years and I think that um most of them would speak to
14:08 uh you’re you’re unique as a leader because even if you ask them to do hard
14:14 things I think that you’re you’re like right there with them or do you want to how how when Suzanne asks you like how
14:20 you’ve grown as a leader do you want to describe your leadership style and maybe how it has metamorphosized yeah and evolved
14:28 over overtime so first of all I tried to lead from a position
14:36 of respect and understanding I think is how I would how I would phrase it and
14:43 it’s a respect both for my team and
14:49 hopefully it’s it’s reciprocal hopefully it’s a respect from them for me and for
14:55 what we’re trying to accomplish um and the understanding piece pie is that we’re humans sometimes
15:01 we make mistakes um uh it’s important I think to like really
15:10 evaluate sometimes if things don’t go well I’m not the person who’s going to fly off the handle I’m going to attempt
15:17 to evaluate like why didn’t this work the way that we wanted it to or why was this mistake made and then let’s come
15:23 together figure it out and learn from it that’s the general approach that I
15:30 take um I’m also never going to ask someone to do something that I wouldn’t
15:35 do myself and so I I think I mentioned a minute ago like there’s some of those
15:40 you know all nighters or weekend polls if we’re if we’re doing those things if
15:46 I’m asking somebody or a team to put in long hours I’m there with them I’m I
15:53 might not always have um ownership of you know um of you know key tasks but
16:02 I’m going to be there um you know to help wherever I can help to stay sort of
16:09 plugged into the team so that if you know I have senior leadership who says hey John what’s going on um I can
16:17 provide a timely and accurate report without having to go take cycles away
16:22 from the team to say hey what’s going on tell me what’s going on I need you know CTO wants to know what’s happening um uh
16:32 so uh that’s that’s how I try to lead yeah and so here you have this inherent
16:39 um values so when you look at hiring a team what are some characteristics or
16:47 values that you place heavily when making those decisions um culture is super important
16:55 to me uh there are so many talented people
17:01 um that you know I want to hire you know the most talented person
17:08 that I can find for the role who’s going to care deeply about delivering value to our
17:14 customers um who is um you know I try to always think about hiring people who are
17:20 smarter than I am you know which is maybe maybe not that challenging but I want to be surrounded by the most
17:27 intelligent people right I want to be the dumbest guy in the room uh because I again I think that’s how we learn quite
17:34 often um and you know that person needs
17:40 to really fit in with the team with the rest of the team and with the culture that that we’re building I think culture
17:47 you know sort of evolves um but you know we spend so much time in the workplace
17:54 we spend sometimes more time in the workplace than we do with our families so it’s important that you know you have
18:03 someone you know the person you’re hiring on the team or for the team for whatever role it is is is going to be
18:10 you know um a a really not not just a key team player but that they’re it’s
18:18 going to help drive the team um and not tear it down yeah absolutely and you’ve
18:23 had such an an interesting progression because a lot of times you talk about
18:29 this culture and what draws somebody to a startup that’s the environment they like
18:35 and again here you went to midsize organization and a huge organization all
18:40 very different culturally what are some of your successes or Lessons Learned
18:46 taking those these values into such different
18:51 cultures themselves yeah um so I think I’ve been lucky to an extent
18:59 that the culture that you know I helped to
19:05 create um um really it didn’t just
19:10 survive um but I think expanded into the other
19:15 organizations so the so um you know our
19:21 culture um I wouldn’t say like took over or replaced I think I think the other
19:26 organizations were pretty well aligned already there it was a good fit it was pretty easy to plug in to those other
19:34 businesses um but in both cases I feel like there were probably more more parts
19:41 of the culture that I’d helped create that sort of seeped into those other organizations than vice
19:48 versa um and so that sort of you know
19:53 leading by respect I didn’t mention this but I also like to have fun um and so
19:59 when you can I think there’s a certain amount of fun and light-heartedness
20:04 that’s really helps um you know I think I think there are a lot of really positive aspects
20:10 that that sort of bled into those other cultures yeah and what a huge success
20:16 because I do believe culture is tone at the top and that if you’ve created such
20:21 a strong environment that could go you know to continue with different ownership and
20:29 different perspectives that says a lot about you so great job and so looking
20:34 back in leadership what are some of your biggest successes that you are really
20:40 proud of um I am I am really just so proud
20:46 of the the growth I’ve seen um in the
20:51 team so just the personal and professional growth and you know uh some
20:58 of the these folks I worked with for 20 years um you know so uh it’s you know a
21:06 lot of aspects of being a team like being a team you really need to be able to count on each other and all sorts of
21:12 those other things but there’s also a little bit of family that sort of seeps in you know over time I would say big
21:20 especially with that long of time you know you’re kids know each other you know right it you can’t help but become
21:27 personally attached yeah absolutely yep uh Y and some I mean my best friends are
21:32 some of those folks that we you know spent 20 years together right um just being honest uh um I’m really proud of
21:42 the product that we’ve built so the success that we’ve helped you know our
21:49 customers achieve is something I’m really proud of um you know I think
21:55 that uh in the early days especially we help you know myself in a in a small like a
22:01 very small handful of people helped really shape an industry um and and I’m I’m proud of
22:08 that it’s it’s yeah something I think fondly of yeah so John
22:14 um this is particularly fun for me to ask you but if you are to look back over
22:22 you know all of the lessons learned and all the experiences that you’ve had what advice would you give to to your younger
22:29 self um that’s a good question uh I I might have um I might
22:37 have mentioned or I might have said something about this but I think a big piece of advice is trust your
22:42 gut so you know make a decision um and sort of go for
22:49 it you know look back and maybe take some measurements over time but don’t dwell on the decision you
22:56 made uh uh um and you know maybe just um maybe just
23:06 believe that you can do it believe that what you’re working on is going to be
23:12 bigger and more important than you think um and uh and don’t forget to have
23:19 fun yeah you know it’s funny you that advice I don’t know what made me think
23:24 about it but it’s also like parenting too that we sit there and go would have should
23:30 have could have a lot not just with work but again in our personal lives and I
23:38 everything you said made me think of parenting we forget to have fun sometimes and we forget to take risks mmhm
23:46 and um so whether it’s kids or business so a mentor like if you were a mentor of
23:53 a 20-year- oldish today mmhmm would that be the same advice you would give them
23:59 that you would give your 20-year-old self yeah I I think so okay
24:06 um you know uh every situation I think is a little bit different mm um you know
24:12 I think that it looking back if I were going to change anything
24:19 um um you know I I don’t know I don’t even know if I want to say I want to
24:25 change anything because it’s been it because it’s been great I think I think if I were going to change anything I
24:31 might have wanted to sort of take more ownership so maybe not have spent the
24:38 last 10 years um working for others but to build
24:44 my own company you know after some of this some of this you know sort of early success but um I wouldn’t but I wouldn’t
24:52 take away because I’ve learned so much right like I’ve learned so much that um
24:58 I I would I don’t want to trade that yeah and and so highlight those
25:05 learnings like what do you what was so pivotable in your life that you kind of
25:10 go now looking back wow that was so
25:16 impactful uh the you know so learning learning or just experiencing some level
25:22 of success and failure I think is really important like being there and living through that the good times and the bad
25:29 and and then sort of like you know having confirmation that you’ll make it through the other side you know you’ll
25:36 live to fight another day is really valuable and sometimes those are those can be really tough
25:42 lessons um but I’ve also learned a lot
25:47 about just what it means to to build a team to be you know a functional member
25:55 of a team um you know how to sort of communicate to a lot of there’s a lot of
26:03 different types of people right and so um you know having a conversation
26:09 with uh a CEO or pitching a CEO you know on an idea that you have
26:17 that you’re sure in your gut is the right idea um that changes from company
26:23 to company and so having some experience with that and understanding
26:29 that you know different people different you there’s different types of people who um really respond differently to
26:36 like different types of like what data do you need to present a solution to get
26:42 traction what’s the sort of form factor of that presentation is it a presentation is it slides is it a short
26:48 narrative um you know do folks you know learning lessons about you know the
26:55 person that you’re trying to convince of you know what whatever argument you’re making how do they preser…how how do
27:01 they how do they prefer to receive information I guess is what I’m trying to say and so you know now it’s much
27:12 easier for me to sort of um to to sort of spot or figure out like how best you
27:20 know how can I present this argument or data or whatever it is um in you know a
27:28 form that’s going to you know ultimately you know lead to success then I was able
27:35 to um you know in my my younger years absolutely I think there’s another
27:41 interesting thing I was thinking about this when you’re talking you know transitioning from being an engineering
27:46 leader to a business leader is a is a really big jump and um I know that you
27:53 know certain people don’t desire to ever do it do you want to speak a littleit about your experience I think that if I
28:00 recall when you were kind of being presented with that track it was scary and um you know kind of what compelled
28:08 you to make make the jump into a space where now you’re not just responsible for engineering but responsible for the
28:14 p&l of you know a part of an or or whatever you know it’s a it’s quite a big jump yeah um that it it was a big
28:24 jump or at least it felt like a big jump at the time um and you know I went from
28:29 being the man behind the curtain uh which was very comfortable
28:35 for me um to you know being the guy out
28:40 front who still sometimes was the man behind the curtain but to the outside
28:46 world was was the person um who was sort of the face right uh and so when when
28:53 that um you know when we were Acquired and
28:58 2014 it was about a year later that uh the gentleman who was my my boss’s boss
29:04 tapped me on the shoulder and said hey John you know I think you could be an
29:10 engineering leader here at this company for as long as you want you’re amazing uh but I think that you’d be
29:17 selling yourself short I I I think that you should pursue you know more of a um
29:24 you know a leadership track you know in you know over the whole business um you
29:31 know not you know not only with engineering and I don’t mean I don’t mean not only with engineering as if
29:37 that’s a little thing it’s not it’s just a a change right um and I was terrified
29:45 I thought I I can’t do what my boss does my boss can walk into a room and talk to
29:52 anyone um he can go you know sit on a panel in front of a th000 people and
29:58 have a conversation about you know streaming and ad techh and all these things that we’re doing right um and he
30:05 has a rolodex he has people he can call outside of the company when he has you
30:12 know business questions or whatever the case might be I don’t have that business Rolodex I have plenty of like Tech folks
30:18 I know that I can call um and uh it was
30:24 really this individual and the CEO of the company both who had a number of conversations with
30:31 me and they said John you you can do this we know you can do this uh and so I
30:37 I agreed to take the leap and it was like it it was a little terrifying at
30:44 first um uh and I think again what I learned I’m I’m a I’m I’m sort of a I’m
30:52 sort of a weirdo I’m sort of like a weirdo you know engineering nerd
30:58 uh who also can be extremely social um probably prefer to not always be as
31:05 social uh and I uh you know I think I I
31:11 did learn like okay you you can do this John you can um you know build these really
31:19 strong bonds and relationships like outside of the engineering world you can take on and sort of be the face for um
31:28 not just you know the development team but for the organization uh and had a I’ve I had a
31:36 ton of had a ton of fun doing that is that funny every time in life I’ve
31:41 leapt how scary it is but in hindsight you go what a better person I am and
31:49 that growth so John this podcast is called hiring for good so we always
31:54 finish up with what does hiring for good mean to you for me hiring for good
32:03 means um finding the right person the person who is going
32:09 to um help level up the whole team the
32:14 person is going to help us deliver value to our customers um you know early and
32:22 often uh and the person who who culturally is going to
32:28 maybe not just not just fit in it’s not just about fitting in but it’s about
32:34 looking at the various aspects personality traits or whatever that’s
32:39 going to help us grow it’s going to help grow the culture um you know really be
32:46 that that important that important part of of of the team that’s awesome thank you wow yes
32:55 thank you proud of you but again my biggest
33:01 fan the cheerleader yep absolutely but well deserved thank you truly thank you
33:08 so much yeah thank you this was really a treat I’d love having you here thanks it’s been fun thanks appreciate it
33:15 thanks for joining us today at hiring for good if you were inspired by our conversation don’t forget to like follow
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33:33 Executive Search thanks so much and don’t forget to join us next time for another in-depth conversation about
33:38 transformational leadership until then have fun