SCOTTISH technology veteran Calum Smeaton’s latest business venture will get an airing from some of the biggest names in Hollywood entertainment at this week’s invitation-only Innovation Forum in Los Angeles.
Smeaton will give a two-minute elevator pitch for his company, TVSquared, to an audience including will.i.am, Sony Entertainment chief executive Michael Lynton and Pop Idol legend Simon Fuller.
The event, organised by the high-flying Founders Forum, will mark the firm’s first foray into the US market. Set up early last year by Smeaton and three co-founders from the tech sector, TVSquared has developed a system that allows advertisers to track how much traffic is being driven to their websites by so-called “direct response” television ads.
This data has become increasingly important to marketing executives accustomed to monitoring such trends from online campaigns.
Smeaton, formerly chief executive of David Sibbald’s Sumerian Networks, said the two-day trip with UK Trade & Investment was an opportunity to research the enormous US market.
“We believe it is a product that will work globally, but every market will be different, and the entry into each market will be different,” he said.
Smeaton and his co-founders have put a combined £200,000 into the business so far, and started signing on their first paying customers in September of last year.