Zeta Interactive

Zeta Interactive Corporation is customer life-cycle marketing company[3] founded in 2007.

History

The privately owned company’s headquarters are in New York City, with eight additional offices worldwide, including Silicon Valley, London and Hyderabad, India.[4] Founded by David A. Steinberg and John Sculley, Zeta was built to capitalize on major shifts to the Advertising and Marketing industries with the rise of Big Data; the emergence of more sophisticated methods of data mining and analytics, the use of Mobile technologies and the trend toward sophisticated data-driven marketing by advertising firms.

In 2014, Forbes listed Zeta Interactive as a “Most Promising Company”.

In 2015 Forbes put Zeta Interactive on its list of “Top 100 Analytics Startups of 2015

In April 2015, Zeta was included in Gartner Inc.’s annual “Magic Quadrant for Multichannel Campaign Management for the second year.”

David A. Steinberg

David A. Steinberg is the founder and chief executive officer of Zeta Interactive, formerly XL Marketing Corporation, one of several companies that he started. Zeta Interactive is a data-driven marketing and CRM company that integrates data, technology and marketing services, aiming to help brands acquire, grow and retain customers.

Career

In 1993 David Steinberg founded Sterling Cellular, Inc. in the basement of his house in Bethesda, Maryland with the use of credit cards and a parental loan.[4] Sterling Cellular grossed $1.3 million in sales its first year in business. It was a business that sold cellular phones. Sterling offered free, timed delivery and a warranty/repair program and a free loaner phone program from its third month. By 1997 Sterling Cellular grew to 12 retail locations and $22 million in sales.

To use the internet for selling cell phones, Steinberg broke up Sterling Cellular. He sold off the retail chain and telemarketing operations of Sterling Cellular and founded Inphonic, Inc. Over a seven-year period, Inphonic grew into the largest seller of new cell phones on the internet with over $300 million in revenue.[1][6] As the public face for Inphonic, he was praised for creating and growing the online business that dominates online sales for cell phones.[1][7] He was criticized[by whom?] for growing the business too rapidly at the cost of customer service and revenue.[8] This contributed to the downfall of Inphonic when the financial crisis of 2007–2010 began in 2007 with the credit squeeze on all companies.[9] In November 2007, InPhonic filed a Chapter 11 petition in the United States Bankruptcy Court for the District of Delaware.

After Inphonic, Steinberg secured support to start a new corporation, CAIVIS Acquisition Corp. According to their website, CAIVIS Acquisition Corp is an investment firm looking to purchase small companies in the internet space and combine them in order to maximize their opportunities.[11] CAIVIS acts like a holding company, aiming to achieve an economy of scale for the standard infrastructure required for internet businesses, such as human resources, legal and accounting departments. At the same time it aims for multiple arbitrage by combining the smaller companies into a larger business. Small companies typically command a price–earnings ratio (PE) of 5 while larger companies command a PE of 10.

On January 30, 2014, Steinberg moderated a marketing panel hosted by Zeta Interactive on the changes in advertising and marketing over the years,[13] using Apple’s 1984 commercial as a benchmark.[14] John Sculley was a panelist with advertising executive David Sable, Global CEO of Young & Rubicam; Jessica Gelman, Vice President of Customer Marketing & Strategy; The Kraft Group—the owners of the New England Patriots; and Hooman Radfar, Chairman and Co-Founder of marketing firm AddThis.

He has served on the Washington & Jefferson College Board of Trustees.