Kaufman Exits Possible, Becomes Tinypass CEO

Trevor-KaufmanFormer Possible Worldwide CEO Trevor Kaufman has joined Tinypass as president and CEO, the startup paywall operator confirmed today.

Tinypass helps bloggers and other content providers manage subscriptions and other fees that they charge consumers for access to their material.

The company made a splash a few weeks ago when well-known blogger Andrew Sullivan said he was leaving The Daily Beast to set up his own independent blog and had teamed with Tinypass for paywall services. The company said Sullivan’s blog has now sold over $500,000 worth of subscriptions. Sullivan said he was charging $20 a year.

Kaufman was CEO of Possible, the WPP digital shop, until March 2012, when the holding company merged Zaaz into the Possible fold and named that firm’s CEO Shane Atchison to succeed him. Kaufman took on the role of chairman and focused on strategy and acquisitions. Earlier, he was founder and CEO of Schematic, one of the shops WPP merged to create Possible in 2011.

Kaufman was also an investor in a $1.25 million round of seed financing for Tinypass before being named to the president/CEO slot.

Kaufman is the first CEO for Tinypass. Until now, the startup has been overseen by COO David Restrepo, who worked with Kaufman at Schematic from 2008 to 2010. Restrepo cited Kaufman’s track record “both in building successful companies from the ground up and in helping global clients develop and launch groundbreaking, digital initiatives.”

Tinypass said that since signing Sullivan, more than 400 publishers have signed with the company.

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“We’re democratizing the functionality that’s been behind major paywalls and download services, and we’re making it available to everybody,” stated Kaufman. “The Web has been relying solely on advertising revenue for too long, and quality has suffered as a result.”

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