In the summer of 2000, working at Snowball.com and living in San Francisco, I awoke from a dream, immediately sat up and said aloud an acronym for an idea that would change the world of advertising. I never went back to sleep that night. I was literally buzzing with electricity, beaming possibilities from my studio apartment on Sacramento Street.

Digital publishers are in trouble. There is incredible competition for direct buys from agencies. This is the cash cow, and if publishers had their preference, this is where 90% of their sales would go. Ad sales is a people- and creative-driven business (at least the premium, guaranteed side) in which the main challenge is having a sales force that is top of mind for all of the possible ad spenders. Now, when I look at my call list of publishers, there are 13,000 in there. That's a big problem -- for me and the publishers I buy from. How do …