Who is Dennis Colón?
I am a Latino Native New Yorker who grew up on the lower east side of manhattan. I have always been intrigued by technology and figuring out how to apply it or utilize it in my life. I love streetwear, sneakers and science fiction. I have been in the digital media space since the late 90s focused on Advertising Tech and Options. I currently live in NJ with my wife, two daughters <one is a junior at Sayarcuse Newhouse and the other a sophomore in HS and our dog. I have spent most of my career operating out of my comfort zone inorder to push my industry forward. I worked with partners to develop products, I launched new initiatives for all the companies I worked for, always looking to understand what is coming next and how tech can be used to take advantage.
Tell us more about your role in Jiffy.ai?
I am the head of product and strategy for the new media division which I launched with my partners. I am responsible for product strategy, business development, and building future roadmaps. We are a startup so we all support all aspects of the business. I will take sales calls as well as dev calls with clients. Here is what we do at: Jiffy.ai Media we are leveraging artificial intelligence to bring automation to a range of media operations processes. Our focus is providing simple to build, cost effective, high value solutions to organizations on the buy & the sell side of the advertising ecosystem. We build Hyper Apps that leverage a company’s existing systems & workflow to deliver end to end automation. Our team has spent decades building, leading & evolving Media Operations & Programmatic teams & strategies, so we are in a position to partner with media organizations to provide transformational results
What is the most difficult part of your job? But the most rewarding one?
The most difficult part of the job when starting from the ground up is trying to build a comprehensive strategy that covers as much as possible knowing that new things are going to pop up so you must be prepared to adjust and pivot. The most rewarding part of this is being involved in every aspect of the company’s growth, planning and success. What I love about my industry is the constant change and challenges that arise.
Is there anything that you would change about your professional path?
At this point I would not while my path was not traditional. I studied Political Science and worked in sales before I found my calling in Advertising tech and operations. I could have focused on Tech and Product early on but the general experience working in many different roles is a big part of why I have been successful and has allowed me the opportunity to impact so many different facets of very large media companies where I worked and developed departments and products
What’s your key strategy for the development of your company?
The first thing I did was take a step back and look at all of the companies I have partnered with and those I choose not to partner with. I did this to understand what to do and more importantly what NOT to do. One of the major keys was to carefully curate and develop our product and process, not rushing to overextend ourselves by pushing sales to sign as many clients as possible. We carefully worked with a small set of partners to develop and produce a product that works and can scale. I have seen many powerful products fail because of a rush to market.
What do you think about the next period of time, keeping in mind the pandemic and the new business climate? How will your industry be affected?
Since we are supporting the media business most of our clients are operating on multiple screens so business is actually really doing well. We are in a position to support this growth by providing a strong scalable product that is tailored to solving specific gaps and needs of our client. Our product is flexible and provides a wide range of capabilities to help our clients manage their media business during this time. We provide a full managed services for our clients that factors the constant changes they go through.
Please name a few technologies which have the greatest impact on your business: Jiffy.ai
Media provides full workflow automations for teams that must work many 3rd party technologies to support their business. We are bringing together their CRM, OMS <order management system where business and campaign details live>, Ad Servers where you execute campaigns, DMPs <Data management platforms>, Programmatic platforms and tech which is geared towards allowing Brands to bid on advertising. What makes it even more interesting is the fact that Large Agencies and Brands all work with similar tech on their end on the Buy side. The ecosystem is very large and all over the place and in need of companies that focus on creating efficiencies and automation help push data/transactions through the many platforms during the life cycle of an advertising campaign.
What books do you have on your nightstand?
I always keep a copy of my fav book which is Dune by Frank Herbert and a couple of current reads War Against All Puerto Ricans and Stephen Hawking, a Brief History of Time.
Because of the current economic climate our publication has started a series of discussions with professional individuals meant to engage our readers with relevant companies and their representatives in order to discuss their involvement, what challenges they have had in the past and what they are looking forward to in the future. This sequence aims to present a series of experiences, recent developments, changes and downsides in terms of their business areas, as well as their goals, values, career history, the high-impact success outcomes and achievements.
