The Build with Mike O’Sullivan is a builder-to-builder podcast designed for the founders, engineers, and innovators scaling the next generation of ad tech infrastructure. Hosted by Mike and co-host Ian Meyers - who first teamed up as the founders of Sincera.
Drawing on their shared history of building in the trenches, Mike and Ian move past the headlines to explore technical hurdles, strategic pivots, and the candid realities of a complex ecosystem. It’s a space for honest conversations and hard-earned perspective from the people actually building the future.
New episodes on Tuesdays. Follow The Build with Mike O’Sullivan on Spotify, Overcast, or wherever you get your podcasts.
Marty Krátký-Katz on acceptable ads, co-founder dynamics, and finding product-market fit
Marty Krátký-Katz co-founded Blockthrough, an ad tech company that helped publishers monetize ad block users through the Acceptable Ads program. That took two failed startups, three product pivots, and nearly three years of razor-thin runway to reach. In this episode, Marty breaks down the iteration, co-founder dynamics, and the unusually clear B2B value proposition that finally made it work.
24 Jun 2026
When it almost fell apart
Mike O'Sullivan and Ian Myers sit down with ad tech founders and builders for conversations about how their products actually got made. This episode collects the WFIO moments (short for "we're f*****, it's over) from across those conversations.
2 Jun 2026
Brian Stempeck on building for brand visibility in the age of AI search
Brian Stempeck is the CEO and co-founder of Evertune AI, a platform that helps brands and agencies understand and influence how AI models represent them in consumer search. In this episode, he traces the path from employee #8 at The Trade Desk to founder, and breaks down why AI search is a fundamentally different marketing channel...not just the next version of SEO.
19 May 2026
Ari Paparo on Writing VAST, Building Beeswax, and Why Nobody Actually Wants Their Own Bidder
Ari Paparo co-wrote the VAST spec, spearheaded the creation of the IAB Tech Lab, and later co-founded Beeswax, a bidder-as-a-service company acquired by Comcast in 2021. This episode covers the origin of video ad standards, the rise and fall of the custom bidder market, the lessons Ari draws from Beeswax's trajectory, and what he's doing now at Marketecture.
5 May 2026
Ali Manning on Co-Founding Chalice and Putting the Advertiser First in Ad Tech
Most ad tech companies optimize for the platform. Ali Manning built Chalice to do the opposite--and did it mid-pandemic, alongside her husband. Their savings was draining and the company almost didn't make it. Mike and Ian uncover why it did.
21 Apr 2026
Scott Howe on Scaling LiveRamp and Ad Tech's Cycles of Innovation
Scott Howe, CEO of LiveRamp, traces his career from BCG and Avenue A/Razorfish through the aQuantive acquisition by Microsoft and into his current role leading LiveRamp.
7 Apr 2026
David Buonasera (CTO, Magnite) on Building and Scaling Platforms
Mike and Ian sit down with David Buonasera, CTO of Magnite, to unpack what it really takes to build and scale complex systems in ad tech.
6 Apr 2026
Listen Now: The Build Podcast with Mike O'Sullivan and Ian Meyers
Ad tech moves fast, but the real stories happen behind the scenes. This is where the architects of the industry come to talk shop.
25 Mar 2026
Michael Rubenstein on Founding Firsthand, AI, and the Future of Ad Tech
Mike O’Sullivan (Co-Founder of Sincera and GM of Product at The Trade Desk) sits down with Michael Rubenstein, Co-Founder and Co-CEO of Firsthand, for a candid founder-to-founder conversation about innovation, risk, and leadership in the age of AI.
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