Facebook-inept companies across the country are looking to Rob Leathern '97 to solve their social media woes.
Leathern's social media aggregator, XA.net, helps companies utilize social media websites as advertising platforms. The website has seen explosive growth since its launch in 2008, and was recognized by the San Francisco Business Times as one of the Bay Area's fastest-growing companies on Oct. 27.
Leathern said XA.net works with a wide variety of companies from major movie studios to small startups to sync them with advertising platforms like Google, Facebook, LinkedIn and Yahoo.
To gain access to XA.net, companies must first obtain a monthly subscription and then pay for each of the website's services individually, he said.
"The companies that we work with design their own ad campaigns and we provide the data for their best demographic based on historical data," Leathern said.
XA.net raised over $600,000 through investors before the website's launch, and made over $1 million in revenue during its first year and $8.7 million in 2010, according to Leathern. He said hopes to eventually expand the company by building international offices to cater to XA clientele.
Jason Gracilieri '99 Th'00 said he uses XA.net for his company Turning Art, which allows consumers to rent or buy art online. Turning Art uses XA's optimal program which provides demographic historical data to suit a company's needs to improve its Facebook marketing, Gracilieri said.
XA.net has been an "integral" addition to Turning Art's marketing strategy, he said.
The Rockefeller Center recently used XA.net to generate a social media graph that analyzed the Republican primary race's themes and candidates' personalities.
"I was interested in highlighting [Leathern's] work as a classmate and someone who is looking into the intersection of public opinion, politics and social graphs," Danielle Thompson '97, assistant director for co-curricular programs at the Rockefeller Center, said.
The interest graph demonstrated that a cluster of Republican primary candidates, media personalities and Republican boosters have been at the center of social media discussions, according to the Rockefeller Center's website.
Leathern said he was inspired to create XA.net due to his previous work experience in advertising.
"One of my first jobs was to buy advertising and I saw how difficult a process that was," Leathern said. "My inspiration was feeling the pain as an ad buyer incapable of getting the most opportunity in the digitalized space."
Leathern, a computer science and economics double major, said that he gained tools valuable for developing XA.net during his time at the College.
"I think I really appreciated computer science because it helped you solve problems in a certain way," he said.
Leathern cited his Software Design and Implementation class with computer science professor Thomas Cormen as an important course in his Dartmouth career, because it was his first exposure to design.
"It really made me realize how much goes into designing in terms of building and testing," he said.
Leathern laughed when recalling his computer coding project that Cormen broke down after "about 20 seconds."
"This was definitely a rude awakening in terms of what you think is going to work and what does work," Leathern said. "It certainly helps me even today because we are always altering and improving our software."
Despite his computer science major, Leathern said he never considered himself to be much of a coder and instead worked with company co-founder David Li to recruit an engineering team that now includes over a dozen engineers.
"David was completely instrumental in putting that team together," Leathern said. "Obviously it's important when you start a company that you have that second person. We also had some early angel investors in 2008 that helped carry us along as well. They shared our vision for what we've been doing, and were an important part of helping to get things going."
Leathern said his experience playing for the Dartmouth men's rugby team also helped shape his career and add to the skills necessary to start a business.
"I think that being part of a team is a very important experience," he said. "Everyone is working collaboratively and that's essential in a business, so I'm very grateful for that."
