Founder/Co-Founder of ineedhits, Vibe Capital, Minti, and Gooruze
Perth Area, Australia
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Clay Cook’s Summary
I currently spend most of my business time helping ineedhits (Search Engine Marketing) with Business Development. My next business priority is Minti (Web 2.0 Online Parenting Community).
Some achievements/points of interest...
* Married + children (2 children so far)
* Founded ineedhits 1996
* 5th fastest growing company in Australia (2002 - BRW Fast 100) [ineedhits]
* 11th fastest growing company in Australia (2003 - BRW Fast 100) [ineedhits]
* Key member in raising $2.8M for Vibe Capital Pty Ltd (as of May 8th 2007)
* Vibe Capital acquired significant stake in Market United then helped the sale to Q Ltd (ASX listed).
* Co-Founded Vibe Capital in 2006
* Co-Founded Minti in 2006
* Co-Founded Gooruze in 2007
* Entrepreneur of the Year (Ernst & Young)- Finalist (2003 & 2002)
* Deloitte Touche Fast 50 - 6th (Australia - 2002)
* Deloitte Touche Fast 500 - 17th (Asia Pacific - 2003)
* ineedhits exclusive Ask Jeeves Paid Inclusion provider worldwide (2003)
* ineedhits 3rd reseller worldwide of Inktomi Paid Inclusion (2002)
Internet Entrepreneur. Web 2.0, Search Engine Marketing. Investor in residential Real Estate and Shares. Angel Investor in Technology Companies.
Current businesses...
* ineedhits (www.ineedhits.com)
* Vibe Capital (www.vibecapital.com)
* Minti (www.minti.com)
* Gooruze (www.gooruze.com)
Angel Investments include...
* mig33 (www.mig33.com) which recently raised USD$10M VC funding (May 07)
* Tangler (www.tangler.com)
* Red Lottery (www.redlottery.com)
* zTail (www.ztail.com)
* Orgoo (www.orgoo.com)
* Omnidrive -- dead
Located in Perth - Western Australia. Spent 2007 in Silicon Valley (San Francisco).
Interested in following/contacting me?
* email: clay [at] claycook [dot] net
* www.claycook.net
* facebook: www.facebook.com/clay.cook
* twitter: www.twitter.com/claycook
* skype: claycook
* msn IM: cook_clay2002@hotmail.com
* AIM: ClayINH
* Y! IM: cook_clay2004
Clay Cook’s Specialties:
Business Development, SEM, Entrepreneur, Business Owner, Internet, Search Engine Marketing, Start-ups, Angel Investor.
Clay Cook’s Experience
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Chairman, Co-Founder
Gooruze
(Privately Held; 1-10 employees; Information Technology and Services industry)
March 2007 — Present (2 years 10 months)
Online Marketing community.
Think of Gooruze like a cross between Wikipedia/TripAdvisor/MySpace for the online marketing community. -
CEO, Co-Founder
Vibe Capital
(Privately Held; 1-10 employees; Internet industry)
February 2006 — Present (3 years 11 months)
Vibe Capital is building niche ranked advice social networks.
Holding Company of Minti.
Licenses vibeEngine technology to companies looking to launch Ranked Advice Social Communities.
1st Vertical = Minti (100% owned by Vibe Capital)
2nd Vertical = BuildingInLondon.com (using vibEngine technology)
3rd Vertical = we have approx. 3 new verticals in the pipeline.
Raised AUD$2.8M to date in Angel funding. AUD$1.6M in Feb 2006. AUD$1.2M towards the end of 2006.
Vibe Capital acquired a stake in Market United (www.marketunited.com) towards the end of 2006. -
CEO, Co-Founder
Minti
(Privately Held; 1-10 employees; Internet industry)
July 2005 — Present (4 years 6 months)
Minti is a social network, where parents create and rank advice.
Minti's mission is to become the world's largest parent to parent advice-opedia.
Very much involved in the Strategy and day to day runnings of Minti (www.Minti.com).
New Web 2.0 Internet Start-up.
Completed Angel Funding.
Completed Round 1 Funding.
Global audience (English Speaking).
Operations based in Perth - Western Australia.
Some features include...
* write, tag, read, tag parenting advice
* link to friends, and private friends lounge (like myspace)
* forums & groups
* every member gets a blog
* member rank (like ebay)
* tagcloud -
Chairman, Founder
ineedhits
(Privately Held; 11-50 employees; Internet industry)
September 1996 — Present (13 years 4 months)
No longer involved in the day to day runnings of ineedhits.
Chairman of ineedhits (www.ineedhits.com)
Founded the company in 1996 (as Business Web).
Search Engine Marketing Firm.
Specializing in solutions for Small to Medium Enterprizes.
Over 200,000 paying customers have used ineedhits for Search Engine Marketing since inception.
Current (as of 2nd Dec 2005) Partners of ineedhits include... Yahoo, HitsLink, ExactSeek. Past Partners include... Inktomi, Ask Jeeves, AltaVista and WhatUSeek.
Clay Cook’s Education
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The University of Western Australia
Bachelor of Economics , Economics, Marketing , 1993 — 1996
Additional Information
Clay Cook’s Websites:
Clay Cook’s Interests:
Family, new technology, internet businesses, internet, Web 2.0, movies, angel investing in tech companies. Conferences attended (Search Engine Strategies, Supernova2006, Gnomedex, BloggerCon IV, BarCampSF)
Clay Cook’s Groups:
Entrepreneur's Organization (EO)
Formally: Young Entreprenuer's Organization (YEO)
Search Engine Marketing Professional Organization (SEMPO)
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Parents
Clay Cook’s Honors:
2004: 40 Under 40 (WA Business News) - Winner
2003: Entrepreneur of the Year (Ernst & Young)- Finalist (WA)
2003: Deloitte Touche Fast 50 - 6th (Australia)
2003: Deloitte Touche Fast 500 - 17th (Asia Pacific)
2003: BRW Fast 100 (Business Review Weekly) - 11th
2003: Rising Stars (WA Business News/Deloitte Touche)- 4th
2002: Entrepreneur of the Year (Ernst & Young)- Finalist (WA)
2002: BRW Fast 100 (Business Review Weekly) - 5th
Clay Cook’s Contact Settings
Interested In:
- new ventures
- job inquiries
- expertise requests
- business deals
- reference requests
- getting back in touch
