Ari Paparo on writing VAST, building beeswax, and why nobody actually wants their own bidder

Most people in ad tech use infrastructure Ari Paparo helped build without knowing his name. He wrote the VAST spec in Microsoft Word at DoubleClick and version 1.0 flopped. What survived became the plumbing video advertising still runs on today.

This episode covers the full arc: VAST's origin and uneven adoption, the creation of the IAB Tech Lab after Ari ran out of patience with the IAB's technical rigor, the consolidation wars of the mid-2000s, and Beeswax--where he's unusually honest about what he got right, what he didn't, and where he held a strategy longer than he should have. Comcast acquired Beeswax in 2021. Ari is now at Marketecture, and he has opinions about SaaS, AI-generated content, and where the industry is headed.

The Build with Mike O'Sullivan is a podcast produced by The Current which is owned and operated by The Trade Desk, Inc.

Sincera was acquired by The Trade Desk, Inc.