How Artificial Intelligence and Big Data Created Rocket Fuel: A Case Study

In 2008, Rocket Fuel's founders saw a gap in the digital advertising market. None of the existing players were building autonomous systems based on big data and artificial intelligence, but instead they were offering fairly simple technology and relying on human campaign managers to drive success. Five years later in 2013, Rocket Fuel had the best technology IPO of the year on NASDAQ, reported $240 million in revenue, and was ranked by accounting firm Deloitte as the #1 fastest-growing technology company in North America. Along the way we learned that it's okay to be bold in our expectations of what is possible with fully autonomous systems, we learned that mainstream customers will buy advanced technology if it's delivered in a familiar way, and we also learned that it's incredibly difficult to debug the complex "robot psychology" when a number of complex autonomous systems interact. We also had excellent luck and timing: as we were building the company, real-time ad impression-level auctions with machine-to-machine buying and selling became commonplace, and marketers became increasingly focused on delivering better results for their company and delivering better personalized and relevant digital experiences for their customers. The case study presentation will present a fast-paced overview of the business and technology context for Rocket Fuel at inception and at present, key learnings and decisions, and the road ahead.