Nationality American Website collectivei.com/about Role Entrepreneur | Alma mater University of Utah Name Tad Martin | |
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Born May 20, 1971 (age 52) ( 1971-05-20 ) Concord, New Hampshire Occupation Co-founder, CEO, Collective[i]
COO, Overstock | ||
Russell "Tad" Martin (born May 20, 1971) is an American Internet entrepreneur and investor. He is currently the CEO of Collective[i]. Prior to Collective[i], he was an early employee at Gear.com and a post-acquisition part of the management of Overstock.com.
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Early life and education
Martin was born in Concord, New Hampshire. His father was an officer in the Navy, and his mother was a homemaker. His family later moved to New Jersey where he attended Glen Rock High School. Martin earned a Bachelor of Arts in English from the University of Utah in 1993.
Pepsi-Cola and the Olympic Winter Games
While finishing his degree at the University of Utah, Martin worked for Pepsi-Cola leading the execution of local promotions for their advertising agency, DDB Needham. He helped promote Diet Pepsi with blind taste tests and a national karaoke competition featuring Ray Charles with the "You've Got the Right One Baby" campaign. Following graduation Martin served as a volunteer for the United States Olympic Committee during the 1994 Olympic Winter Games where he was stationed in Lillehammer.
In 1994, immediately following the Lillehammer 1994 Olympic Winter Games, Martin joined the Salt Lake City Olympic Bid Committee to help support in its successful effort to secure the 2002 Olympic Winter Games.
Gear.com and Overstock.com
In 1999, Martin saw the rise of the Internet and joined as an early employee at Gear.com, a rapidly growing startup backed by Amazon.com and one of the first online sporting goods retailers. At Gear.com Martin led the outdoor merchandising team responsible for all purchasing and pricing decisions.
In 2000, through its acquisition of Gear.com, Martin joined Overstock.com as one of its first employees. From 2000-2006, Martin reported to Patrick Byrne, Overstock's CEO, and was part of the executive team in charge of managing the company, responsible specifically for all aspects of warehouse operations, customer care, fraud protection, product purchasing, and capital management. During Martin's tenure with Overstock.com he helped the company grow revenue to over $800m. Overstock.com also moved from a privately funded startup to a publicly traded company on the NASDAQ.
Collective[i]
In 2008, Martin co-founded Cross Commerce Media with Heidi Messer and Stephen Messer. Martin and his co-founders collaborated with leading data scientists and PhD-level technology developers in building Collective[i].
In 2014, Martin was awarded three patents in conjunction with Collective[i]'s data analytics network. He is noted as a co-inventor for patent #8,713,076 and patent #8,825,716, "Providing a Multi-Tenant Knowledge Network", as well as patent #8,825,618, "Methods and Systems for Enhanced Data Unification, Access, and Analysis".
Martin has been acting CEO of Collective[i] since the company's founding.
Angel investing, board affiliations and community involvement
Martin served on the board of Send the Trend that was acquired by QVC in 2012. He is currently an advisor to Coupang, a Korean-based eCommerce company, and is an investor in several startups including LifeBooker and Spire.com.
Since 2013, Martin has been a part of the New York City Economic Development Corporation fellowship program as a mentor. He has also served as Treasurer of Avenues, the World School Parent Association since 2012.
Speaking engagements and press
Martin is a frequent speaker at conferences around the world on the subjects of entrepreneurship, investing, business management, sales, and big data. He has presented at technology industry events, including the Bloomberg Big Data Conference, Data Driven NYC, FinovateSpring, Angel Capital Association Summit, NY Entrepreneur Week, BootStrappers Breakfast, NJ Tech Meetup, New Jersey Innovates Conference, Hoboken Tech Meetup, Digital Media Summit, Brand Innovators, and the Next Web USA Conference.