The Fierce Video editorial team is proud to present its second annual Emerging Leaders Awards, recognizing the brightest young professionals rising up the ranks of the streaming TV industry. Throughout the months of May and June we’ll be featuring these profiles with each of our finalists. We will announce the winners during our StreamTV Show with an awards ceremony June 17 at 3:15 p.m. ET. Not yet registered for the StreamTV Show, running June 15-17? Be sure to register now and save your spot at this free virtual event!
James Altschuler/CatapultX:
As co-founder and COO, James Altschuler works with his company’s top brand and publishing partners to use Computer Vision and connect them with their audiences/consumers across any digital video environments. He leads CatapultX’s overall internal strategy, product vision and scaling the business.
What his colleagues are saying:
“James has helped to create the future of video and video advertising through the onstream technology at CatapultX. Through his ability to collaborate and his pulse on business needs, he has successfully brought this product to market." - Rachel Herskovitz, vice president of content partnerships at iHeartMedia
“James exemplifies the modern digital leader; he has a forward-looking mindset that often anticipates the next new thing. His often outside the box contrarian approach frequently helps push the broader team at CatapultX into seeking innovative solutions that stand out, rather than settling for the same old thing. It is this kind of leadership in video and streaming that is so necessary during this time of massive change in the industry.” - Claude Ruibal, former global head of sports partnerships at YouTube
Streaming Industry Q&A:
What streaming services do you subscribe to?
HBO Max, Hulu, Netflix, Disney+, Amazon Prime and Showtime.
Describe your biggest career highlight so far.
Starting CatapultX and watching it grow. Building a team of such amazing hardworking people is really a marvelous thing to see. A desire to build a business and be successful was very quickly superseded by watching them grow and be successful in their own careers.
What has been your biggest career learning experience?
My experience and time at Yelp. Learning to understand a corporate environment fresh out of college was quite an adjustment from having built and run my own businesses. But what I felt was an incredibly negative culture, difficult sales and working environment transformed into some of my greatest personal lessons and growth. It showed me the professional I want to become. Without that experience my future wouldn't be nearly as clear or bright.
What's next for you in terms of new challenges in streaming TV?
Navigating an extremely fragmented technical and integration environment. Deploying a simple, scalable solution across hundreds or thousands of partners is nearly impossible in an OTT/CTV/live stream environment. Identifying where the industry is going will involve me using large amounts of market data and research to predict where the technological convergence lies 2-3 years from today. For CatapultX, my team and I to be a winner in this space we must make the right decisions today. It will be extremely exciting over the next 12-18 months to see how our technology and vision advances.