LockerDome

About LockerDome

Founded in 2008 by Gabe Lozano in St. Louis, Missouri, the company now known as Decide began its journey as LockerDome, a sports-themed social network. The platform's initial concept was to connect people based on shared interests rather than personal connections. A significant turning point occurred in January 2012 with the launch of LockerDome 2.0 and a $750,000 financing round, which brought national attention to the company. The platform evolved from its sports focus to include a broader range of interests with the release of LockerDome 3.0 in December 2013.

Recognizing that publishers desired to drive traffic to their own sites, the company shifted its strategy to make its interactive widgets embeddable on third-party websites. This move propelled LockerDome's audience to over 100 million people per month. The business transitioned into a performance-based advertising platform, leveraging its audience for monetization. In February 2022, LockerDome officially rebranded to Decide, a name that reflects its focus on developing machine learning technologies for automated decision-making. This relaunch introduced the "Decision Marketplace," a proprietary machine learning and decisioning platform.

The core of Decide's business is its advertising technology that operates as an ad network. The company pays publishers to place a piece of javascript code on their websites, creating ad spaces that Decide can then sell to its advertiser clients. Revenue is generated by taking a commission, reportedly around 32%, on the ad placements sold through its network. These placements are priced on a cost-per-thousand (CPM) impressions basis. The company's native ad platform is designed to optimize return on investment for advertisers in real-time by focusing on conversion media, providing insights that help lower customer acquisition costs. The platform is powered by an in-house AI called Neo, which processes billions of data points to automate and optimize ad decisions without relying on third-party cookies.

Decide serves advertisers looking to generate leads and drive sales, and publishers seeking to monetize their web traffic. The company's technology facilitates the placement of native ads, including formats like polls, quizzes, and contests, across a wide network of publisher websites. Following the tragic passing of his wife in 2020, founder Gabe Lozano embarked on a journey that led him to establish a new office hub in Austin, aiming to foster a renewed sense of energy and creativity for the remote-first company.