Genuin Connections: Episode 19 -- MediaMint’s Mindie Kaplan

Mindie Kaplan didn't set out to run an innovation team inside one of the ad industry's biggest operations partners. In 2016, she left Microsoft to found Rated VR, a full-service AR/VR agency, at a moment when most of the industry was still figuring out what those words meant. Eight years ago, MediaMint acquired the company, and Mindie has spent the years since building out what "human plus AI" actually looks like in practice.

In this episode, Matt Wurst talks with Mindie about her path from founder to EVP of Growth and Marketing at MediaMint, how client pain points turn into AI products like Mia, why some of the biggest brands in the world are still running critical workflows out of Google Docs, and how she decides what's worth building versus what's just noise.

They also spend time on something Mindie built entirely outside her day job: the Million Mammogram Challenge. After catching her own early-stage breast cancer with no family history, Mindie turned a private recovery photo into a billboard campaign with one goal, a million mammograms scheduled by 2028.

What you'll hear:

- Why Mindie gave herself one year to prove out Rated VR before going back to a traditional career path

- How a chance reconnection turned into an acquisition and MediaMint Labs

- The real story behind Mia, MediaMint's AI product, and how it started with one publisher's broken workflow

- Why "human in the loop" is a operating principle at MediaMint, not a buzzword

- How to decide when to build AI in-house versus partner with someone who does it "in their sleep"

- The story behind the Million Mammogram Challenge and how to get involved

Learn more or book your mammogram appointment: millionmammogramchallenge.com

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