Ric Elias is CEO/Co-Founder at Red Ventures. Ric Elias I'm like, "That doesn't narrow it down. It recently occurred to him, he said, that he has spent his career trying to restore the family name. Ric, thank you so much for joining us today. WebRic Elias was given the gift of a miracle: to face near-certain death, and then to come back and live differently. Ric Elias: They're so passionate about the island, and they're super smart. And you know the feeling is mutual, and I'm just excited about the journey ahead. She had just heard the captain say: "Brace for impact." Ric Elias Having been a passenger on the Miracle on the Hudson plane in 2009, Red Ventures CEO Ric Elias is famously familiar with crashes. In particular, he wants to continue with a project he has already started in collaboration with the Indian government: building a network of early childhood care centers aimed at leveling the playing field so all children can reach their full potential irrespective of the background they come from.. Ric Elias: Like, completely. Brian Kelly: And so are we employing them, or is the goal for us to get them in with other companies? So while we have enjoyed this massive boom time all over the world, Puerto Rico has been in a massive recession. And I said, "There's no such thing. Ric Elias And it gives me a great appreciation. CHARLOTTE, N.C. (AP) The CEO of a marketing and technology company has gone to court over what he says are faulty custom-made steel-and-glass windows and doors in his $16 million Charlotte home. Comments that attack an individual directly will be deleted. Comments containing language or concepts that could be deemed offensive will be deleted. Native of Puerto Rico, graduate of Boston College and Harvard Business School. The causes close to the hearts of this years signees range from improving early-childhood education in India to wildcat preservation. *If you enjoy this podcast, you are sure to enjoy. WebRed Ventures was formed on September 29, 1999, in Fort Mill, South Carolina by Ric Elias and Dan Feldstein. But you've been incredibly generous." the Biggest Digital Media We are going to do this and continue to do this for a long, long time. He was on US Airways Flight 1549 that went into the Hudson. Ric Elias: In 1D and as soon as Sully said, "Brace for impact," it was terror in their eyes, so I knew it was over. He returned from that near-death experience determined to remake his life and his company. So there's about two minutes before he says anything, and when you look at all the records, they were trying to restart the engines, and they couldn't. JPMorgan Chase Agrees To Acquire First Republic Banks Deposits After It Is Shut Down By Regulators, First Republic Bank Reportedly On Verge Of Collapse, Chief Justice John Roberts Wife Made Over $10 Million As Legal Consultant, Report Says, GOP Scores Early 2024 Win: N.C. Ruling Likely Hands Party More House Seats, Think It, Do It, Be It: The Magic Of Acting As If, Friday, April 28. Some of them don't even go to private schools. The one I heard executives refer to most was Everything Is Written in Pencil, a motto that makes sense for a company that has changed almost entirely from its marketing origins to become a leading purveyor of service journalism. The company weathered the storm; by 2007 it was ranked fourth on theInc.500 list, and in 2015 the company was valuated at more than $1 billion. Their company became one of the worlds most valuable startups in September when it raised $200 million in new funding at a valuation of $40 billion. In this episode, Ric Elias, founder of Red Ventures, opens up about the fateful day he knew for certain that he was going to die as a passenger on US Airways Flight 1549. Ric Elias Brian Kelly: So you get home that night. Mr. Elias, who spoke with me in the companys bright and sprawling cafeteria, had played basketball that morning with a former N.B.A. Ric Elias One way he achieves this is through RV's Forward787, a "movement focused on revitalizing Puerto Ricos economy." He cofounded Red Ventures in 2000, just months before the dot-com bubble burst. In 2018, Elias launched Forward787, a social enterprise committed to raising and deploying $100 million to build businesses in Puerto Rico that compete with the world's top companies. He and other Points Guy writers said they hadnt been pushed to publish stories they found dubious indeed, the site has occasionally offered carefully critical coverage of Chase and American Express, its dominant business partners. We turned around immediately. WebRic Elias is CEO and co-founder of Red Ventures, a portfolio of digital companies headquartered in Charlotte, NC. 3 things I learned while my plane crashed. I think we can become a role model of what can happen in the future, make talent, stay in the island or retain to the island. Courtesy Red Ventures. It was a great place. And if you're not careful, you can ruin it quickly. Ric Elias I was in a great seat because I can see the flight attendants. Red Ventures is all about profit maximization, said JT Genter, who left the site more than a year ago. You now own brands like The Points Guy and Bankrate and Healthline. You may opt-out by. I told them, Theres a red line, and theyre like, OK, well see, he said. Theres quite a bit of good news in the rescue of old media brands by Red Ventures and similar companies CNET plans to hire 150 new employees this year, for instance. This compensation may impact how and where products appear on this site (including, for example, the order in which they appear). Have we taken everyone? He is a friend and a mentor to me, and I guess technically -- actually not technically -- he is my boss. TED Conferences, LLC. It's been almost 20 years. And I call from a strange number. [1:39:15]; and. This time it's travel related", "CNET Hires Cond Nast Chief Data Officer", "You've Never Heard of the Biggest Digital Media Company in America", "Inside CNET's AI-powered SEO money machine", "CNET Is Quietly Publishing Entire Articles Generated By AI", "CNET's AI Journalist Appears to Have Committed Extensive Plagiarism", "CNET is doing big layoffs just weeks after AI-generated stories came to light", "CNET Hits Staff With Layoffs After Disastrous Pivot to AI Journalism", "Leaked Messages Show How CNET's Parent Company Really Sees AI-Generated Content", "DirectMag.com: News et informations depuis plus de 20 ans", "Red Ventures Announces Growth Capital Investment by General Atlantic", "Red Ventures Announces Closing of Acquisition of Bankrate, Inc", "Red Ventures Acquires HigherEducation.com", "ViacomCBS Reaches Deal to Sell CNET for $500 Million to Marketing Firm Red Ventures", "Chowhound Closes After 25 Years of Food Obsession, Wisdom, and Debate", "Lonely Planet sold to US digital marketing group for undisclosed sum", "RV Health, A Red Ventures Business, Acquires Healthgrades.com from Mercury Healthcare | Red Ventures", "Optum, Red Ventures partner on consumer healthcare platform", "TV Guide, Metacritic, GameSpot Acquired by Fandom in $55M Deal With Red Ventures", https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Red_Ventures&oldid=1142688087, Privately held companies based in South Carolina, Mass media companies of the United States, Companies based in Charlotte, North Carolina, Articles needing cleanup from February 2023, Articles with sections that need to be turned into prose from February 2023, Official website different in Wikidata and Wikipedia, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License 3.0, This page was last edited on 3 March 2023, at 21:13. It's very competitive. Okay, great.". The company found itself in the publishing business almost by accident, and is now leading a shift in that industry toward what is sometimes called intent-based media a term for specialist sites that attract people who are already looking to spend money in a particular area (travel, tech, health) and guide them to their purchases, while taking a cut. Together, the billionaire newcomers are worth an estimated $48.1 billion, with Canvas married cofounders Melanie Perkins and Cliff Obrecht the richest among them with a collective estimated net worth of $13 billion. He was so moved that he created a book titled How Facing Death Changed My Life (And My Business). It shouldn't be an or. Nor did Craig Dixon, who is named along with his architectural firm, or Scott Whitlock, president of Whitlock Builders. The South Carolina campus of Red Ventures, a digital media company with 4,500 employees, some of whom live on site. You can also follow Ric and Red Ventures on social; @ricelias and @redventures on Twitter, @_ricelias and @redventures on Instagram. Ric Elias: The next cohort four will start in April. Red Ventures CEO Ric Elias says he's spent 20 years building a company that aims to help people make decisions about their homes, health, finances, travel and education. Brian Kelly: Would you say that this played a role in Red Ventures and what it is today, being a behemoth? Has Puerto Rico recovered? [ted.com]. Our culture has changed a lot. Still reeling from the catastrophic incident, Ayers said he turned to philanthropy as a sort of mental therapy. Sitting on the hospital bed, its what gave me the purpose and what gave me the strength to get through the challenges, he told Forbes in a phone interview. Are they old bankers? Ric Elias He is also the founder of Draken International, a defense firm that trains Air Force pilots and owns the largest private fleet of military aircraft in the world. Brian Kelly: I highly recommend -- Ric has a TED talk, "The three things I learned when my plane crashed." Brian Kelly: That's great. They're as capable as anybody that we have in our platform, but they're super passionate about Puerto Rico. I think were a 20-year-old company that still is figuring out what were going to be, he said. Schuurman is a serial entrepreneur best known for founding the open-source software companies SpringSource and Elastic. Brian Kelly: Did you really go from the Hudson back to LaGuardia? Ric Elias: And it's a payback model. In 2019, he launched a podcast, 3 Things with Ric Elias, as a continuation of the learning journey he shared on the TED stage. Elias's leadership style and personal life are deeply influenced by his experience as a survivor of Flight 1549, also known as the "Miracle on the Hudson." If someone's listening saying, "Oh, this Red Ventures company sounds really exciting," we're on the forefront, we're very profitable and innovative, what is the mentality of someone you want to hire entry-level at Red Ventures? Before its 2020 acquisitions, the company has grown into an international presence with more than 100 brands, 3,000 employees, and operations in the United Kingdom and Brazil. Ric Elias: You know, it is such a tiny island. Red Ventures roots in marketing, its investment in tech aimed at selling you something and its almost-accidental move into trying to provide readers with trusted, even journalistic, advice have made for an odd amalgam. The home sits in between two key Panthers facilities. Brian Kelly: Did you pick up the language when you were there? WebSee Ric Elias's compensation, career history, education, & memberships. All American Entertainment Named to Inc. Best Workplaces in 2022. How do we base digital businesses in Puerto Rico? And it's amazing what happens when you're not suffering. Courtesy Red Ventures. [12] On December 1, 2020, Red Ventures bought Lonely Planet from Tennessee-based NC2 Media. Ric Elias Improve earnings, maximize rewards and track progress toward dream trips. Ric Elias: And I remember calling We were in a ferry that picked us up, and someone lent me a phone. Elias, a Puerto Rico native, has also started several nonprofits, including Road to Hire, Golden Door Scholars and Forward787, a social enterprise in Puerto Rico. Ric Elias She sat down at her kitchen table in Berkeley, Calif., and frantically started Googling to find out what it was. Cookie Notice Ric Elias: What is really fun is digitization of every industry's just starting. I'm not sure we were on the same boat. I was given the gift, and that gift is a responsibility. Courtesy Red Ventures. Ric Elias, the companys chief executive, is known for his TED Talk about being on the US Airways jetliner that made an emergency landing on the Hudson River in 2009. Ric Elias: Yeah, for sure. So we wiped him out. Drive out of Facebook right now, and on the sign, you see Sun Microsystems. WHO are these extremely rich people Ric Elias: Probably never has been more true that you can die of indigestion as well of starvation. He cofounded Red Ventures It's January 15th in New York City. Ric Elias: Yeah. And so you have 90 seconds. Green is the billionaire founder of one of the U.S.s largest digital advertising technology companies. I actually moved to the U.S. to come to college and fell in love with this country, so I love two countries now. Brian Kelly: Being a successful entrepreneur, a lot of times you're always grown up. Ric Elias And the companys Silicon Valley style extends only so far. Their Googling and mandatory corporate retreats led them to the companys South Carolina headquarters, a 180-acre campus with a cluster of modern buildings, a fire pit, a six-lane bowling alley, spin room, pickle ball courts and 264 residences for employees who choose to live where they work. Brian Kelly: It's a paid position. The former company was acquired by cloud computing company VMware in 2009 for $420 million. His wife Bomi Sul founded a social networking service. If I'm honest with myself, this is the time." We'll leave it there. Red Ventures is an American media company, which owns and operates brands such as Lonely Planet, CNET, ZDNet, The Points Guy, Healthline and Bankrate. Its about a 24-minute drive to Bank of America Stadium, and a 28-minute drive from where the new Panthers headquarters facility will be in Rock Hill, just off I-77. He was on US Airways Flight 1549 that went into the Hudson, so we're going to hear all about that. Both pilots had been in the airforce and both were glider pilots. Become a member today to get access. Brian Kelly: What do you see in five years, The Points Guy brand? While a publisher recommending a gadget on Amazon might earn a single-digit percentage of a shoppers purchase, the bounties paid to Red Ventures for directing a consumer to a Chase Visa Sapphire Reserve credit card or an American Express Rose Gold card can range from $300 to $900 per card. And many thanks to our guest, Ric Elias, co-founder and CEO of Red Ventures. Brian Kelly: Just the beginning, I can vouch for that. and our Its location has helped obscure what is perhaps the biggest digital publisher in America, a 4,500-employee juggernaut that says it has roughly $2 billion in annual revenues, a conservative valuation earlier this year of more than $11 billion, and more readers, as measured by Comscore, than any media brand youve ever heard of an average of 751 million visits a month. They entered the business of selling subscriptions for DirecTV and burglar alarms for ADT Security. WebRic Elias was given the gift of a miracle: to face near-certain death, and then to come back and live differently. It's a 100 miles x 35 and is very insular. He cofounded Red Ventures in 2000, just months before the dot-com bubble burst. Great gems here as a heart attack survivor I deeply relate. And I think, today, we have 30 brands. And I remember they were just like, "In 10 minutes, you've got to talk to this guy, Ric." She had just heard the captain say: "Brace for impact."