RYAN STEELBERG
CEO/PRESIDENT
VERITONE
WHY: Along with brother Chad, has co-founded two hit companies: dMarc Broadcasting was sold in 2006 to Google for $400M+ and web advertising firm AdForce was sold to CMGI Inc. for $500M. Now Ryan runs Veritone, which uses AI to generate information for advertisers. It began in Costa Mesa and now has HQ in Irvine. Says AI will be an integral part of movies, TV and other entertainment sectors. A key focus is on generative AI, a broad label that’s used to describe any type of artificial intelligence that can be used to create new text, images, video, audio, code or synthetic data. Market cap that once topped $1B now at $351M at press time.
IN THE NEWS: Ryan says Veritone is on the road to becoming profitable for the first time since its founding more than a decade ago. The firm has shifted from placing advertisements to using an operating system called aiWARE that employs artificial intelligence to analyze audio, video and text data. Veritone wins new contracts with the U.S. military. Visited President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago club to discuss the future of technology.
NOTABLE: Brothers began Veritone in 2014 in Newport Beach. The company went public in 2017, reaching almost $75 a share and a market cap that topped $1B. Chad resigned as CEO of Veritone in 2023, moving on to a new venture.
QUOTABLE: “We can confidently state that we’re back on the growing train right now. The business is no longer shrinking, and the most important thing is that the areas that are growing are the exciting core AI segments that have the largest pipeline.”
