About Nick Grouf
The marketing company, Spot Runner, Inc., was cofounded by Nick
Grouf in 2005. Prior to working on this endeavor, Nick Grouf
successfully developed several other entrepreneurial projects.
Nick
Grouf graduated with honors from Yale University with a Bachelor of
Arts degree. He later completed a Master of Business Administration at
Harvard University. Currently, Mr. Grouf contributes to scholarship
funds at both schools to assist students who are interested in Social
Entrepreneurship and Public Health.
Nick Grouf held his first
post-collegiate job at the preeminent consulting firm McKinsey &
Company, where he served as a Business Analyst. During his time there,
Mr. Grouf worked with some of the largest consumer brands in the world.
He also advised clients on Mergers and Acquisitions at Goldman Sachs.
Since
1995, Mr. Grouf has focused his career to Internet technology. From
1995 to 1998, Mr. Grouf served as the cofounder, CEO, and Chairman of
the Firefly Network. This Internet pioneer helped inspire much of the
personalization technology that is available today, such as
collaborative filtering. Microsoft later bought the Firefly Network and
Firefly’s passport product was integrated into the technology .NET and
renamed Microsoft Passport. After the sale of Firefly, he helped oversee
privacy at Microsoft.
Mr. Grouf later founded PeoplePC, an
Internet service and computer provider that assisted numerous large
businesses, such as Ford, Delta Airlines and The New York Times. In
2002, the company was sold to Earthlink, Inc. After the sale, he served
as an Executive Vice President for Earthlink prior to working on John
Kerry’s presidential campaign.
