Adtech veteran with 20+ years of sell-side experience joins Firsthand to help publishers take back control of audience relationships with AI agents.

Firsthand, the AI-powered Brand Agent platform transforming how brands attract and engage consumers, has hired Andrew Rutledge as CRO, Publishers to accelerate the company’s sell-side go-to-market efforts.

I’m excited to help Firsthand’s publisher partners harness AI to navigate this next wave of transformation and drive long-term growth.”
— Andrew Rutledge, CRO at Firsthand

Firsthand, which announced a $26M Series A round earlier this month, is already helping some of the world’s largest publishers drive revenue by using AI to surface the most relevant content to readers, bolster affiliate commerce or subscription goals, and power new advertising experiences. Rutledge will expand the company’s sell-side go-to-market, helping publishers take back control of their audience relationships by putting cutting-edge AI in their hands.

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“AI is reshaping how consumers interact with content, creating major opportunities for publishers to strengthen audience relationships while driving revenue,” Rutledge said. “I’ve seen monumental shifts like these before and helped publishers build sustainable business models in response. I’m excited to help Firsthand’s publisher partners harness AI to navigate this next wave of transformation and drive long-term growth.”

Rutledge, a multi-time CRO and publisher adtech pioneer, has played a pivotal role in shaping the modern publisher ecosystem through leadership roles at AppNexus, Yieldex, PubMatic, and DoubleClick. With deep expertise in media monetization and innovation, he has a proven track record of scaling businesses and driving success for top publishers. At Firsthand, he will spearhead AI adoption among publishers seeking to build sustainable revenue streams.

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“Andrew is the ideal person to help Firsthand’s publisher partners deploy AI Brand Agents to drive growth,” said Michael Rubenstein, co-CEO and co-founder of Firsthand. “He has an unparalleled passion for helping publishers to adopt industry-leading technologies and has spent his career demonstrating that. He also shares Firsthand’s passion for AI and its transformative potential for publishers. Having seen publisher tech evolve over the past 20 years, Andrew is in a unique position to help publishers build new and sustainable growth drivers with this latest wave of transformational technology.”