atonti (Annette Tonti)

Interests

large markets, mobile, online advertising, Start ups, the weather

Web Link

MoFuse

About Me

I am a serial entrepeneur, transplanted to RI in 1995. I live in Jamestown with my husband and 2 boxer dogs. I'm not really having fun unless I'm learning something completely new or putting myself on the edge of my abilities (like when I run!). That means I often find myself uncomfortable.

There is nothing more fun to me than figuring out which ideas are truly worthy of life. There are zillions of ideas out there (bet you had 4 or 5 this past week) but few worthy of evolution and even fewer individuals who dare to try to give them life. Must be my biology degree kicking in.

Currently Annette is CEO of MoFuse, Inc a fast growing mobile content publisher network. Previously she was Co-Founder and CEO of Bluestreak, Inc. where she built a company that was an early entrant in rich media advertising and online marketing technologies. Prior to Bluestreak she served as Executive Producer, Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Media Laboratory where she ran the Junior Summit, a global project that linked thousands of kids from around the world. Prior to MIT, Ms. Tonti was Vice President, Executive Director Vanguard, a global marketing and advisory service for senior executives. Earlier she was Vice President, CSC Partners where she ran operations for their fast growing telecommunications business and built the airport security system for the Honolulu International Airport.

Annette served on the board of the Harvard Business School’s Cyberposium for 2 years. She attended the University of Cincinnati and holds advanced degrees in Computer Science and Mathematics and a B.S. degree in Biological Sciences.

In 2000, Ms. Tonti received the Governor’s IT Achievement Award for Rhode Island. She was selected as a regional finalist for Ernst & Young’s Entrepreneur of the year award for 2002. In 2006 she was trained as a public messenger for Al Gore’s Climate Project. She currently serves on the board of The Dr. Martin Luther King Center in Newport, RI.

Recent Content

Title: MoFuse: A Blog in Every Pocket (Blog) Submitted: July 9th, 2008 - 3:41pm

Annette Tonti, CEO of MoFuse, Inc. found her 'next big thing' literally reading the February RI Nexus email newsletter. She will be presenting along with founder David Berube at next week's Providence Geeks Dinner, Wed. 16th 5:30-9pm. Details and RSVP here.

Taking a page from Oz, I sort of believed I had to look in some far off place to find my next entrepreneurial move. While I love RI and co-founded a online advertising company here called Bluestreak, I felt that I had to be in the 'digital-cool' places like New York, California, Austin or Boston for my next big thing. One day last February I was in the new Watertown, MA offices of Bluestreak when I saw the RI Nexus newsletter in my inbox. I actually don't remember signing up for it. I opened it expecting – well nothing – yet an icon in the upper left corner caught my eye. It was the logo for MoFuse. I clicked on it from that newsletter and the rest is history.

I met David for lunch – he brought his buddy Allan Tear - I thought they were both awesome… and wow Rhode Island entrepreneurs! I had been so head's down in Bluestreak that I had no idea that so much was going on here. David had already built a remarkable platform- better yet- he built it for the right reasons: he was annoyed by what wasn't available. He saw a problem and built a platform to solve it. What was a problem for him apparently was a problem for a lot of others out there. He's one in a million because he took steps to fix it! That takes guts, and I like that.

Speaking of millions er…billions – there are about 3.3 billion mobile phones out there. According to a recent Gartner report there are about 1 billion desktop computers. To further put the mobile market into perspective, there are 722 million cars worldwide and there are 1,067,610 people living in Rhode Island. The mobile market is large and getting larger, and new formats like the iPhone are getting people using the mobile web more frequently. For most people on the planet, their phone IS their computer.

MoFuse is focused on bloggers and their readers. With every new mobile site, there is a chance to monetize eyeballs. We are therefore building the next generation of niche mobile ad network. We are following the Feedburner model: build it yourself quickly and easily, share in the revenue, and get access to analytics. There are 120 million blogs worldwide and we think blogs are nicely consumed on a mobile device. Soon we'll be launching tools to integrate (hmmm, fuse…) the mobile and PC blog. Every week the word is getting out - MoFuse is mobile fusion for bloggers.

Join David and I next week at the last Providence Geeks Dinner of the Summer where we'll be sharing more about MoFuse including the exclusive scoop on our upcoming embedded video launch. Details and RSVP here. We'd love to see you!

Update: Just today, MoFuse landed Mashable - another major blog. Read about it at Mashable.com.