# Tim Vanderhook
> Co-founder, Chairman & CEO at viant technology
- Profile type: Person
- Profile status: baseline
- Last updated: 2026-05-03T00:00:00.000Z
- Canonical URL: https://thestateofstreaming.com/people/tim-vanderhook/
- Also known as: Timothy Vanderhook
## Summary
Tim Vanderhook is co-founder, chairman, and CEO of Viant Technology (NASDAQ: DSP), the independent AI-powered DSP he started with brothers Chris and Russell in 1999 as Specific Media and took public in February 2021. He is driving Viant's identity-context-attention strategy via the IRIS.TV (2024) and TVision Insights (announced 2026) acquisitions.

## Profile facts

- Current title: Co-founder, Chairman & CEO
- Current company: viant technology (https://thestateofstreaming.com/companies/viant-technology/)


## Career trajectory

- 1999-07-01 — Co-founder & CEO at viant-technology. Founded Specific Media in Irvine, California with brothers Chris and Russell Vanderhook. The bootstrapped business grew into one of the largest independent online ad networks of the 2000s.
- 2010-10-28 — CEO, Specific Media (acquires BBE / Vindico video stack) at viant-technology. Specific Media acquired digital-video network Broadband Enterprises (BBE) in October 2010, the asset that became the Vindico video ad-serving platform within the holding company.
- 2011-06-29 — CEO, Specific Media (acquires MySpace) at viant-technology. Led Specific Media's June 2011 acquisition of MySpace from News Corp, reported at roughly $35M, with Justin Timberlake taking an ownership stake.
- 2015-01-14 — CEO, Viant (parent rebrand from Interactive Media Holdings) at viant-technology. Parent company Interactive Media Holdings — the umbrella over Specific Media, Vindico, MySpace, and Xumo — rebranded as Viant in January 2015 and packaged the assets into a unified ad-tech stack.
- 2020-02-25 — Co-founder, Xumo (sold to Comcast) at viant-technology. Xumo, the free ad-supported streaming joint venture co-founded by the Vanderhooks, was acquired by Comcast in February 2020. Reported price exceeded $100M; Xumo continued as an independent business inside Comcast.
- 2021-02-10 — CEO & Chairman, Viant Technology Inc. (NASDAQ IPO) at viant-technology. Took Viant Technology public on Nasdaq under ticker DSP on February 10, 2021. Shares opened at $44 against a $25 IPO price and closed the first day at $47.72.
- 2024-11-06 — CEO, Viant Technology (acquires IRIS.TV) at viant-technology. Closed Viant's first acquisition as a public company — CTV content-data platform IRIS.TV — adding the IRIS_ID contextual identifier alongside Viant's Household ID.
- 2026-04-15 — CEO, Viant Technology (announces TVision acquisition) at viant-technology. Announced definitive agreement to acquire attention-measurement vendor TVision Insights for $40M ($22.5M cash + $17.5M Class A stock), completing the identity-context-attention stack inside the DSP. Deal expected to close Q2 2026.


## Media appearances

- 2025-05-27 — podcast: Context(ual) Switching, With Viant CEO Tim Vanderhook, AdExchanger Talks (https://www.adexchanger.com/adexchanger-talks/contextual-switching-with-viant-ceo-tim-vanderhook/)
- 2022-09-19 — video: How To Solve CTV Ad Duplication: Viant's Vanderhook, Beet.TV (https://www.beet.tv/2022/09/how-to-solve-ctv-ad-duplication-viants-vanderhook.html)

_This page uses only public-professional information (roles, public statements, media appearances, SEC filings)._

## Key facts

- Tim Vanderhook is co-founder, chairman, and CEO of Viant Technology (NASDAQ: DSP), which he co-founded with his brother Chris Vanderhook and took public in 2021. — Viant Technology Investor Relations — Management: https://investors.viantinc.com/management/tim-vanderhook/
- Vanderhook founded Specific Media in 1999 in Irvine, California with brothers Chris and Russell Vanderhook; the parent rebranded as Viant in January 2015 and the company went public on Nasdaq under ticker DSP on February 10, 2021. — AdExchanger — "Interactive Media Holdings Rebrands As 'Viant'": https://www.adexchanger.com/ad-exchange-news/interactive-media-holdings-rebrands-as-viant-unleashes-an-advertising-cloud/
- Vanderhook and his brother Chris are identified in Viant's S-1 prospectus as part of "the Vanderhook Parties," the principal equityholders of Viant Technology LLC prior to the IPO and of Viant Technology Inc. after. — Viant Technology S-1 (SEC EDGAR): https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1828791/000119312521009504/d88953ds1.htm
- Vanderhook co-founded Xumo, the free ad-supported streaming service Comcast acquired in February 2020 for a reported $100M+. — CNBC — Comcast acquires Xumo: https://www.cnbc.com/2020/02/25/comcast-to-buy-xumo-for-ad-supported-streaming-service-and-technology.html
- Under Vanderhook's leadership, Viant generated $344.2M in fiscal 2025 revenue (up 19% YoY) with Connected TV reaching a record 46% of platform ad spend in Q3 2025. — Viant Technology Q3 2025 Press Release: https://www.viantinc.com/company/news/press-releases/viant-technology-announces-third-quarter-2025-financial-results/


## Related

- viant technology (Co-founder) — https://thestateofstreaming.com/companies/viant-technology/
- chris vanderhook (Brother and Viant Technology co-founder & COO) — https://thestateofstreaming.com/people/chris-vanderhook/
- iris tv (Acquired by Viant under Vanderhook in November 2024) — https://thestateofstreaming.com/companies/iris-tv/
- tvision insights (Pending Viant subsidiary (acquisition announced April 2026)) — https://thestateofstreaming.com/companies/tvision-insights/
- dsp (Category Vanderhook's company anchors) — https://thestateofstreaming.com/tech/dsp/


## External coverage

- Viant Technology Inc.: Tim Vanderhook — Viant Technology Investor Relations (https://investors.viantinc.com/management/tim-vanderhook/)
- Viant Technology Inc.: Tim Vanderhook — Viant Technology team page (https://www.viantinc.com/company/team/tim-vanderhook/)
- 2021-01-15 — U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission: Viant Technology S-1 Registration Statement (https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1828791/000119312521009504/d88953ds1.htm)
- 2025-05-27 — AdExchanger: Context(ual) Switching, With Viant CEO Tim Vanderhook (https://www.adexchanger.com/adexchanger-talks/contextual-switching-with-viant-ceo-tim-vanderhook/)
- Beet.TV: Tim Vanderhook coverage archive (https://www.beet.tv/tag/tim-vanderhook)
- Variety: Tim Vanderhook — Variety executive profile (https://variety.com/exec/tim-vanderhook/)
- AdExchanger: Tim Vanderhook coverage archive (https://www.adexchanger.com/tag/tim-vanderhook/)
- 2026-04-16 — AdExchanger: Viant Probably Wouldn't Have Acquired TVision If It Hadn't Bought IRIS.TV First (https://www.adexchanger.com/tv/viant-probably-wouldnt-have-acquired-tvision-if-it-hadnt-bought-iris-tv-first/)

## Profile
Tim Vanderhook is the founder-CEO at the center of one of independent ad-tech's longest-running family stories. He started [Specific Media](https://www.adexchanger.com/ad-exchange-news/interactive-media-holdings-rebrands-as-viant-unleashes-an-advertising-cloud/) in Irvine, California in 1999 with his brothers Chris and Russell, bought [MySpace from News Corp in 2011](https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20110629006936/en/Specific-Media-Acquires-Myspace) for roughly $35 million alongside Justin Timberlake, [rebranded the holding company as Viant in 2015](https://www.adexchanger.com/ad-exchange-news/interactive-media-holdings-rebrands-as-viant-unleashes-an-advertising-cloud/), and [took Viant Technology public on Nasdaq](https://www.cnbc.com/2021/02/10/viant-dsp-ipo-shares-surge-90percent.html) under ticker DSP in February 2021 — a 22-year arc with the same two founders still at the wheel.

The 2026 thesis Vanderhook is executing against is identity-plus-context-plus-attention inside a single DSP. The November 2024 acquisition of [IRIS.TV](https://investors.viantinc.com/news-releases/news-release-details/viant-technology-announces-acquisition-iristv) — Viant's first deal as a public company — added the IRIS_ID contextual identifier alongside the Household ID Viant has run on since the Adelphic acquisition. The April 2026 [agreement to acquire TVision Insights](https://www.viantinc.com/company/news/press-releases/viant-announces-agreement-to-acquire-tvision-strengthening-its-ai-powered-programmatic-platform/) for $40 million pulls eyes-on-screen attention measurement inside the platform. As Vanderhook framed it on the deal call: "While our competitors measure themselves, Viant measures the market."
## Coverage on The State of Streaming
- [Cognition Is the New Currency Layer for CTV Ads](https://thestateofstreaming.com/measurement-data/2026/05/cognition-attention-currency-ctv-ads/) — 2026-05-03
- [The State of Streaming Has a Cognition Gap That's Already Repricing CTV Ads](https://thestateofstreaming.com/measurement-data/2026/05/state-of-streaming-cognition-gap-conviva-ads/) — 2026-05-03
- ['Independent' Has Stopped Meaning Anything Buyers Can Audit](https://thestateofstreaming.com/opinion/2026/04/independent-adtech-stack-walled-garden-thesis-2/) — 2026-04-27
- ['Independent' Has Stopped Meaning Anything Buyers Can Audit](https://thestateofstreaming.com/opinion/2026/04/independent-adtech-stack-walled-garden-thesis/) — 2026-04-27
- [Viant Pulls TVision Inside the DSP, Collapsing the Neutral Attention Layer](https://thestateofstreaming.com/measurement-data/2026/04/viant-tvision-attention-currency-acquisition/) — 2026-04-26

## Tags

- executive
- ad-tech
- ctv
- dsp
- founder
- public-company-ceo

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