Same boss, new job: Hulu’s former SVP of advertising Jean-Paul “JP” Colaco just took a position at the Fremont Project, the new stealth startup headed up by Hulu’s founding CEO Jason Kilar and ex-Hulu CTO Richard Tom. Colaco’s departure from Hulu was announced earlier this month, but at the time, interim Hulu CEO Andy Forssell only said that he was going to “pursue one of a few new startup opportunities he has in front of him.”
Colaco joined Hulu early on, when the company still didn’t have a name (and us journalists jumped on the opportunity to call them ClownCo). He was instrumental to the company’s ad business, with Forssell writing earlier this month on Hulu’s blog:
“He drove much of the innovation in advertising that Hulu has become known for — including Ad Swap, Ad Selector, and 100% Completion Rate. Most importantly, JP has hired and mentored one of the most talented ad sales teams in the business. ”
Colaco is joining the Fremont Project as SVP of advertising and business development, so he will have the opportunity to repeat that success story at Kilar’s startup. We don’t quite know yet what Colaco will be selling ads against, though. The Fremont Project unveiled its name, and little else, earlier this month, and its website only states that it wants to “build something great,” whatever that means. Oh, and it is looking to hire.
We probably shouldn’t be too surprised to see more talent defect from Hulu to Freemont, especially after the company just made Fox executive Mike Hopkins its new CEO. Hulu had named Forssell, who had long acted as Kilar’s right hand, interim CEO after Kilar left the company in March, and many within the company had expected that he would eventually become Hulu’s permanent CEO.
Add the continuing confusion about Hulu’s future to the mix, and jumping ship to a startup run by the same people that you used to work with during better times may sound like a pretty good idea.
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