Spot Runner allowed businesses to buy a pre-produced television ad, customize it, set a budget and target specific markets through an automated online system. The company developed an algorithm which recommended where to place ads to maximize effectiveness, allowing business to target even small neighborhoods. Accomplished through a web-interface, the process took days rather than months, and advertising costs were significantly reduced. In 2006 Fast Company wrote: "In other words, the pair wedded the democratic spirit that underpinned PeoplePC to a variation on the recommendation engine that powered Firefly. Call it Google AdWords for TV. And while Grouf and Waxman would be quick to tell you that their mission is to make TV advertising affordable to everyone, in delivering this level of efficiency, transparency, and control to the messy old-school world of TV ads, they may actually be onto something much bigger. If you thought the ad world was under siege already, just wait until you see the havoc these geeks may wreak." In Mashable, Pete Cashmore wrote "Spot Runner is a huge, huge, HUGE idea."
