PATRICK GILDEA
CFO
GumGum
In 2019, GumGum was break-even and slowly growing. Patrick Gildea was the first hire of the new CEO and was brought in to help fundamentally change the business. Since joining GumGum, Gildea has built a three-year operating plan and acquisition playbook with the goal of tripling revenue by 2023 via both organic and inorganic strategies. From 2020, the company refocused its efforts by exiting underperforming markets, spinning out non-core businesses, and doubling down in its core ad market.
Gildea has been instrumental in driving the business using the ‘Rule of 40+’ to balance growth with profitability and cash generation. Over these past three years, GumGum achieved double-digit profitability for three years in a row, grew gaap revenue by nearly three times, acquired two companies that expanded global reach from five countries to 20, paid off all debt with a strong net cash position today, raised a $75 million growth round from Goldman Sachs, and secured $100 million line of credit from Citibank. Notably, the business has achieved these milestones while managing against several macro challenges plaguing the ad market, including the global pandemic and the current ad recession. GumGum, under Gildea’s financial leadership, became profitable, is well capitalized, and has built a strong financial leadership team working towards a potential public market listing in the next 24 months.
At GumGum, Gildea’s experience has been fundamental in helping to turn GumGum into a profitable and scaled business. His leadership has helped GumGum carefully right-size the business to meet the then-current market demands and reinvest to deliver profitable scale.
