Solve Media, formerly AdCopy, launches in Philly (not New York)

For the executive team at Solve Media, this venture is just the latest chapter in a long partnership.
“At this point, we can finish each other’s sentences,” says Ari Jacoby, CEO and cofounder of Solve. Solve’s management team, which includes Stu Libby, Todd Lieberman, Max Sobol (founder of StartPhilly) and Jeffrey Weisberg, all formerly worked on VoiceStar, a Philadelphia-based call analytics company that was purchased by Marchex in 2007.
The band got back together for Solve Media, a new First Round Capital-backed startup with offices in Center City and in New York. The company’s first effort is TYPE-IN, a product that embeds advertisements in CAPTCHAs, drawing a mix of praise at the inventiveness and disdain at yet another vehicle for advertisers. Since launching yesterday, the company was featured in today’s Wall Street Journal, as well as in VentureBeat and Fast Company.
However, while each publication claims that the company is “New York based” most of its operations are right here.
“Philadelphia is the main engine of the business that is Solve Media,” says Jacoby. The company’s technology operations, customer services and publisher sales are based here while its advertising sales are 100 miles north.
As for the rebranding from “AdCopy” to Solve Media, Jacoby says that a lot of customers mistakingly thought that the company was freelance advertising copywriters so the company decided to switch gears just before launching yesterday.
“Because completing a TYPE-IN is really ‘solving’ a puzzle,” he says.
Disclosure: Technically Philly was approached as a possible partner for Solve Media.