With his undying passion for technology, Dominick Romano has carved a niche for himself in the Digital Advertising space. His tryst with the industry began when he started a Digital Advertising agency while studying in Middle School. He successfully scaled PremiumCPM into a Top 100 Programmatic Advertising Company in the world after passing out of college. In 2018, he also served as Interim COO of FRSH (an agency for intelligent voice applications) where he led the team to win a Red Herring Top 100 North America and Global. He founded drainpipe.io™, in 2020, which is an operating system of tools which essentially act as the quick books of a digital footprint. Excerpts from an interview:

Conception of drainpipe.io™

With his background in technology and business, Dominick anticipated a modern rush to store data and manage digital rights which can be easily tagged and maintained by AI in a secure and collaborative environment. “An easy to use, secured visual system for managing staggeringly large amounts of data, was needed, along with a simpler provisioning process. Comprehensive, unique configurations of accounts, and simple steps for adding integrations to enable data across multiple platforms were the need of the hour. Sanitized data lakes powering complex inferences and simple analytics too were in demand. One day a close friend who I least expected anything of, asked me what my dream was, at the right time, and offered to fund it, the rest as they say is history.”

Driving AI Predictions

Dominick notes that the art of engineering is about simplifying complex topics. “Analytic fidelity and Intelligence are paramount to being prepared as we enter the dawn of the AI Age.” drainpipe.io™ combines a unique approach of cutting-edge advancements in mathematics around number progression, and spatial algorithms in a patent-pending process to concurrently ingest and activate data in high-density storage. The platform then uniquely learns the fingerprint, evaluating results of new data for fidelity standards in real-time. “Eventually we deploy new intelligence in our complex inference engine. Inferences can reach high fidelities on data varying in quality and distribution, with low latency train times and responses, to activate mission critical workflows,” observes this technology enthusiast.

Mitigating AI Risk Factors

“The encroaching attack vectors of AI systems are more numerous than we can ever account for” says Dominick. He stresses on the need for organizations and governments alike to specify their principles first, and objectives second. “They should be compared, and leadership should be compelled to adjust their organization’s objectives before they compromise the integrity of their principles,’’ he notes. “Analytical cross department collaboration and communication are a central requirement for an organization’s AI objectives.”

Leadership Traits

Dominick believes in diving deep into any problem or topic. “I have a constant hunger for information, which will radically transform my understanding of life and the world around me. I prefer to be in the trenches with my incredible team and lead by example. Lastly, being confident by basis of fact, and being mindful to not allow cognitive bias to skew that.”

A Word of Advice

“Innovating is a chaotic place. It requires risk and it requires failures. It’s the boundary of what we know, and what we think is possible. To break beyond that is going into an unknown, hostile territory.” Noting that thought leaders and innovators need to accept failure as a necessary component of their success, Dominick urges young entrepreneurs not to be afraid of failure. “There is something to be learned in every failure, learn all you can, recalibrate, aim for small wins and stay relentless. Don’t follow the course of competition, be bold, and innovate. Avoid tailoring your business, strategy, services, or technology to attract venture capital investment. Find the room in an industry where no one is standing and start operating.”

The Success Mantra

“What I never expected in embarking on my professional journey was the level of personal impact and investment that would have to be made throughout the years. That personal investment goes far beyond how you feel, it impacts how you handle stress, and it enhances your understanding of emotional intelligence, which is vital in an emotionally charged era” signs of Dominick.