Mobile Posse, a McLean, Virginia-nased mobile advertising startup, has been in works for a while, and has raised about $1.5 million in funding (the money was raised in fall last year). WaPo has a short profile of then: The group, headed by former AOL executive Jon Jackson, includes Mark Ein of VentureHouse Group, Raul Fernandez, chairman of ObjectVideo, and two more former AOL executives, Jack Davies and Mark Walsh. From out of town, former NFL quarterback Bernie Kosar is an investor, as is Michael Rockefeller, who is on the board of Venrock Associates, the investment arm of the Rockefeller family.
It service: Users sign up to get Mobile Posse chips installed in their phones. On the main screen, a rotating series of ads from clients appear on the screen…the ad disappears as soon as the customer starts using the phone. The service is being tested by an Ohio phone carrier, Revol.