Financial summary

TweenTribune was a free site for teachers and students, monetized exclusively through advertising. Our primary ad partner was HotChalk, a…

TweenTribune was a free site for teachers and students, monetized exclusively through advertising. Our primary ad partner was HotChalk, a Silicon Valley education company. The numbers, from 2014:

Advertising revenue: $685,606

Expenses

  • $18,000: Associated Press subscription
  • $15,000: Development
  • $48,000: Hosting
  • $100,000: Salary

Net Profit: $479,000

Profit Margin: 73.6%

That 73.6% margin wasn’t theoretical — it was the lived operating reality of a site at scale, serving millions of students and teachers.

Risk awareness & due diligence
Because I had previously worked with for-profit education companies under Department of Education scrutiny, I was careful about compliance. I retained KelleyDrye, a premier K Street law firm, and paid thousands for a full operational review. Their conclusion: TweenTribune was operating fully within the law.

Why it matters
For VCs and partners, the number is just the headline. What it proves is:

  • I can design a lean, scalable business model.
  • I know when to bring in top counsel and invest in diligence.
  • I have first-hand experience running a high-margin, high-volume digital platform.
My name is Alan Jacobson. I'm a web developer, UI designer and AI systems architect.

I have 13 patent applications pending before the United States Patent and Trademark Office. They are designed to prevent the kinds of tragedies you can read about here.

I want to license my AI systems architecture to the major LLM platforms—ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude, Llama, Co‑Pilot, Apple Intelligence—at companies like Apple, Microsoft, Google, Amazon and Facebook.

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With those funds, I intend to stand up 1,414 local news operations across the United States to restore public safety and trust.

AI will be the most powerful force the world has ever seen.

A free, robust press is the only force that can hold it accountable.

You can reach me here.

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