At Weblogs, Inc. I had a Shawn Gold (who’s now at MySpace) to help build out a new medium (blogs) for advertisers. Shawn could effortlessly go into a huge advertiser or an ad agency and explain to them why the new medium was important and how they could get involved in a highly credible way. He did it for the web back in 96, he did it for blogs in 2005, and now he’s doing it for social media (i.e. MySpace) today.

At Silicon Alley Reporter I had the gothamgal who helped pioneer the concept of buying advertising for a dotcom magazine and email newsletter–again, something new and she was able to get marketers excited and on board for the long term. She made them partners.

I’m looking for someone similar right now. A “sales person” isn’t really the right title, it’s more like “visionary marketing person” to be honest. I need someone who can present new solutions to old friends in the industry and get their feedback. I need someone who knows how to partner with marketers–not sell them on something. I need someone who’s spoken at a couple of AdTechs, or maybe worked in the sales groups at Excite, Yahoo, GNN, Lycos, or DoubleClick.

If you’ve been working in the online advertising industry for 10 years and you know everyone in the industry ping me… I’ve got an amazing mission for you. My email is jason at calacanis dot com.

If you’ve got less than 10 years experience, or you’re just starting our, sit tight… I’ll have you in for coffee after I find my next Shawn Gold.

Note: I’m looking for someone in Los Angeles for this.