For Alicia Morga, founding online advertising network Consorte Media Inc. not only represented a culmination of her careers in law, investment banking and venture capital, but a way to reconnect with her culture.

Consorte offers an advertising platform targeting the U.S. Hispanic market that includes a network of premium content sites, an extended advertising network of third-party content sites and targeted lead-generation services.

Morga's resume includes stints at Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati, Goldman Sachs & Co., Hummer Winblad Venture Partners and, most recently, the Carlyle Group's U.S. Venture Fund. "Without even knowing it, I was building toward entrepreneurship, which really requires the skills of all three careers," she says. "I found the perfect opportunity to bring together these skills and my personal passion for the Hispanic market."

Founded in 2005, Consorte in December announced a $7 million Series B led by new investor Sutter Hill Ventures. Returning investor Mayfield joined the round. With a replenished wallet for expanding Consorte's growing business, Morga recently answered a few questions from Tech Confidential.

How did you hit on the idea for an Hispanic ad network? 
When I was working as a venture capitalist covering online advertising, I witnessed how large brands were virtually ignoring the Hispanic market. And there are over 20 million Hispanics online in the U.S., so I was shocked that brands weren't paying attention to such an important demographic. Even if they did have Hispanic-focused advertising campaigns, they often just slapped up a Spanish-language ad on one Spanish-language site and thought that was enough.

I knew that with the right technology and approach, a company like Consorte could fill the gap and convince major advertisers that it is essential to connect with this incredibly rich and dynamic market online.

Consorte was launched in September 2007, more than two years after the company was founded. What did you do during that period of time?
I started Consorte in July 2005, bootstrapped it myself for awhile and then raised a first round of venture funding in November 2006. We spent the first 18 months hunkering down on our technology platform, signing up over 400 Hispanic-focused publishers to our ad network and attracting the first advertisers.  And when we felt the whole package was ready, we launched publicly in September 2007.

Aside from language, is there anything else that sets a Hispanic network apart from other ad networks?
Yes. One of the most common misconceptions we see in the marketplace is that Hispanic advertising is simply Spanish-language advertising, and that couldn't be further from the truth. Today's Hispanic consumer is not only tech-savvy and smart about being "marketed to," but is also more than just a Spanish speaker. In fact, through testing and analysis, we've found that for some types of campaigns, English-language ads that make a cultural reference are more effective with U.S. Hispanics than the same ad in Spanish.

Plus, the Hispanic market is incredibly diverse--from young Latinos in Los Angeles to third-generation Hispanic families in the New York--and no one message will resonate with the entire population.  If they truly want results, advertisers need to launch diverse, highly targeted campaigns for different segments of the Hispanic market.

How does Consorte generate revenue?
We generate revenue through the sale of display advertising on our network and through lead-generation campaigns for our direct marketing advertisers. 

How does your lead generation business work?
Consorte offers many different lead-generation programs. But the most common program would look something like this. An advertiser comes to us and says they want to generate subscriptions for a mobile phone service, or leads for qualified bilingual job candidates or applications for bank accounts. Consorte builds a "form" page for the advertiser to capture the data the advertiser requires, and then we drive traffic to the form page where a consumer enters their contact information. We then send the lead data in real-time to our advertiser. Consorte is paid on a per lead basis. And these per-lead fees vary widely by company and industry. 

For example, at the low end, you could build a program for $1 per lead, or on the higher end for $150 per lead. Also, as with all the campaigns we run for advertisers, Consorte is constantly testing and optimizing the performance of our lead-gen forms for maximum effectiveness.

How will you expand your business with Consorte's latest funding?
My top priority right now is to expand the Consorte team. It's a constant challenge keeping our staffing growth on pace with our sales growth.

How long until your next round?
As you mention above, we just closed a significant Series B round, so we aren't in the market for funding right now. Our main goal right now is to grow our business to keep up with demand.

Do Yahoo! and Google pose competition for Consorte?
What Consorte Media offers is complementary to Yahoo! or Google. Unlike these mega-advertising companies, however, Consorte is totally focused on the Hispanic market, and advertisers and publishers alike know we're committed to helping them successfully reach Hispanics online. Advertisers and publishers come to us because they know we offer both the online and cultural expertise they need to be successful in this highly important market.  - Olaf de Senerpont Domis

See Dec. 7 press release from Consorte Media