828: AdTech: MobFox Acquired for $14m by Matomy, Now $36m+ in Ad Spend Annually

Gil Klein from MobFox where he’s the managing director and a C-level executive at Matomy Media Group. Having joined the company in 2006, he’s been the member of the executive management team since 2014. He previously served as senior VP of media and senior VP of clients for this particular group. He holds an MBA in International Management from the College of Management in Israel.

Famous Five:

• Favorite Book? – Good to Great
• What CEO do you follow? – Brian O’Kelley
• Favorite online tool? — LinkedIn
• How many hours of sleep do you get?— 5.5
• If you could let your 20-year old self, know one thing, what would it be? – Travel even more than you already have, experiment, take a lot of risks and spend as much time as you can with your family

Time Stamped Show Notes:

• 01:57 – Nathan introduces Gil to the show
• 02:30 – Matomy is a global performance company that holds a few entities
• 02:44 – Gil personally runs and oversees MobFox, which is an mobile in-app audience SSP acquired by Matomy in 2014
  • 03:15 – The acquisition was for $12M in cash
• 03:30 – Gil was with Matomy since 2006 and he helped the company grow
• 04:00 – MobFox makes money when their clients make money
• 04:17 – The tools of MobFox are usually for the developers and publishers focused on the in-app space
• 04:48 – MobFox tries to contact the best demand partners in the space like YuMe, AppNexus and PocketMath
• 05:50 – In 2015, MobFox generated $18M of the transaction volume
  • 06:10 – MobFox’s charges depend on the deals they have
• 06:32 – MobFox usually keeps 17-20% of the transaction
• 06:56 – MobFox has grown to 36%
• 07:09 – Gil believes that MobFox is currently in a great space
• 07:51 – In 2017, Gil’s goal is to stretch as much as he can
• 08:21 – MobFox is currently working with 20-30K publishers, 4K are SDK-based
• 09:13 – MobFox currently has 180 DSP (Demand Side Platforms)
  • 09:35 – A single DSP can have a thousand advertisers
  • 09:42 – “We connect to a programmatic player”
• 10:00 – Current headcount of MobFox is 73-74
  • 10:11 – 50 are engineers and the rest in sales, retention, HR and finance
  • 10:26 – MobFox team is global
• 11:29 – Gil can and will do anything to get new customers, like suddenly showing up with presents and asking for a meeting
  • 12:23 – “I try to listen to the customer”
• 13:15 – The Famous Five

3 Key Points:

1. Set numbers for your goals, but aim to SURPASS those numbers.
2. Find the best partnerships that you can where you can mutually benefit each other.
3. Don’t hesitate to TAKE risks!

Resources Mentioned:

• Simplero – The easiest way to launch your own membership course like the big influencers do but at 1/10th the cost.
• The Top Inbox – The site Nathan uses to schedule emails to be sent later, set reminders in inbox, track opens, and follow-up with email sequences
• GetLatka - Database of all B2B SaaS companies who have been on my show including their revenue, CAC, churn, ARPU and more
• Klipfolio – Track your business performance across all departments for FREE
• Hotjar – Nathan uses Hotjar to track what you’re doing on this site. He gets a video of each user visit like where they clicked and scrolled to make the site a better experience
• Acuity Scheduling – Nathan uses Acuity to schedule his podcast interviews and appointments
• Host Gator– The site Nathan uses to buy his domain names and hosting for the cheapest price possible
• Audible– Nathan uses Audible when he’s driving from Austin to San Antonio (1.5-hour drive) to listen to audio books
• Show Notes provided by Mallard Creatives