Sep 5, 2022 · 48m · neon-show
The Playbook To Build 2000Cr+ Revenue SaaS Company, Ft. Oren Kaniel, Founder-AppsFlyer
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gold bands on the timeline = statements, start to end. Hover to read, click to jump. CC turns on captions
In this episode of the 100x Entrepreneur podcast, AppsFlyer founder and CEO Oren Kaniel shares his comprehensive playbook for scaling a B2B SaaS company past $300M ARR, highlighting value-first monetization, customer obsession, and the importance of platform neutrality.
How this conversation actually went
Every chapter scored 0–10 on four independent dynamics. Hover any point for the reasoning behind the score. How this is scored →
Siddhartha as informed peer 1.6 Guest teaching 4.2 Guest disagreement 1.3 Siddhartha pushing back 0.1
speaking balance: gold is Siddhartha, purple is the guest (3 minute bins)
Sharpest disagreement ▶ 9:28 Correcting false premise about moving to SF
Kaniel immediately and firmly corrects the host's premise that he relocated AppsFlyer's headquarters to San Francisco, clarifying that he remained in Israel.
Hardest push from Siddhartha ▶ 25:15 Host pushes his own recollection of pricingThe host steps in to challenge the abstract pricing narrative by quoting his direct experience as an AppsFlyer customer paying specific cost-per-install margins.
Biggest teaching moment ▶ 10:25 Educating host on Asian mobile adoption dynamicsKaniel schools the host with counterintuitive research data showing that Asian mobile devices had higher or equal lifetime value compared to US devices despite lower per-capita GDP.
Siddhartha holds their own ▶ 25:15 Host demonstrates hands-on domain familiarityThe host demonstrates credible product domain knowledge by recounting exact technical pricing tiers from running his own startup with AppsFlyer back in 2015.
the scores for every segment, with the reasoning behind each
| Chapter | Topic | Siddhartha as informed peer | Guest teaching | Guest disagreement | Siddhartha pushing back | Why |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Redefining Entrepreneurship and the Founder Mindset | 2 | 6 | 3 | 0 | When the host asks standard questions about moving from VC to founding a company, Kaniel immediately pushes back on the conventional definition of entrepreneurship, stating that people fundamentally misunderstand the term. | |
| The Genesis of AppsFlyer: Solving Attribution in Mobile's Gold Rush | 1 | 3 | 0 | 0 | Kaniel recounts his MBA experience, the realization of the mobile shift, and identifying the need for an unbiased measurement platform in a wild-west ad market while the host listens attentively. | |
| Building from Israel and Capitalizing on the Asian Mobile Boom | 2 | 7 | 3 | 0 | Kaniel corrects the host's false premise that he relocated to San Francisco, clarifying he stayed based in Israel. He then educates the host with surprising data showing mobile LTV in Asian markets outpaced Western markets. | |
| Reaching $300M ARR and Global Market Distribution | 2 | 5 | 1 | 0 | In response to scaling questions, Kaniel explains why focusing on VC decks was counterproductive compared to customer obsession and product value, sharing that revenue was initially treated as secondary. | |
| Sponsor Segment: Zoho Payroll on Future HR Tech Trends | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | Short mid-roll sponsor interview segment featuring Prashant Kanti discussing emerging payroll and fintech trends. | |
| Aligning Value Creation with Sustainable Monetization | 2 | 4 | 1 | 0 | Kaniel elaborates on the philosophical transition of revenue from a simple validation metric in early stages to a tool that finances large-scale innovation in later stages. | |
| Attribution Pricing Strategy and Maintaining Unbiased Independence | 5 | 4 | 2 | 1 | The host cites his firsthand experience using AppsFlyer and attempts to quote their historical cost-per-install pricing. Kaniel clarifies that their software fee was significantly lower than the host recalled to maintain strict neutrality. | |
| Early Go-to-Market Tactics, Lead Selection, and Key Hires | 2 | 6 | 1 | 0 | Kaniel provides unconventional go-to-market lessons, including intentionally dropping 50 percent of customer leads to avoid being overwhelmed and listing AppsFlyer as a competitor on Crunchbase. | |
| Company Culture, Decision Frameworks, and Business Invariants | 1 | 5 | 2 | 0 | When the host asks for company headcount, Kaniel redirects the conversation to corporate culture and explains AppsFlyer's framework of invariant business principles. | |
| The Consumer Protection Triangle and Loving the Problem | 0 | 5 | 1 | 0 | Kaniel delivers an uninterrupted monologue on balancing the consumer triangle of privacy, user experience, and safety, urging founders to love problems rather than their own solutions. | |
| Podcast Conclusion and Farewell | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | Brief outro where the host thanks Kaniel and closes the podcast. |
Statements from this episode (10)
Kaniel: Early mobile ecosystem lacked independent app attribution providers
“The second thing that I noticed was wild west of companies, 100,000 of companies with a lot of conflicting interest. And I couldn't find even one company to entirely represent the app developer and that the company that is independent and unbiased some sort of…”
Kaniel: Asian mobile device lifetime value matched or exceeded the US
“A couple of years ago, we've done a research about lifetime value per device, and we found that an average device in Asia actually have more lifetime Kind of lifetime value per device in Asia than in the U S or equal.”
Kaniel: Early Asian e-commerce was 90% mobile compared to 20% in US
“We saw in Asia, 90%, 90% is coming from mobile, 90% is coming from mobile application, while in the U.S. It was only only 20.”
Kaniel: AppsFlyer founders started with zero digital advertising or marketing knowledge
“We started without knowing anything about digital ecosystem or advertising or marketing or applications. So we learned everything from the customer.”
Kaniel: Early AppsFlyer skipped charging customers because setting up payments was hard
“And we thought to ourselves, okay, it doesn't deliver much value to customers to actually charge them. So let's not charge them. So there is a pricing, but we didn't bother to charge because we didn't have the ability to charge.”
Kaniel: Refusing to become a data broker fueled AppsFlyer's long-term success
“I think that staying independent and staying unbiased is something that Actually what built this company and, you know, staying away of you know, S being a data broker or selling media or licensing me selling data or licensing data and all that kind of stuff t…”
Kaniel: Early AppsFlyer bought two-dollar AdWords coupons on eBay to dominate search
“I remember that I bought Google AdWords coupons on eBay so you can buy a hundred dollars and two dollars. So that's quite a good business. So you buy in two dollars, you buy a hundred dollars was enough for us to buy the words mobile attribution for almost a w…”
Kaniel: AppsFlyer built customer support before hiring anyone for marketing or sales
“The first department that we officially built was customer service and customer support. We didn't have marketing. We didn't have sales. We didn't have anything. We had customer success, R and D. This is what we had R and D and customer success. And the last d…”
Kaniel: Company culture is an irreversible process that is incredibly hard to change
“Company culture is at least in, in my opinion is kind of an irreversible process. So it starts when you start the company. It never ends and it's really, really hard to change backwards. You can evolve it. But it's hard to change.”