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Aug 16, 2023 · 17m · top-founders

Airtory Did $120k Last Month, Profitable with ad creation and management tool

Julian Frockman · 8m spoken Nathan Latka · 5m spoken
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gold bands on the timeline = statements, start to end. Hover to read, click to jump. CC turns on captions

Julian Frockman, co-founder of Airtory, joins Nathan Latka to discuss how the adtech platform reached profitability and $120,000 in monthly revenue through usage-based impression pricing and capital-efficient operations.

How this conversation actually went

Every chapter scored 0–10 on four independent dynamics. Hover any point for the reasoning behind the score. Nathan holds 37.9% of the talking time here. How this is scored →

Nathan as informed peer 5.2 Guest teaching 3.6 Guest disagreement 2.0 Nathan pushing back 3.8
05100:0010:001:38–3:58 · Nathan as informed peer 5/10 Airtory Customer Use Cases and Account Economics Nathan probes into Airtory's economics and customer accounts, asking whether their top customer can reach $1M ACV. Julian explains that revenue expansion is tied to the client's internal sales velocity rather than Airtory's direct upsells.3:58–6:58 · Nathan as informed peer 7/10 Usage-Based Pricing and White-Label Monetization Model Nathan pushes Julian on designing a pricing model to capture upside, insisting on identifying value metrics. Julian pushes back against standard SaaS dogma, explaining that forcing SaaS structures onto ad tech impression businesses is flawed.6:59–12:13 · Nathan as informed peer 6/10 Early Funding History and Offshore Engineering Operations Nathan digs into Julian's previous venture at Perk.com, calling out co-founder names from research and probing why Julian took outside capital instead of self-funding. Julian candidly details how his equity got diluted and crammed down.12:13–15:05 · Nathan as informed peer 6/10 Profitability, Expansion Metrics, and Roll-Up Acquisition Plans Nathan runs ARPU calculations on Airtory's 60 customers against $120k monthly revenue. Julian outlines his appetite for non-dilutive capital to execute competitor roll-up acquisitions.15:05–16:18 · Nathan as informed peer 2/10 The Famous Five Rapid-Fire Questions Nathan runs through the standard Famous Five rapid-fire questions, clarifying Julian's book choice and family details with minimal friction.1:38–3:58 · Guest teaching 4/10 Airtory Customer Use Cases and Account Economics Nathan probes into Airtory's economics and customer accounts, asking whether their top customer can reach $1M ACV. Julian explains that revenue expansion is tied to the client's internal sales velocity rather than Airtory's direct upsells.3:58–6:58 · Guest teaching 6/10 Usage-Based Pricing and White-Label Monetization Model Nathan pushes Julian on designing a pricing model to capture upside, insisting on identifying value metrics. Julian pushes back against standard SaaS dogma, explaining that forcing SaaS structures onto ad tech impression businesses is flawed.6:59–12:13 · Guest teaching 4/10 Early Funding History and Offshore Engineering Operations Nathan digs into Julian's previous venture at Perk.com, calling out co-founder names from research and probing why Julian took outside capital instead of self-funding. Julian candidly details how his equity got diluted and crammed down.12:13–15:05 · Guest teaching 3/10 Profitability, Expansion Metrics, and Roll-Up Acquisition Plans Nathan runs ARPU calculations on Airtory's 60 customers against $120k monthly revenue. Julian outlines his appetite for non-dilutive capital to execute competitor roll-up acquisitions.15:05–16:18 · Guest teaching 1/10 The Famous Five Rapid-Fire Questions Nathan runs through the standard Famous Five rapid-fire questions, clarifying Julian's book choice and family details with minimal friction.1:38–3:58 · Guest disagreement 2/10 Airtory Customer Use Cases and Account Economics Nathan probes into Airtory's economics and customer accounts, asking whether their top customer can reach $1M ACV. Julian explains that revenue expansion is tied to the client's internal sales velocity rather than Airtory's direct upsells.3:58–6:58 · Guest disagreement 4/10 Usage-Based Pricing and White-Label Monetization Model Nathan pushes Julian on designing a pricing model to capture upside, insisting on identifying value metrics. Julian pushes back against standard SaaS dogma, explaining that forcing SaaS structures onto ad tech impression businesses is flawed.6:59–12:13 · Guest disagreement 2/10 Early Funding History and Offshore Engineering Operations Nathan digs into Julian's previous venture at Perk.com, calling out co-founder names from research and probing why Julian took outside capital instead of self-funding. Julian candidly details how his equity got diluted and crammed down.12:13–15:05 · Guest disagreement 1/10 Profitability, Expansion Metrics, and Roll-Up Acquisition Plans Nathan runs ARPU calculations on Airtory's 60 customers against $120k monthly revenue. Julian outlines his appetite for non-dilutive capital to execute competitor roll-up acquisitions.15:05–16:18 · Guest disagreement 1/10 The Famous Five Rapid-Fire Questions Nathan runs through the standard Famous Five rapid-fire questions, clarifying Julian's book choice and family details with minimal friction.1:38–3:58 · Nathan pushing back 3/10 Airtory Customer Use Cases and Account Economics Nathan probes into Airtory's economics and customer accounts, asking whether their top customer can reach $1M ACV. Julian explains that revenue expansion is tied to the client's internal sales velocity rather than Airtory's direct upsells.3:58–6:58 · Nathan pushing back 6/10 Usage-Based Pricing and White-Label Monetization Model Nathan pushes Julian on designing a pricing model to capture upside, insisting on identifying value metrics. Julian pushes back against standard SaaS dogma, explaining that forcing SaaS structures onto ad tech impression businesses is flawed.6:59–12:13 · Nathan pushing back 5/10 Early Funding History and Offshore Engineering Operations Nathan digs into Julian's previous venture at Perk.com, calling out co-founder names from research and probing why Julian took outside capital instead of self-funding. Julian candidly details how his equity got diluted and crammed down.12:13–15:05 · Nathan pushing back 3/10 Profitability, Expansion Metrics, and Roll-Up Acquisition Plans Nathan runs ARPU calculations on Airtory's 60 customers against $120k monthly revenue. Julian outlines his appetite for non-dilutive capital to execute competitor roll-up acquisitions.15:05–16:18 · Nathan pushing back 2/10 The Famous Five Rapid-Fire Questions Nathan runs through the standard Famous Five rapid-fire questions, clarifying Julian's book choice and family details with minimal friction.

speaking balance: gold is Nathan, purple is the guest (3 minute bins)

0:00 · Nathan 60.7% · guest 39.3%0:00 · Nathan 60.7% · guest 39.3%3:00 · Nathan 26.6% · guest 73.4%3:00 · Nathan 26.6% · guest 73.4%6:00 · Nathan 30.4% · guest 69.6%6:00 · Nathan 30.4% · guest 69.6%9:00 · Nathan 22% · guest 78%9:00 · Nathan 22% · guest 78%12:00 · Nathan 34% · guest 66%12:00 · Nathan 34% · guest 66%15:00 · Nathan 64.7% · guest 35.3%15:00 · Nathan 64.7% · guest 35.3%
Sharpest disagreement ▶ 4:40 Julian rejects SaaS framing for ad tech

Julian rejects the host's premise that they should optimize for SaaS structures, calling out industry peers who lock clients into artificial SaaS minimums just to manipulate valuation multiples.

 Hardest push from Nathan ▶ 3:58 Nathan insists on identifying growth pricing levers

Nathan interrupts Julian to assert that founders frequently fail to capture client upside, demanding to know the exact utilization metric being monetized.

 Biggest teaching moment ▶ 5:00 Julian explains impression-based delivery economics

Julian educates Nathan on why impression volume CPMs represent the true reality of ad tech utility compared to misleading SaaS contracts.

 Nathan holds their own ▶ 8:42 Nathan exposes co-founder equity dispute

Nathan leverages outside research on Perk.com's founding team to challenge Julian on why his name was sidelined, successfully eliciting the backstory on cap table dilution.
the scores for every segment, with the reasoning behind each
ChapterTopicNathan as informed peerGuest teachingGuest disagreementNathan pushing backWhy
Airtory Customer Use Cases and Account Economics 5423 Nathan probes into Airtory's economics and customer accounts, asking whether their top customer can reach $1M ACV. Julian explains that revenue expansion is tied to the client's internal sales velocity rather than Airtory's direct upsells.
Usage-Based Pricing and White-Label Monetization Model 7646 Nathan pushes Julian on designing a pricing model to capture upside, insisting on identifying value metrics. Julian pushes back against standard SaaS dogma, explaining that forcing SaaS structures onto ad tech impression businesses is flawed.
Early Funding History and Offshore Engineering Operations 6425 Nathan digs into Julian's previous venture at Perk.com, calling out co-founder names from research and probing why Julian took outside capital instead of self-funding. Julian candidly details how his equity got diluted and crammed down.
Profitability, Expansion Metrics, and Roll-Up Acquisition Plans 6313 Nathan runs ARPU calculations on Airtory's 60 customers against $120k monthly revenue. Julian outlines his appetite for non-dilutive capital to execute competitor roll-up acquisitions.
The Famous Five Rapid-Fire Questions 2112 Nathan runs through the standard Famous Five rapid-fire questions, clarifying Julian's book choice and family details with minimal friction.

Statements from this episode (14)

Disclosure
Arena Group pays Airtory $5,000 to $8,000 per month
“So for them, I would say we're probably at like five to 8000 per month.”
Julian Frockman Aug 16, 2023 ▶ 2:47
Disclosure
Top Airtory customer pays $60k-$70k monthly, skewing $4k-$8k average
“We have one customer that I can't mention necessarily that's 60 to 70,000 per month, right? But I would say on average, it's like four to 8000.”
Julian Frockman Aug 16, 2023 ▶ 3:06
Prediction Not checkable as stated
Airtory's largest client will likely reach $1M ACV in 1-2 years
“I think we can, but I think, you know, the interesting thing about our space is we're a tool they utilize based off of their ability to be effective on sales for themselves. So they happen to be a really effective sales driven organization. And so they're grow…”
Julian Frockman Aug 16, 2023 ▶ 3:26
Opinion
Adtech firms mistakenly adopt SaaS models to chase higher valuation multiples
“A lot of companies in the ad tech martech space trying to be SaaS when they're not, which I think is long-term a mistake. And they do this because they think they can get better multiples.”
Julian Frockman Aug 16, 2023 ▶ 5:05
Disclosure
Airtory charges $1,000 to $1,500 monthly for white-labeling and API access
“And so if a customer wants to not present the Airtori brand or any of our other brands up front, when they're delivering the ads, either on the preview side, or if they want to have API access for advanced reporting or advanced creative interactivity on kind o…”
Julian Frockman Aug 16, 2023 ▶ 6:05
Disclosure
Airtory raised $750k across $2.5M and $10M SAFEs
“So we raised friends and family and friendly angels, so we've raised 750 K total. Half of that was at 2.5 million safe, and half of that was at a ten million dollar safe.”
Julian Frockman Aug 16, 2023 ▶ 7:16
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Frockman's father earned a 16x return on his Perk.com investment
“My dad just put money in so I can get a salary, but he did get 16 X on the exit.”
Julian Frockman Aug 16, 2023 ▶ 10:40
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Frockman personally made about $1 million from the Perk.com exit
“So with Perk, eventually I made, like, one million, right?”
Julian Frockman Aug 16, 2023 ▶ 11:24
Disclosure
Julian Frockman was an early angel investor in Substack
“One of my close friends from being in Austin is one of the founders of Substack. So I was an early investor there.”
Julian Frockman Aug 16, 2023 ▶ 11:55
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Airtory is profitable with $1.3M in revenue last year
“Yeah, we're profitable. We hit a 1,000,002 years ago. Last year, we hit 1.3.”
Julian Frockman Aug 16, 2023 ▶ 12:32
Prediction Not checkable as stated
Frockman expects Airtory to reach $1.5M to $2M revenue this year
“And I think this year will be 1.5 to two.”
Julian Frockman Aug 16, 2023 ▶ 12:44
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Airtory has approximately 60 active paying customers
“We're like, 60 or so.”
Julian Frockman Aug 16, 2023 ▶ 14:13
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Airtory generates around $120k monthly revenue with strong profit margins
“Yeah about that, and the margins after we get through, like, my revenue, or my salary, my founder's salary, my co-founder's salary, and everything, the margins are very good, and we can talk about that offline, but they're solid.”
Julian Frockman Aug 16, 2023 ▶ 14:30
Disclosure
Airtory avoids dilutive equity to focus on cash flow and roll-ups
“Keep chugging along in cash flows. Don't want to do any dilutive raise, but definitely interested in conversations related to like roll up conversations.”
Julian Frockman Aug 16, 2023 ▶ 14:52
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