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Feb 4, 2023 · 17m · top-founders

He Did $2m in Revenue helping Game Developers Generate $30m in Ad Revenue Last 12 months

Ashish Agarwal · 8m spoken Nathan Latka · 5m spoken
0:00 / 0:00

gold bands on the timeline = statements, start to end. Hover to read, click to jump. CC turns on captions

In this interview, Nathan Latka speaks with AppBroda founder Ashish Agarwal about how his bootstrapped SaaS platform scaled to $2 million in annual run-rate revenue by helping over 320 independent game developers optimize and monetize $30 million in programmatic ad volume.

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 38.5% of the talking time here. How this is scored →

Nathan as informed peer 3.7 Guest teaching 2.8 Guest disagreement 1.2 Nathan pushing back 2.7
05100:0010:000:00–2:10 · Nathan as informed peer 0/10 SaaS Open Event Announcement and Keynote Speaker Lineup Solo host monologue featuring event announcements, podcast promotion, and a high-level teaser summary of AppBroda's business metrics.2:12–4:53 · Nathan as informed peer 4/10 Founding AppBroda Bootstrapped During the Global Pandemic Period Nathan inquires about early revenue ranges and latches onto his signature metric of revenue per employee, which Ashish explains within the context of their bootstrapped strategy.4:53–8:30 · Nathan as informed peer 5/10 Solving Ad Monetization Gaps for Independent Mobile Game Developers Nathan interrupts to condense Ashish's explanation and mischaracterizes the business as a customer-acquisition marketplace; Ashish clarifies their actual ad optimization role on top of ad networks.8:30–11:35 · Nathan as informed peer 6/10 AppBroda Monetization Model, Impression Volumes, and Gross Value Nathan probes how to value 10 billion ad impressions into GMV and initially confuses CPC with CPM, prompting Ashish to explain standard ad industry calculations before Nathan synthesizes the full numbers.11:36–14:34 · Nathan as informed peer 4/10 Team Operations, Fast Customer Activation, and Global Expansion Nathan asks about developer onboarding benchmarks and historical growth, while Ashish outlines their required 14-day revenue lift and remote team structure.14:35–17:06 · Nathan as informed peer 3/10 Outbound Lead Generation Strategies and Contact Data Tools Ashish shares his outbound email scraping tools and completes the Famous Five lightning round in a friendly, lighthearted exchange.0:00–2:10 · Guest teaching 0/10 SaaS Open Event Announcement and Keynote Speaker Lineup Solo host monologue featuring event announcements, podcast promotion, and a high-level teaser summary of AppBroda's business metrics.2:12–4:53 · Guest teaching 2/10 Founding AppBroda Bootstrapped During the Global Pandemic Period Nathan inquires about early revenue ranges and latches onto his signature metric of revenue per employee, which Ashish explains within the context of their bootstrapped strategy.4:53–8:30 · Guest teaching 5/10 Solving Ad Monetization Gaps for Independent Mobile Game Developers Nathan interrupts to condense Ashish's explanation and mischaracterizes the business as a customer-acquisition marketplace; Ashish clarifies their actual ad optimization role on top of ad networks.8:30–11:35 · Guest teaching 6/10 AppBroda Monetization Model, Impression Volumes, and Gross Value Nathan probes how to value 10 billion ad impressions into GMV and initially confuses CPC with CPM, prompting Ashish to explain standard ad industry calculations before Nathan synthesizes the full numbers.11:36–14:34 · Guest teaching 2/10 Team Operations, Fast Customer Activation, and Global Expansion Nathan asks about developer onboarding benchmarks and historical growth, while Ashish outlines their required 14-day revenue lift and remote team structure.14:35–17:06 · Guest teaching 2/10 Outbound Lead Generation Strategies and Contact Data Tools Ashish shares his outbound email scraping tools and completes the Famous Five lightning round in a friendly, lighthearted exchange.0:00–2:10 · Guest disagreement 0/10 SaaS Open Event Announcement and Keynote Speaker Lineup Solo host monologue featuring event announcements, podcast promotion, and a high-level teaser summary of AppBroda's business metrics.2:12–4:53 · Guest disagreement 1/10 Founding AppBroda Bootstrapped During the Global Pandemic Period Nathan inquires about early revenue ranges and latches onto his signature metric of revenue per employee, which Ashish explains within the context of their bootstrapped strategy.4:53–8:30 · Guest disagreement 2/10 Solving Ad Monetization Gaps for Independent Mobile Game Developers Nathan interrupts to condense Ashish's explanation and mischaracterizes the business as a customer-acquisition marketplace; Ashish clarifies their actual ad optimization role on top of ad networks.8:30–11:35 · Guest disagreement 2/10 AppBroda Monetization Model, Impression Volumes, and Gross Value Nathan probes how to value 10 billion ad impressions into GMV and initially confuses CPC with CPM, prompting Ashish to explain standard ad industry calculations before Nathan synthesizes the full numbers.11:36–14:34 · Guest disagreement 1/10 Team Operations, Fast Customer Activation, and Global Expansion Nathan asks about developer onboarding benchmarks and historical growth, while Ashish outlines their required 14-day revenue lift and remote team structure.14:35–17:06 · Guest disagreement 1/10 Outbound Lead Generation Strategies and Contact Data Tools Ashish shares his outbound email scraping tools and completes the Famous Five lightning round in a friendly, lighthearted exchange.0:00–2:10 · Nathan pushing back 0/10 SaaS Open Event Announcement and Keynote Speaker Lineup Solo host monologue featuring event announcements, podcast promotion, and a high-level teaser summary of AppBroda's business metrics.2:12–4:53 · Nathan pushing back 3/10 Founding AppBroda Bootstrapped During the Global Pandemic Period Nathan inquires about early revenue ranges and latches onto his signature metric of revenue per employee, which Ashish explains within the context of their bootstrapped strategy.4:53–8:30 · Nathan pushing back 5/10 Solving Ad Monetization Gaps for Independent Mobile Game Developers Nathan interrupts to condense Ashish's explanation and mischaracterizes the business as a customer-acquisition marketplace; Ashish clarifies their actual ad optimization role on top of ad networks.8:30–11:35 · Nathan pushing back 4/10 AppBroda Monetization Model, Impression Volumes, and Gross Value Nathan probes how to value 10 billion ad impressions into GMV and initially confuses CPC with CPM, prompting Ashish to explain standard ad industry calculations before Nathan synthesizes the full numbers.11:36–14:34 · Nathan pushing back 2/10 Team Operations, Fast Customer Activation, and Global Expansion Nathan asks about developer onboarding benchmarks and historical growth, while Ashish outlines their required 14-day revenue lift and remote team structure.14:35–17:06 · Nathan pushing back 2/10 Outbound Lead Generation Strategies and Contact Data Tools Ashish shares his outbound email scraping tools and completes the Famous Five lightning round in a friendly, lighthearted exchange.

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

0:00 · Nathan 82.1% · guest 17.9%0:00 · Nathan 82.1% · guest 17.9%3:00 · Nathan 17.5% · guest 82.5%3:00 · Nathan 17.5% · guest 82.5%6:00 · Nathan 26.2% · guest 73.8%6:00 · Nathan 26.2% · guest 73.8%9:00 · Nathan 40.2% · guest 59.8%9:00 · Nathan 40.2% · guest 59.8%12:00 · Nathan 20.6% · guest 79.4%12:00 · Nathan 20.6% · guest 79.4%15:00 · Nathan 45.7% · guest 54.3%15:00 · Nathan 45.7% · guest 54.3%
Sharpest disagreement ▶ 6:45 Rejecting the Marketplace Label

Ashish politely but firmly rejects Nathan's framing that AppBroda is a marketplace connecting developers with advertisers, specifying that they build directly on top of existing networks.

 Hardest push from Nathan ▶ 6:37 Demanding a Succinct Value Proposition

Nathan cuts off Ashish's detailed industry breakdown to demand a clear, one-sentence explanation of what the software actually delivers to customers.

 Biggest teaching moment ▶ 10:45 Correcting Ad Unit Math

Ashish corrects Nathan's calculation assumption that impressions are multiplied by cost-per-click, explaining how cost-per-mille (CPM) pricing operates in mobile ad networks.

 Nathan holds their own ▶ 11:14 Synthesizing the Complete Financial Model

Nathan demonstrates complete comprehension of the business model by rapidly summarizing the impressions, GMV, take rate, and net revenue accurately.
the scores for every segment, with the reasoning behind each
ChapterTopicNathan as informed peerGuest teachingGuest disagreementNathan pushing backWhy
SaaS Open Event Announcement and Keynote Speaker Lineup 0000 Solo host monologue featuring event announcements, podcast promotion, and a high-level teaser summary of AppBroda's business metrics.
Founding AppBroda Bootstrapped During the Global Pandemic Period 4213 Nathan inquires about early revenue ranges and latches onto his signature metric of revenue per employee, which Ashish explains within the context of their bootstrapped strategy.
Solving Ad Monetization Gaps for Independent Mobile Game Developers 5525 Nathan interrupts to condense Ashish's explanation and mischaracterizes the business as a customer-acquisition marketplace; Ashish clarifies their actual ad optimization role on top of ad networks.
AppBroda Monetization Model, Impression Volumes, and Gross Value 6624 Nathan probes how to value 10 billion ad impressions into GMV and initially confuses CPC with CPM, prompting Ashish to explain standard ad industry calculations before Nathan synthesizes the full numbers.
Team Operations, Fast Customer Activation, and Global Expansion 4212 Nathan asks about developer onboarding benchmarks and historical growth, while Ashish outlines their required 14-day revenue lift and remote team structure.
Outbound Lead Generation Strategies and Contact Data Tools 3212 Ashish shares his outbound email scraping tools and completes the Famous Five lightning round in a friendly, lighthearted exchange.

Statements from this episode (11)

Assertion Not checkable as stated
AppBroda generated up to $5M in revenue by its 20th month
“We're just about 20 months old. And we're between the zero and five million dollar revenue range already.”
Ashish Agarwal Feb 4, 2023 ▶ 2:27
Disclosure
Agarwal: AppBroda is completely bootstrapped with zero outside funding
“We're bootstrapped. We haven't raised any round of funding.”
Ashish Agarwal Feb 4, 2023 ▶ 2:37
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Agarwal: AppBroda's recent revenue is 80% product and 20% services
“In the last six months, it's 80% product and 20% service.”
Ashish Agarwal Feb 4, 2023 ▶ 4:42
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Major ad networks restrict sales teams to the top 3% of developers
“They only have sales or service teams that cater to the top two or three percent of developers, right?”
Ashish Agarwal Feb 4, 2023 ▶ 5:45
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Small and mid-sized developers capture 60% of total mobile ad revenue
“40% of the revenue is controlled by the top, but the remaining 60% is split between small and medium-sized developers, right?”
Ashish Agarwal Feb 4, 2023 ▶ 6:01
Disclosure
AppBroda charges developers an 8% to 12% revenue share on ad earnings
“We work on an entirely revenue share based model, and even between eight to 12% is what we charge of the entire ad revenue that the developer makes”
Ashish Agarwal Feb 4, 2023 ▶ 8:36
Disclosure
AppBroda has monetized 1,400 apps across 320 developers
“Currently we've had 1400 apps and games make money, more money than they were before through our platform. But that's split across about 320 unique developers”
Ashish Agarwal Feb 4, 2023 ▶ 9:02
Disclosure
AppBroda handled 10 billion ad impressions in 2022
“Last year, 2022, Jan to December, we touched about ten billion ad impressions”
Ashish Agarwal Feb 4, 2023 ▶ 9:40
Disclosure
AppBroda estimates $20M to $30M in GMV across 10B impressions
“So if you're doing like about ten billion, you might be making a GMV of 20 to thirty million dollars. Ballpark, just ballpark.”
Ashish Agarwal Feb 4, 2023 ▶ 10:29
Insight
Game developers churn unless monetization demonstrably increases within 14 days
“You need to increase the revenue in the first 14 days. If you don't do it, the customer's gone. He or she's gone to someone else or they disregarded your platform.”
Ashish Agarwal Feb 4, 2023 ▶ 12:14
Disclosure
Agarwal: AppBroda uses SignalHire and LGM for outbound sales prospecting
“Like we use SignalHire, we use LGM, we've used a bunch of these and they just let you find the right POC, the right decision maker for us.”
Ashish Agarwal Feb 4, 2023 ▶ 14:59
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