StarZero All shows Try the podcast clipper →

Mar 24, 2018 · 15m · top-founders

973 How Digilent is Competing in Changing Programmatic Ad Landscape, $40m in Volume over TTM

Alan Osetek · 9m spoken Nathan Latka · 4m spoken
0:00 / 0:00

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

Nathan Latka interviews Alan Osetek, CEO of Digilant and President of ISPD, exploring how the programmatic advertising firm processes $40 to $50 million in volume through transparent fee structures and agile agency positioning.

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 33.8% of the talking time here. How this is scored →

Nathan as informed peer 3.3 Guest teaching 2.5 Guest disagreement 0.5 Nathan pushing back 2.0
05100:0010:000:49–2:52 · Nathan as informed peer 2/10 Alan Osetek's Background and Digilant's Structure Nathan asks introductory exploratory questions about Digilant's ownership and corporate relationship within ISPD. Alan provides standard context regarding the Spanish holding company structure.2:52–8:44 · Nathan as informed peer 5/10 Digilant's Programmatic Models and Market Volume Nathan shows industry knowledge citing margin compression and SaaS pivots in programmatic adtech. Alan educates on intermediary fee extraction across the Lumascape and explains Digilant's transparent pricing models.8:46–13:24 · Nathan as informed peer 4/10 Nathan Latka's Sponsor Message on TheTopInbox Following an ad read, Nathan challenges Alan on Digilant's $40M volume compared to multi-billion-dollar competitors. Alan outlines publisher monetization challenges and defends ISPD's position as a mid-sized alternative to massive holding companies.13:24–14:58 · Nathan as informed peer 2/10 The Famous Five Rapid-Fire Questions Nathan runs through the standard Famous Five rapid-fire questions, quickly supplying the book title High Output Management when Alan hesitates.0:49–2:52 · Guest teaching 1/10 Alan Osetek's Background and Digilant's Structure Nathan asks introductory exploratory questions about Digilant's ownership and corporate relationship within ISPD. Alan provides standard context regarding the Spanish holding company structure.2:52–8:44 · Guest teaching 5/10 Digilant's Programmatic Models and Market Volume Nathan shows industry knowledge citing margin compression and SaaS pivots in programmatic adtech. Alan educates on intermediary fee extraction across the Lumascape and explains Digilant's transparent pricing models.8:46–13:24 · Guest teaching 4/10 Nathan Latka's Sponsor Message on TheTopInbox Following an ad read, Nathan challenges Alan on Digilant's $40M volume compared to multi-billion-dollar competitors. Alan outlines publisher monetization challenges and defends ISPD's position as a mid-sized alternative to massive holding companies.13:24–14:58 · Guest teaching 0/10 The Famous Five Rapid-Fire Questions Nathan runs through the standard Famous Five rapid-fire questions, quickly supplying the book title High Output Management when Alan hesitates.0:49–2:52 · Guest disagreement 0/10 Alan Osetek's Background and Digilant's Structure Nathan asks introductory exploratory questions about Digilant's ownership and corporate relationship within ISPD. Alan provides standard context regarding the Spanish holding company structure.2:52–8:44 · Guest disagreement 1/10 Digilant's Programmatic Models and Market Volume Nathan shows industry knowledge citing margin compression and SaaS pivots in programmatic adtech. Alan educates on intermediary fee extraction across the Lumascape and explains Digilant's transparent pricing models.8:46–13:24 · Guest disagreement 1/10 Nathan Latka's Sponsor Message on TheTopInbox Following an ad read, Nathan challenges Alan on Digilant's $40M volume compared to multi-billion-dollar competitors. Alan outlines publisher monetization challenges and defends ISPD's position as a mid-sized alternative to massive holding companies.13:24–14:58 · Guest disagreement 0/10 The Famous Five Rapid-Fire Questions Nathan runs through the standard Famous Five rapid-fire questions, quickly supplying the book title High Output Management when Alan hesitates.0:49–2:52 · Nathan pushing back 1/10 Alan Osetek's Background and Digilant's Structure Nathan asks introductory exploratory questions about Digilant's ownership and corporate relationship within ISPD. Alan provides standard context regarding the Spanish holding company structure.2:52–8:44 · Nathan pushing back 3/10 Digilant's Programmatic Models and Market Volume Nathan shows industry knowledge citing margin compression and SaaS pivots in programmatic adtech. Alan educates on intermediary fee extraction across the Lumascape and explains Digilant's transparent pricing models.8:46–13:24 · Nathan pushing back 4/10 Nathan Latka's Sponsor Message on TheTopInbox Following an ad read, Nathan challenges Alan on Digilant's $40M volume compared to multi-billion-dollar competitors. Alan outlines publisher monetization challenges and defends ISPD's position as a mid-sized alternative to massive holding companies.13:24–14:58 · Nathan pushing back 0/10 The Famous Five Rapid-Fire Questions Nathan runs through the standard Famous Five rapid-fire questions, quickly supplying the book title High Output Management when Alan hesitates.

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

0:00 · Nathan 44.3% · guest 55.7%0:00 · Nathan 44.3% · guest 55.7%3:00 · Nathan 18.8% · guest 81.2%3:00 · Nathan 18.8% · guest 81.2%6:00 · Nathan 23.2% · guest 76.8%6:00 · Nathan 23.2% · guest 76.8%9:00 · Nathan 38.6% · guest 61.4%9:00 · Nathan 38.6% · guest 61.4%12:00 · Nathan 32% · guest 68%12:00 · Nathan 32% · guest 68%15:00 · Nathan 94.4% · guest 5.6%15:00 · Nathan 94.4% · guest 5.6%
Sharpest disagreement ▶ 6:20 Alan reframes pricing model complexity

Alan calmly dismisses Nathan's premise that multiple pricing tiers create chaos, noting clients are educated and choose their own setups.

 Hardest push from Nathan ▶ 12:08 Nathan challenges Digilant's scale against industry giants

Nathan bluntly questions whether Digilant should just be sold off for 1x revenue given that competitors process billions in ad volume.

 Biggest teaching moment ▶ 4:42 Alan breaks down hidden fees in the Lumascape

Alan explains how 50% to 70% of media dollars get eaten by intermediaries between brands and publishers in programmatic buying.

 Nathan holds their own ▶ 3:20 Nathan analyzes programmatic margin compression

Nathan cites recent interviews with adtech leaders to challenge whether pure percentage-of-spend models are viable without SaaS software layers.
the scores for every segment, with the reasoning behind each
ChapterTopicNathan as informed peerGuest teachingGuest disagreementNathan pushing backWhy
Alan Osetek's Background and Digilant's Structure 2101 Nathan asks introductory exploratory questions about Digilant's ownership and corporate relationship within ISPD. Alan provides standard context regarding the Spanish holding company structure.
Digilant's Programmatic Models and Market Volume 5513 Nathan shows industry knowledge citing margin compression and SaaS pivots in programmatic adtech. Alan educates on intermediary fee extraction across the Lumascape and explains Digilant's transparent pricing models.
Nathan Latka's Sponsor Message on TheTopInbox 4414 Following an ad read, Nathan challenges Alan on Digilant's $40M volume compared to multi-billion-dollar competitors. Alan outlines publisher monetization challenges and defends ISPD's position as a mid-sized alternative to massive holding companies.
The Famous Five Rapid-Fire Questions 2000 Nathan runs through the standard Famous Five rapid-fire questions, quickly supplying the book title High Output Management when Alan hesitates.

Statements from this episode (3)

Assertion Supported
Osetek: Intermediaries Take 50% to 70% of Programmatic Ad Dollars
“So, you know, across the, what I call across the Luma scape, when you go from the brand all the way to the other end of the spectrum, the publisher, there's DSPs, SSPs, there's like six intermediaries involved, and they're all taking a cut where a couple of di…”
Alan Osetek Mar 24, 2018 ▶ 4:51
Disclosure
Digilant Processes $40M to $50M in Annual Global Media Volume
“Yeah, we're, we'll, we'll, you know, we're a privately owned company, but let's just say it's in the, you know, 40 to fifty million dollar range globally.”
Alan Osetek Mar 24, 2018 ▶ 7:28
Assertion Supported
Osetek: Roughly 90% of New US Digital Ad Dollars Go to Google and Facebook
“So a lot of studies, at least in the U S have shown that something like 90% of the new digital dollar dollars going into digital have been going to Facebook and Google.”
Alan Osetek Mar 24, 2018 ▶ 7:54
Made with StarZero

Turn any episode into a week of clips.

This entire site, over 2,600 episodes transcribed, diarized, checked and made playable, runs on the StarZero media pipeline. Drop in your own episode and the podcast clipper finds the moments worth sharing, cuts them, captions them, and reframes them for every feed.

Try the podcast clipper Learn more