StarZero All shows Try the podcast clipper →

Dec 23, 2017 · 19m · top-founders

882 AdTech: $250m on $1b Ad Spend as Rubicon Project Enters Header Bidding Space

Joe Prusz · 10m spoken Nathan Latka · 6m 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 episode of The Top Entrepreneurs, Nathan Latka interviews Joe Prusz, Global Head of Revenue at Rubicon Project, covering how the programmatic exchange scaled to $250 million in revenue, adapted to header bidding, and leveraged strategic acquisitions.

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 38.4% of the talking time here. How this is scored →

Nathan as informed peer 3.8 Guest teaching 3.3 Guest disagreement 1.3 Nathan pushing back 3.3
05100:0010:001:13–6:07 · Nathan as informed peer 5/10 Joe Prusz on Rubicon Project's Core Business Model Nathan presses Joe for specific publisher names, exact take rates, and challenges him on how Rubicon Project can defend a 20-25% fee against competitors like Bill Wise who undercut on pricing. Joe calmly explains the difference between low-fee media planning and Rubicon's real-time bidding infrastructure processing bids under 300 milliseconds.6:07–10:48 · Nathan as informed peer 4/10 Growth Trajectory, Header Bidding, and nToggle Nathan drills into Rubicon's sales headcount and ad revenue calculations before asking about header bidding and acquisitions. Joe educates Nathan on the mechanics of ad server line items and clarifies that nToggle was acquired for bid traffic shaping rather than header bidding itself.10:51–16:52 · Nathan as informed peer 4/10 Sponsor Segment: Acuity Scheduling Following a sponsor read, Nathan presses Joe on his responsibilities as CRO regarding Rubicon's cash reserves and buy-versus-build strategy, restating his question when Joe provides a generalized answer. Joe explains how the revenue and M&A teams collaborated on their $38 million acquisition of nToggle.16:52–19:14 · Nathan as informed peer 2/10 The Famous Five and Final Reflections The interview wraps with standard Famous Five questions. Nathan gently presses Joe for a concrete sleep number after an initial deflection and quizzes him on feature preferences for browser tab management.1:13–6:07 · Guest teaching 4/10 Joe Prusz on Rubicon Project's Core Business Model Nathan presses Joe for specific publisher names, exact take rates, and challenges him on how Rubicon Project can defend a 20-25% fee against competitors like Bill Wise who undercut on pricing. Joe calmly explains the difference between low-fee media planning and Rubicon's real-time bidding infrastructure processing bids under 300 milliseconds.6:07–10:48 · Guest teaching 5/10 Growth Trajectory, Header Bidding, and nToggle Nathan drills into Rubicon's sales headcount and ad revenue calculations before asking about header bidding and acquisitions. Joe educates Nathan on the mechanics of ad server line items and clarifies that nToggle was acquired for bid traffic shaping rather than header bidding itself.10:51–16:52 · Guest teaching 3/10 Sponsor Segment: Acuity Scheduling Following a sponsor read, Nathan presses Joe on his responsibilities as CRO regarding Rubicon's cash reserves and buy-versus-build strategy, restating his question when Joe provides a generalized answer. Joe explains how the revenue and M&A teams collaborated on their $38 million acquisition of nToggle.16:52–19:14 · Guest teaching 1/10 The Famous Five and Final Reflections The interview wraps with standard Famous Five questions. Nathan gently presses Joe for a concrete sleep number after an initial deflection and quizzes him on feature preferences for browser tab management.1:13–6:07 · Guest disagreement 1/10 Joe Prusz on Rubicon Project's Core Business Model Nathan presses Joe for specific publisher names, exact take rates, and challenges him on how Rubicon Project can defend a 20-25% fee against competitors like Bill Wise who undercut on pricing. Joe calmly explains the difference between low-fee media planning and Rubicon's real-time bidding infrastructure processing bids under 300 milliseconds.6:07–10:48 · Guest disagreement 2/10 Growth Trajectory, Header Bidding, and nToggle Nathan drills into Rubicon's sales headcount and ad revenue calculations before asking about header bidding and acquisitions. Joe educates Nathan on the mechanics of ad server line items and clarifies that nToggle was acquired for bid traffic shaping rather than header bidding itself.10:51–16:52 · Guest disagreement 1/10 Sponsor Segment: Acuity Scheduling Following a sponsor read, Nathan presses Joe on his responsibilities as CRO regarding Rubicon's cash reserves and buy-versus-build strategy, restating his question when Joe provides a generalized answer. Joe explains how the revenue and M&A teams collaborated on their $38 million acquisition of nToggle.16:52–19:14 · Guest disagreement 1/10 The Famous Five and Final Reflections The interview wraps with standard Famous Five questions. Nathan gently presses Joe for a concrete sleep number after an initial deflection and quizzes him on feature preferences for browser tab management.1:13–6:07 · Nathan pushing back 4/10 Joe Prusz on Rubicon Project's Core Business Model Nathan presses Joe for specific publisher names, exact take rates, and challenges him on how Rubicon Project can defend a 20-25% fee against competitors like Bill Wise who undercut on pricing. Joe calmly explains the difference between low-fee media planning and Rubicon's real-time bidding infrastructure processing bids under 300 milliseconds.6:07–10:48 · Nathan pushing back 3/10 Growth Trajectory, Header Bidding, and nToggle Nathan drills into Rubicon's sales headcount and ad revenue calculations before asking about header bidding and acquisitions. Joe educates Nathan on the mechanics of ad server line items and clarifies that nToggle was acquired for bid traffic shaping rather than header bidding itself.10:51–16:52 · Nathan pushing back 4/10 Sponsor Segment: Acuity Scheduling Following a sponsor read, Nathan presses Joe on his responsibilities as CRO regarding Rubicon's cash reserves and buy-versus-build strategy, restating his question when Joe provides a generalized answer. Joe explains how the revenue and M&A teams collaborated on their $38 million acquisition of nToggle.16:52–19:14 · Nathan pushing back 2/10 The Famous Five and Final Reflections The interview wraps with standard Famous Five questions. Nathan gently presses Joe for a concrete sleep number after an initial deflection and quizzes him on feature preferences for browser tab management.

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

0:00 · Nathan 61.9% · guest 38.1%0:00 · Nathan 61.9% · guest 38.1%3:00 · Nathan 27.1% · guest 72.9%3:00 · Nathan 27.1% · guest 72.9%6:00 · Nathan 22.6% · guest 77.4%6:00 · Nathan 22.6% · guest 77.4%9:00 · Nathan 44.4% · guest 55.6%9:00 · Nathan 44.4% · guest 55.6%12:00 · Nathan 46% · guest 54%12:00 · Nathan 46% · guest 54%15:00 · Nathan 20.8% · guest 79.2%15:00 · Nathan 20.8% · guest 79.2%18:00 · Nathan 56.4% · guest 43.6%18:00 · Nathan 56.4% · guest 43.6%
Sharpest disagreement ▶ 5:24 Reframing competitor comparison

Joe firmly rejects Nathan's premise that Rubicon Project competes directly with low-margin media planning services, explaining the cost difference of high-frequency infrastructure.

 Hardest push from Nathan ▶ 13:57 Pressing on specific CRO job responsibilities

Nathan refuses a broad answer about resource allocation and restates his question to determine if Joe actually manages balance sheet capital or merely drives sales.

 Biggest teaching moment ▶ 9:57 Explaining nToggle traffic filtering

Joe corrects Nathan's assumption about nToggle's technology, detailing how it compresses bid request volume generated by header bidding.

 Nathan holds their own ▶ 5:00 Citing competitor volume and margin pressure

Nathan demonstrates industry knowledge by citing competitor Bill Wise's transaction volumes and challenging Rubicon's 20-25% fee structure.
the scores for every segment, with the reasoning behind each
ChapterTopicNathan as informed peerGuest teachingGuest disagreementNathan pushing backWhy
Joe Prusz on Rubicon Project's Core Business Model 5414 Nathan presses Joe for specific publisher names, exact take rates, and challenges him on how Rubicon Project can defend a 20-25% fee against competitors like Bill Wise who undercut on pricing. Joe calmly explains the difference between low-fee media planning and Rubicon's real-time bidding infrastructure processing bids under 300 milliseconds.
Growth Trajectory, Header Bidding, and nToggle 4523 Nathan drills into Rubicon's sales headcount and ad revenue calculations before asking about header bidding and acquisitions. Joe educates Nathan on the mechanics of ad server line items and clarifies that nToggle was acquired for bid traffic shaping rather than header bidding itself.
Sponsor Segment: Acuity Scheduling 4314 Following a sponsor read, Nathan presses Joe on his responsibilities as CRO regarding Rubicon's cash reserves and buy-versus-build strategy, restating his question when Joe provides a generalized answer. Joe explains how the revenue and M&A teams collaborated on their $38 million acquisition of nToggle.
The Famous Five and Final Reflections 2112 The interview wraps with standard Famous Five questions. Nathan gently presses Joe for a concrete sleep number after an initial deflection and quizzes him on feature preferences for browser tab management.

Statements from this episode (6)

Disclosure
Prusz: WPP bids through Rubicon Project for Wall Street Journal, Spotify, and eBay
“So you have WPP, which is the world's largest agency holding company bidding on behalf of thousands of advertisers. They'll bid through our platform on publishers such as Wall Street Journal, eBay, Spotify, NBC even the most premium brands in the business.”
Joe Prusz Dec 23, 2017 ▶ 3:04
Disclosure
Prusz: Rubicon Project takes a 20% to 25% cut on ad transactions
“Our total so as a publicly traded company we have listed out, you know, what our total rates are. So typically it's around 20 to 25% of the total transaction.”
Joe Prusz Dec 23, 2017 ▶ 4:37
Assertion Supported
Rubicon Project processed over $1B in ad spend in 2016
“So I think last year we did about a billion dollar over a billion dollars in ad spend.”
Joe Prusz Dec 23, 2017 ▶ 6:52
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Prusz: Rubicon has 200 revenue staff but under 15 new-business hunters
“Across the company we have about 200 in our revenue organization. But most of those people are really servicing existing business. The actual sales team whose job is to prospect and find new accounts on the publisher side globally is probably, you know, less t…”
Joe Prusz Dec 23, 2017 ▶ 7:26
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Prusz: Header bidding increased DSP bid processing costs up to 10x
“One of the problems of header bidding is that bidders, these DSPs, these demand side platforms, they now can see the same impression from us. They can now see it from other platforms, meaning they, their costs to actually Consume a bid request has doubled, tri…”
Joe Prusz Dec 23, 2017 ▶ 10:01
What-if
Rubicon Project: In-House Build of nTOGGLE Would Have Taken 1-2 Years
“For us to build that, it would have taken us, you know, another one to two years and we would not have been able to do other things. And as a result, we made the decision that we were going to buy because we can accelerate it.”
Joe Prusz Dec 23, 2017 ▶ 15:22
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