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Oct 30, 2017 · 16m · top-founders

828: AdTech: MobFox Acquired for $14m by Matomy, Now $36m+ in Ad Spend Annually

Gil Klein · 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

Nathan Latka interviews Gil Klein, Managing Director of MobFox and executive at Matomy Media Group, examining how the mobile supply-side platform scaled from eighteen million to over thirty-six million dollars in annual ad spend following its acquisition.

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 39.3% of the talking time here. How this is scored →

Nathan as informed peer 4.3 Guest teaching 2.0 Guest disagreement 1.0 Nathan pushing back 4.3
05100:0010:003:53–8:19 · Nathan as informed peer 6/10 MobFox Supply-Side Platform Business Model Nathan drills into MobFox's financials, calculating their take rate and gross revenue from ad spend volume. Gil is open about historical figures but holds the line when Nathan pushes for unreleased public company quarterly numbers.8:20–10:49 · Nathan as informed peer 4/10 Publisher Integrations, DSP Reach, and Global Headcount Nathan asks for clarifications on SDK integrations and challenges whether 180 DSPs equates to just 180 advertisers. Gil educates him on how programmatic DSPs aggregate thousands of distinct advertisers.10:50–13:14 · Nathan as informed peer 4/10 High-Touch Customer Acquisition and Partner Outreach When Gil offers boilerplate answers about building relationships, Nathan cuts in aggressively, calling it textbook fluff and demanding a concrete story. Gil obliges by sharing how he flew unannounced to San Francisco to close a deal.13:14–15:20 · Nathan as informed peer 3/10 The Famous Five Rapid-Fire Questions The interview concludes smoothly with the standard Famous Five rapid-fire questions, covering reading habits, sleep, and personal reflections without friction.3:53–8:19 · Guest teaching 2/10 MobFox Supply-Side Platform Business Model Nathan drills into MobFox's financials, calculating their take rate and gross revenue from ad spend volume. Gil is open about historical figures but holds the line when Nathan pushes for unreleased public company quarterly numbers.8:20–10:49 · Guest teaching 5/10 Publisher Integrations, DSP Reach, and Global Headcount Nathan asks for clarifications on SDK integrations and challenges whether 180 DSPs equates to just 180 advertisers. Gil educates him on how programmatic DSPs aggregate thousands of distinct advertisers.10:50–13:14 · Guest teaching 1/10 High-Touch Customer Acquisition and Partner Outreach When Gil offers boilerplate answers about building relationships, Nathan cuts in aggressively, calling it textbook fluff and demanding a concrete story. Gil obliges by sharing how he flew unannounced to San Francisco to close a deal.13:14–15:20 · Guest teaching 0/10 The Famous Five Rapid-Fire Questions The interview concludes smoothly with the standard Famous Five rapid-fire questions, covering reading habits, sleep, and personal reflections without friction.3:53–8:19 · Guest disagreement 1/10 MobFox Supply-Side Platform Business Model Nathan drills into MobFox's financials, calculating their take rate and gross revenue from ad spend volume. Gil is open about historical figures but holds the line when Nathan pushes for unreleased public company quarterly numbers.8:20–10:49 · Guest disagreement 1/10 Publisher Integrations, DSP Reach, and Global Headcount Nathan asks for clarifications on SDK integrations and challenges whether 180 DSPs equates to just 180 advertisers. Gil educates him on how programmatic DSPs aggregate thousands of distinct advertisers.10:50–13:14 · Guest disagreement 2/10 High-Touch Customer Acquisition and Partner Outreach When Gil offers boilerplate answers about building relationships, Nathan cuts in aggressively, calling it textbook fluff and demanding a concrete story. Gil obliges by sharing how he flew unannounced to San Francisco to close a deal.13:14–15:20 · Guest disagreement 0/10 The Famous Five Rapid-Fire Questions The interview concludes smoothly with the standard Famous Five rapid-fire questions, covering reading habits, sleep, and personal reflections without friction.3:53–8:19 · Nathan pushing back 5/10 MobFox Supply-Side Platform Business Model Nathan drills into MobFox's financials, calculating their take rate and gross revenue from ad spend volume. Gil is open about historical figures but holds the line when Nathan pushes for unreleased public company quarterly numbers.8:20–10:49 · Nathan pushing back 4/10 Publisher Integrations, DSP Reach, and Global Headcount Nathan asks for clarifications on SDK integrations and challenges whether 180 DSPs equates to just 180 advertisers. Gil educates him on how programmatic DSPs aggregate thousands of distinct advertisers.10:50–13:14 · Nathan pushing back 7/10 High-Touch Customer Acquisition and Partner Outreach When Gil offers boilerplate answers about building relationships, Nathan cuts in aggressively, calling it textbook fluff and demanding a concrete story. Gil obliges by sharing how he flew unannounced to San Francisco to close a deal.13:14–15:20 · Nathan pushing back 1/10 The Famous Five Rapid-Fire Questions The interview concludes smoothly with the standard Famous Five rapid-fire questions, covering reading habits, sleep, and personal reflections without friction.

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

0:00 · Nathan 78.5% · guest 21.5%0:00 · Nathan 78.5% · guest 21.5%3:00 · Nathan 19.6% · guest 80.4%3:00 · Nathan 19.6% · guest 80.4%6:00 · Nathan 22% · guest 78%6:00 · Nathan 22% · guest 78%9:00 · Nathan 17.6% · guest 82.4%9:00 · Nathan 17.6% · guest 82.4%12:00 · Nathan 39.3% · guest 60.7%12:00 · Nathan 39.3% · guest 60.7%15:00 · Nathan 79.1% · guest 20.9%15:00 · Nathan 79.1% · guest 20.9%
Sharpest disagreement ▶ 7:08 Boundary on public company disclosures

Gil firmly declines to disclose in-progress numbers or stretch goals, reiterating regulatory reporting constraints for their publicly traded parent company.

 Hardest push from Nathan ▶ 11:14 Rejecting generic partnership platitudes

Nathan interrupts Gil's generic answer about valuing partnerships, bluntfully dismissing it as book platitudes to force a genuine anecdote.

 Biggest teaching moment ▶ 9:20 Clarifying DSP programmatic architecture

Gil corrects Nathan's assumption that 180 DSP integrations equals 180 advertisers, explaining that a single DSP can represent thousands of buyers.

 Nathan holds their own ▶ 6:09 Deducing platform take rate and net revenue

Nathan quickly translates eighteen million dollars in gross transaction volume into a 17 to 20 percent take rate, determining MobFox's gross revenue.
the scores for every segment, with the reasoning behind each
ChapterTopicNathan as informed peerGuest teachingGuest disagreementNathan pushing backWhy
MobFox Supply-Side Platform Business Model 6215 Nathan drills into MobFox's financials, calculating their take rate and gross revenue from ad spend volume. Gil is open about historical figures but holds the line when Nathan pushes for unreleased public company quarterly numbers.
Publisher Integrations, DSP Reach, and Global Headcount 4514 Nathan asks for clarifications on SDK integrations and challenges whether 180 DSPs equates to just 180 advertisers. Gil educates him on how programmatic DSPs aggregate thousands of distinct advertisers.
High-Touch Customer Acquisition and Partner Outreach 4127 When Gil offers boilerplate answers about building relationships, Nathan cuts in aggressively, calling it textbook fluff and demanding a concrete story. Gil obliges by sharing how he flew unannounced to San Francisco to close a deal.
The Famous Five Rapid-Fire Questions 3001 The interview concludes smoothly with the standard Famous Five rapid-fire questions, covering reading habits, sleep, and personal reflections without friction.

Statements from this episode (7)

Assertion Partly supported
Klein: Matomy paid around $12M cash plus earn-out for MobFox
“So if I remember correctly, it was around twelve million in cash, and of course there's an earn out based on performance models.”
Gil Klein Oct 30, 2017 ▶ 3:14
Assertion Supported
Klein: MobFox generated nearly $18 million in gross volume in 2015
“So in two 15, in terms of revenues, we generate just almost eighteen million.”
Gil Klein Oct 30, 2017 ▶ 5:53
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Klein: MobFox's gross take rate typically ranges between 17% and 20%
“So I don't remember exactly that year, but usually it, on gross numbers, it's around somewhere between 17 to 20%.”
Gil Klein Oct 30, 2017 ▶ 6:28
Assertion Supported
Klein: MobFox processed over $36 million in ad spend in 2016
“Just to add to that context, Nathan, last year we grew already to over 36.”
Gil Klein Oct 30, 2017 ▶ 6:52
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Klein: MobFox has 4,000 core publishers, mostly SDK-integrated
“To be honest, if you look at like ones that pass decent threshold, it's about 4000. Which a big majority of them are also SDK based, which gives us a lot of leverage.”
Gil Klein Oct 30, 2017 ▶ 8:25
Disclosure
Klein flies overnight to knock unannounced on unresponsive prospects' doors
“You can call a customer a few times in, let's say, San Francisco doesn't pick up the phone. I'm on the plane the same night, and I get there the following morning, I just knock on their door and say, listen, it's me, Gil. I understood you might be busy, and yo…”
Gil Klein Oct 30, 2017 ▶ 11:28
Opinion
Klein calls AppNexus CEO Brian O'Kelly the true ad tech leader
“I'm a big fan of Brian O'Kelly from AppNexus maybe because I know him for many years already from the right media days. I think he's the true ad tech leader. He's smart, he's a businessman, he knows technology. I think he sees the trend”
Gil Klein Oct 30, 2017 ▶ 13:51
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