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Sep 28, 2016 · 22m · top-founders

EP 431: Agency Does $6m 2015, 41 Employees with Publisher/Advertiser Network CEO Nathan Putnamof Monumetric

Nathan Putnam · 11m spoken Nathan Latka · 8m spoken
0:00 / 0:00

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

Host Nathan Latka interviews Nathan Putnam, CEO of Monumetric, examining how his bootstrapped ad network scaled from a small marketing agency to $6 million in revenue with 41 employees. Putnam shares insights on programmatic ad exchange mechanics, publisher monetization economics, and the importance of owned media assets over third-party social platforms.

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 42.4% of the talking time here. How this is scored →

Nathan as informed peer 4.3 Guest teaching 4.3 Guest disagreement 1.3 Nathan pushing back 2.3
05100:0010:0020:003:58–6:54 · Nathan as informed peer 4/10 Programmatic Ad Tech Dynamics and the Nail Then Scale Philosophy Latka asks why publishers choose Monumetric over Google and explores their tech stack breakdown. Putnam clearly educates on second-price programmatic auctions and the 'nail then scale' methodology in Excel before engineering automation.6:54–11:04 · Nathan as informed peer 4/10 The Origins of Monumetric and Scaling with Early Publisher Partners Latka clarifies the company's founding date and initial revenue numbers. Putnam explains the origin story with Six Sisters Stuff and how they pivoted from an agency to ad tech monetization.11:04–17:53 · Nathan as informed peer 5/10 Ad Economics, Platform Risk vs. Owned Assets, and Company Growth Latka drills down on unit economics, margins, and revenue breakdowns per dollar spent. Putnam walks through intermediary take-rates and delivers an insightful lesson on 'digital sharecropping' on walled gardens like Facebook versus owned properties.3:58–6:54 · Guest teaching 5/10 Programmatic Ad Tech Dynamics and the Nail Then Scale Philosophy Latka asks why publishers choose Monumetric over Google and explores their tech stack breakdown. Putnam clearly educates on second-price programmatic auctions and the 'nail then scale' methodology in Excel before engineering automation.6:54–11:04 · Guest teaching 3/10 The Origins of Monumetric and Scaling with Early Publisher Partners Latka clarifies the company's founding date and initial revenue numbers. Putnam explains the origin story with Six Sisters Stuff and how they pivoted from an agency to ad tech monetization.11:04–17:53 · Guest teaching 5/10 Ad Economics, Platform Risk vs. Owned Assets, and Company Growth Latka drills down on unit economics, margins, and revenue breakdowns per dollar spent. Putnam walks through intermediary take-rates and delivers an insightful lesson on 'digital sharecropping' on walled gardens like Facebook versus owned properties.3:58–6:54 · Guest disagreement 1/10 Programmatic Ad Tech Dynamics and the Nail Then Scale Philosophy Latka asks why publishers choose Monumetric over Google and explores their tech stack breakdown. Putnam clearly educates on second-price programmatic auctions and the 'nail then scale' methodology in Excel before engineering automation.6:54–11:04 · Guest disagreement 1/10 The Origins of Monumetric and Scaling with Early Publisher Partners Latka clarifies the company's founding date and initial revenue numbers. Putnam explains the origin story with Six Sisters Stuff and how they pivoted from an agency to ad tech monetization.11:04–17:53 · Guest disagreement 2/10 Ad Economics, Platform Risk vs. Owned Assets, and Company Growth Latka drills down on unit economics, margins, and revenue breakdowns per dollar spent. Putnam walks through intermediary take-rates and delivers an insightful lesson on 'digital sharecropping' on walled gardens like Facebook versus owned properties.3:58–6:54 · Nathan pushing back 2/10 Programmatic Ad Tech Dynamics and the Nail Then Scale Philosophy Latka asks why publishers choose Monumetric over Google and explores their tech stack breakdown. Putnam clearly educates on second-price programmatic auctions and the 'nail then scale' methodology in Excel before engineering automation.6:54–11:04 · Nathan pushing back 2/10 The Origins of Monumetric and Scaling with Early Publisher Partners Latka clarifies the company's founding date and initial revenue numbers. Putnam explains the origin story with Six Sisters Stuff and how they pivoted from an agency to ad tech monetization.11:04–17:53 · Nathan pushing back 3/10 Ad Economics, Platform Risk vs. Owned Assets, and Company Growth Latka drills down on unit economics, margins, and revenue breakdowns per dollar spent. Putnam walks through intermediary take-rates and delivers an insightful lesson on 'digital sharecropping' on walled gardens like Facebook versus owned properties.

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

0:00 · Nathan 80.2% · guest 19.8%0:00 · Nathan 80.2% · guest 19.8%3:00 · Nathan 22.7% · guest 77.3%3:00 · Nathan 22.7% · guest 77.3%6:00 · Nathan 36.4% · guest 63.6%6:00 · Nathan 36.4% · guest 63.6%9:00 · Nathan 18.4% · guest 81.6%9:00 · Nathan 18.4% · guest 81.6%12:00 · Nathan 43.7% · guest 56.3%12:00 · Nathan 43.7% · guest 56.3%15:00 · Nathan 20.6% · guest 79.4%15:00 · Nathan 20.6% · guest 79.4%18:00 · Nathan 59.4% · guest 40.6%18:00 · Nathan 59.4% · guest 40.6%21:00 · Nathan 67.8% · guest 32.2%21:00 · Nathan 67.8% · guest 32.2%
Sharpest disagreement ▶ 20:05 Putnam rejects acquisition speculation

Putnam immediately shuts down Latka's playful booby trap questioning whether Monumetric is in acquisition talks with AppNexus.

 Hardest push from Nathan ▶ 12:45 Latka breaks down programmatic spend economics

Latka pushes Putnam to clarify exact dollar flows and margin shares on a hypothetical $1,000 Walmart spend.

 Biggest teaching moment ▶ 4:07 Schooling on programmatic second-price dynamics

Putnam explains the mechanics of second-price auctions and why sending inventory solely to Google AdSense leaves money on the table.

 Nathan holds their own ▶ 6:11 Latka synthesizing the Excel-to-code startup playbook

Latka extracts a core operational lesson about mastering manual spreadsheets before writing automation software.
the scores for every segment, with the reasoning behind each
ChapterTopicNathan as informed peerGuest teachingGuest disagreementNathan pushing backWhy
Programmatic Ad Tech Dynamics and the Nail Then Scale Philosophy 4512 Latka asks why publishers choose Monumetric over Google and explores their tech stack breakdown. Putnam clearly educates on second-price programmatic auctions and the 'nail then scale' methodology in Excel before engineering automation.
The Origins of Monumetric and Scaling with Early Publisher Partners 4312 Latka clarifies the company's founding date and initial revenue numbers. Putnam explains the origin story with Six Sisters Stuff and how they pivoted from an agency to ad tech monetization.
Ad Economics, Platform Risk vs. Owned Assets, and Company Growth 5523 Latka drills down on unit economics, margins, and revenue breakdowns per dollar spent. Putnam walks through intermediary take-rates and delivers an insightful lesson on 'digital sharecropping' on walled gardens like Facebook versus owned properties.

Statements from this episode (12)

Disclosure
Putnam: Monumetric's sweet spot is publishers with 1M+ monthly page views
“Our sweet spot is really, you know, publishers that are generating around a million page views a month. And anybody north of that, that's where our model really tends to shine.”
Nathan Putnam Sep 28, 2016 ▶ 3:15
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Putnam: Monumetric works with over 1,500 publishers
“Just over 1500.”
Nathan Putnam Sep 28, 2016 ▶ 3:44
Disclosure
Monumetric CEO: Google is simultaneously our best partner and biggest competitor
“Google is our best partner. Right. Like, they're our best partner. They're also our biggest competition.”
Nathan Putnam Sep 28, 2016 ▶ 4:51
Insight
Putnam: Forcing multiple ad exchanges to compete in real-time increases publisher revenue
“The problem that you run into is if you're sending all of your ad inventory into only one exchange, like an AdSense or even the AdExchange, which is also owned by Google you're limited only to the demand that exists within those exchanges, right? And you're go…”
Nathan Putnam Sep 28, 2016 ▶ 4:58
Disclosure
Putnam: Monumetric's ad optimization is half manual Excel, half machine learning
“It's probably fifty-fifty, and that's because half of it is, is trying to learn enough and experiment and break things in Excel before we have to spend the dev resources to build it, to automate it”
Nathan Putnam Sep 28, 2016 ▶ 5:39
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Putnam: Monumetric did $2.4 million revenue in 2014 first year
“In 2014, your first year in business, what was total revenue? [507] Nathan Putnam: 2.4 million.”
Nathan Putnam Sep 28, 2016 ▶ 8:22
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Putnam: Monumetric generated $6 million top-line revenue in 2015
“And then in 2015, what'd you do top line? [663] Nathan Putnam: Six.”
Nathan Putnam Sep 28, 2016 ▶ 11:01
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Putnam: Monumetric was Walmart's largest traffic supplier during its exchange debut
“Walmart is an example where they just, they're one of the first major brands to launch their own buy seat in these exchanges. And their first month was June in one of these exchanges and we were their largest supplier of traffic during that month.”
Nathan Putnam Sep 28, 2016 ▶ 13:05
Assertion Supported
Putnam: Ad-tech middlemen capture 60 cents of every online advertising dollar
“So, what you have to understand is about 60 cents out of every dollar that's spent on online advertising is eaten up somewhere in the middle.”
Nathan Putnam Sep 28, 2016 ▶ 13:51
Assertion Partly supported
Putnam: Facebook organic reach collapsed from 50-60% to 2-3%
“Like, Facebook, like, five years ago, everybody was all about getting as many likes and followers on Facebook as they can, because organic reach was like, 50, 60%. You know, right now, it's like, two to three percent, right?”
Nathan Putnam Sep 28, 2016 ▶ 15:35
Insight
Putnam: Digital sharecropping works only if audiences convert to owned channels
“And so if you're going to digital share crop, use it in a way that reinforces that platform's business model, because then they'll help you. Like right now, if you're trying to grow an audience, put, put videos on Facebook, because you'll get way better organi…”
Nathan Putnam Sep 28, 2016 ▶ 15:56
Disclosure
Putnam: Monumetric raised only one $100K convertible note
“In terms of that, we've had one convertible note at a hundred K and that's it.”
Nathan Putnam Sep 28, 2016 ▶ 17:16
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