Aiden Akar

Co-founder & Former CEO, Influenster · 1 appearance on the record.

computed by AI from the episodes · how this works → · full disclaimer →

Aydin Acar co-founded the product discovery and consumer review platform Influenster in 2010 alongside Elizabeth Scherle and served as its CEO. He scaled the platform using gamified product sampling boxes before it was acquired by Bazaarvoice in August 2019.

12statements → 6claims → 0claims resolved → 3.75/5average certainty → 1.17/5average debate potential →

6 not checkable as stated how the 6 claims stand · each chip opens the sources

1 prediction · 5 assertions · 1 insight · 5 disclosures · every statement was checked. The prediction and assertions are the 6 claims: statements the public record can support or contradict. 0 are resolved, and 6 name no date, number or outcome precise enough to check. Everything else (opinions, insights, what ifs, disclosures) can never be settled by the record, so it carries no assessment.

The record, in short

What the tape says about how Aiden argues and how the claims held up. Everything they said, and everything said about them, is in the tabs below.

How they sound: not measured why? →

We measure speaking style by listening to the audio itself, and a fair number needs at least 2,000 words from one person on tape we have measured. There is too little of Aiden Akar on measured tape to publish a rate. This says nothing about how they speak.

What they said12 Episodes1

Everything Aiden Akar said on Top Founders that made the record, most notable first. Filter by type, assessment or year in the ledger →

Insight

Akar: Influenster has negative CAC because monetized product boxes drive signups

“Customer acquisition for members, our marketing budget for that is almost negative, because we are making money by sending these boxes, which in turn brings us a lot of new members. So what our, what we make money from is actually making our Platform much bigg…”

Aiden Akar Mar 31, 2018 ▶ 15:55 980 How This Company Uses Free Goodie Boxes and Reviews to Hit $12m in Revenues

Assertion Not checkable as stated

Akar: Influenster holds 21M reviews, second only to Amazon

“The largest product reviews outside of Amazon. So we have around twenty one million product reviews on our site.”

Aiden Akar Mar 31, 2018 ▶ 4:57 980 How This Company Uses Free Goodie Boxes and Reviews to Hit $12m in Revenues

Prediction Not checkable as stated

Akar: Influenster tracking to $15M-$16M in fiscal revenue

“Currently we are at twelve million dollars in bookings and around 10, eleven million dollars in revenue, so we're tracking to around 17, eighteen million dollars in bookings to around 15, sixteen million dollar revenue.”

Aiden Akar Mar 31, 2018 ▶ 7:13 980 How This Company Uses Free Goodie Boxes and Reviews to Hit $12m in Revenues

Assertion Not checkable as stated

Akar: Influenster has 4 million micro-influencer users

“We have around four million users at the moment.”

Aiden Akar Mar 31, 2018 ▶ 2:55 980 How This Company Uses Free Goodie Boxes and Reviews to Hit $12m in Revenues

Assertion Not checkable as stated

Akar: Influenster shipped 2M products across 200 campaigns in 12 months

“We have around 200 campaigns you know, over 150 logos. We sent over two million products in the past 12 months.”

Aiden Akar Mar 31, 2018 ▶ 4:19 980 How This Company Uses Free Goodie Boxes and Reviews to Hit $12m in Revenues

Disclosure

Akar: Influenster's typical contract size is $80K to $150K

“No, I would say a typical contract size is anywhere between 80 to 150,000 dollars.”

Aiden Akar Mar 31, 2018 ▶ 6:15 980 How This Company Uses Free Goodie Boxes and Reviews to Hit $12m in Revenues

Disclosure

Akar: Ebates invested $8M into Influenster for Series A

“They put eight million dollars.”

Aiden Akar Mar 31, 2018 ▶ 8:31 980 How This Company Uses Free Goodie Boxes and Reviews to Hit $12m in Revenues

Disclosure

Akar: Influenster spends $500K annually on marketing, entirely on B2B

“Our marketing budget annually is at the moment around half a million dollars. This is mostly B to B. We spend almost nothing for B to C again, because we acquire new members based on. I mean, people talk about, you know, products.”

Aiden Akar Mar 31, 2018 ▶ 10:10 980 How This Company Uses Free Goodie Boxes and Reviews to Hit $12m in Revenues

Assertion Not checkable as stated

Akar: Fewer than 10% of Influenster clients churn after first campaign

“If they're not retaining them for the longterm, like, you know, if they, if a client is not coming back after one campaign, we decide, we deem that as like a failure. But again, that, that happens less than 10% of the time.”

Aiden Akar Mar 31, 2018 ▶ 14:48 980 How This Company Uses Free Goodie Boxes and Reviews to Hit $12m in Revenues

Assertion Not checkable as stated

Akar: Influenster sees 10% MoM traffic growth post-Google partnership

“You know, we grow around 10% month over month, our traffic since our partnership with Google, and I just want to make sure that that is solid growth that's happening at all times, so I'm always on it.”

Aiden Akar Mar 31, 2018 ▶ 18:04 980 How This Company Uses Free Goodie Boxes and Reviews to Hit $12m in Revenues

Disclosure

Akar: Influenster bootstrapped for four years before Series A

“We bootstrapped initially first for four years. It was friends and family around all of our savings, all of that.”

Aiden Akar Mar 31, 2018 ▶ 7:58 980 How This Company Uses Free Goodie Boxes and Reviews to Hit $12m in Revenues

Disclosure

Akar: Influenster raised $1M in friends-and-family capital around 2012

“I would say there was around 2012, 2013, some friends and family round around like a million dollars.”

Aiden Akar Mar 31, 2018 ▶ 8:50 980 How This Company Uses Free Goodie Boxes and Reviews to Hit $12m in Revenues

Appearances (1)

Episode	Date	Speaking time
980 How This Company Uses Free Goodie Boxes and Reviews to Hit $12m in Revenues	Mar 31, 2018	12m

Aiden Akar

The record, in short

How they sound: not measured why? →

Appearances (1)

Turn any episode into a week of clips.