SaaS Interviews with CEOs, Startups, Founders
788: Ad Tech Agency Does $17m Gross Profit 2016, $30m VC Raised
20 Sep 2017
Chapter 1: What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
Launched his agency many, many years ago. In 2009, he was playing with kind of a different model, kind of based solely on a cut.
Chapter 2: What is Widespace and how did it start?
Now today, they work with about 1,000 companies that are putting ad spend through his system called Widespace. Those are the Procter & Gamble's of the world. He's working with over 500 publications. And the way they make money is they take a percentage kind of of this cut, both on the supply side and the demand side.
So they did about $36 million processed in 2016, of which 17 million was gross profit. 130 people looking to continue to grow. They raised 30 million bucks in VC. This is The Top, where I interview entrepreneurs who are number one or number two in their industry in terms of revenue or customer base.
Chapter 3: How did Widespace's business model evolve over the years?
You'll learn how much revenue they're making, what their marketing funnel looks like, and how many customers customers they have. I'm now at $20,000 per talk. Five and six million. He is hell-bent on global domination. We just broke our 100,000 unit soul mark. And I'm your host, Nathan Latka. Many of you listening right now don't have time to listen to every B2B SaaS CEO that I've interviewed.
If you want to get access to the database I've created, with year-over-year growth rates, customer accounts, margins, and many, many other data metrics and data points, you can go to getlatka.com.
Chapter 4: What is the current revenue model for Widespace?
Here's the thing, though. This database, I keep it to myself. It's so freaking valuable. And to preserve the quality of the data and make sure that the people that have access to it have a true advantage, I'm only letting 10 companies on each month. So we're full this month, but you can go to getlatka.com to get on the waiting list for next month. And look, there's big people on the waiting list.
I mean, the biggest VCs you've ever heard of. You've probably heard of them. They're big, private equity, billions and billions under management. So it's an impressive waiting list.
Chapter 5: Who are Widespace's primary customers and partners?
Go get on now at getlatka.com. This is episode 788. Coming up tomorrow morning, I talk to Shirat. Google bought their beacons to distribute free Wi-Fi in India. His company's called Mobstack. So how are they gonna deal with Google? Tune in to find out. Hello everyone, my guest today is Patrick Fagerland. He is, and he really loves, if you can do that, the mobile internet, right?
He has been working with and using the mobile internet since the end of the 90s.
Chapter 6: What technology does Widespace offer to its clients?
He's an engineer by training and now is a CEO and founder of a company called Widespace, a mobile ad tech company. Outside of work, he loves spending time with his four kids and his wife, along with many, many athletic activities and sports. Patrick, are you ready to take us to the top? Yeah, for sure. So I love this. We're doing a podcast interview.
You're pulled over on the side of the road in your car doing it. So tell us what Widespace does. How do you make money?
Yeah, so Widespace is a mobile advertising company.
Chapter 7: How does Widespace ensure ad viewability and reduce fraud?
So we started out in 2007. Basically, we thought it was a fantastic company. media channel and help companies to get into it. So we built our own technology. It turned out initially that nobody wanted to buy technology at that time. So we started to sell media fueled by our technology instead. And we did that for many years. And for the last couple of years... What do you mean by that, Patrick?
Selling media fueled by your technology?
Yeah, so basically selling media on, I don't know if you know what CPM is, but basically for charging for impressions.
Chapter 8: What are the challenges Widespace faces in the ad tech industry?
How much per 1,000 impressions?
Yeah, so roughly in the area of $10. But then if you have more advanced stuff, it's going to be above that. It could be below that as well.
And when this was your business model, what year was it?
So this was 2009. We started with that. First couple of years, we tried to sell the technology, but in the media industry at that time, nobody wanted really to be seen in the mobile and nobody wanted to buy technology.
Yep. So before you continue, because I think you're going to tell us an evolution of your business model, but in 2009, how much total ad volume were you processing and what revenue were you taking from that based off the $10 CPM you charged?
At that time, we were in the area of, I think it was $2 million roughly.
Of ad spend placed, or that was your cut?
No, that was the spend, and then our cut was roughly, it was basically an ad network, so at that time it was 40%. 40%?
Yeah. Okay, so we'll call it 800 grand, something like that. And what was your team size at that point?
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