Shows
Price Power8: Shamanth Rao on Subscription Economics, Pricing, and Creative StrategyShamanth Rao, founder of Rocketship HQ, explains why subscription economics fundamentally differ from free-to-play, why early ROAS signals are structurally misleading, and why LTV without context means nothing.Drawing from a decade of hands-on experience across gaming and subscription businesses, Shamanth walks through how cash flow determines viable payback periods, why annual plans are the single most powerful lever in subscription growth, and how pricing strategy reshapes your entire acquisition model. He also dives deep into creative strategy: why ads should sell immediate value, not long-term habits; why relevance matters less than attention; and how winning ad...
2026-01-1354 min
Intelligent Artifice: become a 10X performance marketerAI as Your Competitive Advantage – A Deep Dive with Yves BenchimolWelcome to Intelligent Artifice — the podcast built for performance marketers who want to 10x their results using AI, creativity, and data-driven strategy.In this episode, I sit down with Yves Benchimol to unpack how his team is scaling growth by embedding AI across every part of the business—from customer support and marketing to HR and product. We dive deep into why he’s creating the unusual role of Chief AI Officer, what success looks like in the first 90 days, and how AI agents are already transforming day-to-day operations.If you’re leadi...
2025-10-0620 min
The Mobile User Acquisition Show🏂🏻 Kickass UA in the Privacy Era with Jayne Peressini, Claire Rozain, Philip Weiskirchen, Gadi Eliashiv, Shamanth Rao & John Koetsier 🛌🏻Today’s episode is the recorded version of a webinar hosted by Singular and Rocketship HQ on Kickass UA in the Privacy Era.The panelists were: Jayne Peressini, UA Consultant, Claire Rozain, Senior Manager, Ad Monetisation and UA at Carry1st, Philip Weiskirchen, VP Global Sales at Jampp, Gadi Eliashiv, Co-Founder at Singular and Shamanth Rao, CEO & Founder at Rocketship HQ.The panel was moderated by John Koetsier. We delved into concrete strategies for the long-term in a post-privacy world. We talked about what is changing with attribution, measurement, SKAN 4.0, Google’s privacy changes - and m...
2023-07-2454 min
Mobile Dev Memo PodcastMDM Podcast Episode 36 - A practical approach to probabilistic marketing measurement (with Shamanth Rao)In this episode of the Mobile Dev Memo podcast, I speak with Shamanth Rao, the CEO of Rocketship HQ, a mobile performance marketing agency. We discuss Shamanth's practical approach to integrating probabilistic marketing measurement, and especially media mix modeling, into his clients' reporting workflows:
How to sell probabilistic measurement to key stakeholders;
How to use probabilistic measurement to guide marketing investment decisions;
How to adapt the media buying approach to be best captured with probabilistic measurement methods.
Our discussion touches on many of the topics I have covered recently in essays like The Emerging Marketing Economist and...
2023-05-1247 minThe Mobile User Acquisition Show📱How hypercasual games took over the app stores with Jon Hook, CMO at PlayEmber. 📲Hypercasual games: the genre that turned most mobile phone owners into gamers.Our next episode on the Mobile UA Show is a re-broadcast of an older episode from How Things Grow. Here, Shamanth is in conversation with Jon Hook, CMO at PlayEmber.In this episode, they discuss the evolution of hypercasual from the early days of Snake on the Nokias to games that took over the app store charts.Check out this episode to understand how game mechanics, a solid core loop, and simplicity came together to propel hypercasual games to the top...
2022-11-0754 minThe Mobile User Acquisition Show🏟Media Mix Modeling: Completing the UA Performance Picture with John Koetsier (Forbes), Igor Skokan (Meta), Liz Emery (Tinuiti), Eran Friedman (Singular) & Shamanth Rao (Rocketship HQ) 🛣Is MMM a complete solution for mobile marketers out there?Today’s episode is a recorded version of a webinar that we did along with the folks at Singular. We discuss all about MMM and how marketers are using it as part of their toolkit, how it has evolved from being a traditional tool used by large companies to something that’s being implemented by most of the mobile growth industry post-ATT.The webinar had a star panel with John Koetsier (Forbes), Igor Skokan (Meta), Liz Emery (Tinuiti), Eran Friedman (Singular), and Shamanth Rao (Rocketship HQ...
2022-10-241h 01The Mobile User Acquisition Show🚖The early days of ride-sharing apps, with Daniel Riaz 🤳In today’s episode, Shamanth is in conversation with Dan Riaz, who witnessed the rise of the ride-sharing industry. Dan talks about various strategies that the team at Lyft implemented to scale the app from 4 to 24 cities, and beyond. Today’s episode features some wild stories and important lessons from the early days of a now ubiquitous industry - and we’re excited to bring this to you today. Check out the episode here:KEY HIGHLIGHTS:💼 Dan’s role at Zynga✨ Joining Lyft when it was a 50-person team🧗🏽♂️ Priori...
2022-09-2356 minThe Mobile User Acquisition Show🔆From the early days of virality and freemium to habit formation on mobile with Selina Tobaccowala, Founder, Evite & Gixo 🎈In today’s episode, Shamanth is in conversation with Selina Tobaccowala, Founder at Evite & Gixo (both of which have been acquired). who talks to us about her experiences as an entrepreneur from the early days of the internet boom, the following bust - and all the way to today. She talks about how she and her team were among the earliest to systemically study and drive virality while at Evite, and employ virality and freemium models while at SurveyMonkey - and how many of those lessons have helped her in her latest venture Gixo.C...
2022-09-1536 minThe Mobile User Acquisition Show🏄The Future of UA: SKAN, Sandbox, Data Clean Rooms & more with Sherry Lin(Lyft), Nick Blake(LiftOff), Shamanth Rao(Rocketship HQ), Gadi Eliashiv (Singular) & John Koetsier (Forbes)🎲SKAN is here to stay: but what happens to mobile measurement a few months or years down the line?Today’s episode is the recorded version of a webinar that folks at Singular hosted a few weeks ago. The panelists included me, Sherry Lin - Group Manager, Marketing Technology Operations at Lyft, Nick Blake - VP, EMEA at LiftOff, Gadi Eliashiv - CEO & Co-Founder at Singular. Our panel was moderated by John Koetsier - columnist at Forbes.In today’s episode we look at ramifications of SKAN and...
2022-06-231h 00The Mobile User Acquisition Show🧇SKAN vs. non-SKAN sources: how to make the best of a broken measurement paradigm on iOSWe’ve been talking about SKAN for a while now. However, it’s worth mentioning that SKAN isn’t the only game in town, which is one reason why mobile marketers have a tough time comparing performance metrics across different sources.In today’s episode, Shamanth runs us through the different non-SKAN sources of measurement like Apple Search, Google UAC, Fingerprinting and web-to-app to name a few. He explains why it’s quite impossible to read the same data on these different sources – and what the best course of action is in situations like this.KEY HIGHLI...
2022-06-0308 minThe Mobile User Acquisition Show🧢Moving from a meeting first to writing first culture: why this matters for remote teams 🪀At Rocketship HQ, we’ve been an async team since the beginning. Most of the folks we hire come from traditional office spaces and it does take them a while to get the hang of our no-meeting culture. How do we make this work? One of the key factors that makes this all tick is that we spend time writing, not talking. In this episode on the Mobile UA Show, Shamanth gives us a comparison between a writing-first culture and meeting-first one, and also tells us why going meeting-first can be particularly disastrous in a remot...
2022-05-2505 minThe Mobile User Acquisition Show🎲 Omnichannel strategies for a post-IDFA world: for web and app based products in 2022, our webinar with Ruckus feat. Grace Ouma-Cabezas (Poppy Seed Health), Evan Woods (DT.Co), Matej Lancaric (Growth Consultant), Shamanth Rao (Rocketship HQ) & Anish ShahThis episode is the recorded version of the webinar “Omnichannel strategies for a post-IDFA world: winning strategies for web and app based products in 2022”, hosted by Rocketship HQ and Ruckus.Panelists included Grace Ouma-Cabezas, Head of Growth at Poppy Seed Health, Evan Woods, General Manager at DT.Co, Matej Lancaric, Growth Consultant and me, Shamanth Rao. The panel was moderated by Anish Shah of Ruckus. We discussed how ATT has impacted web businesses and app businesses, what strategies have worked for our panelists for creative, measurement, channel mix and much...
2022-05-1953 minThe Mobile User Acquisition Show🏂🏻Winning strategies for subscription apps in 2022, our webinar with Liftoff + Vungle(feat. Carolin Rohte (Yazio), Hichem Belouizdad (Liftoff+Vungle), Lisa Kennelly (Fishbrain), Thomas Petit (Consultant) & Shamanth Rao (Rocketship HQ))🌏Today’s episode is the recorded version of a webinar we hosted in association with Liftoff+Vungle. The webinar was titled “Winning Strategies for Subscriptions Apps in 2022” and the panelists were Carolin Rohte – Performance Marketing Manager at Yazio, Hichem Belouizdad – Senior New Business CSE at Liftoff + Vungle, Thomas Petit – growth consultant & Lisa Kennelly – CMO at Fishbrain. The panel was moderated by me, Shamanth Rao, Founder & CEO at Rocketship HQ.We discuss a number of things around subscription apps like partnerships, exploring offline channels, measurement disruptions, web based flows and so m...
2022-05-0655 minThe Mobile User Acquisition Show🤖How SDKs-gone-wild will be reined in with SDK Runtime: Google’s Privacy Sandbox for Android explained 💪What happens to naughty SDKs that do what they aren't supposed to do?In the second episode of our “Google’s Privacy Sandbox for Android explained” series, we talk about SDK Runtime - Google’s proposed solution to SDKs-gone-wild.SDKs are a convenient feature for most app developers. However, some SDKs tend to gather user data in ways that app developers aren't privy to. SDK runtime is expected to be a step towards limiting the power of SDKs.Check out this episode where our CEO Shamanth throws more light on this subject.K...
2022-03-2505 minThe Mobile User Acquisition Show📈 Growth strategies for Web3 games: Community is only one piece of the puzzle – with Atif Khan (COO, Stardust)🧩How exactly does #useracquisition work in Web3 games?In this week’s episode, Stardust COO Atif Khan takes #theMobileUAShow host Shamanth Rao on a deep dive into the world of Web3 and blockchain gaming. How do Web3 games stack up against F2P and console games? How exactly does building a strong community help? And what exactly is the role of NFTs in blockchain gaming?Check out the full episode for more.KEY HIGHLIGHTS💰 How to build a billion-dollar brand in just a few months🧩 Communit...
2022-03-1826 minThe Mobile User Acquisition Show⚖️App Store Optimization is not a strategy for scaling growth💰App Store Optimization is often discussed as a key component in app scaling strategies. In this episode, we see why this isn’t really the best way to grow an app. Shamanth also highlights that the difference in search behaviours on Google vs. an app store is what led to ASO taking a backseat in his methods.**Note: As you may have seen, the second cohort of our workshop series, Mobile Growth Lab is now open for enrolment.In our last cohort, we had 40+ growth marketers, leaders and practitioners join in our live se...
2021-10-0103 min
Sub Club by RevenueCatHow Apple’s App Tracking Transparency Affects Developers — Shamanth Rao, RocketShip HQWatch the video version of this show on YouTube »Shamanth Rao is the founder and CEO at Rocketship HQ. Shamanth also hosts the Mobile User Acquisition Show podcast, and is the lead instructor for the Mobile Growth Lab workshop series.RocketShip HQ is a boutique growth marketing firm with 8 figures in managed spend. Before founding RocketshipHQ, Shamanth led growth marketing resulting in 3 exits: Bash Gaming (sold for $170mm), Puzzle Social (acquired by Zynga), and FreshPlanet (acquired by Gameloft). Shamanth has also helped many other mobile apps grow and scale.Shamanth i...
2021-08-2548 min
App Marketing by App Masters816: Your First Facebook Ad Campaign with Shamanth RaoComing up is an interview from our first virtual summit from July 2018 with then VP of Growth at FreshPlanet, Shamanth Rao. You will discover what your targeting should be on your first Facebook ad campaign, what your app needs before running a Facebook campaign, and the ad creatives that are performing the best.
Shamanth Rao is the Founder at RocketShip HQ and host of the Mobile User Acquisition podcast. When we did the interview he was the VP of Growth at FreshPlanet.
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2020-12-2930 minThe Mobile User Acquisition Show🏆 How to create story-driven ads that drive massive performance – with Gonzalo Fasanella, Chief Marketing Officer at Tactile Games 🎮Our guest today is Gonzalo Fasanella, Chief Marketing Officer at Tactile Games. Gonzalo and his team have taken a strikingly unconventional approach to user acquisition and growth - by running ads that emphasize short, dramatic vignettes of stories rather than gameplay. Today we’re thrilled to dive into how they think about their strikingly original creatives, how their teams are structured to drive creativity, how they measure and track their performance - and much much more about everything that has made their hit game Lily’s Garden such a huge hit.Key highlights: 📖 What inspire...
2020-09-2234 minThe Mobile User Acquisition Show⚙️ How to design a conversion value framework for succeeding with SKAdNetwork - with Kevin Bravo, Co-founder at 2nd Potion 🗝️Kevin Bravo is among the few people we know who have pulled SKAdNetwork apart to study how it works.In our conversation today, Kevin talks offers a minute understanding of literally the bits and bytes of how to make use of SKAdNetwork conversion values to offer as much insight as possible within the limited capabilities of iOS 14 . As changes are imminent, app developers are going to have to tap into their creativity and past user activity data to be able design solutions that are uniquely suited to the conversion value framework within their apps. ...
2020-09-1625 minThe Mobile User Acquisition Show🔮 Back to the future: How pre-2016 UA strategies prepare us for a post-IDFA world 🤖There’s speculation and worry about what marketing will look like in a post-IDFA world - especially since laser-focused targeting of high-value users on platforms like Facebook has been so incredibly successful. But there is no reason that the future should be entirely gloomy without this ability to laser-target users. We’ve all been in a world without hyper-targeting; we just have to look back to lessons from the past to see what the future might look like. KEY HIGHLIGHTS💰 Why we are bidding very high on Facebook’s value-optimized campaigns, but not on Snapchat or TikTok
2020-09-1006 minThe Mobile User Acquisition Show🖊️ Why ad copy is critical for mobile UA campaigns - with Erich Detert, Senior Performance Marketing Manager at InnoGames 🏃🏽♀️Our guest today is Erich Detert, senior performance marketing manager at InnoGames. Copy is often overlooked because of the great focus on visual creatives, and therefore becomes a missed opportunity for marketers to connect with and persuade potential users. In our conversation today, Erich underlines the critical importance of ad copy in performance marketing, and shares his observations of how his experiments have impacted key metrics and lead to more qualified users and stronger ROAS.KEY HIGHLIGHTS🧪 What inspired Erich to start testing ad copy.🔮 What sort of results you can...
2020-09-0815 minThe Mobile User Acquisition Show💯 How to maximize IDFA opt-ins with thoughtful user consent flows 📱We’ve discussed at length about the upcoming changes in mobile measurement as a result of IDFA becoming opt-in in iOS 14.A critical aspect of navigating this change is about managing user consent to make the most of the options in iOS 14. In this episode, we talk about what you can do with consent flows – and why it matters for your iOS 14 strategy.Key highlights: 📋 Why getting consent matters.💬 You can only ask once.🔔 Test soft prompts before a hard one, much like for PNs🎯 Test the right me...
2020-09-0207 minThe Mobile User Acquisition Show🔓How to unlock the power of paid content marketing using Outbrain & Taboola - with Sandra Wu, Paid Content Marketing Lead at Blinkist 📱Our guest today is Sandra Wu, paid content marketer at Blinkist. In today’s interview, Sandra dispels many of the misconceptions about using these marketing channels. Starting from suggesting an entirely different approach to these ads and understanding the place it occupies in the funnel, to selecting the right metrics to measure success and critically evaluating if paid content marketing is indeed the right user flow for an app, she covers all bases. In this conversation, she highlights the many differences between Facebook and Google advertising and paid content marketing with relatable examples and sharp insights.
2020-08-2621 minThe Mobile User Acquisition Show🎮How to make superhit games by deeply understanding player motivations - with Paula Neves, Product Manager at Square Enix 🎲Our guest today is Paula Neves, product manager at Square Enix. We discuss how psychological models are integral for understanding user personas, which in turn give us data and insights on how to attract, engage and motivate different kinds of users - and change what oftentimes is the essence of a game itself. This is very much a masterclass in gamer psychology - and we’re thrilled to present our conversation with one of the smartest folks in mobile today.Key highlights: 🏅 What inspired Paula to start using psychological frameworks to understand gamer motiva...
2020-08-2134 minThe Mobile User Acquisition Show📐 How incrementality helps measure the true impact of marketing spend — with Maor Sadra, CEO & co-founder at Incrmntal 📈Our guest today is Maor Sadra, co-founder & CEO at Incrmntal. In today’s episode, we dive into how last touch attribution has always been fraught with inaccuracies and how it measuring incrementality might just be the best way to understand what the true impact of your digital marketing is.Key Highlights:🥴 Why last touch attribution has always been problematic🧐 What led to Uber being susceptible to fraud.😤 How there’s a thin line between frauds and self-attribution, when it comes to claiming credit for click and view through insta...
2020-08-1826 minThe Mobile User Acquisition Show💸 There's no such thing as free growth 🙅♂️The pursuit of free growth is much talked about & lauded. However, it's worth keeping in mind that every form of growth comes with some cost attached.In this mini-episode, we explain why that is the case (even if you're not reliant on paid acquisition).We'll be back with our regular programming of interviews starting next week.Check out the show notes here: https://mobileuseracquisitionshow.com/episode/theres-no-such-thing-as-free-growth/**Get more mobile user acquisition goodies here:http://RocketShipHQ.comhttp://RocketShipHQ.com/blog**Check out...
2020-08-1405 minThe Mobile User Acquisition Show🗑 The LTV metric will die with the advent of iOS 14 - but it was always an imperfect metric to begin with. 📌One of the casualties of iOS 14 and the post-IDFA world will be the concept of LTV as it exists in the current paradigm. In today's mini-episode, we argue that even though the LTV has had a veneer of precision, there was still quite a bit of subjectivity involved in decision making driven by LTVs.LTV has been a made up number - in many ways; and its loss will not be the end of the world.Key Highlights:🙅♂️ There is no such thing as ‘user lifetime’.📈 LTV is often projected and es...
2020-08-1209 minThe Mobile User Acquisition Show👥 The problem with traditional retention metrics - and 3 metrics to fill in the gap (via Phiture’s Mobile Growth Stack blog) 🧮Today’s mini-episode features an article we wrote for our friends at Phiture for their blog Mobile Growth Stack. We talk about some of the limitations of the d1, d7, d30 metrics - especially in evaluating the health of users who have been in your app for a long time already; and we recommend 3 other metrics that fill in the gaps.Key Highlights:👀 d1, d7 etc. metrics tell you how your new users progressed through an app - but not how your existing users reacted. They also tell you if a user returned, but n...
2020-08-0710 minThe Mobile User Acquisition Show💸 How to finance your app’s growth without accessing venture capital -- with Mark Loranger, co-founder & COO at Braavo Capital 📈Our guest today is Mark Loranger, co-founder of Braavo Capital. Today, we dive into the different financing options for every company, and how VC funding isnt the only financing option for app developers. We’ll look at how app developers should think about financial decisions in the wake of the upcoming changes to the app economy starting with iOS 14.Key Highlights:🙅♂️ There’s no one-size-fits-all solution with regards to capital and fundraising for building businesses.👀 At what point should apps start exploring their options with regards to funding?🤷 What are all the differe...
2020-08-0435 minThe Mobile User Acquisition Show🖥How to automate your team’s organic & ASO metrics tracking -- with George Natsvlishvili, Head of Organic Growth at Glovo👥Our guest today is George Natsvlishvili, Head of Organic Growth at Glovo. Georgy is a repeat guest on the Mobile User Acquisition Show - and I’m thrilled for today’s episode because Georgy and his team are doing what very few teams do, which is automating their ASO KPIs. Very many teams leave this aside as not very actionable or trackable - and this episode is very instructive for the potential it highlights for tracking and actioning these KPIs.As a side note: the audio quality in this episode isn't the best - however it’s...
2020-07-3022 minThe Mobile User Acquisition Show🤩How to prepare for a post-IDFA world as a marketer on iOS 14 - with Eric Seufert, Thomas Petit, and Nebojsa Radovic💥In today’s episode, we have an all star panel featuring the smartest folks we know. The episode features Eric Seufert from Mobile Dev Memo, mobile growth consultant Thomas Petit, and Nebojsa Radovic from N3TWORK.What are advertisers solving for? What kind of advertisers will be the most and least impacted? Of the solutions proposed, what’s real and what isn't? Each of our superstar guests offers their tips, strategies, and opinions on what the mobile marketing world will look like post-IDFA - and more importantly how to prepare. Key Highlights:🤔What strategies are real...
2020-07-2731 minThe Mobile User Acquisition Show📱How mobile measurement will work with iOS 14 in a post-IDFA world - with Gadi Eliashiv, co-founder and CEO at Singular🤓Our guest today is Gadi Elisahiv, co-founder and CEO at Singular. Gadi is among the folks who has been deeply involved in conversations about IDFA deprecation - and what the world can look like post iOS 14. Today we talk about what might happen to MMPs - and how we might work with SKAdNetwork in a post-IDFA world.Key Highlights:👉🏽Fingerprinting, attribution hash, and customized popups - can these work under iOS 14?👣The default path that Apple wants us all to use: SKAdNetwork.⛔️The challenges and shortcomings of SKAdNetwork -- conversion values, campaign IDs, postback...
2020-07-2342 minThe Mobile User Acquisition Show😆How to improve your team’s creative hit rate - with Gabe Kwakyi, co-founder and CEO at Incipia📍Our guest today is Gabe Kwakyi, co-founder and CEO at Incipia. I am excited for today’s episode as I have been following Gabe’s blog for years now where I have learned invaluable information and skills with regard to mobile marketing strategies. Today, Gabe and I will discuss the concept that they call the creative hit rate and how to define quantifiable goals for a creative team. Additionally, we discuss how Gabe’s team has adapted to this way of focusing on hit rate as a company-wide goal and how it has been essential for driving very ma...
2020-07-2022 minThe Mobile User Acquisition Show🗓A brief history of device identification - with David Philippson, co-founder and CEO of DataSeat💭Our guest today is David Philippson, CEO of DataSeat, which offers in-house programmatic capabilities and a custom bidding algorithm to app advertisers. David earlier founded one of the first MMPs, Ad-X Tracking, which they sold to Criteo in 2013. We’re excited to host David because he’s seen the evolution of tracking on mobile from the very early days. He’s had a ringside view into the forces that have driven change over the years that have ultimately led us to the impending IDFA deprecation. Today we explore this history - and look at what lies ahead for mob...
2020-07-1628 minThe Mobile User Acquisition Show👏🏽What people of privilege can do to drive diversity in their companies - with Cassie Chernin⚖️Our guest today is Cassie Chernin, an experienced UA professional who has had a career in multiple technology companies across various industries. Today, rather than talk about Mobile User Acquisition, we are going to focus on exactly how companies, especially predominantly white companies, can drive more diversity and work to eliminate inherent biases against not only the black, indigenous and people of color communities, but also women. Cassie shares some of her own experiences as a woman in the tech industry as well as some helpful tips and insights on how to think about and use your p...
2020-07-1433 minThe Mobile User Acquisition Show☄️SKAdNetwork 201: A guide for marketers for running user acquisition in a post-IDFA world📄The dust has settled on the apocalypse. It's clear that the post-IDFA world is here to stay. Marketing isn't going away, mobile apps aren't going away - however we need a new way to operate in the new post-IDFA paradigm. This session offers a playbook - and outlines some of our key recommendations for adapting your mobile marketing strategy. We offer concrete examples, outline exactly how things will be different - and describe what you need to do to adapt.Key Highlights: ⚙️How does SKAdNetwork work?⚖️How is conversion tracking differen...
2020-07-1337 minThe Mobile User Acquisition Show🔭How to navigate programmatic advertising in a post-IDFA world - with Pau Quevedo, Lead (Programmatic Trading) at Goodgame Studios🤷🏻♀️Our guest today is Pau Quevedo, Lead (Programmatic Trading) at Goodgame Studios. We’re thrilled to have Pau today because he’s had tremendous success with programmatic both on web and mobile platforms, and we couldn't think of anyone better to speak to about how the programmatic ecosystem will be impacted by the impending IDFA deprecation.Key Highlights:💪🏽The main drivers of performance on programmatic.⚖️The differences between self-served DSPs, managed DSPs, ad networks, and bidders.🤩The most important piece of information in a programmatic bidstream.📝The...
2020-07-0727 minThe Mobile User Acquisition Show👥 Mini-episode -> Three Reasons Why and How Facebook Connect Can Drive Retention 💸 - Guest Post On Mobile Growth Stack (via our friends at Phiture)You’ve probably noticed by now: many apps (and websites) prompt you to sign in via Facebook. While it may often seem like a simple ask to make of a user, signing in via Facebook can have significant ramifications for an app’s retention metrics.In today’s episode, we’ll look at why Facebook connect matters - and 3 ways to significantly drive retention.This was a blogpost that we wrote for our friends Phiture for their blog Mobile Growth Stack. They do some great work on mobile growth - and have some great writing up on th...
2020-07-0308 minThe Mobile User Acquisition Show🥇Winning together: How to unify product and user acquisition teams - with Nebojsa Radovic, Growth Lead at N3TWORK Inc🤝Our guest today is Nebojsa Radovic, Growth Lead for the N3twork Scale Platform at N3twork. I’m excited to have Nebo, as he’s known, today because I’ve known him for many many years - and he’s one of the smartest folks in UA. Nebo talks not just about UA - but also the extended ecosystem in which it can be most effective. We explore how collaboration with product, design and analytics teams can unlock tremendous performance in UA teams.Key Highlights:💡How Nebo's UA team learned to understand how the game pe...
2020-07-0128 minThe Mobile User Acquisition Show☠️RIP IDFA: How to navigate a post-IDFA world with iOS 14📳On this episode of the Mobile User Acquisition Show, we wanted to share some updates based on Apple’s announcements from WWDC that have the potential of having a significant impact on the mobile app ecosystem. The IDFA, which has formed the backbone of much of mobile ad tech infrastructure, will be rendered basically useless effective September 2020. We will dive into mobile marketers’ most pressing questions surrounding this monumental change. Key Highlights:🤔What exactly is this Apple update?📚The history leading up to this decision📱What is the SKAdNe...
2020-06-2615 minThe Mobile User Acquisition Show🤖How to in-house playable production - with Michael Jessen, Senior User Acquisition Specialist at Socialpoint🎬Our guest today is Michael Jessen, Senior User Acquisition Specialist at Socialpoint. I’m excited for this episode because Michael’s team does something in-house that very few teams do, which is make playables. This is something that they do at significant volumes - and have seen massive performance from - and I’m thrilled to dive into their experience today.Key Highlights: 💡What inspired Michael and his team to look at in-housing playables.📄What teams and resourcing are required to in-house playables.💻How templates and variants are defined for each game.🛠What the m...
2020-06-2322 minThe Mobile User Acquisition Show🎮 How to start a game studio with a $500 budget - with Kentaro Sugiura (Founder at Evelong Games & Former Head of User Acquisition in APAC at BoomBit)💸Our guest today is Kentaro Sugiura, former Head of User Acquisition in APAC at BoomBit and founder of his own game studio Evelong Games. I’m excited for this interview because Kentaro is among the few people who has transitioned from being a game marketer to a game developer. In this interview we discuss what it’s like to be creating your own mobile game studio without a technical background - and how it’s often easy to start making classic games. Key Highlights:🎲The most important element of running a classic game.💯Clas...
2020-06-1924 minThe Mobile User Acquisition Show💃 Mini-episode -> 5 key elements for winning with TikTok style creatives ✌️With over 800 million monthly active users, TikTok is now the 3rd largest social media platform, just behind Facebook and Instagram. As a channel that is starting to emerge for mobile UA, the potential is massive.What is cool about TikTok is that it has opened up immense creative possibilities for marketers. It certainly has inspired wholly new ways to think about creatives for TikTok - but these strategies for what we call TikTok style videos are equally effective on other platforms.Today we'll look at 5 key ingredients of winning TikTok style videos - and how...
2020-06-1606 minThe Mobile User Acquisition Show💀 Welp! Our revenues dropped 75% - and they were all organic - with Sharath Kowligi (Director of Ad Monetization at GameHouse) 📉What do you do when your revenues fall off a cliff? Today, we get to the bottom of things - and point to a way out. I'm joined by Sharath Kowligi, Director of Ad Monetization at GameHouse and advisor to RocketShip HQ. This deep dive is based on a discussion that Sharath and I had with the founder of an app sometime ago(we're keeping the app's identity anonymous - although the learnings and takeaways from this discussion are widely applicable). In this deep dive, we will discuss some of the specific factors at play...
2020-06-1322 minThe Mobile User Acquisition Show👨💻How to hire the best - and dismantle systemic biases against black, Latino & brown folks in your company: with Anish Shah (Founder & CEO at Bring Ruckus) 👨🏿My guest today is Anish Shah. Anish is the founder and CEO of Bring Ruckus, a firm focused on attracting, vetting and recruiting the best talent in growth.Today’s episode is one that is very very significant to me. Yes of course, black, Latino and underrepresented folks have vocalized their frustrations against structural racism in American society. I’ve had some personal acquaintance with this sort of systemic racism in many contexts - without going into too much detail, I’ll just say some of these jeopardized my home, livelihood and career in ways that at the ti...
2020-06-1034 minThe Mobile User Acquisition Show😎 How to nail mobile user acquisition on TikTok - with Natalie Rozenblat, Marketing Strategist at Incipia 👯♀️Our guest today is Natalie Rozenblat, Marketing Strategist at the mobile marketing consultancy Incipia. Natalie and her team have unlocked some significant wins on TikTok - about which she’s written a case study as well. In this interview, we uncover the ingredients of what makes for an effective TikTok strategy - and identify the keys to capitalizing on what is still an early stage platform that is very much exploding.Key Highlights:🎨The challenges with creative approval on TikTok.⭕️What the safe zone is - and why it matters.⬇️TikTo...
2020-06-0433 minThe Mobile User Acquisition Show⚙️ How to build your own algorithm to drive UA performance with rewarded video networks - with Warren Woodward (Co-Founder at Upptic) 🎞️Our guest today is Warren Woodward, Co-Founder & Chief Growth Officer at Upptic.In 2010 Warren quit his day job in the film industry to go full time into building a one-man performance marketing agency, quickly pivoting to mobile around the dawn of the App Store. He has since built marketing divisions and launched massive apps for companies like Nexon, Wargaming and Blastworks. In 2019 Warren co-founded Upptic, a company focused on providing growth services and growth automation technology to app developers. I’m excited for this interview because Warren describes a solution to a significant pain point fo...
2020-06-0224 minThe Mobile User Acquisition Show1️⃣ The first 30 days - how to improve your early retention - with Miray Alanlar (former Mobile Product Marketing Manager at Mozilla) 🤝Our guest today is Miray Alanlar, former Mobile Product Marketing Manager at Mozilla. Miray has a wealth of experience in mobile over many years - and something she has particular expertise in is onboarding experiences and improving retention through the first 30 days of a user’s journey, so much of which I’m thrilled about diving into with her today. Key Highlights:💡 Where marketers should look for ideas to help improve their onboarding flow.🎬 The key components of user onboarding flow.🎨 The key types of messages that can be tested in cre...
2020-05-2932 minThe Mobile User Acquisition Show📲 How Slack reversed a declining mobile growth trajectory on mobile by setting up cross-channel attribution - with Holly Chen, former Global Head of Digital Marketing at Slack. 💬Our guest today is Holly Chen, growth advisor and the former Global Head of Digital Marketing at Slack. Before that, she led growth for Google Store & Google B2B websites, served as a product manager at Gucci, and had a brief stint at the UN.I’m excited for this interview because we look at one of the most admired brands of the last few years. We take a closer look at how they looked at mobile marketing while accounting for the numerous complexities of B2B marketing - including longer sales cycles, multiple touchpoints before sale. In...
2020-05-2637 minThe Mobile User Acquisition Show🤔 How to hit the No. 1 rank on the iTunes app store - with Nadav Ashkenazy (GM at Supersonic Studios) 📈Our guest today is Nadav Ashkenazy, General Manager at Supersonic Studios. Supersonic Studios is a subsidiary company of ironSource, and has had 5 games that have hit #1 on iTunes - and this is just a few months after its launch.I’m excited for today’s interview because Nadav pulls back the curtain on the ingredients of a blockbuster launch - and the exact process and circumstances that go into a top 10 launch. More importantly, he explains why attaining a top rank on the app stores might NOT be a worthwhile goal in and of itself. For...
2020-05-2128 minThe Mobile User Acquisition Show😺 Two ways to skin a cat: with Adam Turowski (Miri Growth) and Shamanth Rao (RocketShip HQ) 🎨"There are as many ways to test creatives as there are to skin cats." - old jungle saying.Today, we’ll look at two different, and equally successful, approaches to creative testing – one led by us, and the another by our friends at Miri Growth. We hope that by discussing the differing advantages and disadvantages of each method we can identify the main levers in the process, and in turn, inspire you to establish your own best practices.Check out the full transcript and show notes here: http://mobileuseracquisitionshow.com/episode/two-ways-to-skin-a-cat-with-adam-turowski-miri-growth-and-shamanth-rao-rocketship-hq/**...
2020-05-1912 minThe Mobile User Acquisition Show📈 How to improve your ARPDAU by 30%+ by optimizing your ad monetization waterfall: with Jorge Canga 💸Our guest today is Jorge Canga, CMO at eGoGames, and Founder at Kaizen Internet. In today’s episode, we dive into an aspect of mobile growth that seems to have defied complete automation - ad monetization. We look at how ad monetization works - and understand why manual waterfall optimization can outperform completely automated optimization. We also explore other nuances and facets of ad monetization - and understand the levers that can often help easily drive 30%+ improvements in ARPDAU.Key Highlights: 🤔 What is ad mediation?🙋♂️ How mediation layers are connected to individual...
2020-05-1430 minThe Mobile User Acquisition Show🗄️100+ page documents, source code printouts and more: how to crack international expansion - with Josh Burns(founder at DigitalDevConnect) ✈️Our guest today is Josh Burns, founder of DigitalDevConnect. Josh founded DigitalDevConnect to partner with game developers, game publishers, and service providers to support key business areas including strategy, market intelligence, marketing, game publishing, business operations, product management and business development. Josh’s specialty is in advising game developers and publishers, and helping them crack international markets. Josh also curates the Gaming Insiders newsletter.Key Highlights:🤔How apps should begin thinking about international expansion.🙇Many developers tend to overthink internationalization by considering local partners when typically Western channels with local inventory can be t...
2020-05-1236 minThe Mobile User Acquisition Show🗃️ Unboxing the black box: moving the hidden levers that drive programmatic performance - with Beth Gilmore(Founder at The New Department; Former Head of Commercial Partnerships at MoPub). 🤖Our guest today is Beth Gilmore, is a marketing consultant and founder at The New Department. Beth has an incredible wealth of experience in the programmatic space from her work as the Head of Commercial Partnerships at MoPub. In today’s conversation, Beth shares some fascinating insights about how many levers marketers have to understand and unpack their programmatic performance, if they only dive deep enough to understand what happens under the hood. From understanding what happens even before an ad is shown to being able to influence where in a publisher’s inventory an ad is show...
2020-05-0624 minThe Mobile User Acquisition Show🤖Taking the leap: how to get started with automating your user acquisition - with Colette Nataf (CEO at Lightning AI) 🔄Our guest today is Colette Nataf, CEO & Co-Founder at Lightning AI. Lightning AI helps advertisers find target audiences and advertise to them on Facebook and Google. Lightning AI has worked with more than 500 ad accounts and has managed more than $100M in ad spend.I’m excited for today’s episode because Colette is among the few folks I know that’s transitioned from a user acquisition service to a user acquisition product. She’s not only taken what to many can be a significant leap - but has also grown her business at Lightning AI very substant...
2020-05-0429 minThe Mobile User Acquisition Show3️⃣ Three steps to a killer soft launch - with Matej Lancaric (Director of UA at SuperScale) 🚀Our guest today is Matej Lancaric. Matej is the Director of User Acquisition at SuperScale and a mobile user acquisition consultant who has worked on a number of games. He’s worked on soft-launches, on massively scaled campaigns - and on everything in between while managing over $10 million in user acquisition spend.In today’s episode, we dive into the art of the soft launch - and look at the 3 key stages of a soft launch, and why it’s important to nail every one of these. Also: Matej is teaching the course ‘Soft launch strategy...
2020-04-3028 minThe Mobile User Acquisition Show⚡How to capitalize on the native ad opportunity - with Bozo Jankovic (Business Development Manager at GameBiz) 🎮Our guest today is Bozo Jankovic, Business Development Manager at GameBiz, a boutique consultancy firm for games.Bozo works with F2P game developers, helping them grow the business by monetizing their games with ads. Some of his clients include studios such as Wargaming, Creative Mobile, Nanobit, Two Desperados. etc..This is also the third episode of the Mobile Dev Memo Academy preview series. Bozo is also presenting the course Ad Monetization 101 for the Mobile Dev Memo Academy - so if you want to go deeper, do definitely check out his course on mdm.academy.
2020-04-2828 minThe Mobile User Acquisition Show🌪Inside the storm: what the Coronavirus pandemic means for the mobile app ecosystem – with Eric Seufert(founder at Heracles and Mobile Dev Memo) : MDM Academy preview special🎬Welcome to the second episode of the Mobile Dev Memo Academy preview series.Our guest today is Eric Seufert. Eric is the founder of Heracles and Mobile Dev Memo. Eric is a media strategist and quantitative marketer who has spent his career working for transformative consumer technology and media companies, including Skype and Rovio. Eric most recently sold his mobile advertising analytics company, Agamemnon, to the mobile gaming company N3TWORK. In today’s episode, we get into a macroeconomic perspective on what the current pandemic means for the mobile app economy - and how we mi...
2020-04-2323 minThe Mobile User Acquisition Show🤔The mysterious LAT, and how to tame it – with Thomas Petit (Growth Consultant): MDM Academy preview special🚀Welcome to the first episode of the Mobile Dev Memo Academy preview series.Our guest today is Thomas Petit. Thomas is an independent mobile growth consultant working primarily with non-gaming B2C apps. He is an external consultant for large apps (inc. 2 unicorns), a collaborator assisting several app agencies and an advisor for very early-stage startups. He’s run campaigns since the first day, spending 7 digits on the platform directly and also run audits on many other accounts, is certified by Apple, SearchAdsHQ & ASOdesk - and is a regular public speaker on the topic.In tod...
2020-04-2142 minThe Mobile User Acquisition Show👏🏽How to build high-performance creative teams - with Alice Guillaume (Senior Director of Marketing at AppLovin) 👯♂️Our guest today is Alice Guillaume. Alice is the Senior Director of Marketing at AppLovin where she heads up AppLovin’s in-house creative studio, SparkLabs, where she and her team build creatives for Lion Studios, for gaming studios worldwide, and for AppLovin’s partner studios to help developers grow their businesses. I'm excited to have Alice primarily because she's seen and experienced so much from working on creatives for a wide variety of games on AppLovin’s client base as well as for Lion studios, which is something I'm very, very curious about, especially given the massive success they've had la...
2020-04-1532 minThe Mobile User Acquisition Show😫Mini-episode -> "WTF does 'fix the product' mean?" - our 6 question checklist to assess UA readiness🔨When we talk to people about advice that is unhelpful or frustrating to them, something that frequently comes up is ‘fix the product’ - or ‘build an amazing product’ or ‘have a strong product before you spend on UA’.This is all good - except - if you pardon my French, WTF does that even mean? Today, we’re going to break down what we look for when we evaluate ‘a strong product’. We’re going to share our 6 point checklist of key metrics that you can review and benchmark to assess if your product is strong enough for...
2020-04-1009 minThe Mobile User Acquisition Show😷Inflection: breakout growth in the midst of the Coronavirus crisis - with Selcuk Atli(CEO) and Harsh Kher(Growth & Analytics) at Bunch Live🤑Today we have a very topical and very insightful episode for you guys. We answer the question- What's it like to be on the inside of an app that is seeing breakout growth in the middle of the crisis that we are in right now. Bunch is an app that allows users to video chat while they play games. Over the last couple of weeks, Bunch has seen a massive increase in usage and engagement. With the DAUs growing many folds and the app breaking it to the top hundred overall on iTunes in nine countries and...
2020-04-0622 min
The How Things Grow PodcastHow Things Grow will take a break for nowHow Things Grow will take a break for now. As the more perceptive of you might have noticed, a lot of our energy has recently shifted from How Things Grow to our other podcast The Mobile User Acquisition Show. While the longer form profiles that we got to do in How Things Grow were very fun and satisfying, it’s just been hard to run two shows while we run the business that pays our bills. For now, How Things Grow will take a break - and we aren't sure when we’ll be back (although of course, all past...
2020-03-2501 minThe How Things Grow PodcastThe rise of remote work – with Liam Martin (Co-Founder of TimeDoctor & Co-Organizer at Running Remote)My guest today is Liam Martin - and this is a conversation about a topic that is near & dear to my heart - remote work. Liam is one of the world’s foremost experts on remote work, having started a remote-only company more than a decade before it became cool to do so. He founded Time Doctor and Staff.com, doing some tremendously impactful work around productivity for remote work before founding the Running Remote conference, a real-life, non-remote conference about remote work. Liam has seen remote work up close from its earliest days - and has also se...
2020-02-0348 minThe How Things Grow PodcastHow to trigger massive career shifts by following your curiosity - with Hila Qu(former VP of Growth at Acorns)My guest today is Hila Qu. Hila is the former VP of growth at Acorns - and there are very many reasons I’ve so admired her work. Hila had a background in biology - and with nothing in her background that was relevant to growth, she started work at GrowthHackers, where she not only picked up the methodology of growth from Sean Ellis but also became very very proficient at experiment-driven growth. She wrote the series of articles ‘A growth practitioner’s 90 day plan’, which she herself used for her job search after GrowthHackers. She began working on experime...
2020-01-0259 minThe How Things Grow PodcastHow to launch a long-form journalism publication in an era of diminishing attention spans - with Noah Rosenberg (CEO at Narratively)My guest today is Noah Rosenberg, the founder and CEO of Narratively. Narratively is a publication that I’ve both written for - and have been very very impressed by for some of the pioneering work they’ve done. Narratively very much defined a niche for themselves in pioneering long-form human interest journalism in an age of diminishing attention spans. They not only continued to bring out original long-form stories - but also developed a unique monetization model of a content studio that has helped them thrive in an age when many journalism outlets are facing existential challenges. I...
2019-12-1252 minThe How Things Grow PodcastHow to blow up a party - with Jabari Johnson (Founder at COLORS Worldwide)My guest today is Jabari Johnson, the founder of COLORS Worldwide, a live events company that produces parties and music events across 45 cities in the United States. This is a fascinating conversation - both for Jabari’s personal story as well as for his insights on scaling a live event and filling up rooms and halls - at scale. From his earliest days when he hustled to interview stars like Nicki Minaj and Justin Bieber before they became famous to how he thoughtfully considers pricing and marketing decisions for COLORS and R&B Only, Jabari’s work provides a fa...
2019-11-2751 minThe How Things Grow PodcastHow hypercasual games took over the appstores - with Jon Hook(CRO at Homa Games).My guest today is Jon Hook, the CRO of Homa Games, the publishers behind hit hypercasual games like Tower Color, Tiny Cars, Balls vs. Lasers - and more. Jon has held a myriad of roles in mobile marketing before Homa - including being a co-founder of the mobile marketing agency Odyssey Mobile, the Head of Mobile & Digital Investment at MediaCom - and VP EMEA for Brand and Agencies at AdColony. In today’s interview, we dive into the fascinating world of hypercasual games. If you’ve even casually followed the appstores over the last few year...
2019-11-1155 minThe How Things Grow PodcastHow to grow a growth education business - with Brian Balfour(CEO at Reforge)My guest today is Brian Balfour - and there could be no one better than Brian to kick off the third season of How Things Grow. Brian is seen as one of the most influential people in growth today - he has to his credit some truly astounding accomplishments in growth. He started his career building a social networking site for college students. He then founded a digital goods company & subsequently an ed-tech company. After this, he became the VP of Growth at Hubspot, overseeing & systematizing some tremendous growth that had been driven, astonishingly...
2019-10-2857 minThe How Things Grow PodcastSeason 3 of How Things Grow is coming soon!I’m very excited to present to you the third season of How Things Grow! Thank you so much for the kind words, ratings and reviews for the episodes so far. As you perhaps know, each episode is a labor of love - and every rating and review matters a ton.If you’re new here, How Things Grow tells the stories of the people who help companies, technologies and economic systems take off. Each episode features an interview with one of the leading growth practitioners, entrepreneurs, or experts or historians in the world.
2019-10-2501 minThe Mobile User Acquisition Show✨Presenting the Mobile User Acquisition Show💫I’m very excited to introduce to you a brand new podcast - the mobile user acquisition show, in which we talk about how to use mobile user acquisition strategies to grow your app quickly and capital-efficiently. The mobile user acquisition podcast is presented by me - Shamanth Rao, mobile growth leader and the founder and CEO of the boutique growth consulting firm RocketShip HQ. Each episode includes strategies, tips and pointers from the leading edge of mobile user acquisition that can help you unlock tremendous growth for your app. I have some very interesting and...
2019-10-1400 min
The How Things Grow PodcastSeason 2 ends - we'll be back with Season 3 soon!Hi everyone - Welcome to How Things Grow. I’ve been very stoked to present some amazing stories as a part of season 2 of How Things Grow. As all good things do, this season has run its course. I’m taking a step back to reorient, readjust - and come back with a whole new season of how things grow. We’re already begun preparing for the next season. We have some amazing speakers lined up - and I can’t wait to get this out to you. Stay tuned - we’re going to be back very...
2019-08-2900 min
The How Things Grow PodcastHow Things Dont Grow; Reflections on Failing To Be a Billionaire - with Sahil Lavingia (CEO at Gumroad)My guest today is Sahil Lavingia, and this is an incredibly powerful, honest & inspiring episode. Sahil is today the founder & CEO of Gumroad, a platform that helps creators get paid for the work they do. What is significantly more impressive though is Sahil’s journey to where he is today. Sahil was in many ways a prodigy as a teenager, working on apps & websites - and making $100k by age 15. He joined the University of Southern California, only to drop out after a semester to join the then fledgling platform Pinterest to build their iOS app as...
2019-08-0743 min
The How Things Grow PodcastHow viral content can trigger habit change at scale - with Victoria Repa (Founder & CEO - BetterMe)My guest today is Victoria Repa. Victoria is the founder and CEO of BetterMe, a fitness app based out of Ukraine. I’m very excited to have Victoria on the show because she has such an incredibly unconventional background and story that I find very very inspiring. In this interview, we talk about Victoria’s early upbringing in a tiny village in the east of Ukraine, how she educated herself early on, her move to Kyiv, her transition from working on transportation logistics to technology, her work on viral content - and how that led her to building a comp...
2019-07-2349 min
The How Things Grow PodcastOn the art & science of making games fun - with Josh Lu(VP & Commercial Leader, Blizzard Entertainment)My guest today is one of the leading experts in the world on games and growth in games. He’s a man who who has helped launch & grow many many hit mobile games. He started his gaming career at Playdom, where he helped the game Social City get to 5 million installs in the first week of launch. He was the founding product manager at Scopely, where he helped grow the daily actives for Dice With Buddies 30x. Yes, you heard that right - 30x. Subsequently he moved to Zynga, where he served as the Franchise Lead and Head of...
2019-07-0953 min
The How Things Grow PodcastDecoding freemium, the unlikely drivers of cybersecurity adoption & more - with Elena Verna(Growth Advisor, ex SVP of Growth, Marketing, Product & Design at Malwarebytes & ex SVP of Growth at SurveyMonkey)My guest today is Elena Verna. Elena is a growth advisor - she advises a number of companies - and helps scale businesses with marketing, product, analytics and growth. Elena joined SurveyMonkey as an analyst a year and a half out of college - and found herself trying to understand a growth trajectory that was incredible. Yet this was a growth trajectory that no one on the team had insight into. As an analyst, Elena wrote the queries that helped answer many of the fundamental questions underlying the business and what was driving its growth. Over the next 7 years...
2019-06-2650 min
The How Things Grow PodcastThe unseen forces driving mass-market adoption of technologies - 8 lessons from season 1 of How Things Grow.In today’s episode, we take a very short break from regular programming - as I present to you my talk at my alma mater, the Indian Institute of Technology Madras last year. This is a talk called ‘The Unseen Forces Driving Mass Adoption Of Technologies’ - featuring 8 key takeaways from season 1 of How Things Grow. I spoke to some of the smartest engineering students in India - the Indian Institutes of Technology(the IITs) tend to be super-selective and have an acceptance rate of under 1%. Fun fact: in one of my favorite Dilbert strips, Asok says: “Luckily...
2019-06-1439 min
The How Things Grow PodcastMaking the internet work, building an eCommerce business in the age of Amazon - and more; with Mauria Finley(CEO of Allume)My guest today is Mauria Finley. Mauria has lived in very interesting times - and worked on some industry-defining products. Her first job out of college was at Netscape, where she not only saw from close up the large scale adoption of the internet but also helped build utilities and products for it like email, chat and browser features. She then worked on mobile in the days before mobile apps, when mobile was primarily a work and productivity platform - before working with PayPal and eBay. She started her first business Citrus Lane in 2011, which was born of a...
2019-05-2748 min
The How Things Grow PodcastA brief history of mobile user acquisition - with Eric Seufert(Head of Platform at N3twork & Founder at MobileDevMemo)My guest today is Eric Seufert. Eric is the Head of Platform at N3twork, the founder of MobileDevMemo.com, author of the book ‘Freemium Economics’ - and one of the foremost experts on mobile user acquisition today. Eric started his career as an analyst at Skype, and went on to work with gaming companies like Digital Chocolate, Grey Area and Wooga - before heading up user acquisition for Rovio, in which capacity he headed up much of the launch activity for Angry Birds 2, which launched with over 25 million installs in the first week after its launch. Eric has also...
2019-05-1447 min
The How Things Grow PodcastThe inner workings of internet fame - with Sophia Yeh(Influencer Manager) & Adam Hadi(VP of Marketing at Current)Today’s is a unique episode. I have two amazing guests to offer two different perspectives about a theme that I’ve always been very very fascinated by - influencer marketing, and the economics of internet fame. Sophia Yeh(aka Sophia Beatbox, or Sophia Kiddbeatz) is a YouTuber and influencer manager. Sophia literally grew up with Youtube. She started making videos in high school, and really took off on the Youtube platform as a teenager making these really cool beatboxing videos. After growing her presence on Youtube for a number of years, she moved over to the business side of i...
2019-04-2950 min
The How Things Grow PodcastMaking design accessible to the world - with Cameron Adams(Co-founder & CPO at Canva)My guest today is Cameron Adams. Cameron is the co-founder and Chief Product Officer at Canva, the graphic design tool website that recently was valued at over $1 billion. In today’s interview, we talk to Cameron about his long and checkered career. We talk about his work on Google Wave, which seemed to be a product way ahead of its time - and which gathered some incredible buzz but saw limited adoption. In his next startup Fluent, he seemed to have everything going for him with a huge surge of user interest - in spite of which he had to...
2019-04-1649 min
The How Things Grow PodcastInside Facebook & Pinterest’s growth machines - with Cat Lee(Partner at Maveron, ex Facebook & Pinterest)My guest today is Cat Lee. Cat Lee is the newest partner at Maveron, a $160MM consumer-tech fund, primarily focused on funding hyper-growth startups at the series A and seed rounds. Cat has had a long history of working on some groundbreaking growth projects - and taking huge leaps in her own career. She worked on the Facebook platform team starting in 2008, and helped drive the adoption of Open Graph, which drove some breakout growth for Facebook outside of its own platform. She then joined Pinterest in 2012 as the Head of Growth, and helped drive 3x growth in MAUs...
2019-04-0149 min
The How Things Grow PodcastThe one word strategic plan - with Lomit Patel(VP of Growth at IMVU).My guest today is Lomit Patel, VP of Growth at IMVU. Prior to IMVU, Lomit managed growth at many early stage startups including Roku (IPO), TrustedID (acquired by Equifax), Texture (acquired. by Apple) and Earthlink. Lomit is a frequent speaker at different conferences and recognized as a Mobile Hero by Liftoff. In today’s episode, we talk about one of the pivotal moments in Lomit’s career - when he presented a one word strategic plan to kick off a massive transition within his company IMVU. We go into the circumstances that preceded his one word plan, his thinking behi...
2019-03-1839 min
The How Things Grow PodcastFrom hypervirality to sustainable growth - with Zack Onisko(CEO at Dribbble)My guest today is the Zack Onisko, who is behind some incredible breakout growth stories. Zack was an early team member at Tickle, which is generally considered to have pioneered virality as we know it - and did this at a time before Facebook existed. He then worked with Branchout that mastered growth through virality on the Facebook platform, before he led growth for Creative Market and Hired, solving very unique growth problems. Zack today is the CEO of Dribbble, which has been described as LinkedIn for designers. Zack has thought deeply not only about growing but also doing...
2019-03-0447 min
The How Things Grow PodcastHow to drive social change at scale - with Nick Allardice - VP of Product & Design at Change.orgMy guest today is someone with a very unconventional background. Nick Allardice is the VP of Product & Design at Change.org. Nick started his career as an activist - about as far from the world of tech products as you can imagine. He joined Change.org because it was a tech enabled social platform that could have larger impact than the world of activism that he was in. He led Change.org’s internationalization effort - and subsequently the campaigns team before heading up Change.org’s product team. In today’s very fascinating conversation, we talk about not ju...
2019-02-1843 min
The How Things Grow PodcastInside Draw Something's perfect storm: from the brink to 50 million installs in 50 days: with Wilson Kriegel, CEO of HrtBeat AudioMy guest today is Wilson Kriegel - and he’s going to tell us the story of a perfect storm that he lived through that in many ways shaped & pioneered the way we think about virality and breakout growth. Wilson is today the CEO at HrtBeat Audio, a wearable hardware and software company that could very well change the way we communicate and capture moments safely using handsfree devices. Wilson has been a leader in many companies in gaming and mobile since far before the first smartphones came on our radar. On today’s episode, we will dive into...
2019-02-0452 min
The How Things Grow PodcastThe original growth hacker, and inside Dropbox’s blockbuster referral loop - with Sean Ellis from GrowthHackers.comMy guest today is Sean Ellis. Sean is widely regarded as the Godfather of Growth, and is credited with coining the phrase ‘growth hacking’. Where do I begin talking about him? Sean has held leadership roles with gaming platform Uproar and the remote desktop tool LogMeIn - and pioneered the cross functional approach to growing businesses that has since become known as ‘growth’, ‘growth hacking’ or ‘growth marketing’. All of that was before he worked on some of his biggest wins - most famously, he helped set up Dropbox’s referral program. If you remember back in 2008, if you invited a friend t...
2019-01-2252 min
The How Things Grow PodcastSeason 2 intro: How Things Grow Season 2 is coming soon.The second season of How Things Grow will become available next Monday - and will include transcripts as well. As you may know, How Things Grow tells the stories of the people who help companies, technologies and economic systems take off. Each episode features an interview with one of the leading growth practitioners, entrepreneurs, experts or historians in the world today. In our first episode of season 2, we’ll dive into the origin story of one of the original referral sensations. I interview Sean Ellis, the CEO of GrowthHackers.com - the man behind many ma...
2019-01-1403 min
The How Things Grow PodcastHow Things Grow takes a break....Thank you so much for listening to How Things Grow! I’ve been truly humbled by the feedback and response that you guys have shared about the show and the episodes thus far. The last 9 episodes have not only been a blast, but they’ve also been incredibly instructive learning experiences for me. How Things Grow will take a short break, simply because each episode takes many many weeks to prepare and make. I’ve already started working on the next season of episodes - and I have some amazing interviewees lined up. I’m truly...
2018-03-1300 min
The How Things Grow PodcastThe rise of co-living - and how it’s transforming urban housing and community - with Brad Hargreaves(Common, ex General Assembly)In this episode, we talk about the phenomenon of co-living, and how it's changing urban housing and community. We go behind the scenes of the tremendous growth of the co-living company Common. My guest today is Brad Hargreaves, the CEO and founder of Common and co-founder of General Assembly. Brad was separately recommended by two of the guests on How Things Grow - Jay Weintraub and Adam Lovallo. The more I researched Brad, the more fascinated I was by everything he’s done in a wild variety of industries. Brad is perhaps among the very few people I’ve spok...
2018-03-0549 min
The How Things Grow PodcastTale of a city; Part 2 - New York: taking over the world - with Sam Roberts(The New York Times)This episode is the second part of a two part story - and it features the story of New York City - and how it went from a wilderness island in 1600 to the metropolis that we know it as today. If you havent yet listened to part 1, you can check out the interview I did with historian Russell Shorto on HowThingsGrow.co/episodes My guest today is Sam Roberts. Sam is a journalist who has written for the New York Times since 1983 - and is the host of the NY1 show The New York Times Close Up. Sam is...
2018-02-2636 min
The How Things Grow PodcastTale of a city; Part 1 - New York: The New Amsterdam days; with Russell Shorto(author - The Island At The Center Of The World)Today’s episode is a special one. Past episodes of How Things Grow have told the stories of how technologies and companies have taken off. Today’s episode tells the improbable story of the rise of a physical ecosystem. This episode is the first of a two part story. This episode features the story of New York City - and how it went from a wilderness island in 1600 to the burgeoning trading town of New Amsterdam that was renamed New York. In our next episode, we'll talk about New York's story from the British rule in the 17th century to t...
2018-02-1934 min
The How Things Grow PodcastAscent of a language learning phenomenon - with Gina Gotthilf(Duolingo, ex Tumblr)In this episode, we talk about how technology & gamification have dramatically eased the process of language learning. We go behind the scenes of the meteoric growth of the language learning app Duolingo. My guest today is Gina Gotthilf, the VP of Growth at Duolingo.Duolingo has had a dramatic growth trajectory over the last few years. It’s gone from 3 million installs to 200 million installs, doing very little paid marketing or advertising. Gina and her team drove much of this growth. Gina is, without doubt, one of the most engaging and smart people I’ve known. I recently intr...
2018-02-1256 min
The How Things Grow PodcastThe early days of ridesharing & bikesharing - with Dan Riaz(ScaleUp Labs, 500 startups, ex Lyft, ex Zynga).In this episode of How Things Grow, we revisit the early days or ridesharing - and look at how bikesharing is beginning to evolve. My guest today is my good friend Dan Riaz. Dan’s had a checkered career and an interesting life. Dan managed mobile acquisition at Zynga just when Zynga started to shift its business from web to mobile. He then joined Lyft when they were in just 4 cities to head up their mobile user acquisition. At Lyft, he saw from close up the ascension of the ridesharing industry - and its emergence as the widespread mass ma...
2018-02-0557 min
The How Things Grow PodcastThe art of the conference - with Jay Weintraub(Grow.co, Mobile Apps Unlocked, LeadsCon, Contact.Io, InsureTech Connect, HRTransform) Welcome to this week’s episode of How Things Grow! In this episode we explore the business of conferences, and of bringing people together. My guest today is Jay Weintraub, who is a true master of the art of the conference. Jay is a man who has started and grown 5 conferences in wildly different industries - mobile apps, call marketing, HR, lead generation and insurance. His conferences are such well-oiled machines and attended by thousands of people - and I’ve always wanted to sit down with him to ask him about what makes conference-businesses tick. Irrespective of w...
2018-01-2953 min
The How Things Grow PodcastInvite-a-friend flows, rapid testing & more - with Dominic 'DistroDom' Coryell(Grabr, ex 500 Startups, ex Talkable)Welcome to this week’s episode of How Things Grow! In this episode we dive into the mechanics of ‘invite a friend’ flows - or referral marketing, testing ideas quickly and much much more. My guest today is the amazing Dominic 'DistroDom' Coryell. Dom founded his first company GarmentValet while he was still in college. He then founded the Talkable, which is one of the leading referral marketing companies in the world. He then became a partner at 500 startups, in which capacity he advised hundreds of startups on their growth. In his most recent role, he works as the VP Gro...
2018-01-2244 min
The How Things Grow PodcastInside invites, surveys, fitness & viral growth - with Selina Tobaccowala(Gixo, ex SurveyMonkey, ex Evite).Welcome to this week’s episode of How Things Grow! In this episode we dive into the nuances of how products go viral, about how companies and cultures are built for the long term - and much much more. My guest today is the amazing and wise Selina Tobaccowala, one of the most respected leaders in the Silicon Valley. She’s had an uncanny knack of reinventing herself, starting over and succeeding time and again. Selina co-founded Evite right after she graduated from Stanford, which was acquired by IAC. She then worked as the SVP of Product & Technology at T...
2018-01-1437 min
The How Things Grow PodcastThe rise, decline and settling-down of daily deals - with Adam Lovallo(Grow.co, ex LivingSocial) It's finally here! After months of procrastination and fantasizing - and many more months of eventual research, reachouts, edits and agonizing.... the first episode of the How Things Grow podcast is here! My guest today is a man whom I’ve admired for a long time. Adam Lovallo runs some of the best-attended conferences in the mobile apps space.But before Adam started his first conference, he cut his teeth in the whirlwind that was the daily deals space. He worked at LivingSocial, where he came in as an intern - and grew to be the Head of Us...
2018-01-011h 01