John Nardone. He’s the CEO of Flashtalking, a first generation adtech pioneer. He served as the founding board member of the Internet Advertising Bureau. He’s known for his groundbreaking work at Pepsi, Modern Media and Marketing Management Analytics and received the Adtech Industry Achievement Award in 2012. As CEO at [x+1], he helped transform that business into a top-rated data management platform or DMP. Rocket Fuel acquired the company for $230M in 2014.

Famous Five:

Favorite Book? – Getting Naked
What CEO do you follow? – Steve Jobs
Favorite online tool? — Amazon and eBay
How many hours of sleep do you get?— 7
If you could let your 20-year old self, know one thing, what would it be? – “I might have started having kids a little bit sooner”

Time Stamped Show Notes:

01:52 – Nathan introduces John to the show
02:40 – Flashtalking was a partner of [x+1], currently known as Rocket Fuel
02:45 – Days after the acquisition, John got an offer to work with Flashtalking
03:23 – John decided to give-in to the offer and saw Flashtalking as an opportunity to stay in adtech
03:39 – John joined Flashtalking in 2015
03:53 – Flashtalking had been around since 2000 and it was bootstrapped by the founders
04:25 – Flashtalking came to the US in 2010
05:36 – John joined the company, mainly because of his vision and excitement for innovation and marketing
06:43 – John has bought a part of the company
07:03 – Flashtalking uses real-time data to personalize the communication with each consumer
- 07:10 – A simple example is retargeting
- 08:04 – Retargeting can happen on multiple devices
08:27 – One of Flashtalking’s clients is Walmart
08:56 – Flashtalking analyzes the customer’s behavior on a website
- 09:54 – Smartphone and current devices have changed the way we consume digital marketing
- 10:50 – Location data is included with the data that Flashtalking gathers
- 11:13 – Flashtalking makes the decision for what kinds of ads to show to the customers
11:30 – Flashtalking charges per CPM
- 12:05 – There are discounts for those with bigger volumes
13:01 – Flashtalking is not currently using AI technology
14:10 – Flashtalking currently has 40 clients that account for 80% of the revenue
- 14:26 – Flashtalking focuses on their big, global clients
15:20 – Average volume of impressions is 15B to 40B a month depending on the season
17:00 – Flashtalking focuses on helping their clients improve and get the experience that will drive their success metrics
17:50 – Team size is 280 globally
17:56 – Flashtalking hasn’t raised any capital aside from the buyout and it has been profitable since Day 1
19:10 – The Famous Five

3 Key Points:

Your vision will lead you to the companies that will help you grow, and eventually change the world.
Technology has significantly affected how we consume advertising.
There are specific markets where AI technology can be used well.

Resources Mentioned:

Simplero – The easiest way to launch your own membership course like the big influencers do but at 1/10th the cost.
The Top Inbox – The site Nathan uses to schedule emails to be sent later, set reminders in inbox, track opens, and follow-up with email sequences
GetLatka - Database of all B2B SaaS companies who have been on my show including their revenue, CAC, churn, ARPU and more
Klipfolio – Track your business performance across all departments for FREE
Hotjar – Nathan uses Hotjar to track what you’re doing on this site. He gets a video of each user visit like where they clicked and scrolled to make the site a better experience
Acuity Scheduling – Nathan uses Acuity to schedule his podcast interviews and appointments
Host Gator– The site Nathan uses to buy his domain names and hosting for the cheapest price possible
Audible– Nathan uses Audible when he’s driving from Austin to San Antonio (1.5-hour drive) to listen to audio books
Show Notes provided by Mallard Creatives

840: Ad Tech: $400m from Apple? Deal! FlashTalking Doing 15-40b Impressions/month

SaaS Interviews with CEOs, Startups, Founders