2014 annual report
TRANSCRIPT
CEO Remarks2014 was a transformative year for our young company. It was the year
we moved from Early Stage Startup to Fast Growth Company. The
transition, was challenging for our team both professionally and
personally, but incredibly rewarding.
As you will see in the following pages we have an engineered a strong
product, on top of a powerful strategy that will provide long term
competitive differentiation in a very crowded but extremely lucrative
market.
We are taking on, and winning business over iconic technology
companies like Google and Facebook. We have quickly established
ourselves as the leader of a new and skyrocketing market for
comprehensive mobile marketing software.
As I reflect on the past year, I think about the culture and values we
have built in our company. I think about the meaning and purpose that
our people get by coming in every day and tackling truly difficult
problems. The investments that we have made in selecting only the very
best people, and maintaining the highest expectations of ourselves,
have become the vaccine that shields us from the inevitably stressful
and difficult path we have chosen.
As we continue our fast growth, I have encouraged all of our people to
reflect daily on the Stockdale Paradox:
‘We must retain faith that we will prevail in the end, regardless of the
difficulties.
AND at the same time…
We must confront the most brutal facts of our current reality, whatever
they might be.’
If we keep this maxim as our north star, we can continue to expect
amazing things we never thought possible in 2015. Onward!
2
Rob Emrich
Founder & CEO
Table of Contents
Overview
Technology
Revenue
Operations
Creative + Case Studies
Company growth
Market growth
Financials
Strategy
The Mobile MajorityAnnual Review 2014
3
Financial Milestones
5
$360K
$131M
Annualized Run Rate
$4M
$48M
Biggest Single Day Revenue Biggest 30 Day Period Revenue
Annualized Run Rate
100 Concurrent Campaigns
Industry Leading Selection StandardsRigorous Selection Process
Applications Hires
3,244 32Hiring Rate
1%
Rigorous 4-5
session, multi test,
in person white-
boarding sessions
similar to Google
100% meritocracy
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Harvard Goldman Sacks Y-Combinator Secret Service The Mobile Majority Google
5.8%4.4% 4%
1% 0.4%1%
LESS SELECTIVE MORE SELECTIVE
I joined The Mobile Majority over well known tech
companies because I believed they had a massive
opportunity to provide the market with solutions and with a
pace and attitude that every Product person dreams of
– Marcos Escalante / Head of Product
Technology
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Technology Leadership
Background in astro-physics and
CEO of high frequency software
development firm “Elastic” in
Brazil
Chief Technology Officer
Ad Tech veteran with Mobile
focus known for leading Product
and Technology teams to deliver
massive value to customers
Marcos EscalanteHead of Product
Industry veteran responsible for
building and architecting big data
solutions for CBS, FullScreen,
MySpace, and Raytheon.
Cheolho MinaleVP of Technology
Data scientist and engineer who helps
to solve problems from
conceptualization to software
realization, with considerable
experience in online display
advertising, machine learning, big
data technologies
Yongjia Wang Head of Data Science
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Marcelo Wiermann
Technology
In more than one way 2014 was a critical year for us. It was the
year we pivoted into the programmatic buying arena and
almost instantly increased n-fold our ability to scale. It was the year we got into rich, terabyte-scale Big Data. It was the year
we grew our engineering team from a scrappy single cell squad
to a world class Agile team with skill sets and experience levels spread across the board. It was the year we committed to
delivering a bold and industry-changing vision.
In more than one way 2014 was the year we became a true
contender in a market that has at its core the antithesis between large scale spend and a feeling of ‘business as usual’ towards levels of fraud and sub-optimal performance that would probably make more mature industries flinch. This was the year we set off in a course to revolutionize how business is done in our industry and we proved we can do it.
And we are just getting started.
Reflections on 2014 Thoughts on 2015
If there is one thing I could say for 2015, it would is that I am
very excited about 2015. We have the team, the technological
basis, the know-how and the guts to deliver on our bold vision of reaching the top tier of our industry. The fact is that we have
a lot of room to grow and a lot of ground to cover. We have got
the basics of our strategy and products right. We have a good team of engaged people that we can use to further grow and
expand while maintaining the awesome culture that defines us.
2015 will be all about expanding on the foundation that we laid
in the previous year. It will be about delivering more polished and performant versions of our current products, increasing our base of customer / advocates and using more and more the humongous amount of rich, contextual data we have access to.
This will be an year where we will give a lot of people a run for their money and show that we can do better, faster and with more reliability than most of our competitors.
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Marcelo Wiermann
Review of the Past + Predictions for the Future
CTO
Huge Growth
2 ENGINEERS
19 ENGINEERS
January 2014 January 2015
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January 2013January 2012
2 ENGINEERS
1 ENGINEER
As a technology company engineers give us our competitive advantage. The are also extremely difficult to recruit because there is a massive shortage of computer science talent. We have shown we can successfully recruit engineering talent. Bringing talent from top tier companies like Quantcast, Atlas, and Datalogix.
Technology: Hiring
Rapid Technology Development
AdCast 3,944
Bidder 1,158
AdTags 711
Bider Core 664
Demeter 264
AdKit 50
New Tags Storage 45
Sensor 25
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6,861
Total Git Commits
2014
• Rewards
Dashboard
• PaeDae In App
• Rewards iOS SDK
• AdSynergy Fully Integrated
Mobile Ad Platform
• AdCast Mobile DSP
• AdKit Universal Ad Delivery
• AdScore Pre-Bid Fraud
Detection
• AudienceArchitect Custom
Targeting / Audience Builder
• Working with 6 Exchanges
& 31 Ad Networks
• Proprietary CRM Product
January 2014 January 2015
High quality code, rapid product development
Offline-to-Online CRM Targeting
" Build mobile audiences using customer data
from any customer relationship management
system."
Build on the Relationships You Already Have.
Effective marketing isn’t (just) about exposing
your brand to new, untapped audiences. It’s
about turning strangers into friends, and
friends into customers. Rather than starting
from scratch, use what you know about
prospects and customers to maintain exposure
in an ongoing and relevant way.
• Real-Time, Real User Matching
• Build an Audience with Confidence
• Different Relationships, Different Uses
RealMatch™Connecting the power of mobile advertising with offline CRM data
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AudienceArchitect™
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Pinpointing target audiences with advanced data management
AudienceArchitect™ bolsters external data
sources with a proprietary database full of
billions of customer interaction records.
We leverage a combination of 1st-party (SDK-
level), 2nd-party (RTB-level), and 3rd-party (data
provider-level) sources, in addition to our own, to
optimize a campaign’s target audience in real
time.
Through an ongoing process of data verification,
prediction, and machine learning, our platform is
able to achieve significantly higher match rates
and accuracy rates than other providers.
Break free from the constraints of legacy platforms
and restrictive SDK environments. AdKit™ speeds
up the development process plus delivers and
tracks your rich-media ad flawlessly across any
environment or mobile device type.
Using AdKit™, developers can quickly build
mobile web ads with rich media content without
the need of forced UI components. Save time with
reusable templates, automated device
determination/orientation changes, and pre-built
content such as landing or error pages.
Construct and deliver the most engaging rich-media mobile ads anywhere
AdKit™
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Choose from the Best
Cherry pick the best apps and sites so your ads are
only shown on safe and effective sources.
Premium Inventory
Select from a variety of premium sources to enable up
to full-page display of your rich media and video ads.
Buy Ads in Real-Time
Our technology makes it easier than ever to buy real-
time mobile phone and tablet ad impressions.
Integrate with Ease
With full use of all The Mobile Majority’s products,
AdCast™ helps target, optimize, track data, protect
against fraud, and more.
AdCast™Delivering ads to the world’s best mobile exchanges, channels, and networks
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Our proprietary ad scoring index guarantees
value by evaluating publisher reliability and CPM
pricing so you have access to consistently
viewable impressions at the best prices
available.
• Ensure quality with trusted and scored
inventory
• Boost performance
• Protect your brand
• Gain transparency with post-campaign site
reports
• Get the inventory you want that works best
for your brand and campaign
AdScore™Turning fear into confidence with pre-bid placement verification
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In my 20 years in digital, 13 in mobile I haven’t been this excited about an
opportunity to help evolve an industry. Our technology is years ahead of the
competition, yet a couple years overdue based on our customers needs.
The traction we are getting is faster than any of my 5 previous sales teams
– Evan Krauss / CRO
Revenue
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Revenue Leadership
Digital media veteran with a
proven record of championing
and developing successful
businesses in important
emerging market sectors.
With over 15 years in digital
media, Amy is known for
building high performing
teams and leadership in
dynamic marketplaces
Amy SolomonVP Sales East
Experienced marketer with a
propensity to help brands tell
stories. He led marketing for Rob
Emrich’s previous company before
it was acquired, and he has joined
forces to do it again.
Matt RussoHead of Marketing
Former CEO & co-founder of
mobile city travel companion
Spotsi and alumni of Wieden +
Kennedy technology incubator
Lauren WolffCreative Director
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Evan KraussCRO
Revenue
On the revenue front, the first half 2014 was about testing our
technology with live customers, proving market fit and honing our
messaging to attract the right customers.
After successful campaigns with a number of fortune 100 brands such
as Unilever, Bayer, Paramount, Hershey’s, Hasbro, Amazon, Chase
and 7’11, we spent the 2nd half of the year building out our revenue
organization. Our team at the end of the year consisted of 5 sellers, 2
sales support, 2 sales operations, and a creative team of 3. All but 1
are new employees hired during the 2nd half 2014.
We are very excited about the team we have in place and feel
strongly they are the right team to help us hit our revenue targets
and beyond. It took a bit longer to put together than we expected but
it is one of the best I have put together in my 20 years.
The team has been trained and in market selling for about 4 months
now. The pattern of driving awareness, interest, intent, and test buys
is following the exact pattern I would expect at this stage of our
business.
Reflections on 2014 Thoughts on 2015
With over 200 sales meetings under our belt and an ever-growing pipeline we feel strongly that our solutions are resonating in the
market. We have met with and are seeing traction with 60 of the top 100 digital spenders today. Many of which have already led
to RFP’s and closed deals.
With the continued increase in PR attention and sales
momentum we are seeing good traction with candidates on the
hiring front and we will continue to hire A+ talent throughout the
year. We expect to double the number of sellers and grow our support team by roughly 50% this year.
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Evan Krauss
Review of the Past + Predictions for the Future
CRO
HIRING GROWTHTEAM OF 14
January 2014 January 2015January 2013January 2012
TEAM OF 3
SELLER SUPPORT
TEAM OF 3TEAM OF 2
Direct Sales Growth
REVENUE GROWTH
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Revenue Growth
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01 / 2014 01 / 201501 / 201301 / 201201 / 201401 / 201301 / 2012
Modeled Revenue Plan Actual & Forecast Revenue Reseller Revenue
01 / 2015
DIRECT SALES RESELLERS
We take a very disciplined approach to our growth focusing on our culture,
communication and alignment. We take great pains to develop a team of the
highest caliber who embody our core values and are dedicated to the ambitious
mission we have set for ourselves. Furthermore, we developed the processes
to align our company objectives with department goals and individual
employee tasks. That way, we are all striving for the same goal.
– Sam Kim / COO
Operations
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Operations Leadership
Sam worked in the IP and Business space at
Simpson Thacher and Bartlett LLP before
becoming a partner at SGGS. He then went
on to lead Business Development efforts at
Sensible Medical Solutions before founding
The Mobile Majority with Rob.
Sam GoldbergFounder & Counsel,
Business Development
Sam has extensive experience in B2B,
technology and finance through his
work at the World Bank, Credit Suisse
and Kalchas. Prior to joining The
Mobile Majority, Sam built and sold a
commodities trading platform.
Sam KimFounder & COO
Mobile advertising veteran with over 6
years of industry experience managing
international teams of 18 Ad
Operations people and executing
performance and brands campaigns at
Smaato and Mdotm.
Sam TamHead of Ad Operations
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Operations
Sam KimChief Operating Officer
I think of 2014 as the year we built a high throughput factory
capable of manufacturing everything from a Ford Escort to the
state-of-the-art Tesla Model S. While it takes most companies years to build a flexible production line like ours, we did it in
record time with very limited resources. For that, I am
incredibly proud of our team.
We have the industry’s best engineers who built a revolutionary
product utilizing the latest open source technologies. It is fast, reliable and flexible. We can produce and traffic very simple
static image based campaigns all the way to bespoke rich-media ads that utilize mobile-specific features such as a phone’s accelerometer. It is truly the first the first of its kind.
Our award-winning creative team developed highly engaging ads that lapped the industry averages on interaction and engagement metrics.
Reflections on 2014
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Our ad operations team proved they can traffic $4 million in a single month and as much as $350,000 in a single day. This from a small, nimble team of three doing what other
companies need 10 or more people.
Thoughts on 2015
While 2014 was a monumental year for the team, we achieved our success with very little focus on sales and
marketing. We generated strong revenues for a company
with one seller and a product that was in various stages of completion.
That’s why 2015 will be the year of marketing and sales. We have proven out the market demand for our product and services. Now, we must let the world know who we are and why they should do business with us. We will tackle this challenge with the same tenacity we built our factory last year. And I expect nothing to stand in the way of our marketing, sales, and business development teams."
Review of the Past + Predictions for the Future
The Big Screen Goes Mobile
Impactful creative gets better results
Utilizing inline video, “Add to Calendar” functionality, and a Fandango ticket reservation integration, we were able to create awareness for this major film release and drive viewers to the box office for Paramount.
Paramount – T4
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• 16% clicked to play video
• Nearly 90% video completion rate
• 11% of those who completed video
entered sweepstakes
• 7% of entrants added release date
to calendar
KEY INSIGHTS View the Ad
This “wipe to win” rich-media campaign drove top-to-bottom funnel results for Bayer’s OTC cold and sinus product.
• 6.2% ad engagement rate
(vs. 1% industry norm)
• 25 second average length of
engagement
• 13% coupon redemption rate
Bayer – Aleve-D
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Interactive Rewards Win Big
KEY INSIGHTS
Mobile engagement moves the needle —from awareness to purchase
View the Ad
Driving Awareness Through Advanced Targeting
• Campaign Duration:
10 days
• Impressions:
378,577
• Video Completes:
7,074
• Video Completes
1.87%
• Campaign Duration:
1 day
• Impressions:
220,823
• Video Completes:
11,868
• Video Completes
5.73%
NBC – Constantine
Audience Targeting Outperforms Site-List Targeting
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Targeting the right audience proved useful for NBC, as we served 220,823 impressions in ~1 day for their newest series Constantine. Alternatively, site targeting resulted in just over 378,500 impressions over ~10 day span.
KEY INSIGHTS View the Ad
Deliver the Experience on Mobile
• Click to play: 6.59%
• CTR % (win): 48.91%
• CTR% (fail): 72.73%
• AV. Time Spent (Seconds):
41.82
Hasbro – Simon Swipe
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Rather than telling consumers what it’s like to play Hasbro’s newest game (Simon Swipe), we elected to show them instead by replicating game play through this interactive rich-media ad.
Users who lose the game may engage
more with post-game features v
KEY INSIGHTS
View the Ad
Catching Z’s. Literally.
• Engagement rate: 1.36%
• Email Opt-in Post-Game: 17.38%
• Coupon Redemption: 24.97%
• Press from Various Publications:
Mashable / Mobile Marketer / Creativity Mag
Neuro – SLEEP Water
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Game play proves again that consumers prefer to engage with interactive ads, ad are more likely to opt in once the branded experience is over.
Increased coupon redemptions after
game interactionv
KEY INSIGHTS
View the Ad
Get Out the Vote, 2014 Political Primary
BEFORE
Speaker Boehner fav/unfav was: 52-40 = net + 12
Boehner for Congress
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WHAT WE DID
• $20,000 Budget, 2 Weeks
• 72% effective list coverage
RESULTS
Speaker Boehner’s favorable/unfavorable ratings were 71-22 = Net +29, a 408% Increase
The right message to the right media proves to be influential on mobile
KEY INSIGHTS
Increased revenue is the obvious metric by which high-growth
companies are measured. But what is perhaps more exciting
from a business standpoint is the velocity of our technology’s
development and the opportunity it creates to dictate the
landscape of the industry moving forward.
Company Growth
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26,698% 3 Year Revenue Growth
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Would be 5th Fastest Growth Company
according to the inc500 Formula
2012Revenue
267 X 2012
15 X 2012
2013Revenue
2014Revenue
Geographic GrowthIn 2014, The Mobile Majority became a truly global
company. With presences already established on
both coasts of the United States, we expanded our
skill set and offerings by attracting some of the
most talented developers, sales people, marketers,
and ad operators in the world.
Our expansion to four new cities across two
continents is also a metaphor for industry we serve.
Through technology, we are able to bridge the
vision of our founders with the people necessary to
take advantage of the seismic shift taking place
around the globe. No longer does geography
define the limits of our capabilities.
4
18
22
1
1
USA
6
BRAZIL
35
Santa Monica
New York
Sao Paulo
San Francisco
Chicago Detroit
Columbus
First Corporate Acquisition: Elastic
Why Brazil?
The U.S. market suffers heavily from a skewed demand vs. the
supply of available developers. Brazil has a large pool of highly
qualified engineering workforce mainly employed in conventional,
large scale enterprise operations and a growing (but small) startup
scene.
Many of the brightest and more entrepreneurial software engineers
have difficulties finding opportunities to work at the forefront of
technology like The Mobile Majority does. As a result, it is easier to
procure talent in a short amount of time to fuel the company's
growth.
For example, our Sao Paulo-based team is comprised of highly
skilled and talented software engineers, some of which possess
PhDs and Master's degrees through some of the most prestigious
institutions in Brazil. The team brings talent to all areas of product
development including UI, backend, highspeed API integration,
operations, and machine learning.
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POST MONEY VALUATION
INVESTMENT
RETURN
$15.9MRETURN
$4.4MRETURN
$16.6M
INVESTMENT INVESTMENT INVESTMENT
2012 2013 2014
SEEDJAN 2012
A1DEC 2012
A2DEC 2013
B1MAY 2014
RETURN
1,155%
RETURN
857%RETURN
282%
2015
CURRENTIMPLIED
VALUATION
RETURN
150%
Request specific numbers by emailing [email protected]
In 2014, some $50 billion of U.S. advertising
dollars was allocated to digital channels. While
mobile received just over one-third of that
spend, it will account for more than 70% of the
growing digital market by 2018.
Market Growth
40
Test
Source: StatCounter Global Stats, 5/14. Note that PC-based Internet data bolstered by streaming.
Mobile becomes a greater part of everyday live
41
Mobile is Exploding
15 Source: Advertising spend based on IAB data for full year 2013. Print includes newspaper and magazine. $30B+ opportunity calculated assuming Internet and Mobile ad spend share equal their respective time spent share. Time spent share data based on eMarketer 7/13 (adjusted to exclude outdoors / classified media spend). Arrows denote Y/Y shift in percent share.
Mobile is ExplodingGreatest Advertising Opportunity is in Mobile…
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Source: Global Mobile App revenue per Strategy Analytics; comprises virtual goods, in-app advertising, subscription, & download
revenue. Global Mobile 16 Advertising revenue per PWC; comprises browser, search & classified advertising revenue.
Mobile is Exploding…And Spend Continues to Increase
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Financials (Investors Only)
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“Whenever you see a successful business, someone
once made a courageous decision.”
―Peter F. Drucker
Request materials by emailing [email protected]
Two billion people are expected to own a smart phone by the
end of 2015, with over 83% of all Internet usage happening on
those devices. As advertisers and agencies decide where to
spend their budgets to accommodate this influx of demand, The
Mobile Majority’s integrated approach creates a competitive
advantage in a highly fragmented marketplace and delivers
superior results to our clients.
Strategy (Investors Only)
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Request materials by emailing [email protected]
The Last WordOur institutional knowledge of the mobile industry is substantial.
Through observations as media buyers, we learned that the mobile
advertising technology ecosystem was broken. Advertisers were being
charged for ads that were never seen and ads were not rendering
properly which effectively crashed the apps. Leveraging these
learnings, we expanded upon our core mobile technologies to burst
onto the seen in 2014 as the premier mobile rich media technology. In
the words of the Supremes: "Reflections of the way life used to be...“
We may not win every time, but we tenaciously fight for every inch.
Those inches have grown into yards…and the yards will grow into
miles. 2014 was a year of evolution and growth for us to emerge as a
cutting edge technology company at the forefront of a multi-billion
dollar industry.
2015 is our time to shine. Our technology innovation will continue
advancing, and we will broaden our customer base by offering a self-
serve mobile media buying platform. Having established our
technology as a market leader in 2014, we are now investing in our
marketing and sales efforts to increase exposure and share the story
with those that need it most: advertisers. Too long have advertisers
been frustrated by paying for mobile ads that fail technologically or are
so small that they cannot be read by consumers. Many in the industry
are talking about the problem - we are delivering the solution.
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Sam GoldbergFounder, Corporate Development & Counsel