In this episode of 20 VC, host Harry Stebbings interviews Adam Foroughi, the energetic and charismatic co-founder and CEO of AppLovin, a company that has revolutionized the app development landscape by providing marketing, monetization, analysis, and publishing tools. Under Foroughi's direction, AppLovin has achieved an impressive scale, going public, expanding to a global team of over a thousand, and generating over a billion dollars in revenue in 2020. Foroughi's journey began in derivatives trading before founding Lifestreet Media and Social Hour, and his entrepreneurial approach has been informed by his experiences with previous startups. He emphasizes the formulaic nature of startups, the importance of recruiting passionate talent, and the advantages of risk-taking when not solely motivated by money. Foroughi also discusses the acquisition strategy at AppLovin, including the strategic purchase of Mopub from Twitter, and how a focus on partnership and trust has driven successful integrations. He shares insights on leadership, the value of fitness, and maintaining a balance between work and family life.
"And today's guest was one of the most high energy, charismatic and fun guests I've had on the show in a long time."
This quote introduces the guest, Adam Foroughi, and sets the tone for the episode, highlighting Adam's positive attributes.
"Remote makes it easy for companies of all sizes to employ global teams."
This quote explains the services provided by Remote, one of the sponsors, emphasizing the ease of international employment through their platform.
"So our thesis on the company was just that app content creation was going to explode."
Adam explains the core idea behind AppLovin, anticipating the explosion of app content creation and the resulting need for effective app discovery solutions.
"Startups are formulaic, like at every step."
Adam asserts that there is a formulaic aspect to startups, and past experiences provide a framework for future entrepreneurial endeavors.
"I want to build something really big. I want to do something that is really game changing in whatever I'm passionate about."
This quote reflects Adam's shift in motivation from financial necessity to passion for creating something impactful and transformative.
"The only job early on is to surround yourself with talent, because the idea, frankly, doesn't matter."
Adam highlights the importance of recruiting talent as a primary task for founders, suggesting that the initial business idea is secondary to the team's quality.
"Like the best thing that ever happened to me was hearing, no."
Adam reflects on the positive outcome of facing rejection from VCs, which led to a more independent and insightful path for AppLovin.
"Let's go get first party data that we can then build algorithms on top of and understand our user better."
Adam explains the strategic decision to acquire first-party data to enhance AppLovin's advertising performance and user understanding.
"It wasn't as much about like, let's go convince people internally, let's rally everyone. It was just do it."
Adam describes AppLovin's straightforward and action-oriented approach to internal changes, emphasizing the lack of extensive internal convincing or rallying.
"I make ten decisions a day, and most of them aren't strategic. Maybe every quarter I make one strategic decision. But if you plan, if you process, if you over communicate, you start overanalyzing and slow down."
The quote explains Adam's high-frequency decision-making approach, where he avoids getting bogged down by over-planning and instead focuses on execution.
"One slack as an efficiency tool has been just insanely popular for our company... And as you put it into asynchronous chat and real time dialogue, you start not needing meeting."
Adam explains how the use of Slack has reduced the need for meetings, allowing for more efficient and direct communication within his company.
"If you allow them to take ownership responsibility and take action without fear of downside, that team develops to have more responsibility, more ownership and more pride in what they're doing because they have the ability to take those shots and learn from them."
Adam emphasizes the importance of empowering team members to make decisions and take ownership of their work, which leads to personal and professional growth.
"I think the key for us, or for me at least early on, was finding people that weren't entitled coming in and had a reason to push themselves."
Adam discusses his criteria for hiring candidates, focusing on their drive and determination rather than just their educational background or credentials.
"I definitely wasn't that early on, but I was always confident in my own abilities, and I was always confident about what we were building."
This quote illustrates Adam's journey from a self-doubting individual to a confident leader, highlighting the importance of self-belief and vision in leadership.
"I'm not in it to optimize for a couple of months out, six months out, nine months out. I'm in it to build a big business for many years to come because I'm in it to go have fun for really the rest of my career, as long as I'm competent enough to hold this position."
Adam shares his perspective on being a public CEO, focusing on long-term goals and building a sustainable business rather than succumbing to the short-term demands of the market.
"And so what I found is what works for me is probably different than other folks, and it's different for every single leader of an organization or of a business unit or team."
The quote highlights Adam's personalized approach to delegation and leadership, tailored to his unique management style and the needs of his company.
"The more respectful and quiet I am towards someone, the less I believe that I can hand something off to them."
Adam describes his method of handling performance issues, indicating that his level of engagement with an individual reflects his belief in their potential and ability to take on responsibility.
"Like, at that moment, I know I'm not going to be able to get this person to a point of full trust. Therefore, I got to move on."
This quote emphasizes the importance of trust in working relationships and the need to move on when trust cannot be fully established.
"It's belief in their capacity to become you at that sliver of the world."
Adam Foroughi explains that trust is about believing in someone's ability to perform at a high level in their specific area of expertise.
"What creates that success is a passion and a desire to outwork everyone around you and understand and solve puzzles mentally that other people can't solve."
Adam Foroughi discusses that success is driven by passion and the relentless pursuit of solutions, rather than just raw intelligence.
"We wanted to partner with people we like working with."
Adam Foroughi highlights the importance of partnerships being more than transactions, focusing on relationships and trust.
"We didn't go to banker run processes, we didn't go bid into competitive moments in time where you're just thinking about dollars."
This quote illustrates the unique approach to acquisitions, which prioritized relationships over competitive bidding processes.
"You have to trust that they can do it and do it at the standard that you like to operate and that the cultural beliefs align with what you believe as a parent holdings company."
Adam Foroughi explains the necessity of trust and cultural compatibility when acquiring companies that will operate independently.
"We've got 3000 game developers that are building games for us. We've got almost 20 studios around the world."
Adam Foroughi outlines the scale of the company's development resources, indicating a shift from acquisition to internal growth.
"The ones that we've, I think, struggled with are the smaller ones because they do need more help."
Adam Foroughi shares insights on the challenges faced with smaller acquisitions and the importance of self-sufficiency in partners.
"It really was us deciding, look, this is what's best for the market."
Adam Foroughi discusses the rationale behind acquiring Mopub, focusing on the broader benefits for the market rather than just financial gain.
"By the time we're done with this next year, clearing over $15 billion of ad spend in our marketplace, that's a huge amount."
Adam Foroughi highlights the expected scale of the integrated advertising platform post-Mopub acquisition.
"And I think we now have a chance with the marketplace buying in, all the developers in the ecosystem and the demand side, to create something that's great."
This quote expresses enthusiasm about the collaborative potential of the marketplace, developers, and demand side to create significant value or products.
"Google and Facebook are the two most sophisticated advertising companies on earth. They've built technologies that when I started my career and 15 years ago on browser, we saw the ads that were running. I mean, frankly, they were just spam compared to what it is now. It's so relevant."
The quote highlights the speaker's respect for Google and Facebook's technological advancements in advertising, which have significantly improved since the speaker began their career.
"But that was 'Never Split the Difference,' which was negotiation book. And I found it to be pretty interesting."
This quote shares a personal anecdote about reading preferences, specifically mentioning one book that stood out to the speaker.
"It's almost like there was a time I could just get through my day, feel good, get a good night's sleep, and just know that I got through the task list and tomorrow I'd get through the task list and it'd be that now it continues to build to a point where I can never catch up."
The quote conveys the speaker's experience of the increasing challenges associated with managing a growing company and the impact on personal well-being.
"And what I've found is in order to absorb the pressure and the workload, I have to do something active."
This quote emphasizes the importance of physical activity as a means to cope with work-related stress.
"That's all credit to my wife. If I had to do five kids of balance work life, I'd be done."
This quote recognizes the speaker's spouse's role in maintaining the family's well-being, which supports the speaker's work focus.
"And I think I just say, go find your passion, chase it."
The quote suggests that pursuing one's passion is a pathway to happiness and success, which is a personal belief of the speaker.
"And so what I've found is, I guess I get mentored by my experiences, my relationships, the people I cross with, then I'm learning off the sum total of all of that."
The quote reflects the speaker's belief that mentorship can come from a variety of sources and experiences, rather than a single individual.
"I would love if I wasn't in the weeds, and I just trusted everything to the folks around me, and I could go up a level and say, my job is to teach."
This quote reveals the speaker's desire to transition from hands-on tasks to a more strategic role focused on mentorship and talent development.
"And so we will continue to do that. And hopefully, in three to five years, we're talking about some fun turns and twists in the business evolution that we've had over here."
The quote indicates a forward-thinking approach to business, with a focus on innovation and a willingness to take risks for growth and development.