20VC: AppLovin’s Co-Founder & CEO, Adam Foroughi on How AppLovin Might Be The Venture Capital Industry’s Biggest Miss, How To Run a 1,000+ Organisation with Very Few Meetings & Balancing the Demands of Wall St with Long Term, Sustainable Growth
The Twenty Minute VC (20VC): Venture Capital | Startup Funding | The Pitch
The Twenty Minute VC
4.4 • 637 Ratings
🗓️ 29 November 2021
⏱️ 44 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Adam Foroughi is the Co-Founder and CEO @ AppLovin, the company that allows developers to market, monetize, analyze and publish their apps. Under Adam's leadership, he has taken the company public, grown the team to over 1,000 people around the world, and scaled revenue in 2020 to $1.5Bn. Prior to AppLovin, Adam founded two companies—Lifestreet Media and Social Hour, and before that Adam started his career as a derivatives trader.
In Today’s Episode with Adam Foroughi You Will Learn:
1.) How Adam made his way into the world of startups and came to found one of the world's largest gaming, advertising and marketing companies in the form of AppLovin?
2.) Adam founded 4 companies before AppLovin, does Adam believe in the benefits of serial entrepreneurship? What has he done differently with AppLovin having learned from past experience? What did he do the same, having seen it work before?
3.) Why does Adam advocate for as few meetings as possible within the company? Why does Adam believe meetings are unproductive? How do decisions get made internally without meetings? What is the structure and process? How does Adam create an environment where people make decisions without the fear of the repercussions? What are the breakpoints in company scaling?
4.) Why does Adam think that VCs did not want to invest in the early rounds? What were his biggest takeaways from those early fundraising days? How has Adam found the transition to being a public markets CEO? What does he like? What does he not like? How does Adam feel about pleasing the street but also having a long-term mindset?
5.) How does Adam structure his day? With 5 children, how does Adam approach work/life balance? What does his exercise and sleep routine look like? How does he do both weights and running without losing the productivity of the weights? What changes has he made in the last year that have made a significant difference?
Item’s Mentioned In Today’s Episode with Adam Foroughi
Adam's Favourite Book: Never Split the Difference: Negotiating as if Your Life Depended on It
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | We are back. This is 20VC with me, Harry Stebbings, and today's guest was one of the most high-energy, |
| 0:04.4 | charismatic and fun guests I've had on the show in a long time. And so on that note, I'm very, |
| 0:08.7 | very excited to welcome Adam Farogey. Adam is the co-founder and CEO at App Lovin, the company that |
| 0:13.4 | allows developers to market, monetise, analyze, and publish their apps. Under Adam's leadership, he's taken the company public, he's grown the team to over |
| 0:21.0 | a thousand people around the world, and scaled revenue in 2020 alone to over $1.5 billion. |
| 0:26.6 | Prior to App Loving, Adam founded two companies, Life Street Media and Social Hour, and before that, |
| 0:31.4 | Adam started his career as a derivatives trader. I do want to say a huge thank you to Akin and Leor |
| 0:35.7 | at Triple Dot for some fantastic question |
| 0:37.8 | suggestions and to John Burbank for the intro. |
| 0:40.0 | Really do so appreciate that and all they did to make that happen. |
| 0:42.8 | But before we dive into the show stage, you employ or pay workers in other countries. |
| 0:47.3 | Yes, well, you need remote. |
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| 0:52.8 | They take care of international payroll, benefits, |
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| 1:06.1 | entities in all their covered countries, guaranteeing you never have to deal with a third party |
| 1:10.1 | ever. And to save you money, remote never charges any fees or salary percentages. |
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| 1:20.5 | And best of all, podcast listeners, get an even bigger discount. |
| 1:23.4 | Get your first employee free for 12 months and two months free for any additional employees |
... |
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