Oren Kaniel: The GTM Story of AppsFlyer ($400M in ARR)

AppsFlyer , founded in 2011 by Oren Kaniel , has revolutionized mobile marketing measurement by building an unbiased platform that helps companies understand their user acquisition and engagement.

In this episode of Unicorn Builders by FrontLines.io, Oren shares how AppsFlyer grew to $400M+ in ARR, becoming the dominant player in mobile measurement through a customer-obsessed approach and strategic pivots during major industry changes.

Topics Discussed:

• Evolution from mobile measurement tool to comprehensive data platform
• Building without VC backing in early days
• Customer obsession as a core company value
• Navigating major industry changes (iOS 14, privacy shifts)
• Transition from underdog to market leader
• Global expansion and maintaining culture across 20 offices
• The role of AI and privacy in future growth

GTM Lessons For B2B Founders:

Lesson 1: Start with a Clear Market Need

When researching mobile apps in 2011, Oren identified three crucial market gaps. First, he recognized mobile's growth potential: "I thought it's going to grow exponentially for the next ten years, and I thought it's going to change everything." Second, he identified a lack of unbiased measurement: "I didn't find any kind of a natural, unbiased measurement companies and I thought that it just doesn't make sense. You need to have a referee in this ecosystem." Third, he saw an industry flying blind: "It was really mind blowing for me that there was no measurement and just a lot of spray and prey. And back then it was 600 billion industry, now its getting to 1 trillion billion industry. It just didnt make sense to me." This clear identification of market needs guided AppsFlyer's initial direction and continues to inform their strategy today.

Lesson 2: Capitalize on Industry Change as Growth Fuel

Oren sees market disruption as the key source of opportunity: "Without change, there are no opportunities because the market is going to be so efficient. You're not going to have this crack to build a new business or build a new feature or build a new product." When Apple introduced iOS 14 privacy changes, AppsFlyer turned disruption into opportunity, receiving "hundreds, if not thousands of phone calls from many, many of our customers that were very worried about the change." Rather than seeing changes as threats, they transformed them into catalysts for growth.

Lesson 3: Make Customer Obsession Operational

AppsFlyer turned buzzword customer focus into tangible decisions through just two core values. As Oren explains: "We have two values. Basic questions that you need to ask yourself before making a decision. Does it make you prouder to be part of the company? Is it good for our customers? You need to receive yes and yes." This framework led them to reject profitable pivots, noting "We can start a data brokerage firm and we probably can make a lot of money, maybe more revenue that we're doing today" because "Being customer obsessed here for us is existential. I don't think that we just want to be nice. We just want to stay in business."

Lesson 4: Transform Rejections into Product Focus

When faced with investor skepticism, AppsFlyer doubled down on product development instead of fundraising. As Oren explains, "We thought that, okay, no investors will come to us and say, hey, this is a really amazing deck... We said to ourselves, let's just start from the end, build the value, have the right customers." This decision to prioritize product excellence over fundraising ultimately led to investors approaching them after seeing their dashboards in customer board decks.

Lesson 5: Maintain Challenger Mindset at Scale

Despite being "bigger than all our competitors combined and multiply that by two or three," AppsFlyer fights against market leader complacency. Oren notes: "Being a market leader and staying a market leader is very hard. So first of all, you need to realize that, because once you forget that this is the beginning of the end. And I think that we've seen a lot of companies, that arrogancy killed them." The company sees its real competition not as other firms, but as their own ability to adapt: "The fastest, most agile company will survive and the others are not. And it doesnt really matter if this company or another company. So basically, your competitor is your sole, because if you fail to be nimble enough, to be adaptive enough, again, this is the beginning of the end and we must maintain this kind of mindset."

Listen to the full episode:

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