The company I sold in 2019 to Blackstone goes public tomorrow at a 5X higher valuation.
It's a surreal moment to see something I started right out of college trade on the NASDAQ at a ~$4B valuation.
From Rock Bottom to a $4B NASDAQ Listing: The Vungle Story
Rough Beginnings
It was 2009 in London when I graduated during the global financial crisis. I couldn't get a real job, so I joined my friend's startup as their first employee doing sales.
I got zero equity. I didn't even get paid my salary.
That startup soon imploded when my friend caught his remote co-founder embezzling money. I felt it was my moral duty to stick by him, and so we both funded the lawsuit with our student loans and ultimately recovered a pathetic £1.
We started Vungle during this period and kept pivoting from one idea to another.
Rock Bottom
Life was rough. I hit rock bottom. I was drowning in credit card debt. I hated everything. This was NOT how things were supposed to be.
I lived on McDonalds and mass gainer shakes because I became so skinny and weak.
But we kept grinding and tried yet another pivot. Mobile apps were taking off (like AI is today), so we built a video ad network focused on gaming apps.
Then BOOM
We hit $50M+ ARR in under 3yrs. A few yrs later, we were doing more than that in just EBITDA.
My board and I clashed over the future. They hated the gaming customer base. It also did not help my cause that Google and Facebook would announce mobile gaming video ads as one of their focus areas at every annual conference.
So the board was genuinely terrified we'd go to zero, and thus we hired Goldman Sachs to officially sell the company.
The Exit
My co-founder and I ultimately cashed out 100% of our stock when Blackstone bought Vungle. A couple years after that, Vungle merged with Liftoff Mobile in a $1B buy-out.
Did the Google and Facebook threat materialize? Yes and no. They became #1 and #2 with billions in revenue, but they also expanded the market 100X. Another competitor, AppLovin, stayed independent and is now valued at $200B.
The Lesson
What's the lesson? Do not listen to investors. You should only listen to your customers and trust your gut.
Also, do not fear the giants of today (OpenAI and Anthropic). My mind was poisoned with Google and Facebook phobia because that's all I was consuming 24/7. It's a damned distraction.
The laws of nature guarantee that underdog startups can indeed thrive if they play it smart. In our case, we found an unsexy opportunity right under the noses of Google and Facebook (in-app video ads for games).
- We executed like crazy in their blind spots.
- It was our sole mission vs another announcement for them.
Don't Quit
It's no different this time with the AI boom. There are billion dollar opportunities everywhere that the AI Labs are ignoring because they appear 'too small'. Some of the best opportunities are hiding in plain sight.
Here's the thing. The story above started with zero equity, an unpaid salary, and a £1 lawsuit recovery. It ended with a Blackstone exit and a ~$4B NASDAQ listing. The path between those two points was nothing but grinding, pivoting, ignoring investor fear, and listening to customers.
And the giants you're afraid of today? They might just expand your market 100X instead of killing you.
So if you're a Founder and going through a rough time: please do not quit. You might just be one crazy pivot away from a life-changing outcome.