Sramana Mitra: So you started your business off with one hypothesis for a product, and ultimately shifted your product direction based on actual market feedback. Is that a fair statement? Todd McKinnon: We had a macro idea and a specific product that we started off with. The product changed after we talked to companies and
Sramana Mitra: What happened in 2009? Todd McKinnon: Ever since I was in high school I wanted to start my own company. The reason I did not do it earlier is that I always had good jobs, and the companies I was with kept challenging me. At PeopleSoft I had a new project every few
If you haven’t already, please study our Bootstrapping Course and Investor Introductions page. Todd McKinnon is the CEO and co-founder of Okta, an enterprise grade identity management service, built from the ground up in the cloud and delivered with a focus on customer success. Okta enables IT management of access across any application, person or device. Whether the people
Sramana: What do you think of Sheryl Sandberg? Maxine Manafy: I love the idea that she has stepped forward and is asking women to step up and move into leadership positions in industry. I think the structure could be louder. When I read her book and I see the advice she gives women I think
Sramana: How do you sell? Maxine Manafy: We sell on a CPI [cost per install] basis. For the US, in desktop it might be a dollar for an install. On mobile we are seeing up to three dollars for an install. Those are pretty good rates. Sramana: How do you scale this business? Maxine Manafy: It
Sramana: Your real value proposition is mobile to mobile ads, cross network. Is that correct? Maxine Manafy: Yes, and on top of that we have targeting capability. There is an ability to have all of this data and leverage the targeting to make sure the ads were properly matched. One of our clients may not
Sramana: What was the beginning of Bunndle? What made you start the company? Maxine Manafy: It was the idea that we would help developers acquire new users. I saw a need to help developers get into an area that was dominated by big brands and big money. I raised some seed funding from a few angels
Sramana: What role does the publisher play? Maxine Manafy: The publisher who would host your app and promote it to the end user would also be in our network. They have the ability to approve or disapprove the ad in their channel. They are also interested in how relevant the app is to their channel.