Welcome to Startup Stories, where we bring you the behind-the-scenes of the most promising and innovative startups. Today, we are honoured to have Christian Facey, the co-founder & CEO of AudioMob, a company that is making waves in the gaming advertising industry.

In this interview, we’ll hear about the story behind the founding of AudioMob and what sets it apart from other gaming advertising solutions. Christian’s background as a strategist at Google and Facebook and his co-founder Wilfrid’s experience as an engineer at Google, JP Morgan, and Goldman Sachs, has given them a unique perspective and advantage in running AudioMob.

Christian shares some of the biggest challenges and opportunities he’s faced in his journey as a founder and CEO, and provides advice to young entrepreneurs looking to break into the tech industry. Finally, we’ll hear about AudioMob’s plans for the future growth and expansion of the company, and how it has evolved and adapted to the market since its founding.

Are you looking for a global startup or scaleup recruitment agency? We can help connect you with world class talent around the globe, get in touch with us today!

Hey Christian, welcome to Startup Stories. With recent funding at a $110M valuation and investment from big-name firms such as LightSpeed Ventures and Makers Fund, it’s clear that AudioMob is making waves in the industry. Can you walk us through the story of how AudioMob came to be and what sets it apart from other gaming advertising solutions?

I managed $100 million at Google as an agency strategist. This is where I met Wilfrid. He’s the CTO of Audiomob and he’s a former engineer at Google, JP Morgan, and Goldman Sachs I started making my own mobile games (as I love mobile gaming) and stream my own hip hop and jazz music into the games I was making (I’m an avid music producer too!). After meeting Wilfrid we started to think about streaming audio ads in mobile games. 

That’s where we realized a gap. A $100BN+ mobile gaming industry that has never been connected to the audio space worth tens of billions of dollars. Both industries are growing in double digits, clearly a billion dollar idea! We left our companies to figure out how to build an audio ad streaming solution and raised our first $1M after investing our savings into an MVP! 

The thing that sets us apart is we figure out how to analyze the audio state of a mobile device, to allow the streaming of an audio ad from an advertiser to a mobile game, of which they know the ad is audible. 

A gamer can play the game without stopping (unlike a video ad), the advertiser gets a price efficient entry point into a highly engaged mobile gaming audience, and the developer gets incremental revenue without damaging in-game retention. We’re the only company to provide device level audio analysis and are now seen as thought leaders and custodian’s of the in-game audio ad space rather than just first movers.

Prior to founding AudioMob, you had a background in strategy at Google and were a marketing science partner at Facebook. How did these experiences shape your approach to running AudioMob and what skills did you bring to the table?

Working at Google and Facebook helped me learn about the way they execute on ideas, hire, motivate employees, navigate risks when executing, set up sales teams and of course, learn about digital marketing and measurement. As founders of an advertising company, working at Google and Facebook gave us an unfair advantage! 

With AudioMob tackling an $18bn dollar opportunity, it’s impressive to see your work and achievements being featured in publications such as Forbes, TechCrunch, and Business Insider. Can you share some of the biggest challenges and opportunities you have faced in your journey as a founder and CEO?

The biggest challenge by far, is trying to educate yourself on the unknown unknowns. What you don’t know, that you don’t know. There have been more “black swan” events (events that cause a double digit economic downturn) in the last 2 years than the last 10 years. The biggest opportunity is if you can figure out how to navigate and pivot during hard times, you’ll fly during good times. 

We found out how to pivot our business, grow revenues using our own team, and a stellar PR strategy during 202 / 2021. It’s the reason our Series A went so well. 2022 was a hard year, 2023 will be worse. However, we achieved triple digit growth in 2022 and expect to again in 2023 due to how we navigated 2022. 

You and your co-founder, Wiflrid, were both named on the Forbes 30 Under 30 2021 list. What advice do you have for young entrepreneurs looking to break into the tech industry and make a similar impact?

Read Key Person of Influence by Daniel priestley and Growth Hacker Marketing, Ego Is the Enemy and The Obstacle Is the Way by Ryan Holiday. You need to become a micro influencer in your specific space, execute your scaling strategy like a growth hacker (split test everything and double down on what works) and ensure you’ve trained yourself to deal with all the issues that test your ego (remember you need to work with a lot of humans!) and how you approach the thousands of problems that you will face if you pursue the path of entrepreneurialism. Training yourself to execute is more important than just having a good idea. 

As successful founders, you also run a mentoring scheme alongside AudioMob to pass your learning over to the younger generation. Can you tell us more about this initiative and how it aligns with your mission and values as a company?

The idea behind our mentoring program is we asked for a lot of advice to get to where we are, so we’re offering our advice as a way to give back. There’s still a lot of issues with diversity when it comes to securing jobs and investment. We hope to level the playing field via our mentorship scheme. Whilst we are ethnic minority founders, we realize our experience will help everyone, and not just people that look like us. This is why we opened up our mentoring scheme to everyone. It’s important to realize that even though some groups need help more than others, we should still help everyone that asks! 

How has AudioMob evolved and adapted to the market since its founding, and what are your plans for the future growth and expansion of the company?

Our plan is to become the ultimate audio content discovery platform. We have to be tight-lipped about where we’re specifically going, but I’m sure you can imagine the massive applications of our technology outside in and outside of gaming. Since our Series A we’ve grown our company to over 40 people and we’re executing our international expansion. We have an R&D lab in the UAE, our global HQ is in London and our third office is in NY.

We plan to further our global expansion and are executing as thought leaders and custodians of the in-game audio ad space. We aim to grow the addressable market of the space (which includes guiding competitors) as a leader of the space, not just a participant solely looking to gain market share. It’s a much more complex way to think about scaling, but one that ensures we’re in a good position when we (eventually!) IPO.

Are you looking for a global startup or scaleup recruitment agency? We can help connect you with world class talent around the globe, get in touch with us today!