ADSN

James Borow and Daniel Druger
  • 4.8 (16)
  • Tech News
  • Updated Biweekly

ADSN (The Ads Network) is a weekly show for people building and investing in ads, media, and monetization products. Every Tuesday, join James Borow and Daniel Druger as they bring over 30 years of experience to discuss the headlines and the why and how behind them. They also welcome industry leaders to go deep on topics in a fun and approachable format. Join the ADSN crew every Tuesday 🗓️

  1. 8h ago

    30 Minutes: Self-Driving Cars Are Here And What It Means for You ft. Harry Campbell

    Episode One of an ADSN Original: 30 Minutes kicks off welcoming Harry Campbell, founder of Driverless Digest and one of the leading global experts on autonomous vehicles and mobility. He joins hosts James Borow and Daniel Druger to break down the state of the self-driving industry. Harry unpacks the Waymo vs. Tesla debate, explaining why Waymo has a massive safety and operational lead, but how Tesla's fleet scale could flip the script if they crack full autonomy. He walks through how LiDAR costs have plummeted upending Tesla's original camera-only thesis, and why Uber is facing an existential investor crisis as its Waymo partnership deteriorates and its stock underperforms. The conversation digs into regulation and the human cost of disruption, from taxi medallion collapses to the 110K Uber and Lyft drivers in New York City facing an uncertain future. Harry also breaks down the drone delivery boom in Texas, why near-zero delivery costs could create unlimited TAM, and what excites him most over the next 3-5 years as more AV companies enter the game. Whether you're a consumer, investor, or just someone who's been curious about getting into a Waymo, this is the episode to understand where autonomous vehicles actually stand today. Connect with Harry at: https://therideshareguy.com/https://www.thedriverlessdigest.com/ Thank you to our sponsors: AdQuick – Making OOH advertising as easy to plan, buy, and measure as digital. adquick.comThrad.ai — Building the advertising infrastructure for AI. thrad.aibeehiiv — The all-in-one platform for newsletters, websites, and every tool you need to grow and earn. beehiiv.comThe Farm — Fraction commercial legal with an in-house approach to outside counsel. thefarmllp.com STAY CONNECTED James on Twitter & LinkedIn – /jamesborow Daniel on LinkedIn, Instagram, TikTok – /danieldruger Subscribe & leave a ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ review on Spotify & Apple Podcasts.

    30 Minutes: Self-Driving Cars Are Here And What It Means for You ft. Harry Campbell

  2. 5d ago

    ADSN RUNDOWN | AI Slop Backlash, BMW the Ad Company?, and Arnold Flexes His App

    Rundown is back and this week is all about backlash. Backlash against AI slop, against automating parenting, and against putting ads in your $60K BMW. They kick off with LinkedIn testing a "Sounds Like AI Slop" button, Snapchat banning AI from Spotlight, and YouTube nuking 130,000 channels overnight. Then Sam Altman gets roasted for suggesting ChatGPT generate podcasts for his kids (just talk to your children, Sam), and OpenAI catches heat for hosting an influencer retreat. The through-line: the honeymoon phase with AI is over and consumers are pushing back hard. On the business side, Arnold Schwarzenegger's Pump Club app goes viral with a genius retention play — he pays your membership if you actually work out. BMW's Spider-Man display takeover shows exactly how not to monetize a premium brand. Orchid HQ proves controversial launch videos still cut through noise. And Mike Christo's 12-year-old son helped one-shot a full video game with Opus V — one prompt, 31,000 lines of code, making the case that OpenAI should be building a gaming platform. They close with Primary Posts: Daniel Burke's take on why the next billion-dollar companies won't come from people who've done it before, and Akash Gupta breaking down how The Odyssey cleared Oppenheimer's entire domestic run in 13 days on $0 of licensed IP. Thank you to our sponsors: AdQuick – Making OOH advertising as easy to plan, buy, and measure as digital. ⁠adquick.com⁠⁠Thrad.ai⁠ — Building the advertising infrastructure for AI. ⁠thrad.ai⁠beehiiv — The all-in-one platform for newsletters, websites, and every tool you need to grow and earn. ⁠beehiiv.com⁠The Farm — Fractional commercial legal with an in-house approach to outside counsel. ⁠thefarmllp.com⁠ STAY CONNECTED James on Twitter & LinkedIn – /jamesborow Daniel on LinkedIn, Instagram, TikTok – /danieldruger Subscribe & leave a ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ review on Spotify & Apple Podcasts.

    ADSN RUNDOWN | AI Slop Backlash, BMW the Ad Company?, and Arnold Flexes His App

  3. Aug 4

    No Permission Episode 1: Tackling the 67% GenZ Loneliness Epidemic ft. Carter Munk

    This is a featured episode of the NEW No Permission Podcast hosted by Daniel. Subscribe at No Permission Podcast (https://open.spotify.com/show/033nNxrnG1SI4HRqq1RUeL) ******** "People crave intimacy in the sense of companionship and friendship rather than romance." Carter Munk, founder and CEO of Pinned Social is on a mission to solve loneliness. This is his story as a 3x founder, never asking for permission to build. How many 3x, sub-30 year old founders do you know? Introducing Carter Munk who founded Moe's Coffee in the US – an Australian coffee brand now in 50+ locations across Canada — while still in school. Later co-founding Circa, a dating app that raised nearly $2 million, before leaving to build Pinned, a new kind of social app designed to solve the loneliness problem his generation faces despite even though they are the most digitally connected in history. The thesis behind Pinned: people don't see their friends because they don't know how to coordinate, not because they don't want to. He walks through how he validated the idea by interviewing 250 people, self-funded the early days, launched to a 12,000-person waitlist, and hit 5,000. He also gets real about outsourcing mistakes at Circa, why he has no backup plan, and the advice he'd give anyone thinking about starting something. 🤝 Partner with No Permission: daniel@nopermissionpodcast.com 🎤 Your host:  Daniel Druger – 3x exited founder / operator, product exec at Comcast, ex-Snapchat, startup investor. 15+ years working as a founder and with founders  📫 STAY CONNECTED Instagram: /danieldruger TikTok: /danieldruger LinkedIn: /danieldruger Newsletter: theadsn.com  👉 Hit Subscribe & tap the 🔔, then leave a ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ review on Spotify & Apple Podcasts. This quick act of kindness helps more people discover No Permission and the next generation of great builders.

    No Permission Episode 1: Tackling the 67% GenZ Loneliness Epidemic ft. Carter Munk

  4. Jul 29

    ADSN RUNDOWN | Women Dominate the App Economy, TikTok Rivals Amazon, Jersey Mike's $8B IPO

    THE RUNDOWN | WEEK OF 7/26 Daniel and James are back with The Rundown. This week they cover everything from women taking over the app economy to TikTok building an Amazon Prime rival, Jersey Mike's $8 billion IPO, and Larry Page saying he'd go bankrupt before losing the AI race. They kick off with a compelling case for why vibe coding and built-in influencer distribution mean women are about to dominate the next wave of app builders, then dig into Meta's new Sellers app (not a Shopify killer) and TikTok's inevitable evolution from ads to commerce to payments to logistics. The back half covers why open weight AI models are an openness fight worth having, how Chinese labs are distilling Western AI models the same way TikTok copied Snap, and why a sandwich chain IPO being 10X oversubscribed tells you everything about where real value is being created. They close with Primary Posts — Sean Frank's "can't win if you don't try" ethos (plus a tease of ADSN's new podcast "30 Minutes"), and Ashwin's moat framework that should be required reading: brand, distribution, speed, and cleverness beat product every time. Thank you to our sponsors: AdQuick – Making OOH advertising as easy to plan, buy, and measure as digital. adquick.comThrad.ai — Building the advertising infrastructure for AI. thrad.aibeehiiv — The all-in-one platform for newsletters, websites, and every tool you need to grow and earn. beehiiv.comThe Farm — Fractional commercial legal with an in-house approach to outside counsel. thefarmllp.com STAY CONNECTEDJames on Twitter & LinkedIn – /jamesborowDaniel on LinkedIn, Instagram, TikTok – /danieldrugerSubscribe & leave a ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ review on Spotify & Apple Podcasts.

    ADSN RUNDOWN | Women Dominate the App Economy, TikTok Rivals Amazon, Jersey Mike's $8B IPO

  5. Jul 16

    Why No One Knows Who You Are (And How to Fix It) | Joe Zappa, Sharp Pen Media

    "If no one knows who you are, nothing good can come from that." – Joe Zappa Daniel and James sit down with Joe Zappa, founder of Sharp Pen Media, a communications agency built entirely for ad tech. At just 31, Joe has become one of the most visible people in the ad tech world across X, LinkedIn, two podcasts, and a newsletter. His core thesis? Most B2B companies and CEOs are completely invisible, and that invisibility is far more dangerous than saying the wrong thing. Joe built his entire business by putting himself out there, and in this episode he lays out exactly how anyone can do the same. Joe gives a 30 day strategy to make a big impact, explains why comms teams are often the biggest blockers, how Terence Kawaja says invisible founders are killing their own exit multiples, and why Brian Chesky's AI-generated X thread is a cautionary tale for executives who outsource their voice. Joe lays it all out in this episode and the bar is so low that just showing up consistently puts you ahead of 90% of B2B. Thank you to our sponsors for making this possible:AdQuick – Making OOH advertising as easy to plan, buy, and measure as digital. adquick.comThrad.ai — Building the advertising infrastructure for AI. thrad.aibeehiiv — The all-in-one platform for newsletters, websites, and every tool you need to grow and earn. beehiiv.comThe Farm — Fraction commercial legal with an in-house approach to outside counsel. thefarmllp.com STAY CONNECTEDJames on Twitter & LinkedIn – /jamesborowDaniel on LinkedIn, Instagram, TikTok – /danieldrugerSubscribe & leave a ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ review on Spotify & Apple Podcasts.

    Why No One Knows Who You Are (And How to Fix It) | Joe Zappa, Sharp Pen Media

  6. Jul 8

    Ads Rule Everything: We're All Marketing, How to be a Real Problem Solver, and Prediction Market Hedging

    Daniel and JB are back from vacation — tanned and fired up — for an ADSN rundown that covers everything from Sean Frank's "ads rule everything around me" manifesto to X Money's launch, prediction market hedging for e-commerce brands, and Meta vibe-coding a new app. The episode kicks off with a sharp take on why every digital company is now fundamentally a marketing company, and why the problem-solving bar has been permanently raised by AI — with Gen Z founders skipping the career ladder entirely. From there, they dig into X Money's 7% savings yield and why a Tesla phone with Grok, Starlink, and X payments could be the actual super app. They break down Claude's new Slack integration as the start of multiplayer AI, why companies become irrelevant rather than defeated, and the reveal that Josh Siegel's team is now at Meta — likely behind the new Pocket minigames app. They close with Primary Posts featuring an AI-generated country song that JB played 1,600 times at his Fourth of July party and Jason Levin's genius fake protest at Cannes that got 10 million Instagram views for a few hundred bucks. Thank you to our sponsors: AdQuick – Making OOH advertising as easy to plan, buy, and measure as digital. adquick.com Thrad.ai — Building the advertising infrastructure for AI. thrad.ai beehiiv — The all-in-one platform for newsletters, websites, and every tool you need to grow and earn. beehiiv.com The Farm — Fraction commercial legal with an in-house approach to outside counsel. thefarmllp.com STAY CONNECTED James on Twitter & LinkedIn – /jamesborow Daniel on LinkedIn, Instagram, TikTok – /danieldruger Subscribe & leave a ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ review on Spotify & Apple Podcasts.

    Ads Rule Everything: We're All Marketing, How to be a Real Problem Solver, and Prediction Market Hedging

  7. Jun 18

    The Most Capital Intensive Week in Tech: SpaceX, Cursor, and Agentic Banking

    Daniel and JB kick off what they call their most capital-intensive episode yet on ADSN. The conversation opens with SpaceX's blockbuster IPO — stock surging past $200 a share, the company now worth more than Microsoft, and the staggering stat that Elon Musk's net worth jumped by "a full Warren Buffett" in a single day. From there they unpack the $60 billion Cursor acquisition, Fox's $20 billion Roku deal, Substack's official ads launch, and Mercury's new agentic banking platform. The episode covers a wide sweep of what's moving in tech and media right now: why frontier AI labs are about to go on an acquisition spree, how Fox is running Meta's family-of-apps playbook for television, why Sam Altman says "always make an API" saved OpenAI, and the emerging argument that tech companies will start looking more like hedge funds — tiny teams, massive AI leverage, and profit per employee through the roof. If you want to understand where the money is flowing and why, this is the episode. Thank you to our sponsors: AdQuick – Making OOH advertising as easy to plan, buy, and measure as digital. ⁠⁠adquick.com⁠⁠ ⁠⁠Thrad.ai⁠⁠ — Building the advertising infrastructure for AI. ⁠⁠thrad.ai⁠ ​beehiiv — The all-in-one platform for newsletters, websites, and every tool you need to grow and earn. ⁠⁠⁠beehiiv.com⁠⁠ ​The Farm — Fraction commercial legal with an in-house approach to outside counsel. ⁠thefarmllp.com ⁠ STAY CONNECTED James on Twitter & LinkedIn – /jamesborow Daniel on LinkedIn, Instagram, TikTok – /danieldruger Subscribe & leave a ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ review on Spotify & Apple Podcasts.

    The Most Capital Intensive Week in Tech: SpaceX, Cursor, and Agentic Banking

  8. Jun 11

    Alphabet's $80B Raise, the App Distribution Crisis, and Why Substack Is a Landlord

    Daniel and James kick off a packed ADSN rundown by celebrating hitting #1 in Namibia, then dive into Alphabet's staggering $80 billion capital raise arguing it's not just about compute buildout but a strategic move to suck capital away from soon-to-IPO competitors like SpaceX, Anthropic, and OpenAI. From there, they unpack the app distribution crisis created by agentic AI tools: everyone can build now, but the audience, budget, and creative genius to actually get discovered are nearly impossible to find. The back half covers the Substack vs. Beehiiv battle over audience ownership, why ChatGPT is becoming the new Facebook blue app, Apple's potentially risky WWDC AI strategy, and a Northbeam stat showing just 1.4% of Meta ad accounts produce 36% of all creative. They close with a comparison of AI adoption to electricity — the real gains don't come from plugging in, they come from redesigning the entire workflow — and primary posts on the risk of founding and Snap's upcoming Specs launch. Thank you to our sponsors: AdQuick – Making OOH advertising as easy to plan, buy, and measure as digital. ⁠adquick.com⁠ ⁠Thrad.ai⁠ — Building the advertising infrastructure for AI. ⁠thrad.ai ​beehiiv — The all-in-one platform for newsletters, websites, and every tool you need to grow and earn. ⁠⁠beehiiv.com⁠ ​The Farm — Fraction commercial legal with an in-house approach to outside counsel. thefarmllp.com STAY CONNECTED James on Twitter & LinkedIn – /jamesborow Daniel on LinkedIn, Instagram, TikTok – /danieldruger Subscribe & leave a ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ review on Spotify & Apple Podcasts.

    Alphabet's $80B Raise, the App Distribution Crisis, and Why Substack Is a Landlord
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4.8
out of 5
16 Ratings

About

ADSN (The Ads Network) is a weekly show for people building and investing in ads, media, and monetization products. Every Tuesday, join James Borow and Daniel Druger as they bring over 30 years of experience to discuss the headlines and the why and how behind them. They also welcome industry leaders to go deep on topics in a fun and approachable format. Join the ADSN crew every Tuesday 🗓️

Information

  • Creator
    James Borow and Daniel Druger
  • Years Active
    2023 - 2026
  • Episodes
    118
  • Rating
    Explicit
  • Copyright
    © James Borow and Daniel Druger
  • Show Website
    ADSN

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