ADSN

James Borow and Daniel Druger

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

    ١٨ يونيو

    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.

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

    ١١ يونيو

    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.

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  3. Why Marketing, Product, and Measurement are Collapsing ft. Brian Quinn, AppsFlyer

    ٢٨ مايو

    Why Marketing, Product, and Measurement are Collapsing ft. Brian Quinn, AppsFlyer

    Daniel and James sit down with Brian Quinn, North American President at AppsFlyer, the marketing measurement platform working with over 15,000 brands including Netflix, TikTok, Pepsi, and Burger King. They kick off the conversation exploring how AI is reshaping the customer journey and then move on to discuss why brands are pulling their best experiences out of the open web and back into apps, and the explosive growth in new apps driven by vibe coding. Brian shares how AppsFlyer customers are adopting AI differently, from small gaming companies that have automated everything to enterprise brands still grappling with compliance and governance. He breaks down how measurement is collapsing from reporting into real-time optimization, why marketing and product teams are merging, and what it means that the web is becoming a data source for LLMs rather than an actual consumer destination. The conversation wraps with a look at why CTV performance advertising remains massively under-indexed and where the next wave of disruption is headed. Thank you to our sponsors: ​ AdQuick — ⁠adquick.com⁠ ​ ⁠Thrad.ai⁠ — ⁠thrad.ai⁠ ​ beehiiv — ⁠⁠beehiiv.com⁠ ​ The Farm — thefarmllp.com STAY CONNECTEDJames on Twitter & LinkedIn – /jamesborowDaniel on LinkedIn, Instagram, TikTok – /danieldrugerSubscribe & leave a ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ review on Spotify & Apple Podcasts.

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حول

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 🗓️