P60: Ad Fraud Expert on Mixing Business with Pleasure – Rich Kahn of Anura
Video & Audio of Our Call:
Background:
Rich Kahn is the co-founder and CEO of eZanga.com and Anura.io. With over 28 years of digital marketing experience, Rich has been recognized as one of the most notable security experts in the digital marketing space. He is also an Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year Award recipient for technology and has been named as a finalist in the American Business Awards for Best Executive of the Year.
Rich sold his first company, an ISP, in the late nineties. Shortly thereafter, he co-founded Paid for Surf, which reached $1 million in revenue within five months of operation. With its success, he then co-founded eZanga.com, a digital marketing company. Within eZanga, he launched an internal ad fraud solution called Traffic Advisors to pre-filter clients’ traffic. This later led to the stand-alone ad fraud platform, Anura.io, to tackle ad fraud in any environment. In his spare time, Rich spends time with his wife and four children. He is also a private pilot and enjoys flying small planes and traveling.
Time-Stamped Show Notes:
- [1:21] Rich talks about his company, which focuses on ad fraud solutions.
- [4:35] More in-depth discussion about ad fraud and where it’s coming from.
- [7:35] Here is an example of how a customer benefits from their fraud solution system.
- [10:05] The price for the service usually depends on how much the client’s volume is doing and the level of commitment.
- [11:02] In 1993, Rich started his first online marketing firm, which is just a simple email marketing newsletter.
- [15:17] After starting a web mall in the 90s, Rich had this idea to get an ISP.
- [20:20] One of his ventures in the advertising space is launching two adult sites.
- [22:29] In 1999, Rich started another company called Paid For Surf. In the first 3 months, he had been offered $60 million to buy his company.
- [24:52] Rich explains the dot com crash in 2000, which greatly affected his business.
- [28:01] In the early 2000s, Rich became interested in starting an encrypted instant messenger. However, a phone call from the NSA made him decide to cancel the project.
- [31:11] Another interesting story from Rich, which involves selling the company, but the deal didn’t push through because of his partners.
- [33:18] The most difficult thing he has experienced throughout his entrepreneurial career is building new tech and marketing it through bootstrapping.
- [34:54] Rich is a firm believer in bootstrapping and not taking on outside funding.
- [37:35] Here’s one story of why bringing in friends in a business may have a bad outcome.
- [41:37] For more episodes regarding businesses involving families, Austin recommends Episode 121 – Matthew Nix Interview and Episode 100 – Lacy Starling Interview.
Key Point from the Interview:
- “One of the key advices I always tell people whenever possible, do not bring friends and family into your business because when it comes time for you to be the boss, it’s not easy.”
Resources Mentioned:
- Email: [email protected]
- LinkedIn: RichKahn
- Twitter: @RichKahn
- Anura.io
- Ezanga.com
- Anura AI tech Makes Ads Invisible to Fraudsters
- Anura Helps Advertisers Avoid Click Fraud
Secret Resources:
