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Jonathan Kay is only 35 years old - but he’s already a seasoned and battle-tested entrepreneur, worthy of this award. As the Co-Founder of Apptopia, JK has been there since Day 1 - and is now celebrating as the company hits the major milestone of a decade.
Its Tier-1 technology clients include Microsoft, Google and Facebook - plus major US brands such as Visa, Coca-Cola and NBC. The company’s latest funding round of $20M brings their total capital inflow to $35.5M. Along the way they’ve had major support from some serious institutional investors, including ABS Capital Partners and Blossom Street Ventures, plus industry notables like Mark Cuban and Ashton Kutcher. Unlike many other technology startups, Apptopia is profitable. It went into the black almost two years ago - and has steadily grown its revenue at 50% year-over-year for the past three consecutive years.
A decade is a remarkable feat for a technology startup. This is a true tale of an entrepreneur. Someone who is willing to roll up their sleeves and do what needs to be done. To make hard decisions and hold on when things get tough. To put processes in place to make the company into a well-oiled machine that made it to the Financial Times' Americas' Fastest-Growing Companies List not one, but two years, in a row. The kind of company that is also a great place to work. Don’t take our word for it, check out the Forbes' 2021 list of America's Best Startup Employers.
The origin story is worth telling. In 2011, like everyone else at the time, Apptopia was looking for a way to really make sense of what was going on in the new-fangled app stores. Developers were launching apps, but had no idea how well they were doing, who was doing better than them, and whether any of their campaigns were hitting the target. It was a problem - for everyone - but looked unsolvable.
That’s when Jonathan Kay, and his co-founder, stepped in. They figured out a solution. They persuaded all the top app developers to get on board to share data (just imagine how hard that must have been). Slowly, but surely, they built out some cool intellectual property, focused on testing, then iterating, staying in the game by the skin of their teeth from time to time - and kept going. Because that’s what entrepreneurs do. It paid off - big time.
Apptopia can now deliver qualified insights across mobile apps and connected devices, sourcing ethical download, revenue and advertising data from 225K mobile apps to create 40 billion data points, across 50 countries - on a daily basis. Under JK’s leadership, Apptopia has also invested heavily to create original IP, which deploys the latest AI/machine learning technology, analyzing billions of complex data points, to surface critical business signals - including highly complex sentient and intent analysis. This is state of the art technology.
Wait. Let’s back-up to that word ETHICAL. Because, without naming any names, a major crisis hit the app store data world in 2021. The SEC started to investigate one of Apptopia’s competitors for securities fraud regarding their data practices. The whole industry was affected. Everyone panicked. But Jonathan Kay did not.
He could have told everyone back at Apptopia to keep their heads down. To wait for the storm to pass. That’s what most companies do when their competitor is under the harsh glare of the Law.
JK stepped up to the plate. He wrote a no-holds barred post and took the time to explain how data compliance should work. It was a considered and thoughtful gesture. The level of transparency was remarkable. It was a generous statement. The mark of a true leader. This is why he really deserves this award.
