Mobile Dev Memo Podcast

My guest on this episode of the podcast is Karl Stillner, the CEO and co-founder of BrightCanary, an app that allows parents to glean insights from their children's digital activities. Note that I am an investor in BrightCanary through Heracles Capital.
In this podcast, we discuss the challenge of protecting children from digital harm. Among other topics, we cover:
The concerns that parents face in the current digital landscape
The specific issues that arise with teens' use of social media
The tools that parents have to manage the risks faced by their children from digital products
Whether being too restrictive as a parent with digital products is a genuine risk
How active US regulators have been in creating digital protections for children
Whether any consensus exists around the "right age" for a child to be given a smartphone
Thanks to the sponsors of this week’s episode of the Mobile Dev Memo podcast:
⁠⁠INCRMNTAL⁠⁠⁠. True attribution measures incrementality, always on.
Xsolla⁠. With the Xsolla Web Shop, you can create a direct storefront, cut fees down to as low as 5%, and keep players engaged with bundles, rewards, and analytics.
⁠Branch⁠. Branch is an AI-powered MMP, connecting every paid, owned, and organic touchpoint so growth teams can see exactly where to put their dollars to bring users in the door and keep them coming back
Interested in sponsoring the Mobile Dev Memo podcast? Contact Mobile Dev Memo advertising.

My guest on this week's episode of the podcast is Alfred Succer, the founder of Nova Nuggets, which provides private, end-to-end secure operating environments for AI applications.
The topic of our conversation is sovereign AI, or the importance of controlling the environment on which AI-based applications, but especially chatbots, operate. Among other things, we discuss:
The definition of a sovereign AI system
The privacy vulnerabilities inherent in web-scale LLMs
The purpose of hosting an LLM on-premises or within a company's own data environment
The use cases that most necessitate private model training or hosting
The cost profile of private model hosting and training
The liabilities that companies face in sending sensitive data to publicly-accessible LLMs in their workflows
Thanks to the sponsors of this week’s episode of the Mobile Dev Memo podcast:
⁠⁠INCRMNTAL⁠⁠⁠. True attribution measures incrementality, always on.
Xsolla⁠. With the Xsolla Web Shop, you can create a direct storefront, cut fees down to as low as 5%, and keep players engaged with bundles, rewards, and analytics.
⁠Branch⁠. Branch is an AI-powered MMP, connecting every paid, owned, and organic touchpoint so growth teams can see exactly where to put their dollars to bring users in the door and keep them coming back

Interested in advertising in the Mobile Dev Memo newsletter or podcast? Get in touch.

My guest on this week's episode of the podcast is Francesco D'Orazio, the President and Chief Product Officer at Pulsar, an audience intelligence and insights platform. The topic of our conversation is the use of AI to develop an understanding of a product's existing audience for feature planning, marketing, and optimization. Among other things, we discuss:
How AI is being applied to audience development and audience insights currently
The difference between audience analysis for existing users and audience analysis for advertising targeting, and whether these two use cases converge
How a team should balance efforts across optimizing a product for an existing audience versus optimizing the product to onboard new, previously unserved audiences
Who in an organization typically owns audience insights, and whether that's optimal
How audience insights combine with user-level personalization
Thanks to the sponsors of this week’s episode of the Mobile Dev Memo podcast:
⁠⁠INCRMNTAL⁠⁠⁠. True attribution measures incrementality, always on.
Xsolla⁠. With the Xsolla Web Shop, you can create a direct storefront, cut fees down to as low as 5%, and keep players engaged with bundles, rewards, and analytics.
⁠Branch⁠. Branch is an AI-powered MMP, connecting every paid, owned, and organic touchpoint so growth teams can see exactly where to put their dollars to bring users in the door and keep them coming back
Interested in advertising in the Mobile Dev Memo newsletter or podcast? ⁠Get in touch⁠.
The Mobile Dev Memo podcast is available on:
YouTube
Apple Podcasts
Spotify

My guest on this episode of the podcast is Jonathan Moffie, the Head of Agentic Product at Magnite, the largest independent SSP. Moffie joined Magnite when it acquired Streamr.io, which he founded, last year.
The topic of our conversation is the application of generative AI to creative production for CTV. Among other things, we discuss:
How GenAI is currently being used for ad production for CTV channels, and how it compares to social
Whether a higher quality bar is applied to GenAI-produced creative for CTV than for other channels
How well-integrated with the specific CTV platforms GenAI creative production tools must be
Whether specific aspects of CTV -- such as the opportunity for dynamic, in-stream product placements -- lend themselves to GenAI creative
The most substantive barriers to entry for CTV for advertisers
The most pervasive misconception that advertisers have about CTV
Thanks to the sponsors of this week’s episode of the Mobile Dev Memo podcast:
⁠⁠INCRMNTAL⁠⁠⁠. True attribution measures incrementality, always on.
Xsolla⁠. With the Xsolla Web Shop, you can create a direct storefront, cut fees down to as low as 5%, and keep players engaged with bundles, rewards, and analytics.
⁠Branch⁠. Branch is an AI-powered MMP, connecting every paid, owned, and organic touchpoint so growth teams can see exactly where to put their dollars to bring users in the door and keep them coming back
Interested in advertising in the Mobile Dev Memo newsletter or podcast? ⁠Get in touch⁠.
The Mobile Dev Memo podcast is available on:
YouTube
Apple Podcasts
Spotify

My guest on this week's episode of the podcast is Amanda Engelman, Shopify's Director of Product for Advertising. The topic of the episode is the recently announced Shopify Product Network, which allows merchants to insert recommendations for products they don't sell into their own storefronts, sourced from other Shopify Merchants.
But don't call it an ad network! In our discussion, among other things, we cover:
An overview of the Shopify Product Network (SPN)
How Shopify merchants have reacted to SPN since its launch
How payment works for merchants that host product recommendations
How product exclusion and targeting are managed
The ultimate distribution potential for SPN and whether it serves as a complement to third-party ads or could replace them altogether for some merchants
Whether SPN could be expanded to third-party surfaces.
Thanks to the sponsors of this week’s episode of the Mobile Dev Memo podcast:
⁠Xsolla⁠. With the Xsolla Web Shop, you can create a direct storefront, cut fees down to as low as 5%, and keep players engaged with bundles, rewards, and analytics.
⁠INCRMNTAL⁠⁠⁠. True attribution measures incrementality, always on.
⁠Universal Ads⁠ is Comcast’s self-serve TV ads platform that lets you launch campaigns in minutes across premium inventory from NBC, Paramount, Warner Bros. Discovery, Roku, and more.
Interested in advertising in the Mobile Dev Memo newsletter or podcast? ⁠Get in touch⁠.