Podcast
ADSN
Hosted by James Borow and Daniel Druger · EN
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 🗓️
14episodes
Episodes
Newest firstAll episodes
Ads Rule Everything: We're All Marketing, How to be a Real Problem Solver, and Prediction Market Hedging
1w ago00:21:48Tap to summarizeDaniel 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.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.comSTAY CONNECTEDJames on Twitter & LinkedIn – /jamesborowDaniel on LinkedIn, Instagram, TikTok – /danieldrugerSubscribe & leave a ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ review on Spotify & Apple Podcasts.
Transcribe →
The Most Capital Intensive Week in Tech: SpaceX, Cursor, and Agentic Banking
4w ago00:30:22Tap to summarizeDaniel 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.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.
Transcribe →
Alphabet's $80B Raise, the App Distribution Crisis, and Why Substack Is a Landlord
Jun 1100:34:28Tap to summarizeDaniel 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.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.
Transcribe →
Why B2B Advertising Is Broken and How Newsletters are the Next Frontier | ft. Adam Ryan
Jun 500:27:20Tap to summarizeDaniel and James sit down with Adam Ryan, CEO and co-founder of Workweek, the media-tech company that's home to the five largest professional communities across fintech, HR, e-commerce, marketing, and healthcare. Adam built the company on a simple insight: the people with the most professional experience are the least likely to share it publicly. So he built Workweek to solve it, pulling from his days as the first hire and president of The Hustle before its sale to HubSpot.The conversation digs into Workweek's newly announced partner platform, which connects newsletter ad engagement signals directly back to advertiser CRMs. Adam shares that 95% of newsletter clicks today are bots, that his platform is matching 44% of Fortune 500 CRMs, and that sales teams are claiming 3-4x more credit than they deserve while marketing gets none. If you've ever wondered why proving newsletter ROI feels impossible, this episode explains exactly why and how Workweek is changing it.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.
Transcribe →
Chat Apps Are the New Newsfeeds, AI Isn't Public Opinion, and Kuzma Goes Deep
May 3000:27:22Tap to summarizeDaniel and James are back with another ADSN rundown and this week did not disappoint. They kick things off with Kyle Kuzma posting what can only be described as an institutional-grade investment takes, cover how Meta's algorithm served Chewy's maggot ad to millions of people without anyone at Chewy signing off on it, and react to Amazon being revealed as the company that accidentally burned half a billion dollars on Claude tokens in a single month.From there, the conversation ranges from a NYC startup offering free apartment cleaning in exchange for robot training footage, to why chat apps are structurally becoming the new newsfeeds, to why strict brand guidelines might be the enemy of Gen Z engagement. Then, why synthetic customers and AI-generated survey data are basically bringing the algorithmic feed to real life, and then we close out on why every app company eventually has to become a fintech. 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.
Transcribe →
Why Marketing, Product, and Measurement are Collapsing ft. Brian Quinn, AppsFlyer
May 2800:38:52Tap to summarizeDaniel 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.
Transcribe →
Zuck’s Leaked Audio on Training AI, DraftKings CEO Goes Off & Why Your Feed Is Fake
May 2300:33:11Tap to summarizeLeaked audio from Meta's All Hands: Zuck wants to train AI on employee behavior. DraftKings CEO goes scorched earth on Kalshi. Publicis bought LiveRamp. Chinese brands are quietly acquiring Everlane, Blue Bottle, and Salomon. Airbnb will have to embrace AI agents. The feed is fake. And someone put their CPA on Meta Ray-Bans.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.
Transcribe →
Why Everyone in Ads Is Wrong About OpenAI, Shopify, and Gen Z
May 1300:35:07Tap to summarizeThis week ADSN goes bicostal for the first time. Daniel is live from Upfronts in New York and James is holding it down in LA.They kick off with Kalshi odds on a Tesla-SpaceX merger hitting 50%, then get into why ChatGPT shipping an ad manager is kind of a joke — they literally told Codex to build it. Eric Tilbury defines outcomes in a single sentence that should be written in stone.The conversation moves into why brands need more ads (not just better ones), how Gen Z doesn't subscribe to anything and just uses the algo, and why there are more car dealerships than car makers in the Fortune 500. James drops his Shopify thesis (it's a headless walled garden, not a SaaS business), they cover the Cameo x TikTok partnership, and close out with Spencer Pratt's AI-powered political campaign as a blueprint for creative.Plus: Duolingo's new Focus Mode that locks your apps, the data center land flip arbitrage, and why the future of AI is in the suburbs.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.
Transcribe →
GameStop Wants to Buy eBay, Parker Card Dies Overnight & Every Platform Goes API-First | ADSN Ep. 18
May 700:29:09Tap to summarizeRyan Cohen wants to buy eBay with half cash, half stock. Parker Card raised $200M and vanished overnight. OpenAI shipped a full ads manager. Shopify, Meta, Mercury, and Spotify all launched AI connectors in the same week. Stripe Atlas data shows new AI-era companies are 2x the size of last year's cohort. Plus: why Unilever is betting on 300K creators, and the one skill creative strategists are missing.This is ADSN — the ad tech and media show for operators who want signal, not noise.Sponsors: AdQuick, Thrad, Beehiiv, The Farm LLP
Transcribe →
Elon's $60B Lego Set and How PE Firms Are Using Claude Code to Kill Deals
Apr 2900:30:20Tap to summarizePrivate equity firms are spending weekends rebuilding acquisition targets in Claude Code. If the clone works, the deal dies. It's the cheapest moat test in human history.This week James and Daniel dig into:• Why token pricing today looks exactly like mobile data pricing 15 years ago• Sam Altman rethinking OS design and the OpenAI phone rumors• GPT Image generating LEGO sets with real BrickLink part IDs• SpaceX acquiring Cursor for up to $60 billion• China blocking Meta's Manus acquisition. Is this the balkanization of AI talent?• Anthropic paying $400K/year for an events role• Chinese micro-dramas: this year's ad platform growth driverPlus: Evan Spiegel called software dead 15 years ago, Sean Frank asks why you still aren't building, and AI agents negotiating your BNPL rates in real time.Thank you to our sponsors:• AdQuick — adquick.com• Thrad.ai — thrad.ai• beehiiv — beehiiv.comSTAY CONNECTEDJames on Twitter & LinkedIn – /jamesborowDaniel on LinkedIn, Instagram, TikTok – /danieldrugerSubscribe & leave a ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ review on Spotify & Apple Podcasts.
Transcribe →