Hello [FULL_NAME GOES HERE],

$1.5 million per MONTH?

Welp.

I had just joined my first mobile marketing job for an app - back in 2013: and I’d just been told what our monthly budgets would be.

To say I was unprepared would be an understatement. I was shocked. I’d managed what I’d thought were sizeable budgets before: but I wasn't prepared for this magnitude of budgets.

And this was a 15 person startup with 1 app. And this $1.5mm was very comfortably ROAS positive. That’s when I know it was going to be a hell of a ride.

(As it turned out, the company I worked for sold for a cool $170mm).

I’d heard of the gold rush of the early days of the internet, and of internet marketing - but it was only when I saw from close up the size of the opportunity for mobile apps in 2013 that it struck me as to how big an unfair advantage early movers have.

Among other things: the ability to deploy MASSIVE budgets in uncrowded markets seemed so unreal. No wonder $1.5 million a month didn't seem like such a big deal - for us, and also for many other mobile app startups at the time.

You didnt have to be an entrepreneur(I wasnt one) to unlock these disproportionate wins.

This really drilled into me: being early to the game is a MASSIVE disproportionate advantage for any business - and yes: for your career if you’re inside of the business.

**

If you missed the early internet and mobile booms: I'm sure you're aware of the new game in town: AI.

And like the earlier revolutions, the spoils WILL go to the early birds - to the companies, leaders and operators who move early and go deep.

… to the ones who commit to going from ‘good’ to ‘great.’

... to the ones that commit to mastering this new 'language'(if you will) - and this new way of work.

....to those who embrace this brave new world.

**

….and that’s why I am doubling down on all things AI + performance marketing in my own career - and our entire business in 2024.

…and that is also why I’m opening up our playbook to help YOU supercharge your AI game, and go from good to great with all things AI. There are two big initiatives that we are undertaking:

Intelligent Artifice(Youtube here: website coming soon).

In this week’s episode, we walk you through how we get AI to analyze data to come up with video ad scripts.

**

AI performance creative mastery: Our in-depth course on using AI tools to supercharge your performance by using AI tools to transform every part of your creative workflow for performance marketing without the information overwhelm - even if you’re not a designer or developer or GPTBro.

We’re cookin’ this up right now - and if you’re interested, consider signing up for the waitlist here. This waitlist just tells us that you’re interested in the course when it comes out - there is no commitment at this point. (We will offer a discounted price for folks on the waitlist).

Cheers -

Shamanth

PS: Dont try this at home. ;).

PPS: A nod and hat-tip to William Gibson, whose quote is the subject line of this email.

PPPS: ICYMI - here's our recent episode from our podcast the Mobile UA show:

What apps can learn from mobile games to scale their UA. Sandra discusses mobile games’ growth loop and provide key takeaways for all apps, from both the user acquisition and monetization side, that work together to support a flywheel of growth. Check out episode