David Senra Adam Foroughi, AppLovin
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May 3, 2026 
Adam Foroughi, AppLovin co-founder and CEO, talks about building a mobile ad giant after VCs passed. He gets into the bold $6 billion buyback, the pivot from failed apps to ad tech, and how AppLovin challenged Google. They also cover operating without a board, the China deal fallout, rebuilding trust with developers, and using AI to supercharge top engineers.
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How A 92 Percent Crash Became A Buyback Gift
- Adam Foroughi treated AppLovin’s 92% stock collapse as a capital allocation gift, not proof the business was broken.
- At a $3.8B market cap against $1B+ EBITDA, he borrowed and arranged sellers directly, deploying about $6B into buybacks.
VC Rejection Pushed Him Back Into Ads
- Top VCs rejected Adam Foroughi’s 2012 pitch to invest $1M at a $4M valuation despite his two prior ad-tech wins.
- He had spotted desktop traffic shifting to mobile early, built failed dating and fashion apps, then reused their recommendation engine as AppLovin’s ad platform.
Why Performance Marketing Beat Brand Advertising
- AppLovin beat AdMob by ignoring brand budgets and helping app developers buy users on measurable performance.
- Adam Foroughi paid apps to install the SDK, then let developers spend against revenue outcomes instead of agency relationships and hand-wavy brand metrics.