PushSpring

PushSpring operated as a data management platform, offering device-level targeting data and insights for mobile application audiences. The company was established in 2013 by three Seattle-based mobile industry veterans: Karl Stillner, Steve Dossick, and Tyler Davidson. The founders leveraged their previous experience in the mobile ecosystem; Stillner and Dossick had worked together at the mobile ad network Zumobi, and Stillner also had a background in management consulting and had sold a prior app-related business to Expedia. Davidson served as Chief Revenue Officer until 2017.

The firm's business model centered on providing marketing analytics tools and data services to digital marketers, app developers, and publishers. Its core offering was a platform that aggregated non-personally identifiable data about mobile users, sorting them into audience profiles based on factors like life stage, interests, and app usage. Clients utilized the PushSpring Audience Console to create, view, and activate custom audience segments for targeted advertising, push notifications, and user acquisition campaigns across various digital channels. Revenue was generated by enabling advertisers to access its proprietary App Graph data and a marketplace of third-party data to refine their targeting strategies.

PushSpring's platform applied machine learning techniques to billions of monthly mobile application and device-level signals to provide advertisers with detailed audience composition and interest data. This allowed for more effective audience acquisition, targeted engagement, and increased advertisement monetization. The company secured total funding of approximately $6.6 to $6.72 million over two rounds, including a significant $5 million Series A round in July 2015 led by Trilogy Equity Partners. This investment was aimed at product development and expanding its engineering and data science teams.

A significant milestone in PushSpring's history was its acquisition by T-Mobile in July 2019. The acquisition was a strategic move for T-Mobile to bolster its advertising technology capabilities and gain a foundation in the ad-tech space. Following the acquisition, PushSpring formed the basis of a new business line called T-Mobile Marketing Solutions (TMS), which aimed to extend T-Mobile's 'Un-Carrier' philosophy into digital marketing. CEO Karl Stillner transitioned to T-Mobile to help establish the new advertising group before leaving in 2020 to co-found another startup.

Keywords: mobile data management, ad-tech, audience segmentation, mobile marketing, data marketplace, marketing analytics, user acquisition, targeted advertising, app monetization, push notifications, audience intelligence, App Graph data, consumer data, device-level targeting, programmatic advertising, digital advertising, T-Mobile acquisition, Karl Stillner, Steve Dossick, Tyler Davidson, Trilogy Equity Partners