ironSource

The merger and the spark that started Pixly

In September 2015, ironSource and Supersonic announced their merger. TechCrunch called it a "mobile ad consolidation play" and it was one of the biggest deals in mobile ad tech at the time. The combined company would cover 1 billion monthly users and generate an estimated $450 million in sales that year. Tomer Bar-Zeev became CEO of the merged entity, Gil Shoham (Supersonic's CEO) stayed on, and the org ballooned to about 800 employees with half dedicated to R&D.

For us in the SF office, it hit differently. Overnight, we went from a tight crew of about 150 to being part of an 850-person organization headquartered in Tel Aviv. Two completely different groups of people, different tools, different opinions on how things should run. A lot of people left during that stretch. But our SF crew held together. Gustav, Garrett, and I stuck it out and made the transition work.

My role shifted from pure BD to leading enablement across the combined org. I trained the incoming ironSource teams on Supersonic's monetization and user acquisition tools while learning ironSource's stack so I could support both legacy and new clients. From onboarding publishers to running internal sessions, I helped bridge product lines and go-to-market strategies across both sides. I was also managing key accounts directly, running campaigns like double credit promos for publishers to boost their ad revenue, consulting on Apple App Store review rejections, and helping clients with SDK troubleshooting and new app account setups.

In January 2016, I traveled to Tel Aviv for company meetings at the headquarters on Ehad Ha'am Street. That trip gave me a real sense of the scale we were operating at and how the two companies were stitching themselves together from opposite sides of the world.

It was my first time navigating a merger from the inside. I saw how alignment, empathy, and urgency can make or break a transition. That year left a lasting impression on how I think about teams and change.

After the integration settled, I got promoted to Senior BD Manager. I started coaching associates, building playbooks for sourcing and closing deals, streamlining workflows with new tools, and managing a personal book of top-performing clients while overseeing team targets. We exceeded aggressive revenue targets during a critical post-merger phase.

Where Pixly started

This is also where I met Gustav. Technically we met at Supersonic, but since ironSource acquired us, we usually just say ironSource.

After work, we'd walk over to The Creamery, a coffee shop near the office on Bluxome Street, and spend 2 to 3 hours riffing on business ideas. Building the foundation of what would become Pixly.

We kept circling back to the same problem: every gaming company was competing for the exact same users on the exact same ad networks. Facebook CPMs through the roof, Google getting more expensive by the quarter. Gustav and I looked at each other and basically said, "What if we took everything we know about performance marketing and applied it to influencer marketing?"

I had a gut feeling this thing had legs. I just needed to pour my focus into it by securing brand advertisers and activating influencers, then the flywheel would start to run.

Leaving

This was the hardest decision I'd made in my career. Leaving a well-paying job in one of the most expensive cities in the world to build something from nothing. ironSource's stance in the marketplace couldn't have been better, the trajectory was toward a huge exit or IPO, and I worked with my best friends.

A friend told me: "There will never be a good time to leave. You'll always find another excuse to stay."

On February 20, 2017, I sent my goodbye email to the company:

Two days later, I wrote on Facebook: "I'm moving on from my role at ironSource to pursue building something on my own. This is by far the hardest decision I've had to make in my career."

My last day was February 23, 2017. Three days later, I added race@pixly.tv to my LinkedIn.

My friends, family, and even my team at ironSource were all supportive. Gil Shoham, Supersonic's CEO, became one of our close friends and served as an advisor at Pixly, helping us navigate building, scaling, and ultimately selling the business.

What happened to ironSource

In November 2022, Unity completed its $4.4 billion merger with ironSource, combining Unity's game engine with ironSource's ad monetization and mediation platform. The deal created an end-to-end platform for developers to build and grow games. AppLovin had actually tabled a $20 billion counter-offer for Unity, but Unity's board rejected it in favor of the ironSource merger.

Kind of wild to think about. The company I left as a BD manager on Bluxome Street ended up in a $4.4 billion deal with one of the biggest names in gaming. The foundation was built through daily conversations, integrations, and wins we secured with developers during those early years.