Pocket Change
Pocket Change: employee #5
A couple months into my time at InMobi, I got recruited to join a tiny startup called Pocket Change. They were the fifth company to offer me a role, but this one felt different. Five people, a big idea, and backing from Google Ventures, First Round Capital, David Sacks, and a handful of SF's best angels. I said yes and became the fifth hire.
Pocket Change (originally called Lunch Money) was building a universal virtual currency for mobile apps and games. Think American Express points, but for your phone. Developers would integrate our SDK, users would earn tokens through engagement (playing games, completing actions, inviting friends), and those tokens could be redeemed for real rewards in our marketplace. Each token was worth $0.01, and we had a proprietary algorithm that determined payouts based on user behavior. The whole pitch was retention through real value, not ads.
The company was co-founded by Ari Mir (who previously built GumGum, the world's largest in-image ad network) and Amos Elliston (former CTO of Geni and early engineer at Yammer). They'd raised $1M in seed funding and were getting ready to scale.
Getting to work
My first day was December 15, 2011. By December 22, I was already doing outbound developer outreach, cold-emailing Android game developers and pitching our Token System. The value prop was simple: 2 to 3x the revenue of premium app pricing and ad networks, with $5 RPMs. I reported to Wally Nguyen, SVP of Business Development, and my job was to get as many publishers integrated as possible.
I spent my days prospecting developers on LinkedIn (I was so active they actually flagged my account for exceeding invitation limits), pitching on Skype calls, managing our pipeline in Salesforce, and supporting SDK integrations. I wasn't just closing deals. I was sitting with developers, understanding their app's user behavior, helping them figure out the best placement for our rewards system, and making sure the integration actually worked.
One of the clients I'm most proud of landing was Sebastien Borget at Pixowl, who was building a game called The Sandbox. That game ended up getting featured on both the Apple App Store and Google Play. Working with Sebastien taught me a lot about what great developer partnerships look like.
Fun fact: The Sandbox is now a massive metaverse platform with over 8 million users and 400,000 creators. Brands like Adidas, Gucci, and Snoop Dogg have all built virtual experiences inside it.
Scaling up
By late 2012, Pocket Change had crossed 10 million users and 1 million daily active users. Over 300 Android apps were running our SDK, and no single app made up more than 10% of the network. That distribution was intentional and something I helped build through broad outreach across verticals. We started with games but I pushed us into new categories: messaging apps, radio apps, utility apps. Anywhere there was user engagement, there was a case for Pocket Change.
I also got my first real taste of management here, hiring and leading two sales associates, coaching them through the chaos of a fast-growing startup and watching them crush their targets.
As the team grew from 5 to over 30 people, my role expanded beyond BD. I started working across teams, sitting in on product sprints, analyzing usage data, and helping shape the roadmap. I had a recurring "Weekly Dev Relations Wrap Up" where I'd report on pipeline activity, new integrations, and what I was hearing from developers in the field. That feedback loop between sales and product became something I carried into every role after.
The office
Our office was at 657 Howard Street in SOMA. It was designed by Blitz Architecture and had this energy that just felt like a startup should feel. Brick walls, big windows flooding the space with natural light, open desks (nobody had a private office), and a communal dining area where the whole team ate family-style. There was even a custom bar visible from the street with a moose trophy on the wall. The whole thing was built in under six weeks on a tight budget, and it became a real reflection of the team: scrappy, creative, and a little unconventional.
The end
Pocket Change eventually shut down. The product had real traction (1M+ DAUs is no joke for a startup that size), but the revenue model never quite clicked. We couldn't translate product-market fit into a sustainable business. It's one of those things that happens with early-stage companies, and it taught me more than any success could have.
When I left in early June 2013, I had offers from five different companies. Onavo, SponsorPay, First Round Capital (for a Platform Experience role), Grow Mobile, and Supersonic. The CEO of Grow Mobile, Brendan Lyall, told me I was "a huge factor in Pocket Change's early growth." That meant a lot.
I ended up choosing Supersonic, which turned out to be the move that led to ironSource, which led to meeting Gustav, which led to Pixly. But Pocket Change was where the foundation got poured.
What I took with me
Pocket Change gave me my first real experience with startup velocity. How to build pipeline from nothing. How to hire and manage a team when you're still figuring things out yourself. How to work across functions when there aren't enough people to stay in your lane. How to spot when a product has traction but the business model needs work. And how to keep showing up every day for something you believe in, even when the outcome is uncertain.