Our ‘Profile: A Day in the Life of’ feature takes a look at some of the global professionals working across performance marketing. It aims to shed light on the varying roles and companies across the flourishing industry.

In this edition we head to London, to speak with the Chief Executive Officer at Yieldify, Jay Radia. 

Name:

Jay Radia

Job title and company:

Co-founder and CEO – Yieldify

In one sentence, how would you describe what the company does?

Yieldify is a data-driven software solution that helps e-businesses to communicate with their abandoning users in unique ways, the end goal being to generate more incremental sales and gain valuable site insights changing the way that they communicate with their customers in the future.  

What are the company’s unique selling points? 

Innovation: We have done our best to develop our product suite in line with industry trends, for example, all our products are optimised for mobile devices – a unique capability. We are constantly building more, not only to add our current set of tools but also bespoke tools to match our biggest clients’ needs.

Building partnerships:  We have been trading for 12 months, in which time we have forged over 900 partnerships. We are honest and transparent with our clients which I think is the key to our competitive growth in market share.

Full service: We provide everything in-house – design, tech, account management, support, all out of our new office in Monument, London.

Within the last six months/year, what stands out as the company’s major milestones?

Over the last year we have grown from a team of 2 to 70, spread over offices in London (HQ), Berlin (March ‘14) and New York (April ‘14). A major milestone was in March when we closed a $1.3m investment round with leading angel investors.

A key technology development has been the optimisation of our products for mobile and tablet devices – as mobile traffic increases these are becoming an increasingly important part of our product portfolio. We have also just launched our brand new data-driven dashboard which will allow us to segment and target users with even greater accuracy and flexibility than previously. 

Duration in current role:

April 2012 – present.

Where are you based?

Just last Monday we moved into new offices right by Monument in London.

Previous performance marketing-related companies you have worked at:

I was bitten by the bug a good few years ago: I previously owned a number e-commerce websites, focusing mainly on retail, health and gaming. Through these sites I learnt a lot about the major marketing channels including affiliate, display and SEM. 

What are your main job responsibilities?

My main focus is managing the global business operations. For me this centres principally on strategy, culture and recruitment.

Strategy is the action plan for achieving our long-term objectives, how we go about improving and expanding all aspects of the business.

Culture represents the beliefs and attitudes that will allow us to successfully implement our strategy. They permeate through the company and are tangible in everything we do, say and make. Our core values include innovation, honestly and drive to succeed.

Critical for both of these is sound recruitment – a part of the business I take a very active role in. I firmly believe that hiring the right people – that fit into the culture and are capable of implementing our strategy – is fundamental to success.

Take us through what you get up to on a typical working Monday:

First of all I catch up with everyone’s weekend – seeing who’s got the best stories! Then I have a catch-up with Paddy (commercial director) and Tom (financial controller) – alongside a Monday-morning-strength coffee – to assess the developments for current and prospective clients for the week.

The meat of the day is taken up with strategy – sales, hiring, new products – and keeping tabs on developments in the performance marketing scene (competitors included!) so that I know the space as well as I possibly can. I also like to go round and have a chat with the teams, making sure everyone is happy and pushing themselves out of their comfort zones. This is the best way to learn and develop.

At the end of the day I hold a team leader meeting where we go over last week’s developments and discuss plans for the coming one – maybe devising the monthly employee challenge we want to hold…chili-eating contest this time! The last one we did ’The 60 Nugget Challenge’ was live streamed to our partners and had over 100 viewers!

What top three websites can you be found browsing during your lunch hour?

Usually I first browse LinkedIn (to see what my business contacts are up to), then Facebook (to catch up with my mates), and finally TechCrunch (to see what crazy ideas that have been funded!). 

What are your top three tips for someone looking to get their hands on a job like yours?

  • Be willing to fail – Yieldify was my fourteenth business idea.
  • Work on something you’re truly passionate about – you’ll be working 18+ hours a day on getting your business off the ground so you had better love it.
  • Find and hire the best people – your team and culture dictate your business.  In particular, focus on the first ten people you hire – they will determine the direction your business sets off in.

Career-wise, where do you see yourself in three years’ time?

The intention with Yieldify is to turn it into a global business with offices across the world. We’re already making good headway with 2 offices in the EU and 1 in the US after only 12 months, and we plan on expanding further.

Ultimately, we want to consolidate our position as leaders in on-site remarketing and our team is going to continue to innovate and expand our product range. We aim to be the company that everyone watches and copies! 

Tell us one thing people at work don’t know about you?

I wrote a book but under a pseudonym. I’ve never told anyone what it’s called and none of you will ever find it!