$6 billion in gaming ad spend is wasted every year. That’s the problem Dan Marcus, co-founder of Kohort, is determined to fix. I
In this episode of How Would You Build It, Dan shares how Kohort is tackling attribution and data consistency — the trillion-dollar alignment issue facing marketing, finance, and product teams.
With over $3B in ad spend already run through their platform and new funding secured in 2025, Kohort is scaling.
Dan explains:
• Why naïve boldness can be a founder’s secret weapon
• How data transparency aligns teams and cuts waste
• Why the future means democratising advanced tools for smaller studios and consumer apps
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00:00 Intro
01:28 Are you born a founder?
03:27 What does Kohort do?
06:57 Pains in the market outside of gaming
09:45 The Candy Crush origins
11:18 Who should own the data component within a business
15:21 Gaming Development regions of the world
16:29 Plans after recent funding round
19:51 How they go their first clients
23:11 Characteristics of a successful founder
25:21 Questions from VC's
28:28 How Kohort is penetrating the market
32:53 There are opportunities to serve smaller businesses and other industries!
36:22 How remote founders stay aligned
41:25 How Dan and Kohort are using AI
45:16 What would you have done differently as a founder?
