About Podcast
What happens when innovation collides with integrity in the fast-moving world of digital advertising? For Rich Kahn, CEO and Co-Founder of Anura.io, the answer lay in a problem often overlooked: Ad fraud. From bootstrapping his first online venture in the early days of the internet to building a technology that now protects over 2 million domains worldwide, Rich’s journey is a masterclass in resilience, reinvention, and relentless pursuit of quality.
In this episode, Rich shares how he and his wife transformed an early ad network into a cutting-edge fraud detection company after discovering the scale of fraudulent traffic plaguing advertisers. Through rigorous testing, self-funded R&D, and countless iterations, they developed a platform that outperformed industry competitors and became a trusted safeguard for global brands. Along the way, Rich reveals how he personally emailed thousands of LinkedIn contacts to land Anura’s first clients, why he chose to scale through relationships rather than paid acquisition, and how disciplined operations, structured processes, and tools like Trainual, Slack, Zoom, and HubSpot now keep his growing team aligned. His story underscores that true scale isn’t just about growth – it’s about clarity, communication, and culture.
Key Takeaways:
- How Rich identified ad fraud as a billion-dollar blind spot and turned it into a profitable SaaS opportunity.
- The testing process that validated Anura’s fraud detection accuracy and gave them market credibility.
- Why proof of concept and customer validation are essential before seeking exponential growth.
- Leadership lessons from scaling with a spouse, building trust-based teams, and fostering a culture of transparency.
- The operational frameworks and daily rituals—like morning huddles and structured onboarding—that keep Anura agile as it expands.
Join us with Rich Kahn as he reveals how discipline, data, and a deep sense of purpose can transform a bootstrapped startup into a trusted global leader in digital fraud prevention.
- Scale Core Teams : Learn to structure and scale key roles from initial hires to a full operational team.
- Operational Excellence : Implement daily huddles, face-to-face collaboration, and technology to maintain high team alignment.
- Process Documentation : Learn to document workflows and policies for consistency and scalable onboarding.
- Fraud Detection Strategy : Understand how to develop and deploy technology to protect clients and sustain business growth.
- Proof of Concept & Scaling : Validate product-market fit, iterate, and strategically transition resources to grow new ventures.
Special Guest: Rich Kahn – CEO and Co-Founder
Location: Middletown, Delaware, United States
Air Date: November, 20 ,2025
Websites:
- Shark Tank TV Show: The Sharks give budding entrepreneurs the chance to secure business deals that could make them millionaires.
Software:
- Anura.io: The world’s most accurate fraud solution protects your web assets by eliminating bots, malware and human fraud, ensuring your content is seen by real people.
- Trainual: built to document faster, drive consistency, reduce costly mistakes, and make trusted answers easy to find.
- Google Tag Manager: a free tool from Google that allows users to manage and deploy marketing and analytics tags on a website or mobile app without modifying the site’s code
- Hubspot: Increase Leads — Generate leads, close deals, and create remarkable customer experiences.
- Slack: Bring your people, projects, tools, and AI together on the world’s most beloved work operating system.
Book :
- The Ultimate Guide to Ad Fraud: Download Anura’s free e-book on fraud detection.
Producer & Host: Alicia Butler Pierre
Producer & Voiceover Artist: Clarence Levy III
Audio Editors: Olanrewaju Adeyemo and Sabor! Music Enterprises
Sound Design: Sabor! Music Enterprises
Video Editor: Gladys Jimenez
Show Notes: Hashim Tale
Sponsor: Equilibria, Inc.More About Guest, Rich Kahn.
Rich Kahn is an award-winning tech entrepreneur, self-taught developer, and the CEO and co-founder of Anura.io, a cutting-edge digital fraud detection company that protects over 2 million domains worldwide. Based in Middletown, Delaware, Rich has spent more than three decades at the forefront of digital innovation, building and scaling multiple successful ventures that bridge technology, advertising, and cybersecurity.
Rich’s entrepreneurial journey began in the early 1990s when he launched one of the first internet newsletters, amassing over 20,000 subscribers at a time when the web was still text-based. He quickly transitioned into website development, internet service provision, and digital advertising founding and growing multiple companies, including eZanga, a digital ad network that appeared on the Inc. 5000 list five consecutive years. His achievements earned him the Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year Award and multiple Red Herring Awards for innovation and growth.
In 2017, after identifying the escalating threat of ad fraud, Rich and his wife and co-founder launched Anura.io, a platform engineered to accurately detect and eliminate fraudulent online traffic. Their proprietary technology, refined through rigorous multi-year testing, consistently outperformed competitors and has become a trusted solution for brands, agencies, and platforms globally.
Under Rich’s leadership, Anura has become synonymous with precision in digital fraud prevention. His team’s tireless commitment to combating organized, large-scale fraud has saved advertisers billions while restoring integrity to digital marketing ecosystems. Beyond leading a fast-growing SaaS company, Rich is deeply invested in cultivating company culture, advocating for in-person collaboration, daily team alignment, and work-life balance as essential elements of sustainable growth.
A lifelong learner with a passion for emerging technologies, Rich continues to inspire entrepreneurs and technologists with his philosophy of proving concepts through disciplined experimentation, building strong teams through trust and shared purpose, and growing businesses by solving real-world problems. His story embodies the evolution of digital entrepreneurship from dial-up modems to machine learning and the power of perseverance in turning obstacles into industry-changing opportunities.
More About Host, Alicia Butler Pierre:
Alicia Butler Pierre is the Founder & CEO of Equilibria, Inc. Her career in operations began over 25 years ago while working in various chemical plants and oil refineries. She invented the Kasennu™ framework for business infrastructure and authored, Behind the Façade: How to Structure Company Operations for Sustainable Success. She is the producer of Scale Tales podcast and the weekly top 2% Business Infrastructure podcast with a global audience across 70+ countries.More About Sponsor, Equilibria:
Equilibria, Inc. is a 20-year-old boutique operations management firm. We build the business infrastructure necessary for fast-growing businesses to scale with less pain. With a range of services and products, entrepreneurs can get the operational support and resources they need on demand.