Hello, this is Blue from the Adrop team — your mobile & web app business partner.
Today, I'd like to introduce Aaron, Adrop's developer CEO.
The octopus character you see in Adrop's branding is actually Aaron coding away. 🐙🎧
Headphones on, deep in focus — we channeled that exact image into the character. (A little reveal for our blog readers.)
Aaron is part of Korea's first generation of mobile app developers, with experience spanning the full lifecycle — building, operating, and exiting various app services.
Today, he leads the Adrop team with a mission to help mobile and web app startups grow.
Before Adrop was born, what were you working on?
- My career started at a team called Mad Smart. When Korea's mobile app market was just opening up, we built TikTok — the first-generation mobile messenger — and exited to SK Planet. (Back then, we developed the fastest message transmission technology in Korea. These days every messenger is fast, but still!) After that, I reconnected with Leo (now Adrop's CPO), a former Mad Smart teammate, and we ran a mobile app development company called Artify together. We developed and operated all kinds of app services, and got to try every category we'd been curious about. It was a genuinely fun time as a developer. At Adrop, we're building B2B solutions that help startups grow, based on everything we've learned from years of building and running diverse services.
A 2013 article that feels like a certificate of authenticity — our marketer dug it up in secret 🗞️ (Aaron doesn't know about this)
What kind of team is Adrop's engineering team?
- Adrop's engineering team is full of people passionate about learning new tech and growing. Whether you're a long-time member or just joined, we learn from each other and grow together. I always emphasize that every engineer should be able to understand and manage the entire system holistically. The goal is for each engineer to experience the full A-to-Z — from project planning, data design, engineering, deployment, to operations — so that eventually they could launch a service entirely on their own.
What services are you building right now?
- We're building Adrop, a platform that supports mobile and web app businesses.
- The growth cycle for most services is pretty similar. In short — you gather traffic first, and then comes the season of figuring out how to monetize that traffic.
- So first, we launched AdSwap, a free marketing solution that helps you build traffic and brand awareness. App publishers exchange ads with each other, expanding reach to more target audiences without any ad budget.
- Next is a service that supports monetization. Starting an advertising business requires significant resources across the entire company. The engineering team needs to build an ad delivery system. On top of that, you need operational resources to handle advertiser communications, campaign management, reporting, and ad revenue settlement. We're preparing a B2B SaaS product that solves all these resource challenges in one place, with a target launch in the first half of next year.
What inspired you to introduce daily standing meetings?
- When our team is deep in work, there were days when we barely talked to each other. Everyone was so focused on their own tasks that there wasn't much room for casual conversation.
- Standing meetings aren't anything formal. Each person spends about 30 seconds sharing what they did yesterday and what they're working on today — it's a light way to share updates. It helps us understand what teammates are working on, and it's become a casual space for everyday communication.
What's going through Aaron's head these days?
- I carry a heavy sense of responsibility. Every single person on our engineering team is genuinely talented. To draw out their potential even more explosively, I'm always planning a few steps ahead and pointing the direction.
- I also want a beautifully curated bookshelf to be the first thing you see when you open our office door. We need to keep learning new technologies and trends, and I want to build an environment that motivates that. I'm convinced continuous learning is what makes our team stronger.
- And speaking of team building — after being selected for Deep Tech TIPS this past July, we started forming a business team. (Angie leads it.) We're looking for talented business team members who'll help us spread Adrop's vision and innovate the "advertising market for mobile and web app businesses" together. 🚀
Aaron's recipe
- Comfort snack 🍵: A warm cup of tea
- Soul food 🍗: Matdakkko brown rice baked chicken (boneless) + spring onion chicken combo
- Song pick 🎧: "I'm Different" (feat. Bobby) — "Stop hesitating and come on in — AdSwap!"