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Perform[cb]
Ricky Ahuja's Perform[cb] channels over 500M monthly clicks into pay-for-performance advertising campaigns from Sarasota, Florida.
Perform[cb]
Founded in 2002 by Ricky Ahuja, Perform[cb] began as a small affiliate network in Sarasota, Florida, and grew into a vertically integrated performance-marketing platform. It connects advertisers with publishers through a proprietary network that manages millions of daily transactions across sectors like financial services, e-commerce, health, and nutraceuticals. The firm operates a pay-for-performance model: advertisers pay per acquisition, not per impression, shifting the risk from media buyers to the platform. Perform[cb] sources traffic through paid search, native ads, display, and email, then funnels it into highly optimized funnels. Known advertiser verticals include credit repair, insurance, dietary supplements, and subscription trials. The firm also runs exclusive campaigns on behalf of direct-response advertisers who rely on its compliance and analytics infrastructure to manage regulatory risk in sensitive verticals. Headquartered in Sarasota, Perform[cb] maintains a distributed team with a presence in India and Latin America, supporting media buying, creative, and analytics roles at scale. While total headcount is not publicly disclosed, industry sources describe it as a mid-market, privately held player with meaningful market share in the US affiliate space. Ricky Ahuja remains actively involved as CEO, overseeing a business that is frequently cited as one of the largest performance agencies not owned by a holding company. Structurally, Perform[cb] differs from traditional agencies in how it captures margin. Because it operates as a principal — buying media, then selling advertisers the resulting conversions — it retains the spread between acquisition cost and payout. This makes it structurally more like a proprietary trading desk for digital advertising than a service business. The firm has not disclosed outside investment or succession plans, and appears to remain closely held by its founder.
General information
Firm type
Affiliate Marketing Platform
Year founded
2002
AUM
Undisclosed
Location
Region
North America
Country
United States
City
Sarasota
Corporate office
Sarasota, FL, United States
Principals
Ricky Ahuja
Founder & CEO
Sector focus
Frequently asked questions
Who runs investment decisions at Perform[cb]?
Ricky Ahuja, as founder and CEO, retains operational control over capital allocation and campaign investment decisions. The firm does not disclose a separate CIO or investment committee. Day-to-day media-buying decisions are executed by specialist teams, but strategic direction and major budget commitments run through Ahuja, per the firm's public communications.
How does Perform[cb] source proprietary deal flow?
The firm's scale — processing hundreds of millions of monthly clicks across paid search, native, display, and email channels — gives it a proprietary data set on which offers convert and at what margin. This traffic volume generates exclusive campaign opportunities with direct-response advertisers seeking high-intent customers, especially in regulated verticals like financial services and nutraceuticals.
Is Perform[cb] structured as a single family office or does it operate more like a venture firm?
Perform[cb] is neither a family office nor a venture firm. It operates as a performance-marketing platform structured as a principal trader of digital advertising inventory. The firm buys media at wholesale rates and sells the resulting customer acquisitions to advertisers, retaining the margin.
Does Perform[cb] participate in fund commitments or only direct deals?
The firm does not participate in external fund commitments or traditional investment structures. Its capital deployment happens internally, funding media buys and campaign optimizations that generate returns through cost-per-acquisition arbitrage rather than through financial-instrument investing.
What investment stages does Perform[cb] typically target?
Perform[cb] does not target investment stages in the traditional venture or private-equity sense. Its capital is deployed into short-cycle advertising campaigns with measurable conversion metrics. Campaign horizons range from days to months, with continuous reallocation based on real-time performance data.
Which sectors does Perform[cb] explicitly avoid?
Public disclosures do not list explicit negative screens, but its advertiser base historically clusters in high-margin, direct-response verticals — financial services, insurance, health supplements, and subscription commerce. Highly regulated or brand-sensitive sectors with strict media-governance rules (pharmaceuticals, for example) are less represented, suggesting a de facto avoidance of verticals where the performance model faces compliance friction.
Does Perform[cb] maintain philanthropic structures, and how are they separated?
No philanthropic foundation or structure has been publicly associated with Perform[cb] or its founder. The firm has not disclosed charitable activities through its corporate entity.
Profile maintained by Altss using OSINT (open-source intelligence), regulatory filings, licensed data partners, and verified direct submissions. Read the methodology. Last updated: . Continuous refresh with full update cycles at least every 30 days.
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