Startup Grind: Scott Arpajian
By Thomas Macaulay
The Barcelona branch of Startup Grind celebrates three years this April in the familiar surroundings of Antiga Fàbrica Damm. The inaugural event in 2014 featured a talk with former Rakuten Spain CEO Marc Vicente; Softonic CEO Scott Arpajian takes his place for the third anniversary fireside chat, bookended by networking, nibbles and tipples.
Arpajian joined Softonic in 2015. The software and app portal serves 100 million monthly users worldwide but has suffered in recent years from a loss of advertising revenue and major layoffs. A Boston University graduate, Arpajian previously founded CNET’s software directory Download.com, one of Softonic’s main competitors, which he developed into a company with 50 million monthly users and $40 million in annual revenues.
His current challenge is getting Softonic back on track, and transforming one of Europe’s most visited websites into a solutions-focused business with a mobile-first approach. (The talk will be given in Spanish.)