The founder who turned a big idea into a bold success story - Get inspired by this incredible episode of The Partner Marketing Podcast! Matthias sits down with Josh Graham, Co-Founder and CMO of Airtime Rewards - the game-changing app helping millions of UK consumers save on their mobile bills just by shopping with their favorite Brands.
The discussion spans Josh’s professional roots in mobile technology, the founding of Airtime Rewards, how it carves out a unique space in a saturated loyalty market, and the central role that Partner Marketing plays in scaling the business. From zero users to nearly 4.5 million members and over £2 billion in incentivized spend, Airtime Rewards’ growth is as strategic as it is innovative.
A Career Born in the Mobile Boom
Matthias: "Hello everyone, welcome to the Partner Marketing Podcast. Today I'm thrilled to be joined by a true innovator in the partner marketing space, Josh Graham, co-founder and CMO of Airtime Rewards. Josh, great to have you on the show today. Welcome! Could you just start introducing yourself and tell us a little bit about your background, what you're up to?"
Josh: "Thank you very much for having me today. Yes, I'm Josh Graham. I am the co-founder and CMO of Airtime Rewards. I am obviously responsible for marketing member growth at Airtime Rewards, but also for growing our partnerships and our retailer portfolio at Airtime. My background is in mobile, so I was lucky enough to gain some really valuable experience at the early stages of my career in mobile technology businesses in Manchester."
Josh began his professional journey at the dawn of the smartphone era. In the late 2000s, as Brands shifted focus from desktop e-commerce to mobile, he gained early experience by building mobile apps for major global retailers. The timing was ideal. He recognized that smartphones were not just another channel - they were rapidly becoming the hub of consumers’ digital lives.
He worked on a number of mobile tech initiatives, most notably contributing to the technology behind Orange Wednesdays, a wildly successful loyalty program led by the UK mobile network Orange. This hands-on exposure to large-scale rewards programs and app development informed his later vision for Airtime Rewards.
The Founding Vision: Simplicity and Relevance in Loyalty Marketing
By 2015, Josh and his business partner Adam Ward decided to found Airtime Rewards. Adam brought a background in software development, while Josh specialized in commercial strategy and marketing. Together, they wanted to fix what they saw as two fundamental problems in the loyalty space: complexity for users and friction for Brands.
They observed that existing rewards programs were often opaque, outdated, and difficult to integrate. Points systems lacked clarity. Redemption experiences were clunky. Training staff to support these systems was costly for retailers. On the consumer side, it was unclear what they were earning or how to access it. Josh and Adam saw an opportunity to build something radically different—clean, mobile-first, and inherently valuable.
Their solution: a mobile app that links directly to users’ bank cards, tracks transactions via Visa and Mastercard, and rewards users with real monetary value - credit that can be deducted from their mobile phone bills.
Solving the Chicken-and-Egg Problem
Josh explains that, like many platform-based startups, Airtime Rewards faced a critical early challenge. With no users, they struggle to convince retailers to join. But with no participating retailers, it’s hard to attract users. Josh and Adam realized they must secure a major strategic partner to break the cycle.
They approached O2, one of the UK’s largest mobile operators, and succeeded in joining its startup accelerator, Wira. O2 became a seed investor - not just injecting capital, but opening up access to its vast user base of 20 million customers.
This moment proved to be the inflection point. With O2’s endorsement, Airtime gained credibility in the eyes of retailers. They were no longer just a startup - they were a partner backed by one of the most recognizable telecom Brands in the UK. The partnership allowed Airtime to acquire users at scale and start building a serious merchant portfolio.
Josh: “So, we had no members, no consumers, and we had to go out and sign up clients. And a lot of the clients that we met said, 'You know, you've got a great idea, but until you've got consumers, there's no point in having a conversation now.' And equally, we couldn't go out and do a large marketing campaign to acquire consumers, or we call them members, without having good Brands and good retailers that you could earn at so it's very much yeah chicken and egg, so we had to break one side of the argument to get scale and what we did is we went to the telco operators in the UK, so O2, one of the biggest in the UK, and they backed us and they invested in in the business. O2 said, ‘okay, we're going to give you a chance. We'll push you out to our customers and we'll get a base, a number of consumers to use your products’. And that really enabled us to go to the retailers and Brands and say, ‘okay, we're not just a small startup with no members. We can actually grow here. We can access the O2. Customer base’.”
Seamless, Mobile-First, and Card-Linked
Josh outlines that the Airtime Rewards experience is refreshingly simple. Users download the app, link their Visa or Mastercard (Amex is not supported due to high merchant fees), and start shopping as they normally would. Purchases at participating retailers - both in-store and online - automatically trigger rewards, which are credited to the user’s Airtime account.
Once users accumulate credit, they apply it directly toward reducing their mobile phone bills or topping up prepaid accounts. The rewards are always used within the mobile ecosystem, though Airtime is now exploring other redemption options like buying new phones or accessories.
Because the platform is card-agnostic and network-agnostic, users enjoy total flexibility. Airtime integrates with every major mobile network in the UK and supports nearly every bank card, allowing for broad adoption.
Josh emphasizes that Airtime Rewards is not just another cashback site. What differentiates the company is its focus on a younger, mobile-native audience and its seamless card-linked experience. Unlike voucher-based programs or traditional affiliate Publishers, Airtime requires no codes, no scanning of receipts, and no extra steps. Rewards are automatic and visible in real-time.
Moreover, Airtime’s audience tends to be younger, digitally engaged, and less likely to participate in more traditional loyalty schemes. This gives Airtime an edge when speaking with retailers who already partner with cashback or coupon platforms- they are not competing for the same consumer.
Behind the Curtain: A Technology Company at Heart
While the front-end experience is designed for simplicity, Josh makes clear that Airtime Rewards is fundamentally a technology business. With 85 employees spread across two offices (the headquarters in Manchester and a smaller commercial presence in London), the majority of the team works in engineering, data science, or product development.
All of Airtime’s infrastructure is built in-house. This allows for sophisticated campaign management tools that give Brands the ability to deliver highly targeted, data-driven marketing campaigns. Retailers can segment audiences based on location, spend behavior, demographics, and even open banking data. The company’s robust tech stack supports rich personalization and precise measurement.
Josh: “We see ourselves as a technology company. We're about 85 people in total across two offices. The vast majority of those of our team members and colleagues are engineers. And we have a relatively small commercial team, client success, and a new business. And we always see those teams being relatively small and light, and we work with Partner Marketing platforms to be able to scale our merchant base and be able to manage those partners effectively without necessarily having a huge team ourselves in the commercial space. We want to rely on and lean on partnerships to help us manage those accounts because, you know, you're the experts at that and we can be the experts at building tech and building apps and doing the marketing.”
Campaign Success: Performance, Not Promises
Airtime Rewards operates on a performance-based business model. Retailers pay a fee only when a transaction occurs, meaning Airtime’s success is tied directly to the ROI they deliver. This approach resonates strongly in today’s budget-conscious climate, where Brands are increasingly demanding measurable results.
The company tracks several core KPIs: return on investment for retailers, user engagement, and transaction influence rate. That last metric - how often Airtime’s marketing actually changes consumer behavior - is critical. The team constantly uses pre- and post-campaign data, control groups, and other analytics tools to prove that their platform drives incremental sales.
Matthias: “When you grow the business now, what is the main KPIs or success metrics that you focused on most?”
Josh: “We're looking at return on investment for retailers. That's really important. Are we delivering a high ROI and delivering against those client objectives? And then we're looking at, obviously, member growth, and we're looking at engagement rate and influence rate of the transactions that we generate. So, making sure that we're truly influencing behaviors for our merchant base. The customers have seen an offer they've seen a marketing message and they've then gone on to do something different, incrementality, showing incremental behavior back to our merchants. So, we want to make sure we're building the right tools and features to deliver super solid returns for our for our partners.”
Josh acknowledges that in today’s environment, incrementality is the number one question retailers ask. They want to know whether Airtime is driving new sales or simply capturing existing ones. Airtime answers this by running control group tests, analyzing behavioral changes pre- and post-campaign, and demonstrating how specific segments react when offers are paused.
This ability to provide hard evidence is increasingly important as retailers come under pressure to justify every marketing pound. Airtime’s robust data capabilities enable it to meet that demand, helping it retain and grow its retailer relationships.
Over time, Airtime has facilitated more than £2 billion in retail spend and sees 55 transactions every minute flowing through its system. All this has been achieved with minimal outside investment, making Airtime a rare example of a profitable, high-growth B2C tech business.
Expanding the Airtime Ecosystem
With its UK operations well-established, Airtime Rewards begins looking abroad. The company has just launched in Ireland and is currently piloting a program in Germany in partnership with a major telecom provider. Spain is slated for entry in late 2025 or early 2026.
Josh explains that international expansion replicates their UK strategy: partner with local telcos to scale user acquisition, and onboard merchants through affiliate networks and partner platforms. Because the technology is already built and scalable, Airtime doesn’t need to rebuild its infrastructure for each new market, allowing for capital-efficient expansion.
Lessons Learned on the Road to Growth
Josh closes the conversation with a few reflections for aspiring entrepreneurs. He encourages starting sooner rather than later, emphasizing that no amount of planning can truly prepare someone for launching a company. He also underscores the value of hiring the right people early on, noting how pivotal strong teams are to long-term success.
When asked about personal interests, Josh mentions The Tipping Point by Malcolm Gladwell as his most influential book, Spotify as his go-to app, and Whoop as a tool he’s currently enjoying. If he weren’t in marketing, he says he’d love to be a golfer, an F1 driver - or possibly a detective, given his fascination with problem-solving.
Josh’s journey illustrates how a sharp insight, paired with deep industry experience and smart partnerships, can lead to meaningful disruption. As Airtime continues to expand its capabilities and geographic footprint, it stands as a compelling example of how Partner Marketing, data intelligence, and mobile-first design can come together to create real value for Brands and consumers alike.
Listen to the entire episode on Spotify, Apple Podcast, our website, and all other podcast platforms.
About The Partner Marketing Podcast
The podcast brings together thought leaders and professionals from across the globe. In each episode, our host, Matthias, sits down with guests to discuss the evolving world of Partner Marketing and share personal stories.
For more details, please visit www.tradedoubler.com/podcast