We’ve taken a little time off from our Summer of Startups, but we’re back and better than ever with today’s company: Balihoo, a marketing firm for … well, why don’t you read and find out:
Elevator pitch: Balihoo enables national brands to effectively drive local demand generation through their distributed marketing partners (franchisees or resellers) by empowering local marketers.
Start of company: Balihoo was founded in 2005 to address issues around media fragmentation and local media buying/planning. At the time, we sold our technology into large media and advertising agencies.
In 2008, we transformed significantly, bringing our technology in-house. We added functionality around creative customization and co-operative advertising management and started selling our SaaS and services directly to national brands and their affiliates. We’ve grown 30% every quarter since Q3 2009.
Funding History: VC funded by Lacuna Gap Capital, Highway 12 and OpenView Venture Partners.
Employees: About 50 full-time-employees, all based in Boise, ID
Work/life description: We operate under the work hard/play hard mentality. Since we’re based in Boise, ID, it critical that our employees have the freedom and flexibility to enjoy all of the outdoor pursuits the geography offers them. At the same time, we’re competing with Silicon Valley and NYC start-ups and entrenched competitors, so we have to have the discipline to out-work and (more importantly) out-smart them. More info on Balihoo’s culture.
What to remember?: Local marketing and advertising is a $130B/year business in the US which is dramatically underserved from a technology perspective. Balihoo brings scale to this market while delivering enterprise-class marketing and advertising tools to the local marketer.
Want to learn more about them? Here’s a cool video tour of their offices:
Today’s Summer of Startup’s company, Conductor Inc, maintains one of the best client lists we’ve seen, from the likes of Netflix and Jockey, to Progressive and Marriott. They’re SEO experts, meaning you probably know their work from searching without even having heard of them. But what I found most interesting is that they do some great things to help out the community at the same time as helping the work life balance at their company. Read on to find out more:
Can you share the company’s elevator pitch with us?
Conductor empowers marketers to take control of their natural search strategies.
How did the company get started? Who had the idea? Was there an “A Ha!” moment?
The “A ha!” moment came when our co-founders, Seth Besmertnik and Jeremy Duboys, realized the vastly unutilized opportunity in natural search. 90% of total search clicks occur in the natural search space, yet marketers are primarily investing their resources and budgets in paid search
Tell us about your funding history.
Our funding story begins with 2 founders with a bank loan and ends with a company of 60 receiving $10M in venture backed Series B funding during one of the most turbulent economic times in U.S. history in over 30 years.
How many employees do you have?
75
Where are they based?
The Gramercy District in NYC
How would you describe work life at the company?
At Conductor, we’re passionate about providing the best solutions for our customers. This responsibility sits on the shoulder of each member on our team – and we value each Conductor greatly. We are focused on the results – not the path. We are transparent and willing to take chances. We keep our performance streaming on the walls, there are no executive offices or walled cubes, we learn from our mistakes and celebrate our wins – and most importantly, we are committed to constantly learning, improving and getting better every day. We thrive off feedback and take pride in speaking our minds. We are focused on success and building a legacy technology company in New York City that makes a difference in the world.
For which roles or functions are you hiring?
Technology, Customer Success and Sales and Marketing
What do you look for in potential employees?
Intelligent, altruistic collaborative personalities who face their challenges with innovative solutions
What’s the one thing you would like readers to remember about the company?
Conductor is an award winning, technology company committed to provide an innovative environment by fostering employee collaboration, development and wellness. If you are interested working with a group of highly motivated people dedicated to evolve search marketing technology – we would like to speak with you.
Does your company participate in any community service initiatives through financial means or volunteer time?
As a company, Conductor is proud to lend financial support to a number of community services and organizations, but when it comes to community involvement; our people truly make the difference. Through the relationships that bloom between our employees and community organizations, we can really see the impact of our commitment. By encouraging a positive, passionate spirit of involvement and working together as a team, we at Conductor strive to make a real difference in the world in which we live and work.
Please briefly describe any programs or practices in your organization that promote a healthy work/life balance:
Conductor employees like to work hard and play hard. To foster team work in the office and well as outside of the office we sponsor a sports team each season, Winter, indoor soccer, Softball for spring/summer and kickball for the fall. For those who like to play without getting dirty we have a Wii in the office where you can test your gaming skills and let your inner rock star shine.
It’s Monday, and that means its time for another Summer of Startups profile. Today, we have a company called Damballa who specialize in–well, we’ll just let them tell you:
Elevator Pitch:
Damballa provides zero day detection of remote control attacks on enterprise networks, then eliminates the threat by terminating the malicious command-and-control communications. By rapidly isolating the threat and providing detailed forensics, Damballa enables enterprise incident response teams to prioritize and coordinate remediation efforts.
How We Got Started:
Damballa’s founders were researching botnets at the Georgia Tech Information Security Center, when they discovered new methods for identifying and eavesdropping on command-and-control infrastructure. We thought, “imagine what you could do if you knew where all the bots are and when they were rallying for an attack”. That original concept later evolved into a multi-perspective suite of technologies for examining remotely controlled networks and the infrastructure used to manage and update them.
Funding History: Damballa is backed by veteran venture capitalists, including Interwest Partners, Noro-Moseley Partners, Palomar Ventures, and Sigma+ Partners.
Employees and Location: Damballa is headquartered in Atlanta, GA and most of our employees are based in Atlanta.
Work Life: Working at Damballa requires high levels of collaboration and an appetite for rising to new challenges every day. We’re a young company, so we have to remain nimble and responsive to our customers’ needs and how the threats facing them are evolving. Where some companies come out with one product update every few years, Damballa comes out with product updates a few times each year.
We’re hiring/What do we look for: We’re always on the lookout for great software engineers and information security researchers. These roles are the core of our company and the engine behind the innovation that allows us to solve the problems we solve for our customers. If you can design a data storage schema in the morning, converse about computer science theory over lunch, and sling code in the afternoon, this is your kind of company.
Advice for folks new to startups: Start-ups don’t have much of the infrastructure you may be used to if you come from a larger company. You may find yourself making the coffee, backing up your own computer, fixing your own printer, and installing your own development servers. If you’re a software engineer, you need to be almost as good at system administration as you are at writing software. The flip side is, everything you do makes a difference and things happen very quickly.
One thing to remember about the company: Damballa is a beacon of opportunity in the Atlanta employment market.
Sounds great huh? Want to work there? Here are three openings they have right now:
Our second Summer of Startups profile company is FieldView Solutions. While they cater to a very specific market–I’m looking at you, Data Center Administrators–it’s still great to learn about what they’re all about:
Can you share the company’s elevator pitch with us?
FieldView Solutions helps the managers of today’s complex, mission-critical data centers run their facilities at optimal efficiency. Because the platform supplies real-time information about energy usage, available space, temperature and pressure, it helps IT people, facilities managers and C level executives make better decisions, faster.
How did the company get started? Who had the idea? Was there an “A Ha!” moment?
The FieldView platform was developed with the input of clients who were dissatisfied with the Data Center Monitoring solutions from which they had to choose. Through that cooperation, the platform was created to specifically meet the real-world needs of those clients, and it became obvious that other clients who were facing similar challenges could benefit as well.
In December, 2009, the intellectual property rights to the platform were acquired, and FieldView Solutions became an independent company.
Some great pictures of life at FieldView Solutions.
Tell us about your funding history.
Our Venture Capital Partners are Osage Partners, SJF Ventures and Milestone Venture Partners.
How many employees do you have? Where are they based?
There are over 25 individuals, consisting of employees and contractors, working at FieldView Solutions. Although all are based out of our Edison, NJ office, our sales staff is primarily on the road or working out of their home offices.
How would you describe work life at the company?
FieldView Solutions fosters a team environment, all working together to get the job done. The days can be long as we feel our way through new processes and procedures but there’s a sense of accomplishment and camaraderie at the end of the day.
For which roles or functions are you hiring?
Currently we are looking to grow our sales and marketing functions.
What do you look for in potential employees?
In a small company it’s important that candidates have the skills and experience required for the position but also want to work in a VC backed environment. They need to display enthusiasm for the job as well as a true team spirit and roll-up-the-sleeves mentality.
Do you have any advice for folks new to startup employment?
People looking for employment with a startup company need to be flexible and, when required wear many hats. In the initial stages it’s not just what you know and how you do your job but how willing you are to pitch in and assist team members in order to propel the company to the next level.
What’s the one thing you would like readers to remember about the company?
If you’re responsible for the management of a data center, get in touch. We can help you run your facility more efficiently, to save money, time and aggravation.
Today we’re officially starting our Summer of Startups series, where we (hopefully) take a look at different startup companies, the life and culture at each, and what they’re looking for in prospective employees.
We’re very excited that our first company in this series is such a great one–TRUSTe. You’ve seen their logo all over the internet, on websites ranging from Cisco and Facebook to Zagat and EA games. When you see it, you know it means that the site you’re looking at it adheres to strict privacy standards.
But you probably don’t know very much about TRUSTe themselves. Let’s try and fix that.
1. Can you share the company’s elevator pitch with us?
Consumers care about privacy and want to know which websites can be trusted with their personal information. TRUSTe certifies the privacy practices and policies of websites to our rigorous program standards to ensure that they provide consumers with transparency, accountability and choice, the foundations of online privacy. Websites we certify display a TRUSTe Privacy Seal, which numerous case studies and tests have shown drive increased transactions, registrations and overall engagement on websites.
Here’s some great shots of the TRUSTe Team at a San Francisco Giants game. The stadium is only blocks from their office.
2. How did the company get started? Who had the idea? Was there an “A Ha!” moment?
TRUSTe has had two incarnations, first as a non-profit (1997 to 2007) and now as a for-profit.
In 1996, Lori Fena, Charles Jennings, John Berard and other eCommerce privacy pioneers conceived of TRUSTe at Esther Dyson’s PC Forum. They saw privacy as an issue that had the potential to restrain the evolution of the Internet and online commerce if not properly addressed. TRUSTe formed as a non-profit industry association in 1997. As a non-profit, TRUSTe was better able to bring companies and industry leaders together to address emerging privacy standards. Sponsorships from Microsoft, IBM, and several other companies helped launch TRUSTe, but for most of its run as a non-profit TRUSTe stayed afloat from companies purchasing our online privacy certification services and seals.
By 2005, TRUSTe had grown considerably and many complex privacy and trust issues had emerged (spyware, spam, phishing etc) that required fresh approaches and technology. In addition, there was an expanding opportunity to address the small business market and its growing privacy needs. The non-profit model could no longer meet TRUSTe’s needs – without capital and talent the company could not continue to keep pace with online developments and effectively pursue its mission of building consumer trust on the Internet.
In July 2007, Fran Maier, who had served as Executive Director since 2001, convinced the non-profit board and TRUSTe clients and employees that TRUSTe needed a new business model and investment capital to pursue new technology assets as well as product development and marketing expertise.
3. Tell us about your funding history.
In July 2007, despite several hurdles and naysayers, TRUSTe successfully raised significant capital from esteemed venture capital firm Accel Partners and went through the unusual transition from non-profit to a new company/quasi-Internet-startup. The team hired a number of new people from the security sector, made a technology acquisition, and started building new products.
In June 2010, Chris Babel, who has joined TRUSTe as CEO, assisted by Fran Maier (now President), helped TRUSTe closed a Series B funding round of $12 million, led by new investor Jafco Ventures. The round also included a new investment from DAG Ventures and follow-on investments from returning Series A investors Accel Partners and Baseline Ventures. TRUSTe will put the new funding toward enhancing sales and marketing in order to expand its existing enterprise foothold, while capitalizing on the booming small business market and new certification initiatives in social networking, mobile and advertising.
4. How many employees do you have? Where are they based?
We have a total of 64 employees with the majority (62) based in the San Francisco Bay Area. Our offices are conveniently located in the financial district of San Francisco, just a block away from the Montgomery BART stop.
5. How would you describe work life at the company?
We’re a fast-growing, entrepreneurial team focused on accelerating online trust. Things move quickly at our office, we’re always rolling out and testing new products and brainstorming and troubleshooting as new privacy issues arise. I’d also say there’s never a dull day at the office. Privacy is a hot topic and its relevance has only increased as the years have passed. We have thousands of clients, including many of the top online brands such as Yahoo, Microsoft and Facebook. You’ll learn a lot working for TRUSTe since the privacy space evolves so frequently.
Can-do problem-solvers – we’re a relatively small company so we like to see people take initiative and own projects and initiatives We’re also looking for hard workers who can accelerate our development and market penetrations.
8. Do you have any advice for folks new to startup employment?
You need to be agile, willing to work hard, and able to think outside the box to succeed. Most importantly, take initiative: startups offer wonderful opportunities for personal and creative development. There is a lot of room to grow at a start up, but that growth is up to you to initiate.
9. What’s the one thing you would like readers to remember about the company?
Look for the TRUSTe Privacy Seal on websites before handing over your personal information!
10. Is there anything else you would like to share?
We have a dartboard in the office and employees recognized for high performance have the opportunity to throw a dart and win a cash prize dependent on their score.
For more information about TRUSTe, check them out here: http://www.truste.com/. For the jobs mentioned above, click here to view TRUSTe’s job page on StartUpHire.
As you know, we work to provide folks a feel for the culture and work life dynamic at a wide range of startups. We found some great insights into what Google, the now multi-billion dollar company, was like in its early days from Chuck Howitt at The Record:
It started off using some of the cheapest computer hardware it could find.
A typical working area featured 27 different kinds of processors, monitors, mother boards and printers. Cable management was a nightmare. Data storage was cheap.
The headquarters was situated between a landfill site and a monster-truck race course.
Like many early stage companies, the organization was no more structured:
Managers supervised as many as 45 people and had one-on-one chats with employees every three months. Employees dressed like slobs. Failure wasn’t just tolerated, it was celebrated.
They also had some fun hiring practices:
Twenty people interviewed him before he was hired, [Douglas] Merrill, [former Chief Information Officer at Google,] said. Every engineer is interviewed at least eight times before joining Google, and managers don’t hire the people working directly for them.
There are a bunch more interesting anecdotes in the full article which makes an important point. The culture at each startup employer is incredibly unique—both vastly different from that of large established companies and differentiated from other startups. Company size, mission, leadership, industry, location, and team composition all shape a culture, though people exert the greatest influence. Getting this cultural fit right is obviously important, and it requires getting to know the team and the team getting to know you. It’s presumably one of the reasons for the 8+ interviews at Google.
Our upcoming “Summer of Startups” series will profile dozens of emerging growth companies and provide a feel for the unique culture at each. Among them might be the next Google—and perhaps your next job.
What do you thing? How important is culture when evaluating a potential employer?
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We’ve taken a little time off from our Summer of Startups, but we’re back and better than ever with today’s company: Balihoo, a marketing firm for … well, why don’t you read and find out:
They’re SEO experts, meaning you probably know their work from searching without even having heard of them. But what I found most interesting is that they do some great things to help out the community at the same time as helping the work life balance at their company. Read on to find out more:
Elevator Pitch:
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