Certainly not local startup MediaMiser, a first-time OBJ Fastest Growing Company and recent recipient of an OCRI/Exploriem Bootstrap Awards bronze for fastest growing bootstrapped startup.
The company earns cash by mining media – either traditional or Web 2.0-style content – with its enterprise software, which harnesses the power of data analytics to assess the implications of what can often be stacks upon stacks of media reports and mentions.
CTO and co-founder Brett Serjeantson says he got the first inklings of the company’s existence while completing a public relations diploma program at Algonquin College. “It was when we were cutting media clippings, and pasting them in scrapbooks,” he recalls. “I recognized the complete waste of time and futility of doing that.”
After picking up some programming and web know-how, Mr. Serjeantson developed the company’s content analysis software prototype in the wee hours of the evenings – while not at his day job, or looking after three young kids. “(And) I quickly realized that the web wasn’t an entertainment tool,” he says. “I realized it was a business tool, and if you could line up the data points you could drive real meaning from it.
“And I’m not saying that I was lucky, but we were very fortunte that on-demand solutions took off when they did,” he continues. “It became the platform of choice for many clients.”
While its software offering is a turnkey operation, the company also staffs a squad of media consultants to analyze, contextualize and humanize news, issues and campaigns. That’s its main differentiator, Mr. Serjeantson explains, adding the company has been 100-per-cent bootstrapped from its inception – though he’s not totally against the concept of acquiring funding in the future.
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Indeed, the firm’s lack of initial funding “wasn’t for lack of trying,” he says with a smile. “But then we realized that … when we got our first client, we had found our financing. And we threw everything we made back into our product.”
And after snagging a gaggle of clients in various sectors, from Fortune 1000 companies to government agencies and NGOs, Mr. Serjeantson says the company is looking to scale upward. “We’ve learned to be frugal, but we’re also recognizing that financing does have its place to bring things to a larger scale,” he says, adding the company has a presence in Toronto and throughout Canada, in parts of the U.S. and Australia, thanks in part to the company’s Aussie chief financial officer Martin Lyster.
“Because we didn’t have VC money, we were forced to build only the things that our clients wanted. We took the minimalist approach … but at the same time we remained focused on answering our customers’ pain points, and not doing frivolous things.”
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Year founded: 2003
Head count: 28
Product/service: Media monitoring and analysis
Revenue growth: 147%
