What is Simply Measured?

Simply Measured is the leading provider of social media measurement used by the largest brands across the globe. We help them to quantify performance, determine impact and derive strategic direction from social media data. We turn social media data into beautiful, customizable reports that are easy to analyze and share.

What’s your traction been like thus far?

We have 100 percent YOY growth and we work with 40 percent of the top 100 brands including Microsoft, Samsung, Pepsi and adidas.

What do you know now that you wish you would have known when you started Simply Measured?

I wish I would’ve known some of the specific challenges in hiring, organizing, and scaling the company after seeing initial traction. For instance, how to communicate internally with 100 people versus 10 people. We made a lot of gut calls in the early days that worked well, and I think we did a lot of things really well in the growth stage, but as the company got larger those were the moments when I wanted a crystal ball. The hardest thing was definitely learning how to transition from being a founder to being a growth-stage CEO and figuring out the right way to scale the team with traction.

What’s a hypothesis that you’ve had that has failed? And how did you respond?

When we first decided to move forward with Simply Measured, we thought the social media marketing space was more mature than it was. There had been a successful “first wave” of companies founded, funded, and sold by the time we started dabbling. So our initial assumption was that we would need to expand to new markets, target customers, and use cases relatively quickly.. We ended up discovering our market was far from mature and we were actually on the front of a second or third wave for social marketing. We responded by focusing on our initial target customer, rather than trying to become more horizontal.

What’s your favorite startup in Seattle? (Besides your own!)

I really like Bizible – I’ve gotten to know Aaron (the CEO) and I’m excited about the work he’s doing to help B2B marketers connect sales and marketing. I also really admire SmartSheet – Mark Mader and team have something very special going on there.

What’s your favorite thing about being an entrepreneur?

Getting to wake up every morning and love what I’m doing, working with great people, building a place I love coming to work everyday. I like solving the big problems and I work well when I’m constantly challenged.

What’s your favorite local sports team?
Seahawks – are there any others?

If your company were an animal, what would it be and why?

The Ocean Sunfish – we’re unassuming, not flashy like a tuna or marlin. While they’re a little funny to look at, they have the highest growth rate of any known vertebrate and an indeterminate life span.

If you were to take your company on a date, where would it want to go? Why?

Breakfast at Lola. I’m projecting myself on to the company here, but Lola is the few breakfast places in Seattle open at 6:00am, they have really great service, good food and atmosphere, but they’re not too spendy. It’s also a practical choice because there is street parking available on 4th Street before 8am.