Helping Small Biz with Online Marketing
ClickFuel
Steve Pogorzelski and Brian Farrey
Steve Pogorzelski, formerly group president-international at Monster.com, found a new calling when he met Colby West, an entrepreneur looking to get a startup funded. West, 30, had co-founded AuctionPal, a Web-based company that helps people sell their belongings online, but wanted to shift his focus from consumer-to-consumer transactions to business-to-consumer. He saw an opportunity in helping small and mid-sized enterprises—dentists, plumbers, salons, electricians, law offices, and so forth—market themselves online. West founded ClickFuel in Boston late last year. Pogorzelski became ClickFuel's first investor by putting up $250,000 and last January was appointed chief executive. The company raised an additional $2.5 million in June through Chicago-based venture capital fund Baird Venture Partners. To build the startup, Pogorzelski, 48, recruited old colleagues from Monster.com: Brian Farrey (president of Monster Technologies), Rob Hayes (vice-president of finance-global sales), and Denise Cautela (senior director of marketing-emerging markets). "At Monster, we were able to take customers and put them on the Internet, which was transformational at the time," says Pogorzelski. "Now we're looking at the migration from the Yellow Pages to the Internet." ClickFuel, which has 20 employees plus outsourcers in India, Ukraine, and the Philippines, builds Web sites and manages online marketing campaigns for a monthly fee, typically between $1,500 and $2,500. Fuel Station, a Web-based ClickFuel application that was recently included in the QuickBooks app center, tracks results such as leads generated, clicks on a company's site and advertisements, and consumer calls made to a phone number listed online only. So far, ClickFuel has attracted 400 clients, mostly with 10 to 15 employees, and expects numbers to skyrocket in 2010 as it partners with such companies as Intuit.
—Venessa Wong (posted on Nov. 3, 2009)
Steve Pogorzelski and Brian Farrey
Steve Pogorzelski, formerly group president-international at Monster.com, found a new calling when he met Colby West, an entrepreneur looking to get a startup funded. West, 30, had co-founded AuctionPal, a Web-based company that helps people sell their belongings online, but wanted to shift his focus from consumer-to-consumer transactions to business-to-consumer. He saw an opportunity in helping small and mid-sized enterprises—dentists, plumbers, salons, electricians, law offices, and so forth—market themselves online. West founded ClickFuel in Boston late last year. Pogorzelski became ClickFuel's first investor by putting up $250,000 and last January was appointed chief executive. The company raised an additional $2.5 million in June through Chicago-based venture capital fund Baird Venture Partners. To build the startup, Pogorzelski, 48, recruited old colleagues from Monster.com: Brian Farrey (president of Monster Technologies), Rob Hayes (vice-president of finance-global sales), and Denise Cautela (senior director of marketing-emerging markets). "At Monster, we were able to take customers and put them on the Internet, which was transformational at the time," says Pogorzelski. "Now we're looking at the migration from the Yellow Pages to the Internet." ClickFuel, which has 20 employees plus outsourcers in India, Ukraine, and the Philippines, builds Web sites and manages online marketing campaigns for a monthly fee, typically between $1,500 and $2,500. Fuel Station, a Web-based ClickFuel application that was recently included in the QuickBooks app center, tracks results such as leads generated, clicks on a company's site and advertisements, and consumer calls made to a phone number listed online only. So far, ClickFuel has attracted 400 clients, mostly with 10 to 15 employees, and expects numbers to skyrocket in 2010 as it partners with such companies as Intuit.
—Venessa Wong (posted on Nov. 3, 2009)
