Despite the economic gloom and doom, the honorees on this year's 30 Under 30 list are building wildly successful ventures with the help of their peers, parents, professors, and patrons. Why enlisting these loyal tribes of support has become so important in the start-up world -- and how the smartest companies foster that same loyalty among their customers.
Rahim Fazal, Involver
No. 29 (2008)
"Involver has grown tremendously in the last year. Customer demand has soared, and our marketing platform for social networks is now serving millions of pieces of rich content and multimedia every month. We know that we've established a unique footing in the digital marketing world, as more and more companies realize the value of identifying and engaging massive (and largely untapped) audiences on sites like Facebook.
"When Inc. profiled Involver last September, we were busy building custom video marketing campaigns for brands like Puma and Nissan. Since then, we've expanded our technology platform significantly: in late April 2009, Involver launched a huge suite of brandable apps for Facebook pages, which includes the Twitter, YouTube, poll, quiz, and coupon apps in addition to more than a dozen others.
"Less than five months after this launch, Involver's Facebook marketing suite has already attracted tens of thousands of customers. We're happy to say that the Involver family is as diverse as it is large: Britney Spears (2.2+ million Page fans) is a member, but so are Us Weekly (250,000+ Page fans) and the industry-leading P&G brand. We think that this great across-the-board response is due, in part, to Involver's unique combination of technology and services: on top of our Facebook applications, we offer comprehensive analytics, end-to-end account management, guaranteed fan page growth, and more.
"What's next for us? As far as our bottom line goes, we're now profitable. We want to keep the momentum going, and we certainly need to keep up with demand, so we're looking to add some rock stars to our San Francisco-based team. We welcome anyone to get in touch!"
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Katie Kerrigan, Kathryn Kerrigan
No. 5 (2007)
"Since being featured in 2007, Kathryn Kerrigam, has grown into an international brand, developed a cult-like following, and increased market share. Sales on the company's website, KathrynKerrigan.com, have jumped 350 percent in Q1 and 325 percent in Q2 of 2009, as compared with same quarters of 2008. International Web sales have increased by 400 percent overall and is now a substantial part of the business, with many orders being delivered to small countries like Dubai, Serbia, and Croatia.
"We are also experiencing positive growth with retail locations. In October, the first store to operate outside of the U.S. will be opened in Winnipeg, Manitoba. The year 2010 will bring additional Canadian stores, as well as more stores throughout the U.S. Wholesale distribution has also increased, and now Kathryn's shoes can be found on Endless.com, a fashion-savvy subsidiary of Amazon.
"With the strong increase in sales, we have been able to develop new styles in new colors. In the fashion world, it doesn't get any better than seeing our shoes being gracefully walked down the runway during New York Fashion Week in February 2009. In addition, many national magazines and television shows have followed suit by publishing stories about our collection of shoes.
"We continue to raise eyebrows with each season's launch of beautiful, comfortable, classy shoes and boots for tall women."
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Brian Taylor, Kernel Season's
No. 13 (2007)
"Kernel Season's popcorn seasoning has continued to 'pop' over the past few years with sales revenue growing at about 50 percent each year. Over 70 percent of grocery stores and 60 percent of movie theatres in the United States now carry our products.
"Flavors have grown too. White cheddar, nacho cheddar, and butter are still the top selling popcorn flavors, but we have added chile lime, salt & vinegar, and dill pickle to the mix. Kernel Season's also launched three new popcorn products, including a one-pound pouch of raw popping corn, movie theatre butter-flavored Popping and Topping Oil and a 'popcorn spritzer.' The spritzer adds natural butter flavor to popcorn and helps our seasonings stick. We believe these products will help consumers enjoy our core products even more.
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