When Janine Popick founded
VerticalResponse Inc. in 2001, she sought
out venture funds, but those were scarce
at the time.
The venture community continuously
told her no and that her idea of starting a
company centered around e-mail marketing was ridiculous because of spam
issues. She also wanted to target smaller
businesses, and they told her that she
would spend too much money trying to
market to that segment.
Despite the negativity, she knew she
had a great idea, so she and her husband funded the company out of their
own pockets. She also convinced eight
of her friends and family to invest.
She came up with some of her own
money as well as the money from those
other investors, and she spent that
money hiring just two key people. She
didn’t even see a paycheck herself for a
year and a half to ensure that her
employees and rent would get paid.
While this CEO faced many adversities,
VerticalResponse has grown, ending last
year with 50 employees and more than
70 times as much revenue as its first
year. Additionally, her business ranked
No. 22 on the San Francisco Business
Times’ Top 100 Fastest Growing Private
Companies in the Bay Area list. On top
of that, the company also ranked No.
1,113 on the 2007 Inc. 5,000 list of
fastest-growing companies, proving you
can succeed when people tell you that
you won’t.
HOW TO REACH: VerticalResponse Inc., (415) 905-6880 or
www.verticalresponse.com