Company: Digital Air Strike, Scottsdale, AZ
Company Description: Digital Air Strike is the automotive social media & digital engagement company helping clients solve the problem of consumer engagement in digital & social environments with measurable ROI. Our app, software & managed services monitor & improve customer engagement for thousands of auto makers & dealers. Founded in 2007, DAS was named among Inc. 500 | 5000 Fastest-Growing Private Companies the US.
Nomination Category: Management Categories
Nomination Sub Category: Management Team of the Year - Business Services Industries

Nomination Title: Digital Air Strike Management Team

Tell the story about what this nominated management team has achieved since January 1 2014 (up to 650 words). Describe the specific impacts the management team has had on your organization Focus on specific accomplishments, and relate these accomplishments to past performance or industry norms.

Alexi Venneri, Co-founder/CEO

In 2014 Alexi led the company to its first profitable year and had a cost savings of $5 million. Digital Air Strike (DAS) was ranked #1 in revenue by Inc. 500/5000 for companies of its kind in Arizona and in the top third of all Inc. Fastest-Growing Private Companies in the US. Alexi drives the spirit of innovation that created first-of-its kind patent-pending Review Surge technology and developed strategic partnerships with the top automotive/consumer review sites including Cars.com, Edmunds.com and MerchantCircle.com. With Alexi at the helm, DAS partnered with Microsoft to launch a first-of-its-kind Windows 8.1 social media mobile app where clients are notified of online social activity and reviews immediately and can read and respond to customer feedback easily.

Under Alexi’s guidance, DAS completed its 4th Annual Automotive Social Media Trends Study which provides valuable insights into social media’s impact on the car buying process and it is widely regarded as the leading study in automotive, featured in USA Today and also quoted by various top companies including Google.

Alexi has empowered the HR team to hire 43 new employees in just three months, increasing staff count by 30%. She created a progressive company culture with the average employee age matching leading technology/social media companies, but with less turnover - - just 10%.

Thom Brodeur, COO
Thom leads DAS’s corporate strategy, development and operations. In 2014 he presided over a sweeping reorganization of the company including new executive leadership and middle management.

Thom also presided over DAS’s largest technology infrastructure overhaul and took on oversight of Sales. He launched a collaboration effort designed to drive companywide unification and worked with his executive team to take $2.15M (annualized) in cost out of the business in past 12 mos.

Thom jointly program managed the company’s largest cross department annual effort - GM SFE 2015 program - resulting in 11% growth in rooftops from previous year, 10% growth in MRR from previous year, servicing 37% of total GM SFE participant pool (up from 33%.

Thom outlined a vision and operating plan for our San Jose Innovation Center launching in 2015.

Henry Svendblad, Sr. Vice President of Technology
Since joining DAS in 2014, Henry moved technology development in-house, reducing costs and improving efficiencies.

Henry worked with our COO to execute the largest technology infrastructure overhaul in the history of the company inclusive of major system upgrades, and new installations of core system-of-record implementations for Sales, Client Success, Operations, Technology, Product Management, Finance and Marketing.

Henry executed Co-lo migration to Azure, the Office 365 roll out, installation of a new phone system, productivity software and platform migrations for Operations/Product.

Erica Sietsma, Sr. Vice President of Product & Strategy

Erica Sietsma is an innovative, dynamic, Senior Vice President building world-class products. She leads DAS’s product team and corporate strategy.

Erica helped DAS grow from just a few clients to 2000 and establish partnerships with 6 of the 8 largest automotive manufacturers. Her dealership perspective allows her to facilitate the enhancement of our products to align with clients’ requests.

In 2014, Erica helped execute our exclusive partnership with Edmunds.com, Cars.com and MerchantCircle.com for Review Surge integration, and led the development of our new Review Surge 4.0.

Dave Venneri, Chief Revenue Officer

Since joining the company in 2014, Dave has led a dynamic inside/outside sales team to increase dealer count by 11% and achieve a record number of renewals. He also oversaw a record 289% increase in new sales with nearly half of our new dealer conquests won from a top competitor. Dave also rolled out a new sales team compensation plan to drive performance.

Dave created tighter relationships between sales and account managers including moving the “upsell” task back to sales so that account managers can focus solely on client happiness. Dave created a team to focus on Business Development/Strategic Initiative – including a sales team designated to social media advertising packages.

In bullet-list form, briefly summarize up to ten (10) of the chief accomplishments of this nominated management team since the beginning of 2014.

1. First profitable year in 8 year history with cost savings of $5 Million
2. Ranked in top-third of Inc. Fastest Growing Companies, #1 in Revenue of companies of its kind in Arizona
3. Launched first-of-its-kind app
4. Released 4th Annual Social Media Trends Study
5. Sweeping reorganization of company
6. 10% growth in Monthly Recurring Revenue
7. Integration with top review sites
8. Established partnerships with 6 of the 8 largest OEM’s
9. 289% increase in new sales
10. Successful overhaul of company’s technology infrastructure