VerticalResponse
Company: VerticalResponse, San Francisco, CA
Company Description: VerticalResponse, Inc. is a leading provider of self-service email marketing, online surveys & direct mail services empowering small businesses and non-profit organizations to create, manage, and analyze their own direct marketing campaigns.
Nomination Category: Individual Categories
Nomination Sub Category: Best Entrepreneur – Service Businesses - Up to 100 Employees
Nomination Title: Janine Popick, CEO
Describe for the judges the activities and accomplishments of the nominated entrepreneur during the eligibility period (up to 500 words):
Janine launched VerticalResponse in 2001 with the vision of being a successful
online marketing solution enabling anyone, regardless of technical expertise, to
get up and running quickly with email marketing campaigns. Janine hasn’t strayed
from what she originally set out to accomplish while growing VerticalResponse to
meet the ever-changing needs of small businesses.
In 2010, VerticalResponse has been recognized as a finalist or winner in several
awards programs, most recently the company won the U.S. Chamber of Commerce
"2010 Blue Ribbon Small Business Award." The company was also named as a
finalist in the 2010 Stevie® Awards for sales and customer service.
VerticalResponse has also demonstrated consistency in winning awards, by taking
out several well-recognized awards across consecutive years. For example,
VerticalResponse has been ranked on the Inc. 500|5000 list from 2006 through 2010.
Part of VerticalResponse’s continued leadership can be credited to CEO Janine
Popick’s commitment to maintaining and building a stellar team who share her
vision of being the one-stop resource for small business marketing. Janine
Popick has won and been nominated for a number of awards since starting her
company, VerticalResponse. These include the following 2009 - 2010 awards which
highlight her ongoing success as a small business entrepreneur.
- Earlier this year CEO Janine Popick won the Small Business Administration
award for Small Business Person of the Year in San Francisco.
- From 2009 – 2008: Janine won the Stevie award for Entrepreneur of the Year
(category: Best Entrepreneur – Service Businesses - Up to 100 Employees)
- From 2009 – 2006: Janine was named Ernst & Young Entrepreneur Of The Year®
2009 Award Finalist in Northern California
So far, 2010 has been another successful year for VerticalResponse, even in this
economy. Popick has led the company to growth across the board. In early 2010
VerticalResponse announced its revenue had grown almost 400% since 2005. The
company has been profitable since 2005. The company also doubled partner revenue
from 2007 to 2009, with strategic partnerships formed in 2009 including Intuit’s
Partner Platform.
In March 2010 VerticalResponse announced that it was one of just 50 applications
included on Google’s Apps Marketplace launch press release:
http://bit.ly/VRGoogle . From a product standpoint, VerticalResponse continues
to innovate, with recent enhancements to its email marketing product including:
- January 2010: "Social Sharing Launch" – Responding to recent customer
requests, the company introduced a social media sharing functionality from
within the VerticalResponse email application; enabling users of Twitter and
Facebook to publish links of their hosted emails to be broadcast to wider social
networks.
- March 2010: "Email Creation Upgrade" – This recent announcement was a major
product upgrade to VerticalResponse's core email functionality. This new product
provides customization options for non-technical users, and further simplifies
email marketing for SMBs. The Email Creation Upgrade lays the technical
framework for future updates to VerticalResponse's email creation methods.
Beyond the tech tools, Janine also offers expertise to customers and
non-customers alike on her award-winning blog (blog.verticalresponse.com), to
ensure that small businesses have the know-how to put the tools accessible to
them to best use. She is also an established industry leader and voice for
small businesses – appearing in national publications (Entrepreneur Magazine:
http://www.entrepreneur.com/marketing/marketingideas/article207586.html, and a
monthly column in Inc. Magazine
http://www.inc.com/janine-popick/2010/07/9-lessons-from-9years-in-business-part2.html .
With Janine’s years of direct marketing and entrepreneurial experience
((Stevie’s Entrepreneur of the Year, 2008 and 2009) she has successfully built a
company that provides an essential service to over 85,000 customers. Janine
exemplifies the entrepreneurial spirit, and serves as an inspirational role
model for fellow leaders in business.
List the URLs (web addresses) of any online news stories, press releases, or other documents that you would like the judges to see that support your nomination. IMPORTANT: List each URL on a separate line, begin each URL with http://, and enclose each URL in square brackets. For example, [http://www.yourcompany.com/pressrelease.html]:
News stories: http://www.verticalresponse.com/about/news_archive.html
Press releases: http://www.verticalresponse.com/about/press/
Awards: http://www.verticalresponse.com/about/awards.html
Monthly column in Inc. Magazine:
http://www.inc.com/janine-popick/2010/07/9-lessons-from-9years-in-business-part2.html .
Provide a brief biography of the nominated entrepreneur (up to 100 words):
Janine Popick is the CEO and founder of VerticalResponse. She is a columnist for
Inc.'s Girl Power: Female CEOs and has been featured in USA Today, Entrepreneur
Magazine, and the San Francisco Business Times. She has been an Ernst & Young
Entrepreneur of the Year Finalist 2006-2009, and won the Stevie Award for Best
Entrepreneur of the Year (2008 and 2009).
Most recently, Janine won the U.S. Small Business Administration award for Small
Business Person of the Year in San Francisco. Janine brings over 17 years of
experience leading direct and Internet marketing programs for some of the
biggest brands in technology and entertainment. Prior to VerticalResponse,
Janine lead direct and Internet marketing programs for brands including NBC
Internet; XOOM.com; Claris Corp., a wholly owned subsidiary of Apple Inc.; and
Symantec Corporation.