It’s a strategy we’ve seen before, from tech companies like Wayfair. Sign up loyal customers, make them happy, bootstrap yourself to profitability, expand your team—and then, after 10 years, take outside investment so you can grow faster.
SiteSpect, a Web and mobile marketing software company based in Boston, is following that model, albeit at a smaller scale than Wayfair. Founded in 2004, the company has just taken its first outside money, in the form of $13 million from growth equity firm NewSpring Capital. The cash buys NewSpring a minority stake in SiteSpect.
SiteSpect is one of the under-the-radar tech companies in Boston. It has been quietly profitable for a long time. It plays in a sector that has really matured in the past few years: website and mobile content optimization and testing. The basic idea is to help retailers, banks, and other companies make their marketing channels faster, more efficient, and more lucrative. SiteSpect’s big customers have included Walmart, Expedia, Staples, and, yes, Wayfair.
The company is led by founder and CEO Eric Hansen, who told me about SiteSpect’s growth and international strategy back in 2012. It sounds like the new funding will help the company strengthen its position in digital marketing, amid numerous big competitors like Adobe and HP. It also sounds like Hansen is being careful not to give away too much control to outside investors—a move that could pay off down the road.
