SEO Pioneer Rand Fishkin’s New Mission? Helping Brands Quit Google.

▤ Summary

Marketers search for the demographic they want to reach — whether that’s architects, CFOs at Seattle-based SaaS companies, or people who frequently talk about The Bachelor — and SparkToro returns a list of the podcasts and YouTube channels they like, the websites they visit, and the social accounts they follow. “That duopoly makes marketing less creative, less interesting and less fruitful.” Facebook and Google require ads to fit a hyper-specific specific format, and can be “incredibly expensive” for small businesses hoping to reach in-demand audiences, Fishkin said. He had dropped out of college to work with his mom, Gillian Muessigi, on her marketing business, then called Outlines West, and he realized that if they were going to offer clients SEO services — as they had promised to — they couldn’t afford to contract out for it. Rather than calling it “revolutionary,” Fishkin said, their message is closer to, “we want to help small businesses, media outlets, people who built audiences” recoup some of the revenue they’ve lost due to cratering ad prices. He likes to see entrepreneurs “build small, profitable, successful, sustainable companies.” It’s personal — after all, that’s what Moz was, after it was deeply in debt and before it brought in tens of millions in revenue each year.

▦ Linked Companies

Moz, Inc.

$10M to $25M