(Photo: The SteadyBudget team (L-R): Jon Davis, Dominique Catabay, Dominic Albano, Chris Vlessis, David Teofilovic, Katie Beltramini and Tyler Juhola | Photo provided by SteadyBudget)
Applications are born every day. Which ones have staying power is determined by many variables. Jon Davis, CEO of one of Bend’s newest tech startups, SteadyBudget, is confident that their software product offers a powerful and much needed time saving tool through tracking how Paid Per Click (PPC) marketing is performing, allocate funds accordingly and all from one platform. Having gathered customer feedback launching multiple iterations of the application for customer trials and generating backing from angel investors, SteadyBudget was released a year ago and is gathering momentum from marketing firms around the globe.
At a time when more and more businesses are seeking PPC advertising and having it managed by an agency, the analyst overseeing these accounts can get bogged down in the manual labor of the following work flow: go to Google, download data… import to excel… repeat with Bing… repeat with Facebook… repeat for 200 clients. Having entered the industry to be a creative and not a data entry zombie, this can be frustrating.
Out of this frustration, Davis, with a strong team of developers, hatched the application, SteadyBudget. It was only after his many years in PPC advertising with local tech giant G5 that Davis identified a solution to his excel data woes. A platform which would allow comprehensive review of advertising analytics and the ability to respond to that data. Davis laughs saying, “I wanted to create a software program, that if I had had it in my previous position, I would have never left my job.”
Davis says demonstrating that a market existed for this product was key to its success. Starting out Davis explains, he, “had no street credit with developers or apps. Trust me, it was grass roots marketing. When I first started in the industry in 2007, if a client had their ad on Google, they were set, they would hit 85 percent of the market.” As the industry advanced, Davis saw other networks that divided substantial portions of digital advertising space. Namely, Bing and Facebook. With the division in advertising came a division in the time PPC marketing experts spent analyzing data and acting on their analysis.
Intended to streamline the time division PPC marketing experts were experiencing behind the scenes, in 2014, SteadyBudget launched it’s first iteration which could analyze Google and Bing marketing data and was offered at no cost. Ultimately, the application was a hit with its 35 agencies coming on board and feedback included wanting the ability to push changes from the same platform.
Fast forward to present. With all the user data Davis generated from SteadyBudget 1.0, he was able to demonstrate a product need to potential investors. “This information was powerful in angel investment conversations. The validation was huge.”
Today, SteadyBudget offers analytics for Google, Bing and Facebook, the ability to push changes and an autopilot feature which stops spending when the client has reached their allocated budget amount for the month and resumes when a new month starts. Davis looks forward to rolling out Automated Programing Interface (API) this summer for SteadyBudget’s existing 30 clients.
The API allows users to export marketing data into other company systems such as accounting. This is a huge time saver. Other departments can communicate directly with the SteadyBudget interface to extrapolate data thus eliminating manually doing so.’
Davis has found the Central Oregon business ecosystem both a challenging and welcoming place to grow a tech startup. One challenge is finding developers. The talent in Bend is all booked up and out-of-towners can be reluctant to re-locate. Developers imagine a move to Central Oregon as risky because 90 percent of startups fail. With far fewer avenues for re-hire than Seattle, San Francisco or other large cities, developers could see this as a daunting aspect of our region. Developers also command high salaries, $110-120,000, wages that could brake the bank for a startup. Although he is hopeful, “The four year college will be huge for putting more computer scientists into the community.”
Regional advantages Central Oregon posses in launching a startup, Davis remarks, are, “Tons of capital and tons of angel investors in Bend. The problem with a lot of Bend entrepreneurs, is that they want to keep their job till the moment that they secure funding. That isn’t realistic. It works for some people but not often. The big deficit in the region in Davis’s eyes is ideas and people willing to go out there and take the risk. There is so much non-coders can do. Take that jump. Cascade angels, seven peaks, they want to give their money to local startups but you have to earn it by getting some validation first.”
Now that he has paid his startup dues, pooling market juries and finding funding, Davis advises those contemplating a business venture to, “get a free product out there.” He encourages tech entrepreneurs to take the risk, quit your job, get the market data and the funding will follow.
Company: SteadyBudget
Tag line: Software platform designed to power how modern digital marketing organizations operate
Founders: Chris Vlessis, David Teofilovic, Dominique Catabay, Dominic Albano, Tyler Juhola, Jon Davis
Contact info: SteadyBudget.com, feedback@SteadyBudget.com, 541-706-9236
Where did the company name come from?
Our goal is to be a steady, reliable platform that analysts can manage their client’s digital marketing budgets on.
When did you open your doors?
Changed from a free to a paid only software in May 2015.
What is your product/market niche?
Our software is designed to help digital marketing agencies manage a large amount of client budgets being spent on Google, Bing and Facebook ads.
What has been your greatest success to date?
SteadyBudget offers analysts two way editing capabilities with Google, Bing and Facebook. Some companies have integrations with one or two out of the three but we are one of the few syncing with all three of the major ad networks with the ability to push changes directly from our system.
What is your companies number one goal in the next year?
Grow annual recurring revenue by focusing on creating more solutions designed to help digital marketing companies handle more clients with better results and less manual workflows.
What other ways is your company involved in the community?
Four of our six founders were employees at G5 in Bend before leaving to found SteadyBudget. Jon Davis, CEO participated in Founder’s Pad in 2013 and has spoken at EDCO events. Our investors have ties to Central Oregon and our focus is on hiring people to come work in Bend.
